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OpenGL

OpenGL

Application programming interface for rendering 2d and 3d vector graphics

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Contents

Basic InfoDesignTimelineTable: Further ResourcesReferences
opengl.org
Is a
Technology
Technology

Technology attributes

Created/Discovered by
Khronos Group
Khronos Group
Related Industries
Programming
Programming

Other attributes

First Release
June 30, 1992
Founded Date
July 1, 1992
Latest Release
July 31, 2017
Product Parent Company
Khronos Group
Khronos Group
Published Date
June 30, 1992
Wikidata ID
Q178570
Basic Info

OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardware-accelerated rendering.

Design

The OpenGL specification describes an abstract API for drawing 2D and 3D graphics. Although it is possible for the API to be implemented entirely in software, it is designed to be implemented mostly or entirely in hardware.

The API is defined as a set of functions which may be called by the client program, alongside a set of named integer constants (for example, the constant GL_TEXTURE_2D, which corresponds to the decimal number 3553). Although the function definitions are superficially similar to those of the programming language C, they are language-independent. As such, OpenGL has many language bindings, some of the most noteworthy being the JavaScript binding WebGL (API, based on OpenGL ES 2.0, for 3D rendering from within a web browser); the C bindings WGL, GLX and CGL; the C binding provided by iOS; and the Java and C bindings provided by Android.

In addition to being language-independent, OpenGL is also cross-platform. The specification says nothing on the subject of obtaining and managing an OpenGL context, leaving this as a detail of the underlying windowing system. For the same reason, OpenGL is purely concerned with rendering, providing no APIs related to input, audio, or windowing.

Timeline

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Further Resources

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References

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