Software substitue for GL was, Re: [SDL] OpenGL / SDL / GUI / Movie :-)

[Charles Wardlaw]

--- Bob Pendleton <bob at pendleton.com> wrote:
> To completely replace OpenGL would require that SDL include a
> software 
> implementation of OpenGL. I personally, think that is a little
> extreme. 
> I do, however, think that it would be reasonable to define a set of
> 2D 
> graphic functions that is fairly small, but higher level than the 
> current SDL graphic functions that could be implemented in software
> and 
> layered on top of both OpenGL, and DirectX.

Exactly.  I didn't mean to include a software replacement for OpenGL as
a part of SDL; rather, I was indicating a desire for accelerated 2D SDL
functions that use OpenGL when available.  When not available, vanilla
SDL would still be used.

> And, I think a layer like that would go against the SDL, 
> lean and mean, keep it simple, philosophy.

I disagree, but I'm not the author. ^.^  Personally, I'd like to see
SDL Image and SDL Mixer merged into the main library.  *ducks*  I think
that simplicity is good, but not at the cost of ease of use.  OpenGL
happens to be on almost every platform under the sun by default these
days, and platforms with hardware acceleration would definitely see a
speed benefit if 3D cards were taken advantage of.  However, I'm just
idly chatting now, as such a feat is well beyond the scope of my
programming ability.  And glSDL is an interesting project in the vein
of what I had in mind.

- Charles

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