Coming to the Mac in 2006

[azcoder]

"Direct3D doesn't exist on the Mac, no Mac games use Direct3D."

Duh. Hence all of my comments about portability.

"The vast majority of those games, however, use DirectX on Windows. "

Duh. Hence this discussion.

"Something tells me you've never really done any 3D graphics development on modern video cards"

Whether or not I have done any 3d graphics development is really not the point(although I am rather certain I have done more than you with both D3D and OpenGL).

"OpenGL has rapidly and continuously fallen out of favor for game development."
I don't see how you can believe this if it is used for every single game on the mac, linux,and Playstation3, as well as a large number of Windows games.

You certainly cannot think it has "fallen out of favor" for any technical reasons. Although on Windows, Microsoft has certainly not favored it. By withdrawing from the ARB and spending tons of time and money they have finally created an api that is similar in capability to OpenGL and that ONLY works on Windows. The latest travesty is that Windows Vista won't even support OpenGL to run in a Windowed mode.

BTW - I am very disappointed in your inability to at least comprehend some of the merits of a portable, standard graphics API. (Whether you agree or disagree that OpenGL is better or worse, you are still skirting the point about portability.)

I think you really must stop drinking that MS Kool-Aid. Maybe it is clouding your thoughts....

;-)

Anyway, I think it is about time to let this thread die. Good luck with your Direct3D coding.......but don't try running your game on the mac or linux.

(Mine runs on both :-) )

[Asher]

I understand very well that OpenGL is portable and Direct3D is not. We both understand that.

What you don't seem to understand is why, when given the choice between Direct3D and OpenGL for Windows development, the vast majority of game developers choose Direct3D...even if they have to port it to OpenGL later.

You're focusing your argument on portability. OpenGL is the only choice for Mac, Linux, and the PS3...on Windows, developers can choose between DirectX and OpenGL, and the vast majority of them choose DirectX.

The reasons for this become obvious if you do any serious development. DirectX has awesome debuggers available, OpenGL relies on the typical compiler debugger only. DirectX has emulation for hardware that doesn't support features, OpenGL will simply fail unless you do the emulation code yourself (which is hard). DirectX integrates graphics with sound, input, music, etc., which saves a lot of effort these days; OpenGL does not. DirectX does not have vendor-specific extensions, OpenGL has tons of them that you need to use to get the latest functionality out of your video cards. DirectX is regularly updated, OpenGL moves at a glacial pace. DirectX has support if you have problems, OpenGL does not.

Portability to desktop platforms that make up 2% of the market is not a concern when faced with all of the above advantages. That's why DirectX is chosen over OpenGL the vast majority of the time.

[TheHateMale]

Originally posted by azcoder

At some point in the future, several Operating Systems will be able to run on the same hardware and provide similar services. A standard 3d gaming API will exist. Write your app once, let it run on multiple platforms with a minimal effort.

It's possible now, provided you don't mind playing all your games in Java and Flash.