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blackvoid
05-09-2006, 03:02 PM
Hello,

We are looking for a replacement to unDelphix, which we used in our first to games (1848 and For Liberty!). You can take a look at the games here:
http://www.battlefront.com/
1848 is completely FREE and For Liberty! has a demo.

We feel that it is time now to move on to a new engine. In our experience DelphiX has speed and stability problems with alpha blending and it consumes too much memory.

Which engine would you recommend?

Our requirements:
- We only use 2D
- LOTS of sprites (For Liberty has 1000 sprites per theater and each has 12 animation phases). At one time there are often more than 300 sprites on the canvas.
- Memory consumption should be optimized (compressed imagelist or some other method). Or at least 8-bit sprites should not eat the same amount of memory as 24 bit sprites like in unDelphix.
- Ability to handle huge maps. The map in For Liberty! is 3500x8000 pixels and even at 16 bit color depth it eats up a LOT of memory.
- Fast alpha blending is needed for our sprites.
- An advanced native GUI for the engine would be a nice bonus (currently we use standard forms to display info).

Should we try Omega, Asphyre or something else? A low cost (<$5000) commercial engine is no problem either.

Thanks for your help

WILL
05-09-2006, 03:17 PM
I'd recomend JEDI-SDL actually. If you want to go cross-platform, it's the best option by far.

The library is completely free and works great on all 3 major PC platforms. (Windows, Linux and MacOS X)

Plus the input handling functions are 'superior' imho. (Joystick, mouse & keyboard) If you wanted to get into 3D graphics at some point or even just dabble with a few things it will intergrate with OpenGL easily aswell.

Very powerful, yet simple library to use.

NecroDOME
05-09-2006, 04:51 PM
I currenly use Omega. Well most of the rending code I made myself, but Omega is still good...

blackvoid
05-09-2006, 10:58 PM
I have checked SDL in detail now and it looks that it does not have a GUI...

WILL
06-09-2006, 08:22 AM
Well if you are looking for a component based library, JEDI-SDL isn't it. :)

Omega, UnDelphiX and Asphyre fall under this category. SDL is more for the advanced developer. I'm not saying that either of these other ones aren't any good. In fact they are pretty darn good. 2 of the top prize winners of the PGD Annual where using these libraries. :)

But if you want an alternative to DirectX or to support more than Windows then SDL is your best bet.

If you are feeling really advanced you could try GLScene, GLXtreme, Rage 3D Game Engine (by McCLaw of Sulaco) or the OpenGL/DirectX headers themselves (DelphiGL.com/Clootie).

Speeeder
06-09-2006, 09:44 AM
Imo, you should write your own DirectX engine from scratch it you want performance. And if it's yours, then you will be able to upgrade it whenever you wish. Possibly make money from it too.

czar
06-09-2006, 09:48 AM
Why re-invent the wheel. Yet again? Why invest so much time in making your own engine when you could be game coding. Making a engine is not that easy and compatibility issues with lots of different computers and hardware is a right pain in the butt.

Speeeder
06-09-2006, 10:57 AM
Sure, but he wants performance... You get that when you go deeper down to the hardware, no? UnDelphiX or Asphyre or that Omega thing are very good and very easy to use and all I guess (dunno the other two really :>), but not the best there is in performance, are they?

cairnswm
06-09-2006, 11:01 AM
S2DL is a set of class based wrappers for SDL. It does not at the moment include a GUI but it can be created reasonably easily.

S2DL v 1.10 includes Graphics, Font and Screen Classes.

There is also an AI class wrapping DWS (so only available on Windows) and in progress is a state class.

Also there is a set of controls called SDLControls (I think) that is a graphically bases GUI for SDL. (Personally I did not like it very much).

jdarling
06-09-2006, 01:03 PM
You forogot to provide the DL link to S2DL and its not very intutive to find it on your site (especially if your using FireFox).

blackvoid
06-09-2006, 01:17 PM
Thanks for the responses!

Writing our own engine is out of the question, we have enough work as it is. And we are really not experts in low-level programming. Actually performance is OK with DelphiX (it runs at 20fps, which is sufficient for this type of game). We sorely miss alpha-blending though. Which is very slow without HW acceleration and with HW acceleration even the latest build of unDelphix is unstable.

Which engine would allow us to continue using standard forms? I really like Asphyre but it does not seem to work with forms at all.
We use DirectDraw in Undelphix with no HW acceleration. Is it possible to have HW acceleration + forms?

We need a form on the left side (or the DirectX part can be a window on the right). We also use pop-up forms, but while they are up we do not need any animations.

If you have any idea which enginge would do the above...

You can check out our games (1848 and For Liberty!) here:
http://www.battlefront.com

1848 is FREE and For Liberty! has a demo. You can check out the technology in both. Both are about 100MBs.

cairnswm
06-09-2006, 01:27 PM
S2DL: http://www.cairnsgames.co.za/files/s2dlv1-10.zip

Speeeder
06-09-2006, 03:51 PM
Well, at least for me, about every computer I've tested my UnDelphiX game on, it went smoothly and without any errors (at least xept for ones that I've made :P) I've used hardware accel of course. TDXDraws are on a form, so imo that works well - as long as you're only using 1 DXDraw. Using more than one is untested as the docs say :)
Have to add that I haven't used ImageLists or the sprite engine, instead I've made my own classes and put TDirectDrawSurface members into them, and loaded their picture at the appropriate times. Also used a self-made hitbox system.
Most ppl around here praise Asphyre tho. (I'm supprised Czar didn't say anything much about it :D)

(About 1848: Hungarians rule!!! :D)

czar
06-09-2006, 07:26 PM
Actually I don't use Asphyre. For our product we use a combination of Omega (Dx9 version) and DanJetX (also dx9). We are shifting from Omega to DanjetX. DJX has excellent 2d capabilities but DJX allows easy use of 3d objects and animated meshes. DJX is also uses less memory to store images than Omega.

We have Omega and DJX software being run but about 10,000 kids a week and very happy with these products.

http://dan.mirgames.ru/

Speeeder
06-09-2006, 09:48 PM
I see :)

blackvoid
07-09-2006, 09:31 AM
Does DanJetX have a sprite engine?