Graphics libraries.

[LP]

Are you sure Sphinx does not GUI? I also assumed newer version would, you might need to post around on forum or contact developer(s).

I suppose if there is not much difference between XE and 2010 it might be alright, I haven't tried it yet but will when I have time.

Asphyre Sphinx works for Delphi 2006-2010 and XE, it also works on XE Starter and FPC/Lazarus. Attempts were made to port it to Mac OS X, but no success so far (have no decent Mac OS X machine at hand).

There is a good GUI option for Asphyre posted here. In addition, an updated GUI based on the one provided in Asphyre eXtreme was ported for our game project and redesigned, but it's not yet published (it will be after the game's release - I have yet to fix few menus and shortcuts in the GUI designer).

[WILL]

In 2009 I bought my HP laptop, and guess what? There was no official drivers for Radeon HD 4650 inside(installed, I mean), so my system didn't support OpenGL and DxVA for video decoding using videocard.

From the sounds of it, the system didn't support anything unless you installed drivers anyhow. How is OpenGL separate in this situation?

You think so because you are programmer, a lot of people uses computers without understanding whole "system stuff", and because of that publishers prefer Direct3D. And if your game is not something very incredible, you will loose a lot of costumers because of OpenGL. But all this is related to casual/small games.

I'd have to respectfully disagree. If I was stuck installing something for OpenGL, sure my computer knowledge might have played a factor, but as some guy just playing OpenGL-based games I didn't have to install anything. Maybe I'm just lucky and only ever used computers that had graphics cards with proper drives that came with it?

That's possible, but I seriously doubt that because someone who doesn't know much about computers and didn't have their system setup properly is a reason to blame OpenGL.

The same can be said for DirectX too. I could just as easily blindly accuse Direct3D of being poor for casual games because the user might not have their graphics drivers properly setup. We might as well erase all the crosswalks because some people don't look where they are going.

To that point, I've kept hearing about issues with OpenGL support on various cards. If it's an issue with later versions of OpenGL (ie the current 4.x) then only use the version of OpenGL that everyone will be guaranteed to have. If it's a casual game that you are making then you don't need all those new features to make your game look good. Games were quite impressive with 1.2 and 2.1 alone if I recall correctly.

[WILL]

Asphyre Sphinx works for Delphi 2006-2010 and XE, it also works on XE Starter and FPC/Lazarus. Attempts were made to port it to Mac OS X, but no success so far (have no decent Mac OS X machine at hand).

I can be your guinea pig? I have the latest (until Lion comes out) Mac OS X. What was left to make compatible? I assume that it was all OpenGL equivalents to DirectX, correct?

[Andru]

How is OpenGL separate in this situation?

If you look posts before, you will discover that my answer was to MuteClown, and he said that OpenGL now works out of the box with Windows standard drivers, but this is not true...

That's possible, but I seriously doubt that because someone who doesn't know much about computers and didn't have their system setup properly is a reason to blame OpenGL.

I didn't blame the OpenGL. The same thing I can said, e.g., about Linux. Everybody blame Linux for some problems, but for real, problems only with that people who are lazy and with bad knowledges... Or one more - Linux is bad, because there is no Photoshop, which is not a problem of this OS, this problem is related to Adobe But all this doesn't change the situation - many people don't use Linux, and many people don't install official drivers for supporting OpenGL And one more about newer Windows. When I released ZenGL 0.2 and post this on lazarus website I got this feedback. As always problem is a drivers. At work I have some computers with Windows 7 and Intel videocards(965 Express), which are doesn't support OpenGL out of the box... I spent some time before I found drivers(design of Intel website is almost unusable ), and after installation I get some bugs in their driver with OpenGL, but this is another story how Intel, NVIDIA and AMD make problems in their drivers for OpenGL developers...

[WILL]

Don't know what to tell ya. Maybe I'm just lucky or people and companies need to stop using crappy graphics card drivers.

[Andru]

Maybe I'm just lucky or people and companies need to stop using crappy graphics card drivers.

Maybe you are lucky because you have installed special version of Windows? Anyway, as the saying goes - "Client is always right", so if you want to run your game on most range of computers with Windows, it's better to use Direct3D. But this is sad...

[czar]

so if you want to run your game on most range of computers with Windows, it's better to use Direct3D. But this is sad...

I agree if you are making a program for the general public then expect to have to deal with lots of people who have no idea about computers whatsoever. I do my own helpdesk for Vision Board Studio and it is amazing the level computer skills that people have. Over the years I have made the software as idiot proof as possible. However, I cannot make it damn idiot proof so occasionally I still need to deal with with some very confused people.

[vgo]

There is a good GUI option for Asphyre posted here.

I can't find a download link on the forums for that?

[dazappa]

Are you sure Sphinx does not GUI? I also assumed newer version would, you might need to post around on forum or contact developer(s).

I suppose if there is not much difference between XE and 2010 it might be alright, I haven't tried it yet but will when I have time.

On the other hand I hear a lot around here about SDL, which I wouldn't mind at least test driving for drawing, obviously not the new 1.3 or w/e as commercial applications need licenses and all sorts of weird and wonderful things, not something I am interested in this stage. How do I get started with SDL and Delphi 2010 just with basic 2D drawing of images, preferably in a fashion similar to UnDelphiX? Also performance wise does it do better than UnDelphiX if anyone knows?

The licensing for 1.3 is fairly straightforward. If you're linking an application dynamically against it, it's free like it currently is. If you want to link statically, it requires a commercial license. In any case, I doubt it'll even get done by the end of this year

[code_glitch]

OK, from what I've read above it usually seems to be D3d or bad stuff... Now, purely hypothetically (I'm not offering anything yet) but I would deduce 2 things: The target OS is windows and the problem is lack/old versions of OpenGl installed on them is it not? I have yet to see a setup that is lacking OpenGl support - period, but drivers I will admit to seeing some weird stuff happening from time to time. Thus it is a software issue. And on windows is that not the case of just a few dll files?

I'm just curious but would it be worth whipping up a 'Universal OpenGl Runtime' installer to distribute with OpenGl games? That would mean just getting all of OpenGL's resources and packing them up. It might be larger than expected, but come on guys/gals: how in gods name could it be larger than d3d? or slower for that matter. Anyone here have less than 64mb free HDD space? No thought not (if you're running windows on that kudos to you and a quick heads up, your screen might suddenly like blue).

Oh, and sdl is all compatible and likey-likey but speed (or inherent lack of it) might become an issue... Almost immediately...