Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 14:28:55 +0100 (MET) From: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> To: marc@bowtie.nl (Marc van Kempen) Cc: multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 3d drivers from Creative for Linux Message-ID: <199901291328.OAA13341@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> In-Reply-To: <199901291501.QAA21271@bowtie.nl> from "Marc van Kempen" at Jan 29, 99 04:01:01 pm
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> Did you guys see this? They also talk about xBSD compatibility. that only about graphics cards i think. No mention of *BSD audio drivers. And it seems that they are very clear on binary-only drivers. I guess i can talk to this guy to see if they have any intention to produce some sort of KLD drivers for FreeBSD but other than that, buying support from 4FrontTech seems a better option to me. cheers luigi > source : > http://www.progressive-comp.com/Lists/?l=linux-ggi&m=91750053603759&w=2 > > List: linux-ggi > Date: 1999-01-28 5:04:06 > [Download message body RAW] > > NOTE: I am now a Creative employee, but I do not speak directly > for Creative. Anything I do there is subject to their requirements, so > don't take anything but the basics in this announcement as fixed in > stone. > With that in mind.... > > Today I learned that I was chosen for the Creative Labs Linux > kernel sound driver development position that was advertised on > linux-kernel and elsewhere a few weeks back. I will be creating > binary-only Soundblaster Live (OSS and ALSA) drivers to Linux, as the > job > posting requested. However, the story only *begins* with sound now! > When > I showed them GGI and the fact that I also know Linux graphics systems > programming because of my years with GGI (and my education |->), they > decided to also have me start up an in-house Linux graphics driver > program! > > I will be given NDA access to full specs and sample code for all > 3Dfx, nVidia, 3DLabs and Rendition chipsets and will be able to produce > fully 2D/3D accelerated binary-only KGI drivers for all of them, which > through the magic of KGIcon will also be fully useable on standard Linux > kernels. Mesa targets for all of these will also be written. When this > is combined with the Soundblaster Live support and the power of the > LibGGI > userspace library system, Linux will have as least as much gaming and > graphics capacity as Win32/DirectX. And new hardware will be supported > at > release time with Linux drivers, just like Win32. > > Prominent game companies have told Creative that they will > support > Linux equally with Win32 if the driver and API support is there. It > certainly looks like it will be. How long it will take I can't say > right > now, but since I will have access to and use of existing OpenGL driver > code, I think it may happen sooner rather than later. Of course 3Dfx > cards are already supported on Linux by Glide, so if anything happens > there I will need to talk to Daryll Strauss and 3Dfx about that. In any > case, driver support for the other chipsets will come first because they > are currently unsupported at all on Linux 3D-wise. > > This is going to impact a lot of aspects of Linux and OSS, so > let > me make a bulleted list of them and I'll give my best guess as to what > will happen: > > * nVidia's Glide-alike object oriented hardware access library. James > Putnam from nVidia announced this plan some time back, but I have not > heard anything about it since then. I suppose that this would be used > if > it was available. I imagine that I will be able to get a good look at > it > under NDA, so we'll have to wait and see. > > * Existing open-source 2D drivers for 3Dfx and nVidia cards. Initially > I > will probably have the video drivers done up as completely > self-contained > 2D/3D KGI drivers, but hopefully soon we will have a new modular > acceleration system in KGI which will let me go back to open-source for > the basic chipset/clockchip/ramdac/bus io KGI driver components. The 3D > stuff is what has to be kept binary-only. > > * LibGGI3D. Back-burner hobby stuff for now. 3D on Linux is all about > Mesa currently. I'll continue to work on it as I have time and energy. > If anyone else wants to pick up the torch for a while, that would be > cool > too. > > * xBSD support. All the userspace GGI code is designed to be portable > and > should run quite well on xBSD, but AFAIK KGI drivers cannot be currently > run on xBSD. There are no license issues as KGI and its drivers are not > GPLed, so that is not the problem. Rather, xBSD does not have the fbdev > driver system and the next release of KGI is not done yet. If these > problems can be fixed (not by me), all of this should work on xBSD as > well. > > * Closed-source drivers. Yes, yes, I know. Closed source is evil and > all > that. I will of course do my best to see to it that as much source as > reasonably possible *is* released, but expect substantial chunks to > remin > closed indefinitely. That is that way it has to be. Creative were > quite > clear on this point. Personally, I do not think that open-source is > nearly as big a deal for device drivers as it is for more general types > of > programs like operating systems or applications. They are quite boring > sometimes and consist largely of a bunch of one-off hacks. There are > also > some proprietary algorithms, though, and I don't think there's anything > untoward about a company wanting to keep trade secrets. It happens all > the time. Be nice, and maybe the hardware companies will be easier to > talk into releasing more specs in the future.... > > * Cathedral vs. Bazaar-style development. Obviously the presence of a > lot > of NDA material and source is going to put somewhat of a crimp in this, > however I do not think it will be much of a problem. I'll try to get > back > as much of the "Bazaar effect" as possible by releasing lots of public > betas, but you all must understand that a more traditional commercial > organization like Creative does not like to see buggy half-working > products go out the door. We will see what happens. > > * Infrastructure. I'll be doing the usual open-source development > stuff: > > * A website > * FAQs, HOWTOs, and other documentation > * A mailing list > * A public GNATS bugtracking interface on the website > * A CVS pserver for the public code with both read-only public > access and read-write developer access > * Tinderbox, Bonsai, Bitkeeper, or any other additional present > or > future development tools will be made use of as needed. > > > Whew. Big changes are coming to the Linux world, folks. Watch > for me to announce the website, mailing list, etc soon. > > Jon Taylor [taylorj@ggi-project.org] > - -- > Author: Simon Taylor > INET: simon.taylor@insnet.net > > Fat City Network Services -- (619) 538-5051 FAX: (619) 538-5051 > San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists > - -------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message > to: ListGuru@fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in > the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB OPENGL-GAMEDEV-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may > also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). > > > > > ------- End of Forwarded Message > > > > ---------------------------------------------------- > Marc van Kempen BowTie Technology > Email: marc@bowtie.nl WWW & Databases > tel. +31 40 2 43 20 65 > fax. +31 40 2 44 21 86 http://www.bowtie.nl > ---------------------------------------------------- > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-multimedia" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-multimedia" in the body of the message
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