Bug 35425 - Instanced drawing: not implemented
Summary: Instanced drawing: not implemented
Status: RESOLVED NOTOURBUG
Alias: None
Product: Mesa
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Mesa core (show other bugs)
Version: git
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium enhancement
Assignee: mesa-dev
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-03-18 09:26 UTC by s3734770
Modified: 2011-04-11 10:11 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
i915 platform:
i915 features:


Attachments
Probable patch (2.10 KB, patch)
2011-04-07 01:56 UTC, s3734770
Details | Splinter Review

Description s3734770 2011-03-18 09:26:02 UTC
The follwing output is from the Unigine Heaven Demo:

0:171(53): error: `gl_InstanceID' undeclared
0:171(76): error: Operands to arithmetic operators must be numeric
0:171(76): error: Operands to arithmetic operators must be numeric
0:199(39): error: `gl_InstanceID' undeclared
0:199(42): error: Operands to arithmetic operators must be numeric
0:199(19): error: cannot construct `ivec3' from a non-numeric data type
0:199(58): error: Operands to arithmetic operators must be numeric
GLShader::loadVertex(): error in "core/shaders/meshes/vertex_base.shader" file
defines: UNKNOWN,QUALITY_LOW,QUALITY_MEDIUM,QUALITY_HIGH,MULTISAMPLE_0,USE_INSTANCING,USE_SRGB,USE_DEFERRED,USE_PARALLAX,USE_REFLECTION,OPENGL,USE_PSEUDO_INSTANCING,USE_PSEUDO_TRANSFORM,HAS_ARB_DRAW_INSTANCED,BASE_LIGHT_OMNI,OMNI,SHADOW,PHONG_RIM

(This also occurs on software rendering)

I know that instancing is not implemented in mesa yet. Can you please start designing the interface for mesa/gallium's drivers to enable starting to write the drivers for it?
Comment 1 s3734770 2011-04-07 01:12:01 UTC
The PipeCap for instanced drawing is available, the drivers implement them, TGSI has the construct TGSI_SEMANTIC_INSTANCEID.

The only component that does not support instanced drawing is the GLSL compiler.

So can please any of the GLSL guys implement the gl_InstanceID uniform?
Comment 2 s3734770 2011-04-07 01:56:16 UTC
Created attachment 45367 [details] [review]
Probable patch

This patch works for me, but i dont know if it fits the coding style, so take the best bytes of it to fix the problem
Comment 3 Ian Romanick 2011-04-07 12:57:06 UTC
The application is *BROKEN*.  gl_InstanceID is *NOT* part of GL_ARB_draw_instanced.  The correct name is gl_InstanceIDARB.  Look at the spec (http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/ARB/draw_instanced.txt).  I'm not going to deviate from the spec to work around broken apps.

The name gl_InstanceID comes from either GLSL 1.40 or GL_EXT_gpu_shader4.  We don't support either of those.  The GL_EXT_draw_instanced spec even mentions this:

  (1) Should instanceID be provided by this extension, or should it be
      provided by EXT_gpu_shader4, thus creating a dependence on that
      spec?

        Resolved: While this extension could stand alone, its utility
        would be limited without the additional functionality provided
        by EXT_gpu_shader4; also, the spec language is cleaner if
        EXT_gpu_shader4 assumes instanceID is always available, even
        if its value is always zero without this extension.

I already NAKed this patch when it was posted to the mailing list.  See http://marc.info/?l=mesa3d-dev&m=130014281021091&w=2.  Here's what I said there:

NAK for a couple reasons.

This extension depends on EXT_gpu_shader4, which we don't support.
There's no #extension bit required for this extension because the GLSL
changes are implemented by EXT_gpu_shader4.  Without EXT_draw_instanced,
gl_InstanceID always reads 0.

Note that EXT_gpu_shader4 says that a #extension line is required to use
the features of the extension, including gl_InstanceID.  If their driver
allows gl_InstanceID without a #extension line, it is a bug in their driver.

If OilRush is trying to use EXT_gpu_shader4 features without enabling
EXT_gpu_shader4 (or at least checking for the extension!) or using GLSL
1.30, it's a bug in OilRush.

In addition, this patch enables gl_InstanceID even if the driver doesn't
support it.
Comment 4 Marek Olšák 2011-04-07 13:13:46 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)
> The application is *BROKEN*.  gl_InstanceID is *NOT* part of
> GL_ARB_draw_instanced.  The correct name is gl_InstanceIDARB.

Due to this, it would be safer not to advertise ARB_draw_instanced without EXT_gpu_shader4. I haven't seen an app that uses gl_InstanceIDARB when it should. All apps based on Unigine Engine check for ARB_draw_instanced and use gl_InstanceID.

It's pointless to follow the GL spec if no app follows it either.

My 2 eurocents.
Comment 5 s3734770 2011-04-08 08:46:07 UTC
I also share Marek Olšáks opinion.
The mesa driver is ment to be a 3D driver to play games and use 3D application and not to implement a paper-standard.
Just imagine what would happen if browsers would stop parsing if the document would not follow the strict XHTML 1.0 rules. Would you use such a browser?
Comment 6 Ian Romanick 2011-04-08 08:48:52 UTC
Your opinion is noted.
Comment 7 Ian Romanick 2011-04-08 12:28:20 UTC
The GL_ARB_draw_instanced spec is really broken.  In various ways, it does not match what any vendor ships.  The ARB is working on fixing the spec to match a subset of reality that is useful to developers.  Once consensus is reached, there will almost certainly be changes required to Mesa.

Here's a table of the known problems:

                                             AMD   Mesa   NVIDIA
-------------------------------------------+-----+------+-------
gl_InstanceIDARB must be available         | yes | yes  |  NO
-------------------------------------------+-----+------+-------
gl_InstanceID must not be available        | NO  | yes  |  NO
-------------------------------------------+-----+------+-------
Neither can be available if OpenGL 3.0 nor | N/A |  NO  |  N/A
GL_EXT_gpu_shader4 are not supported       |     |      |
-------------------------------------------+-----+------+-------

I'll reopen this bug once the spec issues are resolved.  My guess is that gl_InstanceID will be added and the GL 3.0 / GL_EXT_gpu_shader4 dependency will be dropped.  It is also possible that, alas, gl_InstanceIDARB will be removed too.  We'll see what happens.
Comment 8 s3734770 2011-04-11 10:11:33 UTC
You could apply the patch with the commit text "started implementing EXT_gpu_shader4 in GLSL: gl_InstanceID" (with some compatibility checks of course)


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