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Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +00001<HTML>
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3<TITLE>Performance Tips</TITLE>
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Brian Paul0b27ace2003-03-08 17:38:57 +00008
9<H1>Performance Tips</H1>
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11<p>
12Performance tips for software rendering:
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14<ol>
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16<li> Turn off smooth shading when you don't need it (glShadeModel)
17<li> Turn off depth buffering when you don't need it.
18<li> Turn off dithering when not needed.
19<li> Use double buffering as it's often faster than single buffering
20<li> Compile in the X Shared Memory extension option if it's supported
21 on your system by adding -DSHM to CFLAGS and -lXext to XLIBS for
22 your system in the Make-config file.
23<li> Recompile Mesa with more optimization if possible.
24<li> Try to maximize the amount of drawing done between glBegin/glEnd pairs.
25<li> Use the MESA_BACK_BUFFER variable to find best performance in double
26 buffered mode. (X users only)
27<li> Optimized polygon rasterizers are employed when:
28 rendering into back buffer which is an XImage
29 RGB mode, not grayscale, not monochrome
30 depth buffering is GL_LESS, or disabled
31 flat or smooth shading
32 dithered or non-dithered
33 no other rasterization operations enabled (blending, stencil, etc)
34<li> Optimized line drawing is employed when:
35 rendering into back buffer which is an XImage
36 RGB mode, not grayscale, not monochrome
37 depth buffering is GL_LESS or disabled
38 flat shading
39 dithered or non-dithered
40 no other rasterization operations enabled (blending, stencil, etc)
41<li> Textured polygons are fastest when:
42 using a 3-component (RGB), 2-D texture
43 minification and magnification filters are GL_NEAREST
44 texture coordinate wrap modes for S and T are GL_REPEAT
45 GL_DECAL environment mode
46 glHint( GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT, GL_FASTEST )
47 depth buffering is GL_LESS or disabled
48<li> Lighting is fastest when:
49 Two-sided lighting is disabled
50 GL_LIGHT_MODEL_LOCAL_VIEWER is false
51 GL_COLOR_MATERIAL is disabled
52 No spot lights are used (all GL_SPOT_CUTOFFs are 180.0)
53 No local lights are used (all position W's are 0.0)
54 All material and light coefficients are >= zero
55<li> XFree86 users: if you want to use 24-bit color try starting your
56 X server in 32-bit per pixel mode for better performance. That is,
57 start your X server with
58 startx -- -bpp 32
59 instead of
60 startx -- -bpp 24
61<li> Try disabling dithering with the MESA_NO_DITHER environment variable.
62 If this env var is defined Mesa will disable dithering and the
63 command glEnable(GL_DITHER) will be ignored.
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