BZLZHH f2d210b12d [Perf] (MG_Backend): memoise DirectVulkan's per-draw vertex binding resolution
Every draw re-resolved its whole vertex binding array: for each enabled binding,
look up the buffer, acquire a slice from the buffer manager, apply the binding's
base offset, fill the VkBuffer and offset arrays, bind. In the Minecraft-shaped
benchmark the same few hundred vertex array objects cycle for the whole run and
each one's answer is stable, so UploadAndBindVertexBuffers was the single largest
cost in the backend at 7.9% of the render thread, with AcquireResidentSlice
another 3.8% underneath it.

The resolved array is now kept per vertex array object and revalidated instead of
rebuilt. Validation is two-tier. The vertex array's own configuration version
already invalidates its backend vertex-input state, so a changed attribute,
format, buffer or base offset yields a different state object - the memo compares
both that object's address and its hash, which mixes the bound buffers and the
whole layout. What that does not cover is the slice moving underneath an
unchanged configuration, so the buffer manager now carries a monotonic epoch that
every writer of slice-deciding state bumps: resident storage creation, respecify,
sub-data, flush of a mapped range, the promotion and demotion between streamed
and resident storage, each fresh arena allocation, and bulk release. The counter
is manager-wide and never reset, so a resource created at a recycled address
cannot reproduce a value some memo still holds.

The miss path was the thing to get right, because the previous attempt in this
area regressed the texture-upload and sampler-churn cases by 60-85%: it added a
verification pass that re-ran the resolution work it was trying to skip, so every
miss paid for it twice. Here a miss is one pointer-keyed lookup and a few stores,
and nothing else runs that the full path would not have run anyway.

ns per draw, DriverBench on a GTX 1660 SUPER: mc_ubo_range 924 -> 767,
mc_vanilla_draw 1346 -> 1227, mc_sampler_churn 1397 -> 1279,
mc_sodium_multidraw 3365 -> 3266. Magma is now 4.1x the native driver on the
per-draw uniform-range case, from 5.4x when this round started. No case
regressed on either backend.

Unit tests 421/421.
2026-08-06 09:24:08 -04:00

MobileGL

C++ GNU LGPL 3.0 Development

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:

  1. MG_State — state tracking and management logic for Graphics APIs.
  2. MG_Impl — front-end implementations of Graphics APIs that interact with MG_State and MG_Backend.
  3. 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).
  4. MG_Util and other utility modules.

Third-party components

MobileGL reuses several open-source projects:

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_State and MG_Impl for OpenGL 4.2 (Core Profile)
    • Direct (Vulkan) backend
    • Direct (OpenGL ES) backend

Build Instructions

We currently provide no releases and no precompiled binaries.
If you want to try the project right now, youll need to build it yourself:

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/MobileGL-Dev/MobileGL.git
    
  2. Initialize and update all submodules recursively:

    git submodule update --init --recursive
    
  3. Follow glslangs own documentation for its required initiation.

  4. Configure and build the project with CMake:

    cmake -B build
    cmake --build build
    

    or do it in a modern way:

    cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++
    cmake --build build
    

    Alternatively, 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_Test and MG_Benchmark can 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 164 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.

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