*BSD News Article 71928


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From: akin@tuolumne.asd.sgi.com (Allen Akin)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.api.misc,comp.graphics.algorithms,comp.windows.x.i386unix,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.apps
Subject: Re: Freeware community needs 3d library NOW
Date: 24 Jun 1996 21:10:35 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 28
Message-ID: <4qn08b$ntl@fido.asd.sgi.com>
References: <4qlf04$7pj@guysmiley.blarg.net>
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In article <4qlf04$7pj@guysmiley.blarg.net>,
Brandon J. Van Every <vanevery@blarg.net> wrote:

| And please, I'll say it in advance: don't have *.advocacy discussions
| with me about OpenGL.  I'm not going to even respond to such posts.

I agree with you that there are many reasons to be dissatisfied with
Direct3D.  But by dismissing OpenGL, you're throwing out the most
viable alternative.  OpenGL is widely available, in both commercial
and freeware (Mesa) form.  Optimization of software-only renderers is
underway at several sites (and I hear from one of them that their
version of OpenGL is already faster than Direct3D for some important
operations).  Many PC hardware vendors already support OpenGL, because
Microsoft provides it for both Windows NT and Windows 95.  Developers
have been using it for a couple of years, so it's known to be strong
enough to support real-world applications.  Unlike Direct3D, it runs
under a variety of operating systems and window systems.  And so on.

| Everything I have to say about OpenGL, is on my web pages.

As we've discussed in the past, many of your statements about OpenGL
are incorrect, and generally I'll respond to them so that other people
aren't misled.  In this case, I'll simply ask if you're really serious
about building an alternative to Direct3D.  If so, you ought to
reconsider OpenGL.

Allen