Linux

Hi, I start this thread to help supporting running EVE via the Nine Gallium3D state tracker.

What it is :
Nine is a open-source and free implementation of Microsoft Direct3D 9 API for Linux, It is a Gallium3D state tracker located at the same level as OpenGL. Gallium use that tree :
- for OpenGL : Application -> OpenGL -> TGSI -> DRM -> Metal
- for Direct3D : Application -> Direct3D -> TGSI -> DRM -> Metal

Pro :
* Usually, way more fps, meaning that you can run EVE with Intermediate 1 and stay at 60fps And put Immediate when you need all the juice.
* Take less CPU (The D3D->OpenGL conversion layer of Wine go away, leaving all that cpu core available for EVE). it's the reason the fps go up.
* You get the ship effect like the one for shield or armour
* If running an AMD card, it's more stable (not just EVE, but in general)
* Your can run bleeding edge without waiting for drivers from vendor

Con :
* It's not supported by CCP (less than the current support) as it require extra patch for Wine and CCP don't have resources for Linux support so they will not test and produce stuff for all different way to run EVE.
* It's more experimental and have less Q&A

Supported cards :
* AMD : All of them (still, newer card does not mean better)
* Nvidia : Serie 900 and less (some card don't have reclocking support and will be stuck in low clock/power mode.
* Intel is not supported as thet use plain MESA for 3D.

How to install / Setup :
* The project page explain how to manually build it, link the patchs and packages for distributions : https://wiki.ixit.cz/d3d9_install
* Mesa already have support for Nine. look for a file /usr/lib32/d3d/d3dadapter9.so, if it's there, you have D3D support else, you have to install/compile a mesa with Nine support.
* Wine need patch located here : https://github.com/sarnex/wine-d3d9-patches
* Mesa do not come with S3TC texture compression, be sure to have the libtxc_dxtn package installed (the 32Bit one is required.) Failure do install that will result in beautiful, dark, black textures (or crashs).

Recommended version :
* Mesa : 11.3-devel
* Wine : 1.9.11
* libdrm : git
* llvm(AMD) : git
* xord ddx drivers : less than a month old, Enabled DRI3 will give more performances

Distribution package (copy/paste from ixit site):
*Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Mint:
wine (dri3 and dri2) https://launchpad.net/~commendsarnex/+archive/ubuntu/winedri3
Mesa-3D (dri3) and DDX https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers
Mesa-3D(iXit) + Mesa-3D(upstream) + Intel workaround (dri3) https://launchpad.net/~commendsarnex/+archive/ubuntu/ixitmaster

*Arch Linux:
Mesa is available in [extra] and development versions are available in the AUR under mesa-git.
wine-staging-d3dadapter is available in the AUR.
PlayOnLinux also has up-to-date versions of wine with –d3dadapter.
More info available at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unofficial_user_repositories#mesa-git

*openSUSE:
Mesa-3D (git), Wine (iXit), LLVM, libdrm http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pontostroy:/X11/
Mesa-3D Debug (iXit), Wine Debug (iXit) http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pontostroy:/gallium-nine/
Mesa-3D (iXit) http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pontostroy:/branches:/home:/pontostroy:/gallium-nine/
Mesa-3D (stable) http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/XOrg/

*Gentoo: (from Ravow setup, not ixit site)
xorg-server and other deps are in ::x11 overlay
Mesa and Wine compiled with the "d3d9" and "staging" use flag.

Enabling:
*To enable nine in Wine, you have to go to winecfg, staging and enable only "Enable Gallium Nine".
*You launch EVE the normal way (without the official launcher for Linux(for now))

Confirming:
You want to confirm that nine is on and running for your EVE instance?
launch EVE in a console and look at the startup log, you will see one of four messages:
* Native Direct3D 9 is active. (It's ON)!
* Native Direct3D 9 is disabled. (You forgot to turn it on in winecfg)
* Native Direct3D 9 will be unavailable. (Your drivers do not support it)
* Wine source code has been compiled without native Direct3D 9 support. (Mesa did not have Nine support when you compiled Wine).


Please post here for Question, problem, success story :) and please include your gfx configuration, for reference here

You can donate ISK to Ravow if you want me to make a Linux launcher for experimental stuff like Nine, CSMT, compile wine with the patch you want. Maybe stand-alone or something that use the CCP launcher (to simply, replace his wine with a different flavor).
Work will began when I will have accumulated 10B ISK.

Tested video card so far:
- AMD Radeon 7970HD : GFX Perfect (no corruption), ship effect ok, fps in space void = +-175, spining station +-220, asteorid field and mining with two account +-63. Mesa 11.3-dev + some patchs, Kernel 4.6-rc5.
- Nvidia GT 645M : GFX Perfect (In high power mode), "OK" in low power mode, Mesa 12.1-dev, Kernel 4.5.

You have a system with two video card, like Intel + Nvidia?

thread_submit seam to be only required on these kind of setup (With DRI_PRIME and friends) and I think that stuff landed officially in Mesa... They merged some DRI_PRIME fix in Mesa about 15 days ago.

https://github.com/iXit/Mesa-3D/commit/839f41763436cd1a438771f50ffa16fa3bbbb3c5

You artefacts bug might be fixed by now, You should take a look at last git if you want to use it!

Still broken?

Can you tell me your gfx setup so I write in on top for reference?

The kernel 4.7 give a good gain on AMD hardware. Got from +- 175fps, in the void of space, to 212 fps.

Note, you need to use git master and revert the patch linked here : https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=119631 . Without that you will get about 50-80 fps in space :) Took about two hours of bisecting and 14 reboot to locate the bad patch.

I wanted to know if you have to do something special to benefit from this, cause far as I know I havent done anything special and I have no trouble seeing the armor or shield effects nor I have 1 core running at 100%... I run 3 clients and on average the cpu load is at around 75% for all cores.

How do I find out... far as I can tell Im just using the open source drivers, no special anything.