What's a
Game Developers Conference without some sweet new tools for developers to sink their teeth into? Khronos Group, the association behind
OpenGL, has today announced the fourth generation of its cross-platform API spec, which takes up the mantle of offering a viable competitor to Microsoft's DirectX 11. The latest release includes two new shader stages for offloading geometry tessellation from the CPU to the GPU, as well as tighter integration with
OpenCL to allow the graphics card to take up yet more duties off the typically overworked processor -- both useful additions in light of
NVIDIA's newfound love affair with tessellation and supposed leaning toward
general purpose GPU design in the Fermi chips
coming this month. Lest you don't care that much about desktop gaming,
OpenGL ES (Embedded Systems, a mobile offshoot of OpenGL) is the graphics standard on "virtually every shipping smart phone," meaning that whatever ripples start on the desktop front will be landing as waves on your next superphone. If that holds true, we can look forward to more involvement from our graphics chips beyond their usual 3D duties and into spheres we tend to care about -- such as video acceleration.
Now you care, don't ya?
posted March 11th 2010 11:06AM
will the iphone 4.0 support OpenGL 4.0?
I wish that would be perfect for gaming.
@(Unverified) Maybe a light version of it, like they do now.
@(Unverified)
I think Apple's OpenCL-Logo doesn't fit into the grafic of OpenGL...
Hope OGL4 will also be integrated in upcoming mobile systems ;)
@(Unverified) We're talking about OpenGL, not OpenGL ES which is used for mobile devices. So no, there will be no OpenGL 4.0 for iPhone. Still, there might be an update to the OpenGL ES which incorporates some of the changes made to 4.0.
@vandut
OpenGL ES will be moving to v2.1 in the near future, so it is being updated along with OpenGL.
@Flacofromny23 Perfect, except for the small screen, slow processor, lack of gaming controls, low resolution, etc.
@(Unverified) the iPhone uses openGL es (current v. is 2.0)
That's pretty sweet
jeez, after the mess that was opengl 3.0 at least it seems they got off their asses and got 4.0 out in a reasonable time frame..now i wonder if it's actually any good
I know ya gonna hate me but OpenGL 4 on the iPhone 4 generation? Just wow have u seen what gameloft is doing lateley with OpenGL 2 on the iPhone? Imagine what can they do with the 4. Oh don't forget, have you seen SF4?
@Flacofromny23: You do understand that OpenGL ES, not OpenGL, is used on devices like the iPhone? As pointed out above, there may yet be an OpenGL ES 2.1 or something that rolls in some of the new stuff from OpenGL 4.0, but it's not the same thing.
Hopefully they integrate this into the Palm Pre so it can actually use its tasty GPU.
@Proverb
What's a palm pre? You're not talking about the phone everyone was hyped up about back in 2006 are you?
I like open gl because it is an open standard unlike direckx
@quarkist I'm all for minimizing MS's stronghold on PC gaming.
Funny thing is, back when first 3D accelerated games were available, OpenGL based drivers were far superior than DirectX. I remember Half-Life wouldn't render very well in DirectX mode.
Adopting OpenGL will also make porting your game across platform easier. Now that Valve is cross platform, I can see other developers catching on.
The problem here I think is Epic. Unreal Engine is too DirectX oriented.
@strang Epic is one of the games that ship a linux version as well as the windows version on the disc when they launch a new game ;-) so I dont think the unreal engine has any strong binding to directx
@nezzdk The latest Unreal engine has no Linux client. It was in the works by a single developer, but he's been busy working on other projects and hasn't finalized it. UT3 and previous though... that had native support.
@Andir
That is probably because UT3 is dead in the water.
Coming from a diehard UT fan. UT3 just sucks.
@quarkist OpenGL isn't an open standard its a cross platform standard big difference.
It's also hamstrung by the companies like AutoCAD who do not want OpenGL to radically evolve because it means rewriting their software.
OpenGL is basically a clone of whatever standard Microsoft sets through Direct3D whether you like it or not Microsoft is the one which pushes 3D technology forward no one else does.
@quarkist It might be an open standard but from a developer viewpoint it's a lot easier to develop only on DX. And somewhat obviously, if you want to make a simple game that'll easily work on the Zune, Windows Phone 7, Xbox 360, and the PC you definitely won't be doing it in OpenGL.
@quarkist nice troll bait, ill bite.
Direct X looks better then openGl and the APIs are easier to work with.
plus the hardware on a mac isn't powerful enough to run a high end game at max settings
hows that for tollbait
nuff said.
@Xero2 OpenGL is an open standard supported by cross industry partners....don't want write all this in the post ... read this and you will get your answers:
http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-and-not-DirectX
Apple needs to get their asses in gear and implement this in Snow Leopard in anticipation of VALVe's release of Steam for the Mac.
I know it wont happen, but I can dream, right?
@SolidSnake
Why wouldn't it happen? Apple always integrates the newest OpenGL into their OS.
@Jack Ah, so it will happen then - but they'll charge you $30 for the update...
@Phenom
No, it'll more likely be part of a $129 update, but that's because it'll be a much larger Tiger- or Leopard-style feature update, of which a new OpenGL version is just a minor part.
Also, they'll drag their asses until OpenGL 5.0 is getting ready to come out, and then halfheartedly throw in an out-of-date build of 4.x and never look at it again.
@SolidSnake
Seeing that Snow Leopard is the first commercial OS to fully support OpenCL, and Quarz & the OS X GUI has been completely built around OpenGL from day 1, you can expect OpenGL 4 to hit OS X sooner than any other OS.
@drange
I meant happen in a timely manner, ie. a point release. But it won't. We would see a benefit if the source engine was able to take advantage of this.
@Phenom
I think you are nearly a year late for that old trolling effort
what's that make you then?
Coma Troll?
@Jack Uh no they dont OSX doesn't even fully support OpenGL 3 its mostly limited to 2.1 with a few extra extensions.
Android?
I really hope that these changes are more impressive than they sound because OpenGL had fallen dramatically behind DirectX's GPU rendering technology.
The GPU is way under-utilized these days in terms of rendering and it's APIs like OGL that have been one of the biggest reasons for that. We need standards for this type of stuff or else application developers won't support anything.
@Hazdaz OGL is by no means underpowered. The PS3 uses a modified version of OGL 2.0, sans legacy hardware APi and some modified shader processes. How on earth can you consider OGL underpowered, esspecially compared to DX?
Now we're seeing OGL4.0.
@Colrath Give him a break, he read some FUD somewhere and feels like he needs to project that he knows what he's talking about.
@Andir
Why don't you go work in the 3D design industry for 10+ years and then come back and talk.
Anyone in the 3D industry knows knows that while OGL was most definitely a great technology that pushed the industry forward back in the day (almost 2 decades ago), it has not however kept up with the technology. This new version has a lot to prove when it comes to GPU-rendering technology and supporting more advanced tech.
@Hazdaz Why don't you do it first. You obviously don't know about extensions, which allows OpenGL to as much if not more than Direct3D.
@Colrath the ps3 has an api designed similarly to opengl, but it has not really anything to do with the power of the ps3, which has to be unleashed by ps3 native apis and the coding for the multiple cores.
it's just an api that has similarities. opengl the way it's implemented on pc's or macs or similar lacks tons of functionality AND simplicity that directx has, and wich allows it it's high performance. the opengl api has, by design, quite some overhead.
i'll have to check out the opengl 4 spec now, to see if that improved.
Only if and that is a HUGE if game companies would stick to OGL instead of proprietary crap like DirectX or MS would open DirectX outside of windows, but I am just speaking from cloud 9 now.
does this help the Pre like other poster stated?
Also, would this mean that ATI' 5000 series cards, which are all DirectX 11.0, are compatible? What about their 10.1 cards....
I'm in the process of looking at ATI cards right now, and want to future proof as much as possible....
Not sure why there is so much Direct X hate around here, It's more efficient, better graphics and gets updates faster compared opengl. Opengl seems to be more of a mobile platform now, then a desktop one.
@Murkurie
Isn't it obvious? DirectX is closed and proprietary, OpenGL is open.
@Murkurie The thing is that if you listen to OpenGL developers they will tell you exact opposite thing. Apparently OpenGL is technically superior but years of Microsoft propaganda has led people to think otherwise.
That's what they say, I'm not technical enough to know if it's true or not, one thing I do know is that ID games have always been OpenGL-based (including the upcoming Rage) and they've always looked pretty incredible to me.
@Jack, that's not really that big of a plus. The advancements with XNA and DX seems a lot more impressive than simply having something open.
It is good to see them back on track 3.0 was a disaster in terms of advancing games (it was like they only cared about cad softwares).
@Templarian
Advancements in XNA and DX don't do anything to make DX run on anything but Windows. Like I said, DirectX is closed and proprietary, OpenGL is open.
How is having DX locked down to a single OS a plus?
@Jack MS should port DirectX to Linux and OSX so they could claim the 1% of the PC gaming market that they don't already own.
@Murkurie OpenGL supports the ability for nVidia, ATI, et al. to create their own extensions. This means OpenGL _is_ the absolute cutting edge, but it requires that developers continue to learn and utilize these extensions. DirectX... you get what Microsoft gives you. Most game developer studios today in trying to keep costs low don't employ developers that really study these things. They hire Jimmy Richparents from Microsoft sponsored game schools who are trained on DirectX and don't really know any better.
@Jack Being "open" doesn't make something better. DirectX is way ahead of openGL. Look at OpenOffice, it's crap compared to Microsoft Office.
@VampireHunterZ
How is DX better if it doesn't work on your machine? Answer that and you'll see why OpenGL is better.
@Jack You are once again arguing about the "openness" of the product and not it's performance. It doesn't matter if it runs on everything if it's performance is subpar. When I see something written in OpenGL that compares to Crysis I'll pay attention.