Is DirectX 8 scaring you?

Hello,

I was wondering if you guys are going to move on to DirectX 8 ? I mean OpenGL is begining to age. I heard the SDK was great but didnt want to download it (too large). Hmmm Mr.Man is having a feeling of doubt …

I used DirectDraw with Visual Basic in the DirectX7 version but now they have combined Direct 3D and Direct Draw into DirectGraphics
well that pretty much sucks.

Well thanks for the time. Bye.

Look here: http://www.ronfrazier.net/apparition/index.html?appmain=research/index.html and you´ll see that you can do all that “Register Combiner” stuff and the other D3D8 features with OpenGl as well and WITHOUT learning a new API for every new feature set like it is the case with those DirectX releases…

Greets, XBTC!

[This message has been edited by XBCT (edited 12-28-2000).]

Hi there,
I for one dont plan on moving to DirectX8, simply because I find it a bit daunting ( it took a 146mb download for the API, and I am having difficulty understanding the docs, let alone getting it to link), but thats probably me being a mediocre programmer ( and Im sure Im not alone :-), Opengl on the other hand ‘clicked’ with me quite quickly, I didnt need to download anything, and it was vaguely similar in fashion to how I used the Allegro Graphics Library.
However to get back to the point I wont change coz I do 3d Graphics and OpenGL is a very good 3d Graphics engine that does everything I need, and as the saying goes ‘if it aint broke dont fix it’
Regards :slight_smile:

Sometime I plan on learning the new stuff in DirectX 8 a bit better but only so I can be more objective when I say that OpenGL is better.

As to them combining DirectDraw and Direct3d, I can see good points and bad points. It now appears that using either 3d or 2d is much like doing them in OpenGL. It’s kind of nice that you don’t have to fall back to GDI functions for doing stuff like loading a bmp. However, it kind of sucks that people who have gotten used to the surfaces of DirectDraw (like myself) will now find that there is no real DirectX 8 equivalent. It makes me wonder how many people will spend the time to learn Dx8, only to find that Dx9 will force the way they have to think again. Then they need to change with Dx10, Dx11… Granted, other releases might not differ as dramatically as Dx8 did from previous releases, but there’s no guarantee that they won’t.

OpenGL may be older, but it’s got a stable API, and there are always new extensions to use. And in my experience it’s faster, which is a big plus in itself.

Oh~~I am dying…the game “Microsoft MechWarrior: Vengeance” has depended on Dx8. but it still performs slowly,very slowly… 8( I missing my “Homeworld” and “quake” …

[This message has been edited by Suvcon (edited 12-30-2000).]

im a pretty new programmer and ive just found the dx7 and dx8 sdk too hard to understand. I guess I understood openGL a lot faster than DX. well i still havent understodd directx. maybe im doomed to never do so but openGL is waht im gonna stick with until a get soem real 3D experience.

DirectX 8 is actually made DirectX programming much easier. They’ve combined functions so loading audio has never been easier. Also with the use of D3dx Direct3D programming has been made as easy as OpenGL. I still prefer OpenGL though.

Humans have a short life span. It is nice to be able to spend a fews months learning something say…OpenGL and be able to build beautiful worlds. DirectX is an ever changing
piece of crap. I downloaded version 8 and now Unreal Tournament won’t run. By the way after you spend how long learning DirectX you will never, ever be able to keep up with all the changes and still produce fully functional programs. Do you realize that Microsoft has some 2,000 plus engineers, how the hell can any sole individual ever learn all of DirectX in such a short lifespan? No less do something useful with it before the next version comes out!

If DirectX’s API is ever solidified, and incorporates “DirectGL” I think it will be excellent. However, shooting at a moving target is almost as frustrating as their using COM as a base! I think I’ll stick to OpenGL for as long as possible!

The main thing I always hated about DirectX was that the architecture was just crap. Nothing was apparently very easy to do. And then they were very eager for people to use their product. But then of course, these things are sort of in opposition…why would people be eager to use it if it isn’t easy to set up? I mean, when I write my GL type apps, all of the crazy stupid code is the code that handles creating my windows/threads/message pumps/message handlers…blah blah.

The final coup de grace was the fact that they have to use annoying terminology and make their documentation tedious to interpret…I mean, why call something “x” when you can call it “arctan(2x + y) * log((x + y) * y)”. Naturally, the writers probably write it in this fashion to bolster their pseudo-superior-intellect ego. None of this makes their product easy to use.

So, in short, the lesson should be…Make it easy to use, make it powerful and flexible, make it portable…and people will come.

Unfortunately, Microsoft only seems to have gotten the powerful and flexible part mostly right. GL on the other hand has more or less achieved all of these things…

So, the only thing that frightens me about DirectX is that it has the money backing and that Microsoft has employed a push-it-in-your-face-and-use-it-or-die mentality to get people to use it. People should use an API because it’s good…not because, someone is twisting their arm.

…sigh…back to work…

Hehe…Exactly my opinion El Jeffe…
Why did M$ always push inferiour stuff down
the customers throat with the power of their money?

Greets, XBTC!

I feel DX8 (and previous rel.) are just to wierd. The whole “com” thing just makes me look in another direction. GL on the other hand got me from the first time.

The fact that Microsoft OWNS Dx technology is also something that really makes me feel uncomfortable. How much are theese guys going to controll in the universe anyway??

I’ll stick with GL.

what i love in dX is it’s great portability. As soon as you want to render very complex graphic simulations, you need some power, and so you need to distribute the scene rendering in a cluster of powerfull stations which run … Unix… PC under windows are neither powerfull, nor architectured to run the one with each other. So, m$ plays in the first age school, and i’m pleased that he stays there.

It’s this simple: I wont spend time learning (and money and effort) in an API every time its creator decides it needs new ways to control the market. This is DX case since its begining.
On the other hand, OpenGL is carefully designed toward stability, consistency, speed, protability, etc, and its design decisions are only driven by engineers who want to squeeze video cards’ power more and more, not make money or force industry control.
In fact, the newest, most interesting DX8 features (pixel and vertex shaders) arent supported yet in hardware by any card, but OpenGL can expose card functionality immediatly. For example, DX8 pixel shaders dont work on HW on the GeForce2 cards (actually, in no current card), yet GeForce2 based cards expose very, very powerfull pixel shading capabilities in OpenGL since mid 2000.

All that without taking into account cool things like portability, ease of learning, documentation support, independent, works on NT, etc, all features unrivaled by DX.

Well, in my country theres a saying about girl taste for boys: money beats handsome. I think M$ is trying to do this with DX, pay $$$ to developers so the use DX only, and thats bad for developers and users (of course, M$ can recover its investment latter when he gets control).

Well, enough of boring, repeated stuff.

Originally posted by Mr.Man:
[b]Hello,

I was wondering if you guys are going to move on to DirectX 8 ? I mean OpenGL is begining to age. I heard the SDK was great but didnt want to download it (too large). Hmmm Mr.Man is having a feeling of doubt …

I used DirectDraw with Visual Basic in the DirectX7 version but now they have combined Direct 3D and Direct Draw into DirectGraphics
well that pretty much sucks.

Well thanks for the time. Bye.

[/b]

Hello Mr. Man.

Out of curiosity, why exactly do you say “OpenGL is beginning to age”?

Just curious.

Thanks
Joe

OpenGL ageing process has only made stronger the fact that OpenGL was extremelly well designed, easy to use, consistent, extensible, etc… I agree that maybe OpenGL is not pushing the industry forward as rapidly as direct3D (which introduced in dx8 some really good, forward-looking features), but for what I car about (coding), OpenGL gives me numerous, unrivaled advantages over Direct3D. Still, all functionality and more of directx8 and later versions can be implemented as extensions in opengl, and I find OpenGL extensions to be very easy to query and use.
In fact, OpenGL already exposes cards pixel shading features since long beforce directx8 (for ecxample GeForce2 cards)! So why worry about age, if it hasn’t limited OpenGL use and capacity in any way? I worry about DirectX direction in the future, since it’s completelly dependant on one company’s interests, and that has proven to morph so fast that your code can as fast be left obsolet. thats only one of directx drawbacks…

Haha, it’s funny.

I started with DirectX and migrated to OpenGL.

I have never regretted my decision to do this. I am learning 3d programming now, not a n aweful junky API that is impossible to figure out.

Now that I am using SDL and OpenGL, I am writing code so much faster and able to experiment with new ideas and learn much quicker. All of the bull**** windows crap is gone from my program. It looks likes a normal C/C++ program that is easy to read and follow.

I will never go back to DirectX again. I only code on Windows because it still has better 3D drivers and I like Visual Studio’s help features (the only thing Microsoft did right in my opinion).

For GUIs I use C++ Builder. Best tool in the world. Just as easy as Visual Basic and it’s real C/C++. And they are porting it to Linux I think. Forget about MFC. Piece of ****.

I think Microsoft likes to make their software hard to program on purpose. It keeps them in business. Programming isn’t hard. It’s programming Microsoft junk that’s hard.

There is more functionality exposed right now via extensions, and incorporated directly into v1.4, than are available even with DX9. This is not even including v2.0, which is still probably closer than DX9. Not to mention that OpenGL has a diverse community of people deciding which direction it should take, not a single organization with a history of short-sided and hostile-to-developers decisions.

Tell ya a secret. All those big games running on DirectX are using same functionality as found in OpenGL. But their phylosophy is thus: one engine (DirectX) covers all aspects: graphics, sound, interface…

I consider myself to be an advanced C++ programmer. Still, DirectX gives me alot of headache. Starting from the function and variable names: too long. Too indistinguishable. Too many lookups in the manual which lowers my learning FPS

On quality graphics adapters there is almost no difference between OpenGL and Direct3d.

Heck, compare a simple “triangle” demo written in OpenGL against the one written in DirectX. See the difference?

I’m curious how this old thread got resurrected after being dead for over 21 months.