Apple to enable better graphics via software changes

Jan 14, 2010 09:25 GMT  ·  By

Apple reportedly developed the missing support for OpenGL 3.0 in Mac OS X 10.6.3, the upcoming incremental update to its Snow Leopard operating system. 22 out of 23 extensions are now supported, AppleInsider reports, citing crucial findings by HardMac. Still, sources inform that most of the associated OpenGL 3.0-specific functions are not supported as of yet.

Earlier this week, Softpedia reported that Apple developers were handed new builds of the latest Snow Leopard maintenance and security update, Mac OS X 10.6.3. Asked to focus their testing skills on more than 90 areas of the operating system, developers were reportedly offered 665.7MB worth of delta software.

The folks at World of Apple, for their part, kept in touch with their sources and were able to provide the seed notes for what AppleInsider originally confirmed (through its own sources) as Mac OS X 10.6.3 Build 10D522. The seed notes begin with the four known issues, followed by the components receiving attention, including AppKit, CoreMedia, Desktop Services, FileSync, Fonts, HIToolbox, iCal, Mail, MobileMe, and QuickTime Player X.

It is known that the current version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard – 10.6.2 – supports only 15 of the 23 OpenGL 3.0 extensions. Apple seems to be gearing up for introducing full support for OpenGL 3.0. Increased graphics performance would result from the move, across Apple’s entire line of computers. Although the graphics cards used in current Macintosh computers already support OpenGL 3.0, the required software in order to take advantage of the specification is yet to be implemented in Snow Leopard.

As noted above, Mac OS X 10.6.3 will be the third incremental update to Snow Leopard. The new release will supersede Mac OS X 10.6.2 (released in November), which addressed a bug that could delete a user's data when logging in and out of a guest account.