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Josh

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Blog Comments posted by Josh

    Josh

    Posted

    Is it at all possible to make handling transparency easier than it is today? Screwing around with multiple worlds kind of sucks. It would be nice if we were able to do this easier on our side and you can hide all that world stuff for us.

    Yes. In LE3 you can set which pass a material is rendered in, and keep everything in one world.

     

    On a side note, isn't BMax basically a C wrapper around Windows C API, and other wrappers on other platforms?

    MaxGUI uses the native GUI for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It calls the Win32 API on Windows.

    Josh

    Posted

    As long you keep saying developing in C++ is slower than in BlitzMax, then you are not sufficiently skilled in C++ yet, or you haven't written enough own standard functions which BlitzMax has (BlitzMax would be a horror without all the standard functions also).

    The reason C++ development is slower is that it usually requires more characters to communicate the same thing. The other reason is that C++ compilers, especially MSVC, are much slower than the BlitzMax compiler. No amount of experience will compensate for those two factors.

     

    Other than that and some memory handling issues, I find the two languages to be pretty much the same. Neither satisfies me completely, but they're both usable for the tasks they are good at.

    Josh

    Posted

    Yeah, I agree. As far as I can tell, that will work:

    SetEntityPosition()

    GetMaterialTexture()

    SetJointStiffness()

    EntityHidden()

     

    So yeah, I think that is better.

     

    There will be a BlitzMax module because I need one to write the editor. I have a BMX module for Newton that loads the DLL. You can even compile a C++ static lib into a BMX module, and build your program with no external DLLs.

     

    Unless something changes in the development plan of BlitzMax 2, there will not be a BMX2 module because AFAIK the language does not support use of external libraries.

    Josh

    Posted

    ??So you are actually going to change the command syntax after all this time? Literally invalidating every existing line of code that has been currently written with the current command syntax? So where is the new command syntax going to be kept at? The wiki? So that means every command will have a listing for LE3.0 syntax and LE2.XX syntax?

    I would not count on any of your existing programs to compile verbatim in Leadwerks 3. It's a new engine with some differences in the commands and design.

     

    LE2 will continue to be supported, and any bugs will continue to be fixed. It's not in danger of becoming obsolete. If you have existing projects being written in LE2, I recommend you continue using LE2 and maybe use LE3 when you start a new one.

     

    The documentation for LE3 will not be in the wiki. It will be an entirely new docs system written provided by Leadwerks.

    Josh

    Posted

    The engine will be compiled as a DLL or static lib, and C command will be included. You don't need a separate header file.

     

    The commands will just be the class name followed by the method name. For anything that returns a value, the first part of the method name will be "get". For anything that sets a value, "set" will be used. For anything that queries a state, "is" will be used:

     

    entity->SetPosition(x,y,z)

    EntitySetPosition(entity,x,y,z)

    entity->IsHidden()

    EntityIsHidden(entity)

    Josh

    Posted

    You send UDP messages with the "reliable" flag disabled, and add a counter to each one. When the client receives the messages, they discard any that have a lower counter than the last received update. We actually saw 100% smooth and accurate physics over the network, something that I've never seen before. Compare that to any game using the Source engine, where the physics are constantly stuttering and bouncing around.

     

    Maybe we will implement a cubic spline prediction for physics bodies, but it needs to be silent, automatic, and in the background.

     

    I'm still not sure why you are giving up BlitzMax for C++, as you are productive enough in it, to be a threat to the bigger engine makers.

    I can't sell BlitzMax source code to professional studios, and BlitzMax won't run on the XBox or PS3. I've had a number of offers to buy source licenses if the code were C++.

     

    Oh come on Josh, you there was another option...

    Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing. :)

    Josh

    Posted

    I just want entities to be synced, files to be transferred, and let the user transmit whatever raw data they want. I could spend the next year learning raknet, and still wouldn't know anything. Actually, the only things I don't know how to do myself are NAT punch-through and TCP file transfer, so I'll probably just write the commands and then let the network programmer worry about the details of implementation.

    Josh

    Posted

    Does this mean that if you buy the beta at a discounted price you'll get the full version for free once it's released?

    Yes.

     

    Also, does entity movement include pathfinding? If not, will that also be included in version 3?

    Built-in pathfinding will be supported.

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