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While Im not a graphics pipeline dev, Im curious given the foundational nature of these technologies like DirectX, openGL and Metal, besides platform lock in an

While Im not a graphics pipeline dev, Im curious given the foundational nature of these technologies like DirectX, openGL and Metal, besides platform lock in and bug/performance counting, do these technologies provide any lasting benefit outside of the inherent peculiarities of a given OS/graphics card combination? At what point should this have been built into the OS vs creating a monopolistic os-driver-driven platform. Or as an improvement remove the OS from the picture entirely if possible. Creating your own graphics pipeline based on OS and graphics card permitted integrations sounds alot like creating a proprietary bitcoin wallet for oneself.

jmull 7y ago
> At what point should this have been built into the OS vs... Metal is built in to the OS. It’s the name of the macOS API to access GPU capabilities (and potentially other kinds of processing capabilities). Likewise DirectX for Windows. I realize you’re objecting to the current state of affairs, but I’m not sure exactly how.
justicezyx 7y ago
> like creating a proprietary bitcoin wallet for oneself. What's the analogy to creating graphics pipeline for iOS/Linux/Windows? Do you want to create one for what? For numerous GPU chips? You are not forced to develop different softwares for different OS, you are saved by different OSes from developing for many orders of magnitude more hardware...
gameswithgo 7y ago
>do these technologies provide any lasting benefit While there are downsides to having these different targets, there are upsides as well. For instance on any given platform, be it Metal for IOS or DirectX for Windows, the "native" options has usually been the most bug free and best performing option. It helps when you can build something like DirectX and know that this will only run in windows. Making something cross platform like Vulkan is more effort and complexity. The other benefit is you have different groups exploring this space. While things might have been simpler in some ways if there had only been OpenGL, OpenGL might not have been forced to evolve as much as it did. vulkan might not have happened as soon as it did, etc.
- jfkebwjsbx 7y ago
  Making a graphics API cross-platform is definitely not where complexity comes from. Apple wants to have vendor lock-in, but that is not news.
  - tinus_hn 7y ago
    Obviously the statement is about building your application using a cross-platform library like Vulkan or OpenGL versus using a native library like Metal or DirectX. This has nothing to do with Microsoft or Apples vendor locks.

jmull 7y ago

> At what point should this have been built into the OS vs... Metal is built in to the OS. It’s the name of the macOS API to access GPU capabilities (and potentially other kinds of processing capabilities). Likewise DirectX for Windows. I realize you’re objecting to the current state of affairs, but I’m not sure exactly how.

justicezyx 7y ago

> like creating a proprietary bitcoin wallet for oneself. What's the analogy to creating graphics pipeline for iOS/Linux/Windows? Do you want to create one for what? For numerous GPU chips? You are not forced to develop different softwares for different OS, you are saved by different OSes from developing for many orders of magnitude more hardware...

gameswithgo 7y ago

>do these technologies provide any lasting benefit While there are downsides to having these different targets, there are upsides as well. For instance on any given platform, be it Metal for IOS or DirectX for Windows, the "native" options has usually been the most bug free and best performing option. It helps when you can build something like DirectX and know that this will only run in windows. Making something cross platform like Vulkan is more effort and complexity. The other benefit is you have different groups exploring this space. While things might have been simpler in some ways if there had only been OpenGL, OpenGL might not have been forced to evolve as much as it did. vulkan might not have happened as soon as it did, etc.

jfkebwjsbx 7y ago
Making a graphics API cross-platform is definitely not where complexity comes from. Apple wants to have vendor lock-in, but that is not news.
- tinus_hn 7y ago
  Obviously the statement is about building your application using a cross-platform library like Vulkan or OpenGL versus using a native library like Metal or DirectX. This has nothing to do with Microsoft or Apples vendor locks.