programs only on windows?
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this is a question for the future i just wanted to know if the programs you write in directx only run on windows or to use directx do you have to have windows?
Well, DirectX is windows based. There may be some ungodly way to get it onto other systems, but since it uses kernel32, I HIGHLY doubt it.
Mushu - trying to help those he doesn't know, with things he doesn't know.
Why won't he just go away? An question the universe may never have an answer to...[/
Mushu - trying to help those he doesn't know, with things he doesn't know. Why won't he just go away? An question the universe may never have an answer to...[/
The WineX project attempts to reimplement the DirectX interface for Linux. It's been somewhat successful, but it's a stupid idea.
DirectX is Windows (and Xbox) only for the forseeable future.
DirectX is Windows (and Xbox) only for the forseeable future.
There is currently no way to use DirectX on a platform other than Win32/XBOX (unless you hack it up, like Oluseyi said). If you architect your engine carefully, you can make it very portable. For example, you could have the following componets:
It's tough, though, because different platforms handle a lot of things differently. For example, the PC likes a few batches of a lot of vertices, while the PS2 likes a lot of batches of a few vertices.
- IGraphics interface - DX9 Renderer (for PC) - DX8.1 Renderer (for XBOX) - PS2 Renderer- ISound interface...- Entry point - PC - XBOX - PS2It's tough, though, because different platforms handle a lot of things differently. For example, the PC likes a few batches of a lot of vertices, while the PS2 likes a lot of batches of a few vertices.
wine supports nearly all older (ddraw-based) games that dont rely too heavily on non-standard win32 libs. Even those you may be able to port dlls for however. wine is rock solid on nearly every adventure/2D rts I've ever played.
winex has successfully managed to run warcraft3 at comparable frame-rates to windows boxes. That's kindof a neat achievement, but I believe other than one or two others winex is mostly weak-kneed.
One thought though, since a lot of games have openGL ports (RTCW, Doom3, Warcraft3) shouldnt it be relatively simple to release linux-versions of them?
I know Wolf-ET (q3 engine) has a free linux client...
winex has successfully managed to run warcraft3 at comparable frame-rates to windows boxes. That's kindof a neat achievement, but I believe other than one or two others winex is mostly weak-kneed.
One thought though, since a lot of games have openGL ports (RTCW, Doom3, Warcraft3) shouldnt it be relatively simple to release linux-versions of them?
I know Wolf-ET (q3 engine) has a free linux client...
Quote:Original post by dhanji
One thought though, since a lot of games have openGL ports (RTCW, Doom3, Warcraft3) shouldnt it be relatively simple to release linux-versions of them?
There are plenty of DirectX -> OpenGL wrappers out there too, but that only covers the graphics. There's a lot more to games than graphics.
But even in the cases where it is relatively simple, there needs to be a compelling reason and most companies do not see Linux as a viable gaming platform.
Quote:Original post by Oluseyi
The WineX project attempts to reimplement the DirectX interface for Linux. It's been somewhat successful, but it's a stupid idea.
There's at least one Mac-based project as well. It's commercial and I can't remember it's name at the moment.
Quote:
DirectX is Windows (and Xbox) only for the forseeable future.
Unless XNA takes off in a really big way. It will have to target x86 and PPC processors already, so that's a start.
Quote:Original post by DrunkenHyenaQuote:
DirectX is Windows (and Xbox) only for the forseeable future.
Unless XNA takes off in a really big way. It will have to target x86 and PPC processors already, so that's a start.
Unfortunately, it looks like Sony and Nintendo have already put large damper on it's scope [sad]. It would be great if all the large gaming companies could develop a common interface for all next-generation gaming platforms.
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