PowerDraw vs Omega

[patroclus02]

I always used DelphiX until a few months ago, when I found Omega. Now I found PowerDraw.. Is PowerDraw the same kind of program as Omega is?? What can it do that Omega can't??

Tkns

[LP]

As I said on http://turbo.gamedev.net forums, for more information on PowerDraw, look at http://turbo.gamedev.net/powerdraw.asp. Due to my lack of knowledge of Project Omega, I wouldn't compare the two components and I think it's not ethical for me to do it anyway - so I think you'd take a look at examples, site and other info and decide yourself - besides, it all depends on project's needs.

[Paulius]

I havent tested omega much, but the thing is omega=great directdraw, powerdraw=great 2D through Direct3D, if you dont mind having a 163kb dll with your project and dont aim for lower end hardware, powerdraw is better. Basically powerdraw does most things through hardware so it has lots of advantages like almost free texture filtering and effects with alpha which would be slow in software are quite fast with powerdraw. Like Lifepower said check out some particle demos which came with powerdraw and see for yourself.

[LP]

Well, as far as I know, Omega does 2D via 3D hardware too... PowerDraw actually includes software renderer that uses DirectDraw7 (that's the reason of DLL) and needs no 3D-compatible video card at all, and uses Direct3D9 for hardware rendering.

[patroclus02]

Well, I tried Omega Beta 4 and I downloaded PowerDraw (Both 1.4 and last version). As I could see, Omega seems easier (also people around say so), but I want to ask not anybody but the author of PowerDraw (who better?). Is PowerDraw that hard to use?

The problem is that I have very little time and I can't spend so much of that time learning both Omega and PowerDraw. LifePower, I'd apreciate so much your answer. Compared to DelphiX, is PowerDraw hard to use? Does it work in a similar way as DelphiX.

I know quite well DelphiX, but it's so slow, and that's why I want to change to one of these great tools.

Thanks.

[LP]

Well, "easier to use" is relative term. People may *think* some product is easy to use, but in reality it's just a misinformation and they finish their product in a month (thinking it was quick and easy), when with other products they could do it in a week (they can't even imagine that).
Talking about PowerDraw - it is easy to use yet powerful; it might look similar to DelphiX in some way, but it's different in concept. PowerDraw alone can be used to make a complete game; for sound it's good to use either FMod, Bass or Housemarque (aka Midas). I'd also mention that I've been in contact with Jarrod Davis and would like to say that his graphics library, GameVision 2 would be a good alternative too. Actually, to be honest for just a little moment (don't think I'm promoting or something, it's just my opinion, as a programmer), I think now DelphiX is no match for PowerDraw, there's no such project that would be made better in DelphiX than in PowerDraw.

[Clootie]

patroclus02:
Well, I tried Omega Beta 4 and I downloaded PowerDraw (Both 1.4 and last version). As I could see, Omega seems easier (also people around say so), but I want to ask not anybody but the author of PowerDraw (who better?). Is PowerDraw that hard to use?
The problem is that I have very little time and I can't spend so much of that time learning both Omega and PowerDraw. LifePower, I'd apreciate so much your answer. Compared to DelphiX, is PowerDraw hard to use? Does it work in a similar way as DelphiX.
I know quite well DelphiX, but it's so slow, and that's why I want to change to one of these great tools.

You are asking for what tool is easier to learn and use? But nobody can give correct answear until you specify what application / game you are targetting to develop with this components! Why DelphiX is slow for you? I'm not telling what DelphiX is speed daemon, but we need to know what is really slowing it down!

So, little questions:
What type of game you are developing - 2D / 3D?
When it's slow: loading, rendering, sound, AI, etc?
Minimum Windows version requirement?
Minimum hardware specs?
Maybe some other hits?

[patroclus02]

"What type of game you are developing - 2D / 3D? "
2d-Platforms game

"When it's slow: loading, rendering, sound, AI, etc? "
Rendering alpha effects, for example. People say that DXSpriteEngine isn't very good when loading lots of sprites (anyway, I find this component to be very easy and powerful when you have to scroll a whole world, for example. This task can't be done with Omega)

"Minimum Windows version requirement? "
Window 95, but I don't really mind about this.

"Minimum hardware specs? "
I'd like that my game could be played in a not so high-level computer, but I don't know If I'll manage to do this. I use speed based on time, and the game runs fine between 25 and 70+ FPS.

"Maybe some other hits?"
I'm using DelphiX and I want to choose either Omega or PowerDraw, and I'd like to take an option that doesn't require days and days of "trying to understand" how all the stuff works.

What I really need for now is an efficient way to manage backgrounds (made up by 32x32 tiles), scroll the whole world (all the layers and sprites) and collision detection between sprites.

[patroclus02]

One more thing
I don't really need lots of effects, just a bit of transparencies, etc..

(I installed right now PowerDraw3 but none of the examples work. The y say that could not initializate Direct3d. My computer is : Athlon 1200, 256 Mb DDR, Radeon 9000 PRO 64 Mb, Windows XP, Delphi 6).

[LP]

PowerDraw requires DirectX9.0 for hardware acceleration. Of course, you can recompile examples with "Hardware" flag set to False, in this case, PSR1.0 (PowerDraw Software Renderer) will be used and it only requires DirectX7.0.

EDIT: P.S. I don't care if you choose or not PowerDraw for your project. I provide support for PowerDraw users only, so I won't answer further questions about "why to choose PowerDraw" - sorry, I really hate doing non-technical stuff.