Simon Wilson has released the first public version of his 3D graphics driver for Iyonix users. The software library, ported from BeOS and compatible with the popular OpenGL interface, employs the Nvidia PCI graphics card used in the XScale powered Iyonix. OpenGL based applications built with Simon's port should enjoy hardware accelerated graphics, thanks to the modest GeForce 2 MX card which, until now, has been left unutilised under RISC OS."In addition, functions are available for accelerating certain 2D operations, such as rectangle copying and sprite plotting. An API for these operations will be provided soon. Also, a module allowing 3D to be used in BASIC may be created in the future. Also, a fixed point version of Mesa (similar to OpenGL ES) is on the cards," says Simon on his website.
This afternoon he told us that he plans to upload some screenshots and tidy up the package over the next few days.
The library, which appears to sport a MIT-like licence, is provided freely with source code, and developers should be aware of a few issues and glitches. Simon, who also authored PCITV, first talked of his work in July. Meanwhile, the source to Quake 3 was recently released for free.
Links
IyonixMesa website - temporary address, due to move to the Iyonix website.