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Open-Source Mesa 3D Library/Drivers Now Support OpenGL 4

Posted by timothy on from the continuous-improvement dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Mesa 3D project that is the basis of the open-source Linux/BSD graphics drivers now supports OpenGL 4.0 and most of OpenGL 4.1~4.2. The OpenGL 4.0 enablement code landed in Mesa Git yesterday/today and more GL 4.1/4.2 patches are currently being reviewed for the Intel, Radeon, and Nouveau open-source GPU drivers.

4 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. Most? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not only does core Mesa support most of 4.1-4.2, they support most of 4.3-4.5. The problem is every few generations of OpenGL there is a developer intensive extension to get in. Compute Shader in 4.3 it probably the next monster they are going to get stuck at.

    1. Re:Most? by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Interesting

      4.1 is nothing to be ashamed of. ES 2.0 compatibility is the elephant in that room. Program binaries, per-stage programs and multiple viewports are all worth the price of admission (free)

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  2. Re:Cool, So How Can I Use It? by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

    OpenGL and OpenGL ES are different.

    You can view ES as a "purified" form of OpenGL. Though it came into being as a superset of a subset, these days it tracks a pragmatic subset of OGL very well. It's not an exaggeration to call ES a triumph of cooperation between developers, industry and the standards organization.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  3. Re: Staying 5 years behind... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mesa IS the native driver for Intel. Mesa has some software reference drivers, but it isn't supposed to be relegated to reference status only. If it was, they're doing it wrong, because reference platforms should come early, not years after the production drivers have had versions EOL with a higher level of support.