The Khronos Group has released the OpenGL 4.3 specification, saying it brings "the very latest graphics functionality to the most advanced and widely adopted cross-platform 2D and 3D graphics API (application programming interface)."

OpenGL 4.3 integrates developer feedback and continues the evolution of this royalty-free specification while maintaining full backwards compatibility, enabling applications to incrementally use new features while portably accessing state-of-the-art graphics processing unit (GPU) functionality across diverse operating systems and platforms, according to Barthold Lichtenbelt, working group chair of the OpenGL ARB and director of Tegra graphics at NVidia. The OpenGL 4.3 specification contains new features that extend functionality available to developers and enables increased application performance, he adds.

The full specification is available for immediate download at www.opengl.org/registry .