aevaFeb 20
opengl is for people who want to finish projects and vulkan is for people who are just looking for something to help their ecs framework stand out a little more
Show threadLRFeb 20

@aeva i just use SDL_gpu and Slang now. couldn't be happier.

well i could but not in a control flow based environment

Show threadaevaFeb 20
@lritter SLD3 GPU fills an important niche and i respect it. the main reasons i am not myself using it for either of my current projects is because it's not backwards compatible with enough hardware, and i can't make browser games with it. ES2 provides a very simple API and also me to support the widest variety of hardware. being a dead API like win32 also means if i write code against it, it'll work forever.
Show threadLRFeb 20

@aeva good points. maybe we'll get that ES2 support into SDL3 eventually.

what is the reason for this conservative approach? the widest support?

Show threadaevaFeb 20
@lritter you know that thing where you can't really buy a new gpu, ram, or ssd these days without paying out the nose
Show threadLRFeb 20
@aeva i see. i'm very long term oriented and i try to code for the world i want. because if the present is any indicator for the foreseeable future, then my existence makes no sense - for this eventuality, i don't need to prepare much.
Show threadaevaFeb 20
@lritter vulkan is perfect for "long term oriented" people
Show threadaevaFeb 20
@lritter the other reason ES2 appeals to me at this time is its simplicity keeps me focused on the goal. if i can't think of a way to do an effect with the simple capabilities it provides, that effect gets cut.
Show threadLRFeb 20

@aeva it's why i fell in love with GL in the first place. but my pipelines got pretty complex since then (streaming a voxel world is chonk). and any lingering state or a lack of control over scheduling only drives me up the walls anymore.

this is definitely more work. which is why i write compilers. they allow me to amp up the complexity without going mad over writing pipeline boilerplate. eventually.

Show threadaevaFeb 20
@lritter i mean that's kind of my point right, these things take time, and that's a lot for one person to do. if you had taken the desire to abandon conventional tools due to the growing complexity of the project as a sign to dramatically cut scope it's possible that you would have shipped several games by now. of course, quantity is often not a virtue.
Show threadaeva
@lritter also i don't really want to argue for a point of view that makes me sad, but the gpu price inflation thing has been going strong for at least 10 years now, and only seems to be getting worse.
Feb 20 at 5:35pmWeb