Originally posted by
Jim Sachs:
All true. I had hoped that OpenGL had matured in the 5 years since I wrote the Aquarium, but I just downloaded a few demos, and most don't work properly on my out-of-the-box HP machine. The unfortunate fact of life with open technologies is that there are no "police" to enforce standards. With Microsoft strongarming all video card manufacturers to toe the line regarding DirectX, I am guaranteed that my application will run properly on a wide range of machines. This is vital when customer-service can make or break a company.
Jim, thanks for such a clear, sensible, practical explanation about why you choose DX.
OpenGL on the Mac benefits from Apple's strong-arming as well, so the Mac version of the screen saver benefits accordingly on that platform. I don't presume to speak for Jim O'Conner, who translates from DX to OpenGL, a skill that would be quite marketable I would think.
But the extra cost of paying Jim O. to do DX to OpenGL seems to be worth it to you guys. MA runs well on every Macintosh I have owned, from a 500Mhz G3 Powerbook to my dual CPU 2Ghz G5.
One of these days I have got to try out MA on Linux using Cedega, WINE, et al - make you a proud daddy Jim
