[LAU] pd, linux, graphics hardware.

[Malte Steiner]

Hello,

I recently switched from a notebook with Nvidia card to Intel GMA 965 
X3100. At the moment I run Ubunutu Studio 8.4 in 64bit mode. What I like 
is that these drivers are indeed open source.

With Ubuntu 7.10 they tend to crash intensive 3D apps like Blender but 
with the update everything works much better. Although Gem still 
segfaults, maybe I should try to compile on my own, it might be a 64bit 
issue with Gem from stock repos. I recommend checking with the PD list.

But I dont use PD/Gem that much now, for my artistic work I abuse 3D 
Game Engines and here the lower power of Intel really shows. They dont 
support for example shaders which I hope get included in forthcoming 
driver updates. But basic/ minimal 3D scenes as they were often created 
in artistic context works fine. I had to switch the game framework from 
Ogre to Lightfeather and going to document the choosing process soon. 
Ogre works so lala while Lightfeather offers everything inclusive shadows.

But Shaders and shadowmapping doesn't bother you in Gem anyway.

What I also like is the easier external VGA handling, you don't have to 
start the computer plugged to a videoprojector, you can do it later and 
use the app xrandr, something I couldnt do with Nvidia.
And every Kernel update was a hassle with Nvidia.

3D Games like Nexuiz are not playable but for instance OpenArena runs fine.
Don't get anything below a GMA 965 / X3100/X3000, the older Intel 
chipsets render less in hardware and use more CPU.

Cheers,

Malte

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Malte Steiner
http://www.block4.com
media art + development