Brad Parker wrote an OpenGL 1.1 driver for RetroArch 1.7.7.
Who would need this?
The state of OpenGL support on Operating Systems like Windows can be quite abysmal if you happen to have an integrated Intel GPU, especially if you happen to be running Windows 10.
Intel doesn’t supply its own OpenGL driver for a lot of its older integrated graphics cards.
Some examples can be found on this list.
When your graphics vendor does not provide its own driver for the graphics API you’re using, often times it will default to Microsoft’s own driver, “GDI Generic”.
Up until now, RetroArch required at least OpenGL 2.x support on the desktop. If your GPU did not have a driver supporting at least OpenGL 2.x, RetroArch would simply not run with the OpenGL driver.
Now, those inconvenienced users can still use the OpenGL 1.1 fallback driver.
What do you lose in the process?
- No shader support
- No ability to run OpenGL libretro cores (they historically target OpenGL 2.x/OpenGL ES 2)
How to use it
RetroArch 1.7.7 for most traditional platforms will default to the “gl” driver. However, it will detect if your GPU supports OpenGL 2.x or not. If this is not the case, it will write “gl1” to your settings file and then exit the program.
Once inside RetroArch, go to Settings – Drivers. Go to Video Driver. Select ‘gl1’. After this, go back to the main menu inside RetroArch, and select ‘Quit RetroArch’.
What platforms are supported as of v1.7.7?
So far, the Windows and Linux builds come with the GL 1.1 driver.
It’s enabled for:
- Windows
- macOS (PowerPC/Intel)
- Linux
