IRIS Graphics Library

IRIS Graphics Library

The IRIS Graphics Library (IRIS GL) is a library of subroutines for creating 2D and 3D color graphics and animation.

Here are some of the things IRIS GL allows you to do:

draw graphics primitives such as points, lines, polygons
draw characters and define fonts
use color modes and color maps to control the way colors are displayed
use double buffering to create animated graphics
perform coordinate transformations
define and manipulate light sources to create lighted scenes
use texture mapping to add surface characteristics to geometry

IRIS GL is a predecessor of OpenGL, the industry standard for graphics applications. Silicon Graphics' application libraries that were originally built on IRIS GL are moving to the OpenGL standard. Figure 6-5 shows relationship of an application to IRIX GL and to the ImageVision Library and IRIS Performer, the libraries currently built on IRIS GL.

Figure 6-5 : IRIS GL in the Developer Environment

Note: You should never reference both IRIS GL and OpenGL in a single application. This means you should not use a higher-level library based on OpenGL (for example, Open Inventor) in the same application in which you use a library based on IRIS GL (for example, the ImageVision Library).