Hacker News Reader

Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

I thought Sony was going to use the full OpenGL API for PS4?

It is an ongoing myth that consoles use OpenGL and only Microsoft is the bad boy.

The only console that had some kind of OpenGL support was the PS3 with OpenGL ES 2.0 but using CG instead of OpenGL ES Shading Language. Which most developers did not use anyway, prefering libCGM.

The others just have an OpenGL like API in terms of how they work, but that is all.

Most game studios don't care anyway, because what is important is to make a game, regardless how.

I know PS3 doesn't really use OpenGL ES 2.0, but I heard a rumor they might use some native OpenGL 4+ for PS4. We'll see in a couple of days, I guess, if they even intend to give that information now.

Ah OK, thanks for pointing it out.

IIRC they've exposed access to OpenGL on the PS3 but nobody uses it due to performance/feature set issues.

There doesn't seem to be anything official about how it's implemented under the hood, but the widespread assumption is that OpenGL on the PS3 is an emulation layer on top of the native graphics API, so performance tweaks are easier if you use the native API directly.

If I am not mistaken, even the engine provided by Sony in their SDK does not use it.

FireEngine if memory does not fail me.

PhyreEngine

Thanks!

I think that's because they added OpenGL ES 2.0 later on top, to make it easier for developers, but developers just preferred to use Sony's own custom API's.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com