Introducing OpenGL - C# Game Programming: For Serious Game Creation - page 20

Figure 2.1
The typical use of OpenGL.
Figure 2.2
Using an abstraction layer.
DirectX and OpenGL are both excellent graphics libraries. DirectX works on
Microsoft platforms, whereas OpenGL is available on a much wider range of
platforms. DirectX tends to be updated more often, which means it has access to
the very latest graphics features. OpenGL moves slower and the latest graphics
features can only be accessed through a rather unfriendly extension mechanism.
OpenGL's slow movement can be quite advantageous as the interface rarely
changes and therefore code written years ago will still work with the latest
OpenGL versions. Each new version of DirectX changes the interface, which
breaks compatibility and requires older code to be tweaked and changed to be
updated.
DirectX can be used with C# using the Managed DirectX libraries; unfortunately,
these libraries are no longer officially supported or updated. Managed DirectX
has been superseded by Microsoft's XNA game creation library. XNA uses
DirectX, but it is a much higher level framework for quickly creating and