A Radeon 5800 as if it was a Radeon 4800?

[Groovounet]

Hi,

I would like to add support of Radeon 2000 to 4000 series but I am running a Radeon 5000. What would be really convenient is a trick to limit OpenGL drivers features to Radeon 2-4000 series.

Is there anything like this?
Is it a total non-sense?
Is there anything like this on GeForce?

Thanks!

[Alfonse Reinheart]

Just don't use GL 4.0 and above. There's no way to force the implementation to not expose 4.0 functionality.

[Groovounet]

Sure but some extensions must be supported on Radeon 2-4000 series.
For example GL_ARB_viewport_array.

nVidia communicates about what's supported by what but AMD doesn't... but it would be useful!

[aqnuep]

I try to figure out these things using the database of the OpenGL extensions viewer: http://www.realtech-vr.com/glview/
It is not the best, as its database is far from complete but may help in some cases.

[Groovounet]

I am doing the same usually but yeap, the database is out to date

Patrick Cozzy is working on an online really interesting alternative:
http://openglreport.sourceforge.net

WIP but there is a huge potential I think!

[aqnuep]

Sounds interesting, but does not work at me (the applet does not show up after Java load).

Sorry that I cannot help any more but you can add me to the list of interested people in the topic as I also agree that sometimes it is quite a burden to figure out what is supported on earlier hardware and what not.

[Alfonse Reinheart]

The thing is that it's quite easy to develop an application to collect the information. Using a Java applet isn't the best way. The old Delphi3D.net site had you download and run a program that would automatically upload your information to its database. Writing a simple tool to collect this information is pretty simple.

Actually using it is not. Storing it in a database, using that database to generate web pages, etc. That is the hard stuff. Or at least, it's hard for me.

[Groovounet]

I never underestimate how dumb I can be, how dumb a developer can be, how dumb a user can be. Being dumb is the human nature, that's ok.

If it could work properly, a web-app seams to me to be the easiest way and building this database online is not tricky at all for someone with even a limited skill on that area.

I think that having an updated database of OpenGL versions and extensions support could contribute to modern OpenGL adoption...

Then the drivers need to be a bit reliable... Back in the days, I remember official Intel drivers claiming VBO support (within the extensions string) but returning null pointers to all the entry points... I don't know if such practice remains at Intel but my guess it does.

[sqrt[-1]]

If all you want to do is test the code paths of your app that do different things based on what extensions are available, GLIntercept has a plugin to add/remove or even replace the entire extension string.

I used it for exactly this purpose. However, the modern OpenGL extension query system is not yet supported in GLIntercept.

[pjcozzi]

I am doing the same usually but yeap, the database is out to date

Patrick Cozzi is working on an online really interesting alternative:
http://openglreport.sourceforge.net

WIP but there is a huge potential I think!

I'm glad you like it. My immediate goal is just to report the system's OpenGL capabilities without requiring administrator privelages or an actual install (I suppose the applet is installed). If the community is interested in using it to create a database, I am all for it and am happy to open the project up to other developers. In the near term (say next three months), I am too swamped to take it on myself.

Sounds interesting, but does not work at me (the applet does not show up after Java load).

I can help you with this, email me: pjcozzi@siggraph.org. I've tested it on various flavors of Windows and Ubuntu, and on five different browsers. However, it isn't working on Mac because I apparently don't know how to use JOGL very well.

Regards,
Patrick