Because OpenGL systems often support multiple pixel formats and different color models, display hardware suitable for OpenGL often includes support for multiple hardware colormaps. This means multiple windows using differently loaded colormaps can operate simultaneously without colormap flashing. Otherwise, the colormaps for some windows will not be installed, forcing those windows to be displayed with invalid colors. Be careful though, because even with multiple hardware colormaps, you can still exceed the number of physical colormaps and get colormap flashing.