Right on the heels of the OpenGL 4.6 announcement, GLEW 2.1 arrives, updated for 4.6 and other new extensions. Pull the latest GLEW code from github. Hats off to Nigel Stewart.

To coincide with the release of OpenGL 4.6, NVIDIA is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our OpenGL 4.6 beta drivers for Windows and Linux. These drivers provide full OpenGL 4.6 and GLSL 4.60 functionality and also add support for the GL_KHR_parallel_shader_compile extension released today. This beta release is based on the published OpenGL 4.6 Khronos Specification, and is expected to pass the OpenGL 4.6 Khronos Conformance Testing Process when available. Current conformance status can be found online. Further details and driver downloads are available at the NVIDIA OpenGL driver website.

The Khronos Group announces from the SIGGRAPH 2017 Conference the immediate public availability of the OpenGL 4.6 specification. OpenGL 4.6 integrates the functionality of numerous ARB and EXT extensions created by Khronos members AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA into core, including the capability to ingest SPIR-V shaders. Learn more about this release. Khronos encourages and welcomes all feedback on the new specification.

The Khronos Group announces new API updates and roadmap decisions at SIGGRAPH 2017. Included in the announcements: OpenGL Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Release of OpenGL 4.6; glTF Ecosystem Grows; Khronos Announces the Vulkan Portability Initiative; Khronos Launches New Website

The glTF working group has posted it’s roadmap, and would like to hear what you wish for in the upcoming version of glTF. The request from @pjcozzi “please chime in with any and all feedback to help drive the direction of glTF beyond 2.0. Even simple +1/-1’s for topics are appreciated.”

In preparation for the launch of its upcoming Vega graphics cards, AMD has released Radeon Software Crimson ReLive version 17.7.2. With the release of Radeon Software 17.7.2, AMD has extended Radeon Chill to support DX12 and Vulkan.

Oculus’ vision is to see more headsets connecting into the Oculus platform via the OpenXR initiative. Oculus is one of the key contributors to OpenXR since the very beginning. Read the entire post on RoadtoVR.

A new version of GPU Caps Viewer is ready. GPU Caps Viewer 1.35.0 comes with an improved Vulkan support. The Vulkan panel has been simplified and shows more information (layers, hardware features). Vulkan demos (based on GeeXLab engine) have been updated to properly work on all Vulkan-capable GPUs (NVIDIA, AMD and Intel).

Amazon AppStream 2.0 is introducing Graphics Desktop and Graphics Pro instance families to deliver high performance graphics applications from AWS. The Graphics Desktop instance family offers a single instance type with an NVIDIA GPU based on K520 with 1,536 CUDA cores, 8 vCPUs, 15 GiB system memory, and 4 GiB graphics memory. This instance type is ideal for running desktop graphics applications such as Siemens NX, SolidWorks, ESRI ArcGIS, and other applications that use DirectX, OpenGL, OpenCL, and CUDA.

After failing to get the initial Vulkan support in last year’s CryENGINE 5.3, the public preview of CryENGINE 5.4 is finally available and comes with initial support for the Vulkan graphics API. Learn more on Phoronix.

Effective GPU performance analysis is a more complex proposition for developers today than it ever has been, especially given developments in how you drive the GPU in the last few years. Enter the brand new cross-platform performance analysis tool: Radeon GPU Profiler (RGP). We created it to give developers a way to understand concurrent overlapped execution on Radeon GPUs in a way that’s simple and actionable in terms of further optimisation and what you need to do next. Learn more about this GPU Profiler.

Right now there is chaos in the AI tool segment: imagine if there were a dozen or more different Word document formats and opening one on your system was only a matter of luck? AI tools face a similar fate, which is why the NNEF is designed to bring transparency and order. The involvement of the Khronos Group was essential to bringing key market players together and to lay down a globally applicable standard. AImotive was the first company to initiate the NNEF working group within Khronos, and we serve as spec editor of the final format. Learn more about AIMotive and NNEF.

The Khronos Group has updated the Birds of a Feather schedule and speaker list. If you will be at #SIGGRAPH2017 be sure to visit the BOF Blitz and After Party! BOFs include: OpenVX, NNEF, OpenCL and SYCL; COLLADA; glTF; WebGL; OpenXR; and Vulkan, OpenGL & OpenGL ES to wrap up the day. glTF has just posted their list of speakers, and what a line they have for you in store for you. At the end of the day, be sure to hang around for the BOF Blitz After-Party. The BOFs will be live streamed with video available afterwards, and t-shirts available online, for all those folks not attending.

The entire WebGL Insights book is now available for free in PDF format with permission from CRC Press. The 23 chapters on advanced WebGL topics from 42 authors and 25 reviewers is basically still the only book on _advanced_ WebGL. Get your copy today, and start making awesome WebGL content.

Neil Trevett, President of The Khronos Group, delivered a VR University Session at VR Connects San Francisco 2017.