Thoughts on the popcap framework?
Author
Hey, I have recently found and started toying with the Popcap framework from http://developer.popcap.com . I was wondering what people thought about this framework? It seems to be built on top of directx and I find it simpler to use then SDL (having to code every little thing when I don't need to reinvent the wheel).
I am planning on developing a puzzle game so this seems like the obvious choice..
Is it worth using, or are there better options with the same relative ease?
I don't know much about it, but it seems very popular, so I expect that in itself is something.
Perhaps someone could implement much of the Popcap functionality in SDL as a new library? I don't know enough about what it offers to comment, really.
Perhaps someone could implement much of the Popcap functionality in SDL as a new library? I don't know enough about what it offers to comment, really.
It is built for making puzzle and light arcade games on Windows. It is very stable, well documented (it is a joy to see well-commented code for a change) and fairly fast (for what it is). About the only chinks in their armor are that it is for WIndows only and doesn't have any networking built-in.
I have some beefs with it as well. All in all, it looks prety decent. There are some things I don't like about it though.
*I don't know about most engines, frameworks, or libraries, but I just don't feel comfortable overiding class members or filling in for callback functions. That's more of a personal prefrence than an actual issue with the library, but that's why I am using SDL instead.
*It's for casual 2D gaming. I'm a hardcore 2d gamer, whatever that means.
I guess it's good, but it's not for everybody.
*I don't know about most engines, frameworks, or libraries, but I just don't feel comfortable overiding class members or filling in for callback functions. That's more of a personal prefrence than an actual issue with the library, but that's why I am using SDL instead.
*It's for casual 2D gaming. I'm a hardcore 2d gamer, whatever that means.
I guess it's good, but it's not for everybody.
Author
Cool well so far I like it becuase:
A) It has a sound engine that isn't totally confusing (why is programming sound so hard?)
B) It's DrawImage methods automatically handle alpha channels (which is a good thing)
C) The whole concept of widgets is pretty intresting..
Plus it is designed for the type of game I am trying to create :P.
Some negative points about it though are:
A) So far the graphics API seems very lacking (No methods for drawing circles, curves, ect and I don't see a way to implement them without going and making a modification of the graphics class itself)
B) Some loss in control/power... I guess this happens when using any lib though. Some stuff is simply handled for you (such as managing widgets)... In a way this is a good thing but in a way you don't have direct control over everything...
C) A bit of overhead... the class is pretty large and makes 1 meg exes by DEFAULT (blank template compiles to 1 meg :S)
D) Lack of portability (Only runs on windows)
However I think for the momment im going to use the framework becuase it really simplifies things quite a bit.
A) It has a sound engine that isn't totally confusing (why is programming sound so hard?)
B) It's DrawImage methods automatically handle alpha channels (which is a good thing)
C) The whole concept of widgets is pretty intresting..
Plus it is designed for the type of game I am trying to create :P.
Some negative points about it though are:
A) So far the graphics API seems very lacking (No methods for drawing circles, curves, ect and I don't see a way to implement them without going and making a modification of the graphics class itself)
B) Some loss in control/power... I guess this happens when using any lib though. Some stuff is simply handled for you (such as managing widgets)... In a way this is a good thing but in a way you don't have direct control over everything...
C) A bit of overhead... the class is pretty large and makes 1 meg exes by DEFAULT (blank template compiles to 1 meg :S)
D) Lack of portability (Only runs on windows)
However I think for the momment im going to use the framework becuase it really simplifies things quite a bit.
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