| Direct3D | OpenGL | Fahrenheit | Java 3D | |
| 1) PC Driver Support for graphic accelerator cards | Good | Poor | N/A | Very Poor. It is designed to run on top of the other APIs, so should be a superset of them when all are supported in a PC environment |
| 2) Speed | Good | Excellent | Excellent | Poor. Interpreted. |
| 3) Ease of Coding | Poor | Good | Unknown | Fair |
| 4) Multi-Platform support | Very Poor (PC-only) | Good | Poor (PC & SGI) | Excellent |
| 5) Java support | Very Poor | Good (on PC using Microsoft's SDK for Java) | ? I would assume that Microsoft will provide a Fahrenheit update to the Java SDK - hopefully in a timely fashion. It would be great if SGI/Microsoft just went ahead and required Java as the development language(speed isn't an issue for PC or SGI based applications, because you could use compiled Java) - however, that would probably alienate too many C old-time customers(and now it looks like Microsoft is going to make their own Java-like language - named "Cool"). | Excellent |
| 6) Documentation | Fair - Books are 2-3 years old. Microsoft has yet to produce Direct3d documentation, and maybe won't now that Fahrenheit is in the works! | Fair - Books are 2 years old. OpenGL Superbible is recommended over OpenGL Programming Guide for Windows 95/NT. On-Line GLUT documentation is up-to-date. | Non-existent | No programming guide, only a specification(available on web, no need to buy it in bookstore!) |
| 7) Ease of Drawing Text | Good | Poor in base standard - you have to use bitmaps. Good if you use GLUT. | Unknown | Fair | 8) Ease of Running in a Window | Excellent | Poor. The 3dFX driver doesn't support it. | Good? | Not really applicable |