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OpenGL

Webopedia Staff
Last Updated May 24, 2021 7:50 am
A 3-D graphics language developed by Silicon Graphics. There are two main implementations:

  • Microsoft OpenGL, developed by Microsoft
  • Cosmo OpenGL, developed by Silicon Graphics
  • Microsoft OpenGL is built into Windows NT and is designed to improve performance on hardware that supports the OpenGL standard. Cosmo OpenGL, on the other hand, is a software-only implementation specifically designed for machines that do not have a graphics accelerator.

    Another standard that is popular for rendering 3-D images is Direct3D.