Is using opengl on windows a problem?

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/Is using opengl on windows a problem?

Najdorf

(Posted 2007) [#1]

I've had some people complain about my blitz2d (opengl based) not running properly on windows, but I dont really understand how much % has problems.

I'm using opengl because it runs a bit faster on my windows machine: do you think it's a good idea to switch to direct3d?

ziggy

(Posted 2007) [#2]

OpenGL and DX... I've read lots of posts regarding this issue and, my personal advice would be to make DX the default on windows, making sure all textures are in power of 2 files (16x16 or 32x32, 64x64, 128, 256 etc.) And give the final user the possibility to change the driver if he or she experiences problems with your game.

plash

(Posted 2007) [#3]

what issue, does anyone know the actual cause?
do they have the latest version of OpenGL?

ziggy

(Posted 2007) [#4]

There are some known issues with some Intel cards using non power of 2 textures, and there were some issues with earlier versions of Vista using OpenGL. But this is nothing related to BlitzMax. There's also an unoficial DX9 graphics layer for blitzMax, but I don't know how stable it is.

Dabz	(Posted 2007) [#5]

but I don't know how stable it is

Windowed mode, works great, full screen... erm, bit dodgy... I found it caused black full screen flashes when flipping using Flip(0), not sure about flip(1) as my code depended on Flip(0), so I sharp removed it and used went back to the default driver.

Dabz

smilertoo

(Posted 2007) [#6]

Opengl itself is fine, great, super....the problem is that most game gfx cards come with piss poor opengl drivers.

MGE	(Posted 2007) [#7]

Stick to power of 2 textures, use the DX driver as default and you're good to go. ;)

xlsior

(Posted 2007) [#8]

Stick to power of 2 textures, use the DX driver as default and you're good to go. ;)

Doesn't BlitzMax automatically convert textures to power-of-2 size before using them?

Dreamora

(Posted 2007) [#9]

Yes it does, makes them square power of 2 through extending.
But that step might actually fail in some cases.

And game GFX are no real problem with OpenGL.
But GameGFX make 10-20% of all PC and the actual problem are Intel GFX which are crap to useless on OpenGL and they are the majority (50%++) of all used GPUs (GPU is the wrong term here. CPU to VGA adapter would be more precise, at least after I found out that Microsofts OpenGL 1.1 software emulator is faster than a GMA900 and that on a crappy 1.6Ghz ULV P-M Banias)