DirectX, SDL, or OPENGL

[Alpha Omega]

I have been meddling with Irrlicht for a while but I think its time I learned a graphics library so I can really understand whats going on behind the scenes, and I also learn much more doing things my own way. What is the best library to use? I don't care about portability so I am leaning towards D3D11. However I like to use C::B because it has good auto-completion, I use Visual Studios Express 2010 at work and its growing on me, doesn't have any good auto completion though. I have been working on a multi-threaded server/client system using Winsock2 and found it pretty straightforward to learn. I am looking for something that isn't a PITA to get running, which makes D3D11 a better option again. Whats the most valued skill set to know or is it a good idea to learn from all three?

[Radikalizm]

I can recommend D3D11 only if you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty with shaders, because you'll be seeing a lot of them
But besides D3D11, OGL is a pretty solid choice too, and all the DX-haters will probably love you for choosing it

SDL in itself is not a graphics library, but a framework containing multiple APIs suited for game- or multimedia-oriented projects, so if you want to get familiar with the actual 'lower level' stuff you should avoid it

[Alpha Omega]

I kind of wanted to learn shaders since alot of people talk about it and all I can say, "Is that whats makes things shiny?" =P. I am dling the D3D11 SDK on a 56kb/s connection so I still have some time to decide (571 MB download). If I were to choose OGL over D3D11 I would need some strong motivation... i.e better, more robust, better scalability, utilizes resources more efficiently etc. I guess that really depends on the graphics card which depends on what the current utilization of both libraries is in the current tier of video cards.

[Radikalizm]

As you said, this will depend more on the graphics hardware it will be run on, I suppose
Be aware that OGL support in Windows 7 is just horrible, so you might want to lean towards D3D11 if you don't care about portability

Also, learning shaders is great, they can be very intimidating at first, but you'll never want to give them up once you get the hang of them

[Lonesome Ducky]

Windows 7 is completely irrelevant to OpenGL support. It's the fault of the the video card manufacture for writing sub-par drivers.

[3DModelerMan]

I'd choose DX11 just because of the fact that if you're going to be writing games, that's what you'll use on Windows. OpenGL support on Windows is really not that great. Although I like the OpenGL API alot better, on Windows we're kinda stuck with DX. But if you want to learn shaders, then DX11 is perfect.

[hybrid]

The driver performance under OpenGL is usually not that bad. And with OpenGL you have an easier way to OpenGL-ES and the whole mobile world, where Windows will probably never be such big.

[hendu]

OpenGL does not require a 571mb SDK. That enough should weigh the scales on a 56k connection

[devsh]

Just One FOR OpenGL:

You most probably don't give a poop about Linux and Mac (which has a 12% desktop share).

But... you do know that winXP has a larger market share than vista, and gamers still prefer it.

OpenGL 4.0 works on winXP, vista and win7. Unlike dx10 and dx11. This means tesselation and geometry shaders are available (along with all the next-gen features) on all windowses and you don't cut out 20-30% of all desktop users.

[Alpha Omega]

Does OpenGL have any good tutorial reads? I tried to learn OpenGL before but I could only find this crappy article from ten years ago that actually explained what all the code did and such. Could you provide a good link to get started in OpenGL 4.0?

[hendu]

Not really, they seem to prefer books. The red book and the opengl bible are great for learning though.

[devsh]

Best place to learn is find demos, examples, with source code and analyse that. Also the opengl website documents each function and extension OVERLY DETAILED! Their forums are a good place to learn the equations which rule the functions (z non-linear depth buffer values, mipmap LoD parameter).
NeHe is amazing for opengl basics
and yeah, opengl books are a must. But so are they for directx

[Alpha Omega]

I found this online tutorial...

http://openglbook.com/the-book/chapter- ... g-started/

which says that it will not include all the OpenGL 1-3.3 garbage and only focus on new OpenGL 4.0 which is exactly what I wanted. I am hoping this will be a good read, so far the tutorial is rich in information for noobs like me, but I thought I would link it in case any new people on the Irrlicht forums might also be interested.