Khronos Releases OpenGL ES Graphics Standard

An anonymous reader writes "The Khronos Group announced today that it has ratified the OpenGL ES 1.0 royalty-free open standard for advanced 2D and 3D graphics in embedded systems including mobile and handheld devices, and that the API specification is now available for free download. OpenGL ES defines subset profiles of OpenGL; OpenGL and OpenGL ES are royalty-free, open standard APIs that enable authoring and playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. OpenGL ES 1.0 is said to run in software implementations as small as 50Kbytes, and can enable hardware graphics pipeline acceleration on both fixed point and floating point systems."

Well, um...

[Jouni]

"I'd like to see the full OpenGL implemented, or at least OpenGL with some sections taken out."

OpenGL ES is just that; OpenGL with some sections taken out and a few additions to make software-only rendering and math go faster.

It's nice to point out that we had Quake, etc. on machines with lesser capabilities, however those never were able to get sufficient performance through general use APIs. They weren't ported to OpenGL before we had hardware acceleration on the PC.

With OpenGL ES, however, it's now completely feasible to make a Quake equivalent for the faster PDAs without custom rendering code. This will happen well before we have mobile 3D hardware acceleration. Bring on the Bluetooth Deathmatch! :-)

Jouni

Re:Not bad...

[mcdrewski42]

OpenGL is, as the name suggests, a Graphics Language, not a sound, network, input, pay-to-play platform.

Yes, MS did something right for games developers but OpenGL is a different kettle of Trolls.

Re:Not bad...

[halfnerd]

isn't it Library, not Language?

at least it seems to me that the original language for opengl was/is (there are numerous ports these days) c/c++.

Just my two cents.

Re:Who is Khronos?

[KewlPC]

While the name OpenGL is owned by SGI (since OpenGL was invented at SGI), OpenGL itself is managed by the OpenGL ARB (Architecture Resource Board).

From OpenGL.org [opengl.org]:
The OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB), an independent consortium formed in 1992, governs the OpenGL specification. Composed of members from many of the industry's leading graphics vendors, the ARB defines conformance tests and approves OpenGL enhancements. Currently the board includes representatives from 3DLabs, ATI, Compaq, Evans & Sutherland, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, NVidia, Microsoft, and SGI.

I remember reading somewhere that Microsoft has recently pulled out of the OpenGL ARB.