Is it worth the effort?
Author
Hi there!
I''m building my 3D engine using DX8 for the input, sound and networks. Now, for the graphic part, I will use OpenGL... or Direct3D. My question is: is it worth the effort to make an engine that supports both OpenGL and D3D (I already know both APIs at the same level)?
BTW, my intentions are to use my engine only on Windows OS.
Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated
Due to the fact you're game will be staying within the windows platform, there are very few reasons to support both APIs.
Why do double the work? (Actually more becuase you have to manage between them too.)
I suggest sticking to one. This is no place for a VS debate (and hopefully no one will start one ;-) so pick one, and stick with it. Unless you have a reason ... there is no reason to support both.
"If all that matters is what you get in the end, why go through life?"
~Michael Sikora
Edited by - guardian_light on January 14, 2002 4:25:35 PM
Why do double the work? (Actually more becuase you have to manage between them too.)
I suggest sticking to one. This is no place for a VS debate (and hopefully no one will start one ;-) so pick one, and stick with it. Unless you have a reason ... there is no reason to support both.
"If all that matters is what you get in the end, why go through life?"
~Michael Sikora
Edited by - guardian_light on January 14, 2002 4:25:35 PM
Author
You have a good point, Guardian (and I''m glad you didn''t start a boring API war, hehe). I asked this because games like Half-Life and applications like trueSpace 5.1 can switch from one API to another (ok.. Half-Life is an "old" game by now, but trueSpace is a new application).
I was thinking in only two reasons: if I ever sell my engine the "double support" can add some bonus to it. On the other side, some graphic cards have better drivers for OGL and others better driver for DX. I really dunno :p
I was thinking in only two reasons: if I ever sell my engine the "double support" can add some bonus to it. On the other side, some graphic cards have better drivers for OGL and others better driver for DX. I really dunno :p
well, in my engine i''m using both GL and D3D..
it''ll be ported to mac os and linux as well as the windows
platform.
basically, in my graphics core i''ve written a duplicate function
for everything graphic-wise..
ie) glInitWindow
dxInitWindow
adding support for directx will also make your game a bit
more compatible with older (3dfx in particular) video cards.
hope this helps
-eldee
;another space monkey;
it''ll be ported to mac os and linux as well as the windows
platform.
basically, in my graphics core i''ve written a duplicate function
for everything graphic-wise..
ie) glInitWindow
dxInitWindow
adding support for directx will also make your game a bit
more compatible with older (3dfx in particular) video cards.
hope this helps
-eldee
;another space monkey;
if you write your engine well, the rendering layer implementation will not matter very much. I find keeping both api''s in mind when writing the engine makes me write less api dependant, more elegant code.
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