OpenGL 2.0 Books.
Currently in the bookstores I found the new 1.4 redbook and orange book. I wouldnt want to buy them only to find out that the new 2.0 books are out. Do you know when the new revision 2.0 of the red, orange and blue books are going to surface?
Probably not for some time, the spec has only just been announced and isnt availble as yet (expected end of this month) and OpenGL is on version 1.5 and has been for the last year and the 1.4 book only came out a short while ago (start of this year), which gives you the kind of speed with things changing. I wouldnt count on seeing them within the next 6months to a year at least.
tbh, I'd buy the books as they stand, there arent any major changes in the up and coming spec, just a few extra extensions being folded into core, infomation on which can be found online already. Worse comes to the worse you'll have to make a few notes in the Orange book about a copy of GLSL changes, but the general content is all going to be the same as are teh function defs and examples)
Everyone seems far to hung up on this 2.0 verison to look at whats really going on from a programmers point of view, which is this is OpenGL1.6 by any other name, its only the folding of GLSL into the core which gives its 2.0 status which is good for marketing.
Somedays I get the feeling people think OGL2.0 is going to save the world or something...
tbh, I'd buy the books as they stand, there arent any major changes in the up and coming spec, just a few extra extensions being folded into core, infomation on which can be found online already. Worse comes to the worse you'll have to make a few notes in the Orange book about a copy of GLSL changes, but the general content is all going to be the same as are teh function defs and examples)
Everyone seems far to hung up on this 2.0 verison to look at whats really going on from a programmers point of view, which is this is OpenGL1.6 by any other name, its only the folding of GLSL into the core which gives its 2.0 status which is good for marketing.
Somedays I get the feeling people think OGL2.0 is going to save the world or something...
Just keep in mind that a lot of the important parts of 2.0 are already covered with some books. <Insert shameless plug for the boss's OpenGL Superbible here> :)
As for the revision change phantom, I've read a couple of your posts equating it to 'nothing more than OpenGL 1.6.' Don't be so down on it... it makes sense.
Nobody expects OpenGL 2.0 to change the world, but I think the revision number change is perfectly valid. It's changing from what has always been a fixed function pipeline to a spec that *requires* programmable pipeline capabitities. That's a major change. Even if the decision was made purely from a marketing perspective, that increases mindshare and heads off a lot of the tired old 'why OpenGL sucks and Direct3D is better because it's updated faster' crap discussions.
As for the revision change phantom, I've read a couple of your posts equating it to 'nothing more than OpenGL 1.6.' Don't be so down on it... it makes sense.
Nobody expects OpenGL 2.0 to change the world, but I think the revision number change is perfectly valid. It's changing from what has always been a fixed function pipeline to a spec that *requires* programmable pipeline capabitities. That's a major change. Even if the decision was made purely from a marketing perspective, that increases mindshare and heads off a lot of the tired old 'why OpenGL sucks and Direct3D is better because it's updated faster' crap discussions.
true true, but its just it seems to me alot of people are expecting MAJOR changes with this revision from a programmers point of view because its a change in major version number. But the API is staying the same, as you say the only reason for the update is the folding of GLSL into the core for programibilty.
The whole 'OpenGL sucks' thing is just bad PR, namely a total lack of it. DX updates are in your face, OpenGL updates all the time but no one hears about it because its just streamlined into the drivers. So, yes from a pure PR and marketing point of view the major change was needed to draw everyones attension to the fact it IS a forward moving API, but from a programmers pov you can pretty much treat it as OGL1.6, certainly on windows, as its all just more extensions *shrugs*
Dont get me wrong, I'm happy to see this stuff folded into the core, MRT and GLSL being my main two and its good to have people paying attension again.
The whole 'OpenGL sucks' thing is just bad PR, namely a total lack of it. DX updates are in your face, OpenGL updates all the time but no one hears about it because its just streamlined into the drivers. So, yes from a pure PR and marketing point of view the major change was needed to draw everyones attension to the fact it IS a forward moving API, but from a programmers pov you can pretty much treat it as OGL1.6, certainly on windows, as its all just more extensions *shrugs*
Dont get me wrong, I'm happy to see this stuff folded into the core, MRT and GLSL being my main two and its good to have people paying attension again.
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