After reading around on the boards a bit, it seems when people are talking about doing things graphics wise and just planning out algorithyms they don't mention the API they are using, or planing to use.

I have 2 books that teach graphical programming right now, Role Playing Game Programming with DirectX (DirectX 8) and Tricks of the 3D Programming Gurus(DirectX9) I bought the RPG one and was givin the other. But DirectX is a windows interface and I am thinking about going to OpenGL interface because it is crossplatform.

My couple of questions are:
  1. How hard is it to go from DirectX to OpenGL (I haven't learned too much, but have picked up some).
  2. Can I use SDL to handle my input/sound and use OpenGL to handle my graphics?
  3. Is there anything about programming for other platforms than windows that I would need to keep in mind while programming (I know system calls are a no-no but is there anything esle)
  4. I have both VC++ 2005E and Dev-Cpp 4.9.9.2 installed, would there be any reason to use one of these compilers over the other?


I have searched about a couple of these questions, and I am going to continue searching, but I thought I could post and get the advice of you all with years of experience in graphical programming.