[corresation]

It was hard for me to ever understand why people preferred OpenGL at the time

OpenGL was elegant and very simple to use, quickly becoming close to invisible. DirectX, in comparison, was layers upon layers of COM book-keeping code.

Of course OpenGL has become like DirectX in more recent iterations, as in the end immediate satisfaction is less important than flexibility.

[kevingadd]

For me the definition of 'layers' was having to juggle dozens of interacting state flags and mutually exclusive vendor-specific extensions just to draw a dual-textured triangle or render to a render target.

COM really wasn't that much of a hassle in comparison. A couple smart pointer templates and you're off to the races. I can see how a C developer would really resent it though - nothing but a pain compared to GL's regular C, 'everything is void*' api.

[corresation]

I guess it depends upon what period we're talking about here. DirectX didn't add multi-texturing until DX 6.1, half a decade after hitting the market.