OpenGL is the industry-standard interface to modern programmable graphics hardware widely used for games, animation, CAD/CAM, medical imaging, and other applications that visualize and manipulate high performance 2D and 3D graphics. †Apple's implementation of OpenGL has been optimized for the Macintosh platform and includes a suite of extensions that give developers access to advanced graphics hardware capabilities.

Articles

OpenGL Capabilities Matrix

A comprehensive report of OpenGL extensions and parameter values provided for several combinations of Mac OS X versions, graphics adapters, and CPU types.

OpenGL Extensions Guide

A guide to all the OpenGL extensions supported in Mac OS X OpenGL with links to the extension specification, and information on both OS and hardware support.

Optimizing OpenGL Data Throughput on Mac OS X

If your application uses OpenGL, read this article to learn general OpenGL optimization techniques, and specifically how to optimize your OpenGL code to maximize vertex data throughput.

OpenGL Tools for Serious Graphics Development

Apple's best-of-breed OpenGL tools help developers locate, analyze and debug graphics bottlenecks, making the Macintosh a uniquely powerful platform for OpenGL development.

OpenGL Profiler

OpenGL Profiler is the Apple’s best of class tool to assist developers in debugging and optimizing their OpenGL usage. Profiler now has support for attaching to running processes, the ability to dynamically override OpenGL functions using scripts, and browse textures and programs. Other powerful features include breakpoints and execution controls, OpenGL state and call stack analysis and collection of real time driver statistics.

OpenGL Driver Monitor

The Driver Monitor provides real time access to the inner workings of the Graphics Processing Unit. Through it developers can track VRAM usage, hardware stalls, texture upload sizes and many others, thus accurate performance pictures.

Documentation

OpenGL Programming Guide for Mac OS X

Explains how to use the Apple implementation of OpenGL to create 3D graphics for Cocoa and Carbon applications.

OpenGL Reference Library

The OpenGL Reference Library contains the Programming Guide and Class References, Tech Notes, Q&As, and Sample Code to speed your development with OpenGL.

Mac OS X System Architecture

See how OpenGL relates to other technologies in the Mac OS X System Architecture diagram.

OpenGL.org

The independent OpenGL site for developers and consumers, containing OpenGL related news, discussion boards, and development resources.

Graphics & Imaging Topics
Core Animation Core Image Image Kit OpenGL Quartz Quartz Composer

Graphics & Imaging Downloads

Graphics & Imaging Headlines Technical Q&As: Driving OpenGL Rendering Loops 2008-12-23 Reference: Core Image Kernel Language Reference 2008-06-09 Guides: OpenGL Programming Guide for Mac OS X 2008-06-09 Sample Code: QTCoreVideo102 2008-06-06 Sample Code: QTCoreVideo103 2008-06-06

Graphics & Imaging OpenGL Reference Library Documentation Sample Code Technical Notes Technical Q&As

OpenGL Mailing List Technical discussion list for Mac OS X OpenGL with participation from fellow developers and Apple OpenGL engineers.