This is probably going to sound kinda dumb to you guys but what are GL extensions and do you need to know how to deel with them to make a good game?

The basic OpenGL feature set is very much out of date, so IHVs extend the API. Extensions such as vertex-shaders, register-combiners and multitexturing. The official body governing the development of OpenGL are moving towards releasing OpenGL 2.0 which will encompass all the most popular extensions into the API. Learn the basic API and as you progress you''ll find you begin to need the extensions, such as multitexturing etc...

Cheers,
Eoin.

To make a good game? No. You could make a good game without them. Good games dont always have the best graphics.

To make a state of the art graphics rendering engine? Yes. You most definatly will wanna use them.


-=[ Megahertz ]=-

to make a good game?
yes.
why? they help speeding up very much. this helps having the needed power to implement what ever you want as a game. else you run around with 1000 triangles only at 30fps.. there can''t bee that much good games with 1000 triangles for the whole world

and yes, grafics are needed for good games.
it just depends on the game WHAT kind of grafics are good. for rpg''s or fps or other stuff i want realistic grafics to have a feeling i''m in, or i''m watching a movie.
for puzzlegames i want freaky grafics and technomusic to get a full flash

So you''re implying that DOOM, etc. were only fun because we were ignorant of what could be done? I think not.

Later,
ZE.

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Multitexturing is definitely needed! Maybe GL_EXT_texture_env_combine can be also rather important, but the other extensions aren''t so important as that two. For example if your geometry doesn''t change you can use display lists and you don''t need to know about nv_vertex_array...
At least imho...


-- tSG --

A good game doesn''t need any particular type of graphics.

Surely you guys are getting confused with good looking game?

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quote:

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Original post by siaspete
A good game doesn't need any particular type of graphics.

Surely you guys are getting confused with good looking game?

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Agreed, game play makes the game... you could have the best looking engine ever, but if ya game play su><0rs then you've majorly overlooked something

Good example of this is the HL mod I'm working on, atm we have no custom models/sound/gfx of any sort, however the gameplay r0><0rs j00 :D, and it's not just me saying that, we've had ppl testing it often, and compare HL to some of the games about now it's not the most stunning looking game ever now.

So, if ya wanna make a great _looking_ game, the extensions are a must.
If ya wanna make a great game with great game play, then it's down to your imagination.

[edited by - _the_phantom_ on March 27, 2002 7:24:28 PM]

gameplay is not everything..
gameplay makes not the game, the feeling makes the game. and a good feeling you have with good gameplay AND good grafics. i dont mean realistic grafics, but it has to match the gameplay. fun racers have to look funny, doom style shooters dark and scary etc. and the bether the grafics technologically, the more the graficer can implement the feelings grafically of the world represented by the gameplay.

what a game needs:
good gameplay
good grafics
good sountrack

if it does not its just annoying..


and always think about good grafics on the hardware you run it.. if it is a gf4 i want to have doom3 like grafics, if it is my gba, i don''t need perfect perpixellit stuff and volumetric shadows with fur on the meshes etc. for this i dont buy a gba

i know we all say gameplay is the only thing that counts, but be realistic

we all say only the inner parts of a person are important, but do you watch the nice looking girl or the bad looking girl walkin trough? you don''t know the inner parts before you learn somebody to know. the same for a game. you wont play a bad lookin game if there is no body tellling you you have to. i dont say i girl has to look like a model, thought, but it has to look realistic, means that what i see is how she is inside. if she looks nice i can try to see if she is nice in her hearth, too..

its all about girls, not?

You have no clue.

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