After I now read the complete thread and with the basic knowledge of OpenGL plus the different implementations out there I have to say good that you ditched TinyGL. It's outdated stuff and more or less abandonware.
Keep in mind: A full OpenGL implementation is not something a small group could even pull off let alone a single person. On the other side there is also the big problem, who is going to implement something in the graphic drivers so this can be used at all. Even SciTech had problems here (they were ATI development partner)...but there are quite some open source drivers out there (but not for the latest hardware - still AMD did some progress in this area).
So what can be used?
As a full OpenGL implementation is out of question what about a subset? OpenGL ES v1.1 or the newer v2.0 version seem to be a good idea. This is what you can find in the smartphones based upon different ARM chips (TIs OMAP3xxx and OMAP4xxx, Apples A9, etc.). The devices like the Palm Pre (Plus; 2), iPhone (3GS; 4) or the Pandaboard/Beagleboard-xM (ARM based developer mainboard everyone you can buy for round about $150) have an 3D accelerator like e.g. the nVidia Tegra or the PowerVR SGX 5x0 (embedded into TIs OMAP processor). All those smartphones now use OpenGL ES v2.0.
http://www.khronos.org/opengles/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL_ES
I can't really answer the question what framework to use. For the application developer common frameworks are:
Mesa3D brings it's own implementation and hardware implementation as far as I know and OpenGL ES v1 and 2 can be used.
This looks interesting but there is a high learning curve involved. The other "problem" is the usage of more linux/unix stuff. Drivers might use DRI2 or something else.
As I'm not into that area someone needs to look into it...seems to be Dee or someone else who as already some background and can at least some advice (e.g. the former SciTech gang: Kendall Bennett, Steve Wendt, Michal Necasek).
For the driver part:
The guy(s) who did the Panorama driver have also a driver (port) for the R100 and R200 chipsets (R100 = ATI Radeon 7000...7500; R200 = ATI Radeon 8500...9250). It would be a good idea to get in touch with the developers using the ecomstation.ru website or Roderick Klein (Mensys.nl): http://en.ecomstation.ru/projects/panorama/
Question is: Is the code for those drivers available somewhere? Would be good to get the 3D stuff actually working.
As stated above it might be possible to port more applications based upon SDL or directly Mesa3D as OpenGL (ES) implementation. With the limited acceleration and the latest progress on Java 1.6 even Mindcraft (http://www.minecraft.net/) - which is a Java 3D application - might be working later.
There is a lot of work involved to pull this off even with only OpenGL ES! Everyone should be aware of that.
Edit: There might be some typos left...I should be sleeping since 3 hours which doesn't really help typing. ;)
Keep in mind: A full OpenGL implementation is not something a small group could even pull off let alone a single person. On the other side there is also the big problem, who is going to implement something in the graphic drivers so this can be used at all. Even SciTech had problems here (they were ATI development partner)...but there are quite some open source drivers out there (but not for the latest hardware - still AMD did some progress in this area).
So what can be used?
As a full OpenGL implementation is out of question what about a subset? OpenGL ES v1.1 or the newer v2.0 version seem to be a good idea. This is what you can find in the smartphones based upon different ARM chips (TIs OMAP3xxx and OMAP4xxx, Apples A9, etc.). The devices like the Palm Pre (Plus; 2), iPhone (3GS; 4) or the Pandaboard/Beagleboard-xM (ARM based developer mainboard everyone you can buy for round about $150) have an 3D accelerator like e.g. the nVidia Tegra or the PowerVR SGX 5x0 (embedded into TIs OMAP processor). All those smartphones now use OpenGL ES v2.0.
http://www.khronos.org/opengles/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL_ES
I can't really answer the question what framework to use. For the application developer common frameworks are:
- SDL (has also a 3D part and uses OpenGL if available) and there is an eCS and OS/2 port available!
- Mesa3D (uses software rendering and if available also hardware accelerated 3D) at least an older eCS and OS/2 port is available (done by SciTech)!
Mesa3D brings it's own implementation and hardware implementation as far as I know and OpenGL ES v1 and 2 can be used.
This looks interesting but there is a high learning curve involved. The other "problem" is the usage of more linux/unix stuff. Drivers might use DRI2 or something else.
As I'm not into that area someone needs to look into it...seems to be Dee or someone else who as already some background and can at least some advice (e.g. the former SciTech gang: Kendall Bennett, Steve Wendt, Michal Necasek).
For the driver part:
The guy(s) who did the Panorama driver have also a driver (port) for the R100 and R200 chipsets (R100 = ATI Radeon 7000...7500; R200 = ATI Radeon 8500...9250). It would be a good idea to get in touch with the developers using the ecomstation.ru website or Roderick Klein (Mensys.nl): http://en.ecomstation.ru/projects/panorama/
Question is: Is the code for those drivers available somewhere? Would be good to get the 3D stuff actually working.
As stated above it might be possible to port more applications based upon SDL or directly Mesa3D as OpenGL (ES) implementation. With the limited acceleration and the latest progress on Java 1.6 even Mindcraft (http://www.minecraft.net/) - which is a Java 3D application - might be working later.
There is a lot of work involved to pull this off even with only OpenGL ES! Everyone should be aware of that.
Edit: There might be some typos left...I should be sleeping since 3 hours which doesn't really help typing. ;)