[nylug-talk] Fwd: [cad-linux] Fwd: upFront.eZine NEWS #504

[Joseph M. Gaffney]

A few quick notes from the article (as in, the ones that piss me off the 
most...)

> The reason for the dismal performance? Vista's lack of support for the 
OpenGL
> graphics library. Details here:
> http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/page7.html .

> Mr Fritz described the problem to me: In Vista, all graphics are accelerated
> using Microsoft's homegrown Direct3D. That includes mundane items such as
> menus and windows. To access Direct3D, OpenGL-based applications have to run
> through an emulation layer that significantly slows performance. 

> With Vista's abandonment of industry-standard OpenGL, CAD users take a 
second
> hit. Their high-speed, 4-figure OpenGL graphics boards are junk. For 
example,
> ATI's high-end FireGL 3X-256 is an OpenGL-only graphics board that just last
> year was priced at $1,500 in its home country of Canada. It does not work
> with Vista; see http://ati.amd.com/technology/windowsvista/Products.html ,
> and then click on Workstation. Can you say, "Community college donation"?

Anyways, read on - I doubt most people here have any particular interest in 
CAD, but its a worthy read.  The issues here will cause problems elsewhere in 
the coming future.


----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: [cad-linux] Fwd: upFront.eZine NEWS #504
Date: Sunday 04 February 2007
From: phrostie <pfrostie at XXXXXXX>
To: cad-linux at freelists.org

not as much about linux as the reason not to give up.


--- Ralph Grabowski wrote:

> To: "upFront-eZine" <grabowski at XXXXXX>
> From: "Ralph Grabowski" <grabowski at XXXXXXX>
> Subject: upFront.eZine NEWS #504
> Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2007 11:29:54 -0800
> 
> ==========================================================
>               u p F r o n t . e Z i n e
>                 'The Business of CAD'
> 
>     Issue #504  |  February 3, 2007  |  English Edition
> ==========================================================
> www.upfrontezine.com  |  http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Wow! Vista Runs CAD (up to) 50x Slower
> . . . . .
> Bill Gates thinks Vista is "Wow!", and Tom's Hardware thinks so, too. The
> popular benchmarking site ran the SPECviewperf 9.03 benchmarks on several 
CAD
> systes, and found that they slow to a crawl under Vista. Compared with XP,
> here are the results:
> 
> Pro/Engineer = 6.7x slower.
> SolidWorks = 9.0x slower.
> TeamCenter = 9.1x slower.
> UGS NX = 50x slower.
> 
> The reason for the dismal performance? Vista's lack of support for the 
OpenGL
> graphics library. Details here:
> http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/page7.html .
> 
> 
> CAD Vendors Knew a Year Ago
> 
> This is not an unknown problem. Almost exactly one yea ago, I met with Ron
> Fritz, co-founder of Tech Soft 3D -- the HOOPS people. He worried about
> Microsoft abandoning OpenGL, which 3D CAD software relies on for speedy
> real-time graphics of realistically rendered models. 
> 
> Mr Fritz described the problem to me: In Vista, all graphics are accelerated
> using Microsoft's homegrown Direct3D. That includes mundane items such as
> menus and windows. To access Direct3D, OpenGL-based applications have to run
> through an emulation layer that significantly slows performance. 
> 
> This week, I asked him to update the situation. His response: "I can say 
that
> our experience with graphics testing on Vista is that the quality of the
> video card drivers can vary greatly. With some, we see performance that is
> quite good, but with others it's unacceptably bad when going through OpenGL.
> We expect this to settle out rather quickly as the next generation of
> graphics cards & drivers are released, but this variation will continue to 
be
> the reality for anyone with pre-Vista graphics cards."
> 
> He feels that Direct3D will win the CAD market in the future for two 
reasons:
> (1) the games market is so much bigger than CAD, device drivers will
> eventually be optimized for Vista; and (2) DIrect3D needs to be fast to run
> the operating system.
> 
> He concludes: "OpenGL will remain important on any pre-Vista Windows system.
> I think the world can expect the current hardware and Windows XP systems to
> stay in use for awhile. OpenGL will also be the best (only) approach for
> hardware acceleration for any platform other than Windows." 
> 
> 
> OpenGL Graphics Boards
> 
> With Vista's abandonment of industry-standard OpenGL, CAD users take a 
second
> hit. Their high-speed, 4-figure OpenGL graphics boards are junk. For 
example,
> ATI's high-end FireGL 3X-256 is an OpenGL-only graphics board that just last
> year was priced at $1,500 in its home country of Canada. It does not work
> with Vista; see http://ati.amd.com/technology/windowsvista/Products.html ,
> and then click on Workstation. Can you say, "Community college donation"?
> 
> In related news, some customers say they want launch a law suit against
> nVidia for failing to deliver drivers on time, and over its claims of
> Vista-compatibility, such as subtlety changing the "Vista Ready" tag to
> "Vista Capable." See http://www.nvidiaclassaction.org/
> 
> In summary, it's not that OpenGL is impossible for Vista; it's that 
Microsoft
> continues to look for ways to maintain -- and broaden -- its monopoly at our
> cost. (Linux and Apple's OS X use OpenGL.)
> 
> 
> Other CAD-related Vista News
> 
> Many CAD vendors pre-announced support for Vista last November, but are now
> silent on issues affecting customers, such patches, upgrades, and
> workarounds.
> 
> SolidWorks warns that "graphics performance in SolidWorks may be noticeably
> slower under Vista," and that MoldflowXpress and the MDT translator no 
longer
> work.
>
http://files.solidworks.com/supportfiles/Release_Notes_VISTA/2007/English/relnotes.htm
> 
> 3dconnexion says they have beta Vista drivers for their 3D input devices,
> "beta" being the status of numerous drivers for an operating system that
> began shipping last November. Download v3.1.1 from
> http://www.3dconnexion.com/support
> 
> PTC plans to ship a maintenance release of Pro/Engineer that is certified on
> Vista later this quarter.
> 
> 

phrostie
Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of DOS
and danced the skies on Linux silvered wings.



-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
-Joseph M. Gaffney

"A Rainbow of Skyward Danger!"