Solution to never-ending driver woes
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:35 pm
Relatively long time lurker, first time poster.
Excuse me for jumping into this topic out of nowhere, but we desperately need an open source driver.
The problem with s3d is we are at the total mercy of companies liable to abandon us whenever we no longer fit their cost/benefit analysis. s3d will never keep up with bleeding edge gaming if we don't free it from corporate shackles.
A wrapper to directX + openGL is what I mean by a driver. KindDragon has shown this possible.
If every programmer in the community just contributes a few hrs a week*, and everybody else did what they could to help (e.g. ideas, testing, research, documentation, spreading word of mouth) in no time, we could have something that puts nvidia's stereo 3d driver to shame.
We can have better compatibility (software + hardware), better performance, and better 3d. Forever.
An open source driver** can never die, because as long as the community lives, there will be members to maintain it. By spreading word of mouth, if one programmer leaves, another two will replace him.
We do desperately need an open source driver.
You have two choices:
1. Keep waiting for a miracle from nvidia or some other 3rd party
2. Do what ever you can to help (see todo list below) to make true s3d support happen now
Things that need doing***:
- spread word to others to maximize help
- setup sourceforge project -- DONE
- setup project management/collab software
- setup wiki for documentation
- do research to establish essential feature requirements (e.g. what 3d display types to support) based on demand
- compile list of helpful resources relevant to development
- anything else you can think of
I think the most important thing is speed to "market," once we have a proven prototype a lot more people will jump on board to help. Some mere suggestions that might help speed things up:
- focus should be on simplicity
- don't bother to support legacy systems. e.g. start at win xp + dx9
- non-essential features should not be addressed until core functionality stable
- work exclusively on direct3d (as the dominant standard), and only then address openGL
------------------
* I for one will add myself to the list of programmers. I'm not at all oriented in directX/openGL, but I can learn.
** Preferably licensed under most tried+tested solution, GPL.
*** I plan on doing some of these things myself tomorrow if people haven't beat me to it.
(Lastly, I don't pretend to be any authority on any matter above. I'm pretty much a laymen on all counts, I just have a real desire to see this thing happen.)
Excuse me for jumping into this topic out of nowhere, but we desperately need an open source driver.
The problem with s3d is we are at the total mercy of companies liable to abandon us whenever we no longer fit their cost/benefit analysis. s3d will never keep up with bleeding edge gaming if we don't free it from corporate shackles.
A wrapper to directX + openGL is what I mean by a driver. KindDragon has shown this possible.
If every programmer in the community just contributes a few hrs a week*, and everybody else did what they could to help (e.g. ideas, testing, research, documentation, spreading word of mouth) in no time, we could have something that puts nvidia's stereo 3d driver to shame.
We can have better compatibility (software + hardware), better performance, and better 3d. Forever.
An open source driver** can never die, because as long as the community lives, there will be members to maintain it. By spreading word of mouth, if one programmer leaves, another two will replace him.
We do desperately need an open source driver.
You have two choices:
1. Keep waiting for a miracle from nvidia or some other 3rd party
2. Do what ever you can to help (see todo list below) to make true s3d support happen now
Things that need doing***:
- spread word to others to maximize help
- setup sourceforge project -- DONE
- setup project management/collab software
- setup wiki for documentation
- do research to establish essential feature requirements (e.g. what 3d display types to support) based on demand
- compile list of helpful resources relevant to development
- anything else you can think of
I think the most important thing is speed to "market," once we have a proven prototype a lot more people will jump on board to help. Some mere suggestions that might help speed things up:
- focus should be on simplicity
- don't bother to support legacy systems. e.g. start at win xp + dx9
- non-essential features should not be addressed until core functionality stable
- work exclusively on direct3d (as the dominant standard), and only then address openGL
------------------
* I for one will add myself to the list of programmers. I'm not at all oriented in directX/openGL, but I can learn.
** Preferably licensed under most tried+tested solution, GPL.
*** I plan on doing some of these things myself tomorrow if people haven't beat me to it.
(Lastly, I don't pretend to be any authority on any matter above. I'm pretty much a laymen on all counts, I just have a real desire to see this thing happen.)