Microsoft Eyeing OpenGL Compute + GLES 3.1 For Its Mesa D3D12 Backend

Microsoft had a wild 2021 with Linux/open-source contributions and now days into 2022 we are already seeing more of their Mesa feature work as they look to further advance the capabilities of their Direct3D 12 back-end for running OpenGL/OpenCL atop native Windows D3D12 drivers.

As 2021 came to an end Microsoft engineers added OpenGL SSBO support to their Direct3D 12 Gallium3D code for shader storage buffer objects. In getting 2022 going, they are looking to get OpenGL compute implemented along with OpenGL ES 3.1 working over this Direct3D path.

Microsoft's Jesse Natalie -- who has spearheaded much of the company's Mesa contributions -- has landed shader image load/store support into Mesa 22.0 for the D3D12 code as a stepping stone towards that compute and GLES 3.1 support.

See this merge request if interested in the advancing capabilities of this Direct3D 12 path within Mesa for improving the open graphics/compute API experience atop Windows.