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SGI and OpenGL ARB Announce OpenGL 1.5 Specification

  Submitted by Ginny 3D 18 Comments

SGI and OpenGL architecture review board announced the OpenGL 1.5 specification, introducing support for a “revolutionary” OpenGL Shading Language. Also, SGI and Sun Microsystems’ Software Platforms to work seamlessly together with Java bindings to OpenGL. I wonder if this new OpenGL 1.5 spec clashes with 3DLabs’ suggested 2.0 specification somehow.

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Eugenia Loli

Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.

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18 Comments

  1. 2003-07-28 6:57 pm
    Anonymous

    I wonder if this new OpenGL 1.5 spec clashes with 3DLabs’ suggested 2.0 specification somehow.

    No, it doesn’t. The 1.5 spec contains the high level vertex and pixel shaders that will be included in GL2 but as ARB extentions – i.e. they are not part of the core spec yet. This will allow to fix any implementation issues that will arise before nailing down the GL2 spec.

  2. 2003-07-28 7:24 pm
    Anonymous

    I am not very up to speed on the openGL standard (from a developper perspective). When can we expect to see drivers taking advantage of new standard? Programs?

    -b

  3. 2003-07-28 7:40 pm
    Anonymous

    Drivers will probably catch up within a few driver release cycles (6 months, tops). Both NVIDIA and ATI are on the ARB, so they’ve been aware of the requirements from the beginning. Heck, it was their proprietory extensions that the new standard extension is based on.

    Software developers will take a lot longer to catch up. In particular, it won’t be until after the Doom 3 engine based games come out sometime next year that we’ll start seeing stuff designed for the new API.

  4. 2003-07-28 7:59 pm
    Anonymous

    The real question is whether gates and company will include a new OGL driver for windows. I guess is NO.

  5. 2003-07-28 8:01 pm
    Anonymous

    In your next installer, please don’t autoload the Java OpenGL classes. I don’t like getting an OpenGL error when trying to run a simple installer because some bonehead is loading Java’s OpenGL classes and my graphics card doesn’t support the latest OpenGL.

    BTW, rewriting the installer engine in Java and launching a VM to run an installer… I still marvel at the stupidity of the modern software engineer, aka “scrub”.

  6. 2003-07-28 8:11 pm
    Anonymous

    I wonder what this will me for the poorly supported but officical Java3D package (http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/“

  • 2003-07-28 9:38 pm
    Anonymous

    It doesn’t matter if Microsoft do or do not include a new OpenGL driver on Windows. What matters is that graphics chip vendors modify thier Windows drivers to support the new spec.

    Ralph

  • 2003-07-28 9:55 pm
    Anonymous

    I thought Microsoft had dropped support meaning that it was no longer possible to update the OpenGL API level. Is this not true? I don’t really understand how OpenGL works on Windows.

  • 2003-07-28 9:57 pm
    Anonymous

    What matters is that the OpenGL 1.5 spec, and the future OpenGL 2.0 spec are taking too long to develop. Because Direct3D has been designed by one company, not a committee, it has leap frogged over OpenGL in terms of capabilities. These people need to wakeup and address the real concerns of the 3D community

  • 2003-07-28 10:41 pm
    Anonymous

    If your card is that lame that it doesnt support basic opengl well then sir you deserve an openGL error.

  • 2003-07-28 11:04 pm
    Anonymous

    Because Direct3D has been designed by one company, not a committee, it has leap frogged over OpenGL in terms of capabilities

    You’ll be suprised at how beneficial a commitee can be vs. market driven rush to market products. At the end of the day, developers are engineers who admire well designed solutions, and a peer reviewed (commitee based) specification with input from almost all major vendors and players will definately be more powerfull than something rushed to market in order to satisfy current quarted financial requirements. Dont diss OpenGL off that fast (when compared to Direct3D).

    Besides, how many relesead applications actually use D3D9 specs with PixelShaders 2.0? Other than 3DMark2003, I cant think of a single title. Which solution do you think developers would prefer to use – the rushed D3D 9 specs or a planned OpenGL 1.5 specs?

  • 2003-07-28 11:55 pm
    Anonymous

    Besides, how many relesead applications actually use D3D9 specs with PixelShaders 2.0? Other than 3DMark2003, I cant think of a single title. Which solution do you think developers would prefer to use – the rushed D3D 9 specs or a planned OpenGL 1.5 specs?

    These stuff are latest-and-greatest that majority of its features won’t hit the market until probably in the next 6 to 18 months. A lot of games are still on DX7 while some are on DX8 level already. It will take some time before these features found on highend GPUs become widespread. There are 3D engines out there that are incorporating version 2.0 already, so games supporting 2.0 will be availaible soon.

    Regarding DX9 and OGL, version 2.0 standard will definitely bring a lot of WOW factor in the mold. Gamers will be blown-away with these news features. I guarantee it because I’ve seen the demo from ATI.

    What is really revolutionary is the 2.0 standard, not the DX or OGL API itself. I would imagine DX and OGL will be modified or tweaked according the shading spec, though.

  • 2003-07-29 4:00 am
    Anonymous

    Ideally a well thought out and timely standard is best. The problem is in the “timely” part of that statement. Is the OGL 2.0 spec going to be out in a timely manner? How long have we been hearing about the 2.0 spec? How much progress has really been made towards getting it frozen and out the door? A standard which comes two years too late is as good as no standard at all. The bottom line is that better design doesn’t equal market success. Granted, OpenGL is really the only option on the non-Windows platform, but since those platforms make up less and less of a shrinking market share, their contribution to OpenGL numbers is neglible.

    That is the crux of the problem of waiting for the 2.0 spec. If developers are forced to code to DX9 because OpenGL is continually “coming soon,” then the hopes of having a port to a non-Windows platform is practically zero. It is therefore imperative that the spec be worked out sooner rather than later.

  • 2003-07-29 5:11 am
    Anonymous

    I thought Microsoft had dropped support meaning that it was no longer possible to update the OpenGL API level. Is this not true? I don’t really understand how OpenGL works on Windows.

    The application links against opengl32.dll, which can be the MS software rendered, or in the case where your video card driver has provided a opengl ICD (installable client driver), it will dynamically link against that instead. The only difference is that the software renderer takes OpenGL API calls and uses your CPU to calculate the video output, where the video driver’s ICD will use the video hardware acceleration whenever possible and fallback to software rendering on any function not supported by the hardware.

    The seamless fallback of the opengl API makes it a lot easier to deal with (no DXCaps stuff) but you can also accidentally get a (very slow) software rendering path if you use an unsupported feature on some video card.

  • 2003-07-29 7:58 am
    Anonymous

    Please don’t pretend you wouldn’t see how OGL is lagging behind. True, there is no DX9 app. BUT there are 95 gazillion apps that run DX8.x and only two that run OGL: One of them being Q3A, the other is unknown to the general public. *lol*

    That is the state of affairs. OGL committee better speed it up, I don’t want to be reliant on WineX for ever.

  • 2003-07-29 11:17 am
    Anonymous

    BUT there are 95 gazillion apps that run DX8.x and only two that run OGL: One of them being Q3A, the other is unknown to the general public. *lol*

    You know, there’s more than just games. Almost every professional 3D app for CGI movies, construction or visualization uses OpenGL. Many high-end 3D cards don’t even have D3D drivers.

    Also, there are “95 gazillion” operating systems that support OpenGL and only one that supports D3D.

  • 2003-07-29 12:44 pm
    Anonymous

    OpenGL is used for a *WHOLE* lot more than games. You think the latest CGI for movies, as a small example, uses DirectX(insert version here)? If so then you are terribly mistaken – it’s not even considered. You see there is more to OpenGL than games. If games are what motivate you to use a computer perhaps you should go back to windows? Get a dedicated game console?

    Thanks for sharing your narrow-mindedness though.

  • 2003-07-29 3:32 pm
    Anonymous

    Just to clear the air. The only reason it’s called OpenGL 1.5 and not 2.0 is that certain elements are not considered part of the core specification. All the functionality of OpenGL 2.0 is available now with 1.5.