Windows native UIs

["Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery at indiegamedesign dot com>]

From: Eric McDonald [mailto:mcdonald@phy.cmich.edu]
> On Sat, 8 Nov 2003, Hans Ronne wrote:
>
> > So my guess is that you would find it easier to work on the Windows
> > interface, given your stated interests and preferences. A
> Windows-native
> > (non-Tcl) interface would be a very welcome contribution to Xconq.
>
> Yes. If we swing to SDL as our primary interface during the next
> release cycle, one might want to consider native Win32 support
> for the UI elements such as menus and windows. Or using a
> cross-platform library of UI elements (such as wxWindows, though
> it is C++ code)....

My opinion here: SDL is not a native Windows interface.  It is simply a
non-TCL interface.  SDL is C and that's crufty, but at least it has
bindings for various other languages.  For instance it has a C#
binding... which probably doesn't work, as that project looks really
shaky and starved for attention.  The best SDL-based technology I'm
aware of is Kyra, which is a C++ layer on top of SDL.
http://www.grinninglizard.com/kyra/  Aside from giving a proper OO
approach (at least I think so, haven't used it yet), they have excellent
2D alpha blended sprites in SW that SDL does not have.  The demo of Kyra
is a rather slick benchmark, they are serious about performance in SW.

Typically, these non-Windows interfaces are portable, but at the expense
of performance, added cruft, and lack of a feather in your cap.  Nobody
gets paid big bucks for knowing SDL.  The proper way to write a Windows
UI nowadays is with .NET and C#.  Not Win32.  If I write any Windows
interfaces, very likely it will be in .NET and C#.  I'd only do TCL or
SDL if the value of what's already written outweighs the cruft.  I would
never, for instance, use wxWindows to write UIs from scratch.

The question is whether UIs are important and elaborate parts of Xconq
development.  Enough to be worth the trouble of trying to stay uniform
across platforms.  My primary interest is writing new games and getting
rid of interfaces that slow down gameplay, whether due to the game
design, the UI design, or the performance.  Ergo, I don't care about
maintaining existing UIs.  I do care about being able to rapidly create
new ones, and/or minimizing the need for UI stuff in the first place.  I
like games to be as close to a clean, cinematic rectangle as possible.
I do not like games that play like MS Word.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

Taking risk where others will not.