OpenGL Spec Now Controlled by Khronos Group

99BottlesOfBeerInMyF writes "According to a recent press release, the OpenGL Architecture Review Board has voted to transfer control of the OpenGL API standard to the Khronos Group, an industry working group that seems mostly known for its focus on mobile applications. Apple Computer has also just joined the group, presumably because of their interest in OpenGL for the OS X platform. I wonder what affect, if any, this will have upon the future development of the OpenGL standard."

Comments

What "affect" **

[just_another_sean]

I wonder what affect, if any, this will have upon the future development of the OpenGL standard.

Well reading TFA and not finding Microsoft on either their promoters page or their contributors page I'm cautiously optimistic.

** affect? effect? I can never keep this one straight either.

Google also a member

[Foofoobar]

If you look at the list of Members you will also spot Panasonic, Toshiba, Softimage, NCSoft and alot of other heavy hitters.

The fact that Google and Apple are involved gives me hope that people will start making applications for Linux and Macs soon. Also, since DirectX 10 is only available for Vista, this may be the prime time for OpenGL to start stealing some market share.

Re:Google also a member

[Quarters]

Also, since DirectX 10 is only available for Vista, this may be the prime time for OpenGL to start stealing some market share.

What would be so different about the exclusivity of DX10 on Vista as opposed to the exclusivity of DXs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 on Win 95, 98, NT (DX3 only), 2K, and XP that makes now the proper time for OpenGL to become dominant?

DX wins out in terms of "market share" (as if an API can be measured against something like that) becuase of two things...the dominance of Windows in the marketplace and the fact that DirectX has pretty much wiped the floor with OpenGL when it comes to support for contemporary rendering hardware features. Extensions be damned, the OpenGL ARB moves *way* to slowly to be competitive. Maybe the Khronos group will help with that...Lord knows they can't be any worse.

Will OpenGL have a ratified spec for equivilent DX10 features like geometry shaders by the time DX 10 comes out?

Good -- maybe now it will progress faster!

[mrchaotica]

Part of the reason Direct3D took off (aside from Microsoft's market influence) is that the ARB worked too damn slow and caused OpenGL to lag behind in terms of capability. If Khronos can make decisions faster such that OpenGL can keep feature parity with (or even get ahead of) Direct3D, it'll be great!

It would also probably help if they form close ties with the people making OpenAL, SDL, etc. so that there can be a big, open, complete solution to compete with the whole of DirectX.

CAN WE PLEASE NOT HAVE THIS DISCUSSION?!

[mrchaotica]

Whether Apple contributes back to Free Software isn't really relevant here, and it's been beaten to death in other threads already. Could we please save it for the next KHTML article, at least?!

Besides, the more relevant thing regarding Apple is their behavior regarding other standards (as opposed to software implementations), such as USB, WebDAV, ZeroConf (aka Rendesvous, Bonjour), etc.

Re:Maybe OpenGL and DirectX need to diverge

[mrchaotica]

Maybe the two just need to diverge, with OpenGL returning to what it was intended for - enterprise apps, while leaving DirectX to cater to the games market.

The problem with that is that DirectX isn't a standard -- it's a proprietary Microsoft technology. We'd still need a standard to use for gaming on Mac, Linux, PS3, Wii, etc.