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Windows Vista May Degrade OpenGL

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the you-have-chosen-poorly dept.

srw writes "OpenGL is the industry choice for cross platform, hardware accelerated 3D graphics, and it is also the only way you can get fast 3D graphics on your Linux desktop. It now seems Windows Vista implements OpenGL via Direct3D, seriously degrading its performance and attractiveness to developers." From the article: "In practice this means for OpenGL under Aeroglass: OpenGL performance will be significantly reduced - perhaps as much as 50%, OpenGL on Windows will be fixed at a vanilla version of OpenGL 1.4, No extensions will be possible to expose future hardware innovations. It would be technically straightforward to provide an OpenGL ICD within the full Aeroglass experience without compromising the stability or the security of the operating system. Layering OpenGL over Direct3D is a policy more than a technical decision."

9 of 633 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Normal MS Decision... by mfago · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yup, just a variation on embrace, extend, extinguish. So what someone needs to due is sue. Of course that may not work either: although Sun got $900M, Java on MS is still broken unless you download Java yourself.

  2. bit by bit by urdine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft is "upgrading" itself out of the marketplace. No serious gamer is going to want to use Vista now. It's turning into same mistake Apple made back in the day - trying to control everything at the expense of flexibility and compatibility. The only thing Microsoft has going for itself is ubiquity - people use it because other people use it. They're chipping away at that foundation with a jackhammer now. This also comes at a time when people are switching to Firefox in droves, with Mac and Linux OSes on the rise. Not a smart move.

  3. All the time is spent in the GPU so who cares by rufusdufus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I doubt layering OpenGL over directX will make a 50% slowdown; all the time processing is in the GPU and the amount of time spent in an API is insignificant.
    The whole blurb sounds like a scare tactic to me. The article of course is /.ed

  4. I am not quite sure this is true... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does anybody else not believe this at all? I think this was totally blown out of proportion by the opengl guys and the real situation is going to be nothing like this. Of course, nobody on Slashdot is going to read the article anyway and the hyperbole is just going to grow and grow...

  5. Re:Monopoly by MooseByte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Particularly fascinating that with all of the (formerly) core features that MS has been dropping from Vista, they still somehow find time in the development schedule to screw over an open standard like OpenGL.

    WinXP SP3 - Now with fewer features and less compatibility than ever!

  6. Re:What, you fucking idiots? by CarrionBird · · Score: 5, Insightful
    That's a very Eurocentric view. Even if the governments decide to go OSS, that's ony a portion of sales in any region.

    MS would be smart to make a EU specfic version again, if only to keep out of the courts.

    --
    Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
  7. why even bother to upgrade? by free+space · · Score: 4, Insightful

    windows vista (I preferred longhorn!) is intended by microsoft to be as big an upgrade as win95 was over win3.1, but every time I read news about it, I simply make up my mind more not to buy it

    .

    not running opengl effectively? are they kidding? how many independant software developers ( ms's biggest asset according to steve ballmer), gamers ( the #1 reason windows guys don't completely switch to linux), and researchers are going to be pissed off?


    microsoft product designers like to develop software according to idealistic hypothetical usage situations. they assume that all users are happily running directx 9.0,that their video cards are all top notch and a 50% degradation would be nothing for the misguided few who still run GL. heck, maybe it will make them upgrade their dinosaur era hardware!


  8. Re:What, you fucking idiots? by Procyon101 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is the price of Windows an ethical decision? Particularly when there are viable alternatives to Windows.

  9. Re:Monopoly by hummer357 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ehm...

    Isn't this a bit like going back to the age of Windows 95? That release didn't have an OpenGL driver, but nobody cared. It only came standard in Windows with NT 4, if I'm not mistaken.

    But still, if you look at the standard OpenGL implementation in Windows nowadays, you'll notice that it's still basically crap.

    "But why does Doom3 run at all", you might ask?

    Well: because it's the hardware vendors who provide the driver. A major graphics chip manufacturer can't afford not to have a decent OpenGL driver. So, nobody will care if MS doesn't want to implement a decent driver. Nvidia, ATI & the others will put out a driver, as has always been the case...

    So, stop worrying, then!

    h357