LunarG
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software development |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founder | Jens Owen, Alan Ward |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | Device drivers for video card hardware, Vulkan SDK and tools |
| Parent | None |
LunarG is a United States-based software company that concentrates on creating device drivers for video card hardware.
History
Jens Owen co-established Tungsten Graphics in 2001, a firm dedicated to producing video card drivers and developing the Gallium3D framework. VMware acquired Tungsten Graphics in 2008, and the following year, Jens Owen along with Alan Ward launched LunarG to pursue similar objectives.
In November 2015, LunarG divided into two divisions: the desktop team, supported by Valve, remained as LunarG, while the mobile team transitioned to Google to work on Vulkan integration for Android. This reorganization came after Google's announcement in August 2015 to adopt Vulkan for the Android platform.
Projects
LunarG creates tools and infrastructure for the Vulkan graphics API, which is intended as the next generation after OpenGL, with backing from Valve Corporation. Their open source Vulkan SDK, introduced alongside the Vulkan 1.0 release, facilitates development on Windows and Linux platforms and includes the official Khronos driver loader, validation layers, debugging utilities, and tracing tools. Throughout Vulkan’s creation, LunarG developed a Vulkan-compatible runtime and driver tailored for Intel HD Graphics, although Intel is responsible for the official driver development.
Since 2014, LunarG has partnered with Valve to advance the graphics driver ecosystem on Linux, concentrating on enhancements to the Mesa graphics library and Intel HD Graphics drivers. Additionally, they produced an unofficial "ILO" driver based on Gallium3D as a demonstration of performance capabilities.