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ZOOMIE1980 -> RE: Game crash (6/28/2004 5:19:33 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag
quote:
I intend to, eventually. And I damned sure as hell would not use Direct X in a turn based wargame. I can play wav and mp3 files all day long without ever using an X call. Why does a turn based wargame EVER need direct access to hardware interrupts? Answer me that?
Because it lifts the burden of support off the developer.
I write to DX, I don't have to give a rats arse about your hardware because it is abstracted. That was the whole purpose behind it. Separate the hardware guys from the software guys and make the driver guys actually accountable for something instead of the free ride they have had over the years.
As long as your driver conforms to the standards, things work. The problem is shifted from buggy software to buggy drivers and no longer does the developer have to deal with the fact that you bought xxy vs xxx vs xxz card which are all basically the same except for those critical engineering flaws that were patched.
The blame for crap is finally landing where it should! The computer hardware guys. For decades, the software guys have been getting the short end of the stick because of substandard hardware. DX cures that and puts the blame where it belongs.
But you can access sound through the WIN32 API as well. And there is a very big difference in stability but at the price of performance. Using WIN32 calls to play .wav files and mp3's and such is a lot less dependent on sound driver stability. If sound is generally working on your PC, then it will work fine using Win32 API calls. Not so with Direct X. Same thing with video. I can render a Bitmap using Win32 calls to create a compatible memory device context, select my bitmap into it then Blit it to the output DC, or use DirectX calls to do the same thing at the pixel and direct hardware level. The former works if you can see your computer screen. The later only works if you video card driver is stable enough. The former is relatively slow, the latter is lightening quick.
The difference between the two is the level of abstraction and layers of API code between the application programmer and the hardware. Win32 is a very easy thing to use, Direct X is more complex. Each is suited best to a particular purpose. My stance is that Direct X is NOT well suited to the turn based wargame. Not at all. It is like driving in a thumptack with a pile driver...
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