The OpenGL Architecture Review Board officially announced OpenGL 3 on August 8th 2007 at the Siggraph Birds of a Feather (BOF) in San Diego, CA. OpenGL 3 is the official name for what has previously been called OpenGL Longs Peak. OpenGL 3 is a true industry effort with broad support from all vendors in the ARB. The OpenGL 3 specification is on track to be finalized at the next face-to-face meeting of the OpenGL ARB, at the end of August. This means the specification can be publicly available as soon as the end of September, after the mandatory 30 day Khronos approval period has passed. Also presented were the changes to the OpenGL Shading Language that will accompany OpenGL 3. For more details check here, here and here.
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Member since:2005-07-06
OpenML, OpenAL and OpenGL - use the standard UNIX networking, and voila - cross platform.
Don't believe the 'hype' that because Microsoft puts a shiny unifying name over a bunch of disparate and disjointed API's, doesn't mean there is actually any logic to them.
As for gaming, who cares - there are consoles these days; get a console, it'll last you 5 years, and get a laptop that'll give you portability - through *NIX (*BSD, Linux or OpenSolaris) and be done with it.
Member since:2005-07-22
Member since:2007-07-13
Kia Ora kaiwai!
Unfortunately consoles aren't always an option for indie game developers. While the Playstation 3 uses OpenGL+Cg it is not available for use by the general public, and certainly not available when running Linux on the PS/3 (Ubuntu runs pretty sweet). This is a real shame as Sony promised the Playstation 'Edge' but I there is no general release of it (unlike the Xbox360's XNA kit), which fits Sony's business model but is a shame.
Otherwise I agree with you, developers thinking of a long term strategy should be looking at OpenML, OpenAL (which is starting to be more widely used in games such as Oblivion), and OpenGL.
For those that have only tried earlier versions of OpenGL (or DirectX) it is worth trying OpenGL 2 as it has most of the features of D3D 9c. The object model of OpenGL 3 just makes life even easier for developers, plus gives driver writers the chance to introduce additional efficiencies, plus if you use OpenGL 3 you will have Direct3D 10 features on WindowsXP and Vista (and all the other Operating Systems out there).
Member since:2005-12-15
Member since:2006-02-12
nm the *nix vs everything else arguments and the whole thing of weather or not *nix is actually a viable laptop/desktop alternative.
As far as consoles go, MS seem to have taken a pretty nice chuck of that market too and xbox does use a version of directx. But not to worry every other console uses ogl. Also virtually all special effects in movies are created with opengl so directx does not really have such a large share as most people believe it does.
But it would be nice to see ogl coming back to the desktop. I don't really hold high hopes for that but it's nice to dream every once in a while.
Member since:2005-07-06
Consoles are closed systems and therefore inconvenient.
Want to plug a console to a DVI monitor? Tough luck.
Don't want to wait 6 month - one year for a game to be released in your contry because they need to translate it, and you don't care about the translation anyway, because they are usually sloppy and use awful voice actors?
Too bad, you can't order the game from the us - unless you also buy an us console, which comes with a whole new set of inconvenience.
Yes, some/most of those issues can be solved by ordering adapters or chips of dubious quality from some asian websites or by getting your console modded (not even sure a 360 can be made region free), but then the argument that a console is just "plug and play" starts melting down fast.
Also, most pc games nowadays allows people to make mods. If you play oblivion on 360, the only additional content is crappy and overpriced stuff from bethesda.
If you play on PC, you have entire websites of amateur content, some of which is very good (especially at fixing many more or less minor inconveniences in the game)
So, screw consoles. I only ever buy any of them for a select few good games that can't be found on PC.
Edited 2007-08-13 13:39
Member since:2006-05-29
Console games differ very much from PC/Mac games. They have horrible controls (no Mouse&Keyboard) that disqualify them from decent implementations of most genres: no Simulations, no Lucasgames style Adventures (which have a revival on PC right now), no Strategy games, no innovative indy games (because a PS3/XBox/Wii developement kits are extremely expensive), no management games, no mmorpgs, no decent rpgs, no ... i could go on like that for ever.
So buying a Console as replacement is an alternative if you like either beat em ups, wannabe gangster racers or sport games or if you are an masochist who wants to try playing an fps with joypad (=i'm-drunk-and-running-into-walls-simulation).
I had 4 consoles so far and it was always the same... after 3 month i return to my PC, even if it was outdated at that time.
Member since:
2007-02-17
Right, because the only platform-locked API used in a Windows game is the graphics API. The common 3D sound APIs, game-optimized networking layers, input handlers, movie playback engines, VoIP integrated systems, and so on are all complete non-players, I'm sure.</sarcasm>