OpenGL's role in the software ecosystem has changed since GL 1.x was relevant. Back then it was used as a 3D rendering API (with lights and cameras and such). T

OpenGL's role in the software ecosystem has changed since GL 1.x was relevant. Back then it was used as a 3D rendering API (with lights and cameras and such). Today it is used as the standard interface to programmable graphics hardware. GL2+ knows almost nothing about "3d" or lighting and is essentially used for drawing triangles, very fast. If you need a 3D engine, use a 3d engine. If you're writing a 3D engine, you use OpenGL. OpenGL should start from scratch and change their name and code naming conventions so no-one would be under false illusions that you can take OpenGL code from 1996 and make it work on OpenGL in 2012. That would have kept JWZ happy and others who complain about the lack of fixed function and immediate mode in OpenGL too. Btw. once you get past the basics in GL 1.x fixed function, everything becomes /ridiculously/ difficult. Look at how Quake 3 did their "shaders" for example.