Dima Posted August 21, 2000 Can anyone on earth please tell me which API is better? And why? 0 Share this post Link to post
Jon Posted August 21, 2000 Direct3D is apparently a hard API to write and generally programs in that mode don't run as well as GL. Mind you, more cards (At least this used to be the case) support directX (or the other way round, directX supports more cards) than GL.. however directx/3d is windows only, and therefore not as good as GL for multiple port 3D programming. 0 Share this post Link to post
Guest fraggle` Posted August 21, 2000 opengl is portable, directx is windows only. nuff said. 0 Share this post Link to post
Guest David_A Posted August 21, 2000 The drivers for each are completely different, so they both have their strengths/weaknesses. With OpenGL, each card manufacturer must write their own complete driver from scratch for it to work. With DX, however, this is apparently not the case; they just write a much smaller thing that "plugs into" (I'm guessing here) the main DX driver that you download from Microsoft. Apparently it's a lot easier to write the DX driver, which is why they are generally better than their OpenGL counterparts. You'll notice that Epic basically gave up on the OpenGL in Unreal, since card companies didn't spend much time optimizing their gl drivers (and when they did, it was for Q3). The only place you'll find a 100% complete OpenGL ICD is for professional 3D cards used for CAD programs and stuff. I would argue that OpenGL is better overall, since it's portable and everything. The only reason DX is faster in some cases is probably because card manufacturers skimp on their drivers. 0 Share this post Link to post
Guest Sir_Fragsalot Posted August 22, 2000 Don't forget about Glide! Sure, it's only on 3dfx cards, but it actually has complete drivers, something that NO card can say for Direct3D or OpenGL. 0 Share this post Link to post
