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I'm using DirectX on my computer, so these compilers can run on DirectX, but the programs they generate do not?




DirectX and OpenGL are just sets of libraries which handle a lot of the annoying tasks of connecting to the hardware (or more specifically the drivers for the hardware). In most cases you will have both OpenGL and DirectX on your Wintel machine...even though you might not have realized it.

With things like cell phones you will generally be using CPU only processes (most do not have an accelerated graphics chip...3D or 2D). For those it isn't really a matter of OpenGL or DirectX...there simply is no need to that type of interface yet. It is more akin to hand coding the old DOS games (with a handful of libraries to avoid the really repetative things).

To your specific question - they don't need OpenGL or DirectX to run. Since it is primarily 2D (or simulated 3D) it all gets processed via the CPU. The next generation will likely have an embedded version of DirectX or OpenGL...however even though the software is starting to become available to handle that, the hardware is still a long ways away. In the interim you will probably see more work done using a software renderer like older versions of Java 3D or one of the other fairly light 3D systems.


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