LunarG
IndustrySoftware industry, computer graphics
Founded2009 (2009)
HeadquartersColorado, United States[1]
Websitelunarg.com

LunarG is a software company specializing in device driver development for video cards.

History

In 2001, Jens Owen cofounded Tungsten Graphics,[2] a software company working on video card drivers, which among other things, developed the Gallium3D framework for graphics drivers. The company was acquired by VMware in 2008;[3] a year later, Jens Owen along with Alan Ward founded LunarG to continue this work.[4]

In November 2015, LunarG announced that the company is splitting into two groups. The desktop group, funded by Valve, will continue as LunarG. The mobile group will move to Google, presumably to work on Vulkan support on Android.[5][6] This split follows Google's announcement from August 2015 that Vulkan would be supported by the Android platform.[7]

Projects

LunarG is developing tools and infrastructure for the Vulkan graphics API, designed to be the successor for OpenGL,[8] with sponsorship from Valve. This includes an open source SDK for Vulkan, released together with the finalised Vulkan 1.0 specification. This SDK includes tools for developing Vulkan applications on Windows and Linux, including the official Khronos driver loader, validation layers, debugging and tracing tools.[9][10] During the development of the Vulkan standard, LunarG independently developed a Vulkan-compatible runtime and driver for Intel HD Graphics chips,[11][12] although the official driver is developed by Intel.[13][14]

Since 2014, LunarG is working with Valve to improve the graphics driver stack on Linux, in particular, Mesa[15][16] and the driver for Intel HD Graphics.[17][18] As a showcase, they also developed a separate unofficial driver for HD Graphics called the "ILO", based on Gallium3D.[19][20]

References

  1. ↑ "LunarG, Inc. business registration records". Colorado Secretary of State. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Brian Paul. "Mesa Introduction". mesa3d.org.
  3. ↑ David Marshall (16 December 2008). "VMware's year end acquisition of Tungsten Graphics". InfoWorld.
  4. ↑ Michael Larabel (18 October 2013). "LunarG Pushes Forward To Advance Open-Source Graphics". Phoronix.
  5. ↑ Michael Crider (25 November 2015). "Google Hires A Dedicated Team To Implement Support For The Vulkan Graphics API In Upcoming Versions Of Android". Android Police.
  6. ↑ Michael Larabel (11 November 2016). "Vulkan Experts LunarG Split Into Two, Mobile Guys Head To Google". Phoronix.
  7. ↑ Andrew Cunningham (10 August 2015). "Google goes with Vulkan as Android's low-overhead graphics API". Ars Technica.
  8. ↑ Tim Anderson (3 March 2015). "Here comes Vulkan: The next generation of the OpenGL graphics API". The Register.
  9. ↑ Ryan Smith (16 February 2016). "Vulkan 1.0 Specification Released: Drivers & Games Inbound". AnandTech.
  10. ↑ Brian Hoss (19 February 2016). "Graphics Shake-Up: Vulkan API Poised to Put More Rendering Power into Developers' Hands". High-Def Digest.
  11. ↑ Michael Larabel (3 April 2015). "How Open-Source Allowed Valve To Implement VULKAN Much Faster On The Source 2 Engine". Phoronix.
  12. ↑ Nick Farrell (6 March 2015). "Valve develops its own Intel graphics driver for Linux". fudzilla.com.
  13. ↑ Michael Larabel (16 February 2016). "Mesa Vulkan Branch Published For Intel Linux Support". Phoronix.
  14. ↑ Chris Hoffman (22 February 2016). "Valve's SteamOS now supports Vulkan, the cross-platform alternative to DirectX 12". PCWorld.
  15. ↑ "Valve Sponsored Mesa OpenGL Improvements Significantly Reduce Loading Times on Linux Games". gameskinny.com. 6 May 2014.
  16. ↑ "Valve fördert Verbesserungen an freien Grafiktreibern für Linux". heise.de. 11 June 2014.
  17. ↑ Silviu Stahie (6 November 2014). "Massive 20% Improvement to Land in Intel's Mesa Driver Thanks to Valve's Efforts". Softpedia.
  18. ↑ Ferdinand Thommes (6 November 2014). "Linux-Grafiktreiber: Intel erfährt dank LunarG massive Leistungssteigerung". ComputerBase.
  19. ↑ Michael Larabel (23 February 2014). "Intel Gallium3D Driver Continues Advancing". Phoronix.
  20. ↑ Michael Larabel (13 June 2014). "LunarG ILO Gallium3D vs. Intel's DRI Driver On Mesa 10.3-devel". Phoronix.
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