Jim Lynch: Off the Top of My Head…

I will be very happy indeed if DirectX is weakened by OpenCL and OpenGL.

OpenGL is now more competitive with DirectX than ever. Microsoft’s stumble with Vista and its DirectX/Direct3D version 10 has also helped to stall its momentum in the market. Microsoft plans to add OpenCL-like support for GPGPU computing into DirectX 11 in Windows 7, but Apple’s OpenCL, which is designed to work closely with OpenGL code, will arrive first and with broad industry support. Apple has also released OpenCL as a royalty-free, open standard anyone can implement on any platform.

The design similarities between OpenGL and OpenCL make it easy for developers to create code that, for example, calculates the data for a visualization in OpenCL and then uses the same objects to render graphics in OpenGL. Alternatively, graphics rendered in OpenGL can be processed and transformed using tasks built in OpenCL. The adoption and familiarity of each will support the other.

Support for open standards at GPU makers NVIDIA and AMD, as well as platform support from Apple, Sony, Nintendo, and for Linux and Windows appears ready to release direct graphics support and development from Microsoft’s Windows-only grasp and give developers from any company the ability to contribute toward driving ahead the state of the art in graphics.

I have been very irritated for years about the fact that most computer games use DirectX and are thus tied to Windows. Every game made for Windows should have a Mac and Linux version right on the same disc as the Windows version. Dumping DirectX would be a big help in achieving that as it would make it easier for developers to make their games run on other operating systems.

Smart gaming companies will begin abandoning DirectX as soon as possible. Why on earth would anybody want their games tied to a proprietary graphics standard that helps prevent additional sales on other computing platforms? The only company who’s interest it serves is Microsoft’s.

(4 votes, average: 2.75 out of 5)

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