OpenGL 1.3 Specifications Released

CitizenC writes: "The OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) today announced the new OpenGL 1.3 specification. OpenGL.org will host this specification shortly. In OpenGL 1.3, several additional features and functions have been ratified and brought into the API's core functionality. You can read more about the release in general in this Yahoo news story, or go straight to OpenGL.org to view the specs yourself."

But does it do shaders?

[jungd]

Developers now have a card vendor neutral way to access programmable shaders (pixel and vertex shaders) from DX8.
But does OpenGL1.3 have anything comparable, or do we have to resort to NVidia or ATI extensions?
If that is the case, OpenGL will be hard hit unless a standard vendor neutral extension it added soon.

(pls ignore my accidental AC post)

Re:But does it do shaders?

[ryants]

Well, it wasn't listed in the "core features" in the press release, so I doubt it. Anyways...

I'm not at all sure why you believe DX8's approach is superior (if I may read between the lines).

The extensions are there and work... part of (core) OpenGL's attraction is its *careful* evolution. Contrast this to the DX approach, which is "cram in all the new features we can each cycle". Moving shaders into the "core" so quickly goes against the careful evolution strategy.

I prefer a stable API that has the ability to be extended (OpenGL), over an API that is constantly changing (DX).