Settle an argument - D3D or OpenGL

[Steve]

OK, me and somebody else have been arguing about which is better, OpenGL or Direct3D.

Now, I'm a huge fan of OpenGL, for the following reasons:

- 3dfx cards rock with it
- Linux can use it
- Half-Life is FANTASTIC with it
- Quake 3 engine ran on it - look at how many games used Q3 engine!
- Doom III will use it, so it's gotta still pull it's weight will all the new improvements their adding.

Direct3D does, of course, have its merits , and it looking very nice these days (FarCry, HL2, Stalker are good/going to be good,) but I still prefer OpenGL.

The argument has been that graphics cards and drivers are more suited to D3D these days - but with DoomIII on its way, I can see the dev's at ATi and nVidia working on improving their OpenGL handling.

So, poll and dicussion ensues...

[blockers]

Open GL does rock for HL + mods.

I have found not very many games allow you to chose like HL does...D3D is normally what i use for running modern games.....dont know what to vote for

[Steve]

Open GL does rock for HL + mods.

I have found not very many games allow you to chose like HL does...D3D is normally what i use for running modern games.....dont know what to vote for

You can't choose these days because games developers focus on a single renderer and try to get the most out of it. Things aren't like the old days where games supported nearly everything.

There is one modern exception that I can think of, that being UT2004.

[blockers]

Alas, i dont have UT2004 - so cant comment....went for D3D in the end....

[directhex]

speaking as a programmer, they're designed for differne things.

opengl is a HIGHLY accurate api, designed for sophisticated static scenes. direct3d is designed for speed, and ease of programming. doing the same tasks under d3d is 10x less code than opengl. it's a far nicer api to program for.

as for doom3 using opengl... well, ms would have to give carmack a separate xbox developer license to the rest of the world, as only d3d is allowed on xbox

i agree that opengl is the winner from a cross-platform perspective, but i don't blame programmers for using the nicer api which is designed for games.

[Steve]

Fair point hex - and as I was writing about DoomIII I started thinking about the XBox and MS - maybe I've misread.

[StarkMjolk]

From what I've seen over the last year/years, direct 3d is what most developers uses under windows games, and games is a windows thing mostly I think. So even if I like OpenGL, and I would really love everything being developed under it so I could throw away my M$ OSes and use Linux on all machines, I chose Direct 3d. For now.

[Kezzer]

I thought half life used the Q3 engine?

[Steve]

I thought half life used the Q3 engine?

The original Half-Life engine was based upon the Quake 2 engine. So, this year, id and Valve battle it out for the top FPS spot, yet without id, Valve's best ever game may never have been so...

[Apex]

The original Half-Life engine was based upon the Quake 2 engine. So, this year, id and Valve battle it out for the top FPS spot, yet without id, Valve's best ever game may never have been so...

Quake 1

[Steve]

No I'm pretty sure it was Quake 2

edit: We're both right

Half-Life is a first-person shooter being developed by Valve Software. Valve will be using the Quake\Quake 2 graphics engine for this game, and expect to release it in November of 1997. Sierra On-Line will be the exclusive publisher and distributor of Half-Life.

[Apex]

Of course, it was a blend of the Quake engine and Quake 2 engine

[nakajima]

UT2004 runs D3D and OpenGL?
Which is better?

Also can someone explain the main difference of the both or provide a link? Cause i really dont know...

[Bindibadgi]

- Doom III will use it, so it's gotta still pull it's weight will all the new improvements their adding.

Im afraid D3 is D3D mate, to loosey quote Carmack himself:

What's OpenGl?

Seriously - i read an email he sent to someone explaining about D3 and asked if he would continue using open source code his reply is basically its not developed enough to do what he wants.

OpenGl was great in the day, uber fast compared to DX6 but like Glide, its been lost to the wind and yet again MS is the standard.

[Sid Vicious]

GLide > *

On a more serious note, I'm big on OpenGL mainly because it's always been the one to use for me. Since 3dfx went under and GLide stopped existing, I've used it mainly for it's similarities.

Oh, and D3D doesn't work under Linux (UT2k4 is about all I've been playing recently )

[ollyjones]

Alas, i dont have UT2004 - so cant comment....went for D3D in the end....

Ditto, unreal and d3d rocks