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The State of OpenGL

Posted by michael on from the graphic-violence dept.

CowboyRobot writes "No longer vapor, but a true 3D-embedded engine, OpenGL is on the move. Pixar and others would love to be able to render their movies in realtime, and that desire has prompted the intended release of OpenGL 2.0, due in a few months. Khronos is now in charge of further extending OpenGL to cellphones and handheld gaming devices."

8 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. Re:OpenGL is Dead by b0r0din · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought we told you not to come back here after that Monkey Boy Dance incident, Steve.

  2. Damn them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When will they figure it out OpenGL is not necessarily desirable in a cellular phone?

    I want business class reliability, not a the ability to rent subpar games on my cell phone for $5/month.

    When I'm on the phone all day because of my work I want it to be there for important calls, not fizzle out after an hour because it's got a 640x480 pixel screen with 24-bit color.

    1. Re:Damn them by sbaker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If there *is* going to be 3D on cellphones and PDA's then I'd much prefer that they ran a standard API than a non-standard one. Given that there really are only two 3D standards, I'd much rather it was OpenGL than Direct3D.

      So - *IF* we want 3D then we want OpenGL.

      But do we want 3D in cellphones?

      The supposed 'killer app' for 3D on cellphones is the idea of using the positioning detecting capability of the phone - along with network access - to provide an annotated 3D map of your present location. Think of the navigation systems in cars - but in 3D - so you can find the elevator you need to get to a particular office in a big unfamiliar building - or find where you left your car in an multistory parking lot.

      Games will obviously use the technology too.

      I don't know whether this is important to people or not - but if 3D is happening, it should CERTAINLY be in OpenGL - initially a small subset - gradually improving to a full-blown implementation in every phone as the technology catches up.

      Personally, I'd be much happier with a last-generation basic phone that had 10x battery life and didn't lose service quite so easily.

      --
      www.sjbaker.org
  3. Re:OpenGL is Dead by Xeo+024 · · Score: 5, Informative
    DirectX has won the war, with better features, performance, and availability.

    I don't know about availability, OpenGL is cross-platform (works on OS X, Linux, Windows, etc.) while DirectX is Windows only. OpenGL is also included with many if not all graphic cards. So it's just as widely available, if not more, than DirectX.

  4. Sun by Brando_Calrisean · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about the ability to stick to-do notes on the BACK of your cellphone? Wouldn't that make mobile 3D worthwhile?!

    --
    Don't call me a cowboy, and don't tell me to slow down!
  5. OpenGL 1.5 by PlatinumInitiate · · Score: 5, Interesting

    OpenGL is used in the Torque engine alongside Direct3D (D3D on Windows, OpenGL on Mac and Linux). It would be great if OpenGL could eclipse Direct3D, and become the premiere 3D platform once again. Perhaps we will see this with the release of OpenGL 2.0, but for a few years Direct3D has been slowly but surely catching up and then surpassing the aging OpenGL standard.

    A lot of our customers demand Linux in their solutions (networked gaming terminals) to avoid the cost of licensing Windows XP Embedded for each machine, and the option so far has been to go the Mesa/OpenGL/SDL route (WineX is still too slow for what we do), which, while it has worked, is technically slightly inferior to our Windows equivalents. Hopefully OpenGL 2.0 will change this.

  6. OpenGL 2 by woodhouse · · Score: 5, Informative

    OpenGL 2.0 is not as exciting as the new major version number might indicate. Probably the most important new feature of OpenGL 2.0 was going to be the GLSL high level shader language. However, in order to speed up its support by hardware companies, this was instead put into OpenGL 1.5 spec when it was announced last year; GLSL already has implementations by 3DLabs, ATi and nVidia. OpenGL 2.0 will still add some useful new features, but it won't be the world-shattering event that 3DLabs promised in their original proposals.

  7. On a related note.. by rkaa · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jan 16th 2002: SGI transfers 3D graphics patents to MS
    Jul 09th 2002: Microsoft Claims IP Rights on Portions of OpenGL
    Jul 11th 2002: 3D graphics world shaken by patent claims
    Jul 13th 2002: Microsoft patent claims may affect OpenGL
    Mar 3rd 2003: Microsoft quits OpenGL board