Messages

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General discussions / Thinking about converting...

« on: July 31, 2011, 08:31:29 pm »

If there is no way to set SFML to not create it's own context and instead use a pre-made one, then I'd have to set Ogre to use the one made by SFML.  Still do-able, assuming I can get the Window handle from SFML, but not ideal.  Ideally I'd like to have Ogre control the window, and SFML collect input from the window.  This is the primary reason I want to mix them and is what I'm currently using SDL for(as a cross platform input handler).  I've looked at OIS and wasn't really impressed by it.

Additionally we haven't implemented networking in our engine just yet, and we were going to use Boost ASIO, but I'd like to avoid using boost if possible.  So SFML would give us that additional option.

I had no idea that OpenAL makes it's own threads internally, thanks for that heads up(we're using OpenAL for sound as well).

So it seems that SFML doesn't have everything I would need to convert, but may be updated in the future to have them.  So I guess I'll closely watch SFML's progress and hope some of these changes happen sooner rather then later.  Thanks for answering my questions Laurent.

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General discussions / Thinking about converting...

« on: July 31, 2011, 01:28:11 am »

I'm currently developing a game engine and so far I've been using SDL to handle Windowing and Input.  SDL has started to become slightly on the complicated side since we updated to 1.3, and SDL's founder leaving the project a bit ago has me wondering if there is something better.  

This isn't actually the first time I've looked at SFML, I tried to take a look at it once before a while ago and couldn't get it to cooperate with Ogre, so I gave up on SFML.  This is one of the things I'd need to convert.  Here's a more complete list:

1) The ability to either bind Ogre to a window created by SFML(or the created context), or the ability for SMFL to use a window created by Ogre and gather input from it(as stated above).
(just before posting this I double checked some of the doc's, and SMFL does seem to be able to construct a window from an existing handle, would that be applicable to what I need?)

2) In addition to the 3 major PC platforms, support for mobile platforms.  iOS especially would be mandatory.  Android and WebOS would be nice, but not *required*.  From what I read when skimming the forums before posting this, it sounded like a major internal change which could occur with a new major release would need to happen to support this, and it sounds like there is one coming up, so I'm a bit hopeful for this.

3) I noticed a few things mentioning threads in SFML, does SFML have threaded code internally?  Or are they just there for the programmers convenience?  I need to have complete control over how the available threads are distributed to the systems in my engine, so if they are just convenience, then awesome.  Otherwise I'd need a way to override(such that I can provide the needed threads through my system) the internal threads.

4) The Input that you can grab from a window is a bit too simplified.  Is there any way I can get some of the internal data about the input and possibly inject it into my existing input handling system?  Even if it's just a list of all inputs generated per frame.

5) SDL 1.2 is coded so that any change to the context, such as toggling fullscreen or resizing causes the context to be reset.  This is actually what prompted me to upgrade to SDL 1.3.  Can SFML change common window settings without having to reset the context?  (I'm 90% sure it can, but confirmation is always nice)

That is the current list I can recall cause I wasn't smart enough to write down the concerns while I was thinking of them.  I'm sure I'll think of more later.  Any clarification on any of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

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Window / Integrating OGRE with SFML

« on: January 11, 2010, 09:34:39 pm »

Yes, we looked at OIS first for input handling.  The project seems to have weakened somewhat.  Their forums aren't active, and I can't seem to find any documentation for it on their sourceforge page.  As a result we decided against using it early on.  OIS seemed to have a few flaws as well, for example it didn't differentiate between either shift key or holding shift.  There was just shift.  Your input system almost perfectly matches our needs, closer then any other library we have found.

Currently we have SDL doing windowing and input.  I don't think OGRE needs to actually have the OpenGL Context.  I believe it can be just left to rendering.  I base this on the article that explains how to go about embedding OGRE (for just rendering) into a SDL window.

http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/Using_SDL_Input#New.2C_Experimental_Way_.28OGRE_v1.6_and_Later.29

Thats currently what I am familiarizing myself with and I'll take a look at parts of your code to see if something similar can be done with your library.  Of course any insights of your own would be greatly appreciated.

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Window / Integrating OGRE with SFML

« on: January 11, 2010, 08:59:23 am »

OGRE has some basic capabilities that match some of what SFML does in function, however I feel many of those things are better implemented in SFML...input especially.

We currently have SDL running with OGRE, but again, we feel a few things were implemented better in SFML.  Our primary reason for wanting to go with SFML is you have libraries that do a large number of things and we want to use as few libraries as we can get away with without cutting functionality so we can minimize configuration and potential conflicts.

I'll look around some more and if I find anything I'll be sure to share.  Thanks for the response.

5

Window / Integrating OGRE with SFML

« on: January 11, 2010, 01:55:51 am »

Doing more and more reading, I'm not so sure even a window handle is necessary to integrate OGRE within a SFML window.  Which means I'm slightly more lost then I was before.  

Laurent, I'm aware that you are very active on the forums.  Have you not attempted to do this before?  Can you at least lend me some insights?

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Window / Integrating OGRE with SFML

« on: January 10, 2010, 09:35:51 am »

I have looked all around the internet seeing if I could find some guide for integrating the two.  For the most part, I have only seen scattered comments on this forum, OGRE's forum, and Gamedev.net's forum saying that it is possible...but no one can seem to tell me in detail about how to go about it.  Pretty much the only thing I have been told is that you need the window handle, but not really any examples of implementing it.

If I simply fail at searching then I apologize.

Ideally I just want a tutorial or examples explaining how this is done.