Beta for IRIS Performer

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Posted by ryuzaki0 on Monday September 20, 1999 @07:55AM from the if-you-want-cool-graphics dept.

A couple months ago, SGI announced that they would be porting IRIS Performer to Linux. Thanks to Allan Schaffer for pointing us over to the first beta version that's ready for the public.

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Re:gettimeofday() problem?? by rikkitikki · 1999-09-20 06:00 · Score: 2

The "Using gettimeofday() clock" message is normal. The segfault is not. The next thing Performer tries to do is determine if any GLX extensions are present via glXQueryExtensionsString(). If you're using a hardware accelerated driver and if your GLX module isn't loaded into your Xserver, glXQueryExtensionsString() may dump core (depends on your driver). Check to see if it is loaded: xdpyinfo | grep GLX
If that is not the root of your problem, or you're using an unaccelerated version of Mesa, I recommend submitting the problem along with a stack trace to mongoose-feedback@corp.sgi.com thanks
Re:Not available for Linux by ppetrakis · 1999-09-20 06:02 · Score: 2

Agreed. This software would abosolutley SCREAM on Alphas but there's that 32 --> 64 bit issue. Again if it was open sourced in some way simlilar to the license mozilla uses (for example , I'm not a lawyer). Then gentelmen like myself would eagerly go to work on it.

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www.alphalinux.org
Re:man..does it suck. by Allan_Schaffer · 1999-09-20 01:04 · Score: 3

Allright, our first 'it sucks', surprised it took so long. Apparently you overlooked the list of known bugs. Mouse/keybd input is not tuned for linux yet, so such input suffers from very high latency. This is something that will be fixed in the next Beta.
Re:Mis-categorized by nellardo · 1999-09-20 01:39 · Score: 2

Um, but it is of interest to SGI people.
In the past, SGI has treated GL and products based on it like the Crown Jewels. The fact that, not only do they talk the talk, but they walk the walk in supporting Linux for such strategic products speaks volumes about SGI's strategy and its intent to follow through on that strategy.

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Klactovedestene!
Let's finish the product for a change by heroine · 1999-09-20 01:54 · Score: 3

Notice how companies like SGI, Real, and Microsoft give out betas of their software to test the Linux waters but never release a final version. The problem with using betas to test the waters is that no-one wants to download a beta when they're expecting a final version to come out later. The company sees no interest and either drops the project after the first beta or renames the beta as the final version and then drops it. It happened with RealPlayer, Netshow, and IE4.
Re:RED FUCKING LINUX by Allan_Schaffer · 1999-09-20 02:01 · Score: 3

Not that you act like the kind of customer
we'd like to have, but...

If you look at our download page you'll see
that we ship both .rpm files (intended for
Red Hat 6.0, which is what we use) and also
plain old '.tgz' (gzip'd tar) files for Linuxes
which don't support rpm's. Sounds like the
best support for all worlds to me.
Not available for Linux by Dr.+Tom · 1999-09-20 04:50 · Score: 3

Is it just me, or do other people find it highly annoying that something released for "Linux" is only available for x86 systems? "Linux" is not a hardware specific term. In my opinion, if you say it "runs under Linux" then it should be 1) source code (which SGI's thing is not) or 2) available for ALL architectures that Linux supports (e.g. Alpha, PPC, etc.).
SGI & Open Source by Anonymous Coward · 1999-09-19 23:31 · Score: 2

I love the fact that SGI is porting software to Linux. That might not directly help them, but it should indirectly help their sales. Now, I can prototype under Performer, show it to the boss, and if he likes it, then buy a nice SGI machine to make the prototype run faster. Just asking for $$$ to buy an SGI machine doesn't work in most companies. Demonstrating an application, and then explaining how it will run faster or better with an SGI just might.
suitability for games by PD · 1999-09-19 23:16 · Score: 2

Would Performer be suitable for a game engine? I'm developing Free Trek (freetrek.linuxgames.com) using OpenGL.

Can someone comment on the similarities between Performer and OpenGL? How difficult would a conversion be? How are 3D accelerators supported? Thanks.

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If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
1. Re:suitability for games by Pascal+Q.+Porcupine · 1999-09-20 00:18 · Score: 3
  
  Performer is a high-level interface on top of OpenGL. It's like the difference between using the C++ STL vector template and hand-realloc()ing your data as needed. It has its own set of problems and frustrations and its own additional bunch of overhead, but in general it's easier to get something working decently and almost as fast as rolling it yourself.
  Performer would, in fact, be great for a game engine; in fact, it's used for realtime military simulations all the time, and that's about as close to a game as you can get in the SGI-based professional graphics world. :)
  ---
  "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
  
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  "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
  Quine "quine?
Exxxxcellent by Pilchie · 1999-09-19 23:18 · Score: 3

A year or so ago I had a chance to work with Performer on an SGI Onyx II, while working on a simulator for a co-op placement. It is a really nice class library, and simplifies OpenGL to a level where even a novice can write (good) code for it. I am really happy to hear that it is moving out to Linux. That should make Linux boxes even more possible as simulation engines. Anyway good news! (First?)
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Pilchie
Re:Great, but how well does it run? by Allan_Schaffer · 1999-09-20 00:24 · Score: 5

We've found performance to be very reasonable. Of course on SGI systems it screams :-) .. On systems without linux-ready hardware accelerated OpenGL, Mesa is used as the low-level OpenGL-like rendering layer. The Performer Town database (the most typical Performer demo) runs untextured at about 5-10Hz depending on the CPU. On systems with Linux-based hardware accelerated OpenGL drivers we see 20-30Hz in the town, WITH texture. This is a BETA version also, it's not even compiled optimized or fully tuned, so we expect to see some pretty excellent performance by the time the final release is ready.
Oh boy, another Tux ! by Taco+Cowboy · 1999-09-20 02:22 · Score: 2

Look at how SGI has transform our cute little penguin into:

http://reality.sgi.com/performer/images/rocket_t ux.jpg

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Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Re:gettimeofday() problem?? by Allan_Schaffer · 1999-09-20 05:29 · Score: 2

The gettimeofday() warning itself is harmless (happens for all apps with this Beta), it it printed and then the program continues onward, most likely the segmentation fault is happening when the window is being opened. The best thing to do is:
% setenv PFNFYLEVEL 7
% perfly rocket_tux.pfb

And then send us the output at mongoose-feedback@corp.sgi.com