C++ - DirectX Or OpenGL?

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Hey every one, My name is Blake and I am a beginner programmer and to start of I'd like to say I have very basic knowledge on programming and know almost nothing about either DirectX or OpenGL.

My question:
If I were to make my own armor like a Halo armor or a IronMan armor, for the helmet what would be better to use for this rendering and stuff.
You are probably just thinking, He knows nothing and he is just a kid - Just a crazy dreamer...
BUT! I am sure, If I learn what it is that I need to learn so that I can learn what it is I am learning then I can make this possible.
With lots of years of hard work and effort... It will work.

So, It will basically look to me when wearing the helmet like I am playing a computer game.
It will show things like: Heart BPM, Current time, my temperature, scanning system, voice recognition.

↓↓ Here is a little pic I found on Google to give you an idea what I mean here. ↓↓



So the question here is: What do I need to learn.

--Edit--
I did the poll wrong... :[

Thanks to Microsoft and their launch of Vista and forcing many developers to abandon openGL when they announce that openGL will be applied to DirectX. This would make openGL look slower. Then they announced that openGL will still be usable in Vista. By this time, the damage was done.

If you limit to DirectX, you're limiting the computers that it can be displayed on. (Anything running a Microsoft operating system will understand DirectX - Windows, and Xbox)

openGL can be understood by a larger amount of computer systems in comparison.

DirectX is more popular because it had more advanced features earlier, but only works with Microoft systems. If you're looking at a career in graphic DirectX may be more valuable.

OpenGl is open source and will work on Windows, Apple and linux (no idea about consoles, sorry). It is now competitive with DirectX, but less popular because many of today's programmers learned when DirectX was superior.

Or at least, that's my understanding. I'm rather new at it too

Microsoft's first version of DirectX wasn't so good. Another company had their own version and Microsoft bought them out and eventually that became DirectX 2.

DirectX isn't superior, but a tactic Microsoft used in spreading Fear, uncertainty, and Doubt about openGL.

This very tactic forced developers to switch to DirectX in order for their software to continue working on the then very new Windows Vista.

openGL has faster calls in comparison to DirectX. So saying DX is superior to openGL is probably saying what Microsoft are saying because you know no better.

With openGL, it's possible to bring Tessellation to Windows XP. Many features found in DirectX have been in openGL a couple years prior

Nintendo and Sony consoles use OpenGL, largely because MS refuses to license DirectX to anyone else. I don't know if XBox supports OpenGL graphics or not.

If you use OpenGL, you can implement your program on every platform. In you use DirectX, you are tied to Microsoft products.

Thank you for your reply's;

So far by what I've read I'm going towards DirectX

Make sure the books/source code you reference match up with the dev kit that you are using. I once tried to learn DirectX but I got entirely frustrated and gave up after the basic skeleton code from the book I was reading didn't compile under the latest setup. One person replied that Microsoft has 2 versions of Direct X, and that may explain why I ran into that problem. The function calls in the book didn't even match up with the current libraries.

What I recommend that you do, is to look beyond the rendering code, and focus on the underlaying concepts of what it is that you are trying to do. Right away in reading what your original desire is I can already start to visualize how I would solve this problem.

If you created a rounded mesh, in the shape of your helmet, and fixed it to be always in front of the camera, you can then apply a surface bitmap on it. The rendering engine is going to take care of the wraping of the bitmap for you leaving you to focus on creating the elements that you wish to render. The surface bitmap would use an alpha channel so that you can see through the blank areas of the bitmap with no elements, and you can apply an alpha blend on your elements to get a see through effect, much like you have shown in your example picuture. So what you really have is a simple bitblt to move your elements onto the surface bitmap.

Good luck, and have fun learning how to program.

Actually, if you're talking about years of study, you'll want to learn both. If you're doing that, the order probably doesn't matter much.

Do you mean what you have read here or elsewhere?

A bit of both.

Data told you! Didnt he? Didnt he?

You shoulda listened to Picard.

But what does the Picard want?

lol