GapiDraw 2.0 development progress

[jacob]

Will GAPI 2.0 be making use of the MediaQ MQ-1100 graphics chip used within the HP iPAQ 5450?

[Johan]

jacob:

If HP would release an SDK for the chip, hardware support could be added to GapiDraw 2.0 in a matter of hours. The new core is even prepared for 3D libraries with a prototype orthagonal view / billboard surface engine already being implemented. Of course there are other limitations to using a 3D bridge (such as surfaces only capable of being power-of-two in size). But give me a handheld computer with a Direct 3D SDK and you will have GapiDraw with accelerated blits and alpha blends within a couple of days.

As it is currently, the chips used in today's Pocket PCs are only useful for video decompression and some Device Context drawings using GDI. This is unlikely to change before the next version of Pocket PCs (not Pocket PC2003, the one after that) is released.

PS.. Good thing this version is "GapiDraw 2"... Lots of things can happen before "GapiDraw 3[D]" is released...

[efortier]

Here's a late suggestion for a project we're working on.

We need to load 1 bit png files to act as a mask. It would be great if there was a way to load this mask into a CGapiSurface, but if the surface wouldn't be converted to 16 bits or whatever it is converted to.

In this project we don't draw into/from the surface, but we just probe some pixels for 0/1 in response to the user tapping on the screen. The surface needs to have the same alignment as the screen.

I can implement this code, but it would be nice to have it included in GapiDraw, expecially since all the loading of surfaces is already done.

Thanks!

--Eric

[tedson]

[Johan]

[tedson]

Yes, I have. I have only tested for bugs so far and not done timings. Everything seems to be running smoothly on the platforms I have tested (MIPS, ARM, Win2k, WinXP.)

I'll see if I can run some timing tests and let you know what the performance looks like.

[egarayblas]

sbl: I have downloaded gd200, installed and integrated it on my game, changed my project settings and pointed to the new lib, without making any modifications in my code, my game increased upto 2 FPS (which is very significant for me). I'm sure it will increase its performance even more if I implemented some of the optimizations you mentioned regarding alpha surfaces and reducing image color bits.

Questions:
1. I would like to use the singlethreaded mode (because in gd104, mine is set to multithreaded), do I have to change back my project-->settings-->c/c++-->multithreaded to single threaded?
2. Will you update the documentation soon?
3. When will the new build be released? Some of my images has some pixels missing like what you showed a few posts ago. I downloaded the Apr 24 build.
4. Can you post a brief summary on how do I take advantage of the CGapiAlphaSurface? I would really like to use the faster alphabltfast function in this version.

Other than this, gapidraw really rocks! Thanks for improving it more! Can't wait to see the final version.

[Johan]

[egarayblas]

[egarayblas]

[stuff]

[ppcStudios]

[Johan]

[DigY]

[Johan]