An early beta of the latest maintenance and security update to Apple's Snow Leopard operating system has added significant support for the OpenGL 3.0 graphical application programming interface.
As noted by HardMac, partial support for OpenGL 3.0 was discovered in the first external build of Mac OS X 10.6.3. The update, which also includes crash fixes and targets over 90 components, was released last week.
Though graphics cards in Mac systems have had support for OpenGL 3.0, the cross-platform API did not previously have native support within Snow Leopard. With the latest build of Mac OS X 10.6, 95 percent of the features of OpenGL 3.0 were found to be supported. Only "Shading language version 1.30" was unsupported. In addition, most functions specific to OpenGL 3.0 are not yet present.
Previous versions of OpenGL -- 1.5, 2.0 and 2.1 -- all have 100 percent compatibility. Support for OpenGL 3.1 is said to be at 12 percent, while OpenGL 3.2 is at 33 percent.
Apple has reportedly not yet documented anything on potential OpenGL 3.0 support in Mac OS X 10.6.3. Build 10D522, released last week, was a 665.7MB file that included 221 code corrections to 92 distinct system components. Nearly 60 individual pieces of crash-prone code were said to have been addressed, though four known issues remain with the latest beta.
When it launched in August, Snow Leopard came with GPU optimization built in to the operating system. Apple has supported OpenGL for years, and also introduced OpenCL, both of which aim to take on Microsoft's DirectX API.
Support for OpenGL 2.1 was added in 2007 to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for its 3D interface. This provided a dramatic increase in OpenGL performance, and also allowed applications to activate hardware acceleration as requested.
Who mentioned OpenGL 4? The article says OpenGL 3.0.
Forgot my [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags. The implication is that Apple, despising the use of OS X for mere games as they do, would rather continue lagging behind the state of the art (after all, how many of those new features do they need to draw windows on the screen?), and supporting 3.1 and/or 3.2 would be getting too close for comfort. My apologies if I was too subtle.
Glad to see Apple is catching up to the standard of Open GL.
Even though Open GL 3.0 was released July 2008 and 3.1 was released May 2009 and 3.2 was released in August and then updated in December 2009.
I hadn't realized they'd gotten so far behind. I wonder what prompted them to get on the ball? I know they initially hated the idea of the iPhone being a game machine. I wonder if they now see the appeal such things have to the general user community?
Forgot my [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags. The implication is that Apple, despising the use of OS X for mere games as they do, would rather continue lagging behind the state of the art (after all, how many of those new features do they need to draw windows on the screen?), and supporting 3.1 and/or 3.2 would be getting too close for comfort. My apologies if I was too subtle.
Could be they just weren't ready to inject 3.0 into a new OS (10.6) on a short time table. Now that 10.6 is out, they're playing catch up.
Out of curiosity, are there any 3.0 games that require 3.0 in order to function properly?
I hadn't realized they'd gotten so far behind. I wonder what prompted them to get on the ball? I know they initially hated the idea of the iPhone being a game machine. I wonder if they now see the appeal such things have to the general user community?
I think you hit it on the nose right there. Plus remember the recent job postings about Apple looking for an in-house game developer.
Simply because a standard is upgraded does not necessarily mean its ready for primtime in the OS. Or that the OS is ready for the new standard.
What gave you the idea that Apple did not want gaming on the iPhone? One of the main highlights of the original iPhone SDK presentation was gaming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJRumpy
I hadn't realized they'd gotten so far behind. I wonder what prompted them to get on the ball? I know they initially hated the idea of the iPhone being a game machine. I wonder if they now see the appeal such things have to the general user community?
Simply because a standard is upgraded does not necessarily mean its ready for primtime in the OS. Or that the OS is ready for the new standard.
What gave you the idea that Apple did not want gaming on the iPhone? One of the main highlights of the original iPhone SDK presentation was gaming.
I have no idea why (other than the obvious basic appeal of a handheld gaming platform), but they seem to be OK with gaming on the iPhone/iPod touch platform. It's puzzling, because they've traditionally stonewalled game development on the Mac.
And? Apple is a hardware manufacturer. They are no different than your Microwave, your Blu-Ray player, your Car Stereo, or your Router. They all come with proprietary software as they are bundled with the hardware. None of these vendors would be required to allow you to use their software in another vendors hardware.
You seem to think Apple and Microsoft are the same. Might I point out that Microsoft doesn't build any PC hardware. It is necessary to the MS business model that their OS software runs on as wide a variety of hardware as possible.
Apple's computers are hardware with software that comes bundled with that hardware. It isn't necessary for them to support any other hardware than their own. Don't like it, don't buy it.
Buy a Dell, and you can't legally transfer the Windows OS from that OEM license to your home built PC.
Just because you can do a thing doesn't make it legal.
It was widely rumored that the bigwigs were somewhat disappointed that the iPhone was turning into a very popular gaming platform. I have to wonder if that same philosophy doesn't carry over to the Mac itself. Hopefully those days are over.
I think most people enjoy a good game every now and then. Having to reboot into some other OS to play your favorites is a bit irritating.
BRAVO MDRIFTMEYER! BRAVO! Thank you SO MUCH for stating somewhere that OpenGL 3.x is soon to arrive. THANK YOU! You are the best!!!! I'm sending you flowers through the mail. Please accept them as a token of my gratitude.
PS THANK YOU!
This is the happiest I think I've ever seen you. A stunning turn of events.
It was widely rumored that the bigwigs were somewhat disappointed that the iPhone was turning into a very popular gaming platform. I have to wonder if that same philosophy doesn't carry over to the Mac itself. Hopefully those days are over.
I think most people enjoy a good game every now and then. Having to reboot into some other OS to play your favorites is a bit irritating.
Given that they felt that way about the Mac long before the iPhone was developed, I'd say it carried over from the Mac. And while I share the sentiment that gaming should be made viable on the Mac, I don't see Apple sharing it in the foreseeable future. If anything, I'd say this 3.x stuff is maintenance, just to keep from getting too woefully behind the times. They would need to ramp their efforts way up on both the OS and hardware sides to make OS X attractive to game developers, and when they're opposed to games in the first place, that doesn't inspire a lot of hope in me.
Good to see Apple is making progress on upgrading to later versions of OpenGL. It has been said before and elsewhere, but the narrow focus of Mac OS X 10.6.0 on an under-the-hood OS upgrade for the future is good software development practice. Dealing with too many balls in the air at once can lead to trouble. Small steps and feedback is the way to do it.
Glad to see Apple is catching up to the standard of Open GL.
Even though Open GL 3.0 was released July 2008 and 3.1 was released May 2009 and 3.2 was released in August and then updated in December 2009.
If Apple shows off iPhone OS 4.0 early and releases a new iPhone in April (maybe April Fools day, Apple sbirthday?)
Then WWDC 10 may show us a preview of Mac OS 10.7? Where further discussion of this may take place.
Apple's on the steering committees for OpenGL. Read the contributions list. Seeing as Nvidia and AMD just added OpenGL 3.1 no more than 4 months prior and just added OpenGL 3.2, at most, two months prior, Apple will have OpenGL 3.2 very shortly.
Apple has to nail down their own OpenGL specs they want to expose within Cocoa while testing against the implementations of the hardware GPU vendors.
It was widely rumored that the bigwigs were somewhat disappointed that the iPhone was turning into a very popular gaming platform. I have to wonder if that same philosophy doesn't carry over to the Mac itself. Hopefully those days are over.
It good they changed their mind on games. They help with brain stimulation, creativity, problem solving, reaction time, etc.
I hadn't realized they'd gotten so far behind. I wonder what prompted them to get on the ball? I know they initially hated the idea of the iPhone being a game machine. I wonder if they now see the appeal such things have to the general user community?
I'm hoping more companies follow Blizzards example and utilize OpenGL. Blizzard has been hugely successful. I've seen a few other games that are actively 'porting' to Mac. Seems their job would have been much easier if they started with OpenGL to begin with.
Apple's on the steering committees for OpenGL. Read the contributions list. Seeing as Nvidia and AMD just added OpenGL 3.1 no more than 4 months prior and just added OpenGL 3.2, at most, two months prior, Apple will have OpenGL 3.2 very shortly.
Apple has to nail down their own OpenGL specs they want to expose within Cocoa while testing against the implementations of the hardware GPU vendors.
I think it's still fair to say that Apple is slow in implementing the latest OpenGL standards.
nVidia released official OpenGL 3.0 drivers for Windows and Linux in December 2008 and ATI released theirs in January 2009. So every other major OS has had OpenGL 3.0 for at least a year now. Apple does make important contributions to OpenGL, but it'd be great if they helped popularize the standard in a timely manner.
Some of the enhancements in OpenGL 3.2 in particular were spearheaded by Mac game porting companies on the OpenGL working group to help make porting games over from DirectX easier. If we want to see more native OS X games, it'd be great if Apple moves quickly to adopt what Mac porting companies worked hard to get ratified. Of course, while gaming, Apple and the iPhone seem to go hand in hand, gaming, Apple, and OS X don't really have a storied relationship.
That was a quote from a guy who has absolutely no inside information about what the Apple big wigs think. He has an axe to grind because Apple won't do what he wants them to do. So he says they don't take gaming seriously.
The irony of his statements is that at the same time, Apple was running ads about gaming on the iPod Touch. If you understand how much money it costs to run ads, then you understand how Apple feels about gaming on the iPhone/iTouch.
It was widely rumored that the bigwigs were somewhat disappointed that the iPhone was turning into a very popular gaming platform. I have to wonder if that same philosophy doesn't carry over to the Mac itself. Hopefully those days are over.
I think most people enjoy a good game every now and then. Having to reboot into some other OS to play your favorites is a bit irritating.
Comments
An early beta of the latest maintenance and security update to Apple's Snow Leopard operating system has added significant support for the OpenGL 3.0 graphical application programming interface.
As noted by HardMac, partial support for OpenGL 3.0 was discovered in the first external build of Mac OS X 10.6.3. The update, which also includes crash fixes and targets over 90 components, was released last week.
Though graphics cards in Mac systems have had support for OpenGL 3.0, the cross-platform API did not previously have native support within Snow Leopard. With the latest build of Mac OS X 10.6, 95 percent of the features of OpenGL 3.0 were found to be supported. Only "Shading language version 1.30" was unsupported. In addition, most functions specific to OpenGL 3.0 are not yet present.
Previous versions of OpenGL -- 1.5, 2.0 and 2.1 -- all have 100 percent compatibility. Support for OpenGL 3.1 is said to be at 12 percent, while OpenGL 3.2 is at 33 percent.
Apple has reportedly not yet documented anything on potential OpenGL 3.0 support in Mac OS X 10.6.3. Build 10D522, released last week, was a 665.7MB file that included 221 code corrections to 92 distinct system components. Nearly 60 individual pieces of crash-prone code were said to have been addressed, though four known issues remain with the latest beta.
When it launched in August, Snow Leopard came with GPU optimization built in to the operating system. Apple has supported OpenGL for years, and also introduced OpenCL, both of which aim to take on Microsoft's DirectX API.
Support for OpenGL 2.1 was added in 2007 to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for its 3D interface. This provided a dramatic increase in OpenGL performance, and also allowed applications to activate hardware acceleration as requested.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Glad to see Apple is catching up to the standard of Open GL.
Even though Open GL 3.0 was released July 2008 and 3.1 was released May 2009 and 3.2 was released in August and then updated in December 2009.
If Apple shows off iPhone OS 4.0 early and releases a new iPhone in April (maybe April Fools day, Apple sbirthday?)
Then WWDC 10 may show us a preview of Mac OS 10.7? Where further discussion of this may take place.
Who mentioned OpenGL 4? The article says OpenGL 3.0.
Forgot my [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags. The implication is that Apple, despising the use of OS X for mere games as they do, would rather continue lagging behind the state of the art (after all, how many of those new features do they need to draw windows on the screen?), and supporting 3.1 and/or 3.2 would be getting too close for comfort. My apologies if I was too subtle.
Glad to see Apple is catching up to the standard of Open GL.
Even though Open GL 3.0 was released July 2008 and 3.1 was released May 2009 and 3.2 was released in August and then updated in December 2009.
I hadn't realized they'd gotten so far behind. I wonder what prompted them to get on the ball? I know they initially hated the idea of the iPhone being a game machine. I wonder if they now see the appeal such things have to the general user community?
Forgot my [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags. The implication is that Apple, despising the use of OS X for mere games as they do, would rather continue lagging behind the state of the art (after all, how many of those new features do they need to draw windows on the screen?), and supporting 3.1 and/or 3.2 would be getting too close for comfort. My apologies if I was too subtle.
Could be they just weren't ready to inject 3.0 into a new OS (10.6) on a short time table. Now that 10.6 is out, they're playing catch up.
Out of curiosity, are there any 3.0 games that require 3.0 in order to function properly?
I hadn't realized they'd gotten so far behind. I wonder what prompted them to get on the ball? I know they initially hated the idea of the iPhone being a game machine. I wonder if they now see the appeal such things have to the general user community?
I think you hit it on the nose right there. Plus remember the recent job postings about Apple looking for an in-house game developer.
What gave you the idea that Apple did not want gaming on the iPhone? One of the main highlights of the original iPhone SDK presentation was gaming.
I hadn't realized they'd gotten so far behind. I wonder what prompted them to get on the ball? I know they initially hated the idea of the iPhone being a game machine. I wonder if they now see the appeal such things have to the general user community?
Simply because a standard is upgraded does not necessarily mean its ready for primtime in the OS. Or that the OS is ready for the new standard.
What gave you the idea that Apple did not want gaming on the iPhone? One of the main highlights of the original iPhone SDK presentation was gaming.
I have no idea why (other than the obvious basic appeal of a handheld gaming platform), but they seem to be OK with gaming on the iPhone/iPod touch platform. It's puzzling, because they've traditionally stonewalled game development on the Mac.
And? Apple is a hardware manufacturer. They are no different than your Microwave, your Blu-Ray player, your Car Stereo, or your Router. They all come with proprietary software as they are bundled with the hardware. None of these vendors would be required to allow you to use their software in another vendors hardware.
You seem to think Apple and Microsoft are the same. Might I point out that Microsoft doesn't build any PC hardware. It is necessary to the MS business model that their OS software runs on as wide a variety of hardware as possible.
Apple's computers are hardware with software that comes bundled with that hardware. It isn't necessary for them to support any other hardware than their own. Don't like it, don't buy it.
Buy a Dell, and you can't legally transfer the Windows OS from that OEM license to your home built PC.
Just because you can do a thing doesn't make it legal.
Ditto
Simply because a standard is upgraded does not necessarily mean its ready for primtime in the OS. Or that the OS is ready for the new standard.
What gave you the idea that Apple did not want gaming on the iPhone? One of the main highlights of the original iPhone SDK presentation was gaming.
See here: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ne_gaming.html
It was widely rumored that the bigwigs were somewhat disappointed that the iPhone was turning into a very popular gaming platform. I have to wonder if that same philosophy doesn't carry over to the Mac itself. Hopefully those days are over.
I think most people enjoy a good game every now and then. Having to reboot into some other OS to play your favorites is a bit irritating.
BRAVO MDRIFTMEYER! BRAVO! Thank you SO MUCH for stating somewhere that OpenGL 3.x is soon to arrive. THANK YOU! You are the best!!!! I'm sending you flowers through the mail. Please accept them as a token of my gratitude.
PS THANK YOU!
This is the happiest I think I've ever seen you. A stunning turn of events.
See here: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ne_gaming.html
It was widely rumored that the bigwigs were somewhat disappointed that the iPhone was turning into a very popular gaming platform. I have to wonder if that same philosophy doesn't carry over to the Mac itself. Hopefully those days are over.
I think most people enjoy a good game every now and then. Having to reboot into some other OS to play your favorites is a bit irritating.
Given that they felt that way about the Mac long before the iPhone was developed, I'd say it carried over from the Mac. And while I share the sentiment that gaming should be made viable on the Mac, I don't see Apple sharing it in the foreseeable future. If anything, I'd say this 3.x stuff is maintenance, just to keep from getting too woefully behind the times. They would need to ramp their efforts way up on both the OS and hardware sides to make OS X attractive to game developers, and when they're opposed to games in the first place, that doesn't inspire a lot of hope in me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continu...vement_Process
Glad to see Apple is catching up to the standard of Open GL.
Even though Open GL 3.0 was released July 2008 and 3.1 was released May 2009 and 3.2 was released in August and then updated in December 2009.
If Apple shows off iPhone OS 4.0 early and releases a new iPhone in April (maybe April Fools day, Apple sbirthday?)
Then WWDC 10 may show us a preview of Mac OS 10.7? Where further discussion of this may take place.
Apple's on the steering committees for OpenGL. Read the contributions list. Seeing as Nvidia and AMD just added OpenGL 3.1 no more than 4 months prior and just added OpenGL 3.2, at most, two months prior, Apple will have OpenGL 3.2 very shortly.
Apple has to nail down their own OpenGL specs they want to expose within Cocoa while testing against the implementations of the hardware GPU vendors.
See here: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ne_gaming.html
It was widely rumored that the bigwigs were somewhat disappointed that the iPhone was turning into a very popular gaming platform. I have to wonder if that same philosophy doesn't carry over to the Mac itself. Hopefully those days are over.
It good they changed their mind on games. They help with brain stimulation, creativity, problem solving, reaction time, etc.
I hadn't realized they'd gotten so far behind. I wonder what prompted them to get on the ball? I know they initially hated the idea of the iPhone being a game machine. I wonder if they now see the appeal such things have to the general user community?
If so, then it's about damned time.
If so, then it's about damned time.
I'm hoping more companies follow Blizzards example and utilize OpenGL. Blizzard has been hugely successful. I've seen a few other games that are actively 'porting' to Mac. Seems their job would have been much easier if they started with OpenGL to begin with.
Snow Leopard: very minor UI updates, lots of under-the-hood
Rumored Tablet: supposedly taking up most of Steve's time, as is iPhone
Conclusion: Steve had little to do with Snowy.
Apple's on the steering committees for OpenGL. Read the contributions list. Seeing as Nvidia and AMD just added OpenGL 3.1 no more than 4 months prior and just added OpenGL 3.2, at most, two months prior, Apple will have OpenGL 3.2 very shortly.
Apple has to nail down their own OpenGL specs they want to expose within Cocoa while testing against the implementations of the hardware GPU vendors.
I think it's still fair to say that Apple is slow in implementing the latest OpenGL standards.
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16080
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16323
nVidia released official OpenGL 3.0 drivers for Windows and Linux in December 2008 and ATI released theirs in January 2009. So every other major OS has had OpenGL 3.0 for at least a year now. Apple does make important contributions to OpenGL, but it'd be great if they helped popularize the standard in a timely manner.
Some of the enhancements in OpenGL 3.2 in particular were spearheaded by Mac game porting companies on the OpenGL working group to help make porting games over from DirectX easier. If we want to see more native OS X games, it'd be great if Apple moves quickly to adopt what Mac porting companies worked hard to get ratified. Of course, while gaming, Apple and the iPhone seem to go hand in hand, gaming, Apple, and OS X don't really have a storied relationship.
The irony of his statements is that at the same time, Apple was running ads about gaming on the iPod Touch. If you understand how much money it costs to run ads, then you understand how Apple feels about gaming on the iPhone/iTouch.
See here: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ne_gaming.html
It was widely rumored that the bigwigs were somewhat disappointed that the iPhone was turning into a very popular gaming platform. I have to wonder if that same philosophy doesn't carry over to the Mac itself. Hopefully those days are over.
I think most people enjoy a good game every now and then. Having to reboot into some other OS to play your favorites is a bit irritating.