Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!moci!kai
From: kai@moci.UUCP (Kai Bidstrup)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Metagraphics metaWINDOWS
Message-ID: <63@moci.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jan 91 17:59:07 GMT
References: <26189@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <26190@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Distribution: usa
Organization: ICOM, Inc., West Allis, WI
Lines: 46

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