Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library • Hacker News Board

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#11

Post by ajkjk » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:06 PM UTC

genmud wrote: post #3

Not trying to shit on anyone, but that screenshot reminds me of 1990s/early 2000's games. I'm sure there has been a ton of work that went into it, but having some better textures or highlighting the usability would go a long way. Just based on the screenshot, I am not sure that I would even bother to dig too deeply into the library.

I like it. It manages to be on the healthy side of the uncanny valley, so as to feel more like an actual inhabitable world instead of a disconcerting knock-off of the real world.

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#12

Post by tppiotrowski » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:07 PM UTC

Can someone explain the significance of this? I do WebGL development and I believe there is already an intermediate layer called Angle that WebGL compiles to. The Angle layer decouples the hardware from the software and allows hardware vendors to develop drivers that run Angle and shader languages to target Angle without the two needing to know anything about each other. (Not sure if that's right?)

This seems like another intermediate decoupling layer?

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#13

Post by jwpalmer6 » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:07 PM UTC

tambourine_man wrote: post #2

No mention of Metal

Supported platforms from the repo README:

  - Metal 2+
  - OpenGL 2.x (requires GL_ARB_framebuffer_object)
  - OpenGL 3.1+
  - OpenGL ES 2.0+
  - Vulkan 1.1 (requires VK_KHR_buffer_device_address and VK_EXT_descriptor_indexing)
  - WebGL 2.0

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#14

Post by carlosjobim » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:08 PM UTC

failuser wrote: post #10

genmud wrote: post #3

Not trying to shit on anyone, but that screenshot reminds me of 1990s/early 2000's games. I'm sure there has been a ton of work that went into it, but having some better textures or highlighting the usability would go a long way. Just based on the screenshot, I am not sure that I would even bother to dig too deeply into the library.

Now look at real 1990s/early 2000’s screenshots. You memory is deceiving you. This screenshot is far from current AAA games, but there is no way to render such a scene in a game made for 2000 hardware.

Unreal and Quake engines handled light and textures far better than that.

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#15

Post by topspin » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:08 PM UTC

mknapper1 wrote: post #7

tambourine_man wrote: post #2

No mention of Metal

Metal is supported, it’s mentioned in the GitHub readme. https://github.com/facebook/igl

"IGL is designed to support multiple backends implemented on top of various graphics APIs (e.g. OpenGL, Metal and Vulkan) with a common interface."

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#16

Post by n42 » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:08 PM UTC

genmud wrote: post #3

Not trying to shit on anyone, but that screenshot reminds me of 1990s/early 2000's games. I'm sure there has been a ton of work that went into it, but having some better textures or highlighting the usability would go a long way. Just based on the screenshot, I am not sure that I would even bother to dig too deeply into the library.

the screenshot could/should probably be better, but that doesn't mean the library is incapable of producing higher quality renders. I haven't dug in, but I am assuming this is basically Meta's WGPU. if so, these sorts of libraries are low level libraries abstracting different platforms that can be used to build high quality render pipelines on top of that can run anywhere. you could build an N64 quality rendering pipeline with little effort, or something rivaling AAA studios with a lot more knowledge and effort.

I guess, to make a poor analogy, your comment is sort of like looking at a still frame of a poorly shot movie and complaining that the codec is shit.

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#17

Post by jauntywundrkind » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:09 PM UTC

mknapper1 wrote: post #7

tambourine_man wrote: post #2

No mention of Metal

Metal is supported, it’s mentioned in the GitHub readme. https://github.com/facebook/igl

It's a Khronos press release so not carrying water for the opposing proprietary closed system makes sense. I wouldn't mention that other thing either.

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#18

Post by belthesar » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:09 PM UTC

failuser wrote: post #10

genmud wrote: post #3

Not trying to shit on anyone, but that screenshot reminds me of 1990s/early 2000's games. I'm sure there has been a ton of work that went into it, but having some better textures or highlighting the usability would go a long way. Just based on the screenshot, I am not sure that I would even bother to dig too deeply into the library.

Now look at real 1990s/early 2000’s screenshots. You memory is deceiving you. This screenshot is far from current AAA games, but there is no way to render such a scene in a game made for 2000 hardware.

It looks about on brand with the static renders used in a lot of Final Fantasy games of the PS1 era, albeit with higher pixel density of course, so I can see the resemblance. That said, this is definitely doing it in engine, so while I can see how the GP's memory palace built that memory, you're definitely accurate that no game from that era was doing graphics like this in-engine.

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#19

Post by dudeinjapan » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:09 PM UTC

failuser wrote: post #10

genmud wrote: post #3

Not trying to shit on anyone, but that screenshot reminds me of 1990s/early 2000's games. I'm sure there has been a ton of work that went into it, but having some better textures or highlighting the usability would go a long way. Just based on the screenshot, I am not sure that I would even bother to dig too deeply into the library.

Now look at real 1990s/early 2000’s screenshots. You memory is deceiving you. This screenshot is far from current AAA games, but there is no way to render such a scene in a game made for 2000 hardware.

Pre-rendered their were. Vaguely reminds me of Myst or FF7 quality.

Re: Meta releases Intermediate Graphics Library

#20

Post by fsloth » Fri, Jul 07, 2023, 6:10 PM UTC

genmud wrote: post #3

Not trying to shit on anyone, but that screenshot reminds me of 1990s/early 2000's games. I'm sure there has been a ton of work that went into it, but having some better textures or highlighting the usability would go a long way. Just based on the screenshot, I am not sure that I would even bother to dig too deeply into the library.

"Just based on the screenshot, I am not sure that I would even bother to dig too deeply into the library."

Adding any PBR materials as samples would have been the wrong choice, since those are not hardware or graphics api dependent, and are always for the implementor to implment by themselves.

You don't want a graphics api to look nice at this abstraction level.

You get access to device resources, shader API etc.

Once you get triangles in, it's up to you to make it nice using the shaders you write - materials and GI model of your choice.