Mesa Gets Support For Another OpenGL 4.4 Extension

Another OpenGL extension can be crossed off the list for the goal until Mesa supports the OpenGL 4.4 specification.

A KDE developer Fredrik Höglund has completed work on the GL_ARB_multi_bind extension needed for meeting OpenGL 4.4 requirements. Per the OpenGL.org registry, the change is explained as:

This extension provides a new set of commands allowing applications to bind or unbind a set of objects in a single call, instead of requiring a separate call for each bind or unbind operation. Using a single command allows OpenGL implementations to amortize function call, name space lookup, and potential locking overhead over multiple bind or unbind operations. The rendering loops of graphics applications frequently switch between different states, binding different sets of resources, including texture objects, sampler objects, textures for image loads and stores, uniform buffers, and vertex buffers; this extension provides "multi-bind" entry points for all of these object types.

The work for the GL 4.4 ARB_multi_bind extension landed for all mainline drivers on Thursday via several commits to mainline Mesa and will be present as part of the Mesa 10.2 release in the weeks ahead.