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Author Topic: How does DF render its graphics?  (Read 1271 times)

DrKillPatient

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How does DF render its graphics?
« on: November 28, 2011, 12:22:44 pm »

I'm currently doing some research into rendering methods for games, as I want to try to program a simple 2D tile-based game in C++. I'm just beginning to figure everything out, but I've generally settled on a display similar to how DF is set up (as I understand it, anyway): tiles are read from an image and then rendered to a window to create a "fake" ASCII display. Using an image rather than true ASCII gives me the ability to use more characters if I want to do so. In addition, a common graphics library should be more portable than a console control library, which might not work the same way on different operating systems' terminals.

Does anyone know more about how DF's graphics work, what libraries they use (I think it's OpenGL+SDL...?), etc?
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Cruxador

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Re: How does DF render its graphics?
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2011, 04:13:13 pm »

It uses a mix of OpenGL and SDL. But DF is not a good example to follow. If nobody else does, you could try contacting Baughn since he knows a lot about this stuff (and has made DF's graphical rendering substantially better than it used to be) and could undoubtedly point you in the right direction.
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