[Xquartz-dev] 2.3.3_rc1

[Jack Howarth]

Jeremy,
   Could you clarify something here. When I run vmd-xplor (a ppc
legacy binary) under X11 2.3.3-rc1 on the following configurations...

1) dual G4 QuickSilver with Radeon 7500
2) dual G5 Powermac with Radeon 9600
3) late 2006 MacBook Pro with Radeon X1600

in all those cases the OpenGL render reported by vmd-xplor is Apple
Software Render. Only in the instance of my 2008 MacPro with HD2600
graphics does it report hardware rendering. In the first three
cases vmd-xplor works fine. This would seem to imply that software
rendering in GLX is indeed possible but only that the LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT
isn't allowing the software rendering to be forced when hardware rendering
is the available.
   I could understand your decision to disable LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT
if the Apple Software Render was in fact being removed from X11's OpenGL
support but this certainly doesn't seem to be the case in X11 2.3.3-rc1.
It would seem rather arbitrary if that were true to disable
LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT since it prohibits the user from dropping down
into software rendering if there is bugs in the hardware rendering.
                                 Jack

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 02:34:15AM -0700, Jeremy Huddleston wrote:
> Still not 100% correct.
>
> The SERVER still supports indirect rendering.  Our libGL does NOT  
> support indirect rendering.  This means that you can ssh to your linux  
> box and run OpenGL applications there, and they will use indirect  
> rendering on the server.  This is hardware accelerated, but very slow  
> since you're bottlenecking the rendering with the network latency.
>
> What you can't do is ssh to an OSX box and run OpenGL applications on  
> the remote OSX box on your local X server.  If you *REALLY* want to do  
> that, then you can compile your own libGL from mesa, and use that for  
> the indirect GLX capability, but I think this is really an edge case of 
> an edge use that I don't think will really affect many users.
>
> On Mar 9, 2009, at 23:47, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
>
>>
>> On Mar 9, 2009, at 11:34 PM, Martin Costabel wrote:
>>
>>> I don't understand what you are saying here. Or rather, I don't  
>>> believe you are really saying what this sounds like. You are no  
>>> longer supporting running X clients on remote machines? No more "ssh 
>>> -Y"? This is too horrible to be true; please clarify.
>>
>> Jeremy is talking about OpenGL indirect rendering mode, not the  
>> ability to run remote X clients.  Running an xterm over the wire is  
>> fine, in other words, but if you're trying to run OpenGL apps remotely 
>> then you won't be able to use the GLX extension (though you could 
>> always use a software renderer like Mesa, of course).  Given the total 
>> lack of sense in trying to use the fastest possible 3D acceleration 
>> while simultaneously putting the client "far away" from the server, 
>> this is nowhere near as limiting (or "horrible") as it sounds.
>>
>> - Jordan
>>
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