The Raspberry Pi Open-Source 3D Driver Still Has A Lot Of Work Ahead

While Linux 4.5 is set to receive the DRM changes for supporting open-source 3D on the Raspberry Pi and in user-space those bits are settling down in the VC4 Gallium3D driver, the game isn't over and there still is more work ahead before this open-source Raspberry Pi 3D stack will replace the closed-source RPi 3D driver.

Besides needing to ensure the open-source driver performance is on par with the closed-source 3D blob, there are also features still missing from the open-source driver like support for HDMI audio, video overlays, integration with thh the camera and video decode support, and more.

Eric Anholt of Broadcom explained in a new blog post that while the open-source 3D driver support will soon be merged into the Raspbian Jessie builds, a DeviceTree overlay will be used for determining which driver to utilize.