OpenGL Performance...

[john]

Hi everyone,

I am noticing that on some machines, all OpenGL applications work very slowly (at ~2 fps) even though drivers are installed properly. However, when running Quake (which also uses OpenGL) it runs normally. I never encounterd such a problem with DirectX (which makes for me an ideal and suitable API for compatibility). Can anyone suggest what the problem might be? How does OpenGL compare with DirectX in speed (to me DirectX seems much faster).

Thanks.

[void]

Youd having driver problem, not properly installed. OpenGL and DirectX are the same performance wise, it is possible to write fast and slow applications in both APIs, it all depends on the programmer. What is happening with you is that I think that OpenGL is running in software mode because it cant in hardware. Make sure your video card drivers are the latest and installed properly, and get teh latest opengl sdk.

[CyraX]

Could you specify the names of the apps?
For one, OGL works with a hardware accelerator and highly dependent on the way the hardwarre manufacturer supports the OGL pipeline. Now if your card (please specify the name and driver version), is compatible iwth DirectX, most of the cards are infact, you wil experience NO probs.
When you run Quake, the engine is highly optimized to pick up the best available features of the Card.

PS: It woudl help a lot if you give a few details like:
Your comp configuration - typically
- Accelerator
- RAM
- OS
- Driver relese version

[john]

Thanks for everyones response. Here are my specs:

733 MHz
32 MB 3D Labs Oxygen Video Card
Windows XP Pro
32 MB RAM

I downloaded the latest driver, but that didn't help.

The biggest concern is: Why on earth :wtf: do all porfessional games (Quake, etc..) run perfectly? I still didn't understand why.

[godEcho]

I'm not sure about professional games, but 32 megs of ram in XP? Thats a HUGE bottleneck. XP takes up about ~128 megs of ram for me on startup. I'm pretty sure 128MB is advertised as the bare minimum for XP. While its hard to say that your system ram is the problem, its certainly going to be one of them.

[void]

hmmm, your using an Oxygen card, for one its a profressional video card, and hence its drivers are optimised for that kinda stuff, like modelling and CAD. A rule of thumb is that professional cards are pretty crap at stuff like multitexturing and other things that only games use, CAD programs dont use multitexturing at all. Other than that, I have no idea why DX is running faster than OpenGL other than the fact that the drivers are all messed up, or your doing something SERIOUSLY wrong in your code. Try downloading some app or tutorial from say nehe.gamedev.net and run it, see if it runs slowly too, if not, its your code.

[gilead]

As void already mentioned, it's most likely that you have a software-only driver installed somewhere in your system (like Microsoft's OpenGL 1.1-compatible one) and that's why you're getting this low performance. Not sure about exact names but you should localize all opengl*.dll or similar files on your system and delete any software-only ones.

[baldurk]

I'd write a simple app to do glGetString(GL_VENDOR) and if it returns Microsoft, you're running in software.

[godEcho]

sup baldurk

[baldurk]

nothing much. Answering Qs, having a bud.

btw, Off topic or what? :D

[SpaCe]

Guys , im new here and I also got a problem with my Graphic Card:
Unt'll 3 days ago my GC worked well , But 3 days ago I turned my computer on and I saw a change in the apperance of my Desktop , All my desktop was displayed as if I have 256 colors , except for my background , which was still colorfull (32bit).
Well , the problem didnt end here , When i tried to play Counter Strike , it suddenly gave me the next error: "Your OpenGL mode does not support your Video card" , Its the 1st time I ran into this error. Up to 3 days ago everything worked perfectly...
I have no idea what made this change , Cos I havent installed anything...
I unistalled and reinstalled my drivers , which are the newest for my GC , I also downloaded DirectX9.0(after the problem), I even installed an older version of my GC driver...
All of this did not solve my problem...
My comp specs are:
677 Mhz
Win2kpro
128MB RAM
GC: NVIDIA - RIVA TNT2 model 64/model 64 pro , with drivers version: 4.1.0.9.
I would really thank everyone who would be kind enough to solve my problem.

[baldurk]

have you got the latest nVidia drivers? if so have you tried the 3xxx series? what mode are you running CS on, DX/OGL?

[Dia Kharrat]

I once had that problem (when I had a GeForce 2 MX), and all directx application together with opengl wouldn't work properly. Of course as you mentioned, nothing helped: installing directx, drivers, etc...

I ended up formatting my computer and everything went back to normal. Formatting is best solution after everything fails.

Try going to "Device Manger" in the control panel and see whether you don't have any devices which have an exclamination mark. If you do, they try removing that device and hitting "Refresh" and see what happens.

[baldurk]

Formatting is best solution after everything fails.
only in windows ;).

[SpaCe]

baldurk - Im running CS with OpenGL mode.
Im not familiar with the 3xxx series - I just did some basic stuff I thought might help , Could you explaine some more about the 3xxx series?

apex - I have 2 exclamination marks in the Device Manager , but both thing are not important.
Formatting is best solution after everything fails.
I believe I would do so soon , Unless I'll come up with a solution.

[baldurk]

Nvidia's new driver series is called the 4xxx. I have heard (although I haven't experienced) that there are problems with it. the 3xxx is the series that has now ended. Gimme a sec and I'll find the URL

<goes away>

<comes back>

nVidia Graphics card drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp). Take a look there

[SpaCe]

I'm looking at it right now , But I wonder How did it happen?
This problem just came out from thin air...

[Arthur Dent]

Just a stupid question but are you using GLUT? That runs in software mode I think.

[baldurk]

GLUT runs in hardware just as well as OpenGL.

[SpaCe]

I got some breaking news :)
I solved my problem by installing again Win2k...Althought I lost Office and some other softwares , I think its a small price for not formatting the comp , I wanna thanks all of those who dedicated a few secounds from their life to help me :D :D :D :D

[baldurk]

congratulations :)

[Aphex]

Have to say from what I've seen is that OGL stuff is generally 10-20% faster than Dx for comparable output in today's games...

[Dia Kharrat]

Have to say from what I've seen is that OGL stuff is generally 10-20% faster than Dx for comparable output in today's games...
To be objective, OGL and DX performance are identical. Performance depends on coding efficiency and not the API used.

[Aphex]

Hmm well, in IL2 Sturmovik (my main testbed) it is generally 10-20% faster when switching from using Dx to OGL...no code difference there..?

[davepermen]

speed of gl against dx depends largely on drivers. the interfaces are, while syntactically different, technically about the same.
the speed in the end is nearly always the gpu. and there, dx and gl use the same paths..

[baldurk]

aphex: by definition your DX code and your OGL code are different. You may have written your OGL code better than your DX code. Someone else might do the opposite and think that DX is better.

[MMU_FOX]

emm, I don't think OpenGL Performance is slow,some time I using OpenGL finish game project will faster then direct x. But is OpenGL + window programing. :huh:

[davepermen]

hm.. windows programming suxx in general, and yes, gl bindings to windows are crap.. one thing that should be rewisited in the gl2 specs, as far as i know (something in the form of glCreateContext, and then just wglBindContextToWindow(HWND hwnd) )

but i'm not sure..

when gl performance is slow, its wrong setup for pixelformats and that, wich forces at least parts of the driver to go software mode..

[baldurk]

unfortunately that would require coding on microsofts side. I doubt they're going to do that.

[davepermen]

it just means to wrap up the code bether.. no need to be on m$ side..and driver developers get nearly full access anyways..

[SpaCe]

Guys , I didnt know where to post this problem...But can someone tell me how to uninstall NetMeeting? Its fucking my GC...This was the cause of my problem , and now I dunno how to uninstall it.

[davepermen]

normally, netmeeting is not to uninstall. and normally, it should not cause your problems (as it is possibly installed, yes, but normally never runs, no..)

to uninstall it, you have to check some of the fancy pc magacines (or their web-equivalents). a longer time ago, i've read in one or two of them, how to get windows to show up own software in the software dialog, available to uninstall..

[woz1010]

Strange that NetMeeting would be a problem.

I ran it last Friday, and went through the setup dialogs, and at the end of it all it informed me that all NetMeeting functionality has been replaced by MSN Messenger services. Thus NetMeeting is no more.

[SpaCe]

Well , I discovered the problem , I had on my computer a software that used in a way NetMeeting...The combination between the two fucked up my GC...Now , after I uninstalled that software , everything is OK :D

[davepermen]

great

nice avatar btw

[SpaCe]

10q v3ry much :D