[Mesa-dev] Gallium3D and Glide

[Brian Paul]

On 03/01/2011 04:18 AM, Blaž Tomažič wrote:
> On Mon, 2011-02-28 at 16:39 -0800, Brian Paul wrote:
>> On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 4:13 PM, Blaž Tomažič<blaz.tomazic at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> Hi Mesa developers,
>>>
>>> I am really interested in Gallium3D and I'm thinking about a project for
>>> my diploma (I think this is the same as bachelor's degree) on a computer
>>> university. I'm thinking about writing a Glide state tracker for
>>> Gallium3D. I know that Glide hasn't been used for a decade, but I think
>>> it would be relatively "easy" to implement an old 3D API and a great way
>>> to learn a part of Gallium3D on the way.
>>>
>>> Some old games (only Glide: Need for Speed 2; Glide and OpenGL: Unreal,
>>> Quake 2) used Glide API for rendering and Gallium3D could therefore
>>> accelerate them on newer hardware and more importantly, render them with
>>> nicer graphics instead of software rendering as is with some glide only
>>> games. I don't know if there were any Linux games, but Gallium3D works
>>> on Windows too if I'm not mistaken.
>>>
>>> So I have a few question for you:
>>>   - How hard and how much work would be involved in implementing such an
>>> API? (Any help on implementing it would be welcomed and appreciated of
>>> course)
>>>   - Are Glide to OpenGL wrappers a better solution because of changing
>>> nature of Gallium3D interface? (Personally I think they are, but I would
>>> like to work directly on Gallium)
>>>   - Do you think this project would fit well in Gallium3D or do you have
>>> any other/better proposals for a project including Gallium3D?
>>
>> I don't mean to discourage you, but I this probably wouldn't be a very
>> good project.
>>
>> The Glide API and 3dfx hardware is lacking in a number of areas,
>> particularly shaders.  Gallium was intended for newer hardware so it
>> wouldn't be a good fit for this older technology.
>>
>> I'm sure there are other projects you could do related to
>> OpenGL/gallium if that's where your interest lies.  Other people on
>> this list might have some ideas.  I could probably come up with a few
>> otherwise.  What do you think?
>>
>> -Brian
>
> I know that Glide is an old technology and probably I should test this
> games if they even run on newer OSs. But still, Gallium supports OpenGL
> 1.x functionality and Glide is a subset of it. Fixed-pipe  functionality
> is easily implemented with shaders so I think that it could be
> implemented.

The issue isn't converting fixed-function GL rendering (e.g. 1.x 
functionality) into shaders, it's converting Gallium shaders into 
Glide/3dfx fixed-function.


> I agree that some other project using current technology would be much
> better. Even if Glide would be implemented for Gallium it would be of
> almost no use and there would be almost no purpose maintaining it.
> Nevertheless, I thought it would be a great way to learn Gallium and in
> the process contribute something small to the community. And then, when
> I would know more about Gallium, contribute something more useful maybe.
>
> Then Glide is not a good idea but I don't have any other. I'm open for
> any suggestions you and other list members might have then.

Keith's debugger/diff driver is a great idea.

-Brian