New Gaming Engine

[Manson]

Hi,

I'm a wannabe game developer starting off with my first project. I've been developing in pascal for about ~10 years now, and the last 4 to 6 years I've worked on various database orientated programs, which is extremely boring!! ;)

So, I've started working on the core/kernel for the 3D gaming engine which is currently using (un)DelphiX as the main graphics provider. As a newbie, I was wondering if (un)DelphiX was really the ideal library to use, and luckily I stumbled upon this site! :)

Before I continue with the kernel and integrate (un)DelphiX to the point of no return, I would like to know which library is best? As in (un)DelphiX, GLScene, Jedi's DirectX headers, etc.?

Documentation on (un)DelphiX sucks because it's in a foreign language and GLScene is looking pretty attractive.

PS: The engine can't do much at the moment, but I do have a demo available if someone is interested.

[chronozphere]

unDelphiX is nice, but it's also quite old. I think it's meant for those who want to use a DelphiX interface while having DX9 running on the background. I wouldn't use unDelphiX to base my own engine on, because the codebase is big and it might be hard to fix any bugs you may encounter. Also, it still contains DX7 and DX8 support which you do not need and which only make the code more complex.

If you want to build an engine, you probably want to build the renderer from scratch using raw DirectX/OpenGL as it gives you the fastest and cleanest engine. However, I haven't used unDelphiX for a long time now, so I might be wrong here and there. :)

[NecroDOME]

As far as I know unDelphiX is unsupported and there are no updates for a long time. As Chrono said it's beter to use DirectX/OpenGL or you something that has a some community like GLScene.

[WILL]

DelphiX has indeed changed a lot in both features, authors and status in the community over the years. It's no longer the top dog for game development with Object Pascal, but you can still use it. Check out Jaro Benes' website hosting the most current version at http://www.micrel.cz/Dx/

As an alternate, which will allow you to use Free Pascal or Lazarus, you can also look at JEDI-SDL. SDL is a 3rd party media layer and window management API that does practically all the same things as DirectX does, however it's a bit simpler to use. JEDI-SDL is simply the Pascal version of the SDL headers that allow you to use it. Check it out at http://jedi-sdl.pascalgamedevelopment.com/

[Manson]

Sorry for the late reply, always deadlines to meet... ;)

I found (un)DelphiX extremely easy to use, but since starting this topic, I've downloaded and tried GLScene, and must say I'm pretty impressed with what they're doing. As for building the renderer from scratch, I lack the skill (newbie) at the moment. So for now I'd rather go for a library that's well maintained by a community, which I can use to learn the tricks of the trade. ::)

The DelphiX version is the latest version downloaded from http://www.micrel.cz/Dx/. I wasn't impressed with the frame rate I was able to achieve from using DelphiX. A mere 60 fps for a animated cursor and console... Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I'm in the process of adapting my newly developed kernel to use with GLScene to see if there's any difference in performance.

I'll download JEDI-SDL tomorrow and play around with it... Thanks for the suggestions