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What Is OpenGL?

mynameisadam

mynameisadam

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 1, 2009
48
0
i've been reading up on OpenGL and its apparently similar to directx and is available to the mac. What exactly is OpenGL and how do you download it or is it pre installed on the Mac OSX? and exactly what affect does it pertake on the macs graphics? iv read up the Multithread OpenGL and could boost my macbooks graphics but have no idea to install it : P.
 
It's nothing you install; MT OpenGL is part of 10.5. OS X wouldn't even run without OpenGL, which is a 3D graphics API and is built-in. Yes, it's similar to Direct3D (not DirectX, which is the overall name for all of the Direct APIs, like Direct3D, DirectSound, DirectPlay, etc.).

--Eric
 
It's a cross platform graphics API. Its present on Windows as well, where MS support it grudgingly, and on Linux etc.

Direct3D is a proprietary graphics API from Microsoft. It's used mostly in games, whilst OpenGL is scalable for many different tasks.
 
nick9191 said:
It's a cross platform graphics API. Its present on Windows as well, where MS support it grudgingly, and on Linux etc.

Direct3D is a proprietary graphics API from Microsoft. It's used mostly in games, whilst OpenGL is scalable for many different tasks.
Click to expand...
openGL helped the 3D boom on the PC side of things. the boom Im reffering too is the low-end desktop systems. back in the day, openGL was based on Unix boxes such as SGI (silicon graphics). what an old company of mine paid 250k for now makes a an awesome fridge ;) its a great API but havent been enjoying it much lately due to bugs with AE and Maya in some cases too deep to explain. read up on the history its kinda geek neet ;)
 
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