I was just wondering if anyone knew when the next update might be coming out. If andyone knows please post it on the forum.

/me waits patiently for Andy to tell us when the next update will be

maybe just an in progress page update :-D

the next update seems to have been... almost an hour ago!

OpenGL is better than DirectX. Hands down.

/me glares at the devs

I'm probably misunderstanding this, but with each update, there's a message, the gist of which goes "Hey look, we added cool features for DirectX users... sorry Mac/Linux peeps, still no graphical icing for you."

Is it that the OpenGL is just not capable enough for all of the bells and whistles, being ten years old, or are you waiting for OpenGL 2.0?

Only in Khral/Arolte's special fantasy land. OpenGL is a nightmare of vendor-specific extensions and incompatabilities. An upcoming version of OpenGL (such as 2.0) may resolve these problems, but for the moment, using advanced shader features under OpenGL is a pretty major headache for developers. The newest features are easiest to implement in DirectX, plus those of us who are graphically or artistically driven tend to work on Windows, so that's the primary "new graphics feature" testbed platform. The new features then get backported to OpenGL at a later point.

Damn, and all along I thought the Mac was the artsy platform :P

Anyhow, yeah, it's time D3D became available for the Mac at at the very least. Microsoft would never let it go to Linux, but 3Dlabs needs to get off their arse and release GL 2.0 already.

Disappointed.

/me shakes his head and sighs

I just target dx because that is the platform I work on.
I just need to do the opengl version.

I think dx is a little better but with all the opengl extensions, opengl is better but it's a pain to deal with every extension for every vendor. Not enough time in the day. Valve has talked about that too by saying that taking the time to optimize for all cards is outweighed by the time used for doing other things. It's all about prioritization.

i'd prefer to play under opengl because it's always been quicker on my systems. but Vendetta always rolls over and dies when i try that. so i'm stuck with D3D.

Carmack prefers OpenGL. It MUST be good then.

=P

who's carmack?

heh....if you dont know, we're not telling..

Arolte, you're a mac user, how would you know what API is better:p

Hey, it's better than Glide and Rave!

Really: I'm a hardcore Mac guy, and I know the difference.

It's better because it's cross platform. Anyone who still has the mindset that games should only be developed on PC and with PC exclusive APIs should be rounded up and shot. Helllooooo, this is the 21st century!

Honestly, though, I can't tell the difference between the two in many games. It all depends on how much time the developers dedicate for each one I guess. I don't see why making an OpenGL exclusive game would be bad though. You hit at least three platforms with one stone. Practically every modern graphics card supports it too, unlike DirectX. Perhaps it's easier to code for DirectX, but wouldn't it take less time to code with one API that's already cross platform?

This isn't aimed at the devs or anyone in particular. It just sorta makes me angry at times when half the games in the market are partially developed on the Mac (interface graphics, textures, music, sound, etc.), yet nobody bothers to look at it as a viable gaming platform... or take even the smallest of steps to make it possible for a porting company to pick up on it.

dx seems to be a little faster than opengl on most hardware.
Also dx had some features that opengl didn't have like vertex/pixel shaders. But now opengl is catching up again.

Well, plus, the windows op system is industry standard. Period. There's really no reason needed other than that.

True, Windows is the "standard" through brute force of numbers, but I agree with Arolte here that there's a general lack of necessity to develop on two graphics APIs if one will do the job for all parties involved. Also...

<dons his tinfoil hat>
When you do finally take the resulting game to production, it's best IMO to have as little Microsoft leverage built into your engine as possible. What if you do decide to publish the game that could prove Linux viable as an entertainment platform? Microsoft suddenly decides to revoke your DirectX license, as is their right as given in the EULA. Too bad all those highly-reviewed screenshots were made with DirectX, eh?
<doffs his tinfoil hat>

What? Because "windows op system" is "industry standard", games should only be developed for it? Which industry are we talking about exactly? The graphics industry is dominated by Macs. The business industry is dominated by PCs. The gaming industry, surprisingly, has a good percentage of Macs during the development process. What's the point? There's no rule that says just because accountants use PCs in their office buildings as a majority means that only PCs should have games. That makes absolutely no sense. Both platforms are capable of gaming, period.

Ray, I wouldn't say that's true for all games. I've seen benchmarks where OpenGL exceeds DX8 (and DX9) in framerates. I suppose it all depends on how well each render device is coded for a particular game. As an example, however, I think Carmack has proven that OpenGL exclusive games can be made very successfully, with both visually stunning FX as well as total compatibility between all major platforms.

But hey, I have no room to complain I guess. As long as Vendetta continues to support Macs I'll be happy. I do have some feeling that we've been left in the dirt with the graphics though. Alas, I'm sure they'll be implemented eventually. I think most Macs users are pretty much used to the whole concept of delays and whatnot.