Some dumb questions by a novice

[Mostafa]

Hi, there
I'm new to this forum and also to OpneGL.
Here is a load of questions I have in mind:

1. Can I use 3D objects using OpenGL codeing without having to create them with codes (Like importing it or something)?

2. I've heard games and any other real-time 3d products are built by softwares called "engines"? So what's the role of OpneGL programming here?

3. If I'm gonna a biuld a simple 3D-game, does OpenGL programming fulfill my needs or should I learn a game engine?

4. Which language is best for OpenGL programming? C# or what?

5. Hey, I nearly forgot! I see all today's video games are based on DirectX, like "this game supports DirectX 10 and ...". I also see there is a competion among graphics cards producers for supproting the latest version of DirectX. So how come I hear most people say OpenGL is better than DirectX? and I still don't what they mean with the word "better".

6. Is there any other thing I should now about OpenGL programming?

I highly appreciate your help!
Thanks in advance.

[A. Masserann]

1 ) Sure ! They are loads of 3D loaders for openGL, just google around.

2 ) OpenGL just does the basic rendering. The engine tells him what to render, how to do it, and so on.

3 ) Depends. It you want a quick and easy solution, there are tools like fps creator or others, but you will soon be limited in what you can do ( = what the engine is made for ).
You can also code a little bit more and use Illricht, Ogre3D, CS. They will manage all the OpenGL part for you, letting you manage the actual game code.
Or, you can also code everything from scratch using glfw or so. You will learn a lot more, and a lot more interesting stuff, but it will a lot more time.

4 ) ? ... openGL has a simple C-like syntax with wrappers for most languages. In other words, whatever your language is, the openGL code will look approximately the same, so just code in yout favourite language.

5 ) Well ... this is the hardest question. I will let other people answer :D ( take a look at the section "Suggestions for the next release of openGL" in this forum )

6 ) Sure. Loads. But NeHe should be all right if you begin.