🚀 go-pugleaf

-- 

> OK, lets say I buy all this.  What happens when someone implements this
> (OpenGL) on something other than a high-end SGI graphics pipe?
>
> IMHO, unless this non-SGI pipe has all of the features of the SGI pipe,
> then you immediately get into data reformating,

Yes, though the reformating will be done by the optimized rendering code.

> feature subseting,

No, OpenGL does not allow for subsetting.

> software emulation of features,

Yes, almost all OpenGL implementations (even those on high-end SGI systems)
will do some software emulation.

> all the stuff that is supposedly "not a problem" in OpenGL.

OpenGL is not magic, just good design.  Though we designed OpenGL to
work well on platforms not designed with it in mind (including our own),
its performance will clearly be optimized by platforms designed with OpenGL
in mind.  Same is true for any other low-level rendering standard.

-- Kurt Akeley	    kurt@sgi.com  (415) 390-3612  M/S 7U-550
		    Silicon Graphics, Advanced Systems Division
		    2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mtn. View, CA 94039-7311