Re: GNOME & 3D API

[Lauris Kaplinski <lauris ariman ee>]

OpenInventor is C++
Although SGI homepage says, it has C API, I've not found online reference
to it.
Anyway, it seems to be a possible way to go. Or better yet - implement it
in Gtk type system.

Lauris

On 24 Feb 2000, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

> Lauris Kaplinski <lauris@ariman.ee> writes:
> 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > As in near future, OpenGL together with GLX will be the standard component
> > of XFree, I propose we should seriously think about adding a high-level 3D
> > API to GNOME libraries.
> > 
> > Pros:
> > 1. I hope that GNOME, as a viable DE, will start to attract more people,
> > developing educational programs, games, scientific tools etc.
> > 2. For serious projects, there are quake engine and probably other
> > packages. But Quake engine is probably overkill for 3D tetris or Solar
> > system presenting program.
> > 3. OpenGL is 3D rendering engine. To do any kind of real work, one
> > usually needs aditionally higher-level, state persistent objects.
> > 4. It would be nice, to have 3D analogue of GnomeCanvas, for fast
> > high-level programming. OpenGL is over-complex for beginners.
> 
> Such an API has been defined; it's called OpenInventor. Maybe SGI
> would consider open sourcing it, I don't think it's a huge revenue
> stream for them.
> 
>  - Maciej
>