It is no secret that the gaming industry is dominated by Windows platforms and the API of choice is DirectX. There are some staunch followers of the OpenGL way of life, but their numbers seem to be dwindling rather rapidly. I have read a lot of blogs claiming that OpenGL is better than DirectX or vice-versa. I even got a mail (, or two) from an unknown person recently claiming that my War of the graphic APIs was rather biased towards DirectX. Let me assure anyone and everyone that it is certainly not the case. I am supporting both APIs in my engine and let me say this again, “Both APIs are functionally equivalent. It is not the API that determines the performance of a game, but rather the underlying hardware.”

The email further went on to show some in game screen-shots to claim that OpenGL based games looked better than DirectX games. Now, anybody who has worked on a game that uses either APIs knows how much of a folly this is. “It is not the API that determines how a game looks, it is the artist that creates the content and the engine programmers that provide the technology (, like Shaders/Level Builder/Script support) to the artists which determines how the game looks.” Game design also plays an important role. In any case it’s not the API. The mail didn’t have a valid sender so I could not mail him/her with my response. In any case, Dude, you could have just posted a comment and I would have been glad to respond.

No OpenGL is not dying out. However I am sorry to say, OpenGL is falling behind. It is being increasingly abandoned in favor of DirectX. Don’t believe me? OK read this, at least you believe him. I think I made it pretty clear why that was the case in my earlier post. I am not going to outline the same points again.