OpenGL vs. DirectX

[Jackolantern]

Recently, I have had to slow down quite a bit on a couple of my projects due to other commitments. However, I love learning new languages, APIs and technologies (it is one of my leisure activities, actually) and I have decided to work on getting a knowledge of one of the major graphics APIs. Now I am town between OpenGL and DirectX. There are good arguments on both sides over which to learn first:

OpenGL:
-Highly portable between operating systems
-Vital to know if pursuing a career in console game development (for all consoles except XBox360)
-Open standard
-Hardware resource management handled by driver (aka hard on the driver writers, easy on developers)

DirectX:
-So many 3rd party libraries and tools to work with
-Vital to know if pursuing a career in console game development (for XBox360)
-Vital to know if pursuing a career in PC game development (DX is used by the vast majority of commercial games these days to my understanding)
-Performance increases by an experienced DX coder due to manual hardware resource management

What are your thoughts?

[Perry]

Personally i have only worked with directx except for a few simple opengl tutorials. The only reason i would say to go for opengl is if you wanted cross platform or console development. I would recommend trying them both. That is what i did and i decided i liked directx better. If you decide on opengl i have heard this is a good book. http://fly.cc.fer.hr/~unreal/theredbook/ . If you decide on directx it depends on what version of windows you are targeting. If you want XP to be able to work then you need Directx 9. I have this book which is pretty good. http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Game ... 391&sr=8-1 . If Xp doesn't matter and you only want to program for Vista then you can use Directx 10. I haven't read this but i have heard it was good. http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-3D-G ... 391&sr=8-2

Hope that helps. Good luck

[Jackolantern]

Thanks for the run-down! I was looking at those books, as they all seem to have the highest recommendations in the genre (as your post shows as well). I think I may check out DirectX first, probably starting with 9.0c. I have heard that DX10 was a bit rough around the edges (hence why a lot of games have not been made to use it or upgraded to it), but the community preview of DX11 looks to be back with the traditions and procedures of DX9(.0c). I am not sure how true that is, but I have heard it on a number of occasions. The only thing that would worry me, however, is beginning on a version of DX that is soon to be 2 versions old.

[Perry]

You should be fine starting with 9.0 because once you have the basic concepts down it will be much easier to learn the new versions. i would recommend learning directx. it seems like it is easier to find help for that. that is one of the reasons i chose it over opengl

[Jackolantern]

Sounds good to me! DirectX here I come. Thanks for the help!

[Falken]

Some stuff to read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... d_Direct3D
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articl ... le1775.asp

I really recommend reading the gamedev.net article, it is really good!

[Jackolantern]

I appreciate the articles. I read most of the wikipedia entry when I was researching the two and it is a great resource. The article on gamedev.net was printed in 2002 (I have noticed gamedev has quite a few older articles up). Are most of the points still valid in it? I know DirectX has changed quite a bit since then, although I believe OpenGL still should behave in mostly the same way.

[Perry]

I appreciate the articles. I read most of the wikipedia entry when I was researching the two and it is a great resource. The article on gamedev.net was printed in 2002 (I have noticed gamedev has quite a few older articles up). Are most of the points still valid in it? I know DirectX has changed quite a bit since then, although I believe OpenGL still should behave in mostly the same way.

Yes gamedev has a bunch of old articles and i don't know why they don't update them... I have read that article a few times and it seems to mostly be theory so you should be ok. One of the best things i think to take from it is this:

If you plan to go specifically into the games industry, you would be wise to learn both D3D and OGL. That's just how it is now. For any other 3D industry (and I do mean any other industry, OpenGL will take you far. Ultimately, it's a matter of personal preference. And whether you decide to learn OpenGL or Direct3D first, you can always learn the other later, and it's actually very easy to learn one if you know the other.

You should keep that in mind that if you learn some of one and decide you don't like it you can switch to the other.