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OpenGL Library Mesa 11.0 Brings Open Source OpenGL 4

Posted by Soulskill on from the onward-and-upward dept.

jj110888 writes: Mesa, the open source implementation of OpenGL, has just announced version 11.0. This adds support for the amdgpu driver, fixes for non-Windows platforms, new OpenGL ES extensions supported, and more. Most notable is the support for all extensions in OpenGL 4.1 by the radeonsi and nvc0 drivers, and support for extensions added in OpenGL 4.2 by the i965 driver. This brings the OpenGL version supported by core Mesa from 3.3 to 4.2, five and a half years after OpenGL 4 was released. Mesamatrix gives the status of which OpenGL extensions are supported by which open source driver. Vulkan, on the otherhand, will have an open source driver once the spec is released.

12 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Yeah for FLOSS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not sure what you are getting at. The alternative is using closed source, which honestly is not a real alternative.

  2. Can I jump ship yet? by RenHoek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate that Linux has such bad graphical card support. Games are the only thing that are keeping me on the Windows platform. I think it really is the only thing that is keeping the world from a "Linux on the desktop" utopia.

    1. Re:Can I jump ship yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Thankfully you can simply use those in a VM, with SMB between the host and guest (or USB passthrough, raw formatted image file, ISO etc.) for file transfer, assuming you don't use VirtualBox which has a guest agent where you can just copy paste between them.

      Harder is anything that needs 3D acceleration, in which case your best bet is VT-D or AMD-V with PCI Passthrough on a secondary video card, also playable with games and about 10% performance loss.

      Then again, it's just less hassle to dual boot.

    2. Re:Can I jump ship yet? by tom229 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In all these cases I find it frustrating that gnu/Linux bears the blame. Microsoft office, Adobe products, video games, and major video cards software drivers are all 3rd party software products made by 3rd party companies that choose not to support Linux. There might be very good reasons why Photoshop doesn't have a Linux version and why most games use direct x, but given the direction Microsoft has taken lately all parties concerned should reevaluate whether this is still a prudent direction to take.

      --
      If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
    3. Re: Can I jump ship yet? by RenHoek · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I understand the importance of having office applications but like how porn pushes technological advances, I think that gaming pushes the desktop.

      Having a Linux desktop at work will not make the average user install Linux at home. The other way around, maybe...

    4. Re:Can I jump ship yet? by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      with SMB between the host and guest

      FYI VMWare lets you set up a shared directory between host and client, and I believe Virtualbox does too. No need for trickery.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Can I jump ship yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you switch to Linux full-time you'll find a lot more to hate.

    6. Re:Can I jump ship yet? by MyAlternateID · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is only one reason why anyone really uses Linux - free as in beer.

      Speak for yourself, please. I've been using Linux since the mid 1990s. I genuinely prefer it. I like the neatness of a proper package manager. I like the *nix way of doing things. I like not having a Registry, and not worrying about my OS phoning home. I like the rock-solid stability that Windows has only recently started to acquire. I like not having to reboot for any reason at all other than a new kernel (and even then there is a way around it). I like not having to run virus/malware scanners. I like being able to make a copy of my /home directory to backup (or transfer) all of my settings, bookmarks, documents, etc -- ever try that on a Windows system? I like having multiple different interoperable GUIs from which I can choose, and the ability to customize each. I like that the few times I had a question about a program, I was able to effortlessly directly contact the author/maintainer and not some front-line scripted tech support. I like open standards and interoperability among diverse systems with no vendor lock-in. I like iptables and lots of other functionality that's built-in to standard Linux distros but requires third-party (and sometimes commercial) software for Windows. I like that the system doesn't assume I'm a moron who might get confused by meaningful error messages and advanced options. I like having the option to use a source-based distro with all the flexibility that brings; though of course that's not for everyone, it's great for me (I may one day decide to use systemd, but no one is pressuring me to do so). I like the general transparency, that there are no hinderances trying to stop me from peeking under the hood if I should get curious about exactly how something works. I like all the options I have to harden the kernel and userland against security threats, some of which depend on the ability to compile from source.

      The few Windows-only programs I want to run have worked for me in Wine. I know that not everyone can say that, but for me this works and it works well.

      I ran Linux for a long time now. That's not because I had no access to Windows. Some of my newer hardware came with Windows licenses. I'm not using Linux because I can't legitimately obtain Windows. I'm using Linux because I genuinely prefer it. While I may be a minority of all computer users, I am by no means the only one. So like I said, please speak for yourself.

  3. Re:Open Wide and say Ah. by kthreadd · · Score: 4, Informative

    OpenGL is a specification, not source code. It's a document that describes a number of interfaces that an OpenGL implementation should implement. OpenGL is also quite old and stems from the early 90s, long before open source was even termed. Open simply means that the specification is open, as in anyone can read the specification and create his or her own implementation.

  4. Re:Software using OpenGL by jones_supa · · Score: 2

    Yeah, like all 3D games for Linux and Mac.

  5. Re:In practical hardware terms? by jones_supa · · Score: 2

    Check the Mesamatrix link in the summary.

  6. Re:Software using OpenGL by hitchhacker · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sorry for that obvious question but is there left any software still using OpenGL? :-) (mesa demos do not count)

    The first things that come to mind would be any hardware accelerated 3D graphics not targeting a Microsoft-only platform. Any software or games that are compiled against D3D and run through Wine are implicitly using OpenGL. All iphone and android apps are using OpenGL. Scientific visualization applications are most likely using OpenGL along with any other industry that goes back to the early 90's or before. I don't see a whole lot wrong with OpenGL for my needs, and Vulkan doesn't seem to add a whole lot that I can't do already though it is apparently necessary for pushing the envelope wrt next generation game engines. -metric