Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 107586
Tux Racer unusable with default driver for nVidia GeForce 4MX
Last modified: 2007-11-30 17:10:32 EST
Description of problem: Tux Racer redraws so slowly as to make it unusable. Maybe this is a video driver problem instead of a Tux Racer problem? Tux Racer runs just fine on this same machine under Libranet (using genuine NVidia driver). Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Version packaged with Fedora Core Test 3. How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install Fedore Core. 2. Accept default nv driver as recommended during install. 3. Play TuxRacer. Actual results: Mouse movement and screen redraw are so sluggish that this game is unusable. Expected results: Nice fluid motion and screen redraws. Additional info: 2 GHz Celeron on genuine Intel motherboard; 256 MB RAM, GeForce 4MX video card w/ 64 MB; 7200 rpm harddrive (i.e., this isn't a screamer, but it should easily be capable of playing TuxRacer). I'm not certain what driver Fedora is including for nVidia cards, but I'm guessing this driver lacks support for 3D acceleration. It would be nice if the driver installed by the setup program supported 3D acceleration.
It's not a video driver bug nor a tuxracer bug. Tuxracer is an OpenGL 3D game and requires a 3D accelerated video driver in order to function at a useable speed. The open source "nv" driver included with XFree86 is 2D only and does not support 3D acceleration, and most likely never will support it, because Nvidia will not release the documentation to open source developers which is required in order for 3D to be supported. >It would be nice if the driver installed by the setup program supported >3D acceleration. That's only possible if Nvidia implements 3D acceleration support in the open source "nv" driver themselves and contributes it to XFree86.org for a future release, or if Nvidia allows developers to have access to their technical specifications that are required in order to write 3D support, and someone volunteers to write 3D support. Neither of those are likely to ever happen. If you are using Nvidia hardware and require 3D acceleration support, you really have no option but to download 3D capable binary only drivers directly from Nvidia, which really is not any different from what you'd have to do if you were using Windows XP. Note that Red Hat does not support Nvidia's binary proprietary drivers either, so if you experience problems while using them, please see bug #73733 and report any problems you encounter directly to Nvidia so they can fix them when they make future driver releases. Hope this helps.