This is not pure OpenGL related but here it is... Yesterday i glanced thru a typical gamers magazine and noticed how many games that accually rely on DirectX tech. Is this the general trend now? I mean, when i speak to fellow coders (both hobbyists and pro''s) most of them favour OpenGL...But for some reason the end products end up using DX technology. Why is this? Often the arguments to choose DX seems to be -"erhh, well dx is..ehrrr...hrm better?" I''d say that as programmers we should have a thing or two to say...right? (Like wich API to use...). So how about the rest of you. Do you speak up on thoose project meetings (GL,GL,GL,GL) , or are you to busy drinking free coffe? "if they don''t start to treat the software people better, some day it''s just gonna be ''kakakakakaka''( * machinegun sound * )." - Officespace /Ekas78.(!This is not posted to start a flame war about wich is best!).

People use DX because of the huge list of hardware compatibility. I mean ATI, 3dfx(not anymore!), nVidia, etc. If there were more ogl drivers I wouldn''t be using dx anymore, except maybe 2d stuff.

See, the thing is, regardless of what you use for graphics, you will probably end up using DirectX for other stuff like input and sound, either directly or through a wrapper such as SDL.

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Martee
http://www.csc.uvic.ca/~mdill

At the shop I worked for, Xbox porting was an issue, so we were forced to go with DX for the PC version. Otherwise, I would say that for the most part, DX is sold on the basis of hardware compatibility (for Windows at least), and that the idea of porting to other platforms (Linux, MAC, etc) is not as much of an issue, as is trying to find decent driver support for the myriad of cards.

To second Martee, it''s important to remember that OpenGL is graphics only, and there is a lot more to a game than simply graphics. For example, mute games generally aren''t considered to be of professional quality. While it''s conceivable that you could get around using DirectX entirely, and obtain your sound and input and networking and everything else by use of other means...that would be kind of silly if the platform you''re developing for supports it, especially since DirectX is right there for you to use.

Also remember that, while many modern games make use of 3D graphics, not all do. Personally, I prefer OpenGL for 3D graphics and DirectDraw for 2D graphics. Those developing Windows-only 2D games would probably find it in their best interests to op for using DirectDraw rather than OpenGL, as the former generally performs better on lower end systems than the latter.

Besides, if you''re making a 3D game, the ultimate test of one''s programmability is support for multiple APIs. Which shows the better coder: someone who writes their code to make use of OpenGL for 3D, someone who writes their code to make use of Direct3D, or someone who writes their code to allow support for either? I haven''t looked much at Direct3D yet, but I''ve heard that it has been becoming increasingly similar to OpenGL, and so, it shouldn''t be very difficult to write in support for both. One of these days when I get around do it, I think I''ll develop a codebase that would work with either, and do that. If you''re err, mighty, I suggest you look into the same challenge.

- Bucket

- Hai, watashi no chichi no kuruma ga oishikatta desu!
...or, in other words, "Yes, my dad''s car was deliscious!"

Isn''t openml supposed to give programmers the same posibilities as directx provides?

Mvh
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