Re: [AL] Using software & OpenGL rendering

[J.P. M. <jp...@it...>]

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 15:57:52 +0200
"Sauc Jedi" <sau...@ho...> wrote:

> Hi guys!
> 
>   I'm making a sidescroller game and have a software renderer and an OpenGL 
> renderer, but on separate executables.
>   I want to know what techniques or tips there are for mix these two into 
> one executable and select the renderer from a menu (ala Quake, Quake2). 
> Quake games seem to do this via DLLs, but I want my game portable.

If you write an abstracted DLL loader, it should be portable.
Make a function that loads in the DLL and performs as much magic as is needed
to make all the functions accessable (I use a class myself).  In the Windows
version, the loader function can use LoadLibrary() or whatever, and you should
be able to make a Posix version of the loader function that uses dlopen()
for Linux, BSD and probably BeOS as well.  If you come across another OS with
a different API, you can write another version of the loader that works for
it too.

CrystalSpace does something like this.

>   Any hints? Function pointers for call the appropriate rendering function? 
> (after deinitializing the previous renderer and initializing the new, of 
> course). Any help would be appreciated.
> 


-- 
JP Morris - aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon) -=UDIC=-  jp...@it...
Fun things to do with the Ultima games            http://www.it-he.org
Reign of the Just - An Ultima clone		  http://rotj.it-he.org
d+++ e+ N+ T++ Om U1234!56!7'!S'!8!9!KAW u++ uC+++ uF+++ uG---- uLB----
uA--- nC+ nR---- nH+++ nP++ nI nPT nS nT wM- wC- y a(YEAR - 1976)