Question about OpenGL ES and DirectX 10

[Xerxes]

I am wondering if the Xbox 360 uses DirectX 10 or 9 and if the PS3's Open GL ES is equivalent to DirectX 10? Could the PS3 or 360 achive Crysis-like foliage a year from now?

[xbdestroya]

The answer to the foliage question is essentially 'yes.'

But the other questions are harder. XBox 360's API is rooted firmly in DirectX. Not so clearcut as 9 or 10 per se, since a lot of what's coming in DirectX10 will be applicable on Xenos.

OpenGL ES isn't really the same thing; it deals more with easing development across multiple platforms. So it's not DirectX 10 vs OpenGL ES or anything - they both serve different roles. For it's part, 360's use of DirectX will ease porting from the PC to the console.

[LiquidEagle]

Don't forget that's where the XBox got its name -- it was gonna be DirectXBox but it got shortened to XBox :-p

Thought I'd toss that out there and try to look smart in a more technical thread...

Is OpenGL ES Nvidia's thing or was it something else?

[VG Aficionado]

Is OpenGL ES Nvidia's thing or was it something else?Yes, I think the main reason why Doom3 performs better on Nvidia GPUs is because OpenGL is Nvidia's expertise.

Trying to look smart too :-p

[section]

PS3 actually uses OpenGL ES derivative PSGL. When they had to decide upon the PS3 gfx API OpenGL ES didn't yet have shader capabilities so they opted to go for ES compliant OpenGL version with full RSX etc. support.

And just a note: DirectX itself isn't the graphics API, it's Direct3D within the big package of all those DLL libraries.

[Xerxes]

To me, for Crysis, it looked same graphically (PS3) but the techniques used to make this game is what makes this game good. Also it was running on DirectX 9, the same or less than what the 360 can do. I also heard rumors that it was running on 10 too.

There is really not a big difference between DirectX 9 and 10. You can see the difference if you really concentrated on the foliage and gun, but other than that there is no real difference.

[xbdestroya]

To me, for Crysis, it looked same graphically (PS3) but the techniques used to make this game is what makes this game good. Also it was running on DirectX 9, the same or less than what the 360 can do. I also heard rumors that it was running on 10 too.

There is really not a big difference between DirectX 9 and 10. You can see the difference if you really concentrated on the foliage and gun, but other than that there is no real difference.


Well, there's a bigger difference between DX9 and DX10 than you might think, but it doesn't always boil down to immediately obvious improvements on the screen.

Give it some time.

[iceman2654]

The developers won't have access direct access to the hardware correct? I think I remember reading that somewhere....can anyone confirm?