Mesa: Fixed Function Programs Generating GLSL

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Mesa: Fixed Function Programs Generating GLSL

Last month at XDC2011 Chicago the long-standing goal of killing off Mesa IR was talked about by Intel. There's already been the GLSL-To-TGSI translator (and also competing with that is LunarGLASS to replace Mesa IR with LLVM IR), and now there's some new work to talk about in this area that works towards the common goal...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=OTk3Nw

[Veerappan]

Sounds cool. If I understand this correctly, it means that programs that still use the fixed function pipeline will work on all of the newer hardware that emulated fixed function ops in shaders without the drivers actually having to implement those emulation shaders, which should allow some simplification of newer drivers going forward.

Does this understanding happen to line up with reality in any way?

[agd5f]

Sounds cool. If I understand this correctly, it means that programs that still use the fixed function pipeline will work on all of the newer hardware that emulated fixed function ops in shaders without the drivers actually having to implement those emulation shaders, which should allow some simplification of newer drivers going forward.

Does this understanding happen to line up with reality in any way?

Not exactly. The drivers have never implemented emulation shaders directly; mesa has always generated the fixed function emulation shader code. This just changes the way it's generated.