Direct3D Better than OpenGL, Game Developer Says

With the coming of newer and better graphics technologies, there come times when game developers would do best to move on to another API (application programming interfaces), in this case Direct3D.

When making games, each company has a certain API that they use, some having stuck to the one they know and love for quite a while.

Game company id Software, for instance, known for such titles as Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein 3D, has been using OpenGL for years.

Recently, however, in an interview, the co-founder of the company, John Carmack, said that it might just be time for a transition.

According to him, OpenGL is still popular among 3D and mobile developers, but has stopped being looked upon so favorably by many top-tier PC game companies.

This is because, even though newer versions did keep up with some of the latest DirectX features, like DirectX 10 geometry shader, they have to be implemented through extensions.

Also, Microsoft stepped up as primary driving force behind 3D PC gaming graphics advancement, because it had the willingness to keep adding features and improvements to Direct3D and not give them up because of compatibility reasons, while OpenGL was held back.

Still, there is no way to know if id Software really will make this kind of switch any time soon.

"It is really just inertia that keeps us on OpenGL at this point. [id Software] has no plans to move over to Direct3D, despite its advantages. OpenGL still works fine and we wouldn’t get any huge benefits by making the switch, so I can’t work up much enthusiasm for cleaning it out of our codebase,” Carmack said.

“If it was just a matter of the game code, we could quite quickly produce a DirectX PC executable, but all of our tool code has to share resources with the game renderer, and I wouldn’t care to go over all of that for a dubious win.”