[Fury]

Originally posted by mikhael
Mr. Fury, if we wait for OpenGL 2.0, we'll be waiting...um... forever. We've moved from v1.1 to v1.4 in something like FIVE YEARS. Don't bother waiting.

Besides, OpenGL 2.0 will likely be highly backward compatible to the current version anyway.

Most likely true, but I don't see any real bonuses on making an OGL engine at all, neither 1.4 or 2.0. We are now moving to DX8.1, and it should be relatively easy to move to DX9 after that. Or since DX9 lifetime will be quite short, could be best to move from DX8.1 to DX9.1 and skip DX9.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Mr. Fury


Most likely true, but I don't see any real bonuses on making an OGL engine at all, neither 1.4 or 2.0. We are now moving to DX8.1, and it should be relatively easy to move to DX9 after that. Or since DX9 lifetime will be quite short, could be best to move from DX8.1 to DX9.1 and skip DX9.

Some of us don't use Windows if we can avoid it. DirectX is platform lockin, no matter what you do.

OpenGL is... well, Open (not exactly, but close enough for this point).

[Fury]

Yeah but FS2 is also a Windows game.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Mr. Fury
Yeah but FS2 is also a Windows game.

And we have an opportunity to fix that little oversight by Volition, along with the rest, don't we?

[Inquisitor]

Yes we do.

We just need interested coders to take up the *nix flag and run with it.

[Fury]

If such a project receives enough support, then go for it.
But it shouldn't be a priority.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Mr. Fury
If such a project receives enough support, then go for it.
But it shouldn't be a priority.

It should be as much of a priority as coders are willing to make it. We have no budgets, no schedules and no marketters to appease. There's no reason not to consider this as much a priority as adding glow points or upping table limits.

[Fury]

mikhael, true. But in my opinion there are or should be priorities.
In top of priority list should be features that are most usable and needed.

Linux support is pretty low on this list because 99% of FS2 players are using Windows. Why? Because FS2 is a windows game. Few ppl are known to be moved to Linux, but they knew the risks. If they can play FS2 on Linux, that's fine, in that case it shouldn't become too difficult in the future either.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Mr. Fury
mikhael, true. But in my opinion there are or should be priorities.
In top of priority list should be features that are most usable and needed.

The priority should be on what people want. Some people want OpenGL, so let them code it.

There's nothing 'needed'. The engine is four years old (five?). Everyone has gotten along pretty well in all that time. Further, most of the ideas people put forth seem to be stuff that can already be done in the stock game with some creativity, or else get shot down by other people because it would be "Freespace".

Linux support is pretty low on this list because 99% of FS2 players are using Windows. Why? Because FS2 is a windows game. Few ppl are known to be moved to Linux, but they knew the risks. If they can play FS2 on Linux, that's fine, in that case it shouldn't become too difficult in the future either.

Screw Linux. Give me FreeBSD support.

There's no reason to force the project to stick with a Windows only course. I'm no *nix zealot, I just think that the project should go in whichever direction the people coding it want to take it, including down the OpenGL path.

[Fury]

OK OK! Whatever, get on with it and stop arguing already.

[Inquisitor]

It currently is a low priority, for all those reasons

That and no programmer

[RandomTiger]

Originally posted by Mr. Fury
OK OK! Whatever, get on with it and stop arguing already.

That seems like a good idea. The people who actually get stuck in and do the coding will deside how this turns out.

Glide or OGL or D3D will not be removed or 'broken' to further progress another without debate and good reason. We can always use code branches to make big changes while protecting old functionality.

At some point we may have to make some difficult choices but we're not there yet. If you want OGL or DX to be the best engine, the way to do that is to help, and work on it yourself.

If you can't code, then you're entitled to your opinions but we are the people doing the work so we get to make the choices of which engines (or whatever) we want to spend our time on.