OpenGL is a Graphics Library that serves as a software interface to graphics hardware. You can create interactive programs producing color images of animated 3D objects. It was developed by Silicon Graphics and is available on Windows NT and now for Windows 95. The best book that I have found is "OpenGL Programming Guide" by Jackie Neider, Tom Davis and Mason Woo and published by Addison Wesley.
The OpenGL dlls for Windows 95 are available on Compuserve ... GO GRAPHDEV ...
There are some examples and source code also available on Compuserve ... FIND OpenGL ...
3DR is a 3D graphics command set developed by Intel to speed graphics on Intel processors, especially the Pentium. It is available from Intel on their developers CD-ROM. It is free and comes out about every four months. You can obtain it by visiting Intel's home page, following the links to the developers area and filling out a form. 3DR is simular to OpenGL but takes advantage of Windows 95 Direct Draw. This means that your video card must support Direct Draw to benefit from acceleration, but 3DR will run under Win 95 anyway, just slower. There are some examples of source code included in the Intel Architecture Labs CD-ROM.
If you are interested in 3D graphics and animation, one of the best deals around is the book and disks "3D Modeling Lab" by Philip Shaddock and published by the Waite Group. Included is version 2.0 of "Imagine" by Impulse. This is a complete modeling, rendering and animation package that is now at version 4.0 and the book has a coupon for a nice discount on an upgrade if you find that Imagine is the ticket for you.
Java is a language that is designed to be able to run on any computer that has a Java interpreter ported to it. It is derived from C++ and is designed to be secure and robust. Java allows little applications, or applets to be downloaded dynamically when requested by a browser and run locally on the client computer. Animation and interactivity on the Web is made possible by Java.
The Java developers kit is available for download from Sun Microsystems Inc. It is a very busy site, so pick off hours if you want to download this 2.5 Meg file.
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