Comment Re:mesa sucks compared to dx 9 (Score 1) 142
Direct3D ... still favours texture pushing over high-poly-count
This is wrong. In fact, Direct3D supports hardware acceleration (AGP memory, etc.) for high-res models natively through vertex buffers, while with OpenGL 1.* you need to use vendor extensions - nVidia VAR, ATI VAO, etc. Which, believe me, you can't learn in an afternoon.
You can learn OpenGL+SDL basics in an afternoon, and have flocks of teapots flying across your screen the following morning. Just beginning to learn DirectX and Direct3D means taking on board all the bizarro-world Microsoftian "C++" and COM cruft.
For fsck's sake, the stuff that JC wrote about OpenGL vs. DirectX is extremely outdated. Today, using OpenGL's easy-to-learn, flock-of-teapots immediate mode (i.e. glBegin(), glEnd()), will give you a really measly fps for scientific visualization. You have to use vertex buffers if you want performance. So you might just as well do it for exactly the same amount of time with Direct3D 8.1. Also, stop the FUD about Direct3D being "Microsoftian C++" only, you can use it just as fine with C, and *gosh* even under MinGW.
This is wrong. In fact, Direct3D supports hardware acceleration (AGP memory, etc.) for high-res models natively through vertex buffers, while with OpenGL 1.* you need to use vendor extensions - nVidia VAR, ATI VAO, etc. Which, believe me, you can't learn in an afternoon.
You can learn OpenGL+SDL basics in an afternoon, and have flocks of teapots flying across your screen the following morning. Just beginning to learn DirectX and Direct3D means taking on board all the bizarro-world Microsoftian "C++" and COM cruft.
For fsck's sake, the stuff that JC wrote about OpenGL vs. DirectX is extremely outdated. Today, using OpenGL's easy-to-learn, flock-of-teapots immediate mode (i.e. glBegin(), glEnd()), will give you a really measly fps for scientific visualization. You have to use vertex buffers if you want performance. So you might just as well do it for exactly the same amount of time with Direct3D 8.1. Also, stop the FUD about Direct3D being "Microsoftian C++" only, you can use it just as fine with C, and *gosh* even under MinGW.
