OpenGL 2.0 Released

berny@work writes "OpenGL has finally released version 2.0. The benefits include Programable Shaders, in particular: Shader Objects, Shader Programs, OpenGL Shading Language and changes to the Shader API. If you are interested take a look at the tutorials and the case studies that are linked to from the OpenGL site."

Weird.

[endx7]

Weird. I've been seeing cards claiming to be OpenGL 2.0 compatible for a while now.

Re:only through extensions...

[Cutting_Crew]

those cards have been able to do fragment and pixel shaders etc through openGL extensions, hence the xxx_ARB_EXT calls. this i assume is the release of all those extensions into the core of the OPENGL pipeline and thus will eventually be without the ARB into the call..

Neverwinter Nights 2

[mahdi13]

Maybe now that it is 'officially' out Bioware will take that into consideration and green light the Linux/OSX port for Neverwinter Nights 2.
The game is still early enough in development that they could still switch from DX and not have much impact in the release date

Go, OpenGL ARB!

[Anonymous Coward]

Only two years [nvidia.com] behind [microsoft.com] the times!

Just different enough from existing GPU programming languages to be annoying, without any added functionality or ease of use!

No standard intermediate representation, requiring OpenGL drivers to contain full-blown compilers! Hello, latency!

OpenGL -- the best API and shading language a politics-laden commitee could design!

Seriously, if it weren't for Mr. Carmack, the dinosaur that is OpenGL would be deader than the dodo bird. Sad, as I spend half my day developing OpenGL apps, but true.

Point Sprites?

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone care to explain what that means?
From the "What's New" document:

Point Sprites

* Point sprites replace point texture coordinates with texture coordinates interpolated across the point. This allows drawing points as customized textures, useful for particle systems.
Point sprites were promoted from the ARB point sprite extension, with the further addition of the POINT SPRITE COORD ORIGIN parameter controlling the direction in which the t texture coordinate increases.

http://www.opengl.org/documentation/opengl_current _version.html [opengl.org]

Re:Neverwinter Nights 2

[H3g3m0n]

I don't think bioware are the ones making nwn2,its Obsidian from memory. Bioware are currently doing Dragon Age probally due to the heavy restrictions from using AD&D ip. Bioware arn't even allowed to enable player/creature stats to be changed via scripting commands, it must be done manually with the dm client or through external programs.

more tutorials?

[boolean0]

any other resources for someone interested in starting to tinker with opengl programming?

Re:Why no comparison with D3D?

[FullMetalAlchemist]

I agree, but my point is that it should be part of the specification.
Open Inventor support many of the thoings I want, but still, it's not part of the specification. That means that on the enterprise customers machines that run FreeBSD, Solaris and Windows there is no truly portable way to run things.

Windows doesn't do OpenGL the way it should, i.e. up to date, but that is no excuse for things not beeing in a OpenGL standard specification.
If it was in the spec, more people would use OpenGL. Which is what we all want, right?

I have not done much work in D3D; I don't like many things in its design; but that doesn't matter as I talk about OpenGL on its own merits, not in relation to D3D. Which should put things in perspective.

Re:Now doom3 will take a bit longer

[dcstimm]

we would have to wait for Linux Opengl 2.0 drivers then from companies like Nvidia and ATI, dont hold your breath.

Re:Reading OpenGL tutorials is such a harsh remind

[VistaBoy]

Yeah, I used to feel the same way about OpenGL, but I discovered that using SDL as a wrapper for OpenGL makes it a little more tolerable for those used to using standard C++. You know, like the kind that uses int main() and not int WinMain().

Also, a real good place to learn OpenGL is http://nehe.gamedev.net/ [gamedev.net]. It has tutorials that cover everything from drawing your first polygon to using pixel shaders. Also, most of their examples are available in a wide variety of programming languages and platform-specific code.

Official Specifications

[NEOtaku17]

Here [opengl.org] is the official specifications of the OpenGL 2.0 in PDF format.