direct3d or opengl?
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AfternoonLemon
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I thought DirectX was the standard these days. Do any games use OpenGL?
Przemek
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Yes, OpenGL is still popular, for example:
IL-2 Sturmovik, Doom 3, Quake 4... I think Riddick also uses OpenGL.
OpenGL is generally faster than Direct3D (not on ATI cards, though
) and is cross-platform. That's why you can play Doom3 on Linux - HL2 is Windows only.
IL-2 Sturmovik, Doom 3, Quake 4... I think Riddick also uses OpenGL.
OpenGL is generally faster than Direct3D (not on ATI cards, though
) and is cross-platform. That's why you can play Doom3 on Linux - HL2 is Windows only.
OCybrManO
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The two biggest PC FPS engine developers (id Software and Epic) use OpenGL. Croteam (maker of Serious Sam) uses OpenGL. The PS2 used OpenGL. The PS3 uses a subset of OpenGL called OpenGL ES, IIRC. The Revolution, following in the GameCube's footsteps will use OpenGL. Any PC ports from those two consoles will be using OpenGL. So, yeah, it's still popular. Currently, OpenGL can achieve anything DirectX can do... and it's the more polished, developer-friendly, graphics API. However, DirectX puts a bunch of things like graphics, sound, input, etc into one package and Microsoft pushes it so that developers will use it and then have a hard time making a Linux or Mac port. When you control like 90% or more of the market... having less open standards and multi-platform products works in your favor.
Another thing MS does to make DX look better is to keep bumping up the version number frequently. OpenGL is the older of the two but it just recently reached version 2... whereas DirectX is going to be at 10 when Vista comes out. They want the more eXtreme sounding name and the higher number. You want more evidence of them being conscious of this? Look at the console market... specifically, the Xbox 360. Why 360? They had to pick something else because they didn't want to sound like they were behind... you know, two vs three. So, they picked one of the cool-sounding numbers that also happens to be a lot higher: 360. It's pure marketing. With Microsoft, it's not about having the better product. It's about making people think you have the better product.
Another thing MS does to make DX look better is to keep bumping up the version number frequently. OpenGL is the older of the two but it just recently reached version 2... whereas DirectX is going to be at 10 when Vista comes out. They want the more eXtreme sounding name and the higher number. You want more evidence of them being conscious of this? Look at the console market... specifically, the Xbox 360. Why 360? They had to pick something else because they didn't want to sound like they were behind... you know, two vs three. So, they picked one of the cool-sounding numbers that also happens to be a lot higher: 360. It's pure marketing. With Microsoft, it's not about having the better product. It's about making people think you have the better product.
