Since a while now I have been working on OpenGL on AmigaOS. Progress has been slow so far - there have been a good number of fundamental issues to be cleared up. For starters, let me summarize the goals:
- Provide a hardware-accelerated OpenGL for applications, games, and the operating system.
- Provide a driver interface with maximum flexibility. We do not want to count exclusively on Gallium3D as a basis for drivers, although it will be a fundamental one.
- Provide a low-level API that does not depend on high-level constructs like Windows or Screens. While it should be possible to render to these, it should not depend on any of them.
- Be able to upgrade to the latest OpenGL version, depending on driver support.
- Support multi-threading and multiple CPU's.
Let's look at these goals. We want to provide a hardware-accelerated OpenGL that can be readily used by applications and games alike. We would also like the operating system to be able to take advantage of this. Workbench should be able to draw its stuff with OpenGL hardware-acceleration, and even Intuition should be able to use it. There is no point in restricting such an important part to a mere application/game interface. It has to become an integral part of the system.
The internal driver interface is designed to be usable with or without Gallium3D. Obviously, the focus of our work will be Gallium-based, but what if there is a graphics card that does not support the required level of shader support to be able to work with Gallium? For this purpose, opengl.library (the central hub of the OpenGL system on AmigaOS) is able to load and operate drivers that only provide a minimal set of internal functions plus the required entry points for OpenGL. That way, it is possible to use a Mesa based driver, or even a completely custom driver, for hardware that is not supported by Gallium3D. [...]
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