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SubjectRe: Gaming and the kernel
On 04/08/12 08:44, Cruz Julian Bishop wrote:
> On 04/08/12 08:12, Chris Jones wrote:
>> There's a lot of attention at the moment focused toward Linux and the
>> future of gaming support on the platform. And it got me thinking, is
>> there any particular improvements that are planned to improve the
>> kernel from better support for gaming?
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
> Hi Chris,
>
> The biggest problem I can see at the moment is supporting dual-GPU
> setups in unusual ways.
>
> For example, NVIDIA Optimus uses an Intel Core i* processor and
> integrated Intel 3/4000 graphics,
> but also has a NVIDIA GeForge GT *M graphics card. However, this card
> cannot be accessed
> directly, and all instructions effectively pass through the Intel
> graphics system.
>
> I'm not entirely sure how that works, but it's what I've managed to
> gather from some tinkering.
> It's being worked on at the moment (RandR 1.(5? 6? 7?) and DMA-BUF
> PRIME) - Which is good,
> since the majority of laptops that I have seen being sold in my area
> either use NVIDIA
> Optimus or some other similar system if they cost under $1000 or so.
>
> Until these are implemented, there is no way for the kernel to access
> the dedicated graphics
> card on these systems. There is, however, a project (Bumblebee) that
> seems to be doing
> a good job performance-wise, but doesn't support automatic switching
> to the dedicated
> graphics card.
>
>
>
> On another note, not kernel based, Wine has actually managed to run
> Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas faster on Ubuntu 12.04 than the default
> Windows 7
> installation on this laptop. Valve has also committed to developing
> games on Linux
> (starting with Ubuntu) with frame rates that, so far, have been higher
> than on Windows.
>
> I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. There are a
> couple of things (some
> of which are major, but thankfully not impossible)

It just seems to me that Valve is pressing ahead with games for Linux
and no doubt there will be another influx of games and companies to
follow not far behind if Valve make it a running success. And good luck
to them. But on the other hand, it seems that kernel development is not
quite up to scratch yet when it comes to full support for hardware
graphics. And bring drivers in to the mix. Albeit, I do understand that
graphics drivers should be handled and worked on by AMD and NVIDIA etc.

It's hard to describe what I mean. Basically, to the outside world via
media, it is presented as "Valve is taking gaming to Linux. Wow, Linux
is now capable of gaming!" That's all fine and everything. But we need
to ensure that the kernel and all other aspects of code under our
control is up to the task of handling a massive dump of games for Linux.
Otherwise, it's going to backfire on us and Linux overall. It's moving
very quickly.


Regards

--
Chris Jones @ kernel.devproject@gmail.com
also on oracle.kerneldev@gmail.com and netbsd.kerneldev@gmail.com

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