GL0 FAQ Index   |     GL0 Full (Regular) view   |     FAQ Home

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

• 1.1 How to use this FAQ
• 1.2 Authors
• 1.3 What is the status of this FAQ?

2. Overview

• 2.1 What cards are supported on Linux?
• 2.2 What about commercial 3D X servers?
• 2.3 Do any other cards have any hope of support?
• 2.4 What card and driver combinations does Loki consider as supported platforms?

3. XFree86-3

• 3.1 Which cards are supported with XFree86 3.3.x?
• 3.2 Which drivers should I use with my 3Dfx card?
• 3.3 Which drivers should I use with my (ATI Rage Pro, Matrox G200/G400) card?

4. XFree86-4

• 4.1 Which cards are supported with XFree86 4.x?
• 4.2 Which drivers should I use with my nVidia card?
• 4.3 Which drivers should I use with my (3Dfx Voodoo Banshee/3/4/5, ATI Rage 128/Rage 128 PRO/Radeon, Matrox G200/G400/G450) card?

5. Contact

• 5.1 How do I make a suggestion or correction for this FAQ?
• 5.2 How can I receive technical support for my 3D drivers?

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:

  • 3Dfx: Voodoo, Voodoo 2, Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo 3 using XFree86 3.3.x and the drivers from http://www.linuxvoodoo.com/
  • 3Dfx: Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo 3, Voodoo 5 using XFree86 4.1 and the drivers from http://dri.sourceforge.net/
  • ATI: Rage Pro, Rage Pro/Mobility using XFree86 3.3.6 and the drivers from http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/
  • ATI: Rage 128, Rage 128 Pro, and Radeon using XFree86 4.1 and the drivers from http://dri.sourceforge.net/
  • Matrox: G200, G400 using XFree86 3.3.6 and the drivers from http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/
  • Matrox: G200, G400, G450 using XFree86 4.1 and the drivers from http://dri.sourceforge.net/
  • nVidia: TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce using XFree86 4.x and the drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/

  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

• 3.1 Which cards are supported with XFree86 3.3.x?
  
  
  The following cards have support under XFree86 3.3.x:

  • 3Dfx: Voodoo, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo 2, Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo 3
  • ATI: Rage Pro, Rage Pro/Mobility
  • Matrox: G200, G400

  nVidia did release drivers for the TNT and XFree86 3.3.x, which some people have been able to use. We do not support this configuration, and we recommend against using this driver. If you have an nVidia-based card (TNT/TNT2/GeForce), please use the latest nVidia XFree86 4.0.x drivers.

  
  
• 3.2 Which drivers should I use with my 3Dfx card?
  
  
  You will want to configure the drivers from http://linux.3dfx.com/. We have a guide to configuring 3D drivers with XFree86 3.3.x at setupandtroubleshootingonx3faq.html
  
  
• 3.3 Which drivers should I use with my (ATI Rage Pro, Matrox G200/G400) card?
  
  
  You will want to configure the drivers from http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/. We have a guide to configuring 3D drivers with XFree86 3.3.x at setupandtroubleshootingonx3faq.html
  
  

4. XFree86-4

• 4.1 Which cards are supported with XFree86 4.x?
  
  
  The following cards have support under XFree86 4.x:

  • 3Dfx: Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo 3, Voodoo 4, Voodoo 5
  • ATI: Rage 128, Rage 128 PRO, Radeon
  • Matrox: G200, G400, G450
  • nVidia: TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce

  Note that there is a Rage Pro (Mach64) branch for DRI, which appears to be semi-functional. It is not part of the main DRI distribution yet, and so is not considered supported, although development does appear to be occuring. If you are interested in this, monitor the DRI Developer's list for the status of this driver.

  Note that some people have been able to get the Voodoo, and Voodoo 2 drivers to co-exist with XFree86 4.0.x. We do not support this configuration.

  
  
• 4.2 Which drivers should I use with my nVidia card?
  
  
  You will want to configure the drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/. We have a guide to configuring 3D drivers with XFree86 4.x at setupandtroubleshootingonx4faq.html
  
  
• 4.3 Which drivers should I use with my (3Dfx Voodoo Banshee/3/4/5, ATI Rage 128/Rage 128 PRO/Radeon, Matrox G200/G400/G450) card?
  
  
  You will want to configure the drivers from http://dri.sourceforge.net/. We have a guide to configuring 3D drivers with XFree86 4.x at setupandtroubleshootingonx4faq.html
  
  

5. Contact

• 5.1 How do I make a suggestion or correction for this FAQ?
  
  
  If there is an error in the FAQList, or you feel that there is additional information which could help the FAQ, you may email faqs@lokigames.com.

  Technical support for 3D drivers is not available from that e-mail address.

  
  
• 5.2 How can I receive technical support for my 3D drivers?
  
  
  Please refer to the technical support listed under your video card type and driver provider. Loki Software does not offer general support for the 3D drivers.

  If you are using a commercial X server, you will need to contact the company that is developing your X server.