Hi, all.
I've been a regular Inkscape user since shortly after the fork from sodipodi. I love the program, transitioning from Xara on Windows to Inkscape on Linux has been good, if not always easy. So I'm always excited to get the newest releases of Inkscape with all kinds of great usable features. (Blur is a lifesaver for me - I've been using the nightly builds for a lot of work recently because of that!)
I'm interested in helping the project, but I'm limited in what I can do. I'm not a coder, and I'd love to learn but don't have the time at the moment. I'm actually a graphic designer, which is why I use Inkscape heavily.
Anyway, one of the ways that I would like to help, at least peripherally, is to write an article about building a Linux graphic workstation that's optimized for 2-d graphic apps, primarily Inkscape and the Gimp.
I have been trying to understand the basics of how hardware rendering of graphic data really works in order to get a handle on this myself, but I haven't found anything readily available to tell me this info. That's why I want to write it.
I'm wondering if any of you (singular or multiple people) would be interested in helping me understand some basics so that I can write a very useful article. Please contact me if you are interested in helping.
Thanks.
On Sun, Dec 10, 2006 at 10:50:43AM -0500, faceman@...1574... wrote:
Hi, all.
I've been a regular Inkscape user since shortly after the fork from sodipodi. I love the program, transitioning from Xara on Windows to Inkscape on Linux has been good, if not always easy. So I'm always excited to get the newest releases of Inkscape with all kinds of great usable features. (Blur is a lifesaver for me - I've been using the nightly builds for a lot of work recently because of that!)
It's great to hear from you. :-)
I'm interested in helping the project, but I'm limited in what I can do. I'm not a coder, and I'd love to learn but don't have the time at the moment. I'm actually a graphic designer, which is why I use Inkscape heavily.
Welcome aboard. There are many different non-coding ways to help, especially during releases.
Anyway, one of the ways that I would like to help, at least peripherally, is to write an article about building a Linux graphic workstation that's optimized for 2-d graphic apps, primarily Inkscape and the Gimp.
I have been trying to understand the basics of how hardware rendering of graphic data really works in order to get a handle on this myself, but I haven't found anything readily available to tell me this info. That's why I want to write it.
I'm wondering if any of you (singular or multiple people) would be interested in helping me understand some basics so that I can write a very useful article. Please contact me if you are interested in helping.
My own knowledge of how hardware rendering works is rather limited, else I'd be happy to help. One thing I've heard is that most hardware graphics cards are designed for 3D rendering rather than 2D, and involves hardware chips for performing calculations for triangles and meshes, which is key for 3D graphics but not 2D. However, since 2D is by definition simpler than 3D, there are tricks that can be done... unfortunately I have no clue what those tricks are.
Two directions you may find topical to this (at least as far as how hardware rendering works) are game programming (gamasutra.com for instance), and info about X.org's 3D graphic hardware acceleration.
Maybe others have better tips...
Hope this helps, Bryce
Bryce Harrington wrote:
My own knowledge of how hardware rendering works is rather limited, else I'd be happy to help. One thing I've heard is that most hardware graphics cards are designed for 3D rendering rather than 2D, and involves hardware chips for performing calculations for triangles and meshes, which is key for 3D graphics but not 2D. However, since 2D is by definition simpler than 3D, there are tricks that can be done... unfortunately I have no clue what those tricks are.
Two directions you may find topical to this (at least as far as how hardware rendering works) are game programming (gamasutra.com for instance), and info about X.org's 3D graphic hardware acceleration.
Maybe others have better tips...
Hope this helps, Bryce
Thanks for the response.
Maybe a quick explanation is in order. I often create drawings with tens of thousands of nodes, or other complexities, which severely drain cpu cycles. Basically, what I'm looking for is a hardware setup that most efficiently does the calculations for the graphic rendering (maybe I'm using rendering incorrectly, if that solely means showing data on screen - I guess what I mean is the calculations determining what should be shown on screen.) I'm looking for high hardware performance for vector / bitmap apps in 2-D.
I assume that when I make changes to my drawing in Inkscape (for example, the nodes on a spline curve), the calculations are done on CPU (as is evidenced by my CPU usage stats). So, my first question is what is the connection between 2-D calculations and hardware?
A similar question is this: is there any advantage to having certain graphics hardware over others (assuming we're talking about modern video cards) for using 2-d graphics apps? In other words, does having more memory, higher bandwidth, faster clock speed, etc make any difference whatever in the time it takes to remove a node from a spline or blur a shape?
I'm assuming the answer to the last question is either "no" or "complex no". If I am correct, my next question would be: What is the single most important part of hardware to consider for speeding up Inkscape performance.
Please pardon the vagueness of these questions, I'm really trying to grasp what I can and turn it into something that is coherent.
Thanks for your help.
Joshua
Joshua Facemyer / Impressus Art wrote:
...
I assume that when I make changes to my drawing in Inkscape (for example, the nodes on a spline curve), the calculations are done on CPU (as is evidenced by my CPU usage stats). So, my first question is what is the connection between 2-D calculations and hardware?
Most drawing programs purely rely on your CPU (as far as I am aware, although there are some people doing hardware accelerated 2D rendering). I'm not entirely sure why they don't use the GPU (more at least), probably because it's usually not that necessary and graphics hardware is usually geared towards 3D.
A similar question is this: is there any advantage to having certain graphics hardware over others (assuming we're talking about modern video cards) for using 2-d graphics apps? In other words, does having more memory, higher bandwidth, faster clock speed, etc make any difference whatever in the time it takes to remove a node from a spline or blur a shape?
As far as I know it shouldn't really matter.
I'm assuming the answer to the last question is either "no" or "complex no". If I am correct, my next question would be: What is the single most important part of hardware to consider for speeding up Inkscape performance.
Probably your CPU and main memory, possibly your chipset (motherboard), to get a higher memory bandwidth.
faceman@...1574... intervistò:
Anyway, one of the ways that I would like to help, at least peripherally, is to write an article about building a Linux graphic workstation that's optimized for 2-d graphic apps, primarily Inkscape and the Gimp.
I'm successfully drawing some simple manga characters on a 12" laptop using keyboard and touchpad without mouse.
Thanks for the inkscape keyboard super powers! ;)
participants (5)
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unknown＠example.com -
Bryce Harrington -
Emanuele Aina -
Jasper van de Gronde -
Joshua Facemyer / Impressus Art