[waffle] long-standing wgl pixel format issue

[Emil Velikov]

On 17 June 2016 at 16:53, Brian Paul <brianp at vmware.com> wrote:
>
> I spent a few hours yesterday pulling out my hair trying to understand why
> the piglit fbo-mipmap-copypix test was failing on Windows.  But it was only
> failing when I ran it directly.  It passed when I ran it via piglit-run.py
>
> The key difference was the -fbo option.  With -fbo the test used an RGBA8
> framebuffer but without -fbo the test used an RGB565 framebuffer.
>
> So why is a 565 framebuffer being used?  It boils down to the fact that
> wglChoosePixelFormatARB() does not work like glXChooseFBConfig().
>
> From the glXChooseFBConfig man page:
> """
>   GLX_RED_SIZE, GLX_GREEN_SIZE, GLX_BLUE_SIZE, GLX_ALPHA_SIZE
>
>      Each attribute, if present, must be followed by a nonnegative minimum
> size
>     specification or GLX_DONT_CARE.
>     The largest available total RGBA color buffer size (sum of GLX_RED_SIZE,
>     GLX_GREEN_SIZE, GLX_BLUE_SIZE, and GLX_ALPHA_SIZE)
>     of at least the minimum size specified for each color component is
> preferred.
> """
>
> So if you specify GLX_RED_SIZE, BLUE_SIZE, etc to be 1 and there are both
> RGB565 and RGBA8 formats available, the _later_ (the largest) will be
> chosen.
>
> But the wglChoosePixelFormatARB docs say:
> """
> Some attribute values must match the pixel format value exactly when
>     the attribute is specified while others specify a minimum criteria,
>     meaning that the pixel format value must meet or exceed the
>     specified value.
>
>      Attribute                      Type        Match Criteria
>      WGL_RED_BITS_ARB               integer     minimum
>      WGL_GREEN_BITS_ARB             integer     minimum
>      WGL_BLUE_BITS_ARB              integer     minimum
>      WGL_ALPHA_BITS_ARB             integer     minimum
> """
>
> So if you specify WGL_RED/GREEN/BLUE_BITS_ARB to be 1 and there are both
> RGB565 and RGBA8 formats available, the _former_ may be chosen.  Note that
> some WGL apps use WGL_COLOR_BITS_ARB=24 and avoid this.
>
> Piglit's call to piglit_wfl_framework_init() uses an attribute list with
> WAFFLE_RED/GREEN/BLUE_SIZE = 1 and that winds up going directly to
> wglChoosePixelFormatARB and glXChooseFBConfig so this difference in behavior
> effects the window's pixel format.
>
Thanks for this Brian and apologies I did not spot these differences
as I was writing the WGL backend.

Here's a bit more comprehensive list, listing all the waffle backends
and attributes.

GLX/EGL:
Largest - red, green, blue, alpha plus their accum counterparts + depth
Smallest - buffer, stencil

If requested size is zero - "largest" become "smallest" (but it's not
said it will be zero), "smallest" become "zero".

CGL
One that "most closely matches the specified size is preferred"

WGL/NaCL
"At least", meaning that there's not definition if it's the "smallest"
or "largest". Furthermore there's not mention that it will give you
the smallest if you specify 0 :-\


> The Waffle docs for waffle_config_choose() say:
>
> """
> WAFFLE_RED_SIZE
> WAFFLE_GREEN_SIZE
> WAFFLE_BLUE_SIZE
> WAFFLE_ALPHA_SIZE
> WAFFLE_DEPTH_SIZE
> WAFFLE_STENCIL_SIZE
>
>     The default value for each size attribute is 0. Valid values are the
> non-negative integers and WAFFLE_DONT_CARE. If the requested size for a
> channel is 0, then any surface created with the config will lack that
> channel. If the requested size for a channel is positive, then the number of
> bits in that channel for any surface created with the config will be at
> least the requested size.
> """
>
> There's some ambiguity here because if several different pixel formats (such
> as RGB565 and RGBA8) both meet the WAFFLE_RED/GREEN/BLUE_SIZE minimums,
> which should be preferred?
>
> I can fix my Windows Piglit issue by changing Piglit's
> choose_config_attribs() function to specify WAFFLE_RED/GREEN/BLUE_SIZE=8
> instead of 1, but that's not a final solution.
>
>
> I propose:
>
> 1. The Waffle docs should be clarified to specify whether the largest or
> smallest color format should be used when several meet the WAFFLE_*_SIZE
> minimums.  My suggesting is "smallest", like WGL.
>
> 2. The Waffle code for either GLX or WGL should be modified to follow that
> part of the spec.  Following my suggestion, the GLX format chooser code
> would need to be modified.
>
> 3. The Piglit code to specify the Waffle pixel format should be updated,
> probably replacing '1' with '8' as above.  And maybe falling back to the
> former if the later fails (though I doubt anyone runs piglit on less than a
> 24-bit display nowadays).
>
> 4. If Waffle wants to get fancy, we could consider new attributes like
> WAFFLE_MIN_RED_SIZE, WAFFLE_MAX_RED_SIZE and WAFFLE_EXACT_RED_SIZE to
> provide more control over format selection.  But I think my suggestion in
> (1) would avoid this for now.
>
> Thoughts?
>
I'm somewhat inclined that the GLX/EGL behaviour might be the better
choice. Then again I don't might if people choose another route -
always smallest, always largest, a combination of the two, minimum or
"most closely matches".
In each case there's the issue (as each spec has a massive table) of
how exactly to determine(sort) the config(s).

Now that I think of it I do recall seeing some heuristics on the topic
in SDL and Xwin. Perhaps it's worth checking what they do and using
something identical/close to it ?

-Emil