OpenGL 4.0 Spec Released 166
tbcpp writes "The Khronos Group has announced the release of the OpenGL 4.0 specification. Among the new features: two new shader stages that enable the GPU to offload geometry tessellation from the CPU; per-sample fragment shaders and programmable fragment shader input positions; drawing of data generated by OpenGL, or external APIs such as OpenCL, without CPU intervention; shader subroutines for significantly increased programming flexibility; 64-bit, double-precision, floating-point shader operations and inputs/outputs for increased rendering accuracy and quality. Khronos has also released an OpenGL 3.3 specification, together with a set of ARB extensions, to enable as much OpenGL 4.0 functionality as possible on previous-generation GPU hardware."
Re:DOA for anything but pro gear (Score:4, Insightful)
Added to that, OpenGL ES, which is almost a direct subset of OpenGL (it adds a couple of things, but you can quite easily write code that is both valid OpenGL ES and OpenGL), is present on almost all mobile devices. If you want to write a 3D app or game that runs on a mobile phone, you use OpenGL ES. I think Wince has a DirectX implementation of some kind, but it has such a tiny market share that it's largely irrelevant.
OpenAL is also cross-platform; there's a software-only implementation that runs very nicely on Linux, *BSD, and Solaris; it's not just Windows and OS X. Creative provides OpenAL acceleration on a few other platforms, but I don't think anyone else does - there's not really much point these days in offloading sound processing, CPUs are more than fast enough.
Re:Patent problems still there? (Score:4, Insightful)
What makes you assume "software" solutions to technological problems are not patentable in the EU?
It says so right in the law... However, the European Patent Office are able to read between the lines and divine what the lawmakers REALLY meant, so they allow software patents.
So far there is (AFAIK) absolutely zero case law about software patents in the EU, so the courts haven't decided whether EPO's reading is correct. Companies seem content with doing their patent fights in the US. Why bother with dealing with a troublesome case making a precedent in the EU when the defendant is likely selling the exact same software in the US where software patents have been involved in numerous cases?
Re:Hardware support (Score:3, Insightful)
It's like Ford's Model-T: You could order in any color you wanted, so long as that color was black.
Re:That's not was the Mesa devs say (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, but anyone using OpenGL with X is going to be using either the Nvidia proprietary drivers or ATI proprietary drivers.
The OSS offerings do not provide nearly the same level of performance, unfortunately.
So again, from a real world practical standpoint, Mesa isn't in use anyway.
Re:DOA for anything but pro gear (Score:5, Insightful)
DirectX is indeed widely used on Windows, since it handles more things. OpenGL handles just graphics, but is cross-platform; with SDL it's close enough to DirectX that it's often used. And of course you could use OpenGL for graphics and DirectX for everything else.
I like the current situation where the two coexist and force each other to evolve to stay competitive. It's a bit like AMD forced Intel to get off its ass and make good and cost-effective processors again. We'll see if NVidia is able to respond to ATI/AMD's challenge too; but at least we won't see similar stagnation as with 3Dfx after initial Voodoo.
The only good thing about capitalism is that competition forces companies to get off their ass and evolve. A pity it doesn't work anywhere except the tech sector.
Re:OpenGL on par with Direct3D11 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DOA for anything but pro gear (Score:2, Insightful)
and you can use OpenAL if you want to have the same sound effects engine on windows
Especially Windows Vista and 7 since DirectSound acceleration doesn't exist anymore LOL
Yeah, sound processing is really quite intensive for a modern computer with some cores lying mostly unused by most video games even without sound turned on.
Re:OpenGL on par with Direct3D11 (Score:4, Insightful)
Give me a break. C and C++ aren't going anywhere, and barely anybody is using OCaml or Haskell, especially not for OpenGL applications. You sound like another amateur Reddit poster who thinks C is hard because it has pointers. C is simple, fast, and elegant.
In the real world, outside of the buzzword-laden, blog-driven, pseudo-academic world you were spawned, C and C++ remain the dominant languages for commercial application development. That includes Objective-C on the iPhone.
Re:change to stateless API abandoned? (Score:3, Insightful)
I am a bit fuzzy here on the idea of "stateless" API that deals with inherently state-oriented hardware such as GPUs with their frame buffers, pixel processors, massive texture memories and what not...
So you do you expect the entire (multi-hundred megabyte sized) state of the GPU and its memory to be duplicated in system RAM and somehow auto-magically transmitted back and forth with each operation? Do elaborate.
Maybe they should change that (Score:2, Insightful)
Part of the reason for DX's popularity is the support for the latest tech. The reason for that support is that MS works with the GPU makers. They have discussions back and forth. MS tells the hardware makers what they want to introduce in the new DX specs, the hardware makers tell MS what kinds of features they are working on and so on (you have to remember that they are already in early development of next gen chips before current ones come out, chip development is a lengthy process). By working on this beforehand you can have a situation where DX supports the latest cards, and generally comes out about the same time. Quite useful.
Perhaps the OpenGL devs need to start doing that, rather than just sitting around until hardware launches and then playing catchup.
Re:DOA for anything but pro gear (Score:3, Insightful)
The irony of it all is that in the tech sector, a lot of the evolution and advancement come from people who are in it because they love technology and scientific research, not just because of monetary rewards
In fact I know people who love so much what they do, they will point blank tell you they do it most definitively not for the money since they don't get paid anywhere near the amount that their time and effort would deserve.
Which sort of proves that most of the assumptions by those in love with Capitalism are at best incredibly dishonest. If people were guaranteed a relative level of stability (guaranteed housing, health care, food, and education) while being allowed to concentrate on what they love, you'd see humanity advancing by leaps and bounds. But then, the aim of Capitalism (and most other "isms") is not human advancement, but rather a closed loop cycle of concentration of capital, since that very same capital is both the means and the end.
Sorry for the tangent...
Re:OpenGL on par with Direct3D11 (Score:4, Insightful)
This jostling for OpenGL to jump over Direct3D in terms of features is ridiculous.
You can't have stable without the beta.
Re:Maybe they should change that (Score:1, Insightful)
Just out of interest, who do you think are sitting on the OpenGL ARB?