Forget updates to DirectX 9.0c Dec 2004

[ctplinuxfan]

Just a hint: Do not update to the latest DirectX 9.0c December 2004 SDK,
you cannot compile ctp2 with it.

What changed somewhere between 9.0b (what i use) and that SDK:

• Visual C++ 6.0 symbol files moved to Extra distribution (which means another download )
• DirectShow moved to Extra distribution (yet another file to download)
• the Extra distribution is not offered for install, you need to copy it to your SDK installation directory yourself
• no vc6 project files for DirectShow Baseclasses
• DirectShow updated to compile with .NET only (compiling with old
  Project file of 9.0b could theoretically work if you fixed compile errors in the Baseclasses sources)
• According to FAQ, DMOs should be prefered to DirectShow API, because
  no DShow feature updates will be made in the current SDK series

I have the feeling that Microsoft might discontinue DirectShow-API
sooner or later. The fact that the Visual C++ 6.0 symbols moved to Extra,
too, could indicate the same for Visual-C++ support a bit later.
I hope i'm wrong with both assumptions.

[J Bytheway]

. Thanks for the warning.

On some level it would be nice if we could remove the DirectX dependance altogether. Presumably that will be necessary for a linux version anyway - is it possible to implement some appropriate cross-platform solution?

[ctplinuxfan]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
. Thanks for the warning.

On some level it would be nice if we could remove the DirectX dependance altogether. Presumably that will be necessary for a linux version anyway - is it possible to implement some appropriate cross-platform solution?

It's just to save you a useless 325mb download. It'd be best to keep the current implementation and maybe add a DMO implementation as platform specific code when demand comes for that SDK.

We will just cover about 80 percent of the game with a cross-platform solution via SDL, i.e. keyboard + mouse + graphics + sound. The videos use the AVI codec Intel Indeo 5.0, and any library i know suitable for playing them cannot be used due to licence restrictions (GPL or free for non-commercial use).
Lokigames used mpeg movies in CtP for Linux for that reason. So as a last resort, we could require transcoding the movies to mpeg and describe that in a readme file. This would circumvent possible licence issues of platforms where just GPLed transcoding software is available (like linux). The only question is, wether the EULA allows conversion of data shipped with the game so that all parts of an original licence of the game are usable under another platform.

Well, it's too early to speculate on this, i hope there'll join a few to help getting that 80% running, first...

[J Bytheway]

I'd have thought a better (or at least easier) solution to the problem of the movies is, if we cannot display them easily, simply not to show them at all. They are hardly a critical component of the game (I always have them turned off myself...), and we've already had one person who suggested they might be willing to make a whole new intro movie for us...

But as you say, it's too early to speculate too much.