programming (fast) 3D in Squeak

Hans Nikolaus Beck HNBeck at t-online.de
Wed Dec 4 18:58:11 UTC 2002


Hi, 

>This question doesn't make sense as stated.
>
>"Balloon3D" is a low-level interface which can be used by applications
>in a variety of "modes":
>* software only: use the builtin software renderer
>* 3DAPI: Uses platform API for rendering:
>    * software only
>    * hardware accelerated
>On Windows, we even have the choice between OpenGL and Direct3D which is
>controlled by a VM preference (and cannot be influenced by Balloon3D at
>this point). IOW, there are at most five "modes" that Balloon3D could be
>used in at this point: builtin/software, D3D/software, D3D/hardware,
>OGL/software, OGL/hardware.
>
>It is the APPLICATION that can request certain modes from Balloon3D and
>specify the capabilities they want including if HWA is required or not
>and various other things. Whether or not to fall back on software
>rendering (either builtin or through the platform API) depends on the
>application not on Balloon3D. For Wonderlands this is true (e.g., they
>use software rendering by default) for Croquet it is not. In fact, for
>Croquet even OpenGL is required and any attempt to run it in D3D mode is
>likely to crash.
>
>So essentially the answer to the question is: Balloon3D _can_ detect the
>presence of hardware support for the current platform API. Whether any
>application makes use of that information or not is an entirely
>different matter. Balloon3D can _NOT_ detect the presence of OpenGL
>directly and it can _NOT_ detect if that is "usable" in the context of
>some application (aka "do the drivers crash?", "is it too slow?").
>
Thank you to make the picture much more clear :-))  But why not put such 
essential information in Swiki ;-) I've searched some time,  founding 
some stuff to Balloon, but no answer to such simple question ......
But this drives me back to another old question: does it make sense to 
work with balloon deeply,  if  croquet is in the door  in near future 
(which has as far as I know other or new concepts for let the programmer 
make 3D ?

Greetings


Hans

>
>  - Andreas
>
>  
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfoundation.org 
>>[mailto:squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On 
>>Behalf Of Hans Nikolaus Beck
>>Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 7:02 PM
>>To: squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
>>Subject: Re: programming (fast) 3D in Squeak
>>
>>
>>Hi,
>>
>>that means, the Ballon3D detects itself if openGl is usable 
>>or not and 
>>if not switches to softrenderer ?
>>
>>Greetigns
>>
>>Hans
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>is Ballon Hardware accelerated (via openGl ) or not ?
>>>>
>>>>Greetings
>>>>
>>>>Hans
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Yes, it is, although a purely software renderer exists for platforms
>>>without OpenGL or Direct3D.  You might also be interested in Croquet
>>>(www.opencroquet.org), where you can download a pre-alpha 
>>>      
>>>
>>release of a
>>    
>>
>>>Squeak-based multi-user 3D environment that allows you to use OpenGL
>>>directly.
>>>
>>>Joshua
>>>
>>>
>>> 
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>
>  
>





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