Alternatives to Allegro, SDL and PTK?

[Sybixsus]

I thought it would be fun to learn a new language, but I'm finding it a bit dry without graphics and gameplay, so I thought I'd try my hand at a simple 2d in 3d game, but none of the libs in the thread subject are really what I want. I'd really rather not use OpenGL and as I understand it, Allegro is not 3d accelerated. Are there any alternatives, specifically DX-based alternatives, that I should look at?

[patrox]

BlitzBasic.
HGE - http://hge.relishgames.com/

pat.

[EpicBoy]

PTK doesn't really require you to know anything about OpenGL. You can get graphics onto the screen without using a single OpenGL command. You only need to use OpenGL calls when you want to do something outside of what PTK offers (to date, I've only found one thing - coloring your quads something other than white. at that point I had to start using glColor3f which is about as simple as OpenGL commands get).

[Sybixsus]

Patrox: I'm already using BlitzBasic, but HGE looks very promising. The Bass bundle in particular seems like an excellent choice.

EpicBoy: That's not my issue with OpenGL. My issue with OpenGL is that people who have games written in both are getting many, many more support issues with it. If it came down to the underlying API, I'd rather use OpenGL, but since I'm looking for a lib, I won't be using much of either. If I were happy using OpenGL, I'd probably be using PTK.

[Jack Norton]

My issue with OpenGL is that people who have games written in both are getting many, many more support issues with it.
Hmm strange I rarely have support issues... but I don't sell 5 games/day ;)

[princec]

I don't have any support issues either.. every few days or so I get some n00b asking me how to install GL drivers but not a single one of them has turned into a sale leading me to suspect that the kinds of players my game is targeted at already have drivers. Something to bear in mind before such a platform-lockin as DX is decided upon.

Cas :)

[HairyTroll]

I thought it would be fun to learn a new language, but I'm finding it a bit dry without graphics and gameplay, so I thought I'd try my hand at a simple 2d in 3d game, but none of the libs in the thread subject are really what I want.

How 'new' of a language do you want to learn? Are you looking to continue with another procedural language (C/C++/Java) or switch tracks to a functional language (Lisp/Scheme).

If you are interested, I have written several bindings for Corman Common Lisp (http://www.cormanlisp.com/) which are available at my site Balooga.com (http://www.balooga.com/lisp.php3), including:


OpenGL
OpenRM (Scene Graph Manager)
SDL
SDL_Mixer
Cal3D (Character Animation)

[Sybixsus]

HT: I'm learning C++ for now and I might well take a look at C# later. I'll take a look Lisp and your bindings, it's always fun to learn new things.

PrinceC & Jack : I've done a lot of reading and asking around both publicly and privately and rest assured I've taken the views you've both expressed publicly into account before dismissing OpenGL. If cross platform ever becomes an issue, I'll obviously have to reconsider but all the time I'm developing solely for Windows, I'm happy to stick with DX.

[HairyTroll]

Take a look at the amazing demos and example code at Processing.org (http://processing.org).

They have defined a language that compiles to Java bytecode, is easy to read and understand. It's not at version 1.0 yet so the distribution is unavailable for download; but it's something to keep your eye on.

[Sybixsus]

I've just been playing with HGE. At the moment, I'm only using Dev Cpp because I don't want to buy a compiler just for learning purposes, but it was very easy to set it up to use HGE and I'm just modifying the tutorials and I have to say this is an excellent library and ridiculously easy to use so far. Many thanks, Patrox, this seems to be exactly what I wanted, and I highly recommend other Cpp newbies to give it a try.