OpenGL and RISC OS
I'd like to take a look at the uses of Simon Wilson's recent OpenGL port to RISC OS. As you may know, OpenGL is a cross-platform API for 2D and 3D high performance graphics. Many graphics cards support it, including the Iyonix's NVidia card, allowing lots of fun things to be done.
Unfortunately, my Iyonix is currently somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, although I did try an early version of the boxes demo that Simon put together, so I've not been able to try his recent efforts. However, looking at the Debian packages that mention OpenGL, there are nearly 200. Many of these are games of course, and there are plenty of obscure libraries, but they may give a starting point for experimentation.
As stated, Simon's work is restricted to the Iyonix, since it's targetted its graphics card, and no other RISC OS machine contains suitable hardware except perhaps RiscPC-enabled ViewFinders which have ATI chipsets but thast requires a whole separate effort. In principle, it ought to be possible to access native Windows OpenGL functions on VirtualRiscPC, with relatively little effort. In this way, as I alluded to in my article on RISC OS on x86, RISC OS distances itself from hardware specifics.
In any case, I hope to give Simon's work a spin in future, integrating it into GCCSDK and trying it with some of my ports. I'd be interested to know if you've looked at in any detail.
Unfortunately, my Iyonix is currently somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, although I did try an early version of the boxes demo that Simon put together, so I've not been able to try his recent efforts. However, looking at the Debian packages that mention OpenGL, there are nearly 200. Many of these are games of course, and there are plenty of obscure libraries, but they may give a starting point for experimentation.
As stated, Simon's work is restricted to the Iyonix, since it's targetted its graphics card, and no other RISC OS machine contains suitable hardware except perhaps RiscPC-enabled ViewFinders which have ATI chipsets but thast requires a whole separate effort. In principle, it ought to be possible to access native Windows OpenGL functions on VirtualRiscPC, with relatively little effort. In this way, as I alluded to in my article on RISC OS on x86, RISC OS distances itself from hardware specifics.
In any case, I hope to give Simon's work a spin in future, integrating it into GCCSDK and trying it with some of my ports. I'd be interested to know if you've looked at in any detail.
