Introduced 11 years ago by SGI, OpenGL is the premier environment used by software developers to create interactive 2D and 3D visual applications for computer systems ranging from consumer PCs to graphics workstations and supercomputers. OpenGL is the industry's only graphics API with support for virtually all operating systems. OpenGL 1.5 enables techniques that make rendering faster and will be supported by graphics card vendors in products being released later this year.
"3Dlabs pioneered the specification of the OpenGL Shading Language and we are already shipping preliminary implementations," said Neil Trevett, senior vice president of market development, 3Dlabs. "The OpenGL Shading Language is an open standard that enables direct compilation of high-level shader programs, we believe this will make OpenGL a vital foundation for innovation as the industry moves into the era of programmable graphics."
New features:Vertex Buffer Object: vertex arrays for higher performance rendering Shadow Function: additional comparison functions for shadow mapping Occlusion Query: asynchronous occlusion test for better culling Non power-of-two Textures: for more efficient use of texture memory, including mipmaps OpenGL Shading Language v. 1.0: as official extensions more specifically, shader objects, vertex shaders, and fragment shaders, all for use of programmable shader hardware
Now this is a real suprise that's comming to us. Now everybody is waiting for Opengl 1.5
source: sgi.com