Re: Re: Question with regards to componentAlpha

On Mon, Sep 16, 2002 at 10:54:43AM -0700, Keith Packard wrote:
| 
| Only if you want to draw to a window with both OpenGL and Render at the 
| same time, which few applications are brave enough to attempt.  ...

Render's gradually duplicating OpenGL functionality in ways that are
slightly incompatible (viz the treatment of alpha-capable visuals that
Keith and Thomas have been discussing, and the projective texturing that
Keith and I have been discussing).  OpenGL's going along with the trend
toward user programmability in the consumer hardware space, so some of
the Render features that current OpenGL lacks will be covered that way.
Additional OpenGL or X11 extensions (e.g. for antialiasing on LCD
displays) might cover much of the remainder.

Personally, I really plan to use the ability to mix antialiased text
rendering with 3D geometric rendering and with imaging (and so on).  A
single API, or at the least a single resource-management strategy, is
very attractive.

It would also be great if we can reduce the overall effort for driver
implementors by concentrating on one framework.

|                                                            ...  Probably 
| what's needed is some sort of inter-extension cooperation on the meaning 
| of per-pixel alpha values.

OpenGL has an installed base, so its freedom to change may be limited in
that respect.  What did you have in mind?

Allen