Hi,
[Please redirect me if this is not the right forum/appropriate way to talk about this.]
Is there a way to follow what’s happening for a proposed vendor extension? I mean, how can we know if the extension will be accepted or cancelled, if discussions are still ongoing, etc.
Namely, I would like to know what’s happening with Magic Leap’s XR_ML_pixel_sensor extension. It seems to me that most Magic Leap’s extensions have been added in OpenXR 1.1.41 and then XR_ML_facial_expression in OpenXR 1.1.43. To date, I didn’t found XR_ML_pixel_sensor in any OpenXR release.
I have source code waiting for this extension for months (years?) and because of Magic Leap’s current situation, I’m wondering it this will ever happen…
Thanks!
There is no “ratification” per sei of vendor-specific extensions. Vendors can supply their own extensions outside of any Khronos processes. It’s the vendor’s responsibility to implement and document their own extensions, and making it into the official OpenXR spec is pretty much bonus. Similarly, vendors can remove their own extensions any time. This isn’t up to Khronos.
Vendors do this all the time: for example Meta often releases their vendor extensions exclusively in their SDK and without adding them to the official OpenXR spec. They eventually “catch the next train” and publish the documentation in the official spec, but meanwhile the extension was usable the whole time. What you need is the header from Magic leap with the definitions. Support in the OpenXR loader is transparent (no code updates needed from Khronos).
Ratification is only mandated for KHR and EXT extensions.
Sounds like what you need is ask directly Magic Leap.
To add to mbucchia’s comments, “ratified” has a specific legal meaning that vendor extensions typically don’t fall under, but the “default” spec that Khronos publishes includes vendor extensions in any case. Vendors can publish whatever kind of extension they want in whatever state they want on their own websites, but they are highly encouraged to submit them to Khronos. At Khronos those extensions are encouraged to get some degree of internal review, so if you compare what various vendors initial put on their website to how it reads in the Khronos spec, you will often find some differences and clarifications in the descriptions.
What’s going on with specific extensions when it comes to the spec that Khronos publishes is generally under NDA and can only be answered as far as the extension owners are willing to share, but I think in this case you can come to your own conclusion when reading public news about Magic Leap and what the company has been doing in the last couple of months.
Thank you both for the explanation of how it works internally at Khronos, it’s now clear to me.