Steps 1 and 2 of the plan the design review set out, landed and measured on the
device. Step 1 answers the question step 2 depended on; step 2 answers the one the
whole line depended on, and the answer is that the window's shape is wrong.
STEP 1 - CAN AN ANSWER BE LOST IN DELIVERY? NO. ReplyPool now counts what the link
took (PostedReplies) and what it refused (FailedReplies), and a non-OK result is
NAMED instead of swallowed: it checked only BUFFER_TOO_SMALL and let
TRANSPORT_CLOSED vanish with no line and no counter, so "the server never sent it"
and "it was sent and the buffer overwrote it" were the same symptom with opposite
fixes. Measured: posted=4501 failed=0. The twenty-answer gap between the server's
tally and the client's was a sampling difference, not a drop - and the server's
m_answered counts ATTEMPTS (incremented before PostReply), which is why it could
never have settled it.
STEP 2 - DOES A RESIDENCY BUDGET FIX THE WINDOW? NO.
Wire_ResourceCreate now measures how many reply-owning records the client has
emitted since the oldest window entry was pushed (ClientSession::ReplyPostings, a
new clock) and takes the oldest answer back as soon as that approaches the reply
buffer's depth, instead of deferring past the point where the answer can still
exist. On the device:
P12win call=4501 cfg=2 eff=2 pending=2 taken=63 pushed=65 blocked=4435
budget=4451 readfail=8872 posts=54377
kind=frame-op frame=14 wait_replies=9078 by_op=2=9071 wall 27.87 s
budget=4451: it fires on essentially EVERY create, the window stops deferring
(pushed=65), and the drain still reads nothing back. THE REASON IS STRUCTURAL, not
a constant:
* the window only gets control WHEN A CREATE ARRIVES. Between two creates this
client emits on the order of a thousand records - at the FIRST failed read the
reply ring already spanned [1175..1504] while the head was seq 310 - and nothing
looks at the window in that gap;
* what displaces a deferred answer is not what this client emits, it is WHAT THE
SERVER ANSWERS. The server is the one behind (one answer per ~5 ms wakeup while
the client runs ahead), so the replies arriving during the gap are its LATE
ANSWERS TO THE EARLIER CREATES - they fill the 8 slots first;
* so the check fires too late by construction. Tightening it does not fix that; it
only removes the deferral entirely, which is what pushed=65 is.
WHAT THAT LEAVES. A deferral is readable only if the client KEEPS the answers it
deferred. The buffer is bounded by COUNT and the client cannot bound how many
answers the server will post between two of its creates, so hoping the buffer still
holds one is a race the client loses - which is also why the earlier two diagnoses
(reply-pool churn, then FIFO-with-no-way-out) were both describing symptoms of the
same thing. The shape that can work is retention: the reader keeps the answers for
the seqs still outstanding (a handful), drops them when read, and reports a LOSS
when a read asks for one it no longer has. That is a transport change - StreamLink's
ring becomes a retention map with a cap and a lost counter - and it is the next step.
BOTH STEPS STAY: step 1 is a net gain on its own, and step 2 is the safe direction
(it can only degrade the window to no-deferral, i.e. the pre-window shape) and its
clock is the one the retention design needs. MOBILEGL_IPC_CREATE_WINDOW stays at 1.
172/172 and 13/13 after the probes were removed. The measurements and the revised
conclusion are in notes/p12/CREATE-WINDOW-MEASURED.md section 9.
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
- flat_hash_map by Malte Skarupke - Boost Software License 1.0: 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_ESPRYT_USE_ANGLE |
Load ANGLE EGL/GLES libraries. | 0, 1 |
0 |
MOBILEGL_MAGMA_DISABLE_SUBGROUP |
Disable Vulkan shader subgroup support. | 0, 1 |
0 |
MOBILEGL_ADVERTISE_FP64 |
Advertise GL_ARB_gpu_shader_fp64. GLSL double/dvec/dmat compile and run either way - they are narrowed to 32 bits - so this only changes whether an application is told it has 64-bit precision, which it does not. |
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_ESPRYT_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 |
MOBILEGL_ESPRYT_FORCE_DS_READBACK_EMULATION |
Always emulate depth/stencil glReadPixels/glGetTexImage by shader sampling on Espryt, instead of using the driver's own depth/stencil readback where it has one. |
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.