Impossible...

[AthenaOfDelphi]

In some respects I agree with you dmantione, there is a big barrier for beginners, but I think Dirk summed it up nicely...

What I did when I started 3D stuff was, asking questions on this kind of forums and if I did not understand something I used google to find out what it is about. This way you learn MUCH more than if someone tells you "DirectX is a framework to access the computers hardware", because you have to read through things, find new "unknown worlds", read further, learn more and more, and finally when you know what you were looking for, you may be able to make use of it.

Whilst there maybe a barrier, if people REALLY want to do this stuff, they'll go off and research, get books (everyone who asked me what I wanted for a christmas present last year was given the title of a different book), experiment and ask more questions until finally the barrier is gone.

The web is awash with information from the very basics right the way up to how to squeeze every last pixel out of your GPU. If people want to know about this stuff, they can find out. But they have to want to do it... they have to want to put the time in.

Half the fun is figuring everything out for yourself.

[cairnswm]

One solution to achieve this is William Cairn's Simple 2D Libraries:

http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com...40672d9e326554

Perhaps William can send you his latest version, if necessary I can send you a small example. Bit first take a look at it.

S2DL is design ONLY for making 2D games. there is no 3D supprt at all. This is becuase I only make 2D games and have never truly made the step up to 3D games. There is still so much to learn making 2D games that I dont really need to make the change.

S2DL can be downloaded from http://www.cairnsgames.co.za/files/S2DLV1-10.zip - this is version 1.10 - dmantoine and I have made ver 1.12 which is fully compilable on linuc with FreePascal (ver 1.10 is not quite). In the download are some simple example games to look at.

As part of my Multiplexity contest game entry I am working on S2DL ver 2.0 that will follow some formal design process rather than just being thrown together as I needed things as well as a state management system to make putting games together even easier

[dmantione]

Yes, but the poster said he wanted to make a scrolling tile-based map. S2DL should be a good match for building tile-based engines, don't you think?

[cairnswm]

S2DL is perfect for tile based maps/games - becuase most of the time thats the sort of game I make

ver 2.0 will actually have an example scrollable tilemap as part of the code. (I'll be doing it tonight I hope)

[Arachanox]

Thanks to all of you for replying! I'm going to try out William's 2d libraries later, but they look exciting. I didn't expect so many people to reply, this forum is very responsive!

Oh, and ILovePascal, I live somewhere in Louisiana.

[Huehnerschaender]

Arachanox,

by discussing here, we almost forgot to ask where exactly your problem lies

You mentioned something about tiling... what exactly do you want to know?
Don't you know what a tile is? Don't you know how to draw a map out of tiles? Don't you know how to store a tiled map in memory? etc etc...

Just as a tip: When you need a quick and precise answer, ask your questions precisely People here tend to write whole books and do not answer the core question, if it is not asked clearly

[IlovePascal]

Thanks to all of you for replying! I'm going to try out William's 2d libraries later, but they look exciting. I didn't expect so many people to reply, this forum is very responsive!.

lol!

Oh, and ILovePascal, I live somewhere in Louisiana.

oh ok, I jst thot u 'sounded' like a friend of mine from this side of the world! sorry bout tht

And to all the previous posts: You are entirely right, so I won't comment any further; I was simply stating it.

[Arachanox]

William's 2d library sounds interesting enough, but I'm having difficullty with installation. I believe that I require FreePascal, or can Dev-Pascal work as well?

Also, which in which folder do I place the 4 files from William's 2d library?

And is there anything else I need to do before I can start using the commands?

Thanks,

~Arachanox

[cairnswm]

In the S2DL Folder is a file named "Installing JEDI-SDL.txt" that explains how to install JEDI-SDL and S2DL. The examples use Lazarus (as its free and easy to install) and there is a "Installing Lazarus.txt" file as well though its very brief.

The S2DL Files:
S2DLDraws,
S2DLImage,
S2DLLogger,
S2DLNeheFont,
S2DLSound
can be placed in the same directory as your project file.

I have not used Dev-Pascal so cant help you get S2DL working in it. Switch to Lazarus and I'll be able to help even though I use Delphi as my primary development tool

[dmantione]

You can use Dev-Pascal, but nobody uses it here, because it hasn't been updated for five years. S2DL depends on JEDI-SDL, so download that too. In all IDEs, you have to adjust the unit path to point to the directory where the S2DL files are is and the directory JEDI-SDL files are.

For example, in the textmode IDE:
* Select Options->Directories and fill in the directories in the "unit tab"

In Lazarus you do:
* Select Project->"Compiler options" and fill in the directories in the "other unit files" box.