OpenGL 3.3 support

[shirish]

Hi all,
I downloaded a game and tried to run it. It said the following

You need OpenGL 3.3 support. You have 1.4. Updating your video drivers solves this problem in some cases.

Now how does one get OpenGL 3.3 drivers in Debian Squeeze ? Also are these drivers good for onboard graphic chipsets as well ? I have an Intel GMA31 chipset .

If the above sounded dumb it might well be for I don't have much knowledge either about OpenGL or about their interaction with hardware.

Looking forward for answers.

[stevepusser]

It depends on whether your hardware also supports that newer openGL. You could try upgrading to the possibly buggy xorg and Intel driver in Debian Experimental, but I'd research first to see if it would do anything. The only thing I could find in a quick web search were links to new Nvidia and ATI Linux drivers supporting 3.3 and 4.0.

[bugsbunny]

You are apparently out of luck. From what I've found Intel's OpenGL support is pretty bad.
Official feedback on OpenGL 4.0 thread - OpenGL.org Discussion and Help Forums

According to the following all your chipset supports is 1.4
Desktop graphics controllers — OpenGL* compatibility
Intel® Graphics Technology: HD Video Playback, Advanced 3D Capabilities

AMD and Nvidia, on the other hand, both have beta 4.1 support6 already available. If you want high-performance graphics in Linux apparently Intel is not a realistic option. Nvidia still seems to be the best option, as long as binary blobs don't offend your sensibilities.

[BioTube]

Does Intel even have a proprietary stack? Right now Mesa can't even do OpenGL 3.0; it's lacking a few major features.