GL_VERSION: 1.1.1 SGI

[Geoman]

In 1997 when I couldn't afford an SGI, not even an 3D-accelerator, there was SGI's OpenGL SDK. And Hexen II + my Pentium 75 PC. *g*
Well I changed the OpenGL32.DLL inside the game directory, which was intended for 3Dfx Voodoo with the one delivered with the SDK. Gave me 1fpm (=Frame Per Minute), but looked great ^_^
It renders 100% error free graphics without the smallest artifact.

So I had the idea to try this again 20 years later on modern hardware. I get around 15-20 fps on a Phenom II X6 1100T@3,7GHz.

If you want to repeat the experiment, get "opengl2.exe" via google search and install it on 32bit Windows, then copy to your 64bit Windows, since the installer does't work on 64bit.
The opengl.dll is in Windows/System32. Should work on Quake, Quake2, and similar games and applications of this time.

From the release notes:

Can you describe SGI's OpenGL library for Windows?

OpenGL is a 3D graphics programming specification. OpenGL licensees have a fair degree of freedom in creating their OpenGL implementations, as long as they adhere to the specification and pass the conformance tests.
SGI's OpenGL library implementation for Windows, features optimizations that PCs require for rendering Web and games-oriented 3D applications efficiently.

The optimizations include:

Pentium-specific tuning in both the geometry and rasterization portions of the OpenGL graphics pipeline.
MMX tuning in the rasterization portion of the pipeline, improving fill rates 3X-7X on processors supporting the MMX instruction set.
Seven new extensions have been added.

[Shiunbird]

I assume this is 100% software render, right?

Sounds logical, just to confirm.

[Geoman]

I assume this is 100% software render, right?

Sounds logical, just to confirm.

100% Software, that's right. From SGI.

NT4 has a Microsoft software renderer, too - this only semms to work with these screensaver 3DMaze etc.

[Shiunbird]

NT4 has a Microsoft software renderer, too - this only semms to work with these screensaver 3DMaze etc.

Are you sure about that?
I remember reading years ago that OpenGL support under NT 4 was excellent. It was the fastest machine to run Quake 3, because of the good OpenGL performance and SMP.

Oh wait, I'm speaking stupid. That would be hardware acceleration.

Interesting information though, I guess I will fire up my NT 4 machine and look into this. =)

[Geoman]

NT4 has a Microsoft software renderer, too - this only semms to work with these screensaver 3DMaze etc.

Are you sure about that?
I remember reading years ago that OpenGL support under NT 4 was excellent. It was the fastest machine to run Quake 3, because of the good OpenGL performance and SMP.

Oh wait, I'm speaking stupid. That would be hardware acceleration.

Interesting information though, I guess I will fire up my NT 4 machine and look into this. =)

Of course, if you put an 3Dlabs card or any other board with OpenGL ICD into the NT-PC, the software-renderer is bypassed and you got fast OpenGL.

[Shiunbird]

Assuming 20fps, you have an improvement of 1200x in performance vs. 1fpm.
Interesting, I would really expect more, even if the single threaded.

[Geoman]

Assuming 20fps, you have an improvement of 1200x in performance vs. 1fpm.
Interesting, I would really expect more, even if the single threaded.

If I configure 16bpp then the renderer says "Generic/MMX", with 32bpp only "Generic". Although there is no performance gain with MMX.
Timerefresh does not work, so I have to estimate it around 15-20 fps.

I guess on a new Core i5 / i7 or Ryzen I could see way more fps. New benchmark idea: GLquake in SGI Software ^_^

[Geoman]

Okay - it has already been done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN5mxFfkr7g
"Quake 2 - Ryzen vs. Core i7 - Software Rendering Mode", Minute 5

using
http://renderer.vigilantesoftware.com/sgl.html

[Shiunbird]

That was very interesting, thanks for sharing.