Re: Tools

[Pierre Phaneuf <pp@ludusdesign.com>]

Chris Purnell wrote:

> The linux console rocks.
> 
> However most of the driver writing effort is directed towards X.
> Also the console driver writing effort is split over svgalib,
> fbcon and kgi.  The result of this it the the hardware support
> for the console sucks.

The problem with the console isn't much with the hardware support, but
with the console itself. Even if I use the command line a lot, I use it
from within an xterm, beside Netscape and XEmacs. Switching to another
login on a console to run my game sucks, I know, the first Quadra
release supported only Svgalib and I develop in X with XEmacs.

I have a Quake3 icon on my Window Maker dock. Whenever I feel like it, I
double click into Quake and blast a few rockets. *That* rocks.

And the newbie users will not think that it rocks, they think of this as
ORDINARY. Having to Ctrl-Alt-F1 out of X Window (because they use an X
login, of course) and having to log in *again*, just to run a game, it
rings "SUCKS" to them, however cool you might find that.

Direct rendering applied to 2D would yield the exact same performance
and capabilities as the console, with all of the driver effort going
into XFree86 at your fingertips.

Again, what I think is that the retargetable capabilities of game SDK is
a very important feature, so that if you *want* to play on the console,
you *can*. And I also maintain that the "reasonable default minimum"
should be to work in X.

> The overhyped XF86 V4 might just hold the key be the answer.
> XF86 V4 has it's graphics drivers as loadable modules.  The
> idea that I and others have had is to use those drivers to
> produce a console mode api such as svgalib.
> 
> What I'm going to do is wait until the release of XF86 V4
> and then I'm going to look at how the driver interface
> works to see if the scheme is doable.

I wish you good luck, that would be a vrey cool thing to happen! Be sure
to take a look at the snapshots of XFree86!

-- 
Pierre Phaneuf
Ludus Design, http://ludusdesign.com/
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you. Then you win." -- Gandhi