Re: Gallium Nine, end of the road

Hi Axel and Martin.

I think dropping nine would greatly reduce usefulness of nv30, nv50, r300, r600 and crocus,
so I'm +1 for idea of amber, or maybe I should say +1 for idea of separate repository with older stuff (also with drivers).

IIRC some time ago there was a discussion of dropping legacy drivers and Erik suggested maintaining interface in just good enough state to be able side-load mesa's main drivers and legacy stuff.

As person that loves tinkering with older hardware I can still see some edge cases, and I have to say Gallium Nine was driving force behind work on r300.

Thanks for amazing work, Filip.

PS Dune would be cool name. :D

W dniu: Czwartek, Sierpień 22, 2024 09:33 CEST, Martin Roukala <[email protected]> napisał(a):
 On 8/22/24 1:11 AM, Axel Davy wrote:
> Hi there.

Hi Axel!

>
> I think this will surprise no one here, but here we are. I think it's
> time for Gallium Nine to end.
>
> Long story short, Gallium Nine was a success. Its purpose is fulfilled.
> But there is not enough reasons to keep it around.
>
> Gallium Nine doesn't have enough users anymore and it totally makes
> sense why. DXVK just works. Gallium Nine might get you a little less CPU
> usage or a few more fps, maybe.
> But as PCs have caught up, and users have moved to shinier games with
> newer APIs, Gallium Nine is not relevant in the current landmark.
>
> There has been no new volunteers to work on gallium nine for a long
> time, and regressions take a long time to get noticed.
> Not breaking Nine puts effort on driver devs.
>
> For all these reasons, unless there is vigorous protestations here, I
> will propose a PR to remove gallium nine.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Axel Davy
>
>
> ===== Long Version =====

[...]

>
> Thank you !
>
> Axel Davy

No, thank YOU for your dedication and I wholeheartedly agree with what
you said about Nine having been a success, even if it has lost its
relevance!

I think Gallium Nine's place is probably in the Amber branch, for
historical purposes and users who still need it to work on their now-old
hardware. Modern-ish hardware will be better served with DXVK and if
not, the drivers should be improved to support DXVK's needs.

In any case, I hope you will remain in our community and hopefully even
pick up a new project that will be exciting to you and maybe to the
community at large! Your expertise is appreciated :)

Thanks,
Martin