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  • Smart Contest 2013 Begins: Round 1 "Graphics"

    Optimale Systemer has begun it's big prize contests for all it's Smart Mobile Studio users. Some time ago it was announced that they will be running 4 contests this year each with their own theme. The winner of each round will win a tablet device for their entry. These will take place in February, May, August and November.

    Smart Mobile Studio is a suite of developer tools that allows your to generate JavaScript and HTML 5 based "apps" written in Object Pascal code. The first version was released just last year and can be purchased at Share-It for $399 USD or 328.15 EUR. The compiler has since proven to be quite versatile and capable of designing everything from web-based games to localized business apps.

    There is a free trial available at their website to see if it's something you want to use.





    So far only a few games have been made with the compiler and suite of tools, most notably from Eric Grange who created an entry into the PGD Challenge with his own competition entry called War Trail. You can check out his entry on the PGD Challenge Showcase website at www.PGDChallenge.com!

    More details about prizes and the how the competition will be ran by the end of January will be announced on the Optimale Systemer website. Keep an eye out for that as the February Round of these contests comes closer. The tablets they will offer up for prizes so far have been listed as: "iPad, iPad mini, Android based tablet, Windows tablet" and $750 USD Value.





    To check out further details about how to win yourself a brand new tablet or to try Smart Mobile Studio at www.SmartMobileStudio.com.


    News Sources: Optimale Systemer, Twitter
    Comments 55 Comments
    1. Dan's Avatar
      Dan -
      pstudio, that is a very neat demo with many different scenes. the second scene actually made me feel a bit dizzy=)

      SilverWarior, I am not entirely sure what goes on under the hood there. the whole audio thing in html5 has been a bit disappointing. I really hope they will have something like webal some day.
    1. czar's Avatar
      czar -
      Very impressed by Dan's submission. Great particles, water, lighting etc only downside is the low FPS, I estimate between 10-15fps (AMD HD 6700M) on my core i7 laptop.
    1. Dan's Avatar
      Dan -
      there is another submission which looks quite impressive: http://www.centaurix.com/biotopia it does lack some dynamism and music but the shader work seems solid.

      it is also good to see all the problems that people are having with my demo. makes me realize the limitations of the technology that I am using.
    1. czar's Avatar
      czar -
      The effects are good. Shaders looks good. But I couldn't sit through it all because the presentation was too slow. It just took too long between each new presentation.
    1. SilverWarior's Avatar
      SilverWarior -
      The reason why it takes so long between each presentation sems to be huge abount of data it requires. Now I haven't monitored my network trafic directly, but Google Chrome seems to use more than 800 MB of memory in latest presentations. It also seems that all this data is being downloaded before playing each of the presentations. I also suspect that it is higly comressed as I can see full utilization of one of my cres during the time when memory utilization is increasing.
      So I suspect that if you have slow conection the times between representations would be even longer.

      EDIT: Dan I don't think you could be afraid of this submision since yours is much much better.
    1. Dan's Avatar
      Dan -
      I have not looked at the source code, but I suspect the reason it takes so long between the scenes is that the shapes are generated procedurally. And because JavaScript does not support threading this process cannot be done in the background.

      SilverWarior, I am never afraid of the competition, quite the opposite, competing with strong contestants is very exciting. It is a pity that I did not see any development progress screenshots or demos from any of the other participants. In fact for a while I actually thought that I was alone in this contest=)
    1. SilverWarior's Avatar
      SilverWarior -
      Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
      I have not looked at the source code, but I suspect the reason it takes so long between the scenes is that the shapes are generated procedurally. And because JavaScript does not support threading this process cannot be done in the background.
      Procedural generated shapes! Hmm that would explain a few things.
      This could get some more points to the entry becouse of using ingenuity but also at the same time it will lower some points to the entry becouse of long waiting times.

      Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
      SilverWarior, I am never afraid of the competition, quite the opposite, competing with strong contestants is very exciting. It is a pity that I did not see any development progress screenshots or demos from any of the other participants. In fact for a while I actually thought that I was alone in this contest=)
      My intention was not to acuse you of being afraid of competition (if you would be you would probably not enter into the competition in the first place). My intention was to compliment your excelent work using metaphorical aproach.
      In plain language it would mean that mantioned entry have verry litle chance in beting yours.
    1. Dan's Avatar
      Dan -
      Quote Originally Posted by SilverWarior View Post
      My intention was not to acuse you of being afraid of competition
      I also did not mean to accuse you of accusing me=) thanks for the complement.
    1. Dan's Avatar
      Dan -
      the topic for the second round of the contest is going to be game development! is anyone interested in participating?
    1. Ñuño Martínez's Avatar
      Ñuño Martínez -
      I did donwload the demo version of SMS a month ago but I'm so busy that I didn't installed it yet! Actually I'm interested in participating but...
    1. paul_nicholls's Avatar
      paul_nicholls -
      I would like to try after my failure the first round
    1. Dan's Avatar
      Dan -
      Quote Originally Posted by paul_nicholls View Post
      I would like to try after my failure the first round
      so would I
    1. phibermon's Avatar
      phibermon -
      I do like to participate in such things but I don't understand why it's a specific SMS challenge. if it were a general pascal challenge then that's great but if not then what is it about specifically coding in SMS rather than Pascal in general that would warrant it's distinction in a competition?
    1. Dan's Avatar
      Dan -
      I think they do it because they want to expand their showcase. but that's just my guess.
    1. czar's Avatar
      czar -
      Smart Mobile Studio is a very interesting project and I believe it is a great way forward for Pascal/Delphi programmers. I see the future being very HTML5 orientated and being able to leverage pascal to make high quality HTML 5 apps and games is simple awesome. These competitions are a great way to introduce people to SMS and to show prospective users what can be done with it.I don't have time for these competitions but I love seeing the results of what other people do. My business has now stepped away from Delphi. We will continue to use Delphi for maintaining software but we are now committed to moving ahead with HTML 5.