ubuntu-gaming team mailing list archive

[Haroon Khalid <haroon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Is there a forum that will be setup for discussing and planning all this or
maybe a wiki? I havent read too much of whats going on or what the goals
are....I joined this group since I am intersted in game development for
Unix. I use FreeBSD, and I was planning to make a 2D game console using
www.beagleboard.org and www.pygame.org Anyways that just a lil intro about
me since I havent spoke to any of you guys before.

   On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 11:43 AM, Luke Benstead <kazade@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> 2009/6/17 Haroon Khalid <haroon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> > did someone say making a direct X type of lib is a bad idea? What else
>> is
>> > there you can do? The opengame art site has hardly any solid art.
>>
>> Yes I think that a DX type lib is a bad idea because we have the
>> equivalent libraries already. I fail to see what benefit developing an
>> all encompassing API will actually bring. Look at it this way, if I'm
>> developing a networked desktop application with a database backend I'd
>> research the most suitable GUI API, the most suitable networking API
>> and most suitable database connection API for my language and
>> circumstances. It doesn't matter that all three will use a different
>> syntax because chances are they will take up a minimal part of the
>> entire code of the application. Also that kind of modularity lets me
>> choose one network API over another for my particular situation.
>>
>> Games are exactly the same, DirectX or OpenGL/SDL/OpenAL only make up
>> a small portion of any reasonably complex game. The majority goes on
>> game code: AI, file IO, logic, scene managers, UI elements etc. etc.
>> and the most reasonably designed games will have abstracted the lot
>> away coz (for example) you won't find DX on a Wii. There is very
>> little benefit writing some kind of wrapper for the different
>> component APIs (OpenGL et al.) we have because it's not really an
>> issue.
>>
>> And then there is the age old saying.. "Write games, not engines"
>> although you can obviously write a game using the APIs directly, the
>> work has already been done a zillion times in various open source
>> engines (Q3, Ogre, Irrlicht, Horde3D, Crystal Space etc. etc. etc.) so
>> just use one of those instead of reinventing the wheel.
>>
>> That said, if you aren't using an engine, there are *some* gaps we
>> could fill with C libraries to fit in with the GL/AL/SDL/DevIL stack
>> to better match DX in features, including:
>>
>> 1. A 3D font output library
>> 2. A 3D math library ( I tried this one: http://www.kazade.co.uk/kazmath/)
>> 3. An FX framework library
>> 4. A 3D model library (like DevIL for models)
>>
>> DX has those above 4 things included. But I reiterate I don't believe
>> code libraries are the problem really, I think it's a lack of
>> collaboration of resources and a lack of a central place on the
>> Internet for the open games community for managing
>> code/models/texture/sounds/teams and games.
>>
>> Luke.
>>
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