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Hardware Based XRender Slower than Software Rendering?

Neon Spiral Injector writes "Rasterman of Enlightenment fame has finally updated the news page of his personal site. It seems that the behind the scenes work for E is coming along. He is investigating rendering backends for Evas. The default backend is a software renderer written by Raster. Trying to gain a little more speed he ported it to the XRender extension, only to find that it became 20-50 times slower on his NVidia card. He has placed some sample code on this same news page for people to try, and see if this is also experienced on other setups."

15 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. Some Suggestions for Rasterman by monsieur · · Score: -1, Troll

    Dear Raster Guy,

    This is a fantastic article. I just have a few suggestions on how to clean it up.

    First off is the introduction. It's too wordy. You dance around your thesis like a barefoot child on a griddle. Try being more direct, more concise. Get right to your point, then move on.

    Now I'm not terribly familiar with the scientific method, but I think your experiment isn't described fully enough for the audience to gain any insight from it. First of all, you haven't given us much of a hypothesis to go on. What is it you really hope to gain from your testing? We have a vague ideal of the goal, but it's hard to see the true motivation that's pushing you towards such a goal.

    Your depiction of the experiment itself is more than adequate. I don't really have any complaints here. It actually reminds me of an experiment I devised in my youth. Heh, that was a real mess. I remember it like it was yesterday.

    It was the summer of 1873. The country was industrializing and the West was still being settled. For a young lad in rural Kansas, such as myself, life was a little more interesting with the railways making far-off cities more accessible to the common folk. My parents had been planning a trip to Knoxville for some time now, to visit relatives. My father sold a few of his cattle and scraped together enough money for us to make the journey. Mom, pop, my two brothers Anthony and Skeet, and my sister Juliana, all got on the Southern Express, headed east for St. Louis and on to Knoxville.

    It had never occurred to me just how boring a train ride could be. My brothers ignored me, as usual, and my sister was fawned over by my mother constantly. With my dad sleeping most of the time, I was left to entertain myself.

    The train was very crowded. I'd never seen so many people crammed into one place outside of church. Some of them weren't farm-folk, neither. There were a couple men and ladies in fine dress clothes, probably city dwellers. A few man were even worse dressed than us, probably miners or something. One of them had been staring at me for almost half an hour. I went over and talked to him.

    "Hey mister. This your first time on train? It is for me!"
    "Nooo, I ride trainss hic all the time."
    "You okay mister? You smell funny."
    "Heh heh ... at's because i haven't WASHed in threeeee days, son."
    "My mom says to take a bath every day or the devil will eat my soul!"
    "Well, now, ain't that precious ... you want a drink?"
    "Okay!"

    That man introduced me to alcohol, my future, and my undoing. That man's moonshine set me on a long road to endless sorrow and pain. My drinking problem escalated rapidly. Upon arriving in Knoxville, I had already completed five twelve-step programs. None of them worked.

    Fast foward to 2173. Shortly after my 900th birthday, I will go out for a binge with my friends Jesus Christ and Karl Marx. The three of us have been buddies for longer than I can remember. We will often get together to swap stories, talk about girlfriends, that sort of thing. We will drink, of course -- always heavily and always grain alcohol. Jesus never has any problem with the stuff, of course, but Karl and I can only down so much before we go blind and vomit our intestines out on the bar. Jesus can really work miracles, though. That guy will always have us patched up by morning.

    Anyways, Jesus and Karl will be having a heated discussion about the relative merits of kittens and puppies.

    "Kittens are fuzzy, and God is fuzzy, therefore kittens are better," Jesus will argue.
    "Yes, but puppies grow into dogs, and dogs work in packs for greater effeciency, and to the benefit of dogs everywhere," will be Marx's counter.
    "Kittens are really soft, and God is soft, therefore kittens are better," Jesus will reply.
    "Dogunism has no place for your purring and your pawing and your meowing! The barking class will not stand for the placidity

  2. M$ is evil! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    This is just another evil attempt by Micro$oft to monopolize the industry.

  3. Re:Hmm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    and spell

  4. New Nvidia card! by Flingles · · Score: -1, Troll

    the new Nvidia Crapx 5300 lets you use hardware rendering. And it does it all 30-50x slower than software! Buy now from www.nvidia.com/crapx Only $2 and a cookie.

    --
    Karma: -2^0.5 . Mainly due to the imbibing of dihydrogen monoxide
  5. The prat in the hat is back by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Aw gawd...

    The prat is back.

    R

  6. Where is Keith Packard? by HanzoSan · · Score: 0, Troll


    Keith please explain this! This shouldnt happen.

    Also how many more years will it take before Linux can compete with OSX? 5 more years? Maybe 10? We have forever and a day you know.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
  7. Re:The damndest thing. by Eric+Destiny · · Score: -1, Troll

    I think you missed the part where he said This is under Linux, mind you. Pay attention cockstain.

    --

    "The meek shall inherit the earth, the rest of us shall go to the stars." Isaac Asimov

  8. Some Suggestions for Rasterman and windbags. by ratfynk · · Score: -1, Troll

    /* Critical acclaim is not an issue when you write about rendering on software. Try to think like a programmer, not an editor. There is a big difference between coders and normal humans. Therefore your scientific methods sometimes do not compile.*/

    #exclude (wordoctors.h)
    #exclude (critics.h)

    */ however you can #include just about anything
    * that you can reasonably use before you are
    * forced to int main() /*

    --
    OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
  9. 8500 pro 128 meg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I am a 19 year old guy, and one afternoon I thought it would be fun to insert a cucumber all the way into my anus. I had done this before and was always able to pass it back out easily. Well this time it went in, and I couldn't get it to come back out. I also had previous engagement with a friend that afternoon so I reluctantly went with the cucumber still in my anus. I was fine for most of the afternoon until I felt it coming! Needless to say I had to rush for the bathroom, but nobody was the wiser. That experience scared the hell out of me, but it was still fun.

  10. Re:Thats why theres Lindows with ClickNRun by arkanes · · Score: 0, Troll

    The parent is correct. You are not. It's not optimal, or even fair, but it's true. Arguing with people that "you can have everything you want" under Linux won't get you far because its clearly false.

  11. Re:Lessons from the ancient by groomed · · Score: 0, Troll

    Christ, have you been permanently disfigured by a creative writing class or something? And what does any of this have to do with the topic at hand? Jeez. Do you know anything about XRender or evas? Or do you just reflexively rehash this story any time it seems vaguely appropriate? How does your meandering demented pontification contribute to the question why XRender performs slower? What "design lessons" are to be learned from a 20 year old solution to a problem that has long since been solved? Why don't you mention some actually germane examples, such as how "blitter" chips were displaced over the course of time by ever-faster CPUs? Bah humbug. Get a grip.

  12. Re:Thats why theres Lindows with ClickNRun by arkanes · · Score: 0, Troll
    But people don't give a shit, and they don't work as well, and they certainly don't work seamlessly. Windows won because you have to present an alternative thats worth making the effort to switch to (anyone who's second to market will tell you this is hard). Telling someone that they have to spend time (and often money) in order to get back to where they are now because "Linux is better" is just going to get them pissed off.

    And, of course, in many ways Linux is NOT better. Evangelizing is all well and good, but know your audience.

  13. Re:Lessons from the ancient by Empiric · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'll take the hint of the number of your comments modded "troll", and not bite on this one.

    --
    ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
  14. Re:2D acceleration using OpenGL? by Mr+Z · · Score: 1, Troll

    I read as far as "MP3 video." WTF? MPEG Audio Layer 3 is an audio layer for MPEG-2 Video streams. (We just happen to ship audio-only streams because MP3 is good at encoding music.) MP3 Video? It's like saying "training-wheel bicycle" or "non-dairy creamer coffee beans."

    Like the other poster said, can I have a hit of what you're tokin'?

    --Joe
  15. Re:Thats why theres Lindows with ClickNRun by HanzoSan · · Score: 0, Troll


    How do you know? You dont even use Linux.
    Windows won because you have to present an alternative thats worth making the effort to switch to (anyone who's second to market will tell you this is hard). Telling someone that they have to spend time (and often money) in order to get back to where they are now because "Linux is better" is just going to get them pissed off.

    Until they get the MSblaster worm. Thats when you switch them to Linux.

    And, of course, in many ways Linux is NOT better. Evangelizing is all well and good, but know your audience.

    Yes Windows has better fonts and eye candy, so does OSX, but in terms of software Windows no longer has the advantage, most important Windows software runs in Linux, even the games.

    No one has to be convinced that Linux is better, once Linux is preinstalled next to the Windows machine, and a person can choose a Lindows computer or a Windows computer from a store, people on their own will choose Lindows when they think back to why they are upgrading in the first place (well Windows keeps crashing, I got infected by MSblaster, I need to save money, I think I'll go with Linux)

    People will choose Linux if Linux has the same exact software, a cheaper price, and is virus proof.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac