OT: nVidia driver [was: Wish list]

[Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote:  
> Try enabling the Composite X.org extensions and KDE's transparency and
> shadow effects, then fire up glxgears and play a video with MPlayer.
> nVidia opensource drivers can't keep up with the work. However,
> propietary drivers can. And yes, I know most people don't need this,
> yet.

Eye candy aside, it _would_ be nice to get PC platforms out of the dark
ages of software-based and duplicate buffers and into the realm of
windows as GPU rendered planes.  I'm not talking about X RENDER
where you merely use extra GPU framebuffer, but actually build the
desktop environment under the GPU's control.

Right now the _only_ platform that offers that well integrated is Apple
c/o QuartzExtreme.  It's _not_ about eye candy, but _efficiency_.  The concepts
of layer upon layer of overlapping, independent software buffers is rather
ludicrious.  The problem is that GLX isn't standard, which means you can't
assume everyone has it.

Microsoft has already bumped the Windows Graphic Framework (WGF) 2.0,
fka DirectX 10, to post-NT6.0 Longhorn client release.  Although
Avalon is still in for NT6.0 Longhorn client release, it is going to be in
the gutter, performance-wise, because the shipping WGF 1.0 is going to
be DirectX 9 based and largely still software buffers.

Now we've got innovative desktops like Xgl, and even the FreeDesktop
Cario implementations we're now starting to see in things like Enlightenment
DR17, as well as the next gen desktops.  Without some good GLX solutions,
Linux/X is going to continue to be a plague of inefficiency.

Hell, atop of all that, one thing that was a pleasant surprise is Sun Looking
Glass.  Once I hit the API, I realized how forward-thinking Sun is.  E.g., even
input is treated as a 3D via the "picker."  Talk about realizing that we really
need to end the days of 2D buffers upon buffers, independent, unintegrated
layers upon layers, the sooner every system is GLX, the better. And best of all,
Looking Glass it's GPL -- not any MPL-like license or even MIT advertising.

How we get GLX standard on the Linux desktop, I really don't care.  It's all
GLX, and if that means that some vendors put us their first with Standardware
drivers, then don't knock them for putting forth the effort in the absence of
"clean room" endeavors.  Hopefully GLX on most 3D hardware _will_ become
comodity, but at this point, it's quite the opposite.


--
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org