32 replies to this topic

[davepermen]

i forgot.. learning expirience is always great, and the reason to try at least for one time everything on your own.. even rendering triangles on your own, without gl/dx at all.. great fun (and the bugs just look funny:D)

[baldurk]

lol. I need to try that sometime

[davepermen]

the best thing imho is realtime raytracing on your own..

for some comparison, check www.realstorm.com for a great raytracingengine

[void]

Guys, having a helper library that loads various picture and mesh formats for opengl would be STUPID. openGL is a graphics library, nothing else, it doesnt even have the ability to open a window on its own. If you want a helper library, download something like DevIL for image loading, and im sure you can easily find some free code for loading any 3D model format. What I want to see next in OpenGL is OpenGL2.0, when the f**k is it coming out??!! :-)

[davepermen]

the helper library (aka devil in the case of images) is not stupid at all, and the way there should be much more. gl is just another helper library actually.. and they work all together..

about gl2. it will not come as a big release with huge download (like each dx release for example), but step by step. we now have tons of new extensions for newest pixelshading stuff in gl, VAO is comming to ARB, rendertexture is comming to ARB, etc.. thats all because of gl2, it made vendors work together again. and they will bit by bit implement gl2 extensions till we have all components in the way they are designed in gl2.

till gl2, we have gl1.5,1.6,1.7... you get the idea:D

and the shader language is yet there, ati works at a compiler for ARB_fragment_program..

[donBerto]

Quote

gl is just another helper library actually..

careful...

Quote

about gl2. it will not come as a big release with huge download (like each dx release for example), but step by step.

you make it sound like OpenGL is competing for bigger releases and faster release dates. opengl is just a standard that many of the gfx card makers support. the architecture review board only meets ever so often that to get a sensible release plan they split it up in point releases like 1.7, 1.8, etc.

dx may be backed by a huge corporation but i imagine whoever heads the dx department is much smaller than the ARB. what does that mean? less people deciding what to do (with their own agendas), the faster things will get done. people at ms are payed to get do this kind of work. it cost companies money to send a representative to go to a review board. that's my view on it anyway.

[davepermen]

gl is just a helper library wich unifies interface to graphics cards. like sdl a helper library wich makes crossplatform 2d coding possible.. etc.. (gl is great, nontheless)

about gl2. there are tons around asking when gl2 is finally there, not realizing that parts of gl2 are yet here, the new extensions wich come out by the arb are all based on fitting gl2 later. there will never be a "now gl2 is there" release date.. vendors will more and more support some features of gl2. and one day, we have all the features of gl2. high level shading language for example is possibly only a month away from its birth on the ati radeon9700pro. sure, with restrictions, but still useable to play first time with it.

[baldurk]

I hope I'll be able to do vertex and fragment programs on my GF4. I'd be very disappointed if I can't, because it would be a waste of a hell of a lot of money

[davepermen]

uhm, espencially for pixel programs, a radeon9500 would have been a much bether buy (dunno how long you have your gf4..).. gf4 is quite old in those terms..

anyways, you can do stuff with it..

[void]

Actually, i think there will be a time when we will be able to say that GL2.0 is out... I mean, atm we can safely say that GL1.4 is out, right? atm we are at 1.4, soon (hopefully) we will be at gl2.0 (BTW, afaik there wont be anything between 1.4 and 2.0 releases)...
Also, id like to reiterate that loading in models and picture formats is totally out of the question for putting into openGL, its not what it is meant to do, which is draw graphics. Its not meant to do input, sound, even open windows, and lastly, load file formats. And anyway, any decent programmer should be able to write up an image loader in a few hours. Unless its some anally obscure format which uses equally obscure compression.

[davepermen]

gl1.4 is ratified, yes. does not mean by any chance that gl1.4 is everywhere up to use (and somehow people believe that in gl2.0). rathification is this summer, i think..

[void]

Summer? I guess thats winter for us aussies...

[CyraX]

gl.14 has been adopted by nVidia and ATI.
AFAIK those are hte only two that count :unsure:
However gl2.0 would take a tremendous amount of load and consultations from nVidia and ATI. Basically the problem is that both the vendors do a lot of things in different ways. With OGL 2.0 they would have to converge the processing methods.
Now here comes the catch. Its business that they mean. If there are standards then what is it that ATI or nVidia offers you that is different from the other? I am sure everyone read the John carmack on NV30 and R300
That is the point. Each of the vendors is good @ their stands. NV30 from nVidia beats competition to crap (as usual) @ vendor specific paths. But hey, isnt OGL all about standards? That is where NV30 loses out. So its a conflict within nVidia about the possibility of doing away with their extensions (might be). If their extensions are incorporated, ATI is going down further into the Abyss.
Yet OGL 2.0 promises to be a good neXt step... @least in the white papers.