3D in MOL/MacOS

[Derrik Pates]

Greg wrote:
> I believe I've once read there are plans or  ideas to implement 
> 3D-support for MOL?
> I just would like to have a verification and some status report if it is 
> possible.
> 
> If yes,  would it be also some wrapper (MacOS-3D -> Linux X-DRI)?

I've not heard of such a project, though I've thought about the 
viability of doing a full QuickDraw display driver layer that basically 
implements display-on-display drawing - i.e., actually have MacOS treat 
the X display like it's its own display, and translate the drawing calls 
to X draw operations, so you could run MacOS apps and Linux apps side-by 
-side on the same desktop. 3D would probably fall in with that - though 
there are 3 different 3D drawing APIs I know of on MacOS - QuickDraw3D, 
3D RAVE, and of course, the venerable OpenGL. OpenGL obviously would be 
the easiest choice, since for the most part, it translates directly over 
- OpenGL calls should map roughly straight across between the two, at 
least in theory.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about the display driver architecture 
to be able to implement this - and I'd need the appropriate development 
tools, which aren't a problem if you're targeting OS X, but with OS 9, 
where the development tools are all commercial, it's more of a problem.

-- 
Derrik Pates
dpates@dsdk12.net