OpenGL
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a programming interface for 3D graphics which helps computer programmers make their 3D graphics perform better and faster by running parts of their programs on a video card (GPU) rather than just the central processor (CPU). Programming interfaces like OpenGL are usually called an "API," which stands for "Application Programming Interface".
| Linux kernel and OpenGL video games.svg | |
| Original author(s) | Silicon Graphics |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Khronos Group (formerly ARB) |
| Initial release | June 30, 1992 |
| Stable release | 4.6 / July 31, 2017 |
| Written in | C[1] |
| Type | 3D graphics API |
| Website | opengl |
OpenGL is often compared to Direct3D, an API for 3D graphics on Windows. Programming for Direct3D is different in some ways because the APIs use different naming schemes for talking to a computer's graphics driver, which means that programmers need to write different code for OpenGL and Direct3D to do the same things.
OpenGL is owned by the Khronos Group, and is an example of open source software. This means that all of OpenGL's programming, and the explanations for how the programming all works, can be viewed, copied, revised, and re-released by anyone.
OpenGL Media
An illustration of the graphics pipeline process
Screenshot of glxinfo, showing information of Mesa implementation of OpenGL on a system
References
- ↑ Lextrait, Vincent (January 2010). "The Programming Languages Beacon, v10.0". Archived from the original on May 30, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2010.
Further reading
- Shreiner, Dave; Sellers, Graham; et al. (March 30, 2013). OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL. Version 4.3 (8th ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-321-77303-6.
- Sellers, Graham; Wright, Richard S.; Haemel, Nicholas (July 31, 2013). OpenGL SuperBible: Comprehensive Tutorial and Reference (6th ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-321-90294-8.
- Rost, Randi J. (July 30, 2009). OpenGL Shading Language (3rd ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-321-63763-5.
- Lengyel, Eric (2003). The OpenGL Extensions Guide. Charles River Media. ISBN 1-58450-294-0.
- OpenGL Architecture Review Board; Shreiner, Dave (2004). OpenGL Reference Manual: The Official Reference Document to OpenGL. Version 1.4. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-321-17383-X.
- OpenGL Architecture Review Board; Shreiner, Dave; et al. (2006). OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL. Version 2 (5th ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-321-33573-2.
Other websites
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The English Wikibooks has more information on: |
- GLFW -- Library for creating OpenGL contexts.
- GLEW -- Extension wrangler library for newer OpenGL features.
- Lua error in Module:Official_website at line 90: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- OpenGL Overview and OpenGL.org's Wiki with more information on OpenGL Language bindings
- SGI's OpenGL website
- OpenGL at Curlie
- Khronos Group, Inc.
- Angel, Edward & Shreiner, Dave (2013). "An Introduction to OpenGL Programming". YouTube. SIGGRAPH University.
