OpenGL Natively Supported in Windows Vista
Winga
MrSouth Africa Icrontian
Microsoft never officially supported OpenGL and always favoured its own Direct3D driver model over that of OpenGL. Now it seems that OpenGL support will be natively supported in Vista without layering it over Direct3D.
Many games and productivity applications still use OpenGL. With Windows Vista, Microsoft made it clear that OpenGL support would only work as a layer sitting on top of Direct3D. There was going to be translation involved and thus, a performance hit.
The company responsible for developing and maintaining OpenGL, the Khronos group, has indicated that OpenGL support will now be natively supported in Vista without layering over Direct3D. Using standard Windows installable client driver (ICD), OpenGL will be fully accelerated and be fully compatible with Windows Vista's Aeroglass UI.
However, the OpenGL ICD drivers must still be downloaded and will not ship on the Windows Vista installation disc. Apparantly NVIDIA already has a beta 2 ICD OpenGL driver available and ATI will release its own soon. If no ICD is present, Windows Vista will rely on the layered OpenGL mode by default and only offer basic functionality.
Source: Daily Tech
Many games and productivity applications still use OpenGL. With Windows Vista, Microsoft made it clear that OpenGL support would only work as a layer sitting on top of Direct3D. There was going to be translation involved and thus, a performance hit.
The company responsible for developing and maintaining OpenGL, the Khronos group, has indicated that OpenGL support will now be natively supported in Vista without layering over Direct3D. Using standard Windows installable client driver (ICD), OpenGL will be fully accelerated and be fully compatible with Windows Vista's Aeroglass UI.
However, the OpenGL ICD drivers must still be downloaded and will not ship on the Windows Vista installation disc. Apparantly NVIDIA already has a beta 2 ICD OpenGL driver available and ATI will release its own soon. If no ICD is present, Windows Vista will rely on the layered OpenGL mode by default and only offer basic functionality.
Source: Daily Tech
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