Android glShaderBinary

Question

Like this question , but for Android:

Android GLES20 supports the glShaderBinary method, which based on this giles documentation will load precompiled shader binaries. However, I cannot find a way to recompile any binaries. When I call GLES20.glGetIntegerv with the parameter name GLES20.GL_NUM_SHADER_BINARY_FORMATS , it indicates (at least to the device under test) that there is one binary shader format available. I just don't know how to use it.

Answer 1

Binary shader formats are vendor specific. For every other vendor, there is a different mechanism for compiling shaders into a binary file. Therefore, to support most Android devices, you either need to compile the shaders for a specific provider offline, or do it online (using the GL_OES_get_program binary extension) and, of course, also provide the glsl source as a reserve.

Here is a list of the OpenGL ES 2.0 SDK from some of the popular GPU manufacturers. It either includes the standalone GLSL shader compiler, or the GLSL binary shader documentation:

• ARM Mali OpenGL ES 2.0 SDK - used, for example, in the Galaxy S II
• Qualcomm Adreno SDK - used, for example, in the Nexus One, HTC Desire, HTC Legend
• ImgTec PowerVR Insider SDK - used, for example, in the Galaxy Nexus, LG Optimus 3D, Galaxy Tab

ARM Mali provides a malisc that can compile shaders on the command line of your host.

Qualcomm Adreno actually allows you to get the GLSL shader binary code at runtime using glGetProgramBinaryOES , but not offline. At least that's what the documents in the Adreno SDK say.

The PowerVR SDK also claims that its GPU allows you to get the GLSL shader binary code at runtime using glGetProgramBinaryOES .

Function

glGetProgramBinaryOES comes from the GL_OES_get_program_binary extension .