Climbing OpenGL Longs Peak – An OpenGL ARB Progress Update

As you might know, the ARB is planning a lot for 2007. We're hard at work on not one, but two, OpenGL specification revisions code named "OpenGL Longs Peak" and "OpenGL Mount Evans". Besides these two OpenGL revisions and associated conformance tests, the ARB is also working on an OpenGL SDK. Read on →

Polygons In Your Pocket: Introducing OpenGL ES

Everyone knows that you can use OpenGL on Windows, Linus, Mac OS X, and many other platforms ranging from workstations to supercomputers. But, did you know that you can also use a version of it on PDAs and cell phones? Yes, really! OpenGL ES is OpenGL for Embedded Systems, including cell phones in particular, but also PDAs, automotive entertainment centers, portable media players, set-top boxes, and -- who knows -- maybe, someday, wrist watches and Coke® machines. Read on →

A First Glimpse at the OpenGL SDK

By the time you see this article, the new OpenGL SDK will be public. It contains reference pages, libraries, tools, and tutorials, and will be updated often. Read on →

Using the Longs Peak Object Model

In OpenGL Pipeline #002, Barthold Lichtenbelt gave the high-level design goals and structure of the new object model being introduced in OpenGL Longs Peak. In this issue we'll assume you're familiar with that article and proceed to give some examples using the actual API, which has mostly stabilized. (We're not promising the final Longs Peak API will look exactly like this, but it should be very close.) Read on →

ARB Next Gen TSG Update

The OpenGL ARB Working Group has divided up the work for defining the API and feature sets for upcoming versions of OpenGL into two technical sub-groups (TSGs): the “Object Model” TSG and the “Next Gen” TSG. While the Object Model group has the charter to redefine existing OpenGL functionality in terms of the new object model, the Next Gen TSG is responsible for developing the OpenGL APIs for a set of hardware features new to modern GPUs. Read on →

GLSL: Center or Centroid?  (Or When Shaders Attack!)

OpenGL allows implementers to choose the ideal centroid, or any location that is inside the intersection of the pixel square and the primitive, such as a sample point or a pixel center. This article explains when to and when not to evaluate using centroid. Read on →

OpenGL and Windows Vista™

So Windows Vista is here, but what does it mean for an OpenGL user and developer? In this article we will try to give OpenGL application developers a quick peek at what to expect and the current state of OpenGL on Windows Vista.

1. OpenGL is fully integrated in windows Vista's Desktop Window Manager, just like D3D is.
2. Well written applications will see great performance, including Workstation applications.
3. There are a few new rules a developer needs to follow.
4. Drivers will get better over time.

Read on →

Optimize Your Application Performance

This article will discuss the use of ATI and NVIDIA performance counters together with gDEBugger's Performance Views to locate graphics pipeline performance bottlenecks. Read on →

Windows Vista and OpenGL-the Facts

The Khronos OpenGL ARB Working Group has received requests for clarification concerning the performance of OpenGL on Windows Vista. These questions are understandable as Microsoft has dramatically changed the user experience with the Windows Aero compositing desktop and introduced a completely new display driver architecture. This article will discuss how these changes affect OpenGL. Read on →