Mail Archives: djgpp/1998/02/27/18:03:15
>
>If you are interested in developing graphics apps with allegro, or other
>libraries...
>
>Recently, my company was visited by some Intel people, and they talked with
>us about what kinds of apps they'd like to see us developing over the next
>few years. It seems that they are planning to have 450 Mhz P IIs as the base
>system for most people by sometime next year.
>
>Intel has some really nice tools to help in developing and optomizing
>graphics apps, but there is definately a heavy Windows 95/98 slant there.
>This is understandable considering the way most people set up there PCs.
>
>Another interesting thing that I saw mentioned was that they want people to
>start working on "software" rendering in 3D, not relying just on hardware
>acceleration. Judging from the unbelievable differences I've seen in
>different manufacturer's implementations of basic 3D graphics operations,
>I'm all for this. The problem is that they want us doing something like
>20,000 ~ 30,000 polygon's per frame with Phong shading (eventually),
>procedural textures, video textures, etc., etc. This sounds like a very tall
>order indeed in software only.
>
>I guess what I'd really like to know is if anybody is using libraries like
>Allegro to develop apps like this. I like Allegro alot, much better than
>DirectX, or some of the other 3D APIs available. I find it easy to learn,
>straightfoward to program, and I'm fairly impressed with it's power. It's
>also increadibly easy to scale apps with an API like Allegro, as you pretty
>much have total control over everything the API does.
>
>The problem is that Allegro doesn't seem to be designed to do 20,000 ~
>30,000 polygons per scene, with or without hardware acceleration. I concede
>that of course with the right hardware(fast CPUs and mega
>memory)/algorithm(totally optomized code) it would definately be possible to
>do such things with Allegro, but I can't help but feel that Allegro was
>designed with much humbler goals in mind.
>
>Anyway, I guess I am just curious what others are thinking. I am still kind
>of in a state of shock about what's going to be happening over the next few
>years (and this isn't just vaporware - the guy brought demos!). If anybody
>has anything interesting to share, please post, or e-mail me, whatever!
>
>Long live DJGPP and Allegro!
>
>Chris Bilson
>chrisb AT NOSPAMms12 DOT hinet DOT net
>
>--
>Chris Bilson
>chrisb AT NOSPAMms12 DOT hinet DOT net
>
>
>
>
As much as I like DJGPP & Allegro3.... I see more Windows/DirectX development
for those P450s you're talking about....
As time goes by.. more people getting started in computing haven't ever really
been in "dos mode".... and they're not going to want to goto the "dark place"
on any kind of regular basis...
I've seen demos that can do 1000+ phong & textured polys per frame (on a
486dx-50)... and I figure a P200 can do the rates you're talking about...
As much as I like dos programming... I think w/ a P450 running it, more
developers are going to opt for windows development than ever before...
Jim the loiterer
aloiterer AT juno DOT com
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/gigahertz/179/index.html
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