DirectX
...is not a bad idea, and not really a like-for-like comparison with OpenGL.
Initially it was a protection issue to stop virus(es?) getting to the hardware with a hardware protection layer. Of course, game programmers complained that they couldn't access the video hardware directly when they needed to if it was to be written for Windows (dos would allow this), so M$ came up with "Direct Access (X) to hardware" - "make the call to the hardware you want and we'll send it on for you" - now, it's become a lot more than that.

Of course, if you write for DirectX (or XNA as it's called now I think) then it's a much easier job to port to the Xbox, and thus open your market up a fair bit.

OpenGL is much easier IMO than dealing with DirectX, but that's probably my mindset and not theirs.
(dchurch bah, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 13:52, 1 reply)

Yes its hard to compare the 2 as there are huge differences if you are a developer, and I'm sure they could have made XboX more OpenGL compliant if they wanted to, but its not in their best interests to do so.

Good article on the benefits of OpenGL;

blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-and-not-DirectX
(Panda_z is sweating like a chav in dixons, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 14:00, closed)

Nice article
kept me busy!
(dchurch bah, Wed 30 Jun 2010, 7:11, closed)