OpenGL DirectX SDL and 3D games

[ZwOOp]

Why are there so many different graphic libraries like OpenGL DirectX SDL?
Which one should I go for if I want to make my own 3D game (at least start whit ;) )?
What are the pros and coins whit the different libraries?

[Elementer]

Hi,
in some sites, this post type is censured. There are a lot of library for the same mothive that there are more than one OS, 3d graphics tools like 3dsmax, maya, cinema4d, or word processor program and go on to infinity...
You can free choose what you want, d3d, OGL or SDL, consider this:

D3D are big for nothing, for draw a simple rotating cube, need 10 pages of code, create matrices, set them, apply rotation, create vertices buffer, load it, display it, rotate it and so on. With OGL few rows of code to achieve the same thing.

D3D = Window, you can't use it where you want, you can use it only under Windows and stop. Other library are portable, you can use OGL for instance, to create apps, games and what you want to work with Windows, Linux etc...
A lot of scientific visualizations program and other apps are made with OGL.

Microsoft put in circulation every month a new SDK version, OGL are stopped from a little (the new OGL version 2.0 is going out soon), and nevertheless OGL holds very well head to the d3d.

There are thousand of mothives to use one or another one, I'm not force you to use OGL, but I'm in graphics programming for years, and I had use all things, so I suggest you to learn OGL... Just my 2 cent naturally !

Try a search with google for "directx vs opengl" and you find a lot of eternal flames about this topic.

Regards :)