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Another Pool GL is a 3D computer billiards simulation based on Another Pool with a realistic physics system using OpenGL/SDL as graphical subsystem. Therefore Another Pool GL should run on almost every system with OpenGL (and SDL) support like Windows, Linux and other Unix systems.

Besides the OpenGL release there is Another Pool (2D) for Windows, Linux/Unix and MS-DOS available. Furthermore the source code of all Apool/ApoolGL versions can be obtained on these pages.

General Information:

When Another Pool was designed in 1995, there was taken care of a realistic ball motion. The result looks quite acceptable apart from beeing the table a bit too slippery... ;-)

It's possible to cue with top, back and side spin. In the 2D-releases it's furthermore possible to change the angle between cue and table and therefore play "masse shots" (curve balls). Since the user interface for the OpenGL release has to be improved the curve ball stuff is, allthough implemented, not yet accessible.


There is also a built-in computer opponent which - let's say - doesn't play very clever. But it should be good enough to beat you in most cases! ;-)

Several command line options are available to change the screen resolution (-x "width" -y "height", switch to full screen (-f), disable textures (-d 0), change geometric detail (-g "level") and so on.
Enter "apool -h" to get a full list of commands available.

During the game press "F1" to get the help screen showing up the keyboard settings. ESC quits the game in almost every situation.



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to Another Pool (2D)

Download:

apoolGL-0.99-pre21-Win32 binary release (Windows Installer File)

apoolGL-0.99-pre22-source

view changelog

more information on ApoolGL (keys,...) from the manual.

Technical Information:

Since OpenGL is used to display the 3D world, your system must not only support SDL (the sdl-library is included in the Windows binary releases), but also OpenGL (of course ;-), namely the GL and GLU libraries.

Besides the Linux sourcecode there is a Windows binary release available. Look here for detailed information on Win32-Support. The Win32 OpenGL binary release is now almost as fast as the Linux release is since it has been compiled using the newest Cygwin- and SDL-releases.

Hardware requirements

Hmmm, hard to say. I would guess a 0.7- to 1-GHz-machine with a GForce(2,MX) graphics card should be sufficient ... But the game was also seen to run using MESA software rendering (apool -x 640 -y 480 -g 2) @10fps.
However, to enjoy all special effects like dynamic reflections and perspective correct shadows together with an acceptable framerate you can give a 2.XGHz machine or equivalent together with a GForce4 or better graphics system a try ;-)

During the game (using some "F?"-keys) and on the command line it's possible to change some graphical details like geometric detail level, display of textures on/off, so you can look for the best settings for your system. The default settings do a good job on an Athlon 1700 system together with a GForce2MX graphics card (see "apool -h").

OpenGL Features:

The game uses the following OpenGL features:
  • Lighting (ambient, diffuse, specular)
  • Material (ambient, diffuse, specular, shiny)
  • DisplayLists for table and balls
  • Balls made out of tesselated icosahedron and put into display lists
  • Texturemapping for table and balls (texture filtering and automatic mipmapping)
  • Font output using texturemapping
  • Environment Mapping (spherical with a static texture and cubical with dynamically rendered textures)
  • Shadows (planar - using blending and perspective correct - using shadow volumes, stencil buffer and blending)
  • Fog