Direct X vs. Open GL, and more I guess.

[TheVividReality]

Hey Venn and others,

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I've been following this blog and Venn's Google+ account for a while, and what I see is great games being reviewed, but I just don't get why there aren't any high end games. I mean, I've read quite some articles about Open GL (I am a programmer in Direct X, Shame on me, I want to go to Open GL though) and I see that Open GL equals Direct X if not it is even better. So why aren't there any high end games made in Open GL? If I see the demo's from what Open GL is capable of there could be plenty made, and I would for a fact make some use of my ATI 6950, I mean it is now just sitting there in my computer rendering some 2D sprites, which is not very ambitous for the critter.

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That being said, I was a programmer myself in Direct X, and my question is, I want to develop in Open GL, but with which language? If I look at Java powered games then they look quite nice, Minecraft for instance can be played with paralax occlusion and all kinds of shaders. And that is the thing I am looking for, I want to make high end games, cross platform. So I think I am gonna stick with that language, if someone disagrees, feel free to tell me why.

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Well, I started this topic to rant about Direct X, Microsoft, don't get me started about Apple. But well, I think my point is already clear without the need of typing a very, very, very long story.

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Oh and hi! I am vivid, I've been around here for quite some time but never posted or anything.

[Onionman]

Welcome to the forums! I've been a programmer of OpenGL for awhile now, so hopefully I can answer some of your questions.

First off, there are a lot of AAA quality games that use OpenGL. WoW, Dead Space, Doom 3 just to name a few. It's a very capable graphics API, and plenty of proffesional game developers use it.

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As to your second question, Java works, but for writing games, I highly recommend C++, it's much faster, and will run on linux a lot better Oh and easier to write.

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You should check out nehe.gamedev.net if you're just learning about OpenGL.

[Venn Stone]

High end? Oil Rush, Heroes of Newerth, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Trine?

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JOGL? Spiral Knights, WAKFU, Blocks that matter. �

Hello vivid, and welcome to L.G.C.�

Cheers,�

Venn

P.S.

Listen to the Onion.�

[kit89]

Hi Vivid and all,

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There is a variety of reason in why a developer would choose DirectX over OpenGL. DirectX has generally better driver support on Windows. DirectX is not just a Graphics API, and provides a large quantity of functionality like Input, Sound, Networking, etc. Windows is the largest platform, and so many developers focus on solely Windows machines, therefore not requiring cross-platform libraries.

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If you want to focus on Shader programming then it doesn't really matter what programming language you choose. OpenGL provides GLSL, DIrectX HLSL, and Nvidia provides Cg. Each have their quirks and I haven't spent enough time with them to get a good grasp of any of them. Though GLSL is rather simple and nice. If you want to learn more about OpenGL and Shaders check out: OpenGL Super Bible, 4th edition upwards.

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As for choosing a programming language that entirely depends on you. If you want a language that is easy to learn, quick to develop and cross platform, then I would recommend Python. If you want something that is faster than Python, easy-ish to learn, and cross-platform then I would recommend Java. But if you want something that is exceptionally fast, then I would suggest C++. However bare in mind that C++ does not manage your memory like Java or Python, and C++ �itself does not provide libraries to load data easily, though there is a myriad of external libraries that can( my favourite being SFML ).

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Hope this helps.

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kit89.

[Onionman]

I think everything kit89 said is accurate. I did just want to clarify that there are also cross-platform libraries that provide a lot of that same functionality as well (input, networking, etc). I'm currently using wxWidgets and loving it.

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