Re:AMD says DirectX is hobbling PC graphics
by warrenwilkinson on Saturday March 19, 2011 @01:27PM
(#2344144)
Strongly agree =). Once I was coding assembly and I thought I might be able to avoid operating-system-specific graphic APIs by going through openGL.
Unfortunately, both openGL and DirectX are C libraries. A graphics driver is just a C library translating openGL api to your cards undocumented internals. As a result, you talk with C calling conventions and C data structures (which are a chore without a C compilers help).
This shouldn't limit innovation. It is just specifying the calling convention and structures (and choosing ones that are easy in ASM). A C library would then sit on top of the ASM one, which is the natural order of things =).
Unfortunately, both openGL and DirectX are C libraries. A graphics driver is just a C library translating openGL api to your cards undocumented internals. As a result, you talk with C calling conventions and C data structures (which are a chore without a C compilers help).
This shouldn't limit innovation. It is just specifying the calling convention and structures (and choosing ones that are easy in ASM). A C library would then sit on top of the ASM one, which is the natural order of things =).