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 Usage of outdated graphics stacks should not be changed because this might cause severe and non-trivial bugs.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	Theme selection	Sounds
bomber	KGameCanvas	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
bovo	QGraphicsView	QGraphicsSvgItem	N/A
granatier	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme+custom
kajongg	QGraphicsView	libkmahjongg	N/A
kapman	QGraphicsView	QGraphicsSvgItem	KGameTheme
katomic	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
kbattleship (see knavalbattle)
kblackbox	QGraphicsView	QGraphicsSvgItem	N/A
kblocks	QGraphicsView	QGraphicsSvgItem	KGameTheme
kbounce	KGameCanvas	KPixmapCache	N/A
kbreakout	KGameCanvas	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
kdiamond	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
kfourinline	QGraphicsView	PixmapCache (client pattern)	N/A
kgoldrunner	KGameCanvas	KPixmapCache	N/A
kigo	QGraphicsView	KPixmapCache	KGameTheme
killbots	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
kiriki	QWidget with pre-rendered PNG		N/A
kjumpingcube	QWidget	QSvgRenderer	N/A
klickety	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
klines	QGraphicsView	KPixmapCache	N/A
kmahjongg	KGameCanvas	libkmahjongg	N/A
kmines	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
knavalbattle	QGraphicsView	PixmapCache	N/A
knetwalk	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
kolf	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
kollision	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
konquest	QGraphicsView	KPixmapCache	N/A
kpat	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme+KCardTheme
kreversi	QGraphicsView	KGameRenderer	KgTheme
kshisen	QWidget	libkmahjongg	N/A
ksirk	QGraphicsView	QGraphicsSvgItem+KPixmapCache	N/A
kspaceduel	QGraphicsView	QGraphicsSvgItem	N/A
ksquares	QGraphicsView	N/A	N/A
ksudoku	QGraphicsView	KPixmapCache	KGameTheme
ktron	QWidget	KPixmapCache	KGameTheme
ktuberling	QGraphicsView	QGraphicsSvgItem	N/A
kubrick	QGLWidget	N/A	N/A
libkmahjongg	N/A	QPixmapCache	N/A
lskat	QGraphicsView	PixmapCache (client pattern)	N/A
palapeli	QGraphicsView	N/A	N/A