DirecX - like SDK for Linux - good idea for a project?

[offRails]

Hello everyone!

I am a software engineering student and for a final project of my studies I
consider developing a game development SDK for Linux, that will provide a direct
access to hardware - Something like implementing the concept of DirectX on
the Linux platform.

I'm new to Linux world, and
I'd like to have some tips on this subject, more specificly - How large will be the
performance gain from the direct access to hardware,and at all if there's a motivation
to implement it?

Are there sources to get some existing game development SDKs performance statistics?

Or any other ideas or tips are also welcome.


Tell me what you think!

[techieMoe]

Hello everyone!

I am a software engineering student and for a final project of my studies I
consider developing a game development SDK for Linux, that will provide a direct
access to hardware - Something like implementing the concept of DirectX on
the Linux platform.

Something like this already exists. It's called OpenGL. It's been around at least as long as Microsoft's DirectX and it has the added bonus of working on just about any operating system (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X), unlike DirectX.

I'm new to Linux world, and
I'd like to have some tips on this subject, more specificly - How large will be the
performance gain from the direct access to hardware,and at all if there's a motivation
to implement it?

I don't know. Install some 3D drivers on a Linux box and run a 3D game. You tell me what kind of performance you get.

Are there sources to get some existing game development SDKs performance statistics?

I've never programmed OpenGL myself, but I'm sure there are a few tutorials out there that offer some performance stats. Good luck.

[offRails]

Something like this already exists. It's called OpenGL. It's been around at least as long as Microsoft's DirectX and it has the added bonus of working on just about any operating system (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X), unlike DirectX.

OpenGL is a 3D graphics library,and DirectX is something more all around, it includes functions for input,sound,network, and a lot of other stuff.
And trying to make something like OpenGL will be an attemp to reinvent the
wheel, I guess...

The point I'm trying to hit though, is that, for example, DirectSound
automatically detects and takes advantage of sound and graphics hardware acceleration,and provides direct access to input hardware (bypasses Windows API) for better performance.
That's more or less the functionalty I consider developing, and I have to find out are there serious performance issues to solve, or maybe the Linux API provides input and networking functions that are fast enough?

[kakariko81280]

Have you taken a look at LibSDL? It sounds like the sort of thing you are talking about.

Chris...

[darkrose0510]

OpenAL is the audio equivelant to openGL.

I think you'd probably end up with something like SDL with your project though, so you might like to have a look at that. At the least it would give you some ideas.

beaten to it by kakariko

[offRails]

OpenAL is the audio equivelant to openGL.

I think you'd probably end up with something like SDL with your project though, so you might like to have a look at that. At the least it would give you some ideas.

I've read some info about SDL, and some other stuff, like ClanLib SDK - also
a cute thing.
They all cross-platform libraries, and I'm curious about if I'll make such a stuff
to work with more cooperation with the Linux kernel, or in other words, to optimize it for Linux - how signifficant, if at all will be the performance gain
as a result of such an action. DirectX makes it good for Windows, at the cost of the cross-platform thing, so the idea is to make something that is optimized for linux, comfortable,and fast.