View Full Version : Need Advice on what to use...
Robert Kosek
01-12-2004, 04:28 PM
I'm using the DOT (http://www.delphi3d.net/dot) Toolkit with the sulaco texture loader. Since DOT is for GL 1.1 should I switch to the dgl 1.5 headers? I like the math that's built into DOT but what's the better choice?
Here's what I've done so far:
http://img4.exs.cx/img4/7626/screenshot50.th.jpg (http://img4.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img4ℑ=screenshot50.jpg)http://img4.exs.cx/img4/8168/screenshot49.th.jpg (http://img4.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img4ℑ=screenshot49.jpg)
(Ignore any complaints that are listed in the image ... Imageshack.us appeares to be under heavy load.)
It's a lit plane that's 16x16 square, made of as many pieces and is textured.
Paulius
01-12-2004, 05:07 PM
It?¢_Ts incorrect to say that DOT uses OpenGL 1.1, the only thing that changes in OpenGL since 1.1 is that some extensions get promoted to core features, all you?¢_Tll ever need to update is the extension loader to load them.
Robert Kosek
01-12-2004, 05:09 PM
OK, thanks! 8) My biggest problem is loads of neat things are done with the dglOpenGL.pas unit which may conflict with DOT. Would conversion be kind of easy?
Paulius
01-12-2004, 05:22 PM
Not sure what you mean with neat things, headers are just headers, except that I guess in dglOpenGL.pas they took gl, glu and glext and put them into one unit.
Robert Kosek
01-12-2004, 05:25 PM
Changes like GLUint > TGLUint. There are several "quirks" like that in the dgl headers.
Robert Kosek
01-12-2004, 07:04 PM
Well, after reading some of a GL book I own I manipulated the Depth Buffer and added a fake lightmap. This was about the 6th try, dang "order" of functions! :oops:
http://img58.exs.cx/img58/1272/screenshot36.th.jpg (http://img58.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img58&image=screenshot36.jpg)
{MSX}
01-12-2004, 07:14 PM
I suggest you to try JEDI-SDL. I'm using it and i must say that it really rules.
Robert Kosek
01-12-2004, 07:18 PM
How different is it from OpenGL? (I do know that the SDL is cross-platform and it uses GL/DX) I'm getting used to the style of OpenGL and must say that I like it. :wink:
Clootie
01-12-2004, 09:38 PM
How about GLScene?
// glscene.org
Robert Kosek
01-12-2004, 09:45 PM
I might try it again. Last time it was still way too complex. :roll:
{MSX}
02-12-2004, 08:03 AM
How different is it from OpenGL? (I do know that the SDL is cross-platform and it uses GL/DX) I'm getting used to the style of OpenGL and must say that I like it. :wink:
If you do 3D with SDL you *use* OpenGL. No wrappers. You can use SDL to set up the window, handle events etc, and use OpenGl directly to render and such.
Look at the demo included, or at my project (http://funkycars.sf.net)
Best thing about SDL is the fact that it has everything! The timer, input handler(mouse, keyboard, joysticks), and even sound and a basic MOD mixer too.
www.sdllib.org for more information about the SDL libraries themselves.
And http://www.delphi-jedi.org/Jedi:TEAM_SDL_HOME for the JEDI-SDL library/headers that all us Pascal programmers use. ;)
Robert Kosek
02-12-2004, 03:40 PM
Right now, since I'm using DOT, my windows is set up easily. Since there is little difference I may as well stick with OpenGL for a bit. Thankfully DOT manages my "frame-independent" stuff, so though I get 400fps-it isn't wild. For sound/music I'll probably go with Bass. 8)
{MSX}
02-12-2004, 06:31 PM
Right now, since I'm using DOT, my windows is set up easily. Since there is little difference I may as well stick with OpenGL for a bit. Thankfully DOT manages my "frame-independent" stuff, so though I get 400fps-it isn't wild. For sound/music I'll probably go with Bass. 8)
But is DOT cross platform? with SDL you can just set up the window in Windows, Linux and Mac :P
Also, bass is not portable and is not open source. What about OpenAL ? noeska worked out a nice wrapper for them.
OpenAL is just like OpenGL, only sound, of course. ;)
It was designed to compliment and mirror OpenGL as a twin set of APIs.
BASS is anything but cross-platform. It is Windows only. FMOD I is cross-platform, including the major consoles too.
In fact I am making use of both SDL and OpenAL in one of my own projects and it works just fine. And setup of JEDI-SDL is do easy monkies can do it. ;)
Robert Kosek
03-12-2004, 01:11 AM
I am more experienced with BASS, and at the moment I'm using Windoze. DOT is cross-platform compliant because it's a header/sdk for OpenGL. DOT Documents (http://www.delphi3d.net/dot/).
Though once I know enough of OpenGL I'll be switching to FPC + SDL + OpenAL. Happy? :) Who knows, I may even switch to Linux!
Well it isn't so much our happiness as it would be the amount of work that you would be doing to convert from one API to the other. ;) Just be warned that whatever to start in one API, restructuring it for another can really mess with your projects functionality. This from experiance in my own projects.
Robert Kosek
03-12-2004, 02:00 AM
Since I'm a fast learner and am good at adaptability ... it should be with a little hitch only. I may or may not switch to SDL but one thing is for sure ... FPC is my next move.
The "happy?" comment was for all the restatements of what I'm doing.... Sorry if I was offensive.
cairnswm
03-12-2004, 06:37 AM
The beauty of SDL is that you dont need to knoe the underlying technology layer. Its all hidden from you.
(I tried to find a reference on the net to what I say next but couldn't find the original ref)
SDL uses DirectX 5 for 2D rendering (if it cant find it it then uses GDI or equivilent).
This seems to indicate its a bit old. However because it uses alternatives it means you dont need to worry about the correct drivers being in place which is what I have experienced on both DelphiX and GLXtreem.
SDL is really easy to use. Once I decided to look at it it took me less that 3 hours to have my first example program up and running. Less that 8 hours to have my first Library (S2DL) developed. Using that library I developed a puzzle game in 3 hours. (Including sound)
savage
03-12-2004, 12:41 PM
So is "Farmer Joe's Matching Yard" an SDL app then?
I would have to agree that SDL is a lot easier to use that most API's out there. In a future release, they will be adding an OpenGL back-end to it so even 2D applications will make use of hardware acceleration, without the need for recompiling. I am hoping it will be in v1.2.8, but realistically it probably won't make it until v2.0.0 is released.
cairnswm
03-12-2004, 01:08 PM
No - Farmer Joe's Matching Yard was done with GLXtreem. Because of the problems some people experienced with Farmer Joe's Matching Yard I started looking for alternatives and settled on getting JEDI-SDL working (also decided to get it working with FreePascal).
"I have a dream"
of a day when there are identical wrappers for all the libraries that mean we can use any library we like as a backend withoput changing our programs. - Sort of sounds like what SDL can do for us (GDI, DirectX and soon to be OpenGL)
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