DirectXlike

DirectXlike is a term used to describe graphics APIs or libraries that share functional similarities with Microsoft's DirectX, a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. While DirectX is proprietary to Windows and Xbox, other platforms and developers have created graphics solutions that offer comparable functionalities for rendering 2D and 3D graphics, managing hardware acceleration, and processing audio. These DirectXlike solutions often aim to provide developers with a similar low-level control over graphics hardware, enabling high-performance rendering. Examples of technologies that could be considered DirectXlike include OpenGL, Vulkan, and Metal. OpenGL, a cross-platform graphics API, has historically served as a primary alternative to DirectX for many developers. Vulkan, a more modern and lower-overhead API, also provides extensive hardware control and is designed for high performance across multiple platforms. Apple's Metal is the proprietary graphics API for Apple's operating systems, offering similar capabilities to DirectX but within the Apple ecosystem. The concept of "DirectXlike" emphasizes the shared purpose of these APIs in facilitating complex visual and audio experiences in software, particularly in the gaming industry, by providing a standardized way for applications to interact with graphics hardware.