Graphics library

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A graphics library is a program library designed to aid in rendering computer graphics to a monitor. This typically involves providing optimized versions of functions that handle common rendering tasks. This can be done purely in software and running on the CPU, common in embedded systems, or being hardware accelerated by a GPU, more common in PCs. By employing these functions, a program can assemble an image to be output to a monitor. This relieves the programmer of the task of creating and optimizing these functions, and allows them to focus on building the graphics program. Graphics libraries are mainly used in video games and simulations.

Contents

The use of graphics libraries in connection with video production systems, such as Pixar RenderMan, is not covered here.

Latest Graphics Library usage across Operating Systems:
OS Vulkan Direct X GNMX Metal
Windows 10Free, Nvidia and AMDFree, MSnono
MacFree, MoltenVK nonoFree, Apple
LinuxFreenonono
AndroidFreenonono
iOSFree, MoltenVK nonoFree, Apple
Tizenin Developmentnonono
Sailfishin Developmentnonono
Xbox OnenoFreenono
Orbis OS (PS4)nonoFreeno
Nintendo Switch Freenonono

Some APIs use Graphics Library (GL) in their name, notably OpenGL and WebGL.

Examples

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenGL</span> Cross-platform graphics API

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.

In computing, cross-platform software is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software requires a separate build for each platform, but some can be directly run on any platform without special preparation, being written in an interpreted language or compiled to portable bytecode for which the interpreters or run-time packages are common or standard components of all supported platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windowing system</span> Software that manages separately different parts of display screens

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wxWidgets Widget toolkit

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GLX is an extension to the X Window System core protocol providing an interface between OpenGL and the X Window System as well as extensions to OpenGL itself. It enables programs wishing to use OpenGL to do so within a window provided by the X Window System. GLX distinguishes two "states": indirect state and direct state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FLTK</span>

Fast Light Toolkit is a cross-platform widget library for graphical user interfaces (GUIs), developed by Bill Spitzak and others. Made to accommodate 3D graphics programming, it has an interface to OpenGL, but it is also suitable for general GUI programming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graphical widget</span> Element of interaction in a graphical user interface

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Direct3D and OpenGL are competing application programming interfaces (APIs) which can be used in applications to render 2D and 3D computer graphics. As of 2005, graphics processing units (GPUs) almost always implement one version of both of these APIs. Examples include: DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2 circa 2004; DirectX 10 and OpenGL 3 circa 2008; and most recently, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4 circa 2011. GPUs that support more recent versions of the standards are backwards compatible with applications that use the older standards; for example, one can run older DirectX 9 games on a more recent DirectX 11-certified GPU.

OpenVG is an API designed for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics. Its primary platforms are mobile phones, gaming & media consoles and consumer electronic devices. It was designed to help manufacturers create more attractive user interfaces by offloading computationally intensive graphics processing from the CPU onto a GPU to save energy. The OpenGL ES library provides similar functionality for 3D graphics. OpenVG is managed by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox toolkit</span>

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Cairo (graphics) Vector graphics-based software library

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graphical user interface builder</span> Software development tool

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Core OpenGL, or CGL, is Apple Inc.'s Macintosh Quartz windowing system interface to the OS X implementation of the OpenGL specification. CGL is analogous to GLX, which is the X11 interface to OpenGL, as well as WGL, which is the Microsoft Windows interface to OpenGL.

fpGUI Graphical user interface toolkit in Object Pascal

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Clutter is a discontinued GObject-based graphics library for creating hardware-accelerated user interfaces. Clutter is an OpenGL-based 'interactive canvas' library and does not contain any graphical control elements. It relies upon OpenGL (1.4+) or OpenGL ES for rendering,. It also supports media playback using GStreamer and 2D graphics rendering using Cairo.

ANGLE is an open source, cross-platform graphics engine abstraction layer developed by Google. ANGLE translates OpenGL ES 2/3 calls to DirectX 9, 11, OpenGL or Vulkan API calls. It's a portable version of OpenGL but with limitations of OpenGL ES standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immediate mode GUI</span>

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References

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  2. "DirectX". DirectX Graphics and Gaming (Windows) - MSDN - Microsoft.
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  9. "Simple DirectMedia Layer - Homepage".
  10. "Skia Graphics Library".