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Warning, this site is unofficial, and has not been authorize by the original author of the package. Any information here is not endorsed by the author and only the page's author can be held responsible for it's content.
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News
May 11th
2000
| Well, the Mac Beta of v1.2.1 is up, and ready to go. I am still working on 1.5, which is why I have been so quiet, please be patient. Expect to see a focus on Vector-based graphics, basic 3D modelling (no lighting, etc), and GUI interface handling.
| MAr 12th
2000
| Well, I have posted links to the Betas of v2 (Mac/Win32/Unix), the Win32 and Unix links go to the official site at CMU, but the Mac beta has been posted up right here. These are betas and not everything works the way it should be so right now it is a 'at your own risk' package. Plus, you have to have OpenGL before you can use any programs created using them.
In other news, v1.2.2 has gotten pushed back a little bit and the fusion copy (Win32/Mac package) will be in public beta by the end of the week with any luck. Also, v1.2.2 will not be v1.2.2, but rather v1.5, due to the fact that the innards are being ripped out and replaced with more cross-platform friendly code, which in the future may include a Gtk interface for Unix. More calls will be made available, low-level support for those who want to tinker with creating a specialized Pane-like class (Progress bars for example), and a few other surprises.
| Mar 4th
2000
| Sorry about the trouble, but I removed the v1.2.1 link from the page due to some problems with it not compiling.
However, since I allready have v1.2.2 planned for release (this time fully tested) sometime during the next week, I
decided to postpone putting up a working copy until then. The good news is: 1.2.2 will work with any compiler thanks
to a little trickery using preprocessor directives. The bad news is: There are no currently downloadable copies of
CMU Graphics. I hope to rectify this within the week, hopefully with a Mac version as well. I am also working on
documentation for it.
| Feb19th
2000
| I posted the Windows version of v1.2.1 up. It is currently for Codewarrior, but it will work with Visual C++ with
a couple changes to version.h.
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About CMU
The best information is possibly the documentation. View it here
CMU Graphics Package (CMU standing for: Carnegie-Mellon University) is a rather simple and yet robust package for developing graphics programs despite the lack of any Windows or Mac-specific programming experience. It was designed and implemented in part by Mark Stehlik and Geoffrey Washburn, both members of the CMU community. Geoffrey has taken over the majority of the programming as of late, and working on v2 of the package, has taken it cross-platform. BeOS, MacOS, Win9x, and even all Unix flavors will be supported as long as you have a working version of OpenGL and GLUT handy to compile with. The current public version is v1.2, and is very useful as long as you don't attempt to circumvent it's limitations. It has a slightly low frame-rate making it unsutable for professional-quality games, but that isn't what it was designed for. Its original purpose was to act as a library that student programmers at CMU, and elsewhere could learn basic graphics applications without having to get bogged down to an OS-specific implementation right away. Success at CMU, as well as some AP Comp Sci classes in a few High Schools has made it a valuable learning tool as well as a basic launching-point for programmers.
Comparing v2.x to v1.2.x
| v1.2.x | v2.x
| | Has been somewhat extensively tested and debugged, although a couple bugs remain.
| Has not been tested, and many bugs remain.
| | Most/all current projects will port from 1.2 to 1.2.2
| Major rewriting of projects will be required to work with 2.x
| | Low system requirements. RAM/CPU/3D-light machines can use it with little problem.
| High system requirements, but OpenGL acceleration is supported.
| | Difficult to port to new systems without rewriting the entire core.
| Easy to port to new engines (DirectX, GTK+, GameSprockets, etc.) just by re-writing one class.
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Which one's better? Don't ask me, since I think both are still extremely useful. v2.x will probably pull out into
the lead once more engines are supported such as DirectX and GameSprockets which will lead to frame rates in a higher
range for lower-end machines. However, one must keep in mind this was originally designed for educational purposes,
where low-end machines are used the most. Depending on what you need to support, either is a good choice.
Download CMU Graphics Package
v1.2.2
Note: v1.2.2 is not compatible with version 2.x, and is designed for a light-weight version for use as a teaching tool. If you don't need graphics acceleration or an extensive API, go with 1.2.2
v2.01b
Note: This is still in the beta stages, so I cannot assure that it will even be 75% bugfree. These are actually linked to the site at CMU since I do not have enough space on my current server.
Feedback
Geoff Washburn - Main Author of CMU Graphics, currently working on v2.x
Mark Stehlik - Professor at CMU, presumably overseeing the project.
Adam Thayer - Author of this page, Mac version of 1.2.x, and modifications to 1.2.x
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