Apple going to announce something about 3D?

[KimB]

While looking through the extension registry to see if anybody has yet put forth any extensions for Displacement Mapping (at first glance, it doesn't appear so), I noticed something interesting.

At the bottom of the registry there are, for the first time, extensions with the APPLE prefix:

GL_APPLE_client_storage
GL_APPLE_element_array
GL_APPLE_fence
GL_APPLE_vertex_array_object
GL_APPLE_vertex_array_range
GL_APPLE_ycbcr_422

Definitely nothing terribly exciting. The most original of the extensions appears to be the last one, which looks like an extension for using OpenGL to accelerate some Quicktime video formats.

Could this be a prelude to Apple's own new graphics chip? I would expect it to take the form of an integrated graphics chip, for low-cost Apple's.

 

[gkar1]

Wow! Interesting and intriguing at the same time to say the least. I remember hearing a blurb about Apple experimenting with an OpenGL accelerated desktop GUI somewhere. There was a code name mentioned, but at the moment it escapes me.

 

[CMKRNL]

It seems to me that they're just playing catch up to the PC world to attract game developers. My guess for the APPLE specific variants is to allow developers to use a single code base for both ATI and nVidia.

 

[Humus]

I'll take this as an indication that you don't browse the extension registry that frequently. These extensions have been there like a month or so, if not more.

I would assume the same as CMKRNL, these extensions pretty much mirror functionality in previous ATi and NV extensions.

OT: The _APPLE tag on some enums looks a little funny sometimes if you think about the fruit instead of the company.

STORAGE_CACHED_APPLE
STORAGE_SHARED_APPLE

 

[AzBat]

This reminded me of something I hadn't gave much thought in a long time: Raycer Graphics. It must have been about 3 years that I got a tour of their offices and a look at some simulations they had done for their technology plans. Biggest things I remember were parallel processing, per-pixel lighting and I think ray-tracing. Since then they got bought by Apple. I started to wonder what ever happened with their technology. Seems idiotic for Apple to buy them and never do anything with it.

Tommy McClain

 

[Mariner]

Seems idiotic for Apple to buy them and never do anything with it.

Well, Apple has been known to make pretty poor decisions in the past. Perhaps this is such an occasion!

 

[Jallen]

Wow! Interesting and intriguing at the same time to say the least. I remember hearing a blurb about Apple experimenting with an OpenGL accelerated desktop GUI somewhere. There was a code name mentioned, but at the moment it escapes me.

Thats what Quartz Exteme is, it shipped in Jaguar. Those extensions are all so that Apple can do fast 2D in OpenGL.