Re: [Mesa3d-users] OpenGL shading language

[Brian P. <bri...@tu...>]

Crni Gorac wrote:
> On 4/3/06, Brian Paul <bri...@tu...> wrote:
> 
>>Crni Gorac wrote:
>>
>>>I noticed in Mesa 6.5 release annoucement that Mesa is now going to
>>>support OpenGL shading language.  Does this means that shading
>>>language will be supported on GPUs that are not supporting it in
>>>hardware or shading language support is relevant for GPUs that are
>>>already supporting it in hardware?
>>
>>I'm not sure I understand your question.
>>
>>None of the DRI hardware drivers support the shading language yet.
>>The DRI drivers (for hardware that supports programmable shading) will
>>get that feature at some point in the future.  It's a big job.
> 
> 
> I am not aware of status of DRI drivers, I was thinking adding support
> for shading language related constructs in driver for GPU supporting
> shading language in hardware is simple (I guess in that case driver
> should simply pass shader string to GPU)...

No.  You don't just pass the shader string to the GPU.  You've got to 
parse/compile the shaders and produce GPU-specific microcode.  Like I 
said, it's a big job.


> So, we have now software
> implementation of shading language related stuff instead in Mesa,
> right?  I mean - shaders will execute on CPU and that will work with
> any kind of graphics card...

Yes, shaders can always be executed (slowly) on the CPU.

-Brian