What is OpenGL?
OpenGL is an immediate mode graphics programming API originally developed by SGI based on their previous proprietary Iris GL, and became in industry standard several years ago. It is defined and maintained by the Architectural Revision Board (ARB), an organization that includes members as SGI, IBM, and DEC, and Microsoft. OpenGL provides a complete feature set for 2D and 3D graphics operations in a pipelined hardware accelerated architecture for triangle and polygon rendering. In a broader sense, OpenGL is a powerful and generic toolset for hardware assisted computer graphics.
By Kevin Hawkins and Dave Astle with Andre LaMothe From the CodeGuru.com Game Development column This article is brought to you by Premier Press publisher of Kevin Hawkins’ and Davide Astle’s OpenGL Game Programming. OpenGL provides the programmer with an interface to graphics hardware. It is a powerful, low-level rendering and modeling software library, available on all major platforms, with wide hardware support. It is designed for use in any graphics applications, from games to modeling to CAD. Many games, such as id Software’s Quake 3, shown in Figure 1, use OpenGL for their core graphics-rendering engines. Click here for larger image Figure 1 Quake 3 Arena OpenGL intentionally provides only low-level rendering routines, allowing the programmer a great deal of control and flexibility. The provided routines can easily be used to build high-level rendering and modeling libraries, and in fact, the OpenGL Utility Library (GLU), which is included in most OpenGL distributions, does exact
OpenGL(R) is the software interface for graphics hardware that allows graphics programmers to produce high-quality color images of 3D objects. OpenGL is a rendering only, vendor neutral API providing 2D and 3D graphics functions, including modelling, transformations, color, lighting, smooth shading, as well as advanced features like texture mapping, NURBS, fog, alpha blending and motion blur. OpenGL works in both immediate and retained (display list) graphics modes. OpenGL is window system and operating system independent. OpenGL has been integrated with Windows NT and with the X Window System under UNIX. Also, OpenGL is network transparent. A defined common extension to the X Window System allows an OpenGL client on one vendor’s platform to run across a network to another vendor’s OpenGL server.
