thee3rdplayer

🎯 Project Goals

GoCL (Gestalt Open Computing Language) is a lightweight Vulkan library and runtime proxy layer that adapts to the GPU it runs on — no platform‑specific builds required.

• Shader emulation – automatically patch SPIR‑V to support FP16, large descriptor sets, and other features on older GPUs.
• Adaptive texture compression – ASTC when hardware decode is available, ETC2 fallback everywhere else, with configurable block sizes and VRAM‑aware tuning.
• Device‑Generated Commands (DGC) – offload indirect draws to the GPU, falling back seamlessly to CPU‑driven calls when DGC is unsupported.
• Proxy layer – inject into pre‑built Vulkan games without recompilation, applying all optimisations transparently.
• Zero per‑frame overhead – shader patching at pipeline creation only; texture transcoding is lazy; proxy instruction count is indistinguishable from native.
• Already benchmarked – validated across 75+ Sascha Willems examples on a GTX 960M, showing identical FPS with improvements in frame‑time consistency and no extra VRAM usage.

⚡ Why Your Support Matters

Development happens under real‑world constraints in Zambia — frequent power outages, limited hardware access, and regional payment restrictions. Your contributions directly fund:

• Backup power and off‑grid energy solutions.
• Upgrading and maintaining GPU test hardware.
• Sustaining long‑term open‑source development and performance research.

Supporting GoCL helps democratise cross‑generational GPU compatibility, ensuring that modern Vulkan titles run on older or weaker hardware — not just in well‑resourced labs.

📬 Donation Details

Bitcoin (BTC): bc1qzpyzf4dmsct9eyucxdzpskv234tzm3qkv7st3m

Mobile Money (Zambia): * Zamtel: +260 956 124 147 * MTN: +260 760 315 668 * Airtel: +260 779 326 269

Note on LiberaPay: LiberaPay is used indirectly as a buffer platform. Stripe and PayPal aren’t fully supported in Zambia, so LiberaPay provides infrastructure for supporters to route contributions reliably until direct payment options become available.