-- GAPIDRAW 1.0 Comparison --

[Johan]

What have I been up to lately? Not much.. Except for this then...

http://www.gapitools.com/comparison.htm

Check out the web site during the next 24 hours for full documentation, downloads, and demonstrations. Some of the cooler things:

(1) Games run in fullscreen when run on a stationary PC (so you can sell your games for both Windows and Pocket PCs at the same time)!
(2) Photoshop effects! A 100% identical implementation of Hue-adjustment and colorization is implemented (same luminance->new/shifted chroma). No cheap multiply effect in this implementation!
(3) Fully object oriented. You use surfaces like with DirectDraw (but with a simpler interface than IDIRECTDRAW7).
(4) Fully compatible with DirectDraw. Porting games to Pocket PCs couldn't be easier.
(5) A new, extremely optimized internal architecture that is very easy to expand (advanced used of templates/inlines).
(6) Supports all Pocket PCs.
(7) No startup-logo.
(8) No MFC! Use it with C, C++ or whatever.
(9) Free!

I will release both GapiDraw + GapiTools without logo and support for all Pocket PCs and x86 at the same time. Tomorrow.

/Johan

[Johan]

Hi again,

I just wanted to add that going from GapiTools to GapiDraw is not difficult, and definitely worth the process involved. I will add detailed instructions to the web tomorrow as well... For those of you that have games about to be released, the logofree version of GapiTools will still be supported (but not feature improved).

/Johan

[Hosed]

Holy Cow! You're a godsend!

Everything I was looking for in a PPC Graphics lib and for free? Dang!

Thanks sbl for the fantastic work. Look forward to using it in my game.

[Conan]

I am working in PocketGL & getting on well but I'm aware of how functional your toolkit is getting so I have to ask, do you have long term plans to include 3d support?

( what I am doing in my current project is splitting the screen with a 240 x 240 display in 3D & the lower 80 x 240 in 2D so I have to make up the 2D functions )

Still have not had time to try out the toolkit but I must get there soon

[Johan]

Hi Conan!

GapiDraw is 2D only, and will probably stay that way as well. My ambition is that it always shall be the fastest, most reliable and most feature complete 2D toolkit on the market. To achieve this I currently do not have the time to implement a software-based 3D renderer (which sadly would be both ugly and slow compared to today's standards set by stationary PCs).

The 2D features of GapiDraw however are state of the art, and provides the 2D features seen on some of the more advanced games today. It is actually possible to create games on the Pocket PC that looks as good as, if not better, than games on a stationary computer!

I will reconsider creating a Gapi3D library only if hardware becomes available supporting real-time, multitextured 3D rendering.

Best regards,
Johan

[Conan]

Damn AOL. I typed a big reply and the line dropped before I could post.

Abnway, thanks for the response. I am happy to forge on with PocketGL for my new game which does a pretty good job for a software renderer thanks to Pierre's optimisations and will try out GapiDraw as a method for converting Space Treker to real C.

If ports are as easy as you say I'm sure lots of coders will be signing on.

All the best

[Hosed]

Just wanted to check on this. I'm assuming the release is delayed, but is there a new website going up for it or will this be hosted on the GapiTools site as well?

Thanks,
-Hosed