Re: [AD] Additional graphics primitives API

[Elias Pschernig <elias@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2008-02-07 at 10:52 -0800, Ryan Dickie wrote:
> Memory based drawing routines?
> I can help out but there is a lot going on here and it could take a
> while. Some things may not be portable too easily. No doubt there will
> be differences in details. I do know on linux that MESA is a software
> based opengl library. I am sure we could beat its performance by
> ignoring the 3rd dimension + associated details. On mac opengl is
> basically guaranteed for os x so there is no worry there. Is it also
> safe to assume d3d will be supported on all windows boxen? The
> acceleration landscape is quite different from when the old allegro
> came out.

So far, we allow specifically creating a memory bitmap, and drawing into
it. So each function must be supported without help from the display
driver (i.e. Direct3D or OpenGL).

Of course, we could drop that requirement, but to me it seems useful to
have it, even if of course additional primitives get much much harder to
do that way than with Direct3D/OpenGL.

> This is probably best done as an addon in the addon directory. 
> 

The question is, where do we draw the line. Splines I would say have to
be an addon in any case, they can be implemented on top of the normal
API without much problems. Ellipses are borderline. In any case, I would
like to veto ellipses approximated by a polygon. If we have a polygon
function, then it would be trivial to approximate such a polygon
yourself anyway. But if someone wants a filled circle and needs
sub-pixel precision, they will be quite annoyed if they get a polygon :P

Lines I'd say should stay in the main lib. A polygon/triangle function
again would be borderline to me. But that's just how I personally see
it..

-- 
Elias Pschernig <elias@xxxxxxxxxx>