Official feedback on OpenGL 4.3 thread

[Leith Bade]

Will GL_EXT_depth_bounds_test be promoted to core now that both AMD and NVidia support it?

[mbentrup]

The OpenGL 4.3 core spec removed the GL_ALPHA format for glReadPixels (chapter 18.2.1, page 458). The other single-component formats GL_RED, GL_GREEN and GL_BLUE are supported, but GL_ALPHA is only supported in the compatibility profile. In 4.2 core all 4 individual components could be read with glReadPixels.

Is there a reason why the alpha channel is treated special here ?

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Correct, and in order to decide whether to use a feature or not it needs to exist.

It also needs to be used by a lot of people. If very few people actually use a feature, then it usually has very little testing or IHV support. Anything "not on the common paths" is very likely to blow up or not provide any benefits, just due to the exponential branching complexity of oh-so-many features. Ideally, any proposed feature would have some kind of "preliminary consensus" that it can indeed be a benefit, and would indeed match a lot of people's expected case uses.