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LP
27-05-2013, 04:07 AM
Hi,

I would like to announce that after some serious thoughts, I decided to put down Asphyre project.

As many of you might know, the project started back in 1999 when it was called PowerDraw. It was
the first one to support DirectX 8 and then the first (and only one until now?) to support DirectX 11.

However, I need to dedicate more time for my family, especially now when the baby is coming next month.
In addition to that, the spam bots were continuously eating the forums and community have been too
quiet for some time now. My work with Embarcadero and FireMonkey platform has been eating most of
my time, so it is difficult for me to do so many tasks at once.

This means the end of Asphyre. If I am going to restart the project of similar amplitude, it is
probably going to be something different, I don't know.

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the project and all Asphyre supporters out there.
Thank you with all my heart!

Best regards,
Yuriy

Cybermonkey
27-05-2013, 08:01 AM
Not good. Asphyre project ends, ZenGL project ends ... All good Object Pascal engines are on halt. :(

SilverWarior
27-05-2013, 08:40 AM
I'm realy sad to hear that especially since I was planning to use Asphyre Sphinx for my games.
I was silently hoping that wihle Delphi gets support for other platforms so will Asphyre so I would be able to keep my devlopment using the tools I use now.
I belive Asphyre Sphinx is the only graphic engine which was developed for being used with mainly Delphi.

Andru
27-05-2013, 11:36 AM
This is sad, because Asphyre was one of the libraries moving me forward time ago. It was always good to know that there are other libs which provide some cool features and you have something to compete with.

Anyway, good luck with getting more free time and health to your baby, hope he/she(ahh, English... >_<) will be only joy for you :)

PS: Oh, and why Asphyre 4.0.0 disappeared?

wagenheimer
27-05-2013, 02:55 PM
So sad! The era of great engines for Pascal seems to be coming to an end! =(

My first 3 released game were done using Asphyre (First version of Druids - Battle of Magic, Abra Academy, Abra Academy - Returning Cast), and even in my next projects I have migrated to ZenGL I was always happy to see Asphyre was evoluting and releasing new versions. I always downloaded and tested every new version and was ansious to test the new version compatible com Delphi XE4 for iOS. And I never dismissed the possibility of maybe come back to use it someday. So sad to know it is also coming to an end.

Congratulations for your baby, mine baby girl completed 10 months of life and it is the major joy in my life! =)

I'll still keep using the ZenGL for a long time, but I'm starting to get worried about the future. What options do we have left? From since the begining, I always used portions of PhoenixLib together with Asphyre and ZenGL, and I know Andreaz is doing some very nice improvements and refactorings on it, =), Dan also seems to be doing a nice job with his engine on Smart Mobile Studio. I hope the era of good pascal game engines does not really come to an end and we keep seeing new options, improvements, and who knows, some reborns on future. "Why Pascal? Because we can!"

AirPas
27-05-2013, 04:27 PM
another closure :( aiii , future is not promissing
maybe some people should learn other programming languages such as c/c++ , java ..
pascal community is almost dead ,

Damot
27-05-2013, 04:39 PM
Oh no! :-(

Just as I started getting back into the idea of programming some new games in Delphi as well. Will the existing code still be available to use? Or should I start looking elsewhere?

Well done for all your hard work over the years.

Darthman
27-05-2013, 07:12 PM
This is sad to know. Long time ago I enjoyed powerdraw and I was used them in my projects.
So this means that my QuadEngine is some kind of last man standing in delphi gamedev frameworks...

sad sad... very sad

czar
28-05-2013, 12:16 AM
End of an era. Thank you very much for providing such a excellent framework all those years. All the best with your work and baby. Children are the great eater of time. You soon wonder what you you used to do with all that free time that you no longer have. ;)

I believe Delphi as a games development platform is more or less had its time. It is a shame but for those of us who like to create games there is now so many possibilities. The lure of the web based games, android and ipad is too great. :)

SilverWarior
31-05-2013, 11:15 PM
So what happens next? Will Asphyre just dissapear (saw post about Lifepower intention of closing official site)?
I don't think that Asphyre should die. I do understand the situation in wich Lifepower is but still.

I do have an idea on how to prevent Asphyre extinction. Why not making Asphyre graphical library OpenSource. Several times it was mentioned that PGD needs some comunity project, something that we would all work on. I'm sure some pepole here would be willing to do it.
While I do have limited knowledge on this area I'm sure prepared to help in any whay I can especially since I was planning on using Asphyre Sphinx for my game development in the first place.

So Lifepower what do you say. Would you be prepared in opensourcing Asphyre so that all that work you have putt in it won't go to waste.

@PDG comunity
Which of you members would be prepared to help in making sure that Asphyre won't die if of course Lifepower provides us a chance.

Darkhog
01-06-2013, 01:57 AM
Hi,

I would like to announce that after some serious thoughts, I decided to put down Asphyre project.

As many of you might know, the project started back in 1999 when it was called PowerDraw. It was
the first one to support DirectX 8 and then the first (and only one until now?) to support DirectX 11.

However, I need to dedicate more time for my family, especially now when the baby is coming next month.
In addition to that, the spam bots were continuously eating the forums and community have been too
quiet for some time now. My work with Embarcadero and FireMonkey platform has been eating most of
my time, so it is difficult for me to do so many tasks at once.

This means the end of Asphyre. If I am going to restart the project of similar amplitude, it is
probably going to be something different, I don't know.

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the project and all Asphyre supporters out there.
Thank you with all my heart!

Best regards,
Yuriy

Are Asphyre's sources available? If no, maybe you could release them? If they are, someone can always start a fork and continue it.

SilverWarior
01-06-2013, 11:26 AM
Yes Asphyre sources are available under Mozilla Public License Version 2.0.
But from what I understand about this licence you as developer must always alow users to obtain souce code bined by this license (you don't need to provide acces to your whole game). So until official site is up and running you can simply link to it, but if the site would went down I would have to provide the sources either by shipping them with my game or posting them somwhere on my site.

I may be wrong since I'm not expert on theese lincesses.

Darkhog
01-06-2013, 11:45 AM
MPL doesn't require you providing source code. GPL does. With MPL you only need to provide changes you made to engine's code (if you did), not actual game code.

User137
01-06-2013, 11:51 AM
MPL doesn't require you providing source code. GPL does. With MPL you only need to provide changes you made to engine's code (if you did), not actual game code.
MIT license i use for nxPascal doesn't have even that requirement, if he wishes to start new engine based on mine, it is his right to do so.
http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php

WILL
05-06-2013, 08:48 AM
I would like to announce that after some serious thoughts, I decided to put down Asphyre project.

Wow this is big news indeed!

Well Yuriy, I too understand the need to focus on family, especially when there is "a little one" on the way. I'm a father now myself. You're in for some tough times, but even better those precious times too. Congrats to you and your growing family! :)

Asphyre is a great library and as long as it's kept somewhere I'm sure that it will still have continued use for some time still. I hope you will be leaving it up somewhere so that others can make use of a really powerful library even though it's development has come to a conclusion. If hosting ever becomes an issue an archive would be more than welcome here on PGD.

Oh how times they change... good luck on your other projects old friend.