I know ogl and dx are so fast because they directly access the graphics card ect..
But how difficult of an undertaking would it be to make your own graphics driver that works like ogl and dx? (but nowhere near as complex of course)
Is is fesable for 1 person to do this even if it is really simple?
Simple? A driver is never simple.
DX/OpenGL communicates with the graphics driver, and you know how much time ATI/nVidia has spent on those...
Originally Posted by Adak
Single programmers write drivers all the time. But OpenGL and DirectX are more than drivers, they are entire API frameworks which specify a set of supported operations. Depending on the graphics card, some of these operations can be done by the hardware, and some might need to be emulated in software on cards which can't do them.
If you just want to exercise the features of some specific graphics card, you could write a driver for that card, depending on your skill level. Be prepared to reboot a lot during development.
Wouldn't a virtual pc be feasible for this? Blue screens are not a good thing.If you just want to exercise the features of some specific graphics card, you could write a driver for that card, depending on your skill level. Be prepared to reboot a lot during development.
Why not? It depends how complicated the hardware device is and how many of its features you are willing to ignore.
Ah well, if you put it that way.
Still, it's harder than normal application programming.
So gl and dx have to code their drivers to support and work with a veriety of different hardwares, including different kinds of code for different cards?
It'd be better to try to write an engine then?
GL and DX are typically implemented as part of the driver package. (In the case of DX, there's a fixed part, too. In the case of GL, usually not. But Linux GL variants may be based on the X DRI infrastructure, in which case they only supply hardware hooks for Mesa.)
But the main problem with writing graphics drivers is knowing what there is to do. To write a graphics driver:
1) You first need to write the 2d part of the driver, or your system won't boot. You can't reuse the 2d part of the existing driver - drivers don't like their controlled devices being messed with.
2) You need the hardware-level interface of the card. Which means getting specifications (ATI has released theirs - partially, so far) or reverse engineering.
3) Note that just trying things out is not a valid way of finding out what the card does. Improper access at hardware level can damage your graphics card. If you develop a driver by reverse engineering, there's a good chance you'll kill a card at least once.
An engine? Well, you could do that, but that's an entirely different subject.
All the buzzt!
CornedBee
"There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
- Flon's Law
Really? How would that be?
Let's say you start peek'n and poke'n around (pun intended) and accidentally *way* over-clock a chip and burn it up. Or perhaps there's a register that indirectly controls voltage somewhere that needs to stay within certain parameters....ect, ect...
I've killed some hardware....
gg
