[tsc-devel] Re: SFML Port New Strategy...

datahead | Tue, 24 Nov 2015 05:27:15 UTC

Post via forum by datahead <…9@x…>:
No, I have not really looked into the graphics stack.  I've increased my focus a bit on the game I'm developing of my own, since I have a lot of stake in it.

If you wish to abandon my suggestion to start over because I have not been available much the last couple weeks, this is your right.  Regardless of who codes it, I still think it would be best to restrategize as I outlined above and separate the architecture changes from the the SFML porting.  This will reduce the risk of bugs, make it simpler for newcomers to join the effort, and allow for a more understandable git history.  We would of course want to break each of these phases up into subtasks of their own, worked distinctly.

I could resume looking at SFML tutorials and the existing OpenGL code, but it could be some weeks before I have a suggestion.  As I've always said, I cannot make promises on deliverables or end dates if tasks are completed (no promises at all).  If you must just make a decision now, this is fine.

[quote]
Especially it is necessary to have an opinion about how
feasable it is to hijack the cVideo class and replace its inner contents
with SFML instead of OpenGL/SDL. Doing so would speed up our SFML
porting efforts, but it is an abuse of SFML’s nicely designed API.
[/quote]

Generally speaking, I would argue for something that maintains the original SMC-style architecture as closely as feasible, using SFML as if it had a global state, even if it is poor usage of SFML.  A better architecture would then be devised in the subsequent architecture phase of the project.  If shoehorning it this way is guaranteed to be more complicated just to get things to work, then, yes, we must rearchitect this layer of code in order to comply with SFML standards now.  

It also depends on just how complicated the architecture changes you were suggesting for the rendering layer are.  I just hoped to avoid something anywhere near as complicated as the actor or scene manager changes we originally started.  Of course, I am not "really" qualified to offer advice, as noted above.


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