Do you think that OpenGL will not be fully replaced by DirecX (specifically D3D)? Since many developers in the gaming industry are have turned to DX for their needs since it provides many tools to make programming with it very efficient. But are there other reasons, like speed? I don’t think there’s that much difference in the efficiency of OpenGL compared to DirectX. Ofcourse small things like constant assignment for vertex/pixel shaders. Since you can assign values to multiple constants in one call, which you can’t in OpenGL. Or am I missing something? Is there some function that takes an array of values that can be assigned to the constant registers (environment/local parameters)? I didn’t see such a function in the specs of ARB_vertex/pixel_program, but then, I have been known to actually miss some “details”
Anyways, please post your opinnions.
Btw. am I just another questioner, that is have there been topics like this in the near past?
Do you think that OpenGL will not be fully replaced by DirecX (specifically D3D)? Since many developers in the gaming industry are have turned to DX for their needs since it provides many tools to make programming with it very efficient
OpenGL is used in alot more things that just games. And until Apple and linux, and SGI’s and SUN’s etc…etc support D3D, then theres no chance that OpenGL will die.
If anything, it will be D3D that will die, when theres hardly anything between the 2 api’s in a few years. There’d be no point keeping it just for a single OS and platform.
>>>Since you can assign values to multiple constants in one call, which you can’t in OpenGL. Or am I missing something? Is there some function that takes an array of values that can be assigned to the constant registers (environment/local parameters)? I didn’t see such a function in the specs of ARB_vertex/pixel_program, but then, I have been known to actually miss some “details” <<<
Sure you can. For example in ARB_vertex_program, you can do this.
PARAM myPI={ 4.0, 1.5708, 3.14159, 6.28319 };
You can pass values to one of the constants registers by function (4 floats at a time).
I think your question is GL vs DX (or D3D). And I think you may have asked this question on other forums because I spot these once in a while. Please dont polute forums and do your own study on which you prefer.
Originally posted by knackered: Unless, of course, that OS runs on 95% of all desktop PC’s and one of the leading games consoles.
And Microsoft seems to be losing a great deal of Windows users to Linux. But it would sound logical that Microsoft actually (when/if it comes to a huge drop in the number of Windows users) port DirectX to Linux, for instance.
Though until the gamedev community will adopt Linux as a serious target for games DX will propably be only for Windows. Since the only company taking Linux, MacOS X, IRIX and SOLARIS, for instance, seriously is id Software. And the’re pretty much one of the few big companies using OpenGL for their graphics engines, although a great part of the industry uses id Software technology, so that expands the user range a bit. But really, I haven’t heard of any other “BIG” company using OpenGL :\
V-man: I have asked the same question, or other’s opinnion, on pcplayground but not here.
Anyways, I meant arrays of four-component vectors, not a single four-component vector, that’s apparent. Like SetVertexConstantF(…) with which you can set an array of vectors, multiple registers in one call. Does this exist in OpenGL?
And btw. I am asking opinnions and what you people think, I’m not trying to pollute you with my opinnions, if you it seems like that then just discard them, but I do have my own opinnions, like everyone
Originally posted by PixelDuck:
[b] And Microsoft seems to be losing a great deal of Windows users to Linux. But it would sound logical that Microsoft actually (when/if it comes to a huge drop in the number of Windows users) port DirectX to Linux, for instance.[/b]
Oh please, linux people have been saying this for years - where’s the sales figures of these mysteriously popular distros?
Linux is popular for web servers and dbase management, and that’s pretty much it. You can’t argue with market forces.
You cant rely on marketing numbers for Linux, cause its FREE. You download it “freely”. So there is NO numbers. Alot of people do develope for Linux though, How do i know? Well some one out there is writing the cross platform code, i see posted all over the net.
Heck, I don’t run a server or do dbase management and I run linux. I use it because some of my computer science classes use it to compile the progams on, and I want to do my programs at home, and because I think it’s a really good OS. I actually would like to drop windows and go pure linux but I of course can’t do that for obvious reasons. The only thing I don’t like about it is installing stuff can sometimes be a pain. Like updating the kernel, installing things that do stuff with the kernel, like installing that one package to read NTFS partitions, etc. It’s just having to log in as root and type in all of those many cryptic commands. Bleh. I hope one day this will change and it will be easier to install stuff in linux like it is with windows. Run the executable and let it go. Reboot, or re-login and you’re good to go. Linux IS getting more popular. It’s getting easier to use, more graphical and windows like. Plus it’s a way to escape the wrath of MS.
of course not, but it certainly is gonna hurt d3d.
FWIW sony are the largest games console figure by a LONG way.
also from NPD figures in 2002 in the usa more number 1 pc games used opengl than d3d.
this begs the other question
if i want to make a pc game should i choose d3d?
personally opengl seems to just work out of the box (with commerical games or apps) nearlyu every time. d3d has about a 30% chance of failure on my machine. beter driver quality most likely.
I think that both OpenGL and DirectX are going to hang around. They both have their places in the graphics world and each have their disadvantages and advantages. For example, just because we have C++ does not mean that Java is useless and will die off. I don’t know about all of you, but if I had to make an application to go on the internet, I’d definetely use Java instead of ActiveX in C++.
What I’m trying to say is that I don’t see a reason why both of them can’t just coexist. They’ll be competition for each other. If one API pulls ahead and provides more functionality, then the other is going to respond with more features. It’s a lot like the ATI and NVIDIA war. If we just had one API, then they are free to update as slowly as they want.
HalcyonBlaze: A good point. It’s just that who will take the upper hand :\ The battle between nVidia and ATI is quite diverse and I would never have believed that ATI would get the upper hand for the moment, as it seems to have done. Well we never know, perhaps nVidia will take the lead again :\
Actually, to take part in the Linux debate, I’ve heard that a great part of the administrative side of the countys (don’t know if that’s the right word) in Finland are actually turning to Linux. But the gaming on Linux is still in it’s infancy.
Btw. I didn’t expect this to become somekind of a battle as I posted this topic I just thought if people could tell what they think about the two and their future.
Originally posted by SirKnight: The only thing I don’t like about it is installing stuff can sometimes be a pain. Like updating the kernel, installing things that do stuff with the kernel, like installing that one package to read NTFS partitions, etc. It’s just having to log in as root and type in all of those many cryptic commands. Bleh. I hope one day this will change and it will be easier to install stuff in linux like it is with windows. Run the executable and let it go. Reboot, or re-login and you’re good to go.
You need to try a distro with better package management (debian, gentoo). If certain features of the kernel were compiled as modules you don’t need to reboot even if you install a driver. I haven’t had to reboot the last bunch of times I’ve installed new nVidia drivers. I kill X. emerge nvidia-glx. emerge nvidia-kernel. Then I’m ready to go. The drivers are downloaded and installed automagically.
DIE RPM DIE RedHat is actually holding back Linux on the desktop by using their poor package management system.
But Gentoo is definitely a power users desktop. The Portage system is quite cool though. I haven’t had to much exposure to Debian and Apt, but it looks quite cool also. Red Hat needs to adopt one of these package management systems and throw a pretty UI around it to make it more intuitive for new users.
personally opengl seems to just work out of the box (with commerical games or apps) nearlyu every time. d3d has about a 30% chance of failure on my machine. beter driver quality most likely.
anyone have an idea why this is?
The reason is that OpenGL is much more clearly specified and hammered out before it get’s accepted. In addition extensions are approved by significant numbers of developers and voted on before being rubber stamped, instead of being a deal between Microsoft and one developer forced on everyone else.
This means that stuff in OpenGL is either clearly core, clearly vendor specific or somewhere in the middle which these days tends to mean good support on ATI and NVIDIA for most important stuff.
Other advantages like lead time and early publication of specs to all impelmentors help.
All of this contributes to the quality and consistency of OpenGL implementations.
[This message has been edited by dorbie (edited 02-19-2003).]
Originally posted by SirKnight:
[b]Heck, I don’t run a server or do dbase management and I run linux. I use it because some of my computer science classes use it to compile the progams on, and I want to do my programs at home, and because I think it’s a really good OS. I actually would like to drop windows and go pure linux but I of course can’t do that for obvious reasons. The only thing I don’t like about it is installing stuff can sometimes be a pain. Like updating the kernel, installing things that do stuff with the kernel, like installing that one package to read NTFS partitions, etc. It’s just having to log in as root and type in all of those many cryptic commands. Bleh. I hope one day this will change and it will be easier to install stuff in linux like it is with windows. Run the executable and let it go. Reboot, or re-login and you’re good to go. Linux IS getting more popular. It’s getting easier to use, more graphical and windows like. Plus it’s a way to escape the wrath of MS.
-SirKnight[/b]
Sorry - forgot about universities.
Other than that, the linux user counts are negligable - hobbiests and masochists.
Originally posted by knackered:
Oh please, linux people have been saying this for years - where’s the sales figures of these mysteriously popular distros?
Linux is popular for web servers and dbase management, and that’s pretty much it. You can’t argue with market forces.
