OpenGL Alternatives for Windows

There are many alternatives to OpenGL for Windows if you are looking for a replacement. The best Windows alternative is Vulkan, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 10 alternatives to OpenGL and eight of them are available for Windows so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Windows alternatives to OpenGL are DirectX, Amethyst Game Engine, ANGLE and Crystal Space.

filter to find the best alternatives

OpenGL alternatives are mainly Graphics Libraries, but if you're looking for Game Development Tools you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Free, Open Source and Windows. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to OpenGL.
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Alternatives list

  1. Vulkan icon
     95 likes

    Vulkan 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.

    10 Vulkan alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • Chrome OS
    • Tizen OS
    • SteamOS
    • HarmonyOS
    • Nintendo Switch
     
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    2
    Comments about Vulkan as an Alternative to OpenGL
    Guest
    Negative
    -1

    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.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    -5

    Because Vulkan is OpenGL's successor.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Vulkan icon
    Vulkan icon
    • Vulkan is Free and Open SourceOpenGL is also Free and Open Source
  2. DirectX icon
     42 likes

    DirectX is a set of components in Windows that allows software, primarily and especially games, to work directly with your video and audio hardware.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  3. 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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  4. ANGLE icon
     1 like

    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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Android Tablet
     
  5. 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).

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
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    1
    Comments about Crystal Space as an Alternative to OpenGL
    Guest
    Negative
    -1

    Crystal Space is a software using 3D rendering/drawing APIs. OpenGL is a rendering/drawing API.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Crystal Space icon
    Crystal Space icon
    • Crystal Space is Free and Open SourceOpenGL is also Free and Open Source
  6. Allegro icon
     12 likes

    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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • iPhone
     
  7.  Like

    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.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  8. GDI icon
     3 likes

    GDI++.dll is a replacement for the Windows default font rasterizer, which gives you a better font-smoothing capability, just like Mac OS X.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
8 of 8 OpenGL alternatives