Desktop effect on all computers! A call for G3D support of Compiz Fusion

[Alexandre Franke]

On 11/6/07, Shu Hung (Koala) <koalay at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

first, could you avoid writing bold red text please? This will bring
nothing more than irritation. Thanks.

> Fact: seems Compiz Fusion only support computers with OpenGL supported
> graphic card and linux driver .

True. You should even add that it only supports some graphic cards,
not all of them. You will then realise that even with hardware, Compiz
doesn't necessarily work and the issue is a bit more complicated than
what your first mail says.

> Mac OS on PowerPC G4 was already providing some
> good desktop effect far better than Windows XP. And even PowerPC G3 does a
> good job on this. I wondered why.

Guess which technologie is used by Mac OS to provide those effects?
That's right, the same old OpenGL. Guess why Apple can achieve such
mastery with their software? Because they make it run on a limited and
controlled set of hardware, which they provide themselves. Linux,
Ubuntu and Compiz run on a way larger set of hardware and thus needs
some time to run well everywhere.

> And I wonder linux cound do the same as
> Mac does.

It's being worked on :)

> Right now, desktop effect is provided by Compiz Fusion, which built on
> OpenGL library. So, in other word, OpenGL does provide desktop effect.

Same for Mac OS.

> Maybe
> OpenGL could do software emulation, but (1) seems it is very slow

Which is obviously normal. Any other technology would perform the same way.

> (2) Compiz Fusion doesn't support that...

...yet. Please be patient.

> G3D is a mature library, too. It is not as good for industrial 3D movie
> rendering. But we don't need that, do we? We know that OpenGL software
> emulation is a lot slower than DirectX's direct 3d. And I know that G3D can
> do software emulation as good as DirectX does. I have no doubt that G3D
> could do a better job than OpenGL on older PCs. So I think: if Compiz Fusion
> can use G3D to render effect on older PCs, we can have better desktop effect
> on older PCs, too.

These are by no means facts. Are there any figures proving that G3D is
better than OpenGL? When you want to convince someone to change for a
better technology, you have to prove that it really is better, you
have to provide facts.

> P.S. You may want to see their website first:
> http://g3d-cpp.sourceforge.net/

You may also want to see it prior to submitting any new post to this
thread. G3D is a 3D engine, which means that it relies on libraries
such as SDL and OpenGL. It is in no way meant to replace OpenGL, it is
rather built atop of it.

Please, please, get informed before telling that X is bad and that Y is better.

-- 
Alexandre Franke
GNU/Linux user #390077