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  1. #9
    PGD Staff / News Reporter phibermon's Avatar
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    I don't work for Embarcadero, my interests are in sharing knowledge and helping people to create what they want to create using the best possible tools available - not just the ones belonging to a single company.

    I know I spoke mainly of game engines but I'm advising to ignore FMX specifically on abstraction grounds - it's closed source, the user will learn nothing. The general process of API abstraction can be learned from thousands of different sources, studying a closed source API when there's much better and open source examples to study is pointless. After all this site is called pascal *game* development and the user it talking about 3D API's so of course we're talking in the context of 3D game engines. So yes I heard "I want to make a 3D rendering engine" and not "I want to draw buttons on propitiatory platforms". They are two very different goals and the abstractions required are totally different.

    FMX is a poor design even when cited as an example of abstraction so I wonder why you've chosen to mention it at all?

    Frankly, I'm tired of Embarcadero employees recommending unsuitable Delphi features as if they were perfect for games. FMX may make use of 3D API's but don't be tempted to confuse FMX as suitable for game development just because it does. My lawnmower uses petrol, it's not suitable for the race track.

    Recommending somebody dedicate their passion to your product just to shift units is immoral. It is their future in game development, not your advertising platform. The compiler is suitable for game development, the IDE is suitable for development in general and indeed many of the components could be useful as well (for game development, especially if you want to create database driven servers) but FMX out of everything Delphi has to offer is the one thing that definitely is *not* suitable for game development. Not in direct use or as an example of 3D API abstraction.

    Just to be clear : you can use Direct3D and OpenGL in Delphi without FMX. I'm not sure if that's true on the mobile platforms however but there's always Freepascal.
    Last edited by phibermon; 30-01-2015 at 10:41 PM.
    When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie - that's an extinction level impact event.

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