Mesa, a crucial open-source library that provides drivers and APIs for various graphics hardware for Linux systems, announced the release of its latest version, 24.2.
This update’s spotlight feature is its support for OpenGL 4.6, which is accessible upon creating a compatible context, albeit contingent on the specific driver used.
Additionally, Mesa 24.2 integrates Vulkan 1.3 API support. Vulkan, known for its high efficiency and direct control over GPU operations, is further tailored in this release to match the hardware’s capabilities through specific drivers.
Apart from that, here are some of the other highlighted features and enhancements of the new release:
- Vulkan Extensions: This release introduces various new Vulkan extensions across different drivers. These include VK_KHR_dynamic_rendering_local_read and VK_MESA_image_alignment_control on RADV and VK_EXT_shader_replicated_composites supported by multiple drivers, including ANV, lava pipe, and RADV.
- OpenGL Extensions: GL_ARB_depth_clamp is now available on the v3d driver, enhancing depth clamping functionality.
- Shader Cache Improvements: The shader cache implementation has undergone a notable change to reduce filesystem overhead, which should streamline shader operations and boost performance.
While Mesa 24.2 introduces these new features, as with every new version, it also addresses a substantial list of bugs (more than 130 in this release), impacting everything from driver-specific issues to broader problems affecting multiple platforms.
In light of this, users experiencing specific issues in previous releases might find resolutions in this update, enhancing stability and performance.
However, it’s important to mention that Mesa 24.2 is a development release. So, those prioritizing stability may want to stick with the prior stable release or await Mesa 24.2.1 for more refinements.
The release announcement provides an overview of all the changes in the new version.
Mesa 24.2 can be downloaded from the project’s website as a source tarball. If you’re eager to take advantage of the latest version, you’ll need to compile it manually, which is not the most recommended or convenient way. So, wait for it to appear as a package in your Linux distribution’s repositories.
