DirectX ?

Hi!

I startet to prototype a strategy game in Dolphin Smalltalk 4.0.  Now
I want to work on the graphics part of the game.  I managed to find
and install an old copy of the DirectX package.  However, that version
was for DST 98 I think.  I also found an source forge project for
DirectX, but that was empty.  Is there a more recent version available
somewhere?  If not, is anybody already working on such bindings?  

I only need DirectDraw and DirectSound.  Actually, since DD only
supports a graphical surface and nothing else, has anybody already
some experiences creating custom graphics functions (or preferable
using some existing DLL code) and/or a custom UI?  I'm especially
interested in some technics to antialiase graphics and to perform
alpha blending.


bye
--
Stefan Matthias Aust // Truth Until Paradox
"Ich glaub noch immer an die Welt, die ewig ihre Runden zieht" --U&I

I'd like to add another question:

I noticed that DX7 includes special VB support - dx7vb.dll.  It look
like that I could import that type library also in Dolphin Smalltalk.
Is that correct?  

The active x wizard generates a lot of stuff and I haven't used that
but the result looks definitely simpler than any directly mapped C
interface.  Furthermore, there're a lot of introduction level tutorial
for VB and DX7.


bye
--
Stefan Matthias Aust // Truth Until Paradox
"Ich glaub noch immer an die Welt, die ewig ihre Runden zieht" --U&I

Stefan,

> I noticed that DX7 includes special VB support - dx7vb.dll.  It look
> like that I could import that type library also in Dolphin Smalltalk.
> Is that correct?
>
> The active x wizard generates a lot of stuff and I haven't used that
> but the result looks definitely simpler than any directly mapped C
> interface.  Furthermore, there're a lot of introduction level tutorial
> for VB and DX7.

Originally, there were no type libraries for DX.  Later, the type libraries
appeared, but, it wasn't possible to generate the classes, or _maybe_ that
the code would fail at runtime (don't remember the details).  It's quite
possible that OA has fixed the problems, or perhaps that the VB interface
avoids the trouble spots.  I suspect that VB-friendly code will have some
to/from variant overhead, but, it probably can't hurt to fiddle with it if
the generation is smooth.

Have a good one,

Bill

--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]

Along the same lines, is there a library out there to support OpenGL? I
don't have any experience with it yet, and would like to use someone
else's abstractions it ease the learning curve.

I noticed that ST3D has what looks like a nice library for Dolphin 3.0;
their web page indicates they will are working on a version for Dolphin
4.0. I have sent a couple of emails asking about an expected release
date, but haven't gotten a response. Since the web page hasn't changed
in several months, my guess is they have moved onto other projects.

Are there any other libraries out there?

Brian Murphy-Dye.


Stefan Matthias Aust wrote:

I just noticed, Creative Computing is the company--ST3D is the product.

Brian.

"bmurphy" <[hidden email]> wrote in message
news:[hidden email]...
>
> I noticed that ST3D has what looks like a nice library for Dolphin 3.0;
> their web page indicates they will are working on a version for Dolphin
> 4.0. I have sent a couple of emails asking about an expected release
> date, but haven't gotten a response. Since the web page hasn't changed
> in several months, my guess is they have moved onto other projects.
>

Hi Brian.  My apologies for not getting back to you previously ("Yes", I
have, unfortunately, been working on some other projects).

The next version of ST3D will be out by the end of October and will be
4.0-enabled, just in time for the release of Dolphin 5.0, I guess :-).

I'll post a message here when it's ready.

Chris Hayes
Creative Computing

Chris,

I'm glad you are still going to port it. Perhaps Dolphin 5.0 won't cause
any major changes to your code ;)

Brian Murphy-Dye

Chris Hayes wrote:

We'll be expecting that release !

best regards

Seb