2. Opengl, how is it? Are we talking Glut, Glu, or other? Is it fast? Is it as fast or faster than the 3d in blitz3d? (mind you I have a bit of experience with Opengl, although there is a bit I would have to learn). I just want to be sure that it is as fast as it can be. I remember back when I was learning opengl that Glut was slow as a snail, and pure opengl was the way to go. What is the state of Blitz opengl (for 3d)?
It's the same as if you were working in C. There is no access to GLUT, but standard GL and GLU are available as well as the extensions made accessible via GLEW.
Asking whether or not it's "fast or faster" than the 3D in Blitz3D is pointless due to the fact that Blitz3D is not a graphics API, it's a programming language whose runtime has a 3D engine in it -- big difference.
Any engine or 3D software you write using OpenGL is only going to be slow if you do a bad job or the drivers are bug-ridden.
And I know what I'm talking about, considering that I've used C extensively in the past with OpenGL, GLU, GLEW, and SDL (not available in BlitzMax, there was a community project but no headway was made as far as I'm concerned). I've used GLUT before, but it's an outdated monstrosity with a nasty license.