14 DAY TRIAL // Valve is preparing to unveil glNext at the upcoming GDC 2015 in March. This is supposed to be the successor of the current OpenGL and it might be the one thing that could really turn Linux into a gaming platform.
OpenGL is a powerful platform and it's being used by developers from all over the world for the last two decades. And this has probably become a problem. Now Valve has entered the Linux world and the company doesn't want to sit on the sideline, just waiting for miracles to happen or just using what's already available.
It's clear that Valve has great plans for Linux, especially if they already decided to pour a lot of resources into SteamOS and Steam Machines. If there is one thing that we've learned from Valve's business decisions over the years, it's that they are usually playing the long game. They don't seek immediate returns for their investments.
All you need to do it take a look at their Steam platform. It was made available in a period when downloading entire games via the Internet connection would take a long time and no one thought it had any kind of future. They proved everyone wrong.
Valve is taking matters into their own hands
It has become apparent that OpenGL is no longer sufficient for today's games and technologies, so Valve is pushing for something called glNext, which is supposed to be the OpenGL successor. As it stands right now, this is being worked on by Kronos, which is a non-profit consortium of companies like Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and a ton of other ones. These are the same guys who are responsible for OpenGL, so they actually know what they doing.
The fact that Valve is presenting the advancements made with glNext is a clear indication that they mean business. This particular GDC 2015 session will take place on March 5 and it's called "glNext: The Future of High Performance Graphics (Presented by Valve)."
"Join us for the unveiling of Khronos' glNext initiative, the upcoming cross-platform graphics API designed for modern programming techniques and processors. glNext will be the singular choice for developers who demand peak performance in their applications. We will present a technical breakdown of the API, advanced techniques and live demos of real-world applications running on glNext drivers and hardware," reads the entry on the GDC Schedule.
It remains to be seen just how successful this glNext initiative will be, but the Linux community has high hopes.