What is OpenGL and how is it used? Do you get it from video drivers? How is it diff from directx?

anyway, OpenGL is open source and provides a very nice framework for game/program developers to use as a base for a 3D program. It differ's from DirectX is SO many ways. DirectX and OpenGL both have completely different rendering architextures. About getting it form video drivers........ its not so much the video drivers provide OpenGL as the Drivers complete the support for openGL.

So, OpenGL is provided by the kernel...and good drivers are needed for the kern to talk to the hardware. ?

for all intents and purposes, opengl is provided wiht the driver, and you need a driver installed in order to do anything 3d on your computer. this includes games, 3d modeling and screensavers.

look at the LQ wiki http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/OpenGL .....

anyways, opengl is more or less, built into video cards, what the proprietary drivers (the ones made by people that insist you have no right to know how to use the card) also come with a library (i forget its name, but its the opengl library), what the library does is ask the card to do whatever the program told the library to do ( kinda acting as a translator .... as those crappy hardware snobs insist that you should never talk to "their" video card )

also opengl is nothing like directx, first off opengl is just a API for leting programs create 3d images or whatnot .... its not really designed for games like directx is, so usually a wrapper for opengl is used, like sdl

also, its not directx, its direct3d. direct x does a lot of things. like the sound it does and the other game-related features.

dpost

For the record, that was refering to the fact that you can use OpenGL without drivers. Drivers just provide a hardware accel end. It is fully possible to use OpenGL without nvidia/ati drivers. These Drivers tend to just replace LibGL so that Hardware accel works .