OpenGL 3 & DirectX 11: The War Is Over

[The Canadian]

(For images, please see the web site....)

Introduction

Given the prevalence of DirectX nowadays, we tend to forget that 10 years ago an all-out war was being waged between Microsoft and Silicon Graphics in the field of 3D APIs. The two companies were both trying to win over developers, with Microsoft using its financial muscle and SGI relying on its experience and its reputation in the field of real-time 3D. In this modern David-versus-Goliath battle, the “little guy” won a precious ally in one of the most famous game developers–-Mr. John Carmack. In part due to the success of the Quake engine, solid support for OpenGL opengl became important enough to motivate makers of 3D cards to provide complete drivers. In fact, it gave 3dfx one of its early advantages and knocked ATI to the back of the pack as it struggled with its OpenGL support.

Meanwhile, Microsoft was starting from scratch, and the learning curve was steep. So, for several years, Direct3D direct3d ’s capabilities were beyond the curve, with an interface that many programmers found a lot more confusing than OpenGL’s. But nobody can accuse Microsoft of being easily discouraged. With each new version of Direct3D, it gradually began to catch up with OpenGL. The engineers in Redmond worked very hard to bring performance up to its rival API’s level.

A turning point was reached with DirectX 8, released in 2001. For the first time, Microsoft’s API did more than just copy from SGI. It actually introduced innovations of its own like support for vertex and pixel shaders. SGI, whose main source of revenue was the sale of expensive 3D workstations, was in a bad position, having failed to foresee that the explosion of 3D cards for gamers would prompt ATI and Nvidia nvidia to move into the professional market with prices so low (due to economies of scale) that SGI couldn’t keep up. OpenGL’s development was also handicapped by bitter disputes among its proponents. Since the ARB—the group in charge of ratifying the API’s development—included many different, competing companies, it was hard to reach agreement on the features to be added to the API. Instead, each company promoted its own agenda. Conversely, Microsoft was working solely with ATI and Nvidia, using its weight to cast a deciding vote if there was disagreement.

With DirectX 9, Microsoft managed to strike a decisive victory, imposing its API on developers. Only John Carmack and those who insisted on portability remained faithful to OpenGL. But their ranks dwindled. And yet a reversal of fortunes was still possible. It had happened with Web browsers, after all. Even when a company has maneuvered itself into a near monopoly, if it rests on its laurels, it’s not all that rare for a competitor to rise from his ashes. So when the Khronos group took over OpenGL two years ago, many hopes were rekindled with all eyes on the upcoming SIGGRAPH conference that year.

Last month, Khronos was to have announced OpenGL 3, a major revision of the API that’s supposed to catch up with Microsoft, which was also scheduled to launch its next-gen DirectX 11 API. But things didn’t really go as planned.

<snipped - see source for rest of article>

Source: tom's hardware

Edited September 18, 2008 by PureLegend

[Lasker]

The only thing I want is a beta version of OpenGL 3 ;)

[Soham]

OpenGl 3 is disappointing

[Avatar Viper]

nice article...

[markwolfe Veteran]

Until Microsoft releases their method on other platforms (or at least opens it up so it can be freely implemented by others who want to port it), it is OpenGL for me.

[Ci7]

Until Microsoft releases their method on other platforms (or at least opens it up so it can be freely implemented by others who want to port it), it is OpenGL for me.

which they wont ..... they rather customer keep buying windows for DirectX upgrades/update ... for short windows exclusive and will stay that way .

what we call it ? oh yes locking in customers

[Elliot B.]

which they wont ..... they rather customer keep buying windows for DirectX upgrades/update ... for short windows exclusive and will stay that way .

what we call it ? oh yes locking in customers

I call it business.

[magik]

Umm... can we not copy and paste the full article here? :rolleyes:

[HawkMan]

Umm... can we not copy and paste the full article here? :rolleyes:

no that's good, then I don't have to go to some other site to read it.

[FiB3R]

It's a better read on Tom's Hardware. It's not just a wall of text, and there are pretty pictures to help visualise wtf they're talking about.

[magik]

no that's good, then I don't have to go to some other site to read it.

It's not about how pretty it is or how convenient it is for you, it's about the ad-revenue you're taking away from the original source.

[The Canadian]

It's a better read on Tom's Hardware. It's not just a wall of text, and there are pretty pictures to help visualise wtf they're talking about.

That is why I posted the following at the top of the story:

(For images, please see the web site....)

Of course, you completely failed to see that; typical!

[markwolfe Veteran]

It's not about how pretty it is or how convenient it is for you, it's about the ad-revenue you're taking away from the original source.

Funny, but it is standard practice in the Breaking News section to post the content with a link.

Most of the time, it is complete text content, so no need singling out this specific post, or the thread starter. A discussion of this sort would need to be with Neowin Staff who set the rules and accepted practices.

[FiB3R]

That is why I posted the following at the top of the story:

(For images, please see the web site....)

Of course, you completely failed to see that; typical!

I didn't fail to see it at all. Just making a statement.

I my opinion, you'd have been better off just posting the title, a small portion of the text, and a link.

Copy and pasting from 10 pages seems like a bit of a waist of time.

But honestly, thanks for sharing, it was an interesting read.

[magik]

Funny, but it is standard practice in the Breaking News section to post the content with a link.

Most of the time, it is complete text content, so no need singling out this specific post, or the thread starter. A discussion of this sort would need to be with Neowin Staff who set the rules and accepted practices.

Actually, the standard practice is to post a snippet along with a link to the full article.

That's because most of the time the complete text is only a paragraph or two. An article of this length should not be copied. Actually there is no singling out here. It doesn't matter who posts it but an article of this length should not be copied in it's entirety. If you don't see the problem with doing that, then I'm sorry I can't help you.

As for Neowin Staff, it's up to them to do their jobs. All I can do is click the happy little 'report' button. Or maybe bring this to the attention of those who care... ;)

[Ayepecks]

Looking forward to DX11... sounds like it should be very good for optimizations (Y)

[markwolfe Veteran]

Actually, the standard practice is to post a snippet along with a link to the full article.

A check of the 10 next "Breaking News" threads, not counting this full cut/paste has the results of:

Full Text: 4

Partial Snip: 3

Spam for software: 1

Site Blocked for me at work: 1 (gee, a full text would be helpful in that case)

Youtube link (why is that news?) but also blocked: 1 (And that, apparently is in French, anyhow, judging by the comments posted)

Seems that there is no real "standard", except to allow both full and snippet type of Breaking News. ;)

That's because most of the time the complete text is only a paragraph or two. An article of this length should not be copied. Actually there is no singling out here. It doesn't matter who posts it but an article of this length should not be copied in it's entirety. If you don't see the problem with doing that, then I'm sorry I can't help you.

Agreed that the article was overly lengthy. However, some people read Neowin News at work during lunch and breaks. In cases where the destination site is blocked, a full-text is an advantage.

As for Neowin Staff, it's up to them to do their jobs. All I can do is click the happy little 'report' button. Or maybe bring this to the attention of those who care... ;)

Report away. You want the staff do to their jobs? Then stop whining about it in the threads and use the report and let them decide. :whistle:

[magik]

A check of the 10 next "Breaking News" threads, not counting this full cut/paste has the results of:

Full Text: 4

Partial Snip: 3

Spam for software: 1

Site Blocked for me at work: 1 (gee, a full text would be helpful in that case)

Youtube link (why is that news?) but also blocked: 1 (And that, apparently is in French, anyhow, judging by the comments posted)

Seems that there is no real "standard", except to allow both full and snippet type of Breaking News. ;)

And does that make it okay? Certainly not. Just because you see it happening a lot does not make it acceptable, no, it's actually just indicative of careless staff. ;)

Agreed that the article was overly lengthy. However, some people read Neowin News at work during lunch and breaks. In cases where the destination site is blocked, a full-text is an advantage.

In that case, they can either: 1) Choose to abide by their employer's decisions and actually do what they're paid to do and wait till they get home to read the article or 2) Read the snippet and still participate in the discussion just fine

The bottom line is, full-text is a disadvantage to the people who work hard on putting these articles together to generate ad revenue for their site. Are you an advocate of piracy? This really isn't that far off it.

Report away. You want the staff do to their jobs? Then stop whining about it in the threads and use the report and let them decide. :whistle:

Haha, I'm sorry, but who's the one whining? :rolleyes:

---

Anyway, that's the last I'll discuss on this in this topic as it is offtopic. I'm sure you probably have a hard time realizing why this is an issue because either you don't really understand the implications or just don't care.

[FiB3R]

Site Blocked for me at work

That's actually a good reason to post the full text.

You win.

[markwolfe Veteran]

And does that make it okay? Certainly not. Just because you see it happening a lot does not make it acceptable, no, it's actually just indicative of careless staff. ;)

I said "standard practice", meaning it is common and accepted. You are now discussing if it is piracy and right. Nice bait-and-switch in a discussion. :p

Haha, I'm sorry, but who's the one whining? :rolleyes:

Who? You.

Umm... can we not copy and paste the full article here? :rolleyes:

It's not about how pretty it is or how convenient it is for you, it's about the ad-revenue you're taking away from the original source.

...

That's because most of the time the complete text is only a paragraph or two. An article of this length should not be copied. Actually there is no singling out here. It doesn't matter who posts it but an article of this length should not be copied in it's entirety. If you don't see the problem with doing that, then I'm sorry I can't help you.

...

[tsupersonic]

Ok stop complaining magik. It's up to the OP and how s/he wants to post the article.

Can't wait for the next gen DX11 or OpenGL3.

[mad_onion]

hmm well the PC has little to do with gaming now anyway. developers are just going to use whatever API is used on consoles and then port to PC. so i would imagine developers will move to DX11 or 12 or whatever when the xbox 720 comes out. and thus if people want to play those newest games on PC they will have to have windows vista or later. by which time most people will.

[PL_ Veteran]

I cut the original article down to the introduction. It was a very long article, and Tom's Hardware do deserve the extra traffic.

[Linkinfamous]

hmm well the PC has little to do with gaming now anyway. developers are just going to use whatever API is used on consoles and then port to PC. so i would imagine developers will move to DX11 or 12 or whatever when the xbox 720 comes out. and thus if people want to play those newest games on PC they will have to have windows vista or later. by which time most people will.

The PC is still the largest gaming platform....

[magik]

I cut the original article down to the introduction. It was a very long article, and Tom's Hardware do deserve the extra traffic.

Thanks Pure. Yea, they definitely do. That website has been instrumental on many occasions for me. :D