OpenGL 4.6 backend - is maybe planned in future ?

[Lupin]

 

Maybe I missed something, so I would like to ask if Ultra, in addition to Vulkan, has a planned OpenGL 4.6 backend ?
I wouldn't have bothered you with this question if I hadn't noticed the mention in the thread:

Quote

... it looks like OpenGL 4.6 gives AMD a major performance boost and runs about the same as Vulkan on Nvidia cards in these tests.

Personally I think that such an "legacy" backend would be a reasonable addition. This would provide the potential ability to run applications on a wider hardware base, so engine would therefore be an solution not only for games requiring high performance, but also for casual indie games, including retro-style.

Anyway, if this is indeed the plan, would it be possible in future to select/force the engine to use a specific backend on initialization (something like: use OpenGL, Vulkan or Auto/default)?

 

 

[SpiderPig]

Ultra 0.9.5 currently uses OpenGL 4.6.

[Lupin]

Really? A nice surprise, I must have missed some memo... ;-)
Is this currently the default backend or only for Intel/AMD? My point is that I would personally prefer OGL on NVidia as well due to the pre-GTX 9xx models (if it were possible, OGL 4.6 is supported from 14-year old 4xx).

[Josh]

OpenGL 4.6 is the only renderer in version 0.9.5. I talked about it for an hour in this video:

To support older hardware, I just need to write one alternative code path for systems that don't support bindless textures. OpenGL 4.6 support goes all the way back to:

• Nvidia GEForce 420
• AMD Radeon RX 5300M
• Intel HD Graphics 520

[Lupin]

Thanks for the explanation, I feel embarrassed that I haven't followed the news for a while.
I watched the video, it's great stuff and I'm really glad that the engine went in this direction.