edit: I'm developing on Os X so I'll post an update with build instructions once I manage to get it going
Android support?
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benn
- Gnoblar
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:38 pm
Android support?
Hi, what is the status of the Android support? I'm really excited to try out the metal support in 2.2 (I'm trying to make a high performance voxel engine), but keen to know if android / GLES3 support is underway at all?
edit: I'm developing on Os X so I'll post an update with build instructions once I manage to get it going
edit: I'm developing on Os X so I'll post an update with build instructions once I manage to get it going
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benn
- Gnoblar
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:38 pm
Re: Android support?
I just saw the update on vulkan support and read that all nougat and above android devices will support vulkan, so maybe it's better to pin my hopes on vulkan support and just stick to our webgl client for older android devices.
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dark_sylinc
- OGRE Team Member
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Re: Android support?
As you're guessing Vulkan support is your best hope.
Eugene managed to revive the GLES RenderSystem to work again for Ogre 2.1 a few weeks ago, but had to attend other business.
So, while it is theoretically possible to make Ogre 2.1+ work with GLES3 and thus with Android, it is not actively maintained and the last time we tried, the amount of driver bugs in Android was HORRENDOUS (driver crashes, deadlocks inside the driver, incorrect rendering).
Thus we're hoping with Vulkan this time we'll have better luck with Android.
Eugene managed to revive the GLES RenderSystem to work again for Ogre 2.1 a few weeks ago, but had to attend other business.
So, while it is theoretically possible to make Ogre 2.1+ work with GLES3 and thus with Android, it is not actively maintained and the last time we tried, the amount of driver bugs in Android was HORRENDOUS (driver crashes, deadlocks inside the driver, incorrect rendering).
Thus we're hoping with Vulkan this time we'll have better luck with Android.
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Hotshot5000
- OGRE Contributor
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Re: Android support?
I have made an attempt to implement the GLES3 backend with Ogre 2.1. If you are curious here it is: https://bitbucket.org/Sebastian_Bugiu/o ... 3-android/
But I must warn you that you will most likely encounter different bugs on different smartphones. The GLES3 driver implementations seem to be highly inconsistent in their quality.
Because of that I have switched to iOS which looks to have much better support for their Metal API. Android is a mess.
From what I have read Vulkan will likely also take years until it stabilizes... and of course until adoption picks up. People need to buy newer phones for good Vulkan drivers... It's gonna take time.
Of course, you are more than welcome to try my GLES3 implementation and report back what worked and what not.. and on which smartphone model
EDIT: Also seeing on android dashboard that GLES 3.2 is getting more and more popular the implementation for GLES3 could be simplified. The problem was getting things running on GLES 3 which didn't support some GL commands. But GLES 3.2 does support those commands so maybe this would simplify the implementation and also make it more stable? I need to get back on this and run some tests and report back but that will happen next year in the best case scenario...
But I must warn you that you will most likely encounter different bugs on different smartphones. The GLES3 driver implementations seem to be highly inconsistent in their quality.
Because of that I have switched to iOS which looks to have much better support for their Metal API. Android is a mess.
From what I have read Vulkan will likely also take years until it stabilizes... and of course until adoption picks up. People need to buy newer phones for good Vulkan drivers... It's gonna take time.
Of course, you are more than welcome to try my GLES3 implementation and report back what worked and what not.. and on which smartphone model
EDIT: Also seeing on android dashboard that GLES 3.2 is getting more and more popular the implementation for GLES3 could be simplified. The problem was getting things running on GLES 3 which didn't support some GL commands. But GLES 3.2 does support those commands so maybe this would simplify the implementation and also make it more stable? I need to get back on this and run some tests and report back but that will happen next year in the best case scenario...