Blog Comments

  1. code_glitch's Avatar
    Good idea. I will thus begin adding some primitive support for lines all the way up to a pentagon incl. circles and possibly ovals (really hate them though)...

    Particles are down at the bottom of the list for now, and filled primitives is now also up high on the wish list thats currently under development.
    And thanks for all the support you guys.
  2. WILL's Avatar
    Particles is very advanced stuff, especially for beginners. I'd stay that option until you've perfected the basics perhaps. The Scale, Rotate and Fade effects usually are enough to wet most beginner's appetites until they learn enough to move up to bigger and better things. There is a lot to learn from just using different sprite-ing techniques transparency through a single transparent color value, using ADD logic to mix color for fire and other glow effects and so on.

    Though if you wanted to make Prometheus capable of doing higher end things, you could always add on after you've gotten the basics done. Something I've always found neat was the old PowerDraw functions for drawing smooth lines and shapes along with all the cool effects you could play with too. A lot of beginners who learn Pascal in highschool CS classes learn to use line and shape drawing before they jump into sprites for their first few game projects. I think they may love the ability to draw with attractive anti-aliased shapes and the like.

    I know this though, basic lines and shapes are a must. Though you can do some of this with SDL directly, but I don't think it's feature complete. Rectangles, Ovals/Circles, Filled versions of these, etc...
  3. code_glitch's Avatar
    No textures yet, and yes I am planning on adding hardware acceleration to the mix. The code behind the basic version will remain with sdl, but for better performance I plan to release a OpenGl based version for better performance. In terms of textures I hope to be able to base it all on the work out there and to top it off, I have a vague idea for a particle system (advanced version only?).

    In the future, if this becomes successful, I will create a thread and perhaps a dedicated site for the docs. If all goes well, you guys can have the .ppu and .o files by next Friday, although it depends on how much free time I get with all my homework and etc.
  4. WILL's Avatar
    You know you're going to need a project logo and a website soon, right?
  5. WILL's Avatar
    I assume that with scaling, rotations, blending and even anti-aliasing you're planning on providing some hardware acceleration as well? I have a feeling that otherwise, even beginners will quickly outgrow SDL-only performance of these rather slow-in-software-only graphics effects. Even DelphiX had some 3D acceleration with D3D to help with these functions.

    Other than that concern, not bad. How are you planning on handling image/texture files/packing?
  6. code_glitch's Avatar
    This is quite annoying, the comments wont indent in a uniform line. Sorry viewers, I'm a bit of a perfectionist...
  7. code_glitch's Avatar
    Thanks. I prefer to have clear blocks of 1 tab space... I used to indent 2-3 char but found it quite annoying when I was half asleep and added code into the wrong block or changed the code in the wrong block to fix a bug oO. Most annoying thing you could possibly do if you ask me.
  8. Carver413's Avatar
    can't say I like your coding style, never understood why the need to indent more then 2 char. I personally like to see all my code at once instead of scrolling back and forth across the screen. but thats just me. aside from that I would have to say job well done. keep up the good work.
  9. code_glitch's Avatar
    "Don't forget Input for keyboard, mouse and joystick/pad controls" Oh yes, that may be of use. And I like the name. Will post again when I get some functionality and user-friendliness out of it. Pre-Alpha stage at the moment. Oh eck, average stable runtime is about 15 seconds before something screws up... teeheee, I really need to get it together.
  10. WILL's Avatar
    Project Prometheus? or The 'Prometheus Game Library for Object Pascal Beginners'?

    Don't forget Input for keyboard, mouse and joystick/pad controls. I found that I had to make my own user input unit with it's own interface for each 'action' I had in my games along with a key configuration tool I made in Delphi to handle getting nice controls of my games. User input in games can be simple or complex depending on how it's handled, maybe a layer in between SDL and the beginner's code could help keep it simple for them at first, until they move forward wanting better control functionality.
  11. code_glitch's Avatar
    probably going to for an avatar... *opens up paint.net* back to work...
  12. code_glitch's Avatar
    Im not too sure on the lazarus, since I have never properly used it, so if I make these units, I think they would be aimed at working with fpc. My ide would be in two parts: 1. test out a library that uses sdl and fpc only. and then once thats done, move it to better performance with opengl and lazarus support that way you would have a newbie-beginner and experienced-beginner level for easier transition.

    In terms of progress so far, I was trawling through my old code, and found that I could use about 40% of it in these units since they're stand alone functions... Might get started on a first draft in a week or two. Wont create a thread for this yet...
  13. WILL's Avatar
    Yeah a new library aimed at beginner programmers would be nice, perhaps make it something like a black box like DelphiX was. I would gear it towards making simple, yet appealing games (platformers, pong/arkanoid, tron, shooters, puzzle games, and all the games we made in CS classes in highschool) with 2D graphics. You can add in 3D acceleration, but be sure to keep the outside functions simple for beginning users.

    Having more than one unit or sets of functions for each area (graphics, music/sound, input, etc) will be confusing for new users so it's best to make the entire library of functions that will be created, well documented (like really easy and simple to read and follow documentation) and simple in concept. I'd start with your outside interface first and work your library/ies to match with that end result. Graphics and music/sound files tools would help, but keep these simple to use as well. For your sake and the beginning programmer.

    Other than that in your documentation you should probably include what distributables they'll need to copy with their games and keep these up to date on your site. Nothing is worse than telling a new guy that he has to go to all these different sites and gather these libraries that half of them aren't even compiled just to run his game. He'll quit on ya and you'll get nowhere.

    Other than those points, great idea. If you make it 100% compatible with Lazarus that'd rock because LAz isn't exactly the easiest tool for games programming these days. Especially when you are trying to do cross or multi-platform.

    I for one would love a simple install of Lazarus for the Mac that works out of the box. Make that happen and it'd one up this idea though.
  14. WILL's Avatar
    Well you can have both an avatar and a picture of yourself too. Like I have. My profile will show a picture of me, but all my posts have a picture of me.
  15. code_glitch's Avatar
    working on that... still cannot decide though. its one of those things.
  16. WILL's Avatar
    And no avatar or Profile picture? You should at least get yourself a nice avatar to upload to your member profile.
  17. code_glitch's Avatar
    lol. for what? Taking over the world? *Looks out the window* Hey isnt that the PGD banner??
  18. WILL's Avatar
    Hey where are the screenshots for this?
Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123