Apple’s best-of-breed OpenGL tools help developers locate, analyze and debug graphics bottlenecks, making the Mac a uniquely powerful platform for OpenGL development. Read the article at the ADC site.
OpenGL Tools for Serious Graphics Development
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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In one real-world case, a graphics application had been iterating through several enabled texture units to update texture state before rendering. Sometimes, no state needed to be changed for a particular texture unit, but the application was still calling the glActiveTexture() function to select it. For this developer, running the OpenGL Profiler and collecting a trace quickly highlighted these superfluous function calls, and the application gained an optimization.
I wonder if it was the developer of the iPhoto application?
That no one in their right mind would use OS X for OpenGL development considering the piss poor support for extensions. OS X doesn’t even have freakin vertex buffer objects yet.
The tools may be great but without extension support OS X just isn’t a serious contender for a development platform in OpenGL.
that is what I have been saying for years
Apple is NOT the best platform for Graphics!
“THEY’LL” not ever wake up, will they?
um, its been there since 10.2.5
you’re absolutely right, they don’t see OpenGL as an important topic. That must have been why they dedicated no less than 5 full sessions to it at WWDC.
What is the equivalent of Quartz Extreme on Windows? Linux? Only thing that comes close is Sun’s looking glass demo. And i’d like to see your thoughts on Java3D if you think Apple’s support for advanced 3D technology is primitive.
apple understands their intangible niche market on mac they are switching direction toward other business area like digital music and pixar.
fortunately with 50b in bank while their revenue is still increasing everyyear apple is here to stay
Sounds like the Jobs reality distortion field has affected you. Apple doesn’t have $50B in the bank. That’s MS. Unfortunately for Apple, as their market share declines and fixed costs stay…well fixed…they’ll be facing tough choices soon. That’s why your hearing about their music initiatives. Don’t worry though, Jobs will find a way to screw that up as well.
Check out Alias/Wavefront site on Maya. 25% of their Maya sales are to the Macintosh OSX paltform. That sounds like a pretty good choice for a graphics platform to me.
Well, unless you overlapped a GL window with another window, and then the frame-rate pretty much halved.
That might be an OS 10.1.5 thing as I havent had the powerbook since then.
However, this shows that all the OpenGL profiling tools in the world wont help when the problem is (presumably?) in the compositing layer.
However, assuming this problem is no longer present in Panther etc. I can’t see why Macs wouldn’t make an excellent OpenGL environment, and more tools are always welcome.
Thanks Apple.
i hate this f*cking site. you’re all a bunch of 16 yr-old chronic masturbators that talk sh*t about any other OS then the one your mommies or daddies bought for you.
god forbid you ever get your heads out of your asses and realize that there aren’t that many differences between operating systems. macs work. they are a professional tool that EVERY designer over 30 has been using since they started working with a computer. Go ask anyone at a major design house (one that actually make money) such as Pentegram, Ogilvy, Segura, Tolleson, etc., what computers their Art Directors and Creative Directors use….Apple will be the answer
thats why the graphrics industry has been slowly switching away from macs for the last decade.
they may be a professional tool, but they are not the choice professional tool, because photoshop runs on PC too. and up until recently the photoshop versions were second on Macs.
btw: steve jobs is a useless twit, atleast bill gates is a respectable human being.
“at least bill gates is a respectable human being.”
errrrr….ok. i’m sorry you’re a little upset because your reply was a little on the 10-year-old fanboy side, but you’ll eventually grow up when you get out of the 8th grade and have to work for a living.
“macs work. they are a professional tool that EVERY designer over 30 has been using since they started working with a computer.”
Or could it be that because they are over 30 they are set in their ways and only know the Mac, since they have ALWAYS used it.
Remember that sometimes technology improves, and that allows the competition actually becomes better then then current market leader. Or even just costs can make the difference. If something is cheaper, and just as good, if not better, then market forces will usually prevail.
For example
PC – Mac.
ATI – Nvidia, which is looking like Nvidia – 3DFX.
AMD – Intel.
VHS – BETA.
There are reasons why designers stick with MAC and speed has never been the real issue. Support of design tools is the major reason. FONT’s alone until recently was one HUGE advantage that Apple had, and stillt o some extent still does. Overall reliablity which if you work in the industry know exactly what I am talking about( 5 mins a day due to crap then 30 mins). Networking is MUCH easier are just a few reasons.
I am not OpenGL guru, but if the Apple was not heading in the right direction, Apple would not be able to give away to 3D animators. And the fact they are grabbing more marketshare in this area shows Apple has been listening and doing what that segment wants.
Play games get a PC want to do graphic design get a mac.
“Remember that sometimes technology improves, and that allows the competition actually becomes better then then current market leader. Or even just costs can make the difference. If something is cheaper, and just as good, if not better, then market forces will usually prevail.”
XP windows graphics systems are NOT cheaper…not the high-end systems that a designer would need.
I cannot on ANY level agree with you that an XP box is easier to use then an OS X 10.3 and therefore better.
XP also looks like *ss-candy, but that’s just my feeling on their garish colors/themes. if you’re a designer and your job is to make interfaces for websites or cdroms, it’s a little difficult getting around that.. akin to looking at pieces of plastic all day