Hi Guys,
I am curious if there is any news on whether the optimised software
rasterisation stuff from SGI OpenGL for Windows will be added to the
SI? Or news on whether the optimised geometry stuff fom OpenGL for
Windows and/or the SGI DDK will be added to the SI?
We are interested in using the SI for our project, but so far find it
not very compelling compared to Mesa for the following reasons:
1. Mesa has lots of optimised x86 assembler, 3DNow assembler and SSE
assembler for geometry and lighting.
2. Mesa has reasonable software rendering performance.
3. Mesa has a well defined device driver model (could use some work,
but it is functional and reasonably efficient).
Items 1 and 2 would be solved by the inclusion of the OpenGL for
Windows optimised code, which I believe did include some 3DNow
support in the last few versions (or maybe I am thinking of the
OpenGL DDK stuff). There is also the optimised MMX assembler
rasterisation code for software rendering that would be very useful
for the OpenGL SI community (printing for instance would benefit from
optimised software rendering).
Item 3 is something I am not very familiar with internally in the SI,
and I have not had a chance to dig into it recently. From what I have
heard, converting the SI to work with hardware is quite a significant
amount of work. Is that true? Are their plans to develope a better
device driver layer for the OpenGL SI (perhaps based on the SGI
OpenGL DDK)?
Regards,
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