Which Library is best?

[MrTang]

Hey guys,

I'm new to the PocketPC game development and I know you've probably been asked this a million times but I couldn't see any threads with the answer.

I'm about to embark on a new app but am a little confused over which library to use. I initially found GAPI which then led me to CEDraw and then I found PocketHAL and PocketFrog which led me to this forum. Here I find EDGELIB... I also understand that Microsoft put Direct3D in CE5 (Windows Mobile) but can't find any information on it.

As a result, I'm hoping someone can point me in the direction of a good library, for a developer who is new to the PocketPC game world. I'm really after the primitives and structure. 3D would be nice but not essential. The target is a CE 5.0 device with and ARM920T core and a VGA touch screen. Essentially an ARM based windows mobile 5 device.

Thank you.

[Kak]

I think it's a matter of personal taste, all of them are pretty good.

Personally I prefer PocketHAL because you get a pointer to a framebuffer, and the rest is up to you.
I worked a long time ago with GapiDraw and it was very good, and I tested EDGE some months ago and it also was very good, but I still prefer doing everything by myself, it has a bigger 'nostalgic' factor :)

Hey guys,

I'm new to the PocketPC game development and I know you've probably been asked this a million times but I couldn't see any threads with the answer.

I'm about to embark on a new app but am a little confused over which library to use. I initially found GAPI which then led me to CEDraw and then I found PocketHAL and PocketFrog which led me to this forum. Here I find EDGELIB... I also understand that Microsoft put Direct3D in CE5 (Windows Mobile) but can't find any information on it.

As a result, I'm hoping someone can point me in the direction of a good library, for a developer who is new to the PocketPC game world. I'm really after the primitives and structure. 3D would be nice but not essential. The target is a CE 5.0 device with and ARM920T core and a VGA touch screen. Essentially an ARM based windows mobile 5 device.

Thank you.

[MrTang]

I think it's a matter of personal taste, all of them are pretty good.

Personally I prefer PocketHAL because you get a pointer to a framebuffer, and the rest is up to you.
I worked a long time ago with GapiDraw and it was very good, and I tested EDGE some months ago and it also was very good, but I still prefer doing everything by myself, it has a bigger 'nostalgic' factor

That makes sense I think then for now I shall try GapiDraw to give myself a bit of a head start and then when I'm feeling brave enough I'll have a look at PocketHAL.

Thank you for the info, I knew coming to the experts would be a good idea

[Kak]

There's something you'll probably want to consider, and that's the price of the libraries you'll be using. PocketHAL and PocketFrog are absolutely free, pocketFrog being even open source, and I think (can't say for sure) that both Gapidraw and Edgelib are free for freeware projects.
Edgelib has a very cheap license if you're doing 2d games with no need for high framerate, but you pay yearly. Gapidraw right now is one time payment and use it forever.

Really, it's not a trivial matter which one to choose if you're on board for comercial projects. Depending on the type of games you'll make and the time you'll be doing them, you should choose one or another. And that's not even entering on the devices supported and different features each present. A hard issue, really :)

[MrTang]

Well unfortunately it's become a lot more complicated! Turns out that WinCE 5.0 doesn't include a lot of the dll's that any of the libraries require and would normally be in a Windows Mobile device. As a result I've got to dig in to the platform build and try and come up with a solution... for now I may just use a bitmap as a frame buffer

Ah well... it's all good fun!

[Kzinti]

PocketHAL works on plain Windows CE devices. Give it a try, there is no need for any of the Windows Mobile / PocketPC / Smartphone DLLs.