Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX • Hacker News Board

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#91

Post by pjmlp » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:15 PM UTC

rpedela wrote: post #80

AshleysBrain wrote: post #63

Isn't mobile and the web the decider these days? Article is from 2010, but consider if you want to develop 3D on any of these platforms: iOS - OpenGL ES Android - OpenGL ES Mac - OpenGL Linux - OpenGL HTML5 - WebGL (based on OpenGL ES) - even in IE! Emerging platforms like Tizen, Firefox OS - OpenGL ES/WebGL DirectX is just for Windows and Windows Phone. Isn't it getting to the point where the bother of having to wri…

Isn't PS4 OpenGL as well?

No. The PS3 had OpenGL ES 1.0 with Cg as shading language, but almost any developer worth his/her salt was using LibGCM.

With PhyreEngine being used as main prototype engine.

Lots of nice technical documents available at http://develop.scee.net/publications

PS4 API is called GNM, http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-how-the-cre...

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#92

Post by mistercow » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:20 PM UTC

csmuk wrote: post #74

Even Microsoft ships WebGL with IE11... Perhaps they're getting the point?

What choice do they have? The don't have the market share anymore to launch a proprietary alternative based on DirectX.

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#93

Post by laveur » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:25 PM UTC

When was the last time MSFT updated DirectX? I think they killed it off not to long ago with the release of X and its just part of the OS now.

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#94

Post by jcromartie » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:30 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #69

AshleysBrain wrote: post #63

Isn't mobile and the web the decider these days? Article is from 2010, but consider if you want to develop 3D on any of these platforms: iOS - OpenGL ES Android - OpenGL ES Mac - OpenGL Linux - OpenGL HTML5 - WebGL (based on OpenGL ES) - even in IE! Emerging platforms like Tizen, Firefox OS - OpenGL ES/WebGL DirectX is just for Windows and Windows Phone. Isn't it getting to the point where the bother of having to wri…

Game consoles - proprietary 3D APIs OpenGL != OpenGL ES != WebGL, yes they are all based on the same concepts, but require separate code paths and different shader versions.

You can more-or-less program to the OpenGL ES API under full desktop OpenGL, since ES is a subset of the full API.

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#95

Post by computerslol » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:34 PM UTC

shadowmint wrote: post #64

MaulingMonkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really 'legacy' per se either... good luck running OpenGL on Microsoft's consoles or as a ModernUI application! DirectX being a broader and, in my opinion, better designed API certainly doesn't hurt it's adoption either.

Yeah, don't worry about those mobile devices. We've got plenty of directx support for those too. What are they again? Surface? Windows phone? I think I know one guy who has one.

I have one of each.

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#96

Post by jcromartie » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:34 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #90

rblstr wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sony have some shitty support for OpenGL. Any developer worth his salt used Sony's API. Wii had its own API too, though closer to OpenGL, still wasn't OpenGL. I'm a huge fan of OpenGL, but evangelists have been spreading misinformation about OpenGL just as much as they accuse DirectX as.

I really don't get how OpenGL support for consoles became such a urban legend. Anyone that cares about graphics programming on game consoles knows how broken or non existent such support is.

It's because console development is a fairly secretive process. The SDKs are all kept under a fairly tight lid, and unless you either work with it yourself or personally know someone who is willing to spill the beans, you cannot get a good idea of the process.

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#97

Post by fritz_vd » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:35 PM UTC

taspeotis wrote: post #2

API use was shifted in favor of DirectX by Microsoft's two-pronged DirectX campaign around the launch of XBox 360 and Windows Vista, including the spread of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about the future of OpenGL, and wild exaggeration of the merits of DirectX. I thought it was because that, at the time, the OpenGL API was shit [1]. By the time of OpenGL 2.1, OpenGL was running into a problem. It had a lot of le…

thank you.. this is awesome.

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#98

Post by computerslol » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:36 PM UTC

shiven wrote: post #60

MaulingMonkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really 'legacy' per se either... good luck running OpenGL on Microsoft's consoles or as a ModernUI application! DirectX being a broader and, in my opinion, better designed API certainly doesn't hurt it's adoption either.

What about OSX? Does DirectX work (at all/well) on it? Linux? How feasible is it to program with DirectX on any non-MS platform? Edit: I guess the point I'm making is, OpenGL runs on non-MS as well as MS platforms (perfectly/badly is another question), but DirectX is locked to Microsoft only. That is what makes it of little to no value for people like me who need to care about cross-platform products and support.

A Microsoft OS still runs on over 90% of the desktop market.

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#99

Post by chadwickthebold » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:36 PM UTC

moep wrote: post #78

AshleysBrain wrote: post #63

Isn't mobile and the web the decider these days? Article is from 2010, but consider if you want to develop 3D on any of these platforms: iOS - OpenGL ES Android - OpenGL ES Mac - OpenGL Linux - OpenGL HTML5 - WebGL (based on OpenGL ES) - even in IE! Emerging platforms like Tizen, Firefox OS - OpenGL ES/WebGL DirectX is just for Windows and Windows Phone. Isn't it getting to the point where the bother of having to wri…

My hope is that the SteamOS/Steam Machines movement will finally tip the scales in favor of OpenGL. A "killer app" that is fully OpenGL optimised with a delayed or worse performing DirectX port would seal the deal. If only Valve had more franchis3s...

I'd be willing to bet serious money that if Valve released HL Ep.3 with the Steam Box next holiday season, they could upgrade their mattress stuffing from $20s to $100s. Even if they released Windows and Linux versions simultaneously, they would absolutely kill it.

Re: Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

#100

Post by Pxtl » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 3:48 PM UTC

exDM69 wrote: post #18

kayoone wrote: post #12

Isn't this more or less a problem of the past? Today with tools like Unity3d, UDK, CryEngine, Shiva Engine, MonoGame etc, game developers are at a point where they can pretty much stop worrying about the OpenGL/DirectX layer beneath their engines. Those Engines have become so powerful and affordable that it hardly makes any sense to roll your own. In fact, imo you would need a very strong reason to build your own eng…

> Isn't this more or less a problem of the past? Yes and no. If you want to be writing a typical 3d game like an FPS, and RTS or 3rd person platformer, you can and probably should use an off the shelf 3d engine and stay away from the lower level APIs, OpenGL and d3d. However, if you want to do something more exotic, say processing your webcam input stream with your GPU, or write a space scale render of the solar syst…

Actually, RTS games are also a hard problem for engines because they require a lockstep shared-state for multiplayer. This means you need a very high level control of the language your game-logic is built in to make sure your floating-point calculations are identical across all devices and everything is perfectly deterministic. This is a problem for "complete-platform" cross-platform engines like Unity.