[Fieldtrip] Moving from OpenGL to GPU-centric architecture

[Gregory D. Weber]

Greetings!  I am a beginner to FieldTrip (which I have not yet
even been able to install) and to computer graphics in general
(which my questions will probably make obvious).

On Mar. 6, Hugo Gomes asked:

> Are there any plans to remove the OpenGL dependency on FieldTrip ? Is this
> desirable (i can argue that it is) ?

and Conal Elliott replied:

> Personally, I want to move away from OpenGL to a GPU-centric architecture.

Now my questions:

Since OpenGL is the only 3D graphics framework that I am familiar with,
I am wondering how a "GPU-centric architecture" would be different.
Indeed, I was under the impression that OpenGL _is_ an API for
controlling the GPU; so another way of putting my question is:
if that's not GPU-centric, then what is?

And why would that be better?

-- 
   ___   ___  __     _      
  / _ \ / _ \| |    | |     Gregory D. Weber, Associate Professor
 / /_\// / | | | /\ | |     Indiana University East
/ /_\\/ /__| | |/  \| |     http://mypage.iu.edu/~gdweber/
\____/\_____/\___/\__/      Tel. (765) 973-8420; FAX (765) 973-8550