From: Jon M. Taylor <taylorj@ecs.csus.edu>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 14:54:11 -0700 (PDT)

Re: LibGGI3D RFC? new API?

On Thu, 20 Aug 1998, Torgeir Veimo wrote:

> I don't really understand the purpose of libGGI3D? 

	A minimally-complex and maximally-flexible 3D shaded triangle
drawing API.  Good uses for LibGGI3D include:

* Developing KGI drivers w/3D acceleration quickly and easily

* Accessing shading/texturing functions with available hardware
acceleration quickly and easily

* An easy way to get some Mesa accel (target Mesa to LibGGI3D and drop 
the accel suport in as it gets written)

* A quick and easy way to write code that can be "stolen" for use with a 
true Mesa driver-lib

* An environment to develop new LibGGI features like DirectBuffer subtypes
and plug-ins

* An excuse to hack |->

> Should application
> developers use a new API different from OpenGL?

	No, app developers should probably stay with OpenGL/Mesa. 
LibGGI3D is going to be quite low-level by design.  LibGGI2D is to X
windows as LibGGI3D is to Mesa.
 
> Should one implement OpenGL on top of libGGI3D?

	That's one thing I'd like to see happen.  It would be suboptimal
compared with "true" per-KGI-driver Mesa support, but it would also be a
lot simpler and easier to implement.  And when it came time to create a
true Mesa driver, the LibGGI3D code could be recycled.

Jon


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