I asked Igor a few weeks ago. Basically his answers were : Cairo is for 2D. OpenGL is for 3D.
If you do 2D with openGL it is possible but much more complex : a lot of API are missing fr 2D rendering. Moreover, Cairo is faster for 2D. Then other guys than me can give other explanations. 2013/6/12 kilon <[email protected]> > I think its a smart move you started from cairo and then moved to opengl. > Its > possible afterall to mix cairo with opengl. I think its inevitable . It > does > not matter that opengl does not specialize on vector graphics, it can do > vector graphics and offer massive accelerations in the process. > > As soon as I learn opengl my focus will be shifted to porting morphic (at > least the base part) and drag Athens in the process. So tell your friend > that opengl support is definetly coming ;) . Just dont tell him "soon" :D > > I am not going to be rewriting Cairo into smalltalk of course, or doing any > kind of major coding / rewrite , just using the existing methods Cairo has > for communicating with opengl. From the little I know it creates a quad > polygon in opengl ,apply a texture on it and Cairo is used to draw the > texture. > > One of things people who are not familiar with graphics is general are not > aware of is the massive acceleration a GPU can give, that in some cases can > outperform CPUs by 100 times. But thats not the mind blowing stuff, the > mind > blowing stuff is that this acceleration is not even graphics specific. CUDA > technology is already used in physics, maths and other extremely demanding > computing tasks. Pharo can tap on this massive power (eg . language parsers > ) that is even available even on 100 euros nvidia cards and soon will be > available for every pc and mac out there for peanuts. Probably its a matter > of time before penetrate the mobile market too. > > We coders in blender (3d app) have already seen blender's new render engine > offer the unthinkable , real time full renders with minor delays using the > CUDA technology through the new render engine called "cycles". The previous > render engine would take at least minutes to offer a same quality render, > so > its a massive move forward. > > So my conclusion is that eveything has its place . Cairo + Opengl + CUDA , > makes a trio of ustopable benefits that pharo cannot afford to ignore in > any > case. I will try to offer my little part in this process, it wont be easy I > know , it could take years, but it will certainly be a lot of fun . > > > > -- > View this message in context: > http://forum.world.st/Pharo-dev-Cairo-vs-openGL-tp4692947p4692975.html > Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk Developers mailing list archive at > Nabble.com. > > -- Clément Béra Mate Virtual Machine Engineer Bâtiment B 40, avenue Halley 59650 *Villeneuve d'Ascq*
