SGI and the Khronos Group published a new license for OpenGL. "The license, which now mirrors the free X11 license used by X.Org, further opens previously released SGI graphics software that has set the industry standard for visualization software and has proven essential to GNU/Linux and a host of applications." New new license is shorter than the the FreeB license in version 1.1, which wasn't an Open Source license.
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Member since:2006-12-07
True, opengl is still alive and kicking. The difference in features with directX is minimal.
Anyway, concerning games, nowadays, unless you're re-creating your own 3d engine, you will probably use (licence) an existing 3d engine with a higher level api and never deal directly with opengl or directx wich are more a hardware interface than something that helps making applications (think scene management, animation techniques, effects, camera/screen management, capabilities management etc.).
See http://www.ogre3d.org for an example of current 3d engine (not to mix up with a game engine). It can use opengl or directx via pluggable renderers and thats transparent for the programer (and the user).
Some closed source engines are like that too, for example, Renderware was indifferently using opengl or directx, depending on what was the best for the platform.
Member since:2006-02-15
See http://www.ogre3d.org for an example of current 3d engine (not to mix up with a game engine). It can use opengl or directx via pluggable renderers and thats transparent for the programer (and the user).
Speak of the devil, I just recently had a look at it and decided to learn to use Ogre properly. It seems pretty powerful, is all C++ (though there's several bindings for other languages out there, too) and there's a few commercial games out there also that are using Ogre for their 3D. Just pop OpenAL and libSDL in addition to Ogre and you have mostly everything you need to write your own game engine, with support for both OpenGL and D3d if you so wish.
Member since:
2006-02-15
OpenGL isn't dying, that's for sure. Why? Because DirectX (D3D specifically) exists only for Windows. OpenGL is an open protocol and as such it has been ported to dozens of platforms, including even mobile phones. Also lots of the high-end CAD applications and modeling tools use OpenGL.
As long as D3D isn't available for any other platform than Windows then it will never be able to push OpenGL completely off the board.
As for OpenGL's merits..well, I can't really compare as I have never done any D3D programming but I find OpenGL a pretty solid protocol and quite pleasurable to work with.