OpenGL is a rendering library that can do all kinds of drawing in 2D and 3D with many features such as lighting, textures, color, etc.. lots of advanced features too. It acts as an interface between you as the programmer and some kind of display hardware. If your computer has hardware graphics acceleration - that uses the graphics card's processor - the OpenGL automatically draws stuff using that, which is a lot faster. Otherwise it figures it all out in `software` and then transfers the end result to the screen.
OpenGL runs programs of OpenGL commands which draws stuff in a sequence. You can draw as much stuff as you like as many times as you like before ever flipping the screen to see the results. You generally draw to a `backbuffer` and later flip the buffer with a front buffer to see what has been drawn - double buffered to prevent flicker.
OpenGL can make things rotate and change size and be drawn in many different ways without too much effort from the programmer. You don't have to know all the math involved.
In BlitzMax, OpenGL is basically a big list of functions that you can call to do each step of the drawing process. BlitzMax has a further set of functions called Max2D which are `higher level` and let you do simple stuff like drawing rectangles, lines, ovals and points. It automatically translates those simple commands into OpenGL programs which the OpenGL driver then executes to draw images on your display. There is currently no official set of higher level commands for doing the full breadth of 3D possibilities - ie a Max3D module doesn't exist yet. Eventually this will let you do various 3D stuff much more simply.
You can write OpenGL programs directly and mix them in with any other BlitzMax commands. BlitzMax runs the BlitzMax commands and the OpenGL driver runs the OpenGL commands. Since Max3D will be based on OpenGL, anything it does you can also do directly with OpenGL functions. You could, right now, set up 3D scenes, lights, animations, models, terrains, effects, etc by directly writing OpenGL programs. BlitzMax has the full OpenGL 1.2 command set built in so you can use any of the functions available.
OpenGL is also an industry-standard non-Microsoft rendering library used by a lot of companies and individuals. It takes a lot of the hard work out of making stuff draw.
OpenGL runs programs of OpenGL commands which draws stuff in a sequence. You can draw as much stuff as you like as many times as you like before ever flipping the screen to see the results. You generally draw to a `backbuffer` and later flip the buffer with a front buffer to see what has been drawn - double buffered to prevent flicker.
OpenGL can make things rotate and change size and be drawn in many different ways without too much effort from the programmer. You don't have to know all the math involved.
In BlitzMax, OpenGL is basically a big list of functions that you can call to do each step of the drawing process. BlitzMax has a further set of functions called Max2D which are `higher level` and let you do simple stuff like drawing rectangles, lines, ovals and points. It automatically translates those simple commands into OpenGL programs which the OpenGL driver then executes to draw images on your display. There is currently no official set of higher level commands for doing the full breadth of 3D possibilities - ie a Max3D module doesn't exist yet. Eventually this will let you do various 3D stuff much more simply.
You can write OpenGL programs directly and mix them in with any other BlitzMax commands. BlitzMax runs the BlitzMax commands and the OpenGL driver runs the OpenGL commands. Since Max3D will be based on OpenGL, anything it does you can also do directly with OpenGL functions. You could, right now, set up 3D scenes, lights, animations, models, terrains, effects, etc by directly writing OpenGL programs. BlitzMax has the full OpenGL 1.2 command set built in so you can use any of the functions available.
OpenGL is also an industry-standard non-Microsoft rendering library used by a lot of companies and individuals. It takes a lot of the hard work out of making stuff draw.