OpenGL and Drect3D

#1

hay guys i was just woundering what the difference is between them and how are they used for modeling ans animation?

#2

They are graphics programming API’s. DirectX is proprietary and it’s development is directed by Microsoft. OpenGL is also proprietary, but it’s development is more open. It’s has an architectural review board made up of many different companies. So OpenGL development is more open to consensus but it’s development is typically slower

As for the usage differences, I don’t know because I don’t use Directx :). From what I hear, DirectX syntax is cumbersome, but powerful. They may also have different programming pipelines.I like opengl. Their are many resources to learn from and it runs on all graphics hardware. Have you visited their home page?

#3

Also, OpenGL runs on a number of platforms, whereas DirectX will only run on Windows (except if you use WineX under Linux).
OpenGL is a nicer API to code with (IMO) as DirectX can be quite a bulky procedure.
An advantage of DirectX is that it also comes with DirectSound and DirectInput, which handles sound and inpot events for you. Similar things like that exist for OpenGL developers, like OpenAL and SDL (neither of which are related to OpenGL, but they are both free and commonly used)

DirectX, as stated, tends to be updated frequently, whereas OpenGL is updated mostly by means of extensions. That is hardware manufacturers (of video cards) write extensions to allow OpenGL to access specific features of the card, for example, pervertex shading, dual texturing etc.

Go to www.gametutorials.com (i think the URL is correct) and have a look at some OpenGL and DirectX tutorials and source, you’ll see the differences.

Hope that helped

#4

Can’t you use OpenGL with DirectInput and DirectSound?

#5

Yes, you can, but then it would be cross-platform anymore.That’s all I was saying… Guess I should have pointed that out…

:wink:

#6

Great tutorials here: http://nehe.gamedev.net/

#7

indeed openGL does only support graphics, while one can write a complete game with just directX.

However, directX just sucks for programmers. The most idiotic namespaces, variables (and classes) you have to use, it’s just freakin untransparant.

On the other hand, directX seems to support new hardware better. I’ve seen quite a few cases were quite a lot of glitches were visible with openGL (strange colors, low framerate) where directX was performing excellent. Can be bad programming tho…

#8

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