concering future direction of gl

i saw this which might be of interest to some here
http://www.gamedev.net/columns/events/gdc2006/article.asp?id=233

I like this layering idea. Effectively, they’re exposing the drivers functionality using a new API, the same API they’ll then use to emulate the higher level OpenGL API.
The important thing is that OpenGL remains cross platform, but is simplified and fast.
It’s good news.
Also, I get the impression they’re talking about shifting away from rendering directly into a framebuffer, towards rendering into a texture so they can effectively expose programmable blending/depth/stencil testing…which fits neatly into the upcoming Vista requirement of rendering into a surface for compositing.

Yeah, sure. Shall we play that game again?

It’s nice. I like the ideas. But the original OpenGL 2.0 spec was very nice, too. And what’s left? Nada.

I think we will see D3D 12 sooner than this one. In fact i think everything will be added as extensions and that’s it.

Although this time it’s nVidia and ATI. If anyone can do this, than it’s those two in cooperation.

We’ll see.
Jan.