Re: [PATCH] mesa: potentially enable texture float for gallium

[Richard Purdie <richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Fri, 2017-05-26 at 17:22 -0400, Trevor Woerner wrote:
> Somewhere along the path from OpenGL ES 2.0 to OpenGL ES 3.0 are some
> algorithms that are encumbered by patents. These algorithms are
> enabled with
> mesa's --enable-texture-float configure flag. However, if hardware
> acceleration is being used and the hardware supports --enable-
> texture-float,
> it means the hardware vendor has paid for the patents.
> 
> This patch will add --enable-texture-float for any hardware-backed
> gallium
> mesa driver. In other words, if you are only using the software
> backup
> (swrast) you'll need to enable this flag if you know what you're
> doing (which
> assumes you are complying with the patent). Otherwise we enable this
> flag so
> the software can take full advantage of the hardware.

Does this handle the case where the driver may or may not run on a
platform with the relevant hardware? Some platforms add swrast as well
as hardware acceleration which based on what I read above, may breach
patents depending on which hardware its run on?

Cheers,

Richard