Comments on: The OpenDisc, and graphics puzzles http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/ K.Mandla's blog of Linux experiences Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:19:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: James http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/#comment-43963 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:21:04 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/#comment-43963 I am surprised that Neverwinter Nights runs so much better than Aquaria for you on your Intel card. Both use OpenGL, but 2D stuff is typically less resource intensive. Perhaps it’s just that the older game uses fewer fancy effects.

]]> By: James http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/#comment-43962 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:18:07 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/#comment-43962 It’s a driver issue.

Oddly, I’ve had the opposite experience with my Intel X3100 GMA. I find that 2D games run wonderfully on Linux, while 3D OpenGL at a fraction of the performance that it does in Windows. Of course, anything using Direct3D in Windows blows away OpenGL even more. It’s just a matter of priorities for the people writing the drivers.

Then there’s stuff like how you can’t implement some types of texture compression used by some versions of OpenGL in open source drivers because the algorithms used to accomplish it are patented.

]]> By: Aberinkulas http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/#comment-43743 Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:40:32 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/#comment-43743 Those OS-for-Windows discs are nice, aren’t they? I started with Linux by stumbling on KDE while looking for a free and open source LAN game to play with my friends.

Neverwinter Nights uses OpenGL extensively, and it’s a bit of an older version that Windows XP not not good at supporting. I have a nVidia Quadro in my campus-rented laptop I’m typing on now and the performance difference between OpenGL games in Windows versus Linux (in Vista as well) is so large that it’s almost laughable.

For example, I play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, a game that runs on both OS’ quite well. On Windows, I have to turn everything down to medium or low and run the game at a lower resolution to get a good framerate. In Linux (even bloated Ubuntu or Fedora) I can turn up almost every graphical option to high (barring a couple of really fancy ones) AND run the game at the highest resolution.

Naturally, Neverwinter Nights runs well in both, but I can’t remember the last time I booted in to Windows anyway, so I guess that doesn’t matter much.

]]> By: Jeff Flowers http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/#comment-43741 Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:55:22 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/the-opendisc-and-graphics-puzzles/#comment-43741 I switch between Windows and Linux all the time, but when I am using Windows, I use the following:

Firefox
Foobar2000
Notepad2
Gimp
Exact Audio Copy
Lame
Flac
Mame
Putty
7zip
Jhead
VLC

Foobar2000 and Exact Audio Copy are no cost programs, while everything else is open source.

(By the way, I am probably unusual in that I like both Windows and Linux. I don’t personally believe that you have to hate one to like the other.)

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