Wave Issue 9707 4/14/97 Article 9-01

***SGI Extends OpenGL
by John Latta

SGI is making significant moves to establish OpenGL as the dominant
imaging API on both workstations and the PC. Some early indications of
this surfaced at SIGGRAPH 1996 and now a clearer picture is beginning
to emerge.

As a major extension to OpenGL, SGI has proposed to the OpenGL ARB that
a scene graph layer be added above OpenGL, currently called OpenGL++.
This nomenclature is used to indicate an object-oriented approach with
a higher-level description of a 3D API. Based on the experience learned
from Performer this layer was described earlier at SIGGRAPH 1996 as
Cosmo 3D (see WAVE #605, http://www.fourthwave.com/wave/wave605.htm),
whose terminology has since been dropped. At the February 17 - 19 ARB
meeting it was agreed to move forward "on developing a scene graph
API."

SGI is going beyond this and creating vertical market extensions to
OpenGL. We first reported on this at Autofact (see WAVE #613,

www.fourthwave.com/wave/wave613.htm) with the Intelligent

Simplification technology. The first implementation of this is known as
the OpenGL Optimizer to improve rendering and interactivity of large
CAD/CAM/CAE data sets. As a result of a meeting sponsored by SGI, IBM
and Division it was announced that Dassault Systems, Division,
Parametric Technology, Prosolvia Clarus AB, SGI and Structural Dynamics
will work to define a standard API for CAD rendering. It is expected
that this will result in a consortium to back an open API for this
vertical market which is tentatively called the Large-Model
Visualization API Consortium (LMVAC). We expect that SGI will announce
further extensions in the Visual Simulation and Image Processing areas.

SGI has embarked on a three-layer approach to the OpenGL API that could
have significant implications to the 3D industry. The lowest level is
OpenGL as it exists today, the next level up is an object-oriented
level which stresses ease of use and access and the highest level is an
application-specific layer.

www.sgi.com/Technology/openGL/index.html