unDelphiX replacement

[blackvoid]

Hello,

We are looking for a replacement to unDelphix, which we used in our first to games (1848 and For Liberty!). You can take a look at the games here:
http://www.battlefront.com/
1848 is completely FREE and For Liberty! has a demo.

We feel that it is time now to move on to a new engine. In our experience DelphiX has speed and stability problems with alpha blending and it consumes too much memory.

Which engine would you recommend?

Our requirements:
- We only use 2D
- LOTS of sprites (For Liberty has 1000 sprites per theater and each has 12 animation phases). At one time there are often more than 300 sprites on the canvas.
- Memory consumption should be optimized (compressed imagelist or some other method). Or at least 8-bit sprites should not eat the same amount of memory as 24 bit sprites like in unDelphix.
- Ability to handle huge maps. The map in For Liberty! is 3500x8000 pixels and even at 16 bit color depth it eats up a LOT of memory.
- Fast alpha blending is needed for our sprites.
- An advanced native GUI for the engine would be a nice bonus (currently we use standard forms to display info).

Should we try Omega, Asphyre or something else? A low cost (<$5000) commercial engine is no problem either.

Thanks for your help

[WILL]

I'd recomend JEDI-SDL actually. If you want to go cross-platform, it's the best option by far.

The library is completely free and works great on all 3 major PC platforms. (Windows, Linux and MacOS X)

Plus the input handling functions are 'superior' imho. (Joystick, mouse & keyboard) If you wanted to get into 3D graphics at some point or even just dabble with a few things it will intergrate with OpenGL easily aswell.

Very powerful, yet simple library to use.

[NecroDOME]

I currenly use Omega. Well most of the rending code I made myself, but Omega is still good...

[blackvoid]

I have checked SDL in detail now and it looks that it does not have a GUI...

[WILL]

Well if you are looking for a component based library, JEDI-SDL isn't it.

Omega, UnDelphiX and Asphyre fall under this category. SDL is more for the advanced developer. I'm not saying that either of these other ones aren't any good. In fact they are pretty darn good. 2 of the top prize winners of the PGD Annual where using these libraries.

But if you want an alternative to DirectX or to support more than Windows then SDL is your best bet.

If you are feeling really advanced you could try GLScene, GLXtreme, Rage 3D Game Engine (by McCLaw of Sulaco) or the OpenGL/DirectX headers themselves (DelphiGL.com/Clootie).

[Speeeder]

Imo, you should write your own DirectX engine from scratch it you want performance. And if it's yours, then you will be able to upgrade it whenever you wish. Possibly make money from it too.

[czar]

Why re-invent the wheel. Yet again? Why invest so much time in making your own engine when you could be game coding. Making a engine is not that easy and compatibility issues with lots of different computers and hardware is a right pain in the butt.

[Speeeder]

Sure, but he wants performance... You get that when you go deeper down to the hardware, no? UnDelphiX or Asphyre or that Omega thing are very good and very easy to use and all I guess (dunno the other two really :>), but not the best there is in performance, are they?

[cairnswm]

S2DL is a set of class based wrappers for SDL. It does not at the moment include a GUI but it can be created reasonably easily.

S2DL v 1.10 includes Graphics, Font and Screen Classes.

There is also an AI class wrapping DWS (so only available on Windows) and in progress is a state class.

Also there is a set of controls called SDLControls (I think) that is a graphically bases GUI for SDL. (Personally I did not like it very much).

[jdarling]

You forogot to provide the DL link to S2DL and its not very intutive to find it on your site (especially if your using FireFox).