OpenGL Architecture Review Board Announces Widespread Adoption for Newest Graphics Specification
Rapid Acceptance of New OpenGL 1.4 Specification Brings Advanced Realism Tools to Software Developer Community
Friday September 20, 9:00 am ET
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) today announced that adoption of the OpenGL® 1.4 specification is proceeding rapidly. The specification was ratified in July by the ARB and the leading graphics hardware vendors have quickly readied their product plans to include support for the new capabilities. Introduced in 1992 by SGI, OpenGL® is the industry's leading cross-platform 2D and 3D graphics application programming interface (API). With more than 60 hardware developer licensees today, OpenGL has the broadest industry support of any openly licensed graphics API. Software developers prefer OpenGL for creating interactive 2D and 3D visual applications for computer systems ranging from consumer PCs to graphics workstations and supercomputers.
As the world's leading 3D graphics API, this latest release of OpenGL provides a compelling foundation for application development and innovation in diverse markets. For example, new features and functionality in OpenGL 1.4 will impact the creation of mind-challenging games, production of blockbuster movies, design of next-generation automobiles and instruction for mission- critical flight simulation.
"With the release of OpenGL 1.4 at SIGGRAPH 2002, following the release of OpenGL 1.3 at SIGGRAPH 2001, the ARB has demonstrated the ability to match the pace of innovation in the graphics hardware industry," said Jon Leech, secretary of the OpenGL ARB. "We expect to complete annual revisions of the OpenGL API from this time forward."
New Specification Advances Graphics Quality and Realism
Designed to advance the level of graphics quality and realism, the OpenGL 1.4 specification has new core features, including:
-- Depth textures and shadow textures, enabling real-time shadows and
related image-based rendering techniques
-- Automatic texture mipmap generation, providing rapid updates and high-
quality texture filtering for dynamic textures
-- Numerous smaller enhancements, including:
- Multiple draw arrays, for higher geometry throughput
- Window raster position, for precise 2D and image rendering
- User-defined fog coordinate, for advanced fog effects
- User-defined secondary color, point parameters, texture
level-of-detail bias, texture crossbar and new frame buffer blending
modes and stenciling functions for more flexible shading and
rendering effects
In conjunction with OpenGL 1.4, the ARB approved the ARB_vertex_program extension, which will also be broadly supported by independent hardware vendors. In addition to providing powerful application-programmable geometry and lighting capabilities, this extension sets the stage for programmable fragment and texture operations that will be introduced in the near future.
Rapid Support from Graphics Hardware Vendors
"3Dlabs continues to be at the forefront of OpenGL development and innovation as we incorporate leading-edge OpenGL hardware and software technology into our complete range of professional 3D solutions," said Neil Trevett, senior vice president at 3Dlabs. "We are committed to offering workstation-grade OpenGL 1.4 drivers for our Wildcat family of graphics accelerators."
"OpenGL is built into the core of Mac OS X's Quartz graphics system, and Apple is strongly committed to this powerful graphics technology," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "Jaguar includes the ARB vertex programming extensions, and the Quartz Extreme composited window system is fully accelerated using OpenGL, making Mac OS X the ultimate platform for 2D, 3D and multimedia graphics."
"ATI was the first to ship an implementation of OpenGL 1.4 and ARB_vertex_program, with the Radeon 9700 Pro, less than four weeks after the specifications were ratified," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president of marketing and general manager, Desktop Group, ATI Technologies Inc. "ATI will continue to be a strong supporter of OpenGL, which continues as the key API for advanced graphics development and the ultimate visual experience. ATI currently leads the Fragment Program working group and the OpenGL 2.0 working group."
"Current NVIDIA drivers support both OpenGL 1.4 and the recently approved ARB_vertex_program interface," said Lew Wagman, director of software marketing at NVIDIA. "By evolving the OpenGL specification rapidly, and by committing to timely implementations of these new standards, NVIDIA and the other OpenGL ARB members and licensees are empowering the development of applications and games that fully leverage new hardware capabilities, and that operate on a wide variety of platforms. These advanced OpenGL features also support cross- platform implementations of higher-level tool sets such as NVIDIA's Cg Toolkit, so programmers can effectively harness the power of modern graphics technology."
"Silicon Graphics has been at the core of graphics innovation since our inception 20 years ago and we are excited to lead the ARB as it continues to push the envelope for future generations of graphics standards," said Greg Estes, vice president of marketing, SGI.
For a complete description of the OpenGL 1.4 specification and information about the OpenGL Architecture Review Board, visit www.opengl.org.
OpenGL 2.0 Working Group Formed
OpenGL is entering its second decade and the foundation for the next generation of graphics is already underway with the recent formation of the OpenGL® 2.0 working group. Approved at the June 2002 OpenGL ARB meeting, the working group will ensure the timely availability of the next major version of the industry-standard 3D graphics programming technology. The ARB is working toward enhancing OpenGL with a higher-level language that will impact programmability of current and future graphics architectures while still maintaining full backwards compatibility. Leveraging detailed proposals submitted by 3Dlabs and NVIDIA Corp., the working group will cooperate to deliver OpenGL 2.0 in the near future. (See "OpenGL Architecture Review Board Announces Formation of OpenGL 2.0 Working Group," July 24, sgi.com ) |
