What? Delphi...?

[IlovePascal]

Hey, I've been doing programming for a year now, and as I try to get into more ambitious projects, I keep being told to get things like Asphyre, DanJetX, and stuff, but I dnt even have Delphi!

All I use is Free-Pascal, but obviously it's not very good. So I would like to ask ppl, what version (are there several?) of (free if possible) Delphi I should get to be able to do 3D graphics and eventually add Asphyre or DanJetX.

All advice and opinions welcome!

[WILL]

:lol: Who ever told you FPC wasn't good must have been pretty drunk or has been hiding in a dark hole for the last 8 years. :P

FPC is great.

Now just to be sure to clairify some things for you, 'Delphi' is a compiler and an IDE combined. 'DelphiX' or 'UnDelphiX' is a component-based graphics library for DirectX under Delphi.

If you are looking for information about the compiler it's self then you are in the wrong place.

Now DanJetX and Asphyre was seperate suites and/or libraries just like DelphiX. The only thing that is the same is that they all use DirectX for their graphics.

[czar]

You can get Turbo Delphi for free. They are making Asphyre to work with Turbo Delphi (if they haven't done already). And DanjetX should work with Turbo Delphi -it is something I might look into some time soon.

http://www.turboexplorer.com/delphi

[IlovePascal]

:lol: Who ever told you FPC wasn't good must have been pretty drunk or has been hiding in a dark hole for the last 8 years. :P.

lol :D
Well, you ever tried making 3D environments with free pascal? (probably so...jst thot id ask!)
I started doing that, but it lags lots, so I switched to Blue J (Java) which workd pretty well, but now i gave up on it cos i like Pascal sooo much more than Java!

Btw, if you guys can help me with my "anti-lag" thread, it would help! lol

Also, if you know of a procedure in Pascal that lets you create what is called a 'general path' in java (any polygon defined by joining points, which can then be filled in without 'floodfill' which is a pain), I would love to hear frm you!

And Czar, thanks for the link, Ill get the download tomorrow, first thing!

cheers

[K4Z]

I've been using Free Pascal for a while now, after using mostly Delphi for years. And have done more 3D programming in FPC than in Delphi.

And I find it quite funny when you said Free Pascal is not very good :P :P.

There are quite a few options with 3D in FPC, at the moment I'm mostly working with OpenGL, but if you like DirectX, you could have a look at www.clootie.ru/. Hope that helps.

[dmantione]

:lol: Who ever told you FPC wasn't good must have been pretty drunk or has been hiding in a dark hole for the last 8 years. :P.

lol :D
Well, you ever tried making 3D environments with free pascal? (probably so...jst thot id ask!)

Many people here are doing it daily.



I started doing that, but it lags lots, so I switched to Blue J (Java) which workd pretty well, but now i gave up on it cos i like Pascal sooo much more than Java!


I don't think Java is very usefull for writing games anyway. For Java you are mostly limited to some high level class libraries (Java3D etc.), while Pascal lets you play with the real stuff like OpenGL and Direct3D. Especially speed should be much better in Pascal.



Also, if you know of a procedure in Pascal that lets you create what is called a 'general path' in java (any polygon defined by joining points, which can then be filled in without 'floodfill' which is a pain), I would love to hear frm you!


Well, that differs from toolkit to toolkit. So, first tell us please which graphics toolkit you are using.

[NecroDOME]

Turbo Delphi ma be free, but it complains that I cannot install third party components... This is easily solved by creating them by code. To make it more complicated: use Necro3D Game Engine SDK :P

[WILL]

If you ask me Components are really nice, but unless you are making a Windowed GUI, it's highly overrated. :P

If you cannot manage the code of the library your using then you're basically just cheating. :) Having a library that does a lot of work for you is one thing, but you do eventually have to code the graphics or input or networking or whatever else you are trying to make use of.


...and this thread really doesn't belong here so I'll just shove it into the General forum.

[Diaboli]

I got Delphi 6 Personal for free, but it is a few years ago. got BDS 2006 now. this is NOT free, but its really great...

DBS 2006 costs:
Architect New User ($3,490.00)
Enterprise New User ($2,490.00)
Professional New User ($1,090.00)

unless you dont mind bending the law, of course, then you can DL it from the web... but i really think borland needs the money... (atleast if YOU make some money using their product)

[WILL]

I think all the money will go to CodeGear instead. Or does Borland technically still own the royalties from all the older developer tools released under them?

[IlovePascal]

lol thank you so much for all of your advice! :D

I think you convinced me to stay with Free Pascal! Im gonna get DirectX and see what I can do, so be expecting lots of new threads asking for help :lol:

Will, sorry about placing this in the wrong forum, it's because I wasn't expecting it to 'drift' away from its original topic which was how to get Delphi, which one to get, etc! :wink:

Diaboli, I dont even have all that money! lol! and Im not gonna download it if there are other similar options around. Thanks anyway!

And Necro, one day Ill use your SDK, but for the moment, Ill stick with something simpler! :)

[OnYourMind]

I was looking for something descent with FreePascal alone as well. It seems that there is no other good graphics engine to use with it when it comes to DirectX. I could always do OpenGL but my card does not like it.

I've heard of the clootie directx/3d headers but do you have to actually learn the Direct3D API in order to use it?

[WILL]

I was looking for something descent with FreePascal alone as well. It seems that there is no other good graphics engine to use with it when it comes to DirectX. I could always do OpenGL but my card does not like it.

Just curious, what is your card? (make/model)


I've heard of the clootie directx/3d headers but do you have to actually learn the Direct3D API in order to use it?

Well if you dertermined Clooties headers are probably the best DirectX solution availible. (You can get the most out of DX with them out of anything so far.) You would have to learn how to initialize everything and how to do some of the more basic stuff, but after that you develop your own codebase and just reuse it. (Thats what all the professionals do!)

All in all though, learning DirectX just might be as fun as building your game it's self. I know that when I dropped the graphics codebase from SDL to move on to OpenGL I found the experience to be quite fun. And though I know enough to do what I want now, I plan to learn even more in the future. Learning is good. ;)

[OnYourMind]

My card is an ATI Radeon Express 200M.

[LP]

You can get Turbo Delphi for free. They are making Asphyre to work with Turbo Delphi (if they haven't done already).
Yes, but it will also work with previous Delphi versions as well. It is just not based on VCL.

Also, there is Asphyre on Lazarus (http://www.afterwarp.net/forum/showthread.php?p=5868#post5868) effort directed by Pegasus_Seiya (http://www.afterwarp.net/forum/member.php?u=276) to port Asphyre to Lazarus! :o

[WILL]

Hey nice spot Yuriy! :)

How big are their plans? Serious or tinkering around with it?


My card is an ATI Radeon Express 200M.

Thats the same card I have. :) Laptop, right? Oh and it's Xpress. ;) Changed the chipset's name to Chrome I believe... OpenGL works well enough on the card I don't see a problem with you working with it.

[marmin]

It seems you are confused as to what is needed to create a 3D environment. You'll need a 3D card, instructions that tell the card what to draw (dirextX, opengl). The programming language doesn't make the rendering go slower.
You'll need to study any 3D API (DirectX, opengl) and use it in your application/game.