[Scummvm-devel] Re: 16 bit graphics: Thoughts on how to implement it

[Max Horn]

David,

don't forget that almost all commercial games (and many great Mac 
shareware & freeware games, can't speak for other platforms) have 
their  own in-game GUI. So did the LucasArts adventures. This is not 
necessarily something bad, for games - a nice in-game GUI gives you 
the right atmosphere etc. (BTW, when we have the GUI finished, we 
need to find a composer to make us some music tracks to play while 
the GUI is showing <g>).

The obvious advantage of having our own GUI is that it will 
immediatly be available on all platforms that we support. It will 
have to be implemented only once, and bugs have to be fixed once. 
Nobody has to worry that the GUI keeps in sync with the rest of 
ScummVM since it is integral part of ScummVM.

Compare that to the native GUIs: some ports don't even have one (like 
my OS X port). Some lag behind the development of ScummVM, and 
porters have to make sure to keep them in sync with ScummVM's 
development. They represent a lot of duplicated effort, too.

The advantage for a "native" GUI indeed is that one fits better into 
the host system. Alas, for a game that is a minor concern, it's not 
as if you'd want to do copy&paste between the apps etc.


At least in my eyes, the advantages of having our own GUI far 
outweigh its disadvantages or the advantages of a native GUI.



Cheers,

Max
-- 
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Max Horn
Software Developer

email: <mailto:max at quendi.de>
phone: (+49) 6151-494890