>every) writes:
>| If you want to do DOS-type graphics and screen handling, you should
>| learn about SVGAlib. That's how you do graphics under Linux if you
>| don't do X Windows. In fact, I think the tools for SVGAlib, like
>| libgrx, are all ports of DOS stuff.
>Note that some versions of SVGAlib don't work on accelerated cards like S3
>boards, so any games that use it would be useless to people who have them (like
>me).
Well if by "some versions" you mean older versions of SVGAlib, that's
not a big deal. Just tell them where to get the most recent version
of the library. Or include it on a disk.
Or do you mean that SVGAlib currently doesn't support many video cards?
Since I run under X all the time (except when I fiddle with the
Quote:>XF86Config file), I tend to view that anything that doesn't work under X (and
>works with a 16-bit visual, not just the 8-bit pseudo color crap) as useless.
SVGAlib could be very useful for performance, especially for non-8-bit
modes. X has a lot of window managing overhead, and X drivers do not
tend to be optimized for anything over 8 bits. Just look at DOOM on
SVGAlib vs. DOOM on X - there's a tremendous difference in
responsiveness.
If I were doing a game that didn't require an extensive GUI, I would
definitely consider using SVGAlib for performance alone. Also, the
Xlib graphics interfaces are a * to program.
Cheers,
Brandon
--
Brandon J. Van Every |
Computer Graphics Guy | [This space intentionally left blank.]
C++ UNIX X-Windows Motif |
by