Irrlicht Linux Preformance

Game_Ender · Post by **Game_Ender** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:41 am

I have scoured this forums for mentions of linux preformance and I have been unable to find a definative answer. Can an older hardware setup pull about 60 fps in linux running a simple level (read- the Quake3 level demo with a dozen low poly objects added)? Does anyone have Irrlicht runny as well on linux as it does on windows?

The second questions is the most important one for me.

Joe_Oliveri · Post by **Joe_Oliveri** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:07 am

CHeck the drivers for your video card

Game_Ender · Post by **Game_Ender** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:28 am

Irrlicht runs fine on my windows machine, but this is just my development machine. Paradoxically the machine that I am going to run code on is older and less 3D capable.

I am just wondering if using linux, causes a native performance hit? Or can linux, if configured with the right drivers and using the right render (ie. Ogl or DX), runs just as well as windows?

After thinking about it for awhile, I have decided my first question is just way to vague. So if anyone was going to try and throw together a response, you don't have to.

Joe_Oliveri · Post by **Joe_Oliveri** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:34 am

To from my studies there shouldn't really be any difference in the frame rate as long as the drivers are up to date.

Game_Ender · Post by **Game_Ender** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:36 am

Thanks SkaterX, does anyone else have any experience?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 9:56 am

I can't quantify it, but having played around a bit with the collision demo on my FX5200 it seems to work smoothly.

The only thing with Linux is, that sometimes there may be a heavy background job running which slows everything down.
Games don't generally get to tell the OS how many CPU cycles they get.

I suspect that DirectX applications will automatically get a boost in priority under Windows.

Nevertheless, raw performance seems to be just fine.

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:08 am

I never ran any real benchmarks, so the following is just estimated.
I guess that if you compare OpenGL driver on Windows and Linux, and additionally compare a quite recent gfx hardware you should not encounter any drawbacks. But at least the change from DirectX to OpenGL should make a difference in that most gfx cards are better optimized towards DirectX. But, DirectX is not available on Linux platforms (you asked if this could be done: no!)
Coming back to your former questions: Irrlicht is running on both platforms without problems (read: if there are bugs, they are usually on both sides). But you would definitely find more supported gfx adapters if you choose the windows platform.
3D support for older hardware is also available for Linux, but might be less effective since best 3D support is only available with closed source vendor drivers only available for the recent models of ATI and NVidia.
Anyway, this discussion is not needed to decide what platform to develop for, since both are supported by the same program. Just change the driver and recompile. If you just want to play a game with highest frame rates you will be usually better off using DirectX and Windows, though. But profiling the Irrlicht engine could also help a lot...