With the SIGGRAPH OpenGL BOF now past, Nick Haemel from AMD has written a blog post about OpenGL 3 and the reasoning behind the choices made. "After testing an approach that would have a drastic effect on the API, requiring complete OpenGL application rewrites and not introducing any of the long awaited features modern GPUs are capable of [...] GL 3.0 takes two important steps to moving open standard graphics forward in a major way. The first is to provide core and ARB extension access to the new capabilities of hardware. The second is to create a roadmap that allows developers to see what parts of core specifications will be going away in the future, also providing the OpenGL ARB with a way to introduce new features faster."
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Member since:2005-06-30
Actually, the latest versions of DirectX are getting closer to a 3D-only API. Many DirectX parts have been deprecated (DirectDraw, DirectPlay) while others are getting replaced (DirectSound by XACT, DirectInput by the Windows message loop/XInput).
The only subsystem that really got attention since DirectX 8 is Direct3D. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the only subsystem left in future revisions (unless you use the old interfaces).
Member since:2007-09-08
On OpenGL not being equivalent to DirectX...
I'm kind of sick of this fallacy.
Historically, DirectX contained a number of components:
DirectDraw - Deprecated in DirectX 8. Irrelevant for modern software.
DirectSound - Deprecated as of Windows Vista, but the only useful way to access the sound hardware. Hardly anyone used this directly anyway - they either used a third-party library, or DirectSound 3D.
DirectSound 3D - Deprecated as of Windows Vista. Can't use hardware acceleration, so it's no better than a third-party library. Most third-party libraries have far better functionality, and are much easier to use. Developers have started moving to those, or to OpenAL.
DirectMusic - Basically a MIDI softsynth, used in half a dozen games ever. Deprecated in DirectX 8.
DirectInput - Provides mouse and keyboard input that nobody ever uses. The only useful way to access joysticks until XInput. Deprecated in favour of XInput, which only works with Xbox 360 controllers.
DirectPlay - All it really did was allow the game to work over serial cables and modems. Didn't provide any other useful functionality, but caused lots of problems. Developers stopped using it once they went TCP/IP only.
Direct3D - Still actively supported.
The only APIs still in use are Direct3D, DirectInput, and DirectSound. None of the rest are relevant, and even DirectSound tends to be used through third-party libraries.
So what, exactly, is supposed to be missing from the OpenGL + some other libraries stack that's present in DirectX?
Member since:
2005-09-14
The problem with that viewpoint is that DirectX covers significantly more than OpenGL does. OpenGL just covers the graphics side of things whereas DirectX is a complete toolkit covering graphics as well as sound, networking, input and everything else needed with consistent APIs. OpenGL on its own is simply not comparable.