Graphics questions

Hey guys, I'm sure you get hundreds of posts like this all the time, but I could use some advice before I try learning to make video games.


1) I'm trying to pick between OpenGL and DirectX. Anything that might sway my decision one way or the other?

2)If I pick OpenGL, should I use GLSL or Nvidia CG? Which yields better results graphics wise? Which has more cross-platform capability? Which is easier?

3) If I pick OpenGL, do I learn OpenGL ES or just straight OpenGL? To be honest, my interests are more towards developing for consoles and handheld consoles rather than for PC. Do I need to learn OpenGL before OpenGL ES? How similar are they?

4) How long would you say it takes to fully learn OpenGL or DirectX? I mean really know either of them and be able to create quality work. What about HLSL, GLSL, or CG?

(Note, I'm a very very inexperienced programmer. Like a beginner, really. I've had a year with C++ and that's about it. I'm just trying to figure this out before I spend time learning something potentially useless.)

>>7
Well, I am not very familiar with OpenGL as Direct3D, just started learning. but most of the libraries I used is not very compatible with OpenGL. For example glm, I have to do stupid things like &vector[0] etc to use it for the opengl functions that inputs float[]. Never had that problem on DirectX.

Personally I don't like Microsoft that much but DirectX is probably one of the finest things that they produced.

While on topic, any good texture, text rendering and model libraries for OpenGL? Which model format/library is popular?