OpenGL Alternatives
OpenGL is described as 'The premier environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications. Since its introduction in 1992, OpenGL has become the industry's most widely used and supported 2D and 3D graphics application programming interface (API), bringing' and is a very popular graphics library in the development category. There are more than 10 alternatives to OpenGL for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iPhone apps. The best OpenGL alternative is Vulkan, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like OpenGL are Bevy Game Engine, DirectX, WebGL and Amethyst Game Engine.
- Graphics Library
- Free • Open Source
10 Vulkan alternativesVulkan is a new generation graphics and compute API that provides high-efficiency, cross-platform access to modern GPUs used in a wide variety of devices from PCs and consoles to mobile phones and embedded platforms.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- Chrome OS
- Tizen OS
- SteamOS
Vulkan Features
Vulkan VS OpenGL
Comments about Vulkan as an Alternative to OpenGL
Because Vulkan is OpenGL's successor.
134 Bevy Game Engine alternativesA refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust. Free and Open Source Forever!
Bevy Game Engine Features
Bevy Game Engine VS OpenGL
12 DirectX alternativesDirectX is a set of components in Windows that allows software, primarily and especially games, to work directly with your video and audio hardware.
License model
- Free • Proprietary
Application type
Country of Origin
- United States
Platforms
- Windows
DirectX VS OpenGL
WebGL is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES 2.0, exposed through the HTML5 Canvas element as Document Object Model interfaces. Developers familiar with OpenGL ES 2.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Country of Origin
- United States
Platforms
- Online
WebGL Features
WebGL VS OpenGL
Amethyst uses gfx-rs to render graphics with Vulkan or Metal. It is meant to be used for 2D and 3D, with various utilities for both types of games. It should be beginner friendly but also allow more advanced uses such as custom render passes and GLSL shaders.
DiscontinuedThe website is unavailable, and the GitHub repository has been archived in April 2022.
Amethyst Game Engine Features
Amethyst Game Engine VS OpenGL
Metal provides near-direct access to the graphics processing unit (GPU), enabling you to maximize the graphics and compute potential of your apps on iOS, macOS, and tvOS. Building on an approachable, low-overhead architecture with precompiled GPU shaders, fine-grained resource...
License model
- Paid • Proprietary
Application type
Country of Origin
- United States
Platforms
- Mac
Metal VS OpenGL
Allegro 4 and Allegro 5 are cross-platform, libraries mainly aimed at video game and multimedia programming. They handle common, low-level tasks such as creating windows, accepting user input, loading data, drawing images, playing sounds, etc.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- iPhone
Allegro VS OpenGL
The goal of ANGLE is to allow users of multiple operating systems to seamlessly run WebGL and other OpenGL ES content by translating OpenGL ES API calls to one of the hardware-supported APIs available for that platform. ANGLE currently provides translation from OpenGL ES 2.0, 3.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Country of Origin
- United States
Platforms
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- iPad
- Android Tablet
ANGLE Features
ANGLE VS OpenGL
Crystal Space is a mature, full-featured Software Development Kit (SDK) providing real-time 3D graphics for applications such as games and virtual reality. It is free (LGPL) and cross-platform (Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X).
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
DiscontinuedDiscontinued since July 2012 : http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/Download
Crystal Space Features
Crystal Space VS OpenGL
Comments about Crystal Space as an Alternative to OpenGL
Crystal Space is a software using 3D rendering/drawing APIs. OpenGL is a rendering/drawing API.
Mantle is a graphics API specification; the software component that makes it easy to apply programming techniques and optimizations written for consoles to PCs with Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture.
License model
- Paid • Proprietary
Application type
Country of Origin
- United States
Platforms
- Windows
- Linux
Mantle Features
Mantle VS OpenGL
GDI++.dll is a replacement for the Windows default font rasterizer, which gives you a better font-smoothing capability, just like Mac OS X.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Platforms
- Windows
DiscontinuedAbandoned since 2006... : http://drwatson.nobody.jp/gdi /download-en.html
GDI VS OpenGL
I spent half a year studying this wretched API and was very disappointed, it is not designed to work with graphics.
This API is made only for implementation in ready-made solutions on opengl to slightly increase the number of frames per second (+5 - +10) in exchange for really titanic efforts (unreadable code in> 10,000 lines).
Unfortunately, Vulkan API - fail. Better try DirectX.