Hello Everyone,
Based on the previous thread I think we have enough to start laying out
the design and writing code for Aurora.
The choice that I would like to clarify is that Aurora will be a retained
mode API. I understand that this is not the best choice for speed and that
not everyone will be happy with this choice. However, retained mode API's
are typically much higher-level, which will make it easier for developers
that are unfamiliar with writing graphics code to express their intent.
Given the stated goal of Aurora I feel that this is the best choice.
The next is that Aurora will have a pluggable backend rendering system.
This will allow us to support any rendering system capable of meeting the
requirements of Aurora's frontend. And when combined with the retained
mode API you could, in theory, swap renders on the fly. Although I
wouldn't want to be the first one try it!
Since Aurora has a pluggable backend for rendering I feel that it will be
prudent to use the low-level API's that are best suited to each platform.
This will Aurora to support each platform as best as possible. As I
currently can tell the following list represents
System 2D API / 3D API
Linux X11 / OpenGL 4.3
Android Canvas / OpenGL ES 3.0
OSX Quartz2D / OpenGL 4.3
iOS Quartz2D / OpenGL ES 3.0
Windows Direct2D / Direct3D 11
Windows RT Direct2D / Direct3D 11
The reason for targeting relatively new low-level API versions is that by
the time we actually complete the bulk of the work, they won't be new
anymore. If anyone has a suggestion for a 2D API on Linux that has the
ubiquity of the X11 but is easier to use, please mention it! I would like
to have a Wayland backend but that API is still very new and not widely
adopted. I've noticed that Android and iOS seem to have many options for
2D graphics, none of which I've had a chance to evaluate rigorously, any
recommendations would be appreciated.
As has been widely suggested, Aurora will be split into a number of
packages that are loosely coupled. In theory this would allow us to pull
the more broadly applicable packages in to Phobos as they mature and then
depend on those in Aurora. The tentative list of packages is as follows:
aurora.application
aurora.primitives
aurora.graphics2d
aurora.graphics3d
aurora.text
aurora.image
aurora.math
aurora.animation
Hopefully, this break down will allow the user to pull in only what they
need for their project, without confusing them with choice. Naming
suggestions are welcomed!
Finally, I've have set up a GitHub organization for Aurora, which can be
accessed at: https://github.com/auroragraphics I haven't posted any code
yet, but I am working on aurora.application for Windows. The aurora repo
is the master repo and all other package repo's are submodules of it. The
aurora repo will consist primarily of the scripts required to build
Aurora. This is to make it easier for the newbies to get started while
enabling maximum flexibility for the development team.
In the famous words on Andrei ... Destroy!
--
Adam Wilson
GitHub/IRC: LightBender
Aurora Project Coordinator
