Hardware Acceleration in Linux

SDL Development
1

I hope this is the correct place to ask this question. It’s partially
SDL related.

I am wondering what is the best way to get Hardware acceleration under
Linux. I have a Geforce 3 video card. I realize that x11 will not do
hardware accel at all, and am wondering what of the other options are
the best/easiest to get working (fbcon, svgalib, ggi, aalib!)? And if
anyone one has a pointer/howto on this that’d be great!

Is fbcon available for the Geforce3 yet? (I couldn’t find anything).
If not is svgalib or ggi a better alternative? Any other information
would also be appreciated.

Thanks,
Buck

2

I don’t know exactly what kind of acceleration you are speaking of. What do
you want to accelerate? 3D graphics? 2D Blits?

You can get the nvidia linux drivers from nvidia’s webpage. This will give
you full 3D acceleration (assuming XFree86 4.0 or higher) through OpenGL.
This is also one of the fastest ways to do 2D graphics with a high number of
pixels.> ----- Original Message -----

From: buck@bucklemke.com (Buck Lemke)
To:
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 9:26 PM
Subject: [SDL] Hardware Acceleration in Linux

I hope this is the correct place to ask this question. It’s partially
SDL related.

I am wondering what is the best way to get Hardware acceleration under
Linux. I have a Geforce 3 video card. I realize that x11 will not do
hardware accel at all, and am wondering what of the other options are
the best/easiest to get working (fbcon, svgalib, ggi, aalib!)? And if
anyone one has a pointer/howto on this that’d be great!

Is fbcon available for the Geforce3 yet? (I couldn’t find anything).
If not is svgalib or ggi a better alternative? Any other information
would also be appreciated.

Thanks,
Buck

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3

I hope this is the correct place to ask this question. It’s partially
SDL related.

I am wondering what is the best way to get Hardware acceleration under
Linux. I have a Geforce 3 video card. I realize that x11 will not do
hardware accel at all, and am wondering what of the other options are
the best/easiest to get working (fbcon, svgalib, ggi, aalib!)? And if
anyone one has a pointer/howto on this that’d be great!

http://nvidia.com/drivers/

Download the Linux drivers there. They’re pretty solid unless you use
something like XVideo which is still very commonly used. Currently,
XVideo is an AGP lockup waiting to happen. That’s right, AGP lockup. No
OOPS. No panic. Not even a reset switch. Usually you have to turn the
power off for a few seconds (the switch on the power supply, not the cute
little ATX software power) in order to get the card reset properly.
Nifty, eh?

Is fbcon available for the Geforce3 yet? (I couldn’t find anything).
If not is svgalib or ggi a better alternative? Any other information
would also be appreciated.

I’ve yet to see fbcon run fast on anything at all. :wink: Damn, I could draw
(and indeed I have!) my own fonts to a framebuffer much faster than even
the matroxfb driver… And without accellerated OpenGL support for any
card whatsoever, I personally consider the framebuffer devices to be too
little, too complex, too late. Your best bet is X11–though X11 is seldom
if ever ideal. Maybe BlueOS or the Linux Console Project may eventually
give us more options, but it’s a rather steep uphill climb at this point.On Wed, Jan 02, 2002 at 09:26:22PM -0600, Wesley (Buck) Lemke wrote:

–
Joseph Carter I swallowed your goldfish

“Now we’ll have to kill you.”
– Linus Torvalds

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4
  • Joseph Carter on Fri, Jan 04, 2002:

Download the Linux drivers there. They’re pretty solid unless you use
something like XVideo which is still very commonly used. Currently,
XVideo is an AGP lockup waiting to happen. That’s right, AGP lockup. No
OOPS. No panic. Not even a reset switch. Usually you have to turn the
power off for a few seconds (the switch on the power supply, not the cute
little ATX software power) in order to get the card reset properly.
Nifty, eh?

This sounds specific to your card, and your drivers. I’ve never had an
"AGP Lockup" (whatever that’s supposed to mean) on either of my NVidia
cards, using any version of NVidia’s drivers.

Is fbcon available for the Geforce3 yet? (I couldn’t find anything).
If not is svgalib or ggi a better alternative? Any other information
would also be appreciated.

I’ve yet to see fbcon run fast on anything at all. :wink: Damn, I could draw
(and indeed I have!) my own fonts to a framebuffer much faster than even
the matroxfb driver…

I wonder what kind of Matrox you’re using?

And without accellerated OpenGL support for any
card whatsoever, I personally consider the framebuffer devices to be too
little, too complex, too late.

You missed the fbdri project (fbdri.sf.net) which is the beginnings of an
attempt to port DRI drivers to a FB interface. It does support the Radeon
currently, so, yes, there is accelerated OpenGL support for the
framebuffer. There are patches against SDL (1.1.0/1 ?) for the interface.

It’s young, but it’s coming.

M. R.
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5
  • Wesley (Buck) Lemke on Wed, Jan 02, 2002:

Is fbcon available for the Geforce3 yet? (I couldn’t find anything).
If not is svgalib or ggi a better alternative? Any other information
would also be appreciated.

Use rivafb. You cannot use rivafb and NVidia’s hardware-accelerated
drivers at the same time … reliably.

M. R.
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