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From: vanevery@blarg.net (Brandon J. Van Every)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.api.misc,comp.graphics.algorithms,comp.windows.x.i386unix,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.apps
Subject: Re: Freeware community needs 3d library NOW
Followup-To: comp.graphics.api.misc,comp.graphics.algorithms,comp.windows.x.i386unix,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.apps
Date: 27 Jun 1996 18:27:30 GMT
Organization: Blarg! Online Services 206/441-9109
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References: <4qlf04$7pj@guysmiley.blarg.net> <31D027F3.2781E494@FreeBSD.org> <4qpr15$6fv@fido.asd.sgi.com>
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Allen Akin (akin@tuolumne.asd.sgi.com) wrote:
: In article <31D027F3.2781E494@FreeBSD.org>,
: Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
: [jkh's thoughtful comments omitted for brevity]
: | ... even with that degree of backing I think it's fair
: | to say that Direct3D is going to bury it [OpenGL].
: That's definitely a possibility, though not a certainty. D3D
: immediate-mode is lacking quite a few of the features that commercial
: 3D applications need,
Which features do you feel those are? Direct3d is targeted very
specifically at the 3d games market.
: and as people get more experience with its
: hardware support model, they're going to discover that it has a few
: interesting shortcomings. :-)
Such as...? And what do you feel OpenGL does better, by comparison?
: D3D retained-mode is a good solution for certain classes of games,
Which classes of games do you think D3D falls short on?
: and
: it will succeed in that market until it falls behind the technology
: curve due to Microsoft's long development cycle,
How do you see OpenGL as providing a superior development cycle
turnaround time, given that programming a good OpenGL is such a
monumental task? When one starts from the SGI Sample Implementation,
it is not exactly facile to produce high-performance quickly. If SGI
really wants to ensure that OpenGL design cycles outstrip Direct3d
design cycles, I'd really like to see them provide a Sample
Implementation that has a much more efficient internal structure. My
whole motive for Free3d, may simply be the need to provide a 3d API
Sample Implementation that is a better infrastructure.
: or until someone
: comes up with a great new incompatible idea that takes the gaming
: world by storm.
What might that be? :-)
: Allen
For the record, now that I see that there are some serious Linux/GLint and
XFree86 OpenGL efforts underway, I am indeed reconsidering OpenGL. I
do think OpenGL has shortcomings both as an API design and as an "in
practice" design time turnaround problem, but from a freeware
standpoint, the question may not be as academic as I thought.
Cheers,
--
Brandon J. Van Every | Check out Free3d, my 100% efficient, 100% portable
| 3d lib, at <http://www.blarg.net/~vanevery>.
3d Computer Graphics |
C++ UNIX X11 WinNT | E-mail: vanevery@blarg.net