Hello Guys,

Im working on a multi platform ( windowsXP / linux / embedded linux / embedded windowsXP) 2d game engine.

until very recently, my new engine was source code compatable with games written for a game engine that works for an embedded 68k machine ( low powered arcade video game )

I used to achive this muti platform compatability with an ugly mess if #ifdef PLATFORM_X's

However In the latest version, ive replaced a million #ifdef LINUX_CONSOLE / LINUX_GEODE LINUX_X11 / DIRECTX / OPENGL / WIN32 with a nice simple plugin architechture.. all OS / API dependant code lives inside its own shared object to be linked at runtim depending on the envoronment.

ANWAYS... It would be Great if i could keep this plugin engin code compatable with the Game source code.

The current games would create a new Blittable Image with code like so...

CGraphic *Graphic = new CGraphic(SomeData)

But with the Plugin architecture, this is not possable, as the game knows nothing of the Graphics format ( as it is api dependant ), it only knows its abstract base class.


In my new plugin system, the games code for Creating A Graphic Has to be...


IGraphic *Graphic = GetGraphicFromLoadedVideoPlugin(SomeData);

I Would Prefere to not have to change all the game code....

Is it possable to overload the new operator of an Abstract class to return
GetGraphicFromLoadedPlugin(SomeData); ????

Thanks....

Trying to override new() to do that won't help because new only cares about allocating memory and knows nothing about types. Really, best option is a human-guided find-and-replace using a good editor.

Or figure out something different for the multi-platform stuff. Doing stuff in runtime that could be "easily" done compiletime seems bad. One somewhat standard way is to have a "platform.hpp" with all the #ifdefs, like