Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

[WilliamWatts]

Reasonable said:

slowmo said:
People who never gamed prior to directx will probably never understand why the death of OpenGL as a solution developers used is such a tragedy. Directx was mainly used imo to kill off OpenGL developments which could be easily ported across to Apple PC's.

I get fed up of reading a lot of hate towards Microsoft monopolies but this is one of the few instances where they genuinely killed off opposition. When it comes to internet browsers the consumer still has a choice, this is different as its a clear cut case of choice being removed from the consumers hand due to developments happening behind the scenes that the consumer cannot effect.

Spot on assessment.  I also don't like the 'evil empire' bashing either, but it's good to be able to acknowledge genuine cases of business manouvers that aren't necessarily for consumer benefit.

I would suggest to you both that had Direct X not come along some other standard may very well have killed OpenGL. Whether that may have been Glide or some Nvidia specific technology it doesn't matter. The present Direct X is not the worst that could have happened and maybe not the best that could have happened. Its better that we have 3 vendors working together on a standard which is Direct 3d. When you get an IHV specific standard its even worse as you face a monopoloy on both hardware and software.

See:

• PhysX multicore support on CPUs. (Well you won't actually and thats a point).