Plus, there is a large spectrum of OpenGL support, with OpenGL 2.1 containing a fraction of the features of OpenGL 4.6. For the most part, those desktops use OpenGL, so supporting OpenGL first made more sense to us than diving into the Vulkan deep end, only to use Zink to translate OpenGL 2 to Vulkan to run desktops. We estimated that we could ship working OpenGL 2 drivers much sooner than a working Vulkan 1.0 driver, and we wanted to get hardware accelerated desktops into your hands as soon as possible. Most of the work we’re putting toward OpenGL will be reused for Vulkan.

What about Vulkan? We’re working on it! Although we’re only shipping OpenGL right now, we’re designing with Vulkan in mind. Work on these features is well under way, but they will each take a great deal of additional development effort, and all are needed before OpenGL (ES) 3.0 is available. OpenGL (ES) 3 brings with it a slew of new features, like multiple render targets, multisampling, and transform feedback. While OpenGL (ES) 2 suffices for some applications, newer ones (especially games) demand more OpenGL features. What’s next? Supporting more applications. Please note: these drivers have not yet passed the OpenGL (ES) conformance tests.

While there’s always room for improvement, the driver is fast enough to run all of the above at 60 frames per second at 4K. It’s also enough for older 3D games, like Quake3 and Neverball. That’s enough for hardware acceleration with desktop environments, like GNOME and KDE. This release features work-in-progress OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support for all current Apple M-series systems. Read on to find out more about the state of things today, how to install it (it’s an opt-in package), and how to report bugs! This is still an alpha driver, but it’s already good enough to run a smooth desktop experience and some games. We’ve been working hard over the past two years to bring this new driver to everyone, and we’re really proud to finally be here. Hello everyone! We’re excited to announce our first public Apple Silicon GPU driver release!

Multiple render targets opengl es 2.0