When are we getting REAL OpenGL drivers for G400?

[Humus]

Hi all Matrox users!

I have a simple question ... why does Matrox fail to do anything more than I-can-run-Quake OpenGL drivers?
With all driver releases since the shipping one there have been like "improved DX7 performance", "better compatibility with this and that", "solved some minor problems with this and that" ... but still a year after release they lack some pure basic functionality!
As a hobbyist programmer this is a pain in the ass! I'm trying to create a 3d engine in OpenGL but the drivers is keeping me back all the time ...
I tried to do some reflection stuff and needed the stencilbuffer for that. But i got a framerate at 1 fps ... so I mailed the developers relations at Matrox about this. I was told that the stencilbuffer was still not enabled in the OpenGL drivers, so it fell back to Microsofts generic software renderer. Damn, this card is a year old now! Still incomplete drivers ...
They told me that drivers with stencil support should be released within a month ... it's been two month now since that ... and they do not answer any questions anymore about driver relases.
And there's more ... attenuation does not work either ... and everything is slow ...
At 800x600x32 i get 25-30 fps .. and there's not much heavy graphics. I did an almost equivalent app in Glide last year and it ran at 90-120 fps at a Voodoo2! And i had a lot of fogging and such in that too. Going down to 16 color/textures/depth doesn't give more than a couple of fps. When i run my app at a TNT2 Vanta it runs much faster and stenciling and such works perfectly.
I'm getting angry ... I think this was the last time I bought a Matrox card.
I think Matrox has adopted good pieces of the 3dfx mentality, this we_only_need_to_support_current_games ...

[CoqAuVin]

I suppose NVIDIA couped at least some SGI's OpenGL masters over year ago. Excuses why they have good/better OpenGL support.
But still a wonder why other big companies dont seem to be able for better drivers...
Or is it that good programming requires more talent than education...

[DosFreak]

Yep, if you compare all the features Nvidia's drivers have to Matrox's you will go insane..........

[Phips]

Hi Humus,
You Seem to be into OpenGL programming...
Maybe you could try the GLX approch if you don't mind switching OS...
The stencil support is in the todo list, perhaps you could embark on a GPL tour of duty.

[Phips]

Hi Humus,
You Seem to be into OpenGL programming...
Maybe you could try the GLX approch if you don't mind switching OS...
The stencil support is in the todo list, perhaps you could embark on a GPL tour of duty.

[Humus]

Hmmm ... if a thing is in a todo list it means it is not implemented yet ... so what's the point of using GLX then?
However, Matrox were nice to send me a pre-release driver so stenciling works now ... but not attenuation ... but that's maybe fixed to the official release.

[Jorden]

I do wonder what you try to run Humus.

What is so big of use that you need stencilbuffering?

Even as a hobbyist programmer doing OGl stuff, you could've used the search option or FAQs (here or on the Matrox site to look up many OGL and TGL things.

I think Matrox has adopted good pieces of the 3dfx mentality, this we_only_need_to_support_current_games ...

Looks like you didn't look to good to me. There's enough patches (as ever!!) on the various apps and game sites, plus on MAtrox's site to patch up your problems.

What you might think is a problems with MAtrox, might also be a problem with the original programmers of the app/game/whatever. Depends on the programming language they programmed their app/game/whatever in...

Just don't judge too soon !!

I'm getting angry ... I think this was the last time I bought a Matrox card.

You know where the door is? Go out and don't say such dumb things again.

However, Matrox were nice to send me a pre-release driver so stenciling works now ... but not attenuation ... but that's maybe fixed to the official release.

Then you either wait or trash your Matrox card the next time you have the trash-haul-over come by...

You never said what Matrox card you had, btw.
My G400 works fine in whatever I use it.

I wonder why other MURCers missed this thread

Jorden

[GehRehmee]

http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/news.html
March 28th
<ul>[*]New driver-independent AGP allocation and deallocation code has been added. [*] Major SiS 6326 updates. [*]<strong> Stencil support on the G400 has been added. </strong>[*] hw_boxes update in the mga driver. Paletted textures on the G200 is also supported once
again. [*] The options for the Rage Pro driver has been changed. [*] Mesa 3.2beta1 has been released.

[Humus]

I do wonder what you try to run Humus.
What is so big of use that you need stencilbuffering?

I'm trying to create shadows and reflections. To do that I need stencilbuffer support, and the reason is simple .. when you draw the reflected objects blended into the reflecting surface parts of the reflected objects may be outside the reflecting surface, so you want to prevent pixels outside the surface to be rendered, and that's done by the stencilbuffer by comparing the pixel to be rendereds stencilvalue with that stored in the stencilbuffer.

Even as a hobbyist programmer doing OGl stuff, you could've used the search option or FAQs (here or on the Matrox site to look up many OGL and TGL things.

Looks like you didn't look to good to me. There's enough patches (as ever!!) on the various apps and game sites, plus on MAtrox's site to patch up your problems.

What you might think is a problems with MAtrox, might also be a problem with the original programmers of the app/game/whatever. Depends on the programming language they programmed their app/game/whatever in...

Just don't judge too soon !!

Hey, I guess you're missing the point, there's no patch available to fix my own programs. And it's not my program that was bad, it was the drivers which didn't have the neccesary stenciling support even though available in hardware. I didn't say that I had problems running games 'n' apps, I had problems creating my own due to incomplete drivers. But, of course I could start bitchin' about the obvious z-aliasing problems visible in Unreal Tournament which does only occur on Matrox hardware ... to bad that this is the only game I play ...

You never said what Matrox card you had, btw.
My G400 works fine in whatever I use it.

Well, if you read the headline for the topic "When are we getting REAL drivers for the G400" ... hmm ... what card can this guy got ...

[skorpion]

I'm still waiting for a full OpenGl compliant drivers that run on 3d application like Blender without hanging my PC: some opengl apps still hangs win98, winNt, win2000!!! With Dx it's all ok, but with OpenGl... well, just games work!!!

... sorry for my bad english!

[APV]

Wait for the G450, it is geared towards the professional/business 3D applications.

[APV]

Wait for the G450, it is geared towards the professional/business 3D applications.

[APV]

Wait for the G450, it is geared towards the professional/business 3D applications.

[APV]

Wait for the G450, it is geared towards the professional/business 3D applications.

[DuRaNgO[MU]]

APV, It's possible to go back, edit and delete your multi-posts, threads flow much nicer that way