Hardware 3D And Java Progress

InactiveX · Post by **InactiveX** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:07 pm

The cream of the BeOS hackers have made some incredible progress in making BeOS and its offspring a more viable mainstream OS.

Rudolf Cornelissen is doing sterling work in making hardware 3D acceleration a reality - Click Here

Bryan Varner has news of an almost complete Java2D for BeOS, and reckons a full Java isn't too far off - Click Here

Excellent stuff!

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 11:47 am

Great stuff indeed! Please keep us updated on progress there. As for me, I am sort of confused about all the different OS's that sprouted from BeOS's death. What bugs me is why these relatively small efforts cannot get over their differences and to concentrate their efforts on a single successor (or maybe a couple).

InactiveX · Post by **InactiveX** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 1:52 pm

It is a little confusing.

Yellow Tab's Zeta is a commercially available OS distribution. I personally have very little faith in the company. They have steadfastly refused to answer the question of whether they have any of Be Inc.'s source code, and seem simply to be bundling the last BeOS with a load of newer software, nearly all of which you can already get as free downloads.

BlueEyedOS is an attempt to imitate BeOS's look and feel. It is built on the Linux kernel, and this has upset a few people; for while it allows access to Linux's wealth of device drivers, some feel that "the media OS" needs a specialised kernel.

Cosmoe is a similar project, although the focus isn't so much on replicating the look and feel of BeOS.

Haiku, formerly known as OpenBeOS, is an open source binary-compatible BeOS clone based on the NewOS kernel, and for me, this is the most promising future for BeOS. It has some very talented programmers working on it, free of charge, in their own time.

It is a shame that the various projects have their divisions. I suppose it's the nature of these things that people can't always get along.

InactiveX · Post by **InactiveX** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 6:00 pm

Rudolf just keeps on going.

He has now got Quake II running with hardware acceleration at up to 40FPS. This was achieved without the aid of comprehensive documentation on how the Nvidia cards work. Quite some feat!

Article with link to his blog here.

InactiveX · Post by **InactiveX** » Wed May 04, 2005 5:55 pm

Woohoo! The release of the hardware OpenGL is coming soon!

Article

I just can't wait for this. Although it will only work on older 3D cards, maybe the likes of Nvidia and ATI will sit up and take notice. Maybe even give Rudolf a job. One can only hope...

phaedrus · Post by **phaedrus** » Thu May 05, 2005 12:09 am

InactiveX wrote:Woohoo! The release of the hardware OpenGL is coming soon!

Article

I just can't wait for this. Although it will only work on older 3D cards, maybe the likes of Nvidia and ATI will sit up and take notice. Maybe even give Rudolf a job. One can only hope...

That's totally sweet. I'd been wondering about 3D support under BeOS. 3D accel is my "killer app". I'm probably going to put some test boxes together to play with different systems. I guess it's time to add Haiku to my list of things to play with.

Hmm, I wonder if this will allow them to do hardware accelerated graphics elsewhere in their interface, like transparencies and other stuff that OSX does now. BeOS+more eye candy...

As for nVidia and ATI, I doubt ATI will ever take notice. They're still getting around to supporting Linux. nVidia supports Linux and FreeBSD because they want to be the graphics solution for high-end 3D graphics workstations running Unix. If Haiku can prove itself and get some acceptance, nVidia might take notice, but it would just be easier on everyone if they would open their stupid specs already (yes, I understand why they don't. It still bugs me, the drivers could be more stable, &c.).

Jeff