07-13-2019, 11:28 AM
It is nice, it is very nice indeed, It does have a few problems though but those will be mostly overcome or dealt with. Its graphics are quite different, so I have to make a lot of new code asap to help new book readers as the old graphic setup wont work which is irritating, but not the worst options. As long as the readers come here we'll have work arounds and new code to use.
We have to get rid of X11 somehow, so I'm busy getting my head around other options but find them a bit confusing, however it should help boost performance of the graphics. The 4GB memory, really does free up a lot of things and makes a lot more things viable.
The extra speed of the CPU is blistering, but you don't really get much more out of the GPU at the moment, that will come when proper ES3.0 coding is introduced, but running ES2.0 on a full screen framebuffer its much slower than the setup I use on a 3B+, and thats partly becuase of X11, so sooner I can dump it the better.
When I get the chance to use instancing and some other ES3.0 optiisations Im pretty sure the the Pi4 is more than capable of running at full res even with X11 though, so I can see multiple configurations being a thing in future demos.
I've not had any issues with the USB, I read that its a bit fussy, but I'm only using it for power with a fairly heavy 4A USB B powerunit, using a B->C adapter . Its not given me any issues, aside from the heat which the fan totally removes. A few other USB B units I tried also were fine though I only tried 3A or over.
I'd say that given there are a few errors like the USBC and the Drivers for the GPU are 1st gen, its really not a massive problem for the huge kick in performance this promises. The heat is clearly a concern, I don't think there's a huge amount they can do to drop that, they did something with the usb/net?? that helped but its still a branding iron of a system, so expect to see some better case designs and try to get one that has internall heat sinks/fans to really get the best out of it.
It really is a big leap forward from the older Raspberries and I have to doff my cap to the Raspberry people for this. In spite of some compatability issues, its an awesome little board.
We have to get rid of X11 somehow, so I'm busy getting my head around other options but find them a bit confusing, however it should help boost performance of the graphics. The 4GB memory, really does free up a lot of things and makes a lot more things viable.
The extra speed of the CPU is blistering, but you don't really get much more out of the GPU at the moment, that will come when proper ES3.0 coding is introduced, but running ES2.0 on a full screen framebuffer its much slower than the setup I use on a 3B+, and thats partly becuase of X11, so sooner I can dump it the better.
When I get the chance to use instancing and some other ES3.0 optiisations Im pretty sure the the Pi4 is more than capable of running at full res even with X11 though, so I can see multiple configurations being a thing in future demos.
I've not had any issues with the USB, I read that its a bit fussy, but I'm only using it for power with a fairly heavy 4A USB B powerunit, using a B->C adapter . Its not given me any issues, aside from the heat which the fan totally removes. A few other USB B units I tried also were fine though I only tried 3A or over.
I'd say that given there are a few errors like the USBC and the Drivers for the GPU are 1st gen, its really not a massive problem for the huge kick in performance this promises. The heat is clearly a concern, I don't think there's a huge amount they can do to drop that, they did something with the usb/net?? that helped but its still a branding iron of a system, so expect to see some better case designs and try to get one that has internall heat sinks/fans to really get the best out of it.
It really is a big leap forward from the older Raspberries and I have to doff my cap to the Raspberry people for this. In spite of some compatability issues, its an awesome little board.
Brian Beuken
Lecturer in Game Programming at Breda University of Applied Sciences.
Author of The Fundamentals of C/C++ Game Programming: Using Target-based Development on SBC's
Lecturer in Game Programming at Breda University of Applied Sciences.
Author of The Fundamentals of C/C++ Game Programming: Using Target-based Development on SBC's