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OpenGL Overview

OpenGL

The Industry's Foundation for High Performance Graphics

OpenGL® is the most widely adopted 2D and 3D graphics API in the industry, bringing thousands of applications to a wide variety of computer platforms. It is window-system and operating-system independent as well as network-transparent. OpenGL enables developers of software for PC, workstation, and supercomputing hardware to create high-performance, visually compelling graphics software applications, in markets such as CAD, content creation, energy, entertainment, game development, manufacturing, medical, and virtual reality. OpenGL exposes all the features of the latest graphics hardware.

OpenGL 4.6 at a glance

The OpenGL 4.6 and OpenGL Shading Language 4.60 Specifications were released on July 31, 2017.

New features of OpenGL 4.6 include:

New extensions to OpenGL 4.6 include:

API & GLSL specifications

Additional Links

Specifications and documentation for the OpenGL API and OpenGL Shading Language, as well as related APIs such as GLX, are available from OpenGL.org: