Open-Source ATI Driver Achieves Major R500 3D Success

[CadCrazy]

While the RadeonHD have been busy working on Radeon HD 3200 / 780 Series support and other features for this open-source R500/600+ driver, the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) support has been lagging behind. Earlier this month Matthias Hopf was successful in getting DRM working on an RS690 GPU and he has published RadeonHD DRM code into his personal development tree, but no code has yet to reach master. Meanwhile, as the xf86-video-ati driver is using AtomBIOS, they are able to spend more time working on the 3D features and other areas and less time "banging on registers" or even waiting on register documentation to arrive. David Airlie has been working on the R500 3D support along with Alex Deucher and Corbin Simpson. The trio has been making some great headway towards open-source 3D goodness for Radeon X1000 and HD 2000/3000 GPUs. Their most recent efforts have focused around the R500 fragment program code and today they have reached a monumental milestone.

After some recent work today, Compiz is now working on R500 using the open-source xf86-video-ati and the latest Mesa git. In addition, the Unreal Tournament 2004 demo is even running! There is now parity between the open-source R500 3D support and the level of Mesa support for the older R200/300/400 generations! This is one hell of a milestone.

We are, of course, celebrating this major open-source achievement and we are in the midst of trying out this latest code on a horde of different R500 graphics cards. We will be delivering benchmarks comparing the Radeon X1000 performance using the open-source 3D driver to the fglrx driver in the coming days with different graphics cards and we will compare its performance to the earlier R400 parts. If you have any other requests, let us know in the Phoronix Forums.


Read On ---------

Gaming With The Open-Source R500 Driver

From the release of Mesa 7.1 Release Candidate 1 to Multi-Pointer X being merged to master to the R500 3D milestone, it's been an exciting past 24 hours for the X.Org community. With the open-source 3D support for the Radeon X1000 "R500" GPUs now reaching a parity with the Mesa support for earlier product families, more Linux users can now consider turning to an open-source driver (xf86-video-ati or xf86-video-radeonhd) for their video driver needs. In this article we are looking at what Linux games work thanks to this latest Mesa R500 support.

Just a bit more than two months ago, the first 3D milestone of hardware-accelerated glxgears for the Radeon X1000 series enthralled us. While we were excited for this accomplishment, most users are just interested in seeing their games andwork but could care less about the glxgears milestone. Now with this most recent driver work, there is something to be especially proud of and of interest to the wider population. Compiz is now working successfully on the R500 hardware with the latest Mesa code as well as many games. The games we have tested so far include OpenArena, Nexuiz, Warsow, Enemy Territory, Doom 3, and Unreal Tournament 2004.


Continue Reading ------

Whole world is going Open Source Way. Now its the turn of nVidia.

[a_k_s_h_a_y]

No Dude.
MS can never go open source.

i think nVidia may go open in drivers.

[coolpcguy]

there are under-development OSS drivers for nvidia, courtesy nouveau http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/

[CadCrazy]

Originally Posted by a_k_s_h_a_y

No Dude.
MS can never go open source.

i think nVidia may go open in drivers.

IMO Microsoft & nVidia will never go open source

[x3060]

good to see ati succeeding...I like their products ...

[praka123]

nvidia may go open source.but definitely M$haft cannot

[MetalheadGautham]

why did you bring microsoft into this now ?
anyway, its really a great news.
I was wondering how good nVidia 7050 onboard is though... for compiz fusion and company. Any idea ?

[coolpcguy]

If an FX5200 can handle Compiz Fusion in all its glory(personal experiences), i dont think 7050 should have any problems.

[Faun]

Now the gravity shifts towards ATI, I never tried ATI, now may be its time to

[a_k_s_h_a_y]

MS can't go open..

because they have Secret API that only MS uses to create MS software that runs faster and integrates better..

and the API that other developers get are crappy ones... so that MS software is always best.
MS wants to create all kinds of software...and rule computers !
If they go open that will be out and MS will be in shame.

Maybe Vista purposefully crashes Firefox...... because they hate firefox.

[ssk_the_gr8]

gr8 job... Ati..

IMO microsoft & Nvidia will never go open cource

[nvidia]

Im sure nvidia will go opensource soon...

[praka123]

//offtopic: @nvidia:how is the stove going ?

[Pat]

Originally Posted by a_k_s_h_a_y

MS can't go open..

because they have Secret API that only MS uses to create MS software that runs faster and integrates better..

and the API that other developers get are crappy ones... so that MS software is always best.
MS wants to create all kinds of software...and rule computers !
If they go open that will be out and MS will be in shame.

Maybe Vista purposefully crashes Firefox...... because they hate firefox.

Haha..Thats the funniest comment I have read in a long time

[dOm1naTOr]

what if nvidia and cards become freeware? atleast older ones like 1800/1900?
just jokin

[nvidia]

Originally Posted by praka123

//offtopic: @nvidia:how is the stove going ?

offtopic: I contacted the vendor and he said he will get it replaced for me. Till then ill continue to use my card as an electric stove + heater...

[bikdel]

Originally Posted by dOm1naTOr

what if nvidia and cards become freeware? atleast older ones like 1800/1900?
just jokin

i wouldnt even give my useless lan card for free..