In a blog post, Microsoft says Collabora will help build on Microsoft’s existing mapping layers. For example, D3D11On12, D3D9On12, and the D3D12 Transition Layer library. However, the new collaboration will be seeking to extend further into open source libraries. This will be achieved by leveraging Mesa 3D, which is an open source implementation of OpenGL and other graphics APIs. Microsoft and Collabora will integrate a D3D12 backend to Mesa 3D, allowing it to support OpenGL and OpenCL. Microsoft says this will happen starting with version 1.2 of OpenCL and version 3.3 of OpenGL:
Goals
By adding more mapping layers, the companies will improve compatibility for machines that don’t have native support for OpenGL and OpenCL. Leadng the list of goals is a desire to boost compatibility across productivity apps as opposed to games. Microsoft details the following goals of the project:
