OpenGL or Direct3D

UchihaItachi222

<div class="IPBDescription">How do I get it/ Use? </div>Where would I get either of these programs and how would I make it work so I can play NS. I have no ideas what these are and was hoping anyone here would show me.

Andos

The chances that OpenGL and DirectX are already installed on your system is very very big... Especially if you have any other 3D games on your computer...
Can't you play because of an error message involving OpenGL or DirectX? Then it could be a driver related issue.

OpenGL and DirectX (both called API's) is basically toolsets for game/app developers giving them an easier way to control 3D cards to draw what you see <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
You don't need to worry about that though.

If you want to be sure you have the latest DirectX version, then simply just visit Windows Update and see if it's there.

Chocolate

OpenGL and Direct3D are 2 of the 3 ways in NS that you can use to "draw everything you see on the screen when you play". If you got a video card that supports either one of these modes, then you can use that rendering mode. It isn't really any special program (as far as my knowledge), so don't worry about it too much.

OpenGL is a better choice than Direct3D, but they are nearly the same (the other option, Software, shouldn't be used unless needed, it's unstable and not nice looking).

To find out what mode you are using/want to use, open Natural Selection, go in Options and select the Video tab. You can play around with these settings as much as you want, I'm pretty sure that if its unsupported, it'll revert to another working mode.

You don't really need to know too much about these rendering modes or need to play around with them too much. If you got NS already working as you like it, you can leave these things alone.

Andos

Actually I thought Direct3D was better? Or is it just the HL engine that works better with OpenGL than Direct3D?
What render mode does people playing NS run in the most? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />

Invader_Scoot

In the HL engine, OpenGL is the better rendering option. Direct3D was coded all buggy and crappily, avoid using that one on HL1 engine games mmkay?

However in modern games that are actually made correctly, both are good and the game is usually coded to use just one of the two. Doom 3's engine = OpenGL, Source engine = DirectX / Direct3D, both are good and have their own advantages and disadvantages.