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> OpenGL is not dead until Khronos comes up with an API that is actually usable without an EE degree on GPU design and shader compilers. Why would this ever ha
by dahart 5y ago
> OpenGL is not dead until Khronos comes up with an API that is actually usable without an EE degree on GPU design and shader compilers.
Why would this ever happen? It seems like there is nothing in the works, nothing on the horizon, and no demand for a higher-level, less-performant API to become a new standard. Even OpenGL itself has been getting lower level and more detailed ever since version 1. People can build/use a wrapper API or game engine or something else if they want easy. It seems weird to say this right after defending Apple’s use of Metal to implement WebGL. Apple’s moves to get rid of OpenGL from the Mac ecosystem are one of the strongest forces pushing OpenGL out.
- badsectoracula 5y ago> Apple’s moves to get rid of OpenGL from the Mac ecosystem are one of the strongest forces pushing OpenGL out. FWIW as someone who exclusively uses OpenGL for 3D graphics, this actually makes me push Apple out :-P
- dahart 5y agoOh yeah, same here. I loved my Mac right up to the point that I could no longer run any of my own code on it with reasonable effort.
- pjmlp 5y agoOn platforms that support OpenGL, it is the Python 2 of Khronos APIs. Regarding Metal, indeed those that leave OpenGL are more likely to move into middleware than forcing Vulkan upon themselves. Hence why Khronos started ANARI, as most visualisation products and CAD/CAM people couldn't care less that Vulkan on its present state exists.
- anthk 5y agoNow Zink (GL over Vulkan) runs faster than OpenGL itself on supported platforms.
- jabl 5y agoThat's something of a sweeping generalization. Zink has managed to beat a native OpenGL driver in some particular benchmarks. In many other benchmarks, it loses. That being said, it still manages decent performance, which is extremely impressive for a one man project using only the Vulkan interface. It wouldn't surprise me if it eventually becomes the default OpenGL driver in the open source driver stack (for HW capable enough to support a Vulkan driver, obviously).
- jabl 5y agoAutodesk is using Vulkan for some products (including using MoltenVK for the Mac version). As for using middleware, GPU's are vastly more capable and complicated today than 30y ago when OpenGL 1 appeared. In most cases it makes sense to use a higher level interface, specialized for the particular type of application you're writing, be it ANARI, a game engine, some scenegraph library, or whatever.