List of 3D graphics APIs

List of 3D graphics APIs

3D graphics have become so popular, particularly in computer games, that specialized APIs (application programming interfaces) have been created to ease the processes in all stages of computer graphics generation. These APIs have also proved vital to computer graphics hardware manufacturers, as they provide a way for programmers to access the hardware in an abstract way, while still taking advantage of the special hardware of any specific graphics card.

These APIs for 3D computer graphics are particularly popular:

*OpenGL and the OpenGL Shading Language
*OpenGL ES 3D API for embedded devices
*Direct3D (a subset of DirectX)
*RenderMan
*RenderWare
*Glide API
*TruDimension LC Glasses and 3D monitor API
*QuickDraw 3D developed by Apple Computer starting in 1995, abandoned in 1998

There are also higher-level 3D scene-graph APIs which provide additional functionality on top of the lower-level rendering API. Such libraries under active development include:

*QSDK
*Quesa
*Java 3D
*JSR 184 (M3G)
*Vega Prime by Presagis
*NVidia Scene Graph
*OpenGL Performer
*OpenSceneGraph
*OpenSG
*OGRE
*JMonkey Engine
*Irrlicht Engine
*Hoops3D
*UGS DirectModel (aka JT)

ee also

* Graphics library
* Game engine
* 3d computer graphics software


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of Microsoft Windows application programming interfaces and frameworks — The following is a list of Microsoft APIs and frameworks. Contents 1 APIs 1.1 Current 1.2 Deprecated 2 Frameworks 2.1 …   Wikipedia

  • List of Microsoft Windows components — The following is a list of Microsoft Windows components. Contents 1 Configuration and maintenance 2 User interface 3 Applications and utilities 4 Windows Server components …   Wikipedia

  • List of file formats — This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries. See also: List of file formats (alphabetical) This is a list of file formats… …   Wikipedia

  • Graphics Device Interface — The Graphics Device Interface (GDI) is a Microsoft Windows application programming interface and core operating system component responsible for representing graphical objects and transmitting them to output devices such as monitors and printers …   Wikipedia

  • List of acquisitions by Google — Google s logo Google is a computer software and a web search engine company. Each acquisition listed is for the respective company in its entirety, unless otherwise specified. The acquisition date listed is the date of the agreement between… …   Wikipedia

  • List of games using SDL — This is a list of notable games, gaming engines, and arcade or game console emulators that make use of Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL), a cross platform software library abstracts platforms graphics, sound, and input APIs, allowing a developer to… …   Wikipedia

  • Quartz (graphics layer) — Mac OS X graphics model Rendering QuickDraw • Core OpenGL Quartz 2D • Core Image Core Animation • Core V …   Wikipedia

  • Hybrid Graphics — Ltd., often Hybrid , was a graphics software technology company active from 1994 to 2007 in Helsinki, Finland. Acquired by NVIDIA in 2006NVIDIA press release: [http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO 30518.html NVIDIA Corporation to Acquire Hybrid… …   Wikipedia

  • Rendering (computer graphics) — Not to be confused with 3D rendering. A variety of rendering techniques applied to a single 3D scene …   Wikipedia

  • Application programming interface — API redirects here. For other uses, see API (disambiguation). An application programming interface (API) is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other. An API may… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”