What is Happening with OpenGL?

Posted by Cliff on Sunday August 19, 2001 @02:09AM from the fading-away-into-obscurity dept.

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?

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OpenGL vs. DirectX by defile · 2001-08-19 05:31 · Score: 3, Redundant

It should be OpenGL vs. Direct3D

DirectX is an entire API for 2dD graphics, sound, input, and probably a dozen others (DirectNetwork! DirectSideScroller! etc).

Direct3D is what sucked so much. OpenGL would've been the obvious replacement. The industry even petitioned Microsoft to drop Direct3D in favor of OpenGL. They of course refused. They even had some marketing chick come out and try to say that OpenGL was inferior because of "procedural overhead" (as OpenGL is a procedural API).

So, Direct3D slowly gets better, everyone else suffers because of Microsoft's bullshit.

OpenGL plus OpenAL plus SDL on Linux is probably enough to make a great game.