Mail Archives: djgpp/2014/07/11/14:13:34
I've not done display programming in DOS but I imagine that this would
be a fair undertaking as it would require multiple bindings, even for VESA.
For example, VESA/SVGA would still require a lot of testing as many
older video cards have issues with the standard; as well as specific
extensions for DOS-compatible accelerators such a Voodoo (I can't think
of any others).
For 3D accelerators we would need hardware documentation for DOS which
might be impossible to get. I'm only aware of such documentation for
3dfx chips. It would be nice if we could get some for Matrox or Ati, as
these chips are ubiquitous on Ebay and would be powerful enough for most
applications.
The same would go for audio hardware. Thankfully, there are a lot of
resources for Creative SoundBlasters.
The problem with DOS is that there is no API provided by the operating
system. You literally have to program for every variation of hardware
you want to support. This is why Windows was such a boon for games with GDI.
This isn't to say, of course, that an SDL port wouldn't still be a fun
thing to undertake. The work involved however, is real.
Matt D.
On 7/11/2014 4:49 AM, Mateusz Viste wrote:
> Hello Rod,
>
> I am pretty sure that having a SDL port for DOS would indeed bring some
> fresh air to the DJGPP/DOS world, at least as far as gaming is
> concerned. There are plenty of games out there that are written against
> SDL, so having a DOS SDL port would allow to port them all to DOS, often
> without much troubles.
>
> Note however, that SDL2 heavily relies on hardware acceleration, thus I
> can only guess that such a DOS port would have to fall back on software
> backends, making many games unplayable due to poor performances...
>
> At some point I was even wondering about doing such SDL port to make my
> Atomiks game compileable under DOS, but I quickly forgot about that
> crazy idea when I saw the HUGE task it actually would be to port the SDL
> codebase on DOS... It would require a programmer to work for quite a
> long time (weeks at least, if not months), and it would need to be a
> pretty good one on top of that (ie. experienced with the DOS hardware
> ins and outs)... Most probably not something one can achieve in his 'few
> hours per week spare time'.
>
> On the other hand, there are emulation solutions out there (namely
> Japheth's HXDOS) that already provide the ability to run some
> SDL-powered games, along with the windows version of SDL, by emulating
> all the necessary GDI stuff. So this might be a less time costing way to
> achieve a similar goal..
>
> cheers,
> Mateusz
>
>
>
> On 07/11/2014 10:20 AM, Rod Pemberton wrote:
>>
>> Could SDL breathe new life into DJGPP?
>>
>> I know this has been brought up in the past.
>> I can also find posts from 2004 to 2013 on
>> various gaming and DOS forums via Google and
>> Yahoo about people wanting a DOS port of SDL.
>>
>> E.g., supposedly all of these now can use SDL:
>>
>> Allegro
>> Doom, e.g., SDLDoom, Doom Legacy 1.4x SDL, PrBoom, etc.
>> EDuke32 (Duke Nukem)
>> Exult (Ultima)
>> VICE (C64)
>> ScummVM
>> MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator)
>> MESS (Multi Emulator Super System)
>> DOSBox
>> dosemu
>>
>> I'm sure there are others too.
>>
>>
>> Rod Pemberton
>
>
>
- Raw text -