Linux - GLX or SDL binary?

[Kethinov]

I was wondering which binary I should use in my (32 bit) Ubuntu Linux. The "nexuiz-linux-686-glx" binary or the "nexuiz-linux-686-sdl" binary? Both seem to perform equally amazingly (especially compared to previous releases) on my lowly GeForce4 Ti 4200, even at 1920x1200. But why are there two binaries? Are there subtle performance differences between picking one or the other?

[esteel]

Both differ in the way they access the hardware.. the -sdl one uses the library SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) to do its job and the -glx version does it more directly. In theory both should just work but in praxis sometimes one does and the other does not . In that case use the one that works. If both work it does not matter which one you are using.

This does not hold true for every platform though. On windows surround sound does only work with the -sdl version (the next patch will change this) and joystick support is only in the non-sdl version. (Again the next patch will change this). Also on windows the sdl version does support only 3 mouse buttons while the other version can use 5 buttons. (Because of sdl limitations)

I have not yet found a difference between the two on linux though.

[Kethinov]

In Linux does the SDL vs. the GLX binary differ in how available my extra mouse buttons may be, or are both dependent on my xorg.conf, or none of the above?

[divVerent]

In Linux does the SDL vs. the GLX binary differ in how available my extra mouse buttons may be, or are both dependent on my xorg.conf, or none of the above?

No, both should work the same.

The main difference you can notice with SDL and GLX is the sound. Some people get sound problems with the SDL one, and others get sound problems with the GLX one. If you don't notice such problems, you're lucky - both work.

[divVerent]

The main difference you can notice with SDL and GLX is the sound. Some people get sound problems with the SDL one, and others get sound problems with the GLX one. If you don't notice such problems, you're lucky - both work.

Specifically: on Fedora Core 4, only the GLX one works for me. With SDL, I get sound stuttering.

On FreeBSD, only the SDL one works for me - with the GLX one, I get sound lag.

[Zico]

For me on Linux the SDL version still makes a small sound delay. So I still prefer the GLX version. However both run GREAT and I can't see performance differences.

[upQuark]

For me the GLX vesion has garbled, messed up sound, while sound works fine on the SDL version. It all depends on your system and soundcard.

[divVerent]

Yes, and this is what I meant - video wise, they are about equal. Sound wise, what version runs better differs. Input wise, they may support a different number of buttons (like on Windows, where the native build supports five buttons + wheel and SDL only supports three buttons + wheel).

On Linux, you can often solve problems with the GLX build by creating a file ~/.asoundrc and putting the following lines in it:

Code: Select all

pcm.!default
{
        type hw
        card 0
        device 0
}


This disables some ALSA plugins which are meant to be a good idea but just don't work right anywhere, like dmix (multiple programs to one sound card). I've never seen a system on which dmix works fine... however, without dmix, only one program can access the sound card at once if it is a cheap one that doesn't have multichannel support. Typical problems caused by dmix are sound lag, sound lag, sound lag and sound lag. Sometimes it also causes high CPU load and makes the game perform badly. On my Mac mini with Kubuntu, I have yet another dmix problem: sometimes sound skips and sometimes it plays at twice the volume. ALSA should really ditch dmix and implement an in-kernel mixer which works fine for other operating systems - without such problems.

The problem on FreeBSD is strange and should eventually get fixed - it just isn't serious enough to get priority since the SDL build does work fine.