KDE Games/Porting
Targets of porting
- Graphics stack: QGraphicsView is currently the recommended solution. Some games still use KGameCanvas; these should be ported to QGraphicsView. In the future, we likely want to move to Qt Quick instead, but this needs proper investigation and changes in libkdegames.
- Rendering method: Current solutions commonly include usage of a QSvgRenderer, combined either with QGraphicsSvgItems or with (Q/K)PixmapCache. It is suggested to migrate to KGameRenderer instead. Integration with QGraphicsView is available through the KGameRenderedItem and KGameRenderedObjectItem classes. Integration with KGameCanvas is available through the KGameCanvasRenderedPixmap.
- Theme selection: When one game supports multiple themes, the KGameTheme class has commonly been used. Starting with the 4.9 release, the new KgTheme class supersedes KGameTheme.
- Sounds: Some games used Phonon, some KNotify. Both libraries are bad because of their commonly high playback latencies. The new KgSound classes in libkdegames are specialized on low-latency playback of small sound samples.
- (more to come)
Porting status
The second column shows which graphics stack (e. g. QGraphicsView, KGameCanvas) is used by the application. The third column shows the rendering method.
If you want to take part in porting, pick an app, contact the author or the kde-games-devel mailing list to coordinate your effort, read into the KGameRenderer APIDOX and start hacking! Please note that this porting effort is mainly about porting rendering code to KGameRenderer. Usage of outdated graphics stacks should not be changed because this might cause severe and non-trivial bugs.
Warning: It is advised not to use the primaryView property of KGameRenderedObjectItem class in new ports. The existing ports using it (KDiamond and Klickety/KSame) made it clear that the primaryView property has design flaws (concerning performance), so it will probably be removed again.
| Application | Graphics stack | Rendering method | Who does/did the port? (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|---|
| bomber | KGameCanvas | KGameRenderer | Stefan Majewsky |
| bovo | QGraphicsView | QGraphicsSvgItem | |
| granatier | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Mathias Kraus |
| kajongg | QGraphicsView | libkmahjongg | |
| kapman | QGraphicsView | QGraphicsSvgItem | |
| katomic | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Brian Croom |
| kblackbox | QGraphicsView | QGraphicsSvgItem | |
| kblocks | QGraphicsView | QGraphicsSvgItem | Brian Croom |
| kbounce | KGameCanvas | KPixmapCache | |
| kbreakout | KGameCanvas | KGameRenderer | Brian Croom |
| kdiamond | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Stefan Majewsky |
| kfourinline | QGraphicsView | PixmapCache (and classes similar to KGameRendererClient) | |
| kgoldrunner | KGameCanvas | KPixmapCache | |
| kigo | QGraphicsView | KPixmapCache | |
| killbots | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Parker Coates |
| kiriki | QWidget with pre-rendered PNG | N/A | |
| kjumpingcube | QWidget | simple QSvgRenderer::render() | |
| klickety | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | (native QGV/KGR app) |
| klines | QGraphicsView | KPixmapCache | Lindsay Mathieson (Blackpaw) |
| kmahjongg | KGameCanvas | libkmahjongg | Christian Krippendorf |
| kmines | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Brian Croom |
| knavalbattle | QGraphicsView | PixmapCache | |
| knetwalk | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Brian Croom |
| kolf | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Stefan Majewsky |
| kollision | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Brian Croom |
| konquest | QGraphicsView | KPixmapCache | |
| kpat | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Parker Coates |
| kreversi | QGraphicsView | KGameRenderer | Brian Croom |
| kshisen | QWidget | libkmahjongg | |
| ksirk | QGraphicsView | QGraphicsSvgItem and KPixmapCache | |
| ksnakeduel | QWidget | KPixmapCache | |
| kspaceduel | QGraphicsView | QGraphicsSvgItem | |
| ksquares | QGraphicsView | N/A | N/A |
| ksudoku | QGraphicsView | KPixmapCache | |
| ktuberling | QGraphicsView | QGraphicsSvgItem | |
| kubrick | QGLWidget | N/A | N/A |
| libkmahjongg | N/A | QPixmapCache | (can now also be ported, with the new capabilities of KgTheme) |
| lskat | QGraphicsView | PixmapCache (and classes similar to KGameRendererClient) | |
| palapeli | QGraphicsView | N/A | N/A |