“This entire post is nonsense, I can tell you aren’t a programmer. Trust me, I’ve been programming on OpenGL since before you were sucking the Steve Jobs popsicle.”
Very classy, and also incorrect. ;-)
“Saying there was “no need” for Direct3D and that Microsoft had to “foist” it on developers is nothing more than a lie. OpenGL and Direct3D were more-or-less developed at the same time in order to take advantage of different types of hardware coming out at the time.”
That’s BS, of course. First of all OpenGL wasn’t developed from scratch, it was a cleanup of Silicon Graphic’s GL library that had been in use for years, in the real world.
Microsoft never would have supported OpenGL in the first place, but it wanted ports of some professional applications (CAD etc.) and those developers wouldn’t consider a Direct3D port.
Microsoft at the time claimed OpenGL wasn’t suitable for games, but unsurprisingly when id Software developed titles using OpenGL they ran well. I say unsurprisingly since high end real time flight simulators had been using GL/OpenGL for years with great results.
“If you’re actually a conservative, you should realize that competition (what Macunists call “fragmentation”) is good. OpenGL is no more supported on OSX or Linux than it is on Windows. The fact that Windows additionally has Direct3D for use is not a detriment to it, it’s a bonus.”
In general, competition is good. This is not really an example of competition though, it’s an example of monopolistic behavior trying to extinguish competition. Direct3D has limited the porting of games to other platforms, thus limiting their competitiveness with Windows.
The real competition has been at the level of the 3D hardware manufacturers - who by the way are the entities actually supporting OpenGL on Windows. Microsoft has little to do with it these days other than giving permission.
Just adding some facts...
Saying there was “no need” for Direct3D and that Microsoft had to “foist” it on developers is nothing more than a lie. OpenGL and Direct3D were more-or-less developed at the same time in order to take advantage of different types of hardware coming out at the time
They were both developed to give one consistent programming interface to wildly varying hardware. Prior to these, software had to be written to each individual 3D card. SGI created IRIS GL in the late 80s for this purpose, and in 1992 published a re-worked, non-proprietary version as OpenGL. Direct 3D started with a company founded in 1992 and was bought by Microsoft in 1995.
OpenGL is no more supported on OSX or Linux than it is on Windows.
OpenGL is THE 3D graphics subsystem of OSX. Note "OpenGL" in the Application Services area.
