Nvidia Releases Xserver and GLX for GeForce 256

rmmeyer writes "Looks like Nvidia has finally released a GLX driver and XFree86 server for their high performance video board, the GeForce 256. I've been waiting with bated breath for this to come out since Linux support was announced WAY back before the chipset was released. Found the info on Linux Games "

Comments

VEry nice .. but a few problems still ;P

[bain]

I grabbed it at first sight ! :)))

Damn .. I love my GL screensaver ... *grin* ..
It crashes my X once in a while .. when trying to run some GL stuff .. but it's better then nothing :)

can't wait ot get unreal Tournament and Quake Arena on here

kudus to Nvidia :)

bain

Re:An important question:

[Xemu]

Will that allow me to play Quake3????

Read the FAQ before asking -- it specifically says playing Quake3 on this preliminary driver is not recommended. XFree 4 will implement the DRI infrastructure needed for good Quake 3 performance. Quote:

Q. How do I run Quake 3 accelerated? A. Due to the high demands Quake 3 puts on the client/server architecture of this implemetation, running Quake 3 is not recommended. XFree86 4.0 will have a direct rendering architecture needed to use the 3D hardware effectively with Quake 3.

Excited? Don't be.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was waiting impatiently for near SIX months for updated drivers from nVidia for this line of cards only to be let down once again. The improvements made to this set of drivers include 32bpp rendering an texturing improvements. The drivers are still slow and underdeveloped. The blame, so to speak, lies squarely on nVidia's refusal to release any register specs to their cards. They won't release DMA programming information either. John Carmack himself stated that if nVidia released their card specs, the utah glx list could probably hack together quality drivers in a few days. So what do we do? I guess we wait. In the meantime, we still don't have programming information, nor is nVidia likely to release it. What does this mean? I suspect it means that we'll be relying on nVidia for closed-source module addons to XFree for a while, until they become less paranoid about opening up.

Muchos Gracias!

[lapdog]

From the FAQ:
Q. What is new in the 3D acceleration module?
A. The 3D portion of the driver has been in updated to take better advantage of the RIVA TNT/TNT2 products. 3D rendering in 32bpp is now supported and textures are no longer limited to be square powers of 2. Support for NVIDIA GeForce 256 based products has also been added.

This is much better then the teaser they gave us in June. With the june driver and X 3.3.3.1 I would get around 14 fps in q3demo1. GLX module and X 3.3.5 gets me around 9. This driver with X 3.3.5 plays nice at 24. It doesn't sound like much, but its still an indirect rendering driver. I can settle with that till X 4.0 and DRI comes around. I'm just tired of nvidia getting a bad rep from the glx-dev folks.

And it is much more stable (though opening the register specs, ala 3dfx and matrox would be nicer) then the older driver. But still, I send my thanks. And you should too. Now.

Dave

Tired of NVidia

[Schwarzy]

ok, fine. NVidia released a new version of X and GLX servers. but ... WHERE ARE THE SPECS ?

Sorry nvidia but I want to drop my TNT2 for a G400 when I have enough money. I prefer to buy a more expensive video card having (almost) full Open specs even if on the paper the card has less power.

Have a look on ATI cards. Few months after saying that they help the OpenSource community, you can find a project for ATI on the Utah-Glx page. I found also a page on TV and Overlay for ATI [XFree team is planning overlay support for Matrox too].

I wanted to have a look on TNT spec to see how to use overlay for my TV card and .. I only found ugly software. I'm feed up of this open-closed specs you offer on your site.

Hey ! Friends ! Drop your nvidia card for a card of a compagny understanding the Open community.