OpenGL Programming Guide

Today’s OpenGL software interface enables programmers to produce extraordinarily high-quality computer-generated images and interactive applications using 2D and 3D objects, color images, and programmable shaders.

OpenGL® Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL®, Version 4.3, Eighth Edition, has been almost completely rewritten and provides definitive, comprehensive information on OpenGL and the OpenGL Shading Language. This edition of the best-selling “Red Book” describes the features through OpenGL version 4.3. It also includes updated information and techniques formerly covered in OpenGL® Shading Language (the “Orange Book”).

For the first time, this guide completely integrates shader techniques, alongside classic, functioncentric techniques. Extensive new text and code are presented, demonstrating the latest in OpenGL programming techniques.

OpenGL® Programming Guide, Eighth Edition, provides clear explanations of OpenGL functionality and techniques, including processing geometric objects with vertex, tessellation, and geometry shaders using geometric transformations and viewing matrices; working with pixels and texture maps through fragment shaders; and advanced data techniques using framebuffer objects and compute shaders.

New OpenGL features covered in this edition include

• Best practices and sample code for taking full advantage of shaders and the entire shading pipeline (including geometry and tessellation shaders)
• Integration of general computation into the rendering pipeline via compute shaders
• Techniques for binding multiple shader programs at once during application execution
• Latest GLSL features for doing advanced shading techniques
• Additional new techniques for optimizing graphics program performance

Dave Shreiner, Director of Graphics and GPU Computing at ARM, Inc., has been active in OpenGL development nearly since its inception. He created the first commercial OpenGL training course and has taught OpenGL programming for twenty years.

Graham Sellers, coauthor of OpenGL® SuperBible, manages OpenGL Software Development at AMD. He authored many OpenGL feature specifications and helped bring OpenGL ES to desktop computers.

John Kessenich, OpenGL Shading Language Specification Editor, consults at LunarG, Inc., building compiler technology for GLSL. He helped develop OpenGL 2.0 and OpenGL ES 2.0 at 3Dlabs and Intel.

Bill Licea-Kane is Principal Member of Technical Staff at AMD, coauthor of OpenGL® Shading Language Guide, and chairs the OpenGL Shading Language technical subgroup.