What's New in OpenGL® 1.2.1
* OpenGL 1.2 standard
* New extensions
* Hardware transform, clipping and lighting
* Better AGP texture management
* Improved performance

Note: Transform and Clipping was said to be in OpenGL 1.1.5, with Lighting added by 1.2. Quake3 does it's own lighting btw and does not use OpenGL's hardware lighting even for cards like the Radeon (the only Mac card currently that supports Hardware TCL, noted in the Radeon review and interview with ATI's programmers here).

I tested 1.2.1 on my Dual G4/500 with BTO Radeon in Quake3 at 1024x768, 32bit with HQ settings (my normal ones, plus Trilinear filtering) and saw 49.2 FPS. This was literally identical to the performance I saw with the original Apple supplied drivers and OpenGL 1.1.3 (49.1 FPS) noted in the BTO Radeon vs Rage128 Pro AGP tests.

Reader Comments:(Most recent reports first)

" First some background on my system:

8500/180 (233MHz 604e) CPU. 512K L2 cache. 128MB of RAM. Rage Orion video card. Running Mac OS 9.0.4.

This past Sunday I installed the ATI Radeon/RAGE 128 Driver 1.00. Prior to this I removed all traces of Universal Installer 4.2 and the subsequent updated components supplied in Mac OS 9.0.4. I noticed that a couple of extensions got installed which obviously were not right for the Rage Orion. The Mac2TV and the Radeon parts. Pretty stupid installer, unless as I digress, have parts have been renamed and/or consolidated? I also noticed this ATI ROM Xtender thing - does it take the place of the ATI Driver Updates? I was also missing the Offscreen Mem Manager which Universal Installer 4.2 does install. Do we still need this with the Radeon/RAGE Driver? I see lots of discussions here, but nothing on this aspect of the ATI drivers! I sure wish ATI documented exactly what is needed for each board. Not having any information about this stuff (and not wanting to spend hours and hours testing different configurations of components) I decided to revert to Universal Installer 4.2 and then add in the updated components from the OpenGL 1.2.1 package instead of the updated components present in the Mac OS 9.0.4 update. These newer pieces include the following, along with (of course) OpenGL 1.2.1 (previously I was running OpenGL 1.1.3 which also shipped with Mac OS 9.0.4):

ATI 3D Accelerator 5.0.3
ATI Driver Update 1.6.8
ATI Graphics Accelerator 5.2.4
ATI Rage 128 3D Accelerator 5.9.8
ATI Resource Manager 2.7.3
ATI Video Accelerator 4.6.5

Now, obviously, because of the "low end" nature of my system, I can't run any of the games which require G3 processors. That's fine, I like Quake II and stick with it. I launched the game and immediately jumped in for a test. Right away I noticed that this thing screams! I was able to move more fluidly than ever before. Areas of the game which game me considerable lag before are now silky smooth. Playing online even with my 56K modem is also better and I can get more frags. I haven't officialy checked the FPS rate before and after OpenGL 1.2.1, I just know (and can feel) this is a lot faster. And, my 2D is snappier now also which is nice, because since I installed Mac OS 9 back at the end of May and had to run in millions of colors instead of thousands to avoid the 32-bit icon bug, I've felt lagged even in 2D.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully I've mentioned some issues which need to be addressed. And lastly, not everyone is seeing slower results with OpenGL 1.2.1. Now granted I've only tested one game which relies on OpenGL, but in that game I saw faster speeds.
Gordon Hawley"

This dual G4/500 system owner compares performance of OpenGL 1.1.4 and 1.2.1 with a OEM Rage128 Pro AGP and Voodoo5 PCI card in Quake3:

" My Configuration:

Apple Dual G4/500 with 256 Megs Ram, 40 Gig Ide, DVD-rom, Zip, Rage Pro 128, Adaptec Ultra Scsi PCI Card, Voodoo5 5500 PCI

I have the 22" ACD Cinema Display on the Rage card, and a 19" Mitsubishi RDF19X (Japanese Model) on the Voodoo5.

My stock OpenGL from Apple was 1.1.4
(1.1.4 shipped with many new G4 systems, but was never released to the public-Mike)

For these tests, 3dfx control panel sets FSAA as off, and set to FASTEST

My tests with 1.1.4 on both video cards in Quake III:

1st test of timedemo1 demo demo001

(1024x768 with all settings on minimum and lighting set to vertex)

Voodoo5 = 47.6fps
Rage128 = 34.2fps

(1024x768 with all settings on Maximum and lighting set to lightmap)

Voodoo5 = 36.8fps
Rage128 = 13.4fps

2nd test of identical settings with OpenGL 1.2.1 in Quake III

(1024x768 with all settings on minimum and lighting set to vertex)

Voodoo5 = 47.9fps
Rage128 = 47.5fps

(1024x768 with all settings on Maximum and lighting set to lightmap)

Voodoo5 = 37.0fps
Rage128 = 12.9fps

---

Very very very interesting. Didn't really change much on either card on the maximum settings, but look at the ATI card on the minimum settings! +13.3fps?????? HOLY COW PATTIES BAT MAN!

I didn't have time to do any more work on it, but I thought it was very interesting preliminary work.

I'd guess that the ATI drivers were REALLY optimized, but at higher settings the 16 Meg ATI card is simply over-matched for the high res textures and what not! But I'd guess that throw the card a game that wouldn't over-burden the small memory card, and it would smoke!

Glad to see I didn't lose and FPS on the Voodoo5!

I also wanted to check with someone on my Voodoo card... I tried FSAA benchmarks for the first time last night. NOW I know why I play games with this setting off...

Here are the results (didn't test with OpenGL1.1.4, only 1.2.1)...

1024x768 w/ maximum settings in Quake 3 with 4xFSAA = 5.7fps
1024x768 2/ maximum settings in Quake 3 with 2xFSAA = 16.6fps

*sigh*
Oh, well...
-Thanks for listening...
Richard Hunter"

The problem with 16bit mode on the Rage128/Radeon cards is image quality ('Buzzing Bees' as I call it on OpenGL 1.1.2 version/drivers, and a mesh effect with OpenGL 1.1.5 and later. Most visible at 640x480 mode where pixels are larger. 32Bit mode however looks great. See the Radeon review for screenshots in Quake3 at 32bit mode.) See the video cards page here for reviews of the Voodoo5, Radeon and Rage128/Rage128 Pro graphics with detailed 2d/3d/game performance tests of each.

A retail Radeon owner also noted lower performance in games with the drivers in the OpenGL 1.2.1 release:

" I just ran some tests and they don't look good.
I have a G4 400 256 MB w/ retail Radeon.

I ran a full suite of tests with the initial retail Radeon but once I started running the tests with OpenGL 1.2.1 installed I decided not to finish the tests since all of my initial tests in each game was at least 3 fps SLOWER than the retail Radeon drivers.

GLQuake 640x480
Retail Drivers    140.1
OpenGL 1.2.1   134.3

Quake2 1024x768
Retail Drivers    62.0
OpenGL 1.2.1   58.6

Q3A 640x480
Retail Drivers    38.3
OpenGL 1.2.1   35.4

Not what I was expecting at all.
a2daj "

I tested 1.2.1 on my Dual G4/500 with BTO Radeon in Quake3 at 1024x768, 32bit with HQ settings (my normal ones, plus Trilinear filtering) and saw 49.2 FPS. This was literally identical to the performance I saw with the original Apple supplied drivers and OpenGL 1.1.3 (49.1 FPS) noted in the BTO Radeon vs Rage128 Pro AGP tests.

" i have a g4/400, 128 RAM, OEM Rage 128 Pro.
with OpenGL 1.1.3 i get something about 17.1 fps in a torture demo (using excessive MOD)
with opengl 1.2.1 i got only 14 fps ! 1.2.1 [is] much slower... and I could not see any image quality improvement
dangil "

One reader posted a list of changes in recent OpenGL versions:

" Here's the info from the developer lists (mentioned by tim_s), these are public lists so I don't think I'll be upsetting anyone by posting the info - at least I hope not

OpenGL 1.1.3
- Added Velocity Engine support for the compiled vertex array path
- Added support for non-coherent memory in the compiled vertex array path
- Added support for fog in the compiled vertex array path

OpenGL 1.1.4
- Added support for ARGB32 textures in 16-bit color.
- Improved support for OpenGLProfiler library.
- Added support for anti-aliased lines and points
- Added support for TCL drivers
- Added GL_ARB_texture_env_add extension
- Added GL_EXT_abgr extension
- Added GL_EXT_bgra extension
- Added GL_EXT_texture_env_combine extension
- Added GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint extension
- Added GL_EXT_rescale_normal extension
- Added GL_NV_texgen_reflection extension
- Added GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias extension
- Added GL_EXT_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp extension
- Added GL_EXT_abgr extension support in the software renderer
- Added GL_EXT_bgra extension support in the software renderer
- Added GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias extension support in the software renderer
- Added GL_EXT_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp extension support in the software renderer

OpenGL 1.1.5
- Enable TCL support at the GLD layer
(I heard that Lighting was not functional, at least with the Radeon which is the only mac card currently with Hardware Transform, Clipping and Lighting support. For more info on hardware TCL and the Radeon, see my Radeon Q&A with ATI's programmers-Mike)

OpenGL 1.2
- Added OpenGL 1.2 standard to interface
- Added GL_ARB_transpose_matrix extension
- Added GL_ARB_texture_compression to interface
- Added GL_APPLE_packed_pixels
- Added LRU/MRU texture paging for ATI hardware
- Added optimizations to texture upload path

OpenGL 1.2.1 isn't covered here, so I don't know what extras are there - In games such as Q3A and Fakk2 (being based on Q3A) you can also look at the GFX driver info which includes what GL extensions are present.
hotblack "

" Hey Mike
One caveat for those anxious to get their hands on Pangeasoft's Cro-Mag Racing and/or the new Open GL 1.2.1 that comes with it.

I run an iMac DV SE and OS 8.6, and the Open GL installer refuses to install on it. With the aid of Tome Viewer, I found the problem in the Read Me file tucked away in the installer:

"Some PowerPC computers with DVD and Mac OS 8.6 software have a set of ATI drivers that are not compatible with the new ATI drivers installed as part of Open GL 1.2.1; and will cause the DVD software to no longer function properly. The Open GL installer will detect these configurations and notify the user that the installation cannot can not proceed until the system has been upgraded to Mac OS 9 or newer."

The game won't run under properly under older Open GL versions, so a fair few people are ruled out of Cro-Mag and the new Open GL unless they want to dispense with DVD.
Best regards, Joost"

" I got the demo yesterday and installed OpenGL 1.2.1 on my Rev. 1 Sawtooth G4/450 with the OEM Rage 128 card. Horror of horrors, after I rebooted I no longer had the 1152x870 resolution available!!!!! I had to download and install SuperRes in order to get that resolution back. Annoying.
Julian Koh "

(SuperRes is Griffin's free resoltuion utility noted on the Radeon 1.0 driver update feedback page.)

This reader noted some improvements from the update:

" Hey Mike, FYI
I installed the OpenGL 1.2.1 from the CroMag noted here yesterday. Seems as though it also updates most of the ATI Drivers as well as the QuickDraw3D extensions also. Seems to speed up screen draws, apps launching, and image rendering in PS 5.5.
System is a B&W G3/350/512MB/OS 9.0.4.......... just thought I would let you know....
Rodney Sisler "

This reader also commented on lost resolutions:

" I have a Rage128 AGP in an original G4 AGP powermac. I installed the Radeon Update for diablo 2, and did not lose my resolutions. After I installed OpenGL 1.2.1 with the Cro-Mag demo, I did lose my higher frequency resolutions.I tried this tip as recommended today (remove the ATI ROM XTender) [Tip from Monday's news-Mike] to no avail.
On my config, I had to remove only the ATI Driver Update extension. I haven't had a chance to test the effect on games (in particular, Diablo 2), but it did restore my resolutions.
brian beaty "

I asked if he had tried the other tips for resoring lost resolutions such as using Griffin's free SuperRes utility noted on the Radeon 1.0 driver update feedback page.

I welcome feedback on either the CroMag Rally Demo or OpenGL 1.2.1. (Please include your system and video card details.)