i recently tried using sdl and opengl and for some reason EVERY gl call is extremely slow. this includes calls merely set a flag. glx works just fine, so it's not my lack of hardware acceleration. does anyone know why gl calls would be so slow when using sdl? edit: i suppose i should mention that just setting a flag takes a minimum of about 2 seconds at 100%cpu and it takes about 90 seconds to begin drawing in a window...

bump. (posting at like 5am was pointless)

post the output of glxinfo.

What FPS do you get in glxgears?

It still shouldn't be so slow, even if you were using software rendering, but maybe there will be something else in the output of glxinfo.

i think this is pointless, but here's glxinfo.

name of display: :0.0Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".display: :0  screen: 0direct rendering: Noserver glx vendor string: SGIserver glx version string: 1.2server glx extensions:    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_contextclient glx vendor string: SGIclient glx version string: 1.2client glx extensions:    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_contextGLX extensions:    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_contextOpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.orgOpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX IndirectOpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 4.0.4OpenGL extensions:    GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,    GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add,    GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,    GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_blend_color,    GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_texture_env_add,    GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,    GL_EXT_texture_lod_biasglu version: 1.3glu extensions:    GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat----------------------------------------------------------------------0x23 24 tc  1 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None0x24 24 tc  1 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 None0x25 24 tc  1 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None0x26 24 tc  1 24  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None0x27 24 dc  1 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None0x28 24 dc  1 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 None0x29 24 dc  1 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None0x2a 24 dc  1 24  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None

glxgears runs at 65-70 fps in the initial window and 10-15 fps maximized at 1024x768. i've also tested nehe tutorials, sdl and glx versions, and the glx ones start instantly and run fine, but the sdl ones run at 100% cpu for about 90 seconds before they even start drawing. i still have no clue what's causing this.

It isn't pointless. From the output of glxinfo it's clear that you're using software rendering. You need to consult your distro's documentation on how to set up drivers for your graphics card. Make sure you get direct rendering enabled. At the moment you are using mesa which will be very slow.

Also, as regards the sdl problems, you might want to check what version of sdl you have. The latest is 1.2.8. Upgrade to that using whatever method your distro provides.

i've already stated that i'm using software rendering. it's ALL of the gl calls under sdl that have this strange issue of using 100% cpu for a minimum of about 2 seconds.

who knows what mesa does when used by SDL. I've personally never experimented. Maybe SDL simply expects hardware acceleration and sets options based on that, which then take huge amounts of time without hardware acceleration.

Can I ask if there is a specific reason that you don't want to use hardware acceleration? without it I don't think you can expect reasonable performance on anything really.