XBOX? OpenGL?

Well, I''ve heard that the XBox supports coding directly to the hardware, which means that if you want to roll your own OpenGL implementation, you are free to do so.

I had heard rumors of dx, not direct hardware. Wow, that''s um, harder.

Alex Broadwin
A-Tronic Software & Design
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"if you fail in life, you were destined to fail. If you suceed in life, call me."
"The answer is out there."
"Please help, I''m using Windows!"

quote:

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Original post by ATronic
That, and any idea how much it costs to develop for it SDK-wise?

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Basically, if you can''t prove that your game will have a distinct level of market value (ie, a lot) it doesn''t matter how much the tool/SDK is - you''re not going to get one. MS (along with every other console manufacturer) makes their money off of software sales - and to do so, they need to guarantee a certain level of product in the channel. (granted, I could point out a million crap titles out there - but they all had some level of appeal to someone at product approval - be it just a brand name or a big name publisher).

If you are intent on console development, look for a job with a developer already doing it, or a publisher looking to hire developers. (or do what the really intent do - hack it. There are a number of grassroots development efforts for consoles (esp. older ones) - a little searching will turn up wonders).

-scott

Interesting... Well, I would just be the kind that would do it as a hobbie. Oh well, just a thought. Thanx for the replies all.

Alex Broadwin
A-Tronic Software & Design
-----
"if you fail in life, you were destined to fail. If you suceed in life, call me."
"The answer is out there."
"Please help, I''m using Windows!"

XBOX definitely does not support coding to hardware. Well, theoretically you could, but you would have to know the hardware API or register set for the nvidia chips, which nvidia is definitely NOT making public (and oh how all the linux folks wish they would). Nvidia doesnt make their register set public because they wish to protect their intellectual property (IP). I can kind of see their point there. I mean, there are IP laws (patent) that should protect them, but IP laws arent always enforcable in all countries, so keeping it secret provides them with a second layer of protection. Now I''ve strayed from the topic at hand...

Well, I heard it from a Microsoft employee at ArsTechnica. Reliable source? Maybe. But at any rate, I''ll wait and see what the official word is.

It would be far easier to write an OpenGL wrapper on top of Direct3D than it would be to write a low level OpenGL driver from scratch.. And the performance penalty would be pretty minimal since there''s a pretty clear feature mapping between the APIs as of DX8.

In any case, while Microsoft might not support OpenGL on the XBOX, that doesn''t stop a third party from implementing it...Sony doesn''t support OpenGL on the PS2, but there is an OpenGL implementation you can license...

Popular rumor says that NVidia is likely to offer OpenGL support for the XBOX based on their existing (PC) OpenGL driver. Whether they are planning on charging for this as a middleware product or give it away for free remains to be seen... Again, this is just rumor, but I remember hearing about it quite a bit in regards to Doom 3 (which obviously is an OpenGL based game).

Between them, I''m sure NVidia, Microsoft and id will work something out...Microsoft might prefer people to write games in D3D, but they aren''t going to piss away the ability to run Doom 3 (and the inevitable Doom3-engine based games that come after it) on the XBOX.