[CF-Devel] DirectX and other APIs

[Michael Toennies]

Hi

There is a interesting thing in DX8 which comes out in the next month.

It has no 2D interface!!

That means no Blts, no Direct Draw! You have use DX7 for it.

Of course you can do all the things - using a D3D.

That means that in one year, most games runes only if you have
a 3D card, including the "normal" ones. Also, every simple tetris then
will use the 3D card functions for the blt.

Well, i have already written my 3D engine for 2D blts.

So, i will update the dx client when needed. The real cool thing
is, that with a 3D engine for blts, you can use all the great things
like real alpha, mutiple bitmap (oops, i mean texture :) blending
or light sources.

Its also good for older computers - with a 3D card of course.
Because the 3D card will make more blts in the hardware since a
older 2D card.

But for older computer without 3D card - hey, who needs terminals?

I think its a good think, because the grafik card companys have never
include
a good 2D blitter in the last years. Many 2D games can run MUCH faster when
they
get really hardware acclereated.

Sniff, only my RLE blitting routines, which can clip and runtime decoding
will be
outdated too... On a normal card, they are faster then most system to video
blts
even if the card use a blitter. Well, but agp and 3D texture managment will
kick them.
Also, the are useless then. Sigh.

Michael Toennies

PS: You ask why not always all use 3D in the past if it is faster?
    Because the easy 2D way was in DX and no company wants that the user
say:
    look this product is running but this not on my computer.
    Now, if no 2D in DX all are forced to do it, and thats ok and will
satisface
    all in the future...
    Hm, that remember me to png.. :)=