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Re: Fwd: identifying obstacles in ubuntu gaming and pushing it forwards

 

On our wiki, the gaming secion of the ubuntu forums is listed as the forum
for us to use, but this discussion is something i'd like to hold off on
until we have our meeting because it is exactly what caused a lot of
backlash i nstarting this team. We do not want to step on the toes of
existing teams. Once we set a date for the upcoming meeting, i'll start an
agenda and i'll add this to it. Please respond to the meeting thread "let's
get started" f you have not already
Thanks,
.danny

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 15:01, Haroon Khalid <haroon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> 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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-- 
http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo

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