Adds libfork v3.8.0 (3rdparty submodule, header-only, wired like the asio
precedent) as a second execution engine behind ShaderCompilePool, selected
per process by MOBILEGL_ASYNC_POOL=asio|libfork (default asio; unknown
values warn and fall back). The engine boundary is deliberately tiny: the
queue, the concurrency budget and its clamping, the suspension latch,
cancel request-vs-outcome, the stopped-is-synchronous fallback and the
drain all stay in the shared Impl - an engine only answers how a
budget-cleared job reaches a worker.
The libfork engine runs detached root tasks as CHAINS: a finished body
takes the next queued job in the same coroutine on the same worker, so
the refills a worker posts are absorbed without a scheduler round trip
(the naive dispatch-thread shape measured 4x worse than asio on short
jobs). Absorption is bounded at one job per live chain - unbounded
absorption serialized bursts posted from inside the pool, which is the
shipped shape (one compile settling fans out link jobs via SubmitAfter
and the adoption map), caught by the review and pinned by a permanent
peak-concurrency regression test (pre-fix: libfork peak 1 vs asio peak 4
on a 16-job worker-posted burst). External submissions go through a
round-robin adaptor instead of lf::lazy_pool::schedule, which both
avoids a data race on lazy_pool's unsynchronized xoshiro under
concurrent submits and beats birthday-collision placement by ~1.3x at
budget == thread count.
The measured answer to "does asio scale poorly": no - the executor was
never the bottleneck. On real pack corpora extracted from the trace
fixtures (BSL 61 shaders, Complementary 277), interleaved best-of-5 per
cell, the engines are within noise of each other at every thread count
(complementary: 4965/2506/1376/824 ms at 1/2/4/8 threads for asio;
libfork within 1%), both ~6x at 8 threads. perf counters show the
flattening past 4 threads is machine-level (instructions flat at 22.1e9
from 1 to 16 threads - no added work, no lock spinning - while cycles
and LLC misses double: memory-stall bound), and the separating control
- N fully independent single-threaded processes with no shared
scheduler at all - scales WORSE than the pool (5.27x vs 5.94x at 8).
The pool microbenchmark does favor libfork on pure dispatch (518 vs
530 ns/job at 1 worker, growing with worker count), but a real compile
body is 1-100 ms, so dispatch is under 0.1% either way. asio therefore
stays the default; this branch exists to make the comparison
reproducible (MG_Test/Util/AsyncPoolBench drives either engine over a
corpus directory) and to keep the alternative viable.
613/613 unit tests in all four combos ({asio, libfork} x {async default
on, kill switch}), integration scenarios byte-identical between engines
on both backends.
MobileGL
A desktop OpenGL implementation
MobileGL is a free and open-source project that implements a desktop OpenGL API. The goal is to provide a complete desktop OpenGL implementation with a state management layer and multi-backend support.
Note
Status: In development. Parts of the codebase are incomplete. Current short-term target: OpenGL 4.2 (Core Profile).
Project positioning
MobileGL is an implementation of a desktop OpenGL library. It aims to provide:
- Full OpenGL state management.
- A front-end that exposes OpenGL functions.
- Multiple independent backend implementations, where each backend targets a specific graphics API and remains fully isolated from others.
This project is intended as an implementation/translation layer.
Key components
The repository is organized into following top-level modules:
- MG_State — state tracking and management logic for Graphics APIs.
- MG_Impl — front-end implementations of Graphics APIs that interact with
MG_StateandMG_Backend. - MG_Backend — per-backend translation layer that maps front-end Graphics APIs' semantics and state into concrete backend API calls (e.g. OpenGL ES, Vulkan).
- MG_Util and other utility modules.
Third-party components
MobileGL reuses several open-source projects:
- SPIRV-Cross by KhronosGroup - Apache License 2.0: github
- glslang by KhronosGroup - Various Licenses: github
- DiligentCore by Diligent Graphics - Apache License 2.0: github
Refer to each component's repository for exact license texts. Any bundled third-party code in this repository is included under the upstream project's license.
Compatibility & target
- Short-term target:
OpenGL 4.2 (Core Profile). - Current development focus:
- Performance improvement
MG_StateandMG_ImplforOpenGL 4.2 (Core Profile)Direct (Vulkan)backendDirect (OpenGL ES)backend
Build Instructions
We currently provide no releases and no precompiled binaries.
If you want to try the project right now, you’ll need to build it yourself:
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/MobileGL-Dev/MobileGL.git -
Initialize and update all submodules recursively:
git submodule update --init --recursive -
Follow glslang’s own documentation for its required initiation.
-
Configure and build the project with CMake:
cmake -B build cmake --build buildor do it in a modern way:
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ cmake --build buildAlternatively, you can use platform-specific build commands as needed.
Build For macOS
On macOS, MobileGL can be built as a dylib that exposes the normal OpenGL/CGL/NSOpenGL entry points and routes them to the DirectVulkan backend. This is useful for running applications such as Minecraft through their stock GLFW/LWJGL OpenGL path while MobileGL is injected before context creation.
Prerequisites:
- macOS with Clang and Ninja.
- Vulkan loader and MoltenVK installed. With Homebrew, the MoltenVK ICD is commonly located at
/opt/homebrew/etc/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json.
Configure and build:
cmake -S . -B build-macos-magma \
-G Ninja \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DMOBILEGL_BACKEND_TYPE=DirectVulkan \
-DMOBILEGL_BUILD_TEST=OFF \
-DMOBILEGL_BUILD_BENCHMARK=OFF
cmake --build build-macos-magma --target MobileGL -j8
The dylib will be generated at:
build-macos-magma/libMobileGL.dylib
To run Minecraft by MobileGL from a launcher like PrismLauncher, keep the stock LWJGL/GLFW natives and add a wrapper command to the instance settings:
env DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES=/absolute/path/to/MobileGL/build-macos-magma/libMobileGL.dylib MOBILEGL_BACKEND_TYPE=DirectVulkan VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/opt/homebrew/etc/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json
Also make sure the JVM arguments include:
-XstartOnFirstThread
DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES must be active before GLFW creates its OpenGL context. After startup, the Minecraft F3 screen should report MobileGL and the Direct (Vulkan) backend if the injection worked.
Build Options
| Option | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
MOBILEGL_BUILD_TEST |
Build MobileGL tests (requires Clang) | ON |
MOBILEGL_BUILD_BENCHMARK |
Build MobileGL benchmarks (requires Clang) | ON |
MOBILEGL_FORCE_RELEASE_OPT |
Enable O3 and LTO in Debug build | ON |
MOBILEGL_ENABLE_TRACY |
Enable Tracy profiler for performance analysis | OFF |
Notes:
- The project requires C++23.
MG_TestandMG_Benchmarkcan only be built with Clang, not GCC. To enforce Clang, add-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++to your command.- On Android, tests and benchmarks are always disabled.
Environment Variables
MobileGL supports runtime configuration via environment variables.
Supported Keys
| Variable | Description | Allowed Values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
MOBILEGL_BACKEND_TYPE |
Select active backend implementation at startup. | DirectGLES, DirectVulkan |
DirectGLES |
MOBILEGL_DISABLE_TIMERQUERY |
Disable GPU timer-query exposure and use. | 0, 1 |
0 |
MOBILEGL_USE_ANGLE |
Load ANGLE EGL/GLES libraries. | 0, 1 |
0 |
MOBILEGL_DISABLE_SUBGROUP |
Disable Vulkan shader subgroup support. | 0, 1 |
0 |
MOBILEGL_MAGMA_R11G11B10F_FALLBACK |
Use Magma's R11G11B10F format fallback. | 0, 1 |
0 |
MOBILEGL_MAGMA_FRAMESINFLIGHT |
Set Magma frames in flight. | Integer 1–64 |
3 |
MOBILEGL_AVOID_SAMPLER_MIPMAP_MIN_FILTER |
Avoid sampler mipmap minification filters. | 0, 1 |
0 |
MOBILEGL_COHERENT_AS_FLUSH |
Treat persistent GL_MAP_FLUSH_EXPLICIT_BIT maps as coherent (app-compat for engines like Flywheel that never flush them). |
0, 1 |
0 |
VK_ICD_FILENAMES |
Select the Vulkan ICD used by the Vulkan loader. | Path to an ICD JSON file | Loader default |
License
This project is distributed under GNU LGPL v3.0. See the LICENSE file in the repository for detailed information.