The future of the FMS graphics: OpenGL or Direct3D

[Michael_Moeller]

[sanjay]

[VIRUSS]

Well Im not a programer,but maybe you could add both of them,and let the user deside with a button wtich one he like!

[Pooky]

Just found this, you technical buffs might find it interesting.....i on the other hand had difficulty understanding the summary....lol

[norris]

I vote OpenGL. Of course I'm a Linux nut so..

BTW, you should check out the specs for OpenGL 2.0.

[Chris Stoddart]

I suggest staying with DirectX.

Moving from DirectX to OpenGL will render several design generation tools obsolete.

OpenGL does not directly support additional capabilities such as multiplayer / webcentric gaming as has been requested by others.

Happy Landings,
Chris Stoddart

[TetraPak]

I would go to OpenGL.
And don't mind too much about 3ds File Format, there's the File Toolkit from Discreet and also a free 3ds File reader Toolkit on sourceforge.net .
How about putting your project under GNU public License? There would surely be one or another porting it to another OS?

[amdescombes]

I vote for OpenGL.
I like the look of OpenGL graphics better. I have EasyFly as well as FMS and the impression I get from OpenGL is that it is faster. Anyway, congratulations on a wonderful program!

Andre

[Michael_Moeller]

[sanjay]

Michael,



I recently saw this link about Crystal Space which seems to offer reasonable compatibilty between Direct3d and OpenGL and seems to work on a large number of platforms and is LGPL.

Worth a look.

[Pooky]

Well i just updated my 3DFX Voodoo 3 drivers and since then my FPS has gone up to between 89 and 93 fps. So i vote OpenGL, if anyone has a Voodoo 1,2 or 3 and they want the latest drivers i'll point them to the right site.

[troyt]

My vote is for OpenGL. (And on another note, OpenAL -- an Audio equivalent to OpenGL. Similar to how DirectSound3D/EAX and Direct3D are equivelents. OpenAL is used more often than many people believe -- including in LucasArts' "Jedi Knight II")

OpenGL's future is in fact, very bright. It's still the engine of choice for professionals, and still offers cross-platform functionality. (Sure, the Linux people will be happy... but it'll also work on Mac, IRIX, SPARC, AIX, HP-UX...etc. as well.)

OpenGL is more powerful, and more robust than Direct3D is. (For example, while some of the newer graphics cards claim to support 100% of Direct3D in hardware, only professional-level cards (costing $2-3k) can claim to support most of OpenGL. I don't know of any card that supports all of OpenGL.

OpenGL is also extensible, and you can write plugins to create new effects (not simply combining existing ones). Direct3D must have an effect to use it, and if D3D doesn't, you can't create one. A new version of Direct3D is required to use any new 'gee-whiz' features of a particular graphics card (if it doesn't already have it, of course), where OpenGL can be extended to use new features as they appear, without having to court Microsoft (sorry, that's the hardware engineer in me...). (Although the extensions are generally part of the card's driver)

The argument has been made that things such as web multiplayer aren't directly implementable in OpenGL, but is in DirectX is misleading, as DirectX is an entire family of API's, of which Direct3D is but one member. The features such as 'web multiplayer' aren't implementable in Direct3D either.

I would second the suggestion to checkout CrystalSpace (which uses OpenGL) - the rendering engine is more than capable of anything you're likely to throw at it.

[fluffycow]

I also recommend crystalspace. Ive seen demos on it that look as good as some retail games. Its a bit difficult to figure out though, and its really big. Also, as much as I like fms, I know myself that people don't like making maps in a text file ??? . crystalspace can import .map files made by quake/halflife map editors, so making maps could be a lot easier. I think crystalspace also imports the texture coo'ords from .map files, which could move map editing even farther from notepad . Crystalspace is the best free 3d engine ive seen, and its pretty active too. Im more of a map maker than a programmer, so I don't know how well put together crystalspace is programmatically, but I really liked what I saw of crystalspace

[HeaDBulB]

if the current version is based on direct 3d i suggest we keep it as i have no problems with it, although opengl is better fps wise, i have no problems with fps and i would love FMS to look better and direct 3d helps with that.

[fluffycow]

crystalspace can run in direct3dmode too.