I''ve never used glut, but I''ve seen some code using glut. It seems to me that it shortens everything down pretty damn much, but doesn''t that give you less control of your program? Is it a good idea to use glut when coding a big commercial game? What''s the benefits of using glut? ...not a glut question, but what''s SDL? - Surreal (Surreal was already taken, so I went with SurrealSlacker...)

You''re correct that GLUT simplifies a lot, in exchange for a loss of control - and also performance loss. It really helps seperate your actual code-that-does-stuff from code-that-does-housekeeping like creating the OGL window though.

As such, it''s ideal for knocking out a quick prototype app to see if your new effect/model loader/whatever works, but certainly not for a large game due to the performance issues.

I really liked the GLUT environment so decided a good methodology would be produce a version of the basecode that behaved in a similar way, most particularly allowing you to register your own callbacks that will get called every frame, etc.

This means I get the simplicity of GLUT-esque coding but I can tweak the behind-the-scenes stuff for performance.

I may consider releasing the source to this, although the basic framework''s now grown into a much larger engine. I could rip everything else out again to get back to a decent framework though.

Is this something people would be interested in?

Thanks for clearing that out =)

I'm interested in your code, i would be glad if you sent it to me: Surreal@linainverse.net

I'm currently working on a big game, and I need to make everything very easy to understand and simple to use. This is because I'm working in a group, and I fear that not everyone will understand everything I do. I wouldn't wanna rip your code, I'd only look at it to see how you've done it. Don't think I'm all that when it comes to OpenGL, I've only scratched the surface of OGL. So I think your code would help me alot. =)


- Surreal
(Surreal was already taken, so I went with SurrealSlacker...)

Edited by - SurrealSlacker on October 11, 2001 8:39:09 AM

Surreal,

What I''ll do is hunt you out a rollback of the engine from when I''d just implemented the "basic" stuff.

aSe

K dude, have done. Even commented it for ya

quote:

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Original post by SurrealSlacker
...not a glut question, but what''s SDL?

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SDL is a game oriented library that is portable to Unixes, Windows, MacOS, BeOS, et cetera. It handles threads (mutexs, semaphores, all that multithreaded stuff), sound output and mixing, CD''s, 2D graphics (as well as 3D if you combine OpenGL with it), input, window management, and some other stuff. See libsdl.org for more information.

[Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!]

The only problem is that SDL can be used in a commercial project only if you release the full source code for it... Or at least that''s how I understood its license.

quote:

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Original post by Terran Marine
The only problem is that SDL can be used in a commercial project only if you release the full source code for it... Or at least that''s how I understood its license.

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No, that''s not true. You must make the SDL source code available, but not your own. You must also make any changes you make to SDL available. The LGPL (what SDL uses) is a very open license meant for libraries, so it doesn''t affect what can be done with your code, just theirs, commercial or not.

[Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!]

Ok.

Have SDL ever been used in a commercial game? Does it affect the performence? Is it "kiddie stuff" kinda easy to use?

I''m one of those guys who wanna do everything from scratch...
I''d have to refine iron to be satisfied =)
So, I don''t want anything that takes away the challange, if you know what I mean.

- Surreal
(Surreal was already taken, so I went with SurrealSlacker...)

Yes SDL has been used in commercial products. I don''t remember which ones exactly, but Loki uses it for a lot of their stuff. SDL isn''t meant to handle everything for you. All it does is wrap the OS specific stuff. I use it in combination with OpenGL, so I don''t have to worry about platform specific issues, but I still get to use my favorite API.

[Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!]