Re: Re[2]: OpenGL+GLUT the future

[John <tarquin@texas.net>]

GLUT is linked to X. That in itself is a reason not to build a game lib
off of it. Keyboard handling in X for a fullscreen program can get
strange, ever tried running glquake from an xterm? It works until you
inadvertantly move the mouse out of the window. IMO, GLUT seems to be more
of a gui kit for OpenGL than a nice, general purpose base for a game.
Glquake does not use glut. Quake2's ref_gl does not use glut. Reasons: it
forces you to use it's main loop, and it does not work outside of GLX.
True GLUT simplifies the process of acquiring the screen space and tieing
a Mesa context into it, but it goes through GLX to get it.

What is needed at the moment is a general interface to the sound drivers.
Networking through sockets is easy enough at the moment. Keyboard handling
is easy enough (abuse source code. 'nuff said) and mouse handling, at the
moment, is best done on the console with svgalib (shudder) At the moment,
since the only hardware support in Mesa is 3Dfx, linking straight in and
using fxmesa is good enough. Sound is the only area where one is going
straight to the /dev's, and could benifit greatly from a slightly
abstracted library.

John Allensworth --- tarquin@texas.net --- ReaperMan on the QuakeServers
Author of XtraWeapons (except the homing missile, eject, and throwing axe) 
Industrial Strength Gaming    http://www.uk.digiserve.com/whiteoak/punktc/
Real Programmers think better when playing Adventure or Rogue.