Big graphics question!

[MikeSee]

Hello everyone - I've being reading the board for quite a while but haven't posted until now... anyway, I've got a bit of a far reaching question so I hope you'll indulge me!

I've been surveying the graphics/game programming scene for Delphi and the following questions have come up - I hope that by either simply writing my questions out I'll understand a bit better or someone will be able to straighten things out...

DelphiX: Is this still a viable component set? Isn't there a real issue with it being just a software rendered implementation of DirectX 7? Ie lacking 3D?

UndelphiX: I understand that this an independent development of DelphiX bringing the tools up to DX8.0 and incorporating some hardware acceleration... How come they haven't been moved on to DX9: is this difficult/impossible to do or is it a case of someone actually having the time/abilility to do it?

Asphyre: This appears to be a very smart and "modern" attempt at DirectX9 with 3D capability - does anyone here use them? (btw, is that name pronounced the way I think it is?!)

Clootie DX headers: Now these seem to be as bang up to date as DX gets for Pascal - my question is how come there is a requirement for extra DLLs when the likes of Asphyre don't appear to require this? What do they do? The guy in charge as been MS MVP'd so his gotta know what he's talking about!

OpenGL: I've been trying to work out what's going on here! I have managed to download a ton of different OpenGL header conversions - some for 1.5, others for 2.0 - is there an official, central effort to get this done?

NeHe tutorials: In my effort to start of OpenGL with Delphi I've got the Redbook and started to work throught these BUT I can't understand why the given Delphi code is so Un-OO... Both the example code provided for each tutorial and the so called "Delphi OOP basecode" appears quite un-OO to me. Is there a reason for this?

I think that's it for now - sorry for all the questions at once!

[Relfos]

I've noticed some performance difference from DX7 and DX8, to DX9.
If you're just doing a simple game, probably there's no big problem, but for something with complex 3d graphics, I recommend to use either OpenGL. DX9, or something based in one of these.

If I remember correctly, the Clootie headers only need the extra DLLs for using the D3DX library.
About the NeHe tutorials, I think that's because their based in the C++ tutorials, and for simplicity is much easy to understand that way, I think.


Ah, and just recently released the LEAF2 engine, give it a look, its completely diferent from the other alternatives. Uses OpenGL, but has a high level oop interface, so I think its easy to use.

[jdarling]

The Delphi version of the NeHe code wasn't done by the NeHe team. It was contributed by a 3rd party developer who was nice enough to convert it. Thus if you want to do better send it to them and they will put it up. Basically this is how all of the NeHe stuff except for the C/C++ examples work. The authors name is even given as a props on the screen.

For OpenGL, the best library in existance is GLScene by Eric G (http://www.glscene.org).

SDL use S2DL from Savage. Works quite well in both Delphi and FPC.

I gave up on DirectX when I decided to go Cross-Platform. Its just not worth it, when you look at what you can do in SDL and OpenGL everything else looks a bit of a waste. Granted the support on Windows requires you to either ship the DLL's or make your end user install them.

I personally haven't paid any attention to Leaf or Leaf2, one day I'll have to take a look at them.

[Huehnerschaender]

Hi and welcome!

I use Asphyre in my current project.

http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3233

If you have any questions, just ask :)

Asphyre is pronounced like "as fire".

Greetings,
Dirk

[MikeSee]

Ok guys, thanks very much for your replies - you've been helpful!

Huehnerschaender, I'd like to have a closer look at Tanx but I can't seem to find it to d/l... is there any chance you'd make it available again, please?

jdarling, thanks dude. Let me just add that I wasn't trying to be critical of anyone's work since its 10x better than I can do - just asking questions!

Relfos, thanks for clearing that up!

Mike

[WILL]

See the 2006 PGD Annual Competition Page: http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/competitions.php?p=details&c=1 :D

[Huehnerschaender]

In addition to the original TANX version in the PGD annual site, there will be a download available soon, containing the improved IGF entry version. I think it will be available next weekend.

Greetings,
Dirk

[MikeSee]

Thanks Dirk - your game is cool! :D Its gonna take me a while to get that good! :roll: