Mac Gaming and Multithreaded OpenGL
Arstechnica and InsideMacGames write about some OpenGL optimizations which were privately announced at WWDC two weeks ago.
According to the articles, the new Mac Pro already incorporates the new multi-threaded OpenGL in the pre-installed version of Mac OS X (10.4.7). The official release of the new version of OpenGL for existing Mac owners remains uncertain.
According to some people I've talked to, multi-threaded OpenGL games will see huge gains in performance. With multi-threaded OpenGL, the game, for example, can run off one core/CPU, while OpenGL can work on the second core/processor for its processing. So they work in concurrent fashion instead of co-habitating one CPU.
One demo reportedly had a doubling of frame rate when taking advantage of the multi-threaded OpenGL. And with dual and multi-core processors becoming commonplace, many customers will be able to take advantage of these optimizations.
Macworld points out that individual games have to be tailored for the new version of OpenGL before seeing the benefits, but game developers seem enthusiastic about its release.
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