#Tell if gpu supports opengl 4.3 software#
#Tell if gpu supports opengl 4.3 license#
#Tell if gpu supports opengl 4.3 free#

The larger block size not only allows for higher compression ratios, but it also offers developers a much finer grained range of compression ratios to work with compared to previous texture compression formats. Rather ASTC has a fixed size of 128bits (16 bytes) with a variable size block ranging from 4x4 to 12x12, in effect offering RGBA compression ratios from 8bpp (4:1) all the way up to an incredible 0.89bpp (36:1). ASTCвЂ™s primary trick is that unlike other block based texture compression formats, it is not based around a fixed size 4x4 texel block.

While ASTC is another block based texture compression format, it does have some very interesting functionality that pushes it beyond S3TC or any other previous texture compression format.

#Tell if gpu supports opengl 4.3 free#

The end result is that the industry is ripe for a royalty free next generation texture compression format, and ARM + NVIDIA intend to deliver on that with the backing of Khronos.

#Tell if gpu supports opengl 4.3 license#

Then of course thereвЂ™s the matter trying to convince holders of these compression methods to freely license them for inclusion in OpenGL, when S3/VIA has over the years made a tidy profit off of S3TCвЂ™s inclusion in Direct3D. And while Imagination Technologies in particular has an interesting method in PVRTC that unlike the other formats is not block based вЂ“ and thereby can offer a 2bpp (16:1) compression ratio вЂ“ it has its own pros and cons. Meanwhile in the mobile space weвЂ™ve seen the industryвЂ™s respective GPU manufacturers create their own texture compression formats to get around the fact that S3TC is not royalty free (and as such canвЂ™t be included in OpenGL). BC7 in turn is a high quality but lower compression ratio algorithm that solves the gradient issues S3TC faces, but for a 24bit RGB texture itвЂ™s only a 3:1 compression ratio versus 6:1 for S3TC (32bit RGBA fares better both are 4:1).ДЄSTC Image Quality Comparison: Original, 4x4 (8bpp), 6ењ† (3.56bpp), & 8x8 (2bpp) block size In the Direct3D world where S3TC is standard, weвЂ™ve seen Microsoft add specialized formats for normal maps and other texture types that are not color maps, but only relatively recently did they add another color map compression method with BC7. So what makes ASTC next-generation anyhow? Since the introduction of S3TC in the 90s, various parties have been attempting to improve on texture compression with limited results. Only once all parties are satisfied with ASTC to the point that itвЂ™s ready to be implemented into hardware can it meaningfully be moved into the core OpenGL specifications.

#Tell if gpu supports opengl 4.3 software#

In the meantime Khronos is introducing it as an optional feature of OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 4.3 in order to solicit feedback from hardware and software developers. ASTC was the winning proposal in Khronos's search for a next-generation texture compression format, with the ARM/AMD bloc beating out NVIDIA and their ZIL proposal.ДЄs the winning proposal in that search, if all goes according to plan ASTC will eventually become OpenGL and OpenGL ESвЂ™s mandatory next generation texture compression algorithm.

The reward at the end of that quest is Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression (ASTC), a new texture compression format first introduced by ARM in late in 2011. So while Khronos has ETC right now, in the future they want better texture compression and are now taking the first steps to make that happen.

At the same time however, the ETC format itself is approaching several years old, and not unlike S3TC itвЂ™s only designed for a limited number of cases. As weвЂ™ve noted in our rundowns of OpenGL and OpenGL ES, the inclusion of ETC texture compression support as part of the core OpenGL standards has finally given OpenGL a standard texture compression format after a number of years.