OpenGL 4.1 spec finalized, streamlines 3D graphics for web and phones
By Sean Hollister 
posted July 26th 2010 7:31PM
posted July 26th 2010 7:31PM
posted July 26th 2010 7:31PM
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Exclamation: Improved optical and graphical performance for droids and meatbags alike! Splendid!
@HK47 I'm not sure I like the idea of having an assassin droid on the ship. :/
go back to the Ebon Hawk
@benger
Statement: Forgive me for searching for new and improved technology. Besides, the true whereabouts of my former vessel are unknown.
@HK47
this thread is confusing
@The Madman
"Disclosure: I am a versatile protocol and combat droid, fluent in verbal and cultural translation. Should your needs prove more... practical, I am also skilled in highly personal combat."
@RayVoid
Addendum: Please allow me to forget those days. I still wish to crush Yuka Laka's pathetic meatbag neck.
Anyone mind putting this into layman's terms? Not much of a graphical wizard here...
@Neotyguy40
They're bringing sexy back. Yeah.
@Neotyguy40 They're making it so developers can make cooler games and stuff for your phone, computer, and other devices.
@Neotyguy40
laymans terms: microsofts standardized hardware requirements will benefit mostly from opengl being finalized.
android is doomed
@Neotyguy40
The 4.1 spec seems to be a small update to make it a wee-bit easier to port desktop games to mobile. The dev's should spend less time porting the code over, and more on testing. Of course, they'd still need to convert the other resources such as textures, models, etc to make it fit on limited storage devices.
Also they have a few tweaks to make the developer's life a bit easier.
@Androidsugly
Ummm, no. Game dev's would probably want to target Apple (if they could manage to wait for the approval process), or whichever has the larger market share.
@fisher
microsoft not only has developers from the xbox xna framework, ms has their own gaming studio
@Androidsugly
So what? There are a whole lot more developers that does produce triple-A titles than MS' dev studio. There are a lot more phones (iphone, android or symbian) now than WP7 before or after it gets released.
@Neotyguy40
Easier to develop between desktop, phone, and such.
More advance graphic stuff you can do with graphics. Advance random maths to emulate real life stuff like lighting and such.
OpenGL is always more advance than DirectDX, light year ahead.
So in layman term.
OpenGL > DirectDX
@Androidsugly +1
XNA allows developers to create games and applications for the Xbox, PC, Zune and Windows Phone 7 with very little changes.
"...cribbed DirectX 11 features"
source?
you are saying they are stealing DirectX 11 features and implementing them into openGL without acknowledging Microsoft for them? maybe you meant emulating? recreating? saying cribbed is a very poor word choice.
@SirNoDroin
I also am not a fan of using that term. What exactly was 'cribbed' from DX11? Both OGL 4.0 and DX 11 implemented the same features as made available by hardware when tessellation-capable hardware was released.
@SirNoDroin
Lol, no. They (OpenGL) provide their own implementation of comparable features from Direct X's 3D API. Microsoft couldn't really sue the OpenGL as it is an open specification, non-profit group. Probably if they tried to even sue OpenGL, either the court would reject their claims or they'd get slapped with an anticompetitive lawsuit.
I don't think that even their method calls and names are the same.
So... Does this mean Crysis on a phone?
@Johnny Rockets No. Crysis is a DX 9/10 game.
@Air2ground OpenGL > DirectX any day.
@aliendude5300 Oh, you aren't a gamer
"Unless you're a graphics guru, though, we doubt you'll be that interested in '64-bit floating-point component vertex shader inputs,' so let's get to the meat of what you're after: impressive 3D gaming."
Actually, I don't think any graphics gurus care about 64 bit floats; thats more for GPGPU stuff.
Windows phone 7 has the advantage here with games that can be written to the phone and xbox. Hopefully some devs make some good games!
@Erik2k05
... or a developer can use openGL and have it run on EVERYTHING. DirectX may have some advantages over openGL, but portability is definitely not one of them.
But will it play doom?
@archkron Really? Racially derogatory terms? Is that really nessessary?
Byond the fact that I'm as white as a ghost...
@archkron
I can play doom on my blackjack 2!
@walljordan
because someone's trying to be all gangsta on an OpenGL spec post
No, people are not relaly interested in impressive 3d gaming. They are interested in deep, efficient integration with the OS and applications, which includes the browser. But everything into a composed space allows things like great transitions, transparency, scaling, etc. Without using a lot of CPU so your battery lasts longer and you can do more things at once, smoothly. They just don't realize it because blogs like Engadget aren't able to explain it well.
@huh Amen
@huh i want 3gs and wifis
Could this be added to phones with just a firmware/software upgrade or would the phone need whole new hardware?? My brand new shit is already getting outdated which pisses me off and erects me at the sametime....
@FaeR its a bit of both software features can be used, but hardware features obviously need new hardware. I don't follow openGL very closely, but usually (in direct X word) minor releases (the ones after the decimal) are just software upgrades, were as major releases (DX 8,9,10,11,etc) introduce new hardware features. So if your hardware is openGL 4 compliant, i think you would be able to take advantage of these features.
I think my 32gb iPod touch has openGL graphics.
Improvements in open standards are always a good thing. I look forward to the day when OpenGL can (hopefully) make a comeback and let me use a non-Windows OS for most of my gaming.
@microlith
First off, whats wrong with using windows for games? or are you just yet another fashionable hater? Could you say what advantages gaming in another OS would grant you? In Windows 7 at least, after I load a game up, the fact that I am "in windows" becomes completely transparent.
The documentation and majority funded support community will always keep DirectX as the choice for major Devs. I don't forsee openGL ever really "overtaking" directX in the near future. However, the way I see it, having them both competing with each-other is nothing but a good thing. There will never be a "winner" but rather they can piggyback on each-other to bring new and exciting technology.
@SirNoDroin Quite right. People forget MS created DirectX because at the time openGL was "high end" and the only other API was Glide. DirectX basicly was lightweight like Glide but had input and sound included making game designing easier.
Mind you that was then and this is now where we have openGL and openAL and all that jazz that it could rival DirectX. Shockingly this competion might result in better products in either stacks......
@SirNoDroin Did you ever think that some people may prefer another OS in general? Just because Windows doesn't affect the game doesn't mean the gamer wants to have to reboot every time they want to play it, or use up disk space with a Windows install, or have to buy Windows in the first place.
P.S. (@Sean Hollister) "OpenGL 4.1 promises to help deliver that to cellphones easier than ever before"
That should be "OpenGL 4.1 promises to help deliver that to cellphones more easily than ever before"
/GrammarNazi
@microlith
+1
I want steam on ubuntu and I want it naow.
@SirNoDroin Because choice is always a good thing. Windows wants to go the way of online multiplayer servers run by the content makers and forcing them contractually to sell the DLC.
OpenGL gives people an option to write it for all platforms and let guys like us create content and distribute it for free *or* sell it.
Two examples to illustrate this: Quake3 and Modern Warfare 2.
Q3 is the perfect example of an opengl game that runs on Macs, Windows, and Linux. With it's open sourced GPL'ed agreement anyone can create content and give it away. If you sell you might owe ID a share. Modern Warfare is the complete opposite. Since its going after the Xbox 360 crowd they are not allowed to give away addon content on XBL, they MUST sell it. They pulled the same stunt for the Windows version.
In other words, people have no choice with Modern Warfare. Long lasting communities will not exist because they cannot create their own mods or maps. Q3, quite the opposite. Ten yrs down the road and there is still content being developed for it. That is, unless you are too snobby to play an old game like that.
@SirNoDroin
I like the accusation that because I would prefer to move off Windows (and take my games with me) makes me a "fashionable hater." I have disliked Microsoft since well before it was fashionable.
I understand that you don't notice Windows once the game is loaded up, but unless you always have a game loaded then you are dealing with Windows the rest of the time. And when I'm not in a game, I'm usually in a Linux virtual machine. I'd rather just eliminate Windows entirely.
And the truth is, when the company in control of a standard doesn't have a vested interest on keeping people on a specific platform, you don't need two -standards- vying for control. The hardware manufacturers and game developers can push that very well on their own. Choice -is- good, but two wildly incompatible 3D APIs aren't. I'd rather chose and have my games work on either, than have to stick with an OS because all my games are tied to an API only available to it (done explicitly to keep me on that OS.)
For the OpenGL ES relevance, this allows developers to create an ES-compatible context, and test their API access with the desktop OpenGL. The desktop API has some different features that aren't in ES and vice-versa, so this makes for easier testing and prototyping on the desktop.
Separate shaders have been in great demand because developers are used to binding shaders to a stage, not an entire pipeline at once. GLSL used to enforce binding the entire pipeline, where as the ARB assembly shaders didn't (nor does DX).
Binary shader compiles have been in demand from developers because they don't like shipping their GLSL source with games, as GLSL used to require GLSL source to run shaders.
@RobbieS
don't forget, it also gets you all the fly honies
Let's hope that ATI fixes the games they broke when they updated the catalyst drivers to 10.6 to support open gl 4.0
BTW, it's OpenGL not OpenCL as per the picture.
@deciBels Ah, my mistake! Apparently there IS an OpenCL. My apologies! Never been a fan of coding, lol. Give me hardware!
Doesn't webOS also use OpenGL? Why is webOS always left out of the examples
@rowehc WebOS uses OpenGL ES