OpenGL 4.0 out !!!

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi guys,

I just noticed OpenGL 4.0 specification is out, and from the brief overview it is packed with cutting edge stuff.
Have a look here:
http://www.opengl.org/news/permalink/khronos-unleashes-cutting-edge-cross-platform-graphics-acceleration-with-op/

Happy reading :)
It seems with Khronos OpenGL took new speed in development, I am happy to see that.
Valve Source engine has OpenGL rendering path now too... nice times for graphics coders :)


Petr

[sblank]

Good news, then!

We've come a LONG way from OpenGL 1.1...

Cheers,

Stan



Hi guys,

I just noticed OpenGL 4.0 specification is out, and from the brief overview it is packed with cutting edge stuff.
Have a look here:
http://www.opengl.org/news/permalink/khronos-unleashes-cutting-edge-cross-platform-graphics-acceleration-with-op/

Happy reading :)
It seems with Khronos OpenGL took new speed in development, I am happy to see that.
Valve Source engine has OpenGL rendering path now too... nice times for graphics coders :)


Petr

[Petr Schreiber]

Yes :)

But the good thing is even OpenGL 4.0 keeps core profile for newcomers and compatibility for the long time users.
This is very nice approach.

I just checked nvidia website, and it seems there is no OpenGL 4.0 enabled driver yet, I hope they will release it soon.


Petr

[Petr Schreiber]

Few notes on this topic - along with OpenGL 4.0, targeted at Radeon HD 5xxx and GeForce GT4xx series, OpenGL 3.3 has been released as well, to cover older hardware as well.

I found nice overview of OpenGL 4.0 features for those who don't enjoy reading through the specifications:
OpenGL 4.0 review (http://www.g-truc.net/post-0269.html)


Petr

[zak]

Hi Petr,
i suggest in the future to write a small utility to check if the video card of the user is capable to run opengl 4.0 or not.
thanks

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Zak,

good question. You can get utility to check OpenGL functionality right here, right now :):
... just download the attachement from here... (http://community.thinbasic.com/index.php?topic=668.msg3885#msg3885)

Also, TBGL already provides you with TBGL_oglVersionSupport. You can use it as easily as:


IF TBGL_oglVersionSupport(4, 0) THEN
' -- Do something 4.0 specific
END IF



Petr

[zak]

thank you, the utility said that i have GEFORCE 7300 GT/PCI/SSE2 with opengl 2.1.1 , but the opengl 4.0 when they release it do you think it will run on my hardware; ie operate just as my hardware is capable to; ie accomodate itself to the level of my hardware??. so the driver can be considered universal, rather than special to high end cards. i hope so
regards

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Zak,

the most evident candy OpenGL 4.0 offers is tesselation. That is computionaly very intensive stuff, for which the new cards have dedicated units.

For this hardware reason I am quite sure your card will not support 4.0 in hardware. Even mine will not (Petr sits down and starts to cry a river).

But don't forget the OpenGL is core + extensions. So it is possible many of the features will be accessible to you in this form.

In any way - TBGL will stay here as compatible layer, so don't worry the programs within this module would stop working for you.

You can try to download the latest driver for you card from here:
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winxp_197.13_whql_uk.html

Maybe it will help you reach more features than your current version.
On my PC I get OpenGL 3.3 + some of the 4.0 features in form of "extension".


Petr

[Petr Schreiber]

Few more updates on current state:

ATi released OpenGL 4.0 driver (http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst-OpenGL-preview-driver.aspx), so owners of ATi HD 5000 series GPU can start working
The first OpenGL 4.0 capable cards from NVIDIA have known specifications, you can check GTX470 (http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/product_geforce_gtx_470_uk.html) and GTX480 (http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/product_geforce_gtx_480_uk.html), the models for us, normal humans will be released later this spring


I am happy to see vendors adopt the new Open* technologies so rapidly.
If only Intel would jump in this train too...


Petr