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PocketFrog or GapiDraw?


PocketFrog or GapiDraw?

Postby codepunk » Sep 8, 2002 @ 6:20am

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Postby Johan » Sep 8, 2002 @ 5:27pm

Hi,

"Why would I use product X instead of product Y?" is always an interesting question. You will most likely get as many replies as there are users.

Both libraries you asked about are stable and equally as fast. Getting into a pissing contest over features is irrelevant, because more often than not you will not need every single feature offered by an SDK anyways. I would suggest:

(1) Design your game on paper. List all the features you need from a graphics library.
(2) Check if those features are supported, or will be supported within the close future by each library.
(3) If a feature is not supported by one of the SDKs, check how difficult it would be to add it yourself by expanding the SDK.

Both libraries use the concept of "surfaces" when working with pictures, buffers and displays. The only major difference between the libraries that comes to mind are the way parameters are managed for each operation.

In PocketFrog, you:
(a) Create an object from the Surface class
(b) Create a separate rasterizer object and connect it to the surface object using SetRenderTarget().
For each operation:
(c1) Set parameters such as "all future operations will use an opacity of 50%" to the rasterizer object.
(c2) Blit, draw lines, etc using the rasterizer object.

In GapiDraw, you:
(a) Create a surface object from the CGapiSurface class
For each operation:
(b1) Create a struct containing the parameters for the next operation
(b2) Call the blit, draw line, etc operation using the surface object, sending the struct as a parameter.

Some people do not like to use a struct in every single operation, and some do not like to use rasterizers. Once you have decided what you like to use, check the feature list for that SDK and just go for it.

[Updated] Fixed the description of how rasterizers work in PocketFrog.

/Johan
Last edited by Johan on Sep 8, 2002 @ 9:10pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Which Library ?

Postby Conan » Sep 8, 2002 @ 7:48pm

Having 'been there' just a few months back I guess I should add my twopenny worth.

I chose PocketFrog for 2 reasons:
1. I could understand the code ( it's not huge and it's easy to get in to.
2. It supports Jornada 710/720 HPC devices ( I'm a fan of the HPC machines and would always want an HPC version of my games even though the PocketPC's are in such dominance.

GapiDraw is a much fuller 'product' with many more functions than PocketFrog but like EasyCE my brain did not follow some stuff so I never managed to get anything working. ( It's no doubt my brain and not the toolkit's at fault here. I'm lazy so if something will not download and work with only a little effort I tend to drift on to something else )

Performance wise there's nothing in it. So long as you are happy working with surfaces either toolkit is fine. Support is good for both.

Whatever you decide to go with you should go 100% as you will save time by not wandering between toolkits. They all work so pick the one which fits you best & go....

Just remembered: read the license terms. That was another deciding factor for me. I can't spend a year writing a game for commercial release unless I know I have no issues with the rights to use & GapiDraw does have a slight drawback here over PocketFrog.
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Postby Kzinti » Sep 8, 2002 @ 8:59pm

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Postby Johan » Sep 8, 2002 @ 9:06pm

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Postby Johan » Sep 9, 2002 @ 8:30pm

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