RadeonGL 0.4 -- 3.11.2026
WHAT IT IS
A minigl.library that draws with the 3D engine of an ATI Radeon from the
R200 family (8500, 9000, 9100, 9200, 9250) on a graphics card that
Picasso96 drives. No Warp3D: it talks to the Radeon's command processor
through Picasso96, while the Workbench keeps running.
It is a minigl.library 29.1 with dispatch ABI 5, so programs built with
the current MiniGL SDK open it like any other minigl.library 29.
SOURCE CODE
https://github.com/bubbob42/RadeonGL
The archive carries it too, in the drawer Source (no icon: Show All
Files, or a Shell): the library, the Installer, the tools, the demos, the
tests and the makefiles. Building needs m68k-amigaos-gcc, the Picasso96
developer files and, for the probes, Thomas Richter's openpci68k.lha
(Aminet driver/other); Source/README.md explains it.
FEATURES
* Every GL primitive, in immediate mode and from vertex arrays (8-, 16-
and 32-bit indices)
* Compiled vertex arrays as indexed draws; an upload cache keeps what a
program sends again unchanged in the card's memory
* Transformation and rasterising on the Radeon, the full float matrix
stack
* Two texture units; RGB565, ARGB4444, I8, AI88 in up to 16 MB of card
memory; nearest, linear and mipmap filters; repeat and clamp;
MODULATE, REPLACE, DECAL (RGB), ADD
* Blending, alpha test, depth test, polygon offset, culling, scissor,
colour mask, flat and smooth shading, point size
* A Picasso96 screen of its own, 16 or 32 bit, up to 2048 x 2048
* Every command list checked before the Radeon runs it (can be turned
off for speed); one Picasso96 lock a frame
* Installer, manuals in English and German, a card test, a card report
for bug reports, four demos
NOT IMPLEMENTED YET
100 of minigl.library 29.1's 205 functions are there: all GLQuake uses,
and more. A missing one sets GL_INVALID_OPERATION; the log names it.
* Lighting and materials, fog, display lists, texture coordinate
generation
* GL_BLEND and RGBA GL_DECAL texture environments; 32-bit textures are
stored with 16 bits
* Stencil and accumulation buffers, stipple, logic operations
* glReadPixels, glCopyTexImage2D, glPixelStorei, glDrawBuffer
* Double-precision calls, glArrayElement, interleaved arrays, colour
index, glBlendEquation, glLineWidth, glColorTable
* GLU and GLUT; MiniGL's own main loop; contexts in a window or bitmap
* One program at a time; textures beyond 16 MB are not swapped out
GLQUAKE BENCHMARKS
GLQuake for minigl.library (Frank Wille, Steffen Haeuser and Dennis
Boon), its timedemos on the test machine (A4000D, 68060 at 50 MHz on a
CyberStorm MK II, Mediator, Radeon 9200, AmigaOS 3.2, Picasso96), frames
a second:
Demo Screen Check on Check off Direct Direct, 8-bit LM
demo1 320 x 240 18.7 23.7 24.2 24.9
demo2 320 x 240 - 21.1 - 21.7
demo3 320 x 240 - 20.9 - 22.3
demo1 640 x 480 - 21.4 - 22.5
demo1 1280 x 720 - 18.4 - 19.8
Check on: RadeonGL as installed. Check off: RadeonGLCheck=0. Direct:
RadeonGLDirect=1 as well. 8-bit LM: 8-bit lightmaps, GLQuake started with
-lm_LUMINANCE (id's own default; the Amiga port changed it to 16 bit).
The 68060 sets the pace, not the Radeon. The 68020/68030 build on the
same 68060: 16.8 / 22.1 / 23.2 (check on / off / direct, 8-bit LM).
INSTALLATION
Double-click Install. It keeps a minigl.library that is not RadeonGL's
as LIBS:minigl.library.old. RadeonGL.guide explains going back.
MADE WITH AI
RadeonGL was made with the help of AI. Claude, an AI model by Anthropic,
wrote most of its code, its tests and its manuals, working under the
direction of Marcus Gerards, who made the design decisions. Every release
was tested on real hardware.
CREDITS
* Thomas Richter: Picasso96 3, its Radeon driver, openpci.library, and
his advice on using Picasso96 with the Radeon
* Alexander Kneer and Tobias Abt: Picasso96
* Hyperion Entertainment (Hans-Joerg and Thomas Frieden): MiniGL
* Steffen "MagicSN" Haeuser: minigl.library 29.1 and its SDK
* Frank Wille, Steffen Haeuser and Dennis Boon: GLQuake for
minigl.library
* AMD: the R200 microcode
* ATI, VA Linux Systems, Precision Insight, The Weather Channel and
Tungsten Graphics, Red Hat and the authors of the Linux radeon and
Mesa r200 drivers: the public record of the R200
* amiga-gcc (Bebbo), amitools (Christian Vogelgsang), FS-UAE (Frode
Solheim), libnix, SAS/C, the AmigaOS 3.2 NDK: the tools
LICENCE
minigl.library contains MiniGL and is therefore under the Hyperion MiniGL
Open Source License: AmigaOS only, and the source code of every change is
published: see SOURCE CODE above. RadeonGL's own code is also under the
MIT licence. The R200 microcode is AMD's (MIT). The licence texts are in
the package (the installed drawer's Licences, and Source/LICENSE).
HISTORY
0.4 (3.11.2026)
- first release
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