OpenGL dependencies APP for MacOS after Mac OS Mojave

Hi Marc @marc_theunissen,

Thank's for sharing, I am aware.

If OpenGL is not available on a system, APP will use a non-OpenGL image viewer, which is the same as used on APP 1.061 and older, which will work on all systems.

As I understand it right now, the OpenGL development headers will soon disappear for Apple developers, which prohibits them from creating OpenGL enabled applications on MacOS using Apple's development environment.

I don't think this will mean that OpenGL will completely be removed from the graphical drivers installed on any Mac. Since that would destroy backward compatibility of the new MacOS Mojave with a lot ! of legacy applications still used by ltos of MacOS users... Do you know if this is the case as well? To me, that would be quite a strange to do.

To run an OpenGL enabled application on a Mac or any other OS, only requires that the graphical drivers are OpenGL enabled. You don't need the development headers and I have never used those since I don't use Apple's development environment (yet).

I am aware that OpenGL has a successor in Vulkan, which apparently Apple is trying to block to be used on MacOS in favor of their in-house Metal. Perhaps you can share some insights on this as well if you have read about this?

Off course, I want APP to have an Image Viewer that uses the latest technology and I have been studying on this lately. The OpenGL image viewer introduced in APP 1.062 has learned me a lot. For me and APP, Vulkan would be the logical step for the next upgrade as far as image data drawing is concerned, but perhaps that won't be possible.

Any insight that you can share on this is highly appreciated Marc.

Cheers,

Mabula

Hi Marc @marc_theunissen, 

I have done some web searches to try to find more information.

From what I can gather:

• OpenGL en OpenCL enabled application will still function for considerable time to come on MacOS. The OpenGL, OpenCL graphical drivers won't be removed in Mojave. They might be removed in it's successor, but time will tell and Apple is definitely not clear on this. This is obviously upsetting a lot of developers from what I can gather. If the drivers are removed, it will break a lot of applications and a lot of developers will probably not release their applications  on Mac anymore. The development community is much happier with cross platfrom technology...
• Development of OpenGL and OpenCL won't be possible in Mojave, but only for developers that use Apple's development platform due to missing development headers. Most application builders work cross-platform so they don't use it. Building OpenGL & OpenCL applications in other development environments for MacOS will still be possible. No problem there.

I think we need to monitor closely what will happen in due time.

Mabula

Hi Mabula,

Knowing Apple I wouldn't be surprised if they try to push the market and drop OpenGL support and availability completely in Mojave's successor. 

However:

https://moltengl.com

there are other ways around. In the meantime, we'll just have to wait.

Marc

Hi Marc @marc_theunissen,

Yes, I wouldn't be surprised as well.

Thank you for sharing the Molten framework, I wasn't aware of it's existence.

At first glance, this might be a good solution and easy to adjust for MacOS if openGL is completely dropped....

It would even be more great if such a framework exists for OpenCL. I was already testing OpenCL for running algortihms on the GPU...

Mabula