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3D driver and OpenGL assistance FAQ
Last Updated on: 2000-10-17 19:42:55

This is a general overview of 3D drivers and OpenGL rendering on Linux systems, in particular as it applies to Loki's games. This FAQ is intended as a supplement and guide for our more specific FAQs. GL driver installation is not supported by Loki Technical Support, and further questions should be directed to your distribution's tech support.

1. Introduction

2. Overview

3. XFree86-3

4. XFree86-4

5. Contact





1. Introduction

  • 1.1 How to use this FAQ

    This FAQ allows you to navigate through the answers by category, or individually, or to view the entire FAQ at once. The full view is also suitable for printing.

    This FAQ is modelled on the Linux HOWTO documents for consistency and ease of navigation.


  • 1.2 Authors

    The maintainers of the FAQ can be reached by e-mailing faqs@lokigames.com. Please send all correspondance directly related to the FAQlist tool to that address.

  • 1.3 What is the status of this FAQ?

    We are in the process of migrating information from our previous GL Drivers guide, and adding specific pointers and links to information.

2. Overview

  • 2.1 What cards are supported on Linux?

    The following card families have a sufficient level of support to run our OpenGL games:
    • 3Dfx: Voodoo, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo 2, Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo 3, Voodoo 4, Voodoo 5
    • ATI: Rage Pro, Rage Pro/Mobility, Rage 128, Rage 128 PRO, Radeon
    • Matrox: G200, G400, G450
    • nVidia: TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce
    Not all cards are supported under all versions of X, and each card family has its own driver configuration.

    Not all card and driver combinations offer adequate performance for all games. The listing of a card here does not mean that it is capable of running all of our games, only that the driver is sufficiently advanced to display correctly with hardware acceleration.

    Regrettably, very few distributions configure any of these cards correctly "out of the box" for 3D hardware acceleration. This is gradually changing, but most users will still need to configure their drivers themselves.


  • 2.2 What about commercial 3D X servers?

    We are currently aware of only one commercial, 3D-accelerated X server solution. This server is Accelerated-X, and it is provided by Xi Graphics (http://www.xig.com/). They maintain their own supported card list on their web site, and customers have reported that some cards which have no drivers under XFree86 work with their drivers.

    This server, according to their web site, offers support for the Savage 4, Glint, Gamma, and Permedia 3 chipsets (among others). See http://www.xig.com/Pages/3DcardsSupported.html for details.

    Currently, we do not test against this X-server.


  • 2.3 Do any other cards have any hope of support?

    Maybe. It depends on the cards. Utah-GLX (http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/), for instance, has partial drivers for the i810, S3/Virge, Savage 3D, and SiS 6326 chipsets. Similarly, DRI (http://dri.sourceforge.net) has partial drivers for the i810/i840, SiS 6326, and Gamma chipsets. We are not aware of any significant progress being made with those drivers, and we do not consider them to be supported at this point in time. An enterprising developer, however, might just decide to take up the challenge and polish the drivers.

    Note that, while DRI's support and Utah-GLX's support overlap a fair amount, there are cards which are only supported under DRI (e.g. Rage 128, Radeon, G450).

    One chipset that we are periodically asked about is the Savage 4. The only current driver solution for this card is via the Xi Graphics commercial X server (http://www.xig.com/). We have not tested this configuration.


  • 2.4 What card and driver combinations does Loki consider as supported platforms?

    The following card families have a sufficient level of support to run our OpenGL games:

    We do not have an i810-based machine for testing, so those drivers are not considered a supported platform at the moment.


3. XFree86-3

4. XFree86-4

5. Contact

Support inquries should be addressed to support@lokigames.com.
FAQ's maintained by faqs@lokigames.com.

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