4. What is OpenGL?

• Open source Graphics Language

• Cross-platform (MacOS, Windows, Linux using Mesa3D)

• Was owned by an industry board (the ARB – Architecture Review Board) and now it is the Khronos group

• Originally developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)

  • Read more on OpenGLBook.com

• Not a programming language -- an Application Programming Interface (API)

• Includes GLSL (GL Shading Language) – a C-like language for rendering on the GPU

• OpenGL generally is not for GPGPU, General-purpose computing on graphics processing units, but some can be done Mesa ( www.mesa3d.org/ ) is an open-source software implementation of OpenGL