Out with OpenGL, in with DirectX

I'll admit, I was originally in the OpenGL camp. OpenGL + GLUT was just vastly easier than DirectX for those of us with no Windows programming experience (even with the "easy to use" application framework they introduced in DirectX 8 or 9). Plus, I was fortunate to use it in a graphics programming class I had as an undergrad.

However, as part of my renewed interest in game programming, the coming release of Vista and DirectX 10, and the apparent demise of OpenGL, I decided to give DirectX another shot. But that requires tools.

The DirectX SDK is easy enough. That's been freely available for some time. A compiler and other development tools... that's a different story. I'd known about Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 (now deprecated, free command-line tools) for sometime, but I didn't know that they'd gone another step further and introduced Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition. Basically the same thing, but now with an IDE to boot. Very sweet.

This actually got me to dust off my DirectX and WinAPI books and do a little Windows programming for the first time in quite a while.

Let them eat XNA!

Although hardly news anymore, Microsoft's annoucement of a free XNA Game Studio Express is well worth mentioning. At launch it will only allow for Windows development in C# with the XNA Framework (R.I.P. Managed DirectX), but they will eventually include support to build games for the Xbox 360.

How cool is that?

Granted, you have to join the XNA Creator's Club with a "value-added" price of $99 per year to develop *OR* even play someone else's games (via FAQ). But, that's still quite a bit cheaper and with less red tape than an official Wii developer's kit (hint: $2,500-$10,000).

Beta begins Aug. 30.