I hate my base code...
I have been using a windows/ogl base code I wrote for about 6 months but Im really not happy with it. Im just using the raw windows api, and deriving a class for the main loop functions. What I want to know is this: would it be feasable to use mfc for the most part of the engine? Or is there an alternative to mfc? What do you guys normally use? Also, how do you use the windows ini??
With OpenGL, i just use SDL for windowing and input (and network and image loading and...). It's cross-platform, but even better it's just simple and nice looking. Can't recommend it enough. With SDL you don't have to touch ANY of the OS-specific calls.
Also you can use GLFW. Just like with SDL, you don't have to touch those pesky OS-specific calls.
Website=http://glfw.sourceforge.net/
Website=http://glfw.sourceforge.net/
wxWidgets is _completely_ what you need. It is absolutely awsome.
[Edited by - aftermath on August 27, 2004 2:34:56 PM]
[Edited by - aftermath on August 27, 2004 2:34:56 PM]
Unless you are doing lots of window stuff, there isn't much reason not to just use the basic Win32 API. In general, unless you already know MFC, you should probably use something else, since MFC is on the way out.
Not to mention, MFC is hellish to learn and won't offer many (if any) advantages at all over something like wxWindows or SDL.
If you plan to stay in Windows, you could get the new Visual C++ Express Beta and use it for WinForms, which SHOULD interface easily enough with OpenGL.
Other options include WTL, GLUT and Allegro. WTL is an awful lot like MFC though and is becoming obsolete too (I think), GLUT is nicely cross-platform but can be rather stifling to your coding style and Allegro is cross-platform and has lots of other features, like sound, image loading and input and it has a (separate) OpenGL add-in that lets you use GL code normally. It's rather like SDL, but not really object oriented.
-Auron
If you plan to stay in Windows, you could get the new Visual C++ Express Beta and use it for WinForms, which SHOULD interface easily enough with OpenGL.
Other options include WTL, GLUT and Allegro. WTL is an awful lot like MFC though and is becoming obsolete too (I think), GLUT is nicely cross-platform but can be rather stifling to your coding style and Allegro is cross-platform and has lots of other features, like sound, image loading and input and it has a (separate) OpenGL add-in that lets you use GL code normally. It's rather like SDL, but not really object oriented.
-Auron
Quote:Original post by Auron
It's rather like SDL, but not really object oriented.
-Auron
SDL is written in c and not OO at all unlless you right a wrapper for it like I did.
Quote:Original post by Auron
Not to mention, MFC is hellish to learn and won't offer many (if any) advantages at all over something like wxWindows or SDL.
-Auron
I don't think I'd refer to MFC as being "hellish" to learn, but for the non-tools part of game development it's completely useless anyway, it's just not suited for the task at all. For applications it's a mature API that can do just about anything, though in the future it's going to be replaced by .NET.
I use win32 for engines and MFC for tools. MFC while borked at some places is the best solution I have found and I've looked at Fox toolkit and wxWidgets and some others like Qt. The only thing so far I don't like about MS is their d3d. Something else I wanted to mention. If you need maximum flexibility you should use win32 but you'll know by then what to use. Don't try to OO win32 as it's not worth it. Use MFC for that. You can also look at .net for usage in tools because it has functionality built in that MFC lacks. Plus, the gui is GC'ed which means no memory leaks. Those are nasty to find since MFC doesn't catch them. You can use and will have to, win32 with MFC.
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