Name

    OES_texture_half_float
    OES_texture_float

Name Strings

    GL_OES_texture_half_float, GL_OES_texture_float

Contact

    Benj Lipchak, Apple (lipchak 'at' apple.com)

Notice

    Copyright (c) 2005-2013 The Khronos Group Inc. Copyright terms at
        http://www.khronos.org/registry/speccopyright.html

Specification Update Policy

    Khronos-approved extension specifications are updated in response to
    issues and bugs prioritized by the Khronos OpenGL ES Working Group. For
    extensions which have been promoted to a core Specification, fixes will
    first appear in the latest version of that core Specification, and will
    eventually be backported to the extension document. This policy is
    described in more detail at
        https://www.khronos.org/registry/OpenGL/docs/update_policy.php

IP Status

    Please refer to the ARB_texture_float extension.

Status

    Ratified by the Khronos BOP, July 22, 2005.

Version

    Last Modified Date:  November 9, 2011

Number

    OpenGL ES Extension #36

Dependencies

    This extension is written against the OpenGL ES 2.0 Specification.

    OES_texture_3D affects the definition of this extension.

Overview

    These extensions add texture formats with 16- (aka half float) and 32-bit
    floating-point components.  The 32-bit floating-point components
    are in the standard IEEE float format.  The 16-bit floating-point
    components have 1 sign bit, 5 exponent bits, and 10 mantissa bits.
    Floating-point components are clamped to the limits of the range
    representable by their format.

    The OES_texture_half_float extension string indicates that the
    implementation supports 16-bit floating pt texture formats.

    The OES_texture_float extension string indicates that the 
    implementation supports 32-bit floating pt texture formats.

    Both these extensions only require NEAREST magnification filter and 
    NEAREST, and NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST minification filters to be supported.

Issues

    1.  What should we do if magnification filter for a texture with half-float
        or float channels is set to LINEAR.

        RESOLUTION: The texture will be marked as incomplete.  
        Only the NEAREST filter is supported.  
        
        The cost of doing a LINEAR filter for these texture formats can be
        quite prohibitive.  There was a discussion on having the shader 
        generate code to do LINEAR filter by making individual texture calls with a 
        NEAREST filter but again the computational and memory b/w costs decided 
        against mandating this approach.  The decision was that this extension
        would only enable NEAREST magnification filter.  Support for LINEAR
        magnification filter would be done through a separate extension.

    2.  What should we do if minification filter is set to LINEAR or 
        LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST, NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR and LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR.

        RESOLUTION: The texture will be marked as incomplete.  Only the NEAREST 
        and NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST minification filters are supported.  

        This was decided for the same reasons given in issue #1.  The decision
        was that this extension would only enable NEAREST and NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST
        minification filters, and the remaining OpenGL ES minification filters
        would be supported through a separate extension.
        
    3.  Should CopyTexImage2D, CopyTexSubImage{2D|3D} be supported for textures
        with half-float and float channels?
        
        RESOLUTION: No.

New Procedures and Functions

   None

New Tokens

    Accepted by the <type> parameter of TexImage2D,  TexSubImage2D, 
    TexImage3D, and TexSubImage3D

        HALF_FLOAT_OES                0x8D61
        FLOAT                         0x1406

Additions to Chapter 2 of the OpenGL ES 2.0 Specification (OpenGL Operation)

    Add a new section called 16-Bit Floating-Point Numbers

    "A 16-bit floating-point number has a 1-bit sign (S), a 5-bit
    exponent (E), and a 10-bit mantissa (M).  The value of a 16-bit
    floating-point number is determined by the following:

        (-1)^S * 0.0,                        if E == 0 and M == 0,
        (-1)^S * 2^-14 * (M / 2^10),         if E == 0 and M != 0,
        (-1)^S * 2^(E-15) * (1 + M/2^10),    if 0 < E < 31,
        (-1)^S * INF,                        if E == 31 and M == 0, or
        NaN,                                 if E == 31 and M != 0,

    where

        S = floor((N mod 65536) / 32768),
        E = floor((N mod 32768) / 1024), and
        M = N mod 1024.

    Implementations are also allowed to use any of the following
    alternative encodings:

        (-1)^S * 0.0,                        if E == 0 and M != 0,
        (-1)^S * 2^(E-15) * (1 + M/2^10),    if E == 31 and M == 0, or
        (-1)^S * 2^(E-15) * (1 + M/2^10),    if E == 31 and M != 0,

    Any representable 16-bit floating-point value is legal as input
    to a GL command that accepts 16-bit floating-point data.  The
    result of providing a value that is not a floating-point number
    (such as infinity or NaN) to such a command is unspecified, but
    must not lead to GL interruption or termination.  Providing a
    denormalized number or negative zero to GL must yield predictable
    results."

    Add to Table 2.2, p. 12:

                Minimum
       GL Type  Bit Width  Description
       -------  ---------  -----------------------------------
       half     16         Half-precision floating-point value
                           encoded in an unsigned scalar

Additions to Chapter 3 of the OpenGL ES 2.0 Specification (Rasterization)

    Add to Table 3.2, p. 62:

        type Parameter  Corresponding  Special
        Token Name      GL Data Type   Interpretation
        --------------  -------------  --------------
        HALF_FLOAT_OES  half           No
                           
    Modify first sentence of "Unpacking", p. 62: 
    
    "Data are taken from client memory as a sequence of one of the GL data
    types listed in Table 3.2. These elements are..."
                           
    Add to Table 3.4, p. 63:

        Format           Type            Bytes per Pixel
        ---------        --------------  ---------------
        RGBA             FLOAT           16
        RGB              FLOAT           12
        LUMINANCE_ALPHA  FLOAT           8
        LUMINANCE        FLOAT           4
        ALPHA            FLOAT           4
        RGBA             HALF_FLOAT_OES  8
        RGB              HALF_FLOAT_OES  6
        LUMINANCE_ALPHA  HALF_FLOAT_OES  4
        LUMINANCE        HALF_FLOAT_OES  2
        ALPHA            HALF_FLOAT_OES  2

    Modify fifth paragraph of 3.7.1 Texture Image Specification, p. 67:
    
    "The selected groups are processed as described in section 3.6.2, stopping
    after final expansion to RGBA. If the internal format of the texture is 
    fixed-point, components are clamped to [0,1]. Otherwise, values are not 
    modified."

Interactions with OES_texture_3D

    If OES_texture_3D is not supported, ignore references to TexImage3D and 
    TexSubImage3D.

Revision History

    04/29/2005    0.1    Original draft.
    06/29/2005    0.2    Added issues on why only NEAREST and 
                         NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST filters are required.
    04/21/2006    0.3    Added TexSubImage2D and TexSubImage3D as
                         functions that take the new tokens.
    06/14/2006    0.4    CopyTexImage2D, CopyTexSubImag{2D|3D} are
                         not supported.
    07/26/2011    0.5    Fix several omissions discovered while writing
                         EXT_color_buffer_half_float.
    11/09/2011    0.6    Fix missing FLOAT entries in Table 3.4,
                         add interaction with OES_texture_3D.