OpenGL ES For KWin In KDE SC 4.7 Is Taking Shape

There's just about two months left until the release of KDE SC 4.6, but Martin Gräßlin and other KDE developers have already begun thinking about and working on code for KDE Software Compilation 4.7 [granted, there are already people talking about KDE5 and KDE6] that is still eight months away. In particular, Martin has some prominent KWin compositing manager changes for the 4.7 release.

We have previously reported that KDE SC 4.7 may optionally support OpenGL 3.x for compositing, which is good news for those running the proprietary NVIDIA or AMD Catalyst drivers, but the open-source Mesa and Gallium3D drivers are still living in the OpenGL 2.1 world. For KDE SC 4.7, Martin has also been working on OpenGL ES 2.0 support for KWin so that it could be used by mobile devices, such as those running MeeGo. OpenGL ES 2.0 is also supported by Mesa and Gallium3D and the proprietary drivers too, due to the web presence of OpenGL ES 2.0.

Martin is now reporting on his blog that this early OpenGL ES 2.0 code for KWin is successfully compiling. It's compiling, but not yet running and there's still a lot of work left before that happens. Fortunately, this is code for KDE 4.7 so there's still plenty of time.

Other related work going on in this space includes architectural improvements thanks to Qt Scene Graph, KWin performance improvements in KDE SC 4.6, and KDE's Plasma will begin using more OpenGL too.