OpenGL3.2, What is it? Important?

B

Bunkey

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
72
Looking at the ATI 5870 video cards, I find a few, that along with DX11, also support OpenGL3.2, which I know nothing about. Is it an important standard for a video card to support, as DX11 certainly is for Windows 7?
I did a web search and can only find reference to the missing DLLs issue with OpenGL3.2.
Lastly, are there other important video card standards, one should know about?
Not looking for an in depth, detailed, description, just a good overview with a ranking of importance or influence and need for a video card to support.
Sorry, but I am not interested on the NVidia side of things and know somewhat about their developments, which they publicly cover to some extent.
 
OpenGL is a graphics API, much like DirectX, only open(hence the name). The big advantage of it is that it's available across multiple platforms. For PC gaming, it doesn't mean much as very few games released these day use it. If you're into professional work, then it comes into play as many programs in that arena still use it. Wikipedia should have more than enough information to give you a clear picture on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opengl
 
The explanation was a bit more than needed, but thoroughly understandable. It looks to be a standard, that is nice to have, but probably won't be used. Something a particular software user would be looking to have for proper operation of their program, but for general PC users will never be used.
 
OpenGL used to be popular for games but it pretty rare these days for various reasons. All in all you don't need to worry as ATi and nVidia support OpenGL so you are going to have support for it, need it or not.
 
id tech 5 engine will be open gl along with supporting dx 9, so i still think open gl is important for gaming. if Rage is a success we may see more open gl games coming our way, and imo that is a good thing :).
 
BretG57 said:
id tech 5 engine will be open gl along with supporting dx 9, so i still think open gl is important for gaming. if Rage is a success we may see more open gl games coming our way, and imo that is a good thing :).
Click to expand...

Even if Rage is a huge hit, OpenGL will still be a distant second to DX. If any one game would have been a tide turner, it would have been Doom 3.
Since most games these days are built using a third-party engine, don't expect to see OpenGL make any sort of real comeback.
OpenGL's biggest market going forward is non-Microsoft consoles and handheld gaming devices.
 
When Rage hits it'll be curious to see how drivers allow the game to perform. Back in the Doom3 days ATI initially struggled in that game due to their slower OpenGL driver support.
 
Well with steam rumoured to be going multiplatform for macs (mac icons found in the steam files) it could be big business to make OpenGL based games, the id games have always sold very well. WoW is also OpenGL.

Macs and linux are an untapped part of the market, they don't have a lot of gamers so it's not a massive segment, but it's a market nontheless.

It'd be nice if the mac users could stop gaming in photoshop, hurr durr, derp :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top