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OpenGL is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardware-accelerated rendering.
The High-Level Shader Language or High-Level Shading Language (HLSL) is a proprietary shading language developed by Microsoft for the Direct3D 9 API to augment the shader assembly language, and went on to become the required shading language for the unified shader model of Direct3D 10 and higher.
Core Image is a pixel-accurate, near-realtime, non-destructive image processing technology in Mac OS X. Implemented as part of the QuartzCore framework of Mac OS X 10.4 and later, Core Image provides a plugin-based architecture for applying filters and effects within the Quartz graphics rendering layer. The framework was later added to iOS in iOS 5.
In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene—a process known as shading. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of specialized functions in computer graphics special effects and video post-processing, as well as general-purpose computing on graphics processing units.
OpenGL for Embedded Systems is a subset of the OpenGL computer graphics rendering application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics such as those used by video games, typically hardware-accelerated using a graphics processing unit (GPU). It is designed for embedded systems like smartphones, tablet computers, video game consoles and PDAs. OpenGL ES is the "most widely deployed 3D graphics API in history".
A shading language is a graphics programming language adapted to programming shader effects. Shading languages usually consist of special data types like "vector", "matrix", "color" and "normal".
Software rendering is the process of generating an image from a model by means of computer software. In the context of computer graphics rendering, software rendering refers to a rendering process that is not dependent upon graphics hardware ASICs, such as a graphics card. The rendering takes place entirely in the CPU. Rendering everything with the (general-purpose) CPU has the main advantage that it is not restricted to the (limited) capabilities of graphics hardware, but the disadvantage is that more transistors are needed to obtain the same speed.
OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) is a high-level shading language with a syntax based on the C programming language. It was created by the OpenGL ARB to give developers more direct control of the graphics pipeline without having to use ARB assembly language or hardware-specific languages.
VPro, also known as Odyssey, is a computer graphics architecture for Silicon Graphics workstations. First released on the Octane2, it was subsequently used on the Fuel and Tezro workstations and the Onyx visualization systems, where it was branded InfinitePerformance.
Perl OpenGL (POGL) is a portable, compiled wrapper library that allows OpenGL to be used in the Perl programming language.
In the field of 3D computer graphics, the unified shader model refers to a form of shader hardware in a graphical processing unit (GPU) where all of the shader stages in the rendering pipeline have the same capabilities. They can all read textures and buffers, and they use instruction sets that are almost identical.
A vertex buffer object (VBO) is an OpenGL feature that provides methods for uploading vertex data to the video device for non-immediate-mode rendering. VBOs offer substantial performance gains over immediate mode rendering primarily because the data reside in video device memory rather than system memory and so it can be rendered directly by the video device. These are equivalent to vertex buffers in Direct3D.
In the field of 3D computer graphics, Multiple Render Targets, or MRT, is a feature of modern graphics processing units (GPUs) that allows the programmable rendering pipeline to render images to multiple render target textures at once. These textures can then be used as inputs to other shaders or as texture maps applied to 3D models. Introduced by OpenGL 2.0 and Direct3D 9, MRT can be invaluable to real-time 3D applications such as video games. Before the advent of MRT, a programmer would have to issue a command to the GPU to draw the 3D scene once for each render target texture, resulting in redundant vertex transformations which, in a real-time program expected to run as fast as possible, can be quite time-consuming. With MRT, a programmer creates a pixel shader that returns an output value for each render target. This pixel shader then renders to all render targets with a single draw command.
PICA200 is a graphics processing unit (GPU) designed by Digital Media Professionals Inc. (DMP), a Japanese GPU design startup company, for use in embedded devices such as vehicle systems, mobile phones, cameras, and game consoles. The PICA200 is an IP Core which can be licensed to other companies to incorporate into their SOCs. It was most notably licensed for use in the Nintendo 3DS.
TeraScale is the codename for a family of graphics processing unit microarchitectures developed by ATI Technologies/AMD and their second microarchitecture implementing the unified shader model following Xenos. TeraScale replaced the old fixed-pipeline microarchitectures and competed directly with Nvidia's first unified shader microarchitecture named Tesla.
Stage3D is an Adobe Flash Player API for rendering interactive 3D graphics with GPU-acceleration, within Flash games and applications. Flash Player or AIR applications written in ActionScript 3 may use Stage3D to render 3D graphics, and such applications run natively on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Apple iOS and Google Android. Stage3D is similar in purpose and design to WebGL.
Standard Portable Intermediate Representation (SPIR) is an intermediate language for parallel computing and graphics by Khronos Group. It is used in multiple execution environments, including the Vulkan graphics API and the OpenCL compute API, to represent a shader or kernel. It is also used as an interchange language for cross compilation.
This is a glossary of terms relating to computer graphics.
Cg and High-Level Shader Language (HLSL) are two names given to a high-level shading language developed by Nvidia and Microsoft for programming shaders. Cg/HLSL is based on the C programming language and although they share the same core syntax, some features of C were modified and new data types were added to make Cg/HLSL more suitable for programming graphics processing units.
References
- ↑ Simon Green. "History of Programmability in OpenGL" (PDF).
- ↑ ARB. "ARB_vertex_program".
- ↑ ARB. "ARB_fragment_program".
- ↑ Wildfire Games. "List of graphics cards and OpenGL renderers that support ARB assembly language".
- ↑ Wildfire Games. "List of graphics cards and OpenGL renderers that support nVidia's extensions to ARB assembly language".