[linux-audio-dev] Re: Project: modular synth editor

[Steve Harris]

On Sat, Jan 17, 2004 at 06:29:46PM +0100, Frank Barknecht wrote:
> Hallo,
> Steve Harris hat gesagt: // Steve Harris wrote:
> 
> > True enough :) but I think it takes a reasonable ammount of talent to make
> > really intuative and compact UIs (screen realestate is an issue) even if
> > if doesnt have a photorealistic interface. Theres a loopbased performace
> > instrument that I think is a really good example (I cant remeber its
> > name), 
> 
> Ableton Live, maybe? It has a exceptionally well thought out
> interface, IMO.

Yes, that's it.
 
> Regarding OpenGL: Although this could be a nice API for doing all
> kinds of interfaces, the hardware side on Linux is looking
> increasingly worse because of the XFree86 peoples' decision to go
> modular and allow closed source drivers for DRI. Now we're in a
> situation, where only old chipsets like Matrox G550 or incapable ones
> like the Intel graphics chips have open source Open GL drivers. Nvidia
> OTOH does provide decent drivers but they are closed source and
> reportedly also could have a bad impact on audio performance. Even
> most newer ATI cards don't have open source OpenGL drivers anymore,
> although there are efforts to write some. 

I think the "one step down from top of the range" ATI cards are
supported, and the NVIDIA drivers dont have any impact on latency, though
the are partly binary, yes.
 
> All this is really a problem to be considered when deciding to base a
> GUI on Open GL. In most (audio) cases a 2D-interface would suffice,
> I'm sure.

Thge UI is 2D (you turn off perspective before you draw), its just a way
of loading all the images and stuff onto the card, and making it do the
drawing maths. It saves a /lot/ of cpu. Its more-or-less how the latest
OSX GUI code works, and its very efficient.

- Steve