Why Direct3D Is more predominent (Score 2, Interesting)

Direct3D is more popular for primarily one reason: It is more widly suppported by hardware manufactures. And the reason is because D3D drivers are easier to write and are supported by Microsoft. Direct 3D drivers are easier to write because there are fewer rendering options to support like in OpenGL (bezier curves/patches, pixel operations, display lists, ect..), Direct3D is hardware centric and forces programmers to write with maximum efficiency to the hardware. With the drawback of less convenience to the programmer. Managing RenderStates and DirectX resources are a pain, drawing geometry requires allocating vertex arrays, setting vertex formats and sending the entire matrix tranform to position it. OpenGL requires less code that makes more sense to do something simple with a lot more convenience. Trying searching the web for Direct3D demos and then do the same for OpenGL. Graphics programming Hobbiests don't care for Direct3D. Direct3D documentation is sparse, even Nvidia has more OpenGL samples than D3D ones in their graphics code samples. But making games takes money, and to maximize profit you bite the bullet and you program in direct3D to maximize your target audience and have a chance at possibly making a profit. Direct3D is not a better API than OpenGL, and there is not a single thing in direct3D that can't be done in OpenGL. It's just finding the hardware that supports it completely, and up until a few years ago only Nvidia had a descent implementation. ID software(quake3,Doom3!) and Bioware(Neverwinter Nights, MDK2) use it almost exclusivly. The issue of Direct3D being a better API than OpenGL was never an issue, it simply had a larger target audience and that is why it is so predominent. Hopefully with the emergence of only 2 key players in consumer grahics hardware the tides will shift.