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