Celestia on the new MacBook?

[ElChristou]

I'm curious to know how Celestia run on the Intel GMA950 graphic processor (64mo) integrated in the new Apple MacBook... (FPS, FSAA, etc...)

Feedback is welcome!

[dirkpitt]

I'm curious to know how Celestia run on the Intel GMA950 graphic processor (64mo) integrated in the new Apple MacBook... (FPS, FSAA, etc...)

I'm not expecting much, but I'm also curious whether the GMA950 can handle the OpenGL 2.0 render path and without slowdown and visual glitches.

The Intel developer machine I used last year had GMA950 I think and it was terrible (ring shadows were completely wrong) but maybe Apple fixed the bugs since then.

[rbarbera]

Hello, yesterday I have received a MacBook with a 2.0Ghz core duo. I have isntalled 2Gb of RAM, but before I have tested if with 512Mb of RAM. In each situation I get between 20 and 30 fps running the demo at full screen (1280x800). I have pauses (microseconds) each tieme Celestia must load a new texture, but I think that is usable... at last with the default texture of 1.4.1 version.

I have changed the render path to OpenGL 2.0 and I haven't noticed nothing extrange... the speed is almost the same and I haven't see any glitches... well, perhaps I don't now where and what to look for.

So, here I'm with a MacBook ansious to try all the torture test that you want/need to send me .

Beste regards,
Rafa

P.S. Are there any new develpment version for the OSX? Where I can find the last development compilation?

[ElChristou]

Hello, yesterday I have received a MacBook with a 2.0Ghz core duo. I have isntalled 2Gb of RAM, but before I have tested if with 512Mb of RAM. In each situation I get between 20 and 30 fps running the demo at full screen (1280x800). I have pauses (microseconds) each tieme Celestia must load a new texture, but I think that is usable... at last with the default texture of 1.4.1 version.

I have changed the render path to OpenGL 2.0 and I haven't noticed nothing extrange... the speed is almost the same and I haven't see any glitches... well, perhaps I don't now where and what to look for.

So, here I'm with a MacBook ansious to try all the torture test that you want/need to send me .

Hello, Rafa, Tx for the feedback!

If you can test with huge addons (Runar's Titan for example) to see the loading time, VT textures, normal maps in several rendering path...

Also, what size of map can be load in the same time (test with Earth ->spec, bump/normal, color, night and clouds in 2k, 4k, 8k...)

What biggest single map (test on Mars -> 8k? 16k?)

P.S. Are there any new develpment version for the OSX? Where I can find the last development compilation?

Well for now Steven's site is a bit up to date (he is very busy) so you will have to wait a bit...
Have you installed Xcode? you could easely build your own app from source...

[rbarbera]

Uffff ElChristou you are asking me a lot . I didn't know where are all of this plugins. If you give me more detailed steeps (links, please) I'll try them.

By now, I have read about problems with the shadows, so I have tested the shadows on Saturn with the OpenGL 2.0 render path. Here are a sample



It seems fine for me

Best regards,
Rafa

[ElChristou]

Uffff ElChristou you are asking me a lot . I didn't know where are all of this plugins. If you give me more detailed steeps (links, please) I'll try them.

Don't worry, take it easy!!
You can find all you need on ML I think...

Seems to work fine indeed... well if during your Celestial trips you note something wrong, just post here.

Tx a lot.

Later.

[DonAVP]

Don't worry, take it easy!!
You can find all you need on ML I think...

Seems to work fine indeed... well if during your Celestial trips you note something wrong, just post here.

Tx a lot.

Later.

Just to clarify ElChristou's answer ML is Motherlode http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/

You called them 'plugins' they are called addons and can be downloaded at ML to test what the MAC can do when pushed. Should be OK but would like to hear if anything is not good. BTW the files are tens to hundereds of meg in size but you get great detail and realizm.

Don

[dirkpitt]

If you can test with huge addons (Runar's Titan for example) to see the loading time, VT textures, normal maps in several rendering path...

Also, what size of map can be load in the same time (test with Earth ->spec, bump/normal, color, night and clouds in 2k, 4k, 8k...)

What biggest single map (test on Mars -> 8k? 16k?)

I've finally tested on a MacBook myself (a friend's). The OpenGL 2.0 path works but the new star rendering mode doesn't (@ key). I forgot to check out Help > OpenGL Info - it ought to tell you the max texture size that is supported. Performance-wise, I was also getting around 30 fps full screen.

[t00fri]

30 fps sounds quite slow for such a machine!

Anyhow that matches the recent test I was reading in the best German respective journal about it. The testers were happy with the Core Duo, but found the 3d graphics VERY WEAK...Altogether the overall conclusion was (only) "mildly" positive.

As an example, my old DELL C610 notebook also does the demo with close to 30fps in 1400x1050 full screen...
It uses an ATI Radeon card.

Bye Fridger

[dirkpitt]

30 fps sounds quite slow for such a machine!

Anyhow that matches the recent test I was reading in the best German respective journal about it. The testers were happy with the Core Duo, but found the 3d graphics VERY WEAK...Altogether the overall conclusion was (only) "mildly" positive.

As an example, my old DELL C610 notebook also does the demo with close to 30fps in 1400x1050 full screen...
It uses an ATI Radeon card.

The problem partly lies in the fact that the MacBook is an Intel GMA950 chipset. The fact that gl shaders work is pretty amazing
(I think I heard that it is a CPU solution though, not GPU), but every benchmark shows it for what it is - a slow, (but cheap)
integrated chipset.

The 30 fps also smells like vsync at work here - perhaps turning vsync off with Quartz Debug might help the frame rates a little?

[dirkpitt]

Here's the GL info for the MacBook:

Vendor: Intel Inc.
Renderer: Intel GMA 950 OpenGL Engine
Version: 1.2 APPLE-1.4.28

Max simultaneous textures: 8
Max texture size: 2048

Extensions:
GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object: Supported
GL_ARB_texture_compression: Supported
GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc: Supported
GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp: Supported
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp: -
GL_EXT_texture_cube_map: -
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap: Supported
GL_EXT_rescale_normal: Supported
GL_ARB_point_sprite: Supported

GL_ARB_vertex_program: Supported
GL_NV_vertex_program: -
GL_NV_fragment_program: -
GL_NV_register_combiners: -
GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3: Supported
GL_ARB_texture_env_combine: Supported
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine: -
GL_ARB_shading_language_100: Supported
GL_ARB_shader_objects: Supported
GL_ARB_vertex_shader: Supported
GL_ARB_fragment_shader: Supported