[solved] OpenGL 4.5 mesa

CentralPython · 2018-01-03 21:02:06

Is there a reason why the AMD Radeon R7 370 cards still according to steam info use 3.0 of the OpenGL? According to some users on phoronix it should be 4.5 and apparently I have to compile and redo mesa but this time in AUR in order to get 4.5 active. Shouldn't this be already done in the official mesa build from the official repository?

I would like my steam client to say that I've got OpenGL 4.5 for the open source AMD drivers! The games work but want the 4.5 version and the update. Could anyone shed light on this please?

Last edited by CentralPython (2018-01-05 18:14:50)

V1del · 2018-01-03 21:24:57

Your steam client will never say that, as it will never require a OpenGL 4.5 context. An application will explicitly have to request a OpenGL 4.5 context if it wants to target OpenGL above 3.0 (since mesa doesn't support backwards compatible contexts), if a process simply opens a OpenGL window it will use the legacy context that will only provide OpenGL up to 3.0. If you have applications that do not do this then whatever game you are running is incorrectly initializing OpenGL, complain to them. You might be able to fool them by exporting/appending their startup with MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5 or similar, this is a hack however and games should properly request the context they need.

If you want to actually know which OpenGL version is supported run

glxinfo | grep OpenGL

and look at the core profile version.

seth · 2018-01-03 21:27:05

https://mesamatrix.net/

output of "glxinfo"? (please post in code tags)

Edit: ninja'd by V1del

Last edited by seth (2018-01-03 21:28:30)

CentralPython · 2018-01-05 18:00:00

seth wrote:

https://mesamatrix.net/
output of "glxinfo"? (please post in code tags)
Edit: ninja'd by V1del

I seem to have it in the core profile string.

glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: AMD PITCAIRN (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.14.11-1-ARCH, LLVM 5.0.1)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.3.1
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.50
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 17.3.1
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.1 Mesa 17.3.1
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.10
OpenGL ES profile extensions:

I take it there's nothing to actually do then with this then? Steam still however states its using 3.0 at the moment so do I actually need to do anything to correct this or is it already correct?

V1del · 2018-01-05 18:10:35

Yes steam, as the client, has no reason to cease functioning for older GPU's and the mesa logic will report 3.0 for software that doesn't explicitly say, "hey I need the features of OpenGL 4.5". If an actual game gives you an error message/graphics errors if 4.5 is "missing" then that game should be fixed to properly request the correct version to use. A somewhat relevant difference in this regard is that e.g. the nvidia driver does support backwards compatible contexts and maybe there are game devs that rely on this and only pick a few modern OpenGL features while still using legacy OpenGL in other parts. In that case you might be able to hack around with that environment variable, however since mesa doesn't support a backwards compatible 4.5 context this might completely break the game. Either way, this should be fixed on a game to game basis.

CentralPython · 2018-01-05 18:14:38

V1del wrote:

Yes steam, as the client, has no reason to cease functioning for older GPU's and the mesa logic will report 3.0 for software that doesn't explicitly say, "hey I need the features of OpenGL 4.5". If an actual game gives you an error message/graphics errors if 4.5 is "missing" then that game should be fixed to properly request the correct version to use. A somewhat relevant difference in this regard is that e.g. the nvidia driver does support backwards compatible contexts and maybe there are game devs that rely on this and only pick a few modern OpenGL features while still using legacy OpenGL in other parts. In that case you might be able to hack around with that environment variable, however since mesa doesn't support a backwards compatible 4.5 context this might completely break the game. Either way, this should be fixed on a game to game basis.

Alright thank you for correctly responding to my query about this! I have used Linux for a number of years but never actually explored this situation and didn't understand some of it which is why I posted it here because of me using Arch Linux now as a daily primary system. I'll mark this thread as solved.....

Arch Linux

#1 2018-01-03 21:02:06

[solved] OpenGL 4.5 mesa

#2 2018-01-03 21:24:57

Re: [solved] OpenGL 4.5 mesa

#3 2018-01-03 21:27:05

Re: [solved] OpenGL 4.5 mesa

#4 2018-01-05 18:00:00

Re: [solved] OpenGL 4.5 mesa

#5 2018-01-05 18:10:35

Re: [solved] OpenGL 4.5 mesa

#6 2018-01-05 18:14:38

Re: [solved] OpenGL 4.5 mesa

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