Very Computer

by **leele** » Wed, 08 May 1996 04:00:00

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what openGL exactly means. I have read that LW5.0 supports openGL.
What does this mean, I have a Matrox Millinium with LW4.0. Just what benefits would
I get with LW5 over LW4.
TIA
Don...

by **Noam Ben-A** » Wed, 08 May 1996 04:00:00

>Hi,
>Can anyone tell me what openGL exactly means. I have read that LW5.0 supports openGL.
>What does this mean, I have a Matrox Millinium with LW4.0. Just what benefits would
>I get with LW5 over LW4.
>TIA
>Don...

What openGL essentially is is a library of routines for creating two-dimensional and
three-dimensional graphics, with a strong emphassis on three-dimensional graphics. It
provides a programming interface (technically: "Application Programming Interface", or
API) that programmers can use to quickly develop graphics applications which will run
on any platform that supports openGL. The functionality provided by openGL is pretty
decent, with multiple light source support, shading, various polygon creation algorithms,
automatic creation of normals, support for mipmapping and texture mapping, fog, antialiasing,
easy support event handling (e.g. mouse clicks, mouse drags) and so on. OpenGL supposedly
allows lightwave 5.0 to do a lot more things in shaded/rendered mode. I'm not going to
comment on the specifics since I haven't even ordered my copy of 5.0 yet.
IMHO, the most important reason for OpenGL support is that 3D graphics hardware can now
accelerate lightwave transformations/simple rendering (shading, lighting, fog, and so
on.) This is a huge step towards providing the functionality of an SGI with its geometry
engines on an affordable machine.

Hope I have cleared things up a tiny bit.
--

http://farside.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~nbenami ---- Disclaimer: I speak for myself ONLY.
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by **Eneko Cajiga** » Thu, 23 May 1996 04:00:00

This means that you can see your objects in full solid shaded aspect.
In LW layout you can move or ortate the scene and see a preview of the
finishing aspect in simple colors (no surface). And in modeler you can
use the 3d window to modelate your objects in solid. I mean, when you
use display menu and select options you just can see the object in
full wireframe or solid wireframe (with no back lines) but when you
use open GL you can se the object as a solid with colours and rotate
it as a solid objectwithout having to wait for render times, but real
time. It is a new sensation. We now should wait for open Gl with
surface and shadow capabilities.

Success, amigo.

Eneko