Hello,

Does anyone have any up-to-date statistics on what percentage of the x86 based desktop PC market is occupied by non-Microsoft operating systems, and thus for which the use of OpenGL would be basically mandatory? Also, do most of you OpenGL programmers compile with GCC and if so, what is your preferred IDE? If you produce work for both Windows and Non-Windows, do you use VC to compile for windows and/or use DirectX for windows, while using OpenGL for the rest, or do you just use the GCC/GL combo for all your work?

Thanks in advance.

-Dave Ottley

Does anyone have any up-to-date statistics on what percentage of the x86 based desktop PC market is occupied by non-Microsoft operating systems, and thus for which the use of OpenGL would be basically mandatory?

Last month's Steam Hardware Survey indicates that 5% of Steam users run Macs. Perhaps this isn't the greatest indicator of overall Mac/Linux marketshare among gamers, but I'd expect that 5% figure to be a reasonable ballpark for the size of the market you are looking at.

Also, do most of you OpenGL programmers compile with GCC and if so, what is your preferred IDE?[/quote]
I gave up on cross-platform C++ IDEs a long time ago. Visual Studio is the gold standard, and XCode is not bad once you get used to it, but integrating the two together in a single project is a pain - and I seldom find other IDEs to be worth the hassle.

If you produce work for both Windows and Non-Windows, do you use VC to compile for windows and/or use DirectX for windows, while using OpenGL for the rest, or do you just use the GCC/GL combo for all your work?[/quote]
I have no interest in writing all my code twice. OpenGL works well enough on Windows as well.

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10 has some data about OS market share, which I'd assume would be at least fairly accurate, although with linux, dual booting, etc it's impossible to tell exactly.

I program with openGL, using MSVC on windows and GCC/Eclipse on linux

macs have at most 5%, but you can only use OGL 3.x
linux based systems have at most 1%, and latest OGL

For cross platform development you need to use cross platform libraries, and build with non-cross platform IDEs and compilers. For cross platform libraries your best choice IMO would be SFML + OGL + GLEW (and other libs like freetype, freeimage, assimp etc. if needed)
For example I chose cmake to create both a makefile (so yeah gcc/g++) on Linux and a Visual Studio solution on Windows. As far as I know it works for mac too.
On linux your best choice is cmake and kdevelop IMO, but 100 developers will give you 100 answers to this question. You still have other IDEs like Eclipse and Qt Creator.
In my experience OGL has been enough for everything, so I don't see why you'd use DX even on Windows (why would you develop the same thing twice?).

People,

Thank you for your responses. I feel that there is merit to using D3D on Windows because the drivers are updated more frequently and the customer service from the graphics card manufacturers is much better. The fact that companies like Blizzard use D3D on Windows and GL on Mac is a form of proof of this concept.

I have decided to download and use Code::Blocks with the latest GCC collection. I do not really want to pay the $500 for MSVC12 unless it is totally necessary. I want to do some emperical research into why MSVC is considered the "Gold Standard." One possibility is that coders are "raised" on Microsoft code from past decades and they just don't want to change the way they do things. For example, most game writing books are written using D3D and very Windows-centric code. The other possibility is that MSVC offers features that increase the productivity of programmers and/or aid in creativity. My hypothesis is that the former is true, but I am going to download and use GCC on Windows now to prove that.

Another thing I am going to do is setup my rig to dual boot into Linux and learn Linux as well as I can. I believe that Windows 8 is the beginning of a long-term migration of non-Mac x86 users to the "free" space. I don't think it will happen fast, but I actually believe that the game development community itself (namely indies, but larger companies eventually) will be the catalyst for the change. If Windows becomes a closed system like it is rumored to become, then there will be no more bastion of censorship-free and middleman free game development platforms (other than web, but there are many limitations on web-games). Thus, game developers will move to Linux to gain the freedom (financial and otherwise) offered by the platform, and some gamer will want to play a Linux only game and move over, and then another, and then another. Unless I am mistaken, there is no reason at all why Windows should be the dominant platform other than network effect and historical reasons. To me, this is not enough of a reason to choose the platform for development. If Linux had a 50% share think of how much better of a world we would be living in. Microsoft would be forced to be more standards compliant and all cross-platform development would be made easier, not to mention the better coding practices that this diversification would encourage.

I believe that the Linux community, while small, could be the best place for Indie developers to focus now because of the exponential growth that it is poised to experience. When it blows up, the big guys will be there very quickly, so there are benefits to be had of getting into the space now.

Just my two cents.

-Dave Ottley

I have decided to download and use Code::Blocks with the latest GCC collection. I do not really want to pay the $500 for MSVC12 unless it is totally necessary. I want to do some emperical research into why MSVC is considered the "Gold Standard." One possibility is that coders are "raised" on Microsoft code from past decades and they just don't want to change the way they do things. For example, most game writing books are written using D3D and very Windows-centric code. The other possibility is that MSVC offers features that increase the productivity of programmers and/or aid in creativity. My hypothesis is that the former is true, but I am going to download and use GCC on Windows now to prove that.

It's actually the case that the latter of your two possibilities is true; MSVC - while admittedly lagging behind in standards compliance (it's getting better though) - is ahead on productivity and is widely considered to have the best debugger currently available on the planet. The entry level is very accessible too - Express editions will cost you absolutely nothing and are quite well-featured.

I do not really want to pay the $500 for MSVC12 unless it is totally necessary.

The express editions are free, and perfectly usable.

I want to do some emperical research into why MSVC is considered the "Gold Standard." One possibility is that coders are "raised" on Microsoft code from past decades and they just don't want to change the way they do things.[/quote]
Don't look at me then. I'm from a very Mac/linux centric worldview, and even I admit that Visual Studio is the gold standard of IDEs.

Seriously, download the express edition and give it a whirl - XCode comes somewhere close in terms of usability (especially since Apple threw out GCC and adopted Clang instead), but no other IDE is even in the same league.