[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux Demo Day 99

[Steve Baker]

"J. Reeves Hall" wrote:

> So what? This can be a success even if we don't get in the GBWR.

Exactly.  Although getting press coverage would work better if GBWR were
involved.
 
> >   * What constitutes a video game?  Would 'PONG' do? (I could write
> >     that *easily* in an hour - single-handed)
> 
> Well, nobody will be impressed if you write pong, unless it's a really damn
> cool pong with realtime-raytraced paddles and true physics on the ball :)

  :-)

It wouldn't be Pong with real physics on the ball!

> (anyone seen the game Pong Kombat? That was just damn cool. A bit old and
> certainly not realtime raytracing, but extremely fun)

Nope - never heard of it.
 
> >   * How much of it has to be done in the 24 hours?  Do you have
> >     to think up the idea, plan it *and* code it in that time?
> >     Would you be allowed to flowchart all the code in advance?
> >     Would you just have to type in the code in 24 hours?
> 
> Designing a game and writing a game are two separate balls of wax.
> Flowcharting is part of writing the game. But really, how much does
> flowcharting matter? Given a game plot and well-considered design, the details
> of implementation could be settled in an hour of heated debate. Especially if
> it was already known that the game would use OpenGL and GLUT, for instance.

Right - but my point was simply that there is a continuum between six
people sitting down with no idea of what they are going to do (and
finishing in 24hrs) - all the way through to having the listings of
source code in their hands and just typing it in within 24 hours.

Somewhere on that continuum is the "right" place to start such a
project and still claim to have completed it in 24 hours.  We would
need a game idea, some idea of whether this was going to be OpenGL or
libSVGA or X or whatever, some decisions as to who would write what
and what broadly would be the interfaces.  I think that would be about
the limit of what could fairly be interpreted as legitimate
pre-planning.
 
> >   * What pre-written libraries are allowed?  Clearly one shouldn't
> >     have to rewrite the C standard library. What about Mesa or libSVGA?
> >     Are you allowed to use a game library like my PLIB package
> >     or ClanLib?  If you are allowed that, why not a complete
> >     "Game Engine" like Doom or Quake?  It hardly seems like you'd
> >     need to write code at all in that case.
> 
> OpenGL can rightly be considered part of the operating system's graphics
> infrastructure - it's essentially a portable and flexible interface to the
> hardware. libc is part of the language for all intents and purposes. PLIB's
> arguable.

Yep - but for a FORMAL record attempt, it would be hard to draw the
line...
maybe if one were restricted to just the components that come with a
"standard"
Linux distribution...although that would rule out PLIB (until the next
SuSE
update which WILL carry it).

> IMHO the GBWR doesn't matter. The point is doing it and getting publicity. In
> this light, I'd say use PLIB and everything else you have. Those are raw
> materials;

Yes.  For our purposes, that would be a fair starting point - and would
also give us a reasonable chance of success in 24hours.

I think 24 hours is a suitable time.  I can't imagine many people
wanting
to spend much longer.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1 at airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker at hti.com      (work)