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MS
says it still supports OpenGL and Fahrenheit Project
- 6 December 99.
According to a FAQ about OpenGL in Windows 2000, Microsoft will be supporting
OpenGL rendering acceleration in Windows 2000. This is supposedly the
"official Microsoft" position on support of OpenGL:
The FAQ was sent by Phil Taylor, SDE, DirectX Evangelism at Microsoft.
Apparently the news of the Fahrenheit fallout with SGI was based on "out-of-context"
emails from Phil Taylor of Microsoft. Microsoft's official position on
OpenGL is as follows:
- Fahrenheit Project is Alive. Microsoft says the Fahrenheit Project
technology (with SGI) is very important and the first deliverable, the
Fahrenheit Scene Graph (FSG) will be shipped by Microsoft to beta sites
by the end of the year. A final version is expected sometime in the
first half of 2000. Feedback from alpha sites has been very positive.
- MS suggest those questioning SGI's role in Fahrenheit should contact
them for comment. And regardless of SGI's decisions, MS remains supposedly
committed to bringing Fahrenheit technology to market, despite their
obvious preference for their own DirectX 3D API.
- MS says FSG will be available on UNIX platforms after a release on
FSG for Windows. Third party cross-platform solutions for AIX, Solaris,
HP-UX and IRIX (and others?) are goals.
- MS says they are currently evaluating support for Linux for Fahrenheit
technology.
- MS says OpenGL is currently the preferred low
level 3D API for many professional graphics applications (those
that support CAD and Visual Simulation). MS says they will continue
to server ISVs with what they need to get their apps to market, including
OpenGL support -- regardless of their own Direct3D technology.
- MS is also investigating ways of promoting a standard OpenGL ICD using
DirectX drivers.
- MS will NOT be supporting OpenGL drivers
in Windows 2000. IHV's will be responsible for providing
OpenGL ICD's. [our take is that MS is hoping to
establish its own Direct3D technology over OpenGL in order to again
leverage its Windows monopoly in the high-end visualization and CAD
market - an effort to attack the various UNIX's and in particular Linux
threat by way of control via Windows.]
- Windows 2000 will support OpenGL 1.1 at the operating system level.
It will be up to IHV's to expose OpenGL 1.2 features. The likely arrival
of native OpenGL version 1.2 support for Windows 2000 will come in a
future Windows 2000 Service Pack, sometime in the second half of 2000.
- MS says that a OpenGL 1.2 DDK will be provided to software developers
sometime in the first half of 2000.
OpenGL Technical Notes
OpenGL is the most widely used API for professional
level graphics applications on the UNIX, Windows and Macintosh platforms.
With the licensing of OpenGL by Apple, it is also making rapid headway
[further] into Mac OS applications, in particular, 3D gaming applications.
On the Windows platform, Direct3D is the preferred API for gaming, according
to Microsoft.
OpenGL is also making very large advances in the Linux OS community as
well, thanks to SGI's release of the GLX library as open-source. OpenGL/Mesa
is the standard 2D/3D API for the Linux platform. The proliferation of
CAD, 3D and imaging OpenGL-based applications on Linux -- being a version
of UNIX -- will likely benefit the Macintosh too as they will be much
easier to port to Mac OS X because of its UNIX core.
Key AEC/CAD Mac OS Apps that support OpenGL
These are some key applications currently supporting OpenGL on the Macintosh.
- Form-Z (cutting-edge advanced modeling/rendering)
- 3D Explorer and Mechanical Systems (mathematics visualization, mechanical
systems)
- LightWave 3D plugin
- Animation Master
- LightWorks Rendering Tookit
- Bryce
- MoluCAD (molecular modeling)
- LightWave 3D (by Newtek)
- World Construction Set (3D world modeling)
- Strata Studio Pro and Strata Vision 3D
- Amapi 3D
- TerrainLab Earth
- OpenGL for MachTen (UNIX, OPENSTEP)
There are other Mac applications (not to mention games) either new to
the Mac platform or transitioning from Apple's QuickDraw 3D API that are
soon to be OpenGL-based as well. In addition, some OPENSTEP and NeXT platform
CAD and 3D applications are OpenGL-based and are coming to the Macintosh
platform with the introduction of Apple's forthcoming Mac
OS X.
For more information click
here.
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