OpenGL is a
high-performance, portable 2D and 3D rendering library. OpenGL was
created in 1992 by Silicon Graphics and quickly became the industry
and 3D graphics. It’s currently maintained by an independent
industry consortium, the OpenGL Architecture Review Board. More
information on OpenGL can be found at
Most versions of Microsoft Windows support the OpenGL standard. Windows NT and 98 both come with OpenGL support installed by default, while Windows 95 has an add-on available to obtain OpenGL support.
David Ascher, a well-known Python luminary and O’Reilly author, currently maintains a set of Python extensions that allow interface to the OpenGL libraries known as PyOpenGL. OpenGL and PyOpenGL are both cross-platform libraries, and both are also supported on Windows.
OpenGL is a complex API, and a good book on OpenGL is highly recommended before you attempt to use the library. The PyOpenGL pages recommend the following books:
Woo, Neider & Davis, OpenGL Programming Guide, Second Edition: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 1.1, Addison Wesley Developers Press. ISBN: 0-201-46138-2.
Kemp & Frasier, OpenGL Reference Guide, Second Edition: The Official Reference Document to OpenGL, Version 1.1, Addison Wesley Developers Press. ISBN: 0-201-46140-4.
PyOpenGL itself comes with a number of demos that use the Tkinter graphics library, and PythonWin comes with a single sample that demonstrates how to use OpenGL in the PythonWin environment. ...