OpenGL or Direct3D?? Which is better?

Im playing a game called 18 Wheels of Steel: Across America... now before i start the game a window pops up asking what resolution i want to use, 16 or 32 bit color depth, etc.. and that graphics device i want to use > there are 2 options, OpenGL and Direct3D. Which is better? ignoring sig, will one slower my computer? is it like choosing between proformance or looks? i dont really know. Also, with the 16 and 32 bit... my friend plays the same game, but with only a GMA 950 graphics card/2GB ram/ C2D 2.0Gz... and mine looks better and his is...not choppy, but a little... i dont know, you know what i mean. Would 16-bit be better for him, giving him more speed and not too big decrease in looks, or will it not make a difference from 32? thanks in advance, +1 rep for all that help

 

Try direct3d under vista because vista has really bad opengl support at the moment. the choice is mostly comparable from each other and yes, going to 16 bit will give a good fps boost especially since he has integrated (slow vram). he will not lose too much details either.

 

Pretty much the same thing. Some games work better with one or the other, and driver support may vary too. (NVidia has historically had better OpenGL support than ATI, for example)

So pick the one that works best for your game on your computer.

If there was a "better", don't you think everyone would use it?
Why would developers waste time supporting both in their game, if one was "better" than the other?
Try both, and see what works best. Most likely you'll see no differences.

Won't affect performance, generally. 32-bit does require a bit more video memory, but usually, there's not much point in choosing 16-bit.
But once again, try it to see if it works better on your friends system.
On a sufficiently crappy GPU (such as the GMA), it *might* help a bit. But in most cases, it makes zero difference.

 

I play IL2, and with DirectX, it's choppy, with openGL it's smooth as glass, so I guess it depends on the game more than the o/s...

 

ok, thanks

 

+1 rep for all

 

Glide > direct3d > opengl

haha 3dfx FTW!

 

My first vid cards were open gl only. Times have changed. More detailed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_OpenGL_and_Direct3D

 

LOL, good one, but I do remember, games ran way better using GLIDE than anything else at the time.... on 3dfx of course!

 

Guess you didn't read much about Vista lately (around 6 months)

 

Is there a way to force openGL in any games instead of D3D?

 

Not if the game doesn't support it, no. (In the same way that you can't force a Linux application to run on Windows)

The game has to be coded specifically for it, it's not just flipping a switch

 

what about for googleearth?

 

I think - quoting jalf -that autocad or goggleearth are coded to have this choice by the user...

 

Exactly

 

Quoted for the MFing Truth.