Graphics Package

Many years ago there was a XOJO interface for using OpenGL for 3D graphics. Is that option still viable? What other new 3D Graphics options are there these days for the Mac?

i wish xojo add some new for 3d and physics, i love 3d.
workaround is 3d via java script library in html view.

i guess currently only third party can help you.

I agree, especially for creating complex graphics and animations needed for games and so on.

I personally use a third party unit, but my needs are completely different as I work with 3D CAD, where the needs are a bit more simplistic. It works really well for me with many fairly unique features in an upcoming release.

So, there is no reason why it would not be possible to use Xojo for 3D if it had better support for 3D.

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Personally I don’t care about 3D in Xojo and I prefer that they work on stabilizing their existing project rather than working on a feature that a small fraction of the user base would use. Plus, having such a library means also maintaining it.

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3D and the re-instatement of SpriteSurface might actually give Xojo a much needed leg-up in the marketplace.

Small language changes aren’t sexy and won’t bring in new customers

- even as a loyal customer I haven’t seen anything “Wow” for a few years.

However… this could make a difference?

I tend to agree with Greg. For example PDFDocument doesn’t work with UTF8, which for me makes it fundamentally unusable. In turn the graphing system can only output via PDFDocument, at least for my usage, meaning that I have to maintain my own graphing system.

Windows is only just starting its WinUI makeover.

If things like that got fixed then I would be more inclined to see additional large projects.

As for Wow, preemptive threads support is pretty much up there.

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Thats fair - for those with a need for it, it’s probably very welcome.

Libraries are also WOW for me :grinning_face:

The answer turns out to be yes, you can create 3D graphics programs using OpenGL in Xojo. I resurrected a 2018 program I wrote, switched it to ARM, and successfully built it on Xojo 2025 r3.1.

Apple deprecated OpenGL on 10.14 Mojave in 2018, but still supports OpenGL 4.1 in legacy mode.

I also discovered that Christian support Apple Scenekit in his MBS plugins, which offers a modern alternative for accessing 3D graphics and physics.

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Yes, you can create OpenGL graphics on Windows And Linux. Apple has decided to go their own way on graphics.

OpenGL is great for learning graphics, but Xojo doesn’t have the appetite to explore graphics. I have created plugins and written books for Xojo and OpenGL, and these are for the older versions of OpenGL that are compatible with Xojo.

Vulkan is the latest version and is more complicated to setup graphics. Once setup, then graphics are similar to OpenGL. Vulkan allows you to be more granular with control, which has performance benefits to the seasoned programmer.

Vulkan and OpenGL are native to C++ and would need to be converted to Xojo code via plugin, or declares.

Happy programming. !