Sauerbraten, ATI fglrx, and xgl

My main computer is a laptop. It has a built in ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics card. There’s nothing I can do about that. For the most part it works well. I am using the fglrx driver from the Ubuntu repos (8.37.6). Using metacity they work quite well and I can play my favorite games when I have a few minutes to spare. I especially enjoy Sauerbraten.

I wanted to play around with compiz, but the version of the fglrx driver that I am using does not support aiglx. I know the newest driver is supposed to do so, but I’ve been following the reports in the forums and I’m not yet convinced. Without any other recourse, I installed xgl, also from the Ubuntu repos. This was quick and easy. One reboot and all was set up. Compiz and all the flashy effects are working perfectly.

Here’s where the problem comes in. Some of my 3D games are fine, Planet Penguin Racer for example. Sauerbraten, however, is giving me problems. Shaders don’t work, the monsters don’t appear (but they still can kill!). It seems that this game is not compatible with xgl, because if I remove that, all is fine.

I’m running out of ideas…I don’t want to choose between using compiz and wobbly windows, or being able to play the occasional game. Hmm.

Scylla and Charybdis anyone?

11 comments November 29th, 2007