Android Extension Pack Being Prepped For Mesa

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ANDROID Extension Pack (AEP ES31A) Being Prepped For Mesa

Veteran Mesa developer Ilia Mirkin has been working on finishing up the core plumbing for OpenGL ES 3.2 / Android Extension Pack support for the Mesa drivers...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Android-EP-Mesa-ES31A

[ruthan]

My android-x86 is ready..

[imirkin]

My android-x86 is ready..

Don't get too excited. Initially this will only be turned on for Intel Skylake. Both ES3.2 and AEP require ASTC support, which is generally not available on desktop chips (not even new ones from NVIDIA or AMD). So until there's a software decompressor implemented inside Mesa, this won't be too useful.

I looked at the ASTC spec, and it's a *monster*, with tons of various cases that'd have to be handled. Much more complex than DXT or ETC/EAC formats. There are some open-source ones out there, but there are likely going to be license issues trying to integrate them.

[boxie]

Don't get too excited. Initially this will only be turned on for Intel Skylake. Both ES3.2 and AEP require ASTC support, which is generally not available on desktop chips (not even new ones from NVIDIA or AMD). So until there's a software decompressor implemented inside Mesa, this won't be too useful.

I looked at the ASTC spec, and it's a *monster*, with tons of various cases that'd have to be handled. Much more complex than DXT or ETC/EAC formats. There are some open-source ones out there, but there are likely going to be license issues trying to integrate them.

It sounds like it will be a whole bunch of "fun"

[Kano]

As Kabylake dual cores are already out this sounds very good. I hope there will be a simple way to run Android and normal Linux apps side by side, in a window or fullscreen. The extra emulaton layer needed which is needed now is not good, but if you could combine desktop browsers, games, office together with all android apps at full speed then there will be certainly a new market - currently Win 10 is working in that way too but Android apps are much more...