jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook) (01/08/91)
I am interested in writing games for the IBM PC using Turbo C++ 1.01 and a third party graphics library. Everyone I have talked to has mentioned that MetaGraphics makes the best, but there are so many that I am confused. First: Has anyone actually used the product? How good is TurboWindow/C and what does it have (or not have) that MetaWINDOWS does (or does not). Second: Is there an upgrade from TW/C to MW/Plus? Third: They state "no royalties" on all their low end products, and "no royalties for non-resale use" (which is kind of stupid)....what does this mean? Fourth: Overall, are they a good company to deal with? Fifth: When people do write games, what do they use? (MicroPROSE, Sierra, Origin, EOA, et. al...do they ALL use in house assembly graphics routines?) Thanks, Brian
young@brahms.udel.edu (Philip Young) (01/08/91)
In article <26190@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook) writes: >I am interested in writing games for the IBM PC using Turbo C++ 1.01 and a >third party graphics library. Everyone I have talked to has mentioned that >MetaGraphics makes the best, but there are so many that I am confused. > I have used MetaWindows with MS C extensively and have been very happy with the product and it's support. However, I can't really comment on the differences between TurboWindows and MetaWindows. As you may suspect there is a small "gotcha" with the MetaWindows license. If you use MetaWindows with the resident driver program there is no royalty (and you ARE allowed to distribute the driver with your program). This driver must be loaded into memory before you run your MetaWindow program. With MetaWindow Plus this driver isn't necessary; all the routines are incorporated in a library. But, there IS a royalty fee for programs using the libraries. I guess they don't consider MW+ a "low end product".
young@brahms.udel.edu (Philip Young) (01/08/91)
I had to dig for it, but I finally found my copy of the MetaWINDOW
license agreement. With standard MetaWINDOW, TurboWINDOW and
QuickWINDOW you are allowed to redistribute the resident graphics
driver, fonts, and print-screen utilities with no added fees or
royalties. But, you must provide copyright credit in your documentation
(fair enough).
When using MetaWINDOW/PLUS or MetaWINDOW/PREMIUM libraries in your
code, three different agreements are available:
1. Pre-Paid - determine, up front, how many unit you will sell and
pay:
$2000.00 for 1000 copies or less
$4000.00 for 5000 copies or less
$6000.00 for 10,000 copies or less
2. Incremental Object Code License - this is the pay as go plan:
$2000.00 for the first 1000 copies you sell
$3000.00 more for the next 4000 copies (1001 to 5000)
$5000.00 more for the next 5000 copies (5001 to 10000)
$5000.00 more if you sell more then 10,000
3. Fully Paid-Up Object Code License:
Pay $10,000.00 up front and you can distribute as many copies
as you want.
Disclaimer: I paraphrased this from a document which is one or two years
old; I don't guarantee this information to be accurate or complete.
Philip Young
Instructional Technology
University of Delawarekai@moci.UUCP (Kai Bidstrup) (01/09/91)
In article <26190@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook) writes: >I am interested in writing games for the IBM PC using Turbo C++ 1.01 and a >third party graphics library. Everyone I have talked to has mentioned that >MetaGraphics makes the best, but there are so many that I am confused. > >First: Has anyone actually used the product? How good is TurboWindow/C and >what does it have (or not have) that MetaWINDOWS does (or does not). Yes I have extensive experience with MetaWINDOWS/PLUS (the linkable version, all others are terminate-stay-resident "device drivers".) > >Second: Is there an upgrade from TW/C to MW/Plus? I don't know this, if you call the company, they have relitively knowledgable employees. > >Third: They state "no royalties" on all their low end products, and "no >royalties for non-resale use" (which is kind of stupid)....what does this >mean? I don't know what there current policy is, but a few years ago my company bought the source code to avoid all royalties ( very expensive to do this!!! ) > >Fourth: Overall, are they a good company to deal with? I would rate the company as a whole below average. They do have a fairly good support staff that probubly can help with simple problems, but if anything you are doing is not of the simplest graphics functionality they seem to run into many problems. I have in the past reported many serious bugs ( the current version of MetaWINDOWS/PLUS does NOT draw outlined ovals with a dashed line at all! ), it seems to take 6 months to a year for them to respond. These problems could be avoided in your case by changing they way part of your game is drawn, but I'm working on a graphics editor and realtime animations system, and the user could choose a dashed oval. > >Fifth: When people do write games, what do they use? (MicroPROSE, Sierra, >Origin, EOA, et. al...do they ALL use in house assembly graphics routines?) I have seen a company ( HoloByte I think ), use MetaWINDOWS for their graphics, but they didn't even use MetaWINDOWS for part of its strength, the increadable number of graphics adapters it supports. ( over 150 at this time ). > >Thanks, > >Brian Hoped I helped! Kai