3D acceleration mystery

[Desimal]

I'm a new Ubuntu user and I'm having a problem running games that require 3D acceleration, even though my 3D acceleration appears to be working. I've tried Flightgear, Extreme Tux Racer and both are so slow they are unplayable. However, the diagnostic tests used to see if direct rendering and hardware acceleration are activated tell me everything is working fine. Below are my details:

Ubuntu 8.10
Video card: ATI Radeon 7500 All-In-Wonder with TV-out

Output of glxgears:

6263 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1252.433 FPS

Output of glxinfo:

name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, 
    GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGIS_multisample, 
    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory, 
    GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_swap_control, 
    GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, 
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, 
    GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_swap_control, 
    GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_swap_control, 
    GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, 
    GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Radeon 20061018 AGP 4x x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE TCL
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 7.2
OpenGL extensions:
    GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_multitexture, 
    GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp, GL_ARB_texture_compression, 
    GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add, 
    GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, 
    GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, 
    GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, 
    GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, 
    GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_logic_op, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, 
    GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint, 
    GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_convolution, GL_EXT_copy_texture, 
    GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_histogram, 
    GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_polygon_offset, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, 
    GL_EXT_secondary_color, GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, 
    GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_subtexture, GL_EXT_texture, GL_EXT_texture3D, 
    GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, 
    GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, 
    GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, 
    GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_object, 
    GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_APPLE_packed_pixels, 
    GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, 
    GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip, GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, 
    GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture, GL_MESA_window_pos, GL_NV_blend_square, 
    GL_NV_light_max_exponent, GL_NV_texture_rectangle, 
    GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_OES_read_format, GL_SGI_color_matrix, 
    GL_SGI_color_table, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp, 
    GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_lod

3 GLX Visuals
   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav
 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x21 24 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x22 24 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x6e 32 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None

16 GLXFBConfigs:
   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav
 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x6f  0 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x70  0 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x71  0 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x72  0 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x73  0 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x74  0 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x75  0 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x76  0 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x77  0 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x78  0 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x79  0 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x7a  0 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  0 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x7b  0 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x7c  0 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow
0x7d  0 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x7e  0 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 24  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 Slow

My /etc/X11/xorg.conf file looks like this:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon RV200 QW [Radeon 7500]"
	Driver		"radeon"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
EndSection

What makes no sense is Tux Racer and other hardware accelerated games work fine on some older installations (Debian, Red Hat) with the same video card. Glxgears and glxinfo tell me everything is working but when the games begin, it's almost as if 3d acceleration is turned off. Can someone please give me some advice or ideas to try? Thanks in advance.

-Desimal

[D-cat]

It looks like glx is active, are you running with a 3D desktop? I've found two big things (and some smaller) with OpenGL and 3D Apps in Linux.

1) The 3D desktops were cool, but stole too much of the hardware resources, leaving games to software rendering, thus, slow and unplayable.

2) Using non-standard sizes, especially over 1024x768, would also trigger software rendering. I typically set my 3D games to start up at 1024x768, then restart the game, and all is right with the world!

2.5) Resizing windows while in 3D rendering would also, again, dump hardware acceleration and fall back on software (real PITA with Google Earth).

[Desimal]

It looks like glx is active, are you running with a 3D desktop? I've found two big things (and some smaller) with OpenGL and 3D Apps in Linux.

1) The 3D desktops were cool, but stole too much of the hardware resources, leaving games to software rendering, thus, slow and unplayable.

2) Using non-standard sizes, especially over 1024x768, would also trigger software rendering. I typically set my 3D games to start up at 1024x768, then restart the game, and all is right with the world!

2.5) Resizing windows while in 3D rendering would also, again, dump hardware acceleration and fall back on software (real PITA with Google Earth).

Thanks very much for the reply. I did disable desktop effects which has sped everything up, and I did try changing the overall screen resolution to 1024x768 PLUS changing Tux Racer's resolution to several different resolutions (including 1024x768 plus others below that), but with no luck.

The beginning menu seems to be accelerated just fine with the snowflakes falling, but when the race begins I'm back to 2 to 3 frames per second. This is also a problem when trying to run Flightgear (so I'm assuming it's not a software problem with Tux Racer only).

Thanks again for the advice. Unfortunately I'm still