Hi i'm new to linux and i'm very interested in developing a game engine for my forth year project. In particular i'm interested in developing a game engine for a frontier elite clone ( e.g. for those who don't remember, an accurrate space sim/fighting/trading style game) I have a little experience with OpenGL through Java bindings from my project last year (3D Chess) and would like to really deleve into OpenGL this year and create a great engine. From the little knowledge i have of Linux, i have heard that OpenGL or just graphics in general perform worse than say Direct X, [which i want to stay away from, for morale reasons :)] and i'm not really sure where to start with graphics programming for Linux. I would really like some constructive advice on the pro's and con's of developing a graphics engine on linux so i know where i stand Thanks

OpenGL doesn't perform worse than Direct3D. The only let down is that on Windows you have to use extensions to access more advanced features than version 1.0. You won't have this problem on Linux though [smile].

The relative performance of Direct3d and OpenGL are mostly down to how the drivers are coded.

Of course one can beat the other.

Direct3d provides (certainly in more recent versions) some features which you can't do in OpenGL without using extensions. This is not necessarily a problem though, because most OpenGL drivers support a lot of extensions.

Mark

Quote:
I have a little experience with OpenGL through Java bindings from my project last year (3D Chess) and would like to really deleve into OpenGL this year and create a great engine.

I'm not positive but I looked into using java with opengl once and I think they only work together on windows.

I'm also yet to see a decent java IDE on linux, and with the various versions (IBM, blackdown, etc) I've found java in linux to be a real pain in the arse from a development point of view.

Quote: Original post by Preacher
I would really like some constructive advice on the pro's and con's of developing a graphics engine on linux so i know where i stand

I'm using SDL with OpenGL and it works for me perfectly. If you are smart, you could write one source for *nix and win32.

Quote: Original post by flukus
I'm also yet to see a decent java IDE on linux,

Have you tried Eclipse (IBM's Java-oriented IDE)? I'm not much of a Java developer and I realize we all have different tastes, but I've only heard good things about using it for Java development (mixed opinions for non-Java development).

Quote: Original post by flukus
with the various versions (IBM, blackdown, etc) I've found java in linux to be a real pain in the arse from a development point of view.

Blackdown is a licensed repackaging of Sun's VM and class library. The same bytecode works everywhere, no? It couldn't be any worse than dealing with both Microsoft's and Sun's incompatible VMs in Windows. But, like I said, I'm not a Java developer...

I've never managed to get eclipse to work, I eventually did manage to get it to work, but then it wouldn't open files. At the moment I'm sticking with windows for java development until JCreator get ported (hopefully :) ).

As far as programs I've made myself, they all seem to run fine under linux.

Hi!

OpenGL games perform better for me on Linux than they do on Windows. I'm perfectly comfortable with OpenGL and Linux, although Xlib is more complicated than the Win32 API. But there are wrappers like SDL that make your life easier.

Do you want to code with C/C++ or Java, or something else? I'm not familiar with OpenGL in Java, but for C/C++, the drivers (especially nVidia) are great and you always have recent versions of OpenGL (1.5.1 for me), rather than 1996's 1.1 which is current on Windows (hence the greater need for extensions).

Also, I have found the Linux man pages particularily helpful as you don't need to look up the OpenGL reference on the web! ;)

Hope that helps!

cya,
Drag0n

Quote: Original post by Drag0n
although Xlib is more complicated than the Win32 API

you can't say that, because XLib and Win32API are NOT equivalents. try some widget libs GTK+ (for C++ try gtkmm) or QT.

Ok to answer some questions, exactly what i'd like to do is create a frontier (Elite 2) style game using C++ and OpenGL on Linux for a college project.

But the more i look into the tack of creating a game engine the more i'm being put off, as i just don't have the skills to pull it off within the time frame imposed by the college.

I would still very much like to do some project using OpenGL and Linux though. What i really want to know is if there are any major reasons not to develop a graphics project for Linux (Nevermind marketing reasons as its a project) and if anybody can offer any advice on the do's and don't of Linux graphics programming:)