From: Chris Holmes Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: Question about 3D Engines Date: Sun, 08 Aug 1999 21:05:27 -0400 Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA, USA Lines: 33 Message-ID: <37AE2957.1F1@surfsouth.com> References: <7okvoi$jog$1 AT helix DOT cs DOT uoregon DOT edu> <19990808183435 DOT 19330 DOT 00002226 AT ng-cg1 DOT aol DOT com> <37AE1007 DOT EDEF1127 AT sprint DOT ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: r69h109.res.gatech.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news-int.gatech.edu 934163770 28644 128.61.69.109 (9 Aug 1999 01:56:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet AT news DOT gatech DOT edu NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Aug 1999 01:56:10 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04Gold (Win95; I) To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Derek Sauer wrote: > > You know guys, learning a 3D api is probably the best step. So now I > state another question, what are some good resources for learning > OPENGL? I don't want to use D3D, since I don't only code for MS OS's. Why learn OpenGL? Because SGI recently put out a graphics card (Wildcat I think it's called) that can draw 440 million triangles per second and perform 4 GFLOPS (for those not so geeky as me, that's 4 billion Floating Point operations per second). That is WAY faster than a processor even. Unless you either use Direct3D or OpenGL or Glide or whatever proprietary API that comes with new 3D cards, then your program won't take advantage of the 3D hardware. The advantage to OpenGL specifically is that it is a full rendering pipeline (as in will go from 3d primitives such as polygons to lights to textures and output a final product), so OpenGL itself is part software and part hardware. OpenGL code will run without any hardware acceleration, so if you write something using OpenGL, you don't have to change it to run on a computer without a 3d video card. Also, look into Fahrenheit. It's a joint venture between Silicon Graphics and Microsoft. Basically, it's the next generation OpenGL architecture that should be coming out sometime in the near future. (sorry for the length, blame Georgia Tech) Chris -- I know that I will never be politically correct, and I don't give a damn about my lack of etiquette! -- Meatloaf