New Microsoft conspiracy theory. OEMs to help slowing down OpenGL adoption?

I just came across this interesting post:

http://gregs-blog.com/2007/11/17/certain-notebook-ati-video-card-drivers-not-supporting-opengl-20-how-to-update-mobility-radeon-drivers

The theory:

MS hands notebook OEMs some $$$ to not keep OpenGL support up to date in effort to promote DirectX.
MS figures the way to implement this is to have OEMs require driver updates through themselves only.
OEMs fabricate reasons for why users should not be able to directly install reference graphics drivers with full OpenGL support for notebooks.

When pressed by users the GPU maker issue statements like:

“AMD (formerly ATI) introduced the concept of Catalyst Mobility which is a generic driver that works decently for most laptops. The only way we are able to do this is through permission by a laptop manufacturer (OEM) to include their device in the Catalyst Mobility. We were the first company to provide graphics drivers for laptops to the general public, and we believe there is great value in this. At this point we only have permission from a few vendors and I personally wish more of them would let us. My suggestion is you contact your manufacturer and ask them to have your laptop included in Catalyst Mobility. As for Vista specifically we do not have permissions yet, but as soon as we do we look forward to releasing Vista drivers for laptops.“

Since it wouldn't make any sense to have gaming laptops not support so many OpenGL games out there the only logical conclusion is that Microsoft must have a hand here!

Good, but not as good as Michael Bay's 'Microsoft backed HD-DVD because they want to destroy optical media" conspiracy theory.

blog author said:

More than half the popular games out there use OpenGL, not Direct 3D

What???!! Seriously??!!??

Minh said:

blog author said:

*snip*

What???!! Seriously??!!??

well does the author define "Popular" -- his list of games may be very select.

figuerres said:

Minh said:

*snip*

well does the author define "Popular" -- his list of games may be very select.

I guess it's how you define "popular". But here are the top 10 games sold between June 29 & July 6 according to NPD. I can safely say that no game on this list supports OGL and not DX.

1. The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff
2. Diablo Battle Chest
3. Spore Creature Creator
4. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
5. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
6. World Of Warcraft
7. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
9. The Sims 2 FreeTime
10. Warcraft III Battle Chest

Although, it should worry the PC gamming folks that "Age of Conan" is the only game not made be either Maxis or Blizzard.

Minh said:

figuerres said:

*snip*

I guess it's how you define "popular". But here are the top 10 games sold between June 29 & July 6 according to NPD. I can safely say that no game on this list supports OGL and not DX.

1. The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff
2. Diablo Battle Chest
3. Spore Creature Creator
4. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
5. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
6. World Of Warcraft
7. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
9. The Sims 2 FreeTime
10. Warcraft III Battle Chest

Although, it should worry the PC gamming folks that "Age of Conan" is the only game not made be either Maxis or Blizzard.

The ATi catalyst drivers kept causing my Latitude XT to BSOD, switching to the Dell provided ones have made all the issues go away. I don't think it's the handful of OpenGL games that OEMs are bothered by, it's more likely the increasingly shoddy quality of video drivers caused by the card manufacturers becoming increasingly desperate to one-up each other in benchmarks.

Minh said:

blog author said:

*snip*

What???!! Seriously??!!??

Well its just opinion, lets look at the most popular 3d games atm:

Team fortress 2
Portal
Half life 2

Unreal 3
Bioshock
Gears of war

Crysis
Battlefield series
Call of duty 4
Halo 3

This makes up the following engines:

Source
Unreal
CryEngine 2
Refractor 2
Call of duty 4
Halo

Source = dx
Unreal = dx/ogl
CryEngine 2 = dx
Refractor 2 = dx
Call of duty 4 = dx
Halo = dx

Looking ahead, the following big games to come:

Far Cry 2
Rage
Project origin
Gears of war 2
Stalker clearsky
Killzone 2
Call of duty 5
Crysis warhead
Dead space

These make up the following engines:

Dunia
id tech 5
Jupiter EX
Unreal
X-Ray
Killzone 2
Call of duty 4
cryengine 2
Deadspace

Dunia =dx/ogl
id tech 5 = ogl
jupiter ex = dx
unreal = dx/ogl
x-ray = dx
killzone 2 = ogl
call of duty 4 = dx
cryengine 2 = dx
deadspace = dx/ogl


Mmm, not seeing many ogl only games there.. the only ones that appear to be purely ogl are games that are purely on the ps3, apart from the id engines.. but thats because carmack himself wants to be the one who writes all the oobar engine code.. he obviously lives on writing code, so fair enough.. his engines are pretty impressive.. megatexture is cool.

stevo_ said:

Minh said:

*snip*

Well its just opinion, lets look at the most popular 3d games atm:

Team fortress 2
Portal
Half life 2

Unreal 3
Bioshock
Gears of war

Crysis
Battlefield series
Call of duty 4
Halo 3

This makes up the following engines:

Source
Unreal
CryEngine 2
Refractor 2
Call of duty 4
Halo

Source = dx
Unreal = dx/ogl
CryEngine 2 = dx
Refractor 2 = dx
Call of duty 4 = dx
Halo = dx

Looking ahead, the following big games to come:

Far Cry 2
Rage
Project origin
Gears of war 2
Stalker clearsky
Killzone 2
Call of duty 5
Crysis warhead
Dead space

These make up the following engines:

Dunia
id tech 5
Jupiter EX
Unreal
X-Ray
Killzone 2
Call of duty 4
cryengine 2
Deadspace

Dunia =dx/ogl
id tech 5 = ogl
jupiter ex = dx
unreal = dx/ogl
x-ray = dx
killzone 2 = ogl
call of duty 4 = dx
cryengine 2 = dx
deadspace = dx/ogl


Mmm, not seeing many ogl only games there.. the only ones that appear to be purely ogl are games that are purely on the ps3, apart from the id engines.. but thats because carmack himself wants to be the one who writes all the oobar engine code.. he obviously lives on writing code, so fair enough.. his engines are pretty impressive.. megatexture is cool.

It's amazing how the iD engine is almost a non-player these days.

iD was THE MAN there for a while, but they just took too long in between versions and now Epic is eating iD's pie.

stevo_ said:

Minh said:

*snip*

Well its just opinion, lets look at the most popular 3d games atm:

Team fortress 2
Portal
Half life 2

Unreal 3
Bioshock
Gears of war

Crysis
Battlefield series
Call of duty 4
Halo 3

This makes up the following engines:

Source
Unreal
CryEngine 2
Refractor 2
Call of duty 4
Halo

Source = dx
Unreal = dx/ogl
CryEngine 2 = dx
Refractor 2 = dx
Call of duty 4 = dx
Halo = dx

Looking ahead, the following big games to come:

Far Cry 2
Rage
Project origin
Gears of war 2
Stalker clearsky
Killzone 2
Call of duty 5
Crysis warhead
Dead space

These make up the following engines:

Dunia
id tech 5
Jupiter EX
Unreal
X-Ray
Killzone 2
Call of duty 4
cryengine 2
Deadspace

Dunia =dx/ogl
id tech 5 = ogl
jupiter ex = dx
unreal = dx/ogl
x-ray = dx
killzone 2 = ogl
call of duty 4 = dx
cryengine 2 = dx
deadspace = dx/ogl


Mmm, not seeing many ogl only games there.. the only ones that appear to be purely ogl are games that are purely on the ps3, apart from the id engines.. but thats because carmack himself wants to be the one who writes all the oobar engine code.. he obviously lives on writing code, so fair enough.. his engines are pretty impressive.. megatexture is cool.

Looking at that list, I'd be tempted to say that supporting OpenGL is a waste of time.

BHpaddock said:

spivonious said:

*snip*

Why would Microsoft care?  It's like people pay to use Direct3D.  What a goofy "theory."

Because a game written for DirectX will only work well on Microsoft platforms. Microsoft makes tons and tons (read boatloads) of money selling platforms. It's not a difficult thing to see.

spivonious said:

stevo_ said:

*snip*

Looking at that list, I'd be tempted to say that supporting OpenGL is a waste of time.

Support of OpenGL by hardware vendors is definitely not a waste of time.

OpenGL is the ubiquitous presentation back end for nearly all high end graphics applications. All professional 3D modeling and layouts programs use OpenGL extensively. Maya, Modo, Lightwave, Blender, XSI, Cinema 4D ect.

OpenGL is also the foundation of cross platform hardware acceleration for many graphics packages. Adobe, for example, takes advantage of OpenGL shader programs when available  with most of their their products like  Photoshop and After Effects, It will soon be leveraged in Flash 10 where everything can be in 3D and users can write their own shader programs.

"OpenGL high-fidelity support in After Effects CS3 Professional includes support for blending modes, adjustment layers, track mattes, accelerated effects, anti-aliasing, 2D motion blur, lights, and shadows."

OpenGL is also the backend for all composting on those "other OSes" ... Linux and OSX.