Guide to the OpenGL Wiki
This Wiki describes information about OpenGL. This article explains the general format of how information is presented.
OpenGL version[edit]
OpenGL has had a lot of versions. Each version adds new features to the API. So a question arises: which version does this wiki talk about?
First comes the core and compatibility distinction. Unless otherwise stated in the text, this wiki describes functionality that is available in the core profile of OpenGL. Anything describing compatibility or extension-only functionality will be explicitly noted as such.
As for the version, you may assume that any text on the wiki describes OpenGL 3.3 functionality, unless that text says otherwise or has a specific notation. So the default for the wiki is OpenGL 3.3, core profile.
It is often useful to provide such notations for entire articles or specific sections of articles. These describe what OpenGL version the discussed feature is available in (if any), whether there are extensions that matter to it, and so forth. This is done with a feature box, listed to the right of the article or section. In section feature boxes override article feature boxes, but they only pertain to that section.
| Core in version | 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Core since version | 3.3 | |
The feature box is quite simple. The "Core in version" value states the highest version of core profile OpenGL that supports this feature. The "Core since version" states the lowest version of core profile OpenGL that supports the feature.
| Core in version | 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Core since version | 4.3 | |
| Core ARB extension | ARB_ext_name | |
Some core features start their life as OpenGL extensions, or have an extension that provides similar if not exactly identical functionality. The box depicted here shows how such a feature is presented. The "Core ARB extension" lists the name of the extension that it was derived from, if that extension is a core extension.
| EXT extension | EXT_ext_name | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor extension | VEND_ext_name | |
While the wiki is focused on core profile OpenGL, sometimes extension-only functionality is important enough to get an article or section on the wiki. In these cases, the feature box won't have a "Core in version" or "Core since version"; this tells you that the feature isn't core at all.
For example, this infobox to the right describes a pure extension feature, one which was never adopted into core OpenGL. This feature box also notes two versions of this functionality: one from a vendor-specific extension and another from an EXT extension.
In text notation[edit]
Sometimes, new features are small, requiring only a paragraph or less of text. So breaking them out into a full section would interfere in the text layout too much. In these cases, the sentence or paragraph will explicitly state an OpenGL version number and/or extension specification required.