Why You Should Use OpenGL And Not DirectX
A few days ago there was a very interesting article on Wolfire Games Blog, the indie company behind lugaru and Overgrowth who recently collaborated with Unknown Worlds on releasing Natural Selection 2 with Overgrowth + access for all Alphas and Betas for only 40USD.
From the article :
“More than half of our Lugaru users use Mac or Linux (as shown in this blog post), and we wouldn’t be surprised if the same will be true of our new game Overgrowth. When we talk to major game developers, we hear that supporting Mac and Linux is a waste of time. However, I’ve never seen any evidence for this claim. Blizzard always releases Mac versions of their games simultaneously, and they’re one of the most successful game companies in the world! If they’re doing something in a different way from everyone else, then their way is probably right.
As John Carmack said when asked if Rage was a DirectX game, “It’s still OpenGL, although we obviously use a D3D-ish API [on the Xbox 360], and CG on the PS3. It’s interesting how little of the technology cares what API you’re using and what generation of the technology you’re on. You’ve got a small handful of files that care about what API they’re on, and millions of lines of code that are agnostic to the platform that they’re on.” If you can hit every platform using OpenGL, why shoot yourself in the foot by relying on DirectX?
Even if all you care about is Windows, let me remind you again that half of Windows users still use Windows XP, and will be unable to play your game if you use the latest versions of DirectX. The only way to deliver the latest graphics to Windows XP gamers (the single biggest desktop gaming platform) is through OpenGL.”
“OpenGL is a non-profit open standard created to allow users on any platform to experience the highest quality graphics that their hardware can provide. Its use is being crushed by a monopolistic attack from a monolithic corporate giant trying to dominate an industry that is too young to protect itself. As Direct3D becomes the only gaming graphics API supported on Windows, Microsoft is gaining a stranglehold on PC gaming.”
We need competition and freedom to drive down prices and drive up quality. A Microsoft monopoly on gaming would be very bad for both gamers and game developers.”
More here.
Loading ...
For my understanding about DirectX is, that it is not DirectX == OpenGL. For graphical sand point maybe.
DirectX has api for sound, input devices, networking and graphics atleast. So it is more like collection of diffirent apis.
Linux world should do something similar, like example OpenX. Where would be api for graphics (OpenGL), sound (OpenAL), input devices and networking.
Do not know how it would work in programmers point of view thou, just a stupid idea
The Linux world already has “OpenX” (lol, that would be such a retarded, Microsoftish name…), it’s called the Simple Direct Media Layer or “SDL”, go figure.