that is quite a proposal 🤔
thing is you definetly don't need $2000 to run the game
you can get a $300 used laptop and even that might be an overshoot
if you are interested in how the engine works I'm happy to answer any questions
I'm really not doing anything you couldn't do better in unity or godot or whatever
That is true!. However you know how most gamers are, they think they need the latest and greatest to play games. The forced dependence on GPUs has not only made gaming more expensive, but increases the burden on developers. I can play Quake 2 on my CPU at a very high framerate, I'd imagine Zortch can run similarly given its simpler graphics. There are downsides for sure, but on the other hand SW rendering is indeed more portable (as it can be written purely in a portable language such as C), less bloated and eliminates the dependency on GPUs so it will be supported almost anywhere as every computer has a CPU, while not all computers (such as embedded devices) have a GPU (or, if they have it, it may not be sufficient, supported or have the required drivers). SW rendering may also be implemented in a simpler way and it may be easier to deal with as there is, for example, no need to write shaders in a special language, manage transfer of data between CPU and GPU or deal with parallel programming. SW rendering is truly the KISS approach (Keep It Simple, Stupid).
I'm sure you could replicate the game in Unity or Godot as well, but those engines are also very bloated. Unity especially.
don't forget that software rendering needs more cpu resources
the Quake2 software rendering is still one of the most optimised ones ever made
so I highly doubt I can make anything that comes close
it's probably easier to get some mesa software rendered opengl and use it with some linux win comptability layer or whatever
the thing is it's really really hard to get a machine nowadays that doesn't have a gpu or opengl support
what sort of embedded devices you are thinking of anyway? I mean afaik even a raspberry pi has a gpu
Here is one software renderer that is very efficient and is completely free to use, it's even in the public domain. https://codeberg.org/drummyfish/small3dlib
I don't expect you to use it for this game, however. Maybe it's possible but perhaps it's best if a new, smaller game is made using it one day. If you'd be interested, of course.
I know a lot of devices have some kind of GPU built in, but they still rely on drivers and a bevvy of third party libraries to get working. It's not as universal as something that is CPU-reliant, because we've had CPUs a lot longer than we've had GPUs. A game like Doom, which was initially designed exclusively for software rendering, stands the test of time because it isn't restricted by APIs and the like. Because it was eventually licensed under the GPL, and because it was coded so well with portability in mind, people did eventually add GPU-centric features. But you aren't going to play Doom via GZDoom on every device, while the stock CPU rendered version can be played on almost anything. Even a pregnancy test lol.
It's not often a case of you 'should', but because you 'can'. I think games should be a thing that you can modify however you want, and port it to newer platforms as time passes.
it looks cool indeed and I appreciate your passion
but tbh this sounds more like a software rendering fetish and trying to find excuses for it
and I understand it completely - many people prefer the look of these games 🤔
they just look more like real games - it's hard to explain (kind of how movies at 50fps feel wrong)
maybe for LAB 2 I could use one I guess - but then I would want to go all the way like
something that uses only affine texture mapping and 16bit dithering like the PS1 etc.
this is one dangerous rabbit hole 😔
Haha, a fetish you say?. Didn't think I'd ever hear that. Perhaps it's more of a passion for free software that drives this request, as well as a longing for the "good old days". I've lived through decades of pc gaming and know how it began, and where it ultimately ended up. Where we are at now is a dystopian nightmare. Badly programmed, proprietary games with tons of bloat and ridiculous hardware requirements that are destined to rot away and become unplayable one of these days.
It's also curiosity, as I wonder how a new game would look if it was developed with software rendering in mind. After all the CPUs we have now are many times faster than what we used to have. And the antidote to high Nvidia prices is less reliance on their crappy products and greedy practices.
Thank you for being open to the idea.
There is a custom version of the Quake engine, known as "Retroquad", that has a completely new software renderer. The author states that it can be used to create original games, and is GPL licensed. Check it out!.
https://www.moddb.com/engines/retroquad/downloads/retroquad-0100-public-release
