OSDev.org

I've been quietly stalking the activity on this board for awhile now, while I worked over all the details on my OS. The goal is for me to first build a small-fast game engine (Without 3D rendering to hopefully decrease size, and increase speed), then have my OS load it when a certain command from a command line. I know it's possible to do (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opN8Tj6yA8o), but my idea was to use the game engine for the applications that need a GUI, my "tab manager" (essentially a window manager, except my OS will use tabs, not windows), and animations (videos?). I know that this is going to take me a _very_ long time, but I think that it would be one of the best experiences in my programming life, and be really fun! So, my question to you is; Would it be practical for me to make my own game engine, or just port over OpenGL (which from the reading I've done on forum (http://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=22197) can be quite difficult). I feel that if I make my own game engine I'll be able to remove most of the "dead-weight" of another, and can tailor it to my needs as a GUI. But, I'm not an expert in this field, which is why I came to you guys.

Thanks,
Cent

Note:
If you want to hear more about my OS, just say so (I tried to only include my question, and the pertinent information surrounding that).

how would system menus map to a game engine? why would doing so be better than a regular menu system?

EDIT:
also, opengl is not a game engine, its a graphics library.

If a "look and feel" is what you are after I would say building your engine on top of OpenGL and probably Linux would be the fastest way to achieve your goals. One famous example is Android which is Linux with a layer including OpenGL on top of it. If you want to make everything from scratch you have project which will probably span several years of your life.

Sorry, when I said "game engine" I meant "graphics library".

OSwhatever wrote:If a "look and feel" is what you are after I would say building your engine on top of OpenGL and probably Linux would be the fastest way to achieve your goals. One famous example is Android which is Linux with a layer including OpenGL on top of it. If you want to make everything from scratch you have project which will probably span several years of your life.

Well, I prefer doing things from scratch. So, if your right about how long it'll take me, I better get working . I just wanted to know it was possible.

If you are looking for the possibility: yes you can build an OS and host games in it. There are several people here who did just that (and that does not involve a full 3D stack or hardware acceleration)

The question to you is mainly how much you want from your graphics backend, and by the time you get to it, your opinion on the subject will probably have changed.

centip3de wrote:Sorry, when I said "game engine" I meant "graphics library".

It scares me to see that uve mixed those up. In programming those are two different layers, graphics library supporting calls to the graphics engine within the game engine.

GhostXoPCorp wrote:It scares me to see that uve mixed those up. In programming those are two different layers, graphics library supporting calls to the graphics engine within the game engine.

It scares me that you can't spell "you've".

berkus wrote:

OSwhatever wrote:One famous example is Android which is Linux with a layer including OpenGL on top of it.

Lolwut?

What's wrong now berkus?

You said android is linux with a layer of something that has openGL. openGL is only a miniscule part of what android is. android, like all modern operating systems has so many layers that it looks like an onion(or a Parfait). what ever you decide to build, you need to start from the very bottom . you need a bootloader, a kernel , userspace, filesystems, ipc, memory management, driver support, all before you should even begin to start with openGL or any graphics system. want to skip a step in this process? you can't. the only options you have are to write all of these things yourself, or to use already made systems. I recommend you use grub as the bootloader and linux as the kernel. that gives you all of the things you need to begin graphics work, and will have drivers for most graphics cards. Thing is, this puts you into the realm of desktop managers and if thats what you want, this is not the place you really want to be. If you do want to start from a lower level, and not use linux you can. Just peruse the wiki, it has a lot of information about a great many sub-topics , just don't expect anything flashy for a long Time.

Brynet-Inc wrote:It scares me that you can't spell "you've".

You get a pleasure out of being a troll co-ksucker dont you?

GhostXoPCorp wrote:You get a pleasure out of being a troll co-ksucker dont you?

What? I've done no such thing, not even for a troll.

Come on. Get it together, guys.

The idea is good but a successful 'graphics library' will take years of development before it can be even compared to the graphics library's used in modern day. In 21-st century game engine's and graphics in total have developed into a point that it would be almost impossible to get to the same level from the ground up without using any engine as a template. This is why Linux's and Mac's gaming side is way lower than window's.

Maakera,

maakera wrote:In 21-st century game engine's and graphics in total have developed into a point that it would be almost impossible to get to the same level from the ground up without using any engine as a template. This is why Linux's and Mac's gaming side is way lower than window's.

There are enough talented programmers out there who could write a first-class 3D engine for Linux. The know-how is certainly there.

But you'd have to work against a tight schedule (or your engine will be outdated before it's released), and a tight quality regime (because you will have to fix the bug you don't feel like fixing, too).

Linux is where most programmers generally prefer to fix bugs and release software when they feel like it, not when boss tells them to.

And even if you pull it off, unless there's a multi-million game production coming up right on your heals (increasing the time and quality pressure), you'll have a quickly-aging 3D engine with nothing to run on it.

Games are a multi-million dollar business, even exceeding Holywood budgets. It's cutthroat return-on-investment. DirectX targets Windows PCs, Xbox and Xbox 360. OpenGL is a second-best API, Linux (with its users' strong bias towards not paying for their software "because it must be free") a second-best market, and so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy that Linux (and OpenGL) sucks as a gaming platform.

PS: Adding insult to injury, most distributions tune their kernels towards server / workstation performance, which is not what you're looking for in a gaming platform.

Solar wrote:PS: Adding insult to injury, most distributions tune their kernels towards server / workstation performance, which is not what you're looking for in a gaming platform.

Since this is mostly a kernel oriented forum, what would appropriate tunings in the kernel be so that it would fit a game system rather than server/workstation?