What is Happening with OpenGL?

Trapped In Windows Hell asks: "I was just at the local game store looking for a new game, and I noticed the absolute lack of ANYTHING other than DirectX games. Where has OpenGL gone, and what does this mean for games on GNU/Linux? If DirectX is so hard to program in, so clunky to use, and limits the game to being sold on only one OS, WHY do so many programmers use it? It seems logical (to me, at least) that programming as portably as possible, as simply as possible, and using standards where possible, leaves a lot more sales options open for the future... and DirectX seems to close all options *but one*." OpenGL use in Windows gaming has decreased dramatically in favor of the use of DirectX which is improving with each release. Will OpenGL continue to mature on the Windows platform (which arguably is the platform that drives most of the mainstream demand for graphics) or will it continue to stagnate as game and driver developers concentrate on the offerings from Microsoft?

Comments

Hidden Slash Feature (OT)

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, this is miles off topic, so moderate me down already. Just thought I'd let people know that Slash now inserts quotes from Futurama in the HTTP headers; a different one each request.

I thought it was cool, and I don't really care if you do or not. So there. :=P

Re:XBox

[Anonymous Coward]

With XBox drawing near, and XBox's adoption of Direct** APIs - we can seriously expect to see this trend accelerate.

How can this trend accelerate? Somehow are more than 100% of commercial games going to use DirectX?

Re:The present and the future

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy do you not know what you are talking about! It never ceases to amaze me when some 15 year old kid who's only experience with real game programming is writing dupe macros for Ultima Online decides to jump into a discussion on slashdot and make all these sweeping generalizations like they actually have a clue.

The whole tone of your comment has this ridiculous tone of authority like you and only you among slashdot's readership is qualified to make intelligent points about the topic. Well guess what? Slashdot is a democracy, and you are no better positioned to trash Linux gaming than the rest of us. As a matter of fact, I bet you are some lame Wind0ze user who doesn't know the first thing about Linux! There are lots of Linux games and they totally rock. It is just stupid for the majority of game developers to ignore the best OS out there just because Bill Gates has a total monopoly and all the stupid people use his product.

All you moderators who voted this up to +5 just prove that you are total suckers for some shill from Micros~1 who can write with a fake semblence of authority. You are hurting Linux by giving credence to someone who obviously has ulterior motives. Stop rewarding people who just write 15 paragraphs and start realizing that what makes Slashdot so great is that we can all offer our professional opinions about stuff. We don't need to rely on some long winded, self-important person to tell us what's going on, because we know best!

The one thing that really makes the internet a great place is that we have ripped down the barriers to publishing, and by doing so we have proven that we don't need self-described "experts" to tell us what to think.

Re:The present and the future

[John_Booty]

Boy do you not know what you are talking about! It never ceases to amaze me when some 15 year old kid...

I don't know which is funnier... this post, or the replies of those who didn't "get it". :)