KDE Games/Porting

From KDE Community Wiki

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 Usage of outdated graphics stacks should not be changed because this might cause severe and non-trivial bugs.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