Comments on: AMD Releases Unneeded OpenGLES2.0 Desktop Driver

By: Randall Hand

Randall Hand — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:49:20 +0000

@ Jon Leech I get the development case, being able to develop OpenGLES code for embedded platforms on a desktop platform, deferring the actual on-hardware testing to later in the process. What really threw me was that AMD didn't pitch it that way, instead they decided to talk about how it would revolutionize the WebGL space, when in reality it's a very tiny step.I spoke to Khronos at SIGGRAPH and heard about the EGL ICD project, definitely sounds like it could simplify the whole thing.

By: Jon Leech

Jon Leech — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:35:51 +0000

@Randall – OpenGL ES on desktop platforms is not just for WebGL, although that’s an important use (all WebGL implementations necessarily translate between WebGL calls and the underlying hardware driver, whether that driver is GL, ES, or maybe even DX in some cases).

Another motivation is developing native ES applications on desktop platforms, and deploying existing ES applications on desktop platforms. There are a variety of mobile platform SDKs with software renderers or ES-on-GL wrapper layers out there already which support this.

As I discussed at the SIGGRAPH BOF, Khronos has an “EGL ICD” project underway which should in time lead to crossvendor EGL+OpenGL and EGL+OpenGL ES support on Windows and Linux. In the meantime either the vendor-specific ES driver approach or the ES2_compatibility extension in GL drivers move us a good ways towards that desired result.

By: Randall Hand

Randall Hand — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:32:16 +0000

@ Matthew Raymond Well, you can rest easy knowing that I'm already drafting up a "followup" to this to address some of the exact issues you mention. I had a meeting with Khronos at SIGGRAPH to discuss some of this, and upon deeper inspection into the Various options, I have to admit that AMD may have the "Better" solution, although I personally despise the thought of a separate system-level driver just for WebGL.

By: Matthew Raymond

Matthew Raymond — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:15:58 +0000

Nice try, but OpenGL 4.1 has specific hardware requirements, so you can’t use it on older and lower budget hardware. The OpenGL ES 2.0 driver that ATI is providing works on virtually their entire product line, including their laptop chipsets. By contrast, the NVIDIA OpenGL 4.1 drivers only support their high end products that use Fermi based GPUs. This eliminates the use of these drivers on anything but a new computer.

The new ATI drivers also supports the cross-platform EGL APIs, which can be used instead of older and more platform specific APIs (like GLX and WGL) to allow you to write more portable and cross-platform code.

I find your article sensationalist, poorly researched and slightly unprofessional (“Myth Busted”). Please take more care with the facts in future articles and allow your readers to come to their own conclusion based on the facts you present.

By: David Weller

David Weller — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:57:36 +0000

4.1 drivers from NVIDIA are now up:
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/opengl_driver.html