GameSpy: Indrema: Developer Diary 2 [CEO John Gildred writes about Indrema development issues]

Nov 30, 2000, 13:09 (0 Talkback[s])

"Still with the release of the IESDK, some questions have surfaced from the online discussions at IDN. I had a chance to respond to many of them on the IDN mailing lists, but I think this article is a great opportunity for me to go over some of the more popular questions."

"First off, the Simple Direct Media Library or SDL is not part of the IESDK. This is for good reason. We are developing OpenStream, a video API which would conflict with the current method of using SMPEG. Secondly, we are looking to optimize the game engine around 3D performance, not 2D. There is nothing stopping a developer from including a version of SDL with their distributed game, however both must be included when you submit the game for certification. SDL will run on top of OpenGL, and so you should still see good game performance, but we still recommend that you master the OpenGL library as separate from SDL. In future releases of the IESDK, you may see parts of SDL, but we have no immediate plans to include it. The IES runtime environment (IESRT) is what we call the components of each library, kernel code, drivers, and digital rights management which run in the actual IES console device. No source code or compilation capability will be embedded in the console itself. And SDL will not be included in the IESRT, so if you must use SDL, your best bet is to include the correct version with your game and submit the entire certification package to us."

"Another way to draw 2D in an IES game is to simply draw a sprite onto a planar surface in OpenGL and ignore the z data. You can do this by using standard OpenGL API calls."

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