README.TXT
Windows NT OpenGL(R) Release Notes
1. OpenGL Functionality Notes
2. Compiler warnings and include files
3. Redistributable components for Windows 95
4. Sample Applications
1. Functionality Notes
-----------------------
The OpenGL API is supported on a variety of graphics hardware; the
software in this release provides support for graphics hardware including
basic emulation on any video adapter that is supported with the operating
system. This release of OpenGL will run on all supported hardware under
Windows NT 4.00 and Windows 95, including VGA and Super VGA 16 color mode
displays, and, for WIndows NT, including all RISC platforms.
The runtime libraries for Windows NT are also available bundled with the
NT workstation and server products. The runtime libraries for Windows 95
are not bundled with the Windows 95 operating system, but application
developers may freely redistribute from this SDK along with their applications
to other Windows95 systems. In addition, the Windows 95 libraries have been
bundled with the Windows95 operating system in the OEM system release 2, so
OEM Windows 95 systems shipping later in 1996 will begin appearing with the
OpenGL runtime libraries included.
To achieve good shaded rendering with OpenGL applications, you should use a
color graphics mode with 256 or more colors. Reasonable shading is
possible for most OpenGL applications with 256 colors.
The Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 95 releases of OpenGL includes new functionality
and performance enhancements. These include:
1) A complete implementation of OpenGL 1.1. OpenGL 1.1 contains several
functions, including vertex array, polygon offset, logic ops, and several new
functions for handling textures. The vertex array and texture calls are
particularly significant, as they may enable order of magnitude performance
improvements in some applications.
2) Overlay planes extensions. These Microsoft OpenGL extensions permit
applications to manage and render into overlay planes where supported
in the graphics hardware. This permits applications to bring up dialog boxes
and other UI features without overwriting 3D renderings.
3) Extended metafile support. Applications may encapsulate OpenGL calls and
data in GDI extended metafiles. This, together with NT 4.0 print spooler
enhancements for remote metafile rendering, makes it possible to print OpenGL
graphics at high resolution on the print server. This feature is limited to
the Windows NT release.
4) Performance. The software renderer has been tuned for this release.
Performance tuning has been carried out for the front end of the OpenGL
pipeline as well as for rendering particular primitives, especially
anti-aliased lines and texturing. Software rendering is generally 2-4x
faster.
2. Compiler warnings and include files
---------------------------------------
When developing or porting OpenGL source code for Windows NT, you may
notice certain compiler warning messages related to floating point type
conversions.
Microsoft has recognized "acceptable" type-conversion warnings and has
provided a means to ignore them in the provided OpenGL sample source files.
See the included "glos.h" header file. When using this file, be certain
to include it at an analogous location in your source file.
3. Redistributable components for Windows 95
--------------------------------------------
The OpenGL redistributable components for Windows 95 are in the
\MSTOOLS\OPENGL95 directory. Under this are the following subdirectories:
- DLL contains the runtime dynamic-link libraries for OpenGL and GLU.
We recommend either of two methods for redistributing these libraries
with your application on Windows 95 (for Windows NT, the libraries are
bundled with the operating system and should not be redistributed):
1) In your setup program, install these libraries in the
application directory along with your application. This gives you
greater control over the version of OpenGL that your application
will link to (an issue if other applications install other versions
of the library), but also gives you greater responsibility for
updating your customers' libraries if and when that is required
to address defects, add functionality, etc.
2) In your setup program, install these libraries in the windows
system directory. If you do this, you should use the Win32 setup
API call VerInstallFile to help prevent installing an older version
of the libraries over another application's installation of a more
recent version of the libraries.
- MGA contains the binaries for Matrox MGA Impression Plus graphics card.
It includes 3D DDI support for enhanced OpenGL performance in 1024x768
at 256 color mode or 800x600 at 16bpp mode on WIndows 95. (3D DDI is
not supported in this release of Windows NT.) Note that 4MB of video
memory is required for these modes. No 32bpp accelerated modes are
supported at this time. (In addition, index color mode fails buffer
invariance conformance tests.)
- SCRSAVE contains 4 screen savers for Windows95 systems. These should
be copied into the windows system directory of your system.
4. Sample Applications
-----------------------
a) Samples included
BOOKSample code from "OpenGL Programming Guide"
DEMOSAUXDEMO - AUX Library demonstration.
BACKTRCE - BackTrace sample ported from Silicon Graphics Irix/OpenGL.
GENGL - A Generic Windows NT OpenGL sample application. This is
a great starting point for new programmers learning OpenGL.
PGONOFFS - Polygon offsets for efficient translation of objects.
STONEHNG - Stonehenge application ported from SGI workstation.
VASPHERE - Using vertex arrays for improved performance.
GLAUX Source code for our AUXLIB implementation.
SAMPLESOpenGL Sample code from SGI. See SAMPLES\ABOUT.TXT for details.
SCRSAVESource code for new OpenGL screen savers.
b) Disclaimer for Sample Applications that contain SGI copyright notice
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