Marek Tackles EXT_gpu_shader4 Support In Gallium3D For Old Games/Apps

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Marek Tackles EXT_gpu_shader4 Support In Gallium3D For Old Games/Apps

While the EXT_gpu_shader4 extension was written for the OpenGL 2.0 days a decade ago when the GeForce 8 series was NVIDIA's flagship products, AMD's Marek Olšák is now adding support for this extension to the Gallium3D drivers...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...4-Gallium-2018

[LinAGKar]

What programs make use of this?

[Deavir]

I am surprised this wouldn't be on the "Extensions that are not part of any OpenGL or OpenGL ES version" part of features.txt. I wonder how many useful old extensions are still out there. My guess is it is still used by some custom simulation software.

[Strunkenbold]

Black Mesa requires this. (unless you are using the beta branch)
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=106394

[schmidtbag]

If I understand this correctly, isn't this only relevant to R500 hardware and older? Because if you have R600 or newer, the extension still exists, just under the OGL3 specification, so shouldn't the extension still work even if the application was built for OGL2? I'm not entirely sure if it works that way or not.

[nanonyme]

If I understand this correctly, isn't this only relevant to R500 hardware and older? Because if you have R600 or newer, the extension still exists, just under the OGL3 specification, so shouldn't the extension still work even if the application was built for OGL2? I'm not entirely sure if it works that way or not.

I'm assuming this is yet again about some weird compatibility crap

[marek]

If I understand this correctly, isn't this only relevant to R500 hardware and older? Because if you have R600 or newer, the extension still exists, just under the OGL3 specification, so shouldn't the extension still work even if the application was built for OGL2? I'm not entirely sure if it works that way or not.

The extension is only for R600 and older chips. It's basically GLSL 1.30, but the GLSL language changes are different.

[gurv]

As always, thanks Marek!

If people working on AMD drivers are indeed feeling bored, maybe I can provide some suggestions :
- Freesync! (seriously it feels like I've been waiting for it forever )
- Freesync, Freesync, Freesync
- full OpenGL 4.5 compatibility profile for No man's sky (apparently, it doesn't work anymore with the 'Next' update)
- port the gpu optimization found in the proprietary shader compiler to RADV
- port Gallium_hud to radv
Honestly, this list is shockingly short and apart from the sore point that is Freesync, it's a testament to the huge accomplishment of all the people that have worked on AMD drivers: thanks guys, you're amazing

And for AMD as a whole, release new gpus: I'm looking forward to fully switching to AMD

[nanonyme]

As always, thanks Marek!

If people working on AMD drivers are indeed feeling bored, maybe I can provide some suggestions :
- Freesync! (seriously it feels like I've been waiting for it forever )
- Freesync, Freesync, Freesync
- full OpenGL 4.5 compatibility profile for No man's sky (apparently, it doesn't work anymore with the 'Next' update)
- port the gpu optimization found in the proprietary shader compiler to RADV
- port Gallium_hud to radv
Honestly, this list is shockingly short and apart from the sore point that is Freesync, it's a testament to the huge accomplishment of all the people that have worked on AMD drivers: thanks guys, you're amazing

And for AMD as a whole, release new gpus: I'm looking forward to fully switching to AMD

You haven't already? I don't think buying non-AMD GPU's for Linux if you want to sometimes also game has made any sense for last five years

[caligula]

You haven't already? I don't think buying non-AMD GPU's for Linux if you want to sometimes also game has made any sense for last five years

NVIDIA offers lower temperature cards. AMD might perform quite ok, but in my tests it generates more heat. Maybe this is an issue, maybe not.