X-Windows/XOpenDisplay question (Possibly a dumb one)

[CelticDaddio]

I am new to X-Windows/Linux programming, so this is probably a dumb question, but...

I am working on an GPGPU (http://www.gpgpu.org) type application that only needs a valid GL context. I don't actually need visible rendering window. The example GLX based apps I have seen call XOpenDisplay to connect to the X-Server. Is this necessary to get a GL context? This app is going to be hard real-time and I am concerned about performance. Will the X-Server cause unpredictable delays?

CD

CD

[Overmind]

The problem is that you need a display driver to get hardware acceleration, and the display driver is a part of the X-window system.

There is one possibility to use OpenGL without X with the framebuffer driver, but it's still in early developement. Look at the "/dev/fb" thread in this forum.