Scali wrote:I suppose you are not familiar with what ICD is: Installable Client Driver.
See here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hard … e-client-driver
The default OpenGL32.dll runtime is indeed written by Microsoft, and it acts as a sort of 'proxy'. Applications are linked to this opengl32.dll, and this DLL will scan through the registry for ICDs, and forward the calls to a compatible driver (you'll find that the actual OpenGL driver for your graphics card is not usually called opengl32.dll at all).
Yes thanks, I know what an ICD is 😉. My point is that when there is no ICD installed... it falls back to the default implementation, which is written and supplied by Microsoft and is a 'Client Driver' in it's own right. Installed as part of Windows default installation.
To quote nVidia on this matter, who know a lot more than me...
The opengl32.dll and opengl32.lib come from Microsoft and you need to link against that.
The DLL contains Microsoft's software OpenGL 1.1 implementation as well as the mechanism to load OpenGL "Installable Client Drivers" (ICD) which get installed on your system along with the display drivers for your graphics board. These vendor specific ICDs implement newer OpenGL versions for your GPU.
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/9113 … driver-package/
This has been my understanding too since working with GL on windows, that OpenGL32.dll is not only the 'proxy', but also the software renderer. Not that I have had to deal with the software renderer for eons… so it may be different now…but I don't think M$ really care, so its probably the same thing it has been for a while?
Scali wrote:As far as I know, Microsoft never had a GL->Direct3D wrapper in any version of Windows, and only had a software renderer. The only GL->Direct3D wrappers I know of, were third-party, like SciTech GLDirect.
tbh, that link in my previous post was the first I have ever heard of it too, and since it's Khronos, I'm kinda inclined to believe them. Thing is, the situation that this would occur is pretty non-existent these days, we are talking about OpenGL support in Windows without any other display driver (ICD) installed. Which I can't see as happening as I'm sure most GPU's in the last 20 years have had some form of support for GL. And only masochists try to get on with work without a the ICD for their system these days... don't know many of them 🤣
silikone wrote:spiroyster wrote:
You really have a quarrel with Microsoft, don't you?
No more than others 🤣. Thats been a tongue'n'cheek reference to Micorsoft since I've been working on the windows platform... heck I even know VB6 devs (who lurves Micorsoft) call it that.
Truth be told, if I had a quarrel with them... the post would be NSFW.