EGL (API)

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EGL (OpenGL)
Original author(s) Khronos Group
Developer(s) Khronos Group
Stable release 1.4[1] / April 6, 2011 (2011-04-06)
Written in C
Operating system Cross-platform
Platform Cross-platform
Type API
Website www.khronos.org

EGL is an interface between Khronos rendering APIs (such as OpenGL, OpenGL ES or OpenVG) and the underlying native platform windowing system. EGL handles graphics context management, surface/buffer binding, rendering synchronization, and enables "high-performance, accelerated, mixed-mode 2D and 3D rendering using other Khronos APIs."[2] EGL is managed by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group.

The acronym EGL is an initialism, which starting from EGL version 1.2 refers to Khronos Native Platform Graphics Interface.[3] Prior to version 1.2, the name of the EGL specification was OpenGL ES Native Platform Graphics Interface.[4] X.org development documentation glossary defines EGL as "Embedded-System Graphics Library".[5]

Adoption

As interface between OpenGL ES or OpenVG and the underlying windowing system, EGL has found wide adoption

The Linux graphic stack
Wayland clients use EGL to directly draw into the framebuffer

The display server sits between the kernel (here: Linux kernel) and its clients. It communicates with its clients over a given protocol.

Wayland display server protocol
The free implementations of the Wayland (display server protocol) rely upon the Mesa implementation of EGL. A special library called libwayland-EGL was written to accommodate the access to the framebuffer
  • The Android mobile device operating system uses EGL for 3D graphics rendering.[6]
  • The Wayland display server protocol uses EGL.[7] It is implemented in a way that Wayland clients will draw directly to the framebuffer using EGL.
  • Mesa 3D has an implementation of EGL formerly known as Eagle.[8]
  • The Mir display server protocol by Canonical Ltd. uses EGL.[9]
  • The Simple DirectMedia Layer toolkit has been ported to use EGL. It can use Xlib, write directly to the framebuffer or use EGL.
  • The Raspberry Pi single-board computer has an EGL interface to hardware-accelerated 3D graphics rendering.[10]
  • The proprietary Nvidia driver 331.13 BETA from 4 October 2013 supports the EGL API.[11]

Implementations

See also

  • WGL – the equivalent Microsoft Windows interface to OpenGL
  • CGL – the equivalent Mac OS X interface to OpenGL
  • GLX – the equivalent X11 interface to OpenGL
  • AIGLX – an attempt to accelerate GLX

References

  1. ↑ Khronos EGL API Registry
  2. ↑ EGL Overview
  3. ↑ EGL 1.2 Specification
  4. ↑ EGL 1.0 Specification
  5. ↑ EGL in X.org development documentation glossary
  6. ↑ http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-2.3-highlights.html
  7. ↑ http://ppaalanen.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-does-egl-do-in-wayland-stack.html
  8. ↑ Mesa EGL
  9. ↑ https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MirSpec
  10. ↑ http://elinux.org/RPi_VideoCore_APIs
  11. ↑ "Added support for the EGL API on 32-bit platforms. Currently, the supported client APIs are OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0, and the only supported window system backend is X11.". 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-05. 

External links

  • EGL Home Page at khronos.org
Standards of the Khronos Group
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