Is there a list of nvidia GL fixes/updates for drivers (like release notes)?

OpenGL OpenGL: Advanced Coding
1

The release notes (pdfs) that come with each driver release are really vague and not exactly valuable for a programmer. They say things like:

Fixed broken lighting on level 10 of jedi knight 2 in a dark corner.

OR

Added GL_EXT_framebuffer_object support.

OR

GL version is now 2.0.

Or similar… I’m wondering if there are any lists that are GL specific, detailing functionality that was fixed or changed? I havent found any obvious links on the driver page.

I’d love a list of something specific, such as:

Fixed a bug when using GL framebuffer objects where a slowdown would be caused every 10 frames using such & such a mode.

OR

Added support for extension GL_EXT_framebuffer_object. Note this will only work with the following modes… blah blah blah… Note it doesnt currently work with stencil attachments and is only hardware accelerated with blah blah.

Thanks!

2

Wiggum,

that’s my opinion, too. I have got the impression that the graphics companies themselves don’t even have exact descriptions of limitations. And even worse, they don’t release lists of known bugs, because these lists are probably extremely long :smiley: , and that wouldn’t be good for the reputation of these companies. In addition, the main group of developers namely game developers doesn’t seem to be extremely interested in fighting bugs – they seem to prefer bad workarounds instead of writing precise bug reports. So there are two sides being responsible for the bad quality of the opengl implementations. I invite everybody to prove me wrong :stuck_out_tongue: (hopefully)

3

Interesting view, sounds right tho :slight_smile: The one thing I could see that would prevent ATI/nvidia from releasing more specific bug/fix lists could be that instead of saying some game had graphical corruption or crashes, if they said what feature it was specifically and how it was used to cause the bug to appear, they would sort of be giving out info about that specific companies product, its inner workings, which could help reverse engineering…

But really, just dont name the product! Or name the product like it is now, but release another list just saying what broken features there were specifically, omitting what game/app was doing it :slight_smile:

4

Chief, I agree – and I know my opinions are a bit provocative :smiley: . Companies do what customers/developers want. So, ALL developers should request those bug/fix lists – the fact that these lists don’t exist proves the claim that developers don’t request often enough :wink:

I don’t think reverse engineering is a real threat for game companies, or even for hardware companies. At least it is not possible to do reverse engineering by reading bug report lists about the opengl api. Why should you waste your time while trying to reverse engineer a product that will be replaced by its successor 12 months later, you have better things to do, I suppose.