Since I was at the OpenGL BOF at SIGGRAPH where this was discussed, I would like
to clarify a bit of what was mentioned.

First, there were two current paths for OpenGL on Vista mentioned. The first one
is a DX wrapper, with its potential performance shortfalls and lack of extension
support. The second path was a traditional ICD which when activated would force
the desktop out of the compositing mode, but would allow performance and
extensions.

Second, 3DLabs, ATI, and NVIDIA all pledged that they were dedicated to work
with Microsoft to add the additional support necessary to make ICDs work
seamlessly with the rest of the OS. There was an open request to have developers
contact their Microsoft reps to express any concerns that they have over this.

Finally, this is all my personal take on the issue as an attendee at the BOF. I
think an unfortunate bit about the issue in that it gets quickly caught up in
FUD from all directions, which helps no one. With the current state of affairs,
you could possibly classify all of the following statements as true:

1. OpenGL support on Vista will run through a slow D3D wrapper.
2. OpenGL on Vista will not support the compositing desktop.
3. OpenGL will have support for the compositing desktop on Vista.
4. Vista will support high-performance OpenGL ICDs.

Obviously, they all need qualifiers, and are not simultaneously true. This
unfortunately makes it too easy to confuse developers. Please get the facts
straight and if you feel it will impact your products, make whatever Microsoft
contacts you have aware of your concern over the issue.

-Evan

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 9:54 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list OPENGL-GAMEDEV-L

Rhadamés Carmona wrote:
>
> Hey Guys
>
> OpenGL will be layered by directX in windows vista, so, opengl would be
> 50% slower... it really sux!!!... we have to do something.

That's not the worst part...

> * OpenGL on Windows will be fixed at a vanilla version of OpenGL 1.4
> * No extensions will be possible to expose future hardware innovations

At version 1.4, there are no GLSL shaders - and with no extensions,
they can't be added later.

The speed is irrelevent - it's just *useless* for any vaguely modern
application.

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