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after having some x nightmares with my ati card i wondered why the card need a driver at all.
if most new cards support opengl was doesnt x just have one all purpose driver for them? are there problems with opengl?
couldnt the api be adjusted for it? wouldnt it be easier?
i tried asking in some linux boards, im hopping a programmer can tell some of the problems.
Just because a card supports open GL does not mean that the BIOS on the card is only OpenGL. Everycard runs differently, they are all made differently. Just like each controler card.
OpenGL really is intended as a higher level display library, and the driver runs different cards.
HTH
but if it supports opengl doesnt it mean it supports some standards? its api supports also unofficial stuff(like vendor specific) doesnt it also have the opengl api right there.Quote:
Just because a card supports open GL does not mean that the BIOS on the card is only OpenGL
i heard this before, but where the problem. ive seen 2d graphics in directx, opengl has to have something.Quote:
OpenGL really is intended as a higher level display library
is it just a pain working like that?
OpenGL is a library of functions that are precomiles like glibc. The driver is for the specific card.
Think about it this way. Can you use a mazda miata engine in a Corvette? Just because they look to operate the same, under the hood they are very different. You turn the key and the car starts, push the gas and the car goes, break and it stopes. The general things that it does are the OpenGL libraries. The engine is the card specific driver.
o, ok. i get it know.
i like what i was thinking better though. any reason why they wouldnt come up with a opengl-like hardware api?
i know now it cant be done but im surprised there not moving towards this.
One reason they are not $$$. Yea It would be nice.. but then it would also limit the ability to extend the abilities of the software to match the power of the hardware.
what do you mean?Quote:
but then it would also limit the ability to extend the abilities of the software to match the power of the hardware.
why wouldnt it be like any other api call? it would have to be a system call but atleast it wouldn be some what standard.
im not really seeing the bad points to this.
OpenGL is not a method to redraw screens and refresh rates and hardware based mapping.
X uses many methods to do these and OpenGL is not one of them and probably never will be. the API behind OpenGL requires an API that can access the hardware features of the card. OpenGL cannot do this directly, so if X were to use OpenGL they would have to write a back-bone API that OpenGL would use to use these features there by defeating the purpose in the begining.
-LC
why do some cards advertise about opengl then?
i cant believe there have come up with something, i guess this was makes them more money(no idea how)...
Afaik, OpenGL doesn't directly access the hardware (correct me if I'm wrong). It uses your graphic-cards driver to do this. Therefore if the driver doesn't support OpenGL, it won't work. Thats why they can advertise OpenGL compatibility.Quote:
Originally posted by mart_man00
why do some cards advertise about opengl then?
i cant believe there have come up with something, i guess this was makes them more money(no idea how)...