Nvidia 8600m GT and OpenGL 3.0 support?

[soconne]

I have a Dell m1530 with an Nvidia 8600m GT card. I downloaded the desktop 182.06 drivers with a modified inf file so setup would recognize my card. I’m able to create an OpenGL 3.0 context, but I’m unable to initialize any extensions.

If I create the context and then call glGetString(GL_EXTENSIONS), it always returns NULL. If I initialize a normal OpenGL 2.0 context, all extensions are returned properly.

Has anybody had any luck with the 8600m card and OpenGL 3.0? Is there a compatible notebook driver? I’ve tried 179.48, but it doesn’t have support for OpenGL 3.0.

Also, on a side note, I’m using glew and calling glewInit returns no error under both 2.0 and 3.0. But GLEW_ARB_vertex_buffer_object is always false and so is every other extension.

[randall]

Try setting glewExperimental to GL_TRUE before glewInit().

[soconne]

Thanks randall, GLEW_ARB_vertex_buffer is now no longer null. But calling glGetString(GL_EXTENSIONS) still returns NULL :-/

[martinsm]

Are you creating full context of forward compatible? In forward compatible context GL_EXTENSIONS is deprecated argument for glGetString. Instead of glGetString you should use glGetStringi(GL_EXTENSIONS, i).

[soconne]

I just noticed by removing the following attribute from the call to wglCreateContextAttribs:
WGL_CONTEXT_FLAGS_ARB, WGL_CONTEXT_FORWARD_COMPATIBLE_BIT_ARB

I get all extensions now. That’s very odd. Any ideas? Also, if I keep these flags in, when I attempt to render geometry using VBOs nothing gets rendered. But in a 2.0 context or by commenting out the flags above, geometry is rendered.

Here’s the code.

void display()
{
	glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
	
	glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
	glLoadIdentity();

	float colors[] = {
		1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f,
		0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f,
		0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f
	};

	float vertices[] = {
		0.0f, 0.0f,
		100.0f, 0.0f,
		100.0f, 100.0f
	};

	unsigned int indices[] = {
		0, 1, 2
	};
	
	static GLuint vao = 0;
	static GLuint cbo = 0, vbo = 0;
	if (!cbo && !vbo) {
		if (!GLEW_ARB_vertex_buffer_object) 
			printf("vertex_buffer_object not supported
");
		
		/*glGenVertexArrays(1, &vao);
		glBindVertexArray(vao);*/

		glGenBuffersARB(1, &cbo);
		glBindBufferARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, cbo);
		glBufferDataARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, sizeof(colors), colors, GL_STATIC_DRAW_ARB);

		glGenBuffersARB(1, &vbo);
		glBindBufferARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, vbo);
		glBufferDataARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, sizeof(vertices), vertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW_ARB);
	}	
	
	
	glEnableClientState(GL_COLOR_ARRAY);
	glBindBufferARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, cbo);
	glColorPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, 0);

	glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
	glBindBufferARB(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER_ARB, vbo);
	glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, 0);

	//glBindVertexArray(vao);
	//glDrawElements(GL_TRIANGLES, 3, GL_UNSIGNED_INT, indices);
	glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 3);

	gltSwapBuffers();
}

@martinsm

Are you creating full context of forward compatible? In forward compatible context GL_EXTENSIONS is deprecated argument for glGetString. Instead of glGetString you should use glGetStringi(GL_EXTENSIONS, i).

Thanks, I didn’t know that about glGetString being deprecated. But I still get null for each call to glGetStringi

And yes, I am adding the forward compatible context attribute to my list of attribs when calling the CreateContextAttribs method.

[martinsm]

Are you using correct values for i? i can change from 0 to glGetInteger(GL_NUM_EXTENSIONS)-1.

If you get nothing rendered try checking the error codes of each OpenGL call with glGetError. In forward compatible context lot of stuff is deprecated - read OpenGL 3.0 spec Appendinx E. For example - fixed functionality, vertex arrays, GLSL 1.10 and 1.20 - all of this is deprecated and can not be used.

[soconne]

I’m querying the extensions like this.

        GLint n, i;
	glGetIntegerv(GL_NUM_EXTENSIONS, &n);
	for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
		printf("%s
", glGetStringi(GL_EXTENSIONS, i));
                printf("ERROR: %s
", gluErrorString(glGetError()));
	}

gluErrorString is printing out “Invalid enumerant” for every glGetStringi call.

[martinsm]

Maybe error already happened before glGetStringi? Try calling glGetError before extension queries.

I have no problems querying extensions in this way on my laptop with 8400M GS video card.

[M_dm_n]

I have the same problem with 8800GT. glGetError returns 0, but glGetStringi returns NULL pointers on forward compatible context. I started a thread not too long ago about GL 3.0 here with source code in it.

BTW, I’m also from Latvia

[martinsm]

Heh, I tried to install 182.06 version driver. Now I also get NULL value from glGetStringi. Previously I was using 181.00 driver.

Great. Now you broke my OGL3 applications

[Y-tension]

I noticed that using normal context creation(not 100% for default initialization but with wglChoosePixelFormat it worked for me) results in a 3.0 context being created.Check it out. Now, I know this shouldn’t happen…but anyway it’s there.

[Y-tension]

Just saw that no context is created when calling glCreateContextAttribsARB with forward compatible bit set. Can anyone verify this? If it happens to another maybe we can post a driver bug.

EDIT:
No problem after all, just forgot to end my attribute list with 0. Sorry for the hassle. I will post if I find any problems with extensions.