[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-devel
Subject:    plans for a free, OpenGL-based equivalent to Direct2D ?
From:       Benoit Jacob <jacob.benoit.1 () gmail ! com>
Date:       2010-12-14 6:27:47
Message-ID: AANLkTi=OiNV7iAEXyJwyotpX7=L_ACBSx7FnkgFSi6vp () mail ! gmail ! com
[Download RAW message or body]

Hi,

I would like to know if the KDE or Qt community has plans for a free
OpenGL-based equivalent to Direct2D (see explanation below)? And if
there is a chance that I could get you interested in that. We at
Mozilla are very interested in that and are considering the
possibility of launching such a project:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Gecko:2DGraphicsThoughts

It would be interesting for us to know your opinions on the subject.

First of all, by "2D", I mean "advanced 2D", with text etc. So please
don't close this thread by saying that 2D is a special case of 3D
hence OpenGL is all I need ;-)

Let's review the possibilities we currently have for
hardware-accelerated 2D rendering:
* XRender/OpenGL back-ends to QPainter/Cairo.
 -> problem: the Cairo API is in our experience inherently unsuitable
for hardware acceleration and my impression is that the same applies
to QPainter. The result is disappointing acceleration factors. (Stop
me if I'm wrong).
* scene-graph APIs. For example, I saw planetkde posts about a future
scene graph API in Qt. Here, I'm talking about the *advanced* use
cases where you want more control than a scene graph API can provide.

Microsoft has an answer to this problem: Direct2D. If we want to cover
advanced 2D needs with hardware acceleration on non-Windows platforms,
we need something like Direct2D, but based on OpenGL. For example, if
you ever want to get a world-class fully Qt-based Web browser *with*
GPU-accelerated rendering, you'll need something like that. Ditto for
compex enough 2D games (a scene graph API can only be enough for
simple games), for Calligra...

So, do you (KDE or Qt) already have plans in this area? If we were to
launch such a projects, would you see a use for it, and are there any
particular reasonable things we should keep in mind to keep you
interested and potentially able to contribute to the effort?

Cheers,
Benoit
 
>> Visit http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel#unsub to unsubscribe <<
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]