Pascal eXtended Library (aka Asphyre) released!

[gcarreno]

This is a major update and a very welcome one. Especially the support for the Makers.

To be quite honest, this has make my day. I've just found out that a Hacker Space has opened here in Lancaster/UK and this is the cherry on top!!

Many, MANY thanks and a big loft of congratulations on the massive job, well done indeed!!

Cheers,
Gus

[devchenxip]

Basic Simple（FireMonkey） has leak found:

---------------------------
Unexpected Memory Leak
---------------------------
An unexpected memory leak has occurred. The unexpected small block leaks are:

1 - 12 bytes: TFireDX11Provider x 1
117 - 124 bytes: TMultimediaTimer x 1


change this program Destory Event:

procedure TMainForm.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
begin
  EngineTimer.Free;
  EngineFonts.Free;
  EngineImages.Free;
  EngineCanvas.Free;
  EngineDevice.Free;
  DeviceProvider.Free;
  FMBridge.Free;
end;

[Zimond]

Hi there.

Maybe someone can give me a hint here :

(From the Tunnel Example)

var 
BitmapMain: TBitmap;
.
.
BitmapMain := TBitmap.Create(EngineDevice);
.
.
BitmapMain.Canvas.FillRect(0, 0, 512, 512, $FFFCFCFC, TBlendingEffect.Multiply);

Is this now the way how rendertargets work? By using Tbitmaps and creating them with the enginedevice?

[SilverWarior]

No there is a TCustomDrawableTexture that is intended to be used as a render target.

[pixelwriter]

I would prefer Vulkan too, but I see no fallback on older systems; so I cannot use it. GLES2 (and GLES3 almost) is viable TODAY, no need to wait. The Windows enduser has two options: a) use GLES dll of Angle, or b) use GLES dll of Swiftshader (software only, but works 100% on all systems, even winXP) We can use the dll in standard way (context via EGL) GLES Angle handles internally all driver bindings (is also looking for native GLES driver first). GLES Angle also looks for Vulkan, useful in a future when other drivers lose performance. Both Google and Microsoft work on Angle. As to MS Windows, here is the relevant page: https://github.com/Microsoft/angle/wiki Also advice about Windows OpenGL vs. Angle here: https://wiki.qt.io/Qt_5_on_Windows_ANGLE_and_OpenGL is from mid 2015, but still has valid points.

[SilverWarior]

Also advice about Windows OpenGL vs. Angle here: https://wiki.qt.io/Qt_5_on_Windows_ANGLE_and_OpenGL is from mid 2015, but still has valid points.

This article is assuming that most people still use those Generic Graphic drivers that ship with Windows who only have OpenGL 1 compatibility. But that is no longer true. Why?
Because by using of such drivers you lose lots of functionality of your graphics card. Most notable one is the fact that in most cases such drivers don't even properly support Widescreen monitor resolutions so you basically end up with 4:3 aspect ratio screen stretched to fit the widescreen monitor. As a result most computer vendors already install proper graphics drivers.
And if you have newer computer with newer graphics card there is an increased possibility that Windows will actually download and install proper graphical drivers who already have full OpenGL functionality as they are made by graphics card vendors and are just distributed through Windows Update platform.
Also article states that you need "Custom" graphical drivers for OpenGL to work on Windows. That was only true in the beginning of Windows XP era since Microsoft has been refusing to issue a VSDL certificate for graphical drivers which also had support for OpenGL as an attempt to further solidify the use of their DirectX library instead. They abandoned this practice after a huge pressure was made on them by many gamers and graphical cards vendors since at certain point OpenGL had more functionality than their Direct X 9c.

Do you have any examples that could be used as a test bench to compare the performance of OpenGL vs OpenGL ES?

[pixelwriter]

Subset yes, but GLES 2, 3 are fully shaderbased and suffice in my case.
The advantage is easier support in my crossplatform app.
OpenGL drivers are not a very sure thing on Windows,
that's why I go like the major webbrowsers (which use libGLESv2.dll for webGL
and others). The swiftshader software renderer libGLESv2.dll is OpenSource,
and also the speedier libGLESv2.dll Angle. This can be used as fallback
if a hardware driver (openGL ES or matching openGL) is lacking.

[SilverWarior]

OpenGL drivers are not a very sure thing on Windows,

So why do you think that driver support for OpenGL ES would be any better since OpenGL ES is primarily developed for embedded devices and not for desktops?
A quick search on web will tell you that in order to be able to use OpenGL ES on Windows you either need special drivers or additional SDK's for it or even worse run your software through a special OpenGL ES emulator.
http://developer.amd.com/tools-and-s...opengl-es-sdk/
https://www.g-truc.net/post-0457.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.com..._pack_v100.pdf

I personally feel that it would be better to add support for Vulkan API (https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/) which was build from the ground up to be a cross-platform graphical API. And based on initial information it can also rival with DirectX 12.
Now while at the moment there is still limited hardware support for Vilkan API that will definitely change in the future. You see the official specifications for Vulkan API has only been officially released on 16th of February 2016 so hardware vendors did not have much time to prepare for its arrival.