quote:Original post by Talroth
Maybe someone who is reall good and nice (Almost skipped an ''o'' there,...) and has a good knowledge base of a large number of stuff like this could write up a comparision list of as many API or whatever, and have it stickied in the forum. (State things like, how much work is needed each time it is used, how much resources there are for them, how well they actually work, the limits of what they can do, cost, and what platforms they can run on)...
This is an impossible dream.
1st. Assuming you mean Cost as in penalty of use. Cost isn''t really a discrete number. You can use Cost to compare algorthms, but it gets weird to go between different APIs / Video cards, etc.
2nd. OpenGL is evolving as we speak, DirectX has a major evolution about year. The list would become outdated soon. OpenGL contains a lots of Extentions. Some of them are not for home use. Since OpenGL has lots of Extensions, both single application use and otherwise, there is no list of Extensions. I think a Delphi group is trying to keep a list of extentions and what they do, but it is rather slow, and mostly the home market stuff.
3rd. Platforms they run on is obvous. Microsoft DirectX vs. OpenGL.
4th. Sometimes things tip in one API''s direction. Right now, OpenGL doesn''t have a good pixal shader, but GLSlang will be in OpenGL 1.5. If I wrote about how much better Direct3D is right now, as soon as OpenGL 1.5 comes out, my description will misinform the n00bs.
quote:Also, I haven''t yet seen much other options for graphics in windows games, other than something in windows itself, (First few lines of it said it sucked, so I skipped it,...) DX, oGL, and SDL,... I know there are more options, (one I saw, but can''t find, hate forgetting to bookmark! allows easier displaying of tiles than most others or something,... sucks I can''t find it now, as it looked really sweet for what I wanted)
SDL is a DirectX 5.0 wrapper.
SDL is a 2d library, OpenGL & DirectX is 3d. SDL is in a leauge all its own.In the long run, no matter what you choose, you can pretty much get the same results with OpenGL & Direct3D.
For the hobby developer, it is more of a preference, then something descrete.
For the professional developer, it is whatever the engine your buying is coded in.
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"the best thing about betting on apathy is that even when you lose, you dont care." - nethead.
Download and play Slime King I.
