And the performance of OpenGL has increased from 100x to over 1,000x in many important raw graphics operations. Over that time, OpenGL's original fixed-function state machine has evolved into a complex data-flow including several application-programmable stages. Whereas capabilities mandated by OpenGL such as texture mapping and a stencil buffer were present only on the world's most expensive graphics hardware back in 1991, now these features are completely pervasive in PCs and now even available in several hand-held devices. The original design has evolved considerably over the last 17 years. These slides were presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 for the 'Modern OpenGL: Its Design and Evolution' course.Ĭourse abstract: OpenGL was conceived in 1991 to provide an industry standard for programming the hardware graphics pipeline. OpenGL practitioners can expect candid design explanations, advice for programming modern GPUs, and insight into OpenGL's future.
OpenGL's state machine is now a complex data-flow with multiple programmable stages. A long-time implementer of OpenGL (Mark Kilgard, NVIDIA) and the system's original architect (Kurt Akeley, Microsoft) explain OpenGL's design and evolution.
