Have the nexus 9's OpenGL limitations been fixed in android 5.1?

[Nintonito]

With the update finally rolling out,  I am compelled to ask if the N9 is finally free of of the OpenGL limits that prevented it from reaching its full potential.  Can anyone with an N9 confirm this?  

[nex86]

Not sure but I own a Shield Tablet and I'm able to use OpenGLEs in Dolphin.
On other devices I was only able to use software rendering because they weren't fully compatible to GLEs 3.0

if you're planning to get an N9, get it. It's one of the best tablets out there.
But if you're looking for a Tablet with almost the same performance but a lower screen resolution (which is better for games) then get a Shield Tablet.

[Sonicadvance1]

Google didn't update the drivers.

[Nintonito]

(05-13-2015, 12:01 AM)Sonicadvance1 Wrote: Google didn't update the drivers.

Well that dashed all my hopes away.  

[SeannyM]

It's unlikely this will ever happen. If the plan was for the Nexus 9 to have full desktop OGL, it would've had it from the start.

[Nintonito]

(05-13-2015, 06:11 AM)SeannyM Wrote: It's unlikely this will ever happen. If the plan was for the Nexus 9 to have full desktop OGL, it would've had it from the start.

That's the most sensible thought,  but then again this is Google,  the company hat half implements everything and revises it 5 months later.  The N6 never launched with hardware encryption support (courtesy of the snapdragon AES block) but AOSP digging reveals they are working on implementations. Google is exactly the company I would believe will make a change like this halfway down the line,  because they seem to hate finalizing anything at any point.  Or they could just be doing the sensible thing as you suggested and not change a damn thing.  What do I know,  I don't work for Google.

[tueidj]

The N9 has basically been on life support since it was first released. The latest update actually runs worse (unexplainable I/O stalls) and Google again messed up incorporating nvidia's performance and monitoring support, making the device pretty much useless for serious development.

[agrabren]

Google does not seem all that interested in a full OpenGL stack. If they were to provide it on the N9, how would they support it on the other Nexus devices which don't offer full OpenGL? Now, they'd be stuck with the Nexus 9 offering support, but likely whatever the next Nexus tablet is not offering it.

[Nintonito]

(05-13-2015, 08:11 AM)agrabren Wrote: Google does not seem all that interested in a full OpenGL stack. If they were to provide it on the N9, how would they support it on the other Nexus devices which don't offer full OpenGL? Now, they'd be stuck with the Nexus 9 offering support, but likely whatever the next Nexus tablet is not offering it.

My response to that is "they did that exact thing with the N7 lineup.  The 2012 model supported OpenGL 2.1 full even though the standard was ES 2.0,  and then with the 2013 model they dropped that and stuck with OpenGL ES (granted a year later that was 3.0) but Google has done those uneven feature sets before.  

[Nintonito]

(05-13-2015, 07:46 AM)tueidj Wrote: The N9 has basically been on life support since it was first released. The latest update actually runs worse (unexplainable I/O stalls) and Google again messed up incorporating nvidia's performance and monitoring support, making the device pretty much useless for serious development.

I feel like Google really wants to keep everyone on equal footing,  and establish a precedent of devices without any third party modifications,  except that doesn't work.  Third party mods are what make devices and processors workable.  As you said these updates aren't getting any better and the device is basically terrible at everything it's intended for,  because Google refuses to touch "impure code" from outside sources.  Contrary to what fanboys believe,  nexus devices are the WORST optimized,  and feature next to no hardware consideration in the software.  It gets worse with a device like the nexus 9 where he chipset is so very different from the norm,  and google's insistence on ignoring such differences actually causes the device's functionality to be impared.