Games made with defold needs openGL to work?

Questions
1

I know the editor uses openGL, but the games too?

I plan to avoid openGL at all costs.

2

Yes games made with Defold uses OpenGL, except the HTML5 builds which use WebGL. We are also in the process of wrapping up Vulkan as a new rendering backend. Vulkan support will be available in Q1. Vulkan will be used as the stepping stone to use Metal on iOS and Mac OS as Apple is deprecating OpenGL.

Why?

1 Like
3

Because it doesn’t run in a toaster. I have a laptop that is a bit old that doesn’t have openGL. Let’s just say that I suffered A LOT for it. It’s just a damn prejudice.

Actually I have a modern laptop but I’m afraid there are people with that problem and can’t play for it.

4

By the way, I just tried one of the tutorial projects bundled on the old laptop and it worked perfectly. I guess I don’t have to worry

Then I tried Defold on it, and typically gave error… but it can still be used! Without the editor but still working. Amazing, the program is quite solid!

1 Like
5

I’m not sure it directly answers the OpenGL issue, but Steam’s Hardware & Software Survey has a lot of good data on the kinds of systems people actually use. Personally, I would be more worried about losing access in future versions of iOS.

6

You mean OpenGL deprecation and Metal? If that’s the case then there’s no need to worry. We’re wrapping up the work with Vulkan and Metal during Q1. We’re chasing down the final few issues and preparing builds systems etc.

1 Like
7

I wasn’t that worried, mostly I interpreted what you wrote as meaning that Metal was phase 2 after Vulkan, and would take longer. Good news!

8

In fact, Metal was always prio , over Vulkan, due to the deadline from Apple.
But since we opted to use MoltenVK we get a Vulkan interface and, at the same time on iOS/OSX, a Metal backend.

2 Likes
9

I am just curious: there will be a choice between openGL and Vulkan in the game project file?

10

Yes, most likely an option either in game.project or when building. We haven’t really decided yet. And to start with the render.* API will be exactly the same. You should not notice any difference in available features or how your game is rendered. Later on we may provide another set of render.* functions for Vulkan, but all of that is in the future.

6 Likes