MobileGL/HANDOFF_DILIGENT.md

Handoff: Diligent/Vulkan GL3.2 Backend for MobileGL

Date: 2026-08-18
Branch: feat/diligent-vulkan-backend
Repo: ~/MobileGL-dev
Status: Active work-in-progress. Do not mark complete yet.

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1. Goal

Implement a complete OpenGL 3.2 front-end emulation on a new Diligent/Vulkan backend inside MobileGL, instead of the DirectVulkan / DirectGLES backends.

Target state:

• Fully wire MobileGL front-end MG_State (buffers, VAO, program, texture, sampler, framebuffer, render-state) into Diligent.
• Implement all GL 3.2 core entry points through the Diligent backend.
• Pass local non-Android GL3.2 tests on the Turnip Adreno 750 GPU.

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2. Current Branch / Commits

Latest 12 commits on feat/diligent-vulkan-backend:

2f5abf83 test(diligent): verify indexed DrawElements path from real frontend state
c31b7381 feat(diligent): add basic texture binding and textured state-draw test
8945c507 feat(diligent): clear depth in GL Clear when GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT set
558d3aea feat(diligent): add offscreen depth target and depth clear
7e2f0bc8 feat(diligent): wire stencil and color-mask state into state PSO
f99786f6 feat(diligent): wire viewport/scissor state into state draws
be4cc3ce feat(diligent): wire blend/depth/cull render state into state PSO
c855e6cf feat(diligent): verify state-driven draw with real MobileGL frontend state
02e60bfa feat(diligent): add state-driven draw path (VAO/buffer/program to Diligent)
a9515c92 feat(diligent): add dynamic vertex buffer upload path
2f57582a feat(diligent): wire Clear/Draw/Present into GLFunctionsTable
beb21123 feat(diligent): add real offscreen renderer with clear and triangle draw

Working tree is clean.

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3. Key Files

Backend core

• MobileGL/MG_Backend/Diligent/BackendObject_Diligent.h/.cpp
  • BackendObject_Diligent
  • Creates Diligent Vulkan device/context
  • Owns DiligentRenderer
  • Wires GLFunctionsTable:
    • Clear (color + depth)
    • DrawArrays
    • DrawElements
    • Present
• MobileGL/MG_Backend/Diligent/DiligentVulkan.h/.cpp
  • Backend identity helper / translation unit
• MobileGL/MG_Backend/Diligent/Renderer/DiligentRenderer.h/.cpp
  • Offscreen RGBA8 + D32F targets
  • Clear / ClearDepth / DrawTriangle / DrawVertices
  • CreateTestTexture (RGBA8 texture + SRV + sampler)
  • DrawFromState (main front-end emulation draw path)
  • CreatePipelineFromState:
    • SPIR-V → Diligent shaders via SPIRV-Reflect
    • VAO attributes → input layout
    • primitive topology from GL mode
    • blend / depth / cull / stencil / color-mask state
  • UploadVertexDataFromState:
    • packs enabled VAO attributes from BufferObject into interleaved vertex buffer
    • supports DrawArrays, DrawElements, triangle-fan and line-loop expansion
  • Static texture binding to g_Texture through PSO static variables + SRB

Integration changes

• CMakeLists.txt
  • New option MOBILEGL_ENABLE_DILIGENT (default ON for local)
  • DiligentCore added after glslang/SPIRV-Cross/xxHash/Vulkan-Headers so it reuses existing CMake targets
  • Diligent static libraries linked into MobileGL / MobileGL_s
  • New Diligent backend sources added
• MobileGL/MG_Backend/BackendObject.h
  • New BackendType::DiligentVulkan
• MobileGL/MG_Backend/Init.cpp
  • New backend switch case
• MobileGL/ConfigLoader.cpp
  • MOBILEGL_BACKEND_TYPE=DiligentVulkan accepted
• MobileGL/MG_Test/CMakeLists.txt
  • New MobileGL/MG_Test/Backend/Diligent subdirectory
• MobileGL/MG_Test/Backend/Diligent/
  • CMakeLists.txt
  • SanityTest.cpp

Local test files

• MobileGL/MG_Test/Backend/Diligent/SanityTest.cpp
  • CreatesDiligentDeviceAndAdvertisesGL32
  • ClearsAndDrawsTriangleOffscreen
  • DrawsFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsTexturedFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsIndexedFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsRealTexturedFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsUniformFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsToOffscreenFramebufferFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsWithScissorFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsWithBlendFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsWithDepthTestFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsNamedUniformBlockFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsWithStencilTestFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsToRenderbufferFramebufferFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsToMultipleColorAttachmentsFromMobileGLState
  • DrawsIndexedBaseVertexFromMobileGLState

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4. What Works Today

Verified locally on Turnip Adreno 750:

• Diligent device/context creation
• EGL window-surface swapchain creation path through Diligent ISwapChain (offscreen tests still use the offscreen target)
• GL 3.2 / GLSL 1.50 capability advertisement
• Offscreen color + depth rendering
• Clear color and depth
• Real mobilegl front-end state-driven drawing:
  • Program SPIR-V → Diligent shaders
  • VAO attributes + bound GL buffer → interleaved vertex buffer
  • DrawArrays path
  • DrawElements path (index buffer)
• Texture basics:
  • Offscreen texture creation
  • CPU → Diligent texture (CreateTestTexture)
  • Static sampler2D binding to g_Texture
  • Textured draw test passes
• Render state:
  • Blend enable/factors/equations
  • Stencil clear + test enabled on a D24S8 default depth/stencil target
  • Depth test enable/func/write mask
  • Cull face enable/mode/front-face winding
  • Stencil test enable/masks/ops/func/ref
  • Color write mask
  • Viewport
  • Scissor rect
• Texture/sampler full integration:
  • ITextureObject → Diligent ITexture + SRV with automatic dirty upload
  • SamplerObject / texture-object sampler → Diligent ISampler
  • Real front-end glTexImage2D path (not only CreateTestTexture) verified
• Global UBO upload:
  • Front-end glUniform* shadow → Diligent uniform buffer bound as MGL_GLOBAL_UBO
• User framebuffer mapping:
  • Current draw/read FBO resolves texture attachments to Diligent RTV/DSV
  • ReadPixels can read back from a user FBO color attachment
• More GL entry points wired:
  • DrawRangeElements / DrawRangeElementsBaseVertex
  • DrawElementsBaseVertex with real baseVertex selection
  • MultiDrawArrays / MultiDrawElements / MultiDrawElementsBaseVertex
  • DrawArraysInstanced / DrawElementsInstanced family
  • Indirect draw CPU fallback: DrawArraysIndirect, DrawElementsIndirect, MultiDraw*Indirect, *IndirectCount
  • ClearBufferfv / ClearBufferfi / ClearBufferiv / ClearBufferuiv (incl. stencil clear)
  • BlitFramebuffer / BlitNamedFramebuffer (same-size color copy between read/draw FBOs)
  • CopyTexImage2D / CopyTexSubImage2D (whole-color copy fallback)
  • CopyImageSubData (whole-texture copy between two texture objects)
  • GenerateMipmap (Diligent GPU mip generation on state textures)
  • GetTexImage / GetTextureImage (RGBA8 readback)
  • Fence sync entries (FenceSync / ClientWaitSync / WaitSync / DeleteSync / GetSyncStatus) as CPU always-signaled fallback
  • Timer query entries (BeginTimeElapsedQuery / EndTimeElapsedQuery / QueryCounterTimestamp / GetQueryResult64 etc.) as CPU steady_clock fallback
  • ReadPixels from default and user color attachments
• Primitive expansion:
  • GL_TRIANGLE_FAN expanded to triangle list
  • GL_LINE_LOOP expanded to line strip
• Local test result:

[  PASSED  ] 16 tests

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5. How to Build and Run Locally

From repo root ~/MobileGL-dev:

cmake -S . -B build-diligent -G Ninja \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug \
  -DMOBILEGL_ENABLE_DILIGENT=ON \
  -DMOBILEGL_BUILD_TEST=ON \
  -DMOBILEGL_BUILD_BENCHMARK=OFF \
  -DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_GOOGLETEST="$PWD/3rdparty/DiligentCore/ThirdParty/googletest"

cmake --build build-diligent --target DiligentVulkanSanityTest -j 4

./build-diligent/MobileGL/MG_Test/Backend/Diligent/DiligentVulkanSanityTest --gtest_color=no

Notes:

• MOBILEGL_BUILD_BENCHMARK=OFF avoids network fetch of google/benchmark in this environment.
• FETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_GOOGLETEST pins googletest to DiligentCore's bundled copy, avoiding flaky network clone.
• Max 4 cores is intentional: use -j 4.

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6. Environment Notes

• Host: Linux aarch64, glibc 2.43 (Fedora container on Android/Droidspaces)
• GPU: Turnip Adreno 750, Vulkan API 1.4.354
• GPU nodes available:
  • /dev/dri/renderD128
  • /dev/kgsl-3d0
• Android SDK/NDK: ~/android-sdk (aarch64 glibc)
  • NDK 27.3.13750724
  • CMake 3.22.1
• JDK/Gradle for APK builds:
  • ~/android-build-tools/jdk17
  • ~/android-build-tools/gradle/gradle-8.10.2

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7. Known Limitations / Not Yet Implemented

• User framebuffers now support texture color attachments, renderbuffer color readback, multiple simultaneous color targets, and depth/stencil texture or renderbuffer attachments.
• Textures auto-sync ITextureObject → Diligent resources, including mip levels and sampler state; compressed textures and integer/3-channel formats that Diligent lacks are still skipped.
• Global UBO (default-block glUniform*) and named application UBO blocks (through glBindBufferBase/glUniformBlockBinding) now upload and bind; SSBOs are still not fed from frontend buffer bindings.
• Swapchain creation is now wired for native EGL window surfaces via Diligent::ISwapChain; Present() presents the active swap chain when present and otherwise flushes the offscreen target. Actual on-screen EGL presentation is still untested in this headless environment, and the X11 display/connection fields are not yet plumbed through WindowHandle. SetSwapInterval remains a no-op.
• No transform feedback / GPU-accelerated queries / non-color readback; fence sync and timer queries use CPU fallbacks.
• Draw range, multi-draw, instanced-draw wrappers, clear-buffer, blit, read-pixels, CopyTexImage*, CopyImageSubData, GenerateMipmap, GetTexImage/GetTextureImage and indirect draws are now wired; buffer subdata paths still remain.
• A last-PSO cache now avoids recreating the pipeline when program/render-state/topology/VAO layout is unchanged; texture/UBO resources are still rebound dynamically per draw.
• The GLFunctionsTable is only partially populated.

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8. Recommended Next Steps

1. Framebuffer / Renderbuffer mapping

   • Map MG_State::GLState::FramebufferObject attachments to Diligent ITextureView / ITexture.
   • Support default framebuffer as current offscreen target.
   • Support glBindFramebuffer, glFramebufferTexture2D, renderbuffer color/depth attachments and renderbuffer color readback.
   • Multiple simultaneous color attachments.

2. Texture / Sampler full integration

   • Translate MobileGL ITextureObject to Diligent ITexture and cache by GetLifetimeId().
   • Propagate texture unit bindings into the PSO SRB.
   • Translate SamplerObject state into Diligent SamplerDesc.

3. Uniform / UBO support

   • Create Diligent buffer for ProgramObject::GetUBOData() / GetUBOSize().
   • Bind the global UBO as a dynamic shader resource.
   • Handle per-program uniform block bindings / named UBO blocks.

4. PSO / resource caching

   • [~] Cache PSOs by program + VAO config + render state + topology (single last-PSO fast path).
   • [~] Cache textures and samplers; buffers/SRBs can still be re-bound per draw.

5. More GL 3.2 entry points

   • DrawRangeElements
   • MultiDraw*
   • BlitFramebuffer (same-size color copy)
   • ReadPixels from non-default framebuffer
   • CopyTexImage* / CopyImageSubData wired as whole-resource copies
   • GetTexImage / GetTextureImage (RGBA8)
   • Indirect draws (CPU fallback)

6. Expand local test suite

   • Scissor test
   • Blend test
   • Texture filtering / sampler state test
   • framebuffer offscreen render-to-texture test
   • Depth test visual test
   • Stencil test

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9. Handoff Notes for Next Agent

• Do not reference origin/Deprecated/Feat/Diligent; that old implementation is intentionally ignored.
• Work from this branch, keep tests green.
• The command ./build-diligent/.../DiligentVulkanSanityTest runs all 5 Diligent tests.
• If a new test crashes during shader resource binding, remember Diligent texture SRVs need a sampler attached via ITextureView::SetSampler() before InitializeStaticSRBResources().
• When re-creating a PSO or buffer, call Release() (or assign nullptr) before the create call to avoid Diligent debug “Overwriting reference” assertions.