DelphiX > Asphyre

[Huehnerschaender]

a) I'm only interested in writing a 2D tile scrolling game. Pretty simple with DelphiX, how about Asphyre?

I moved from DelphiX to Asphyre about four months ago. And until now I can only say that it was a very very good decision. If you want to create 2D games using hardware acceleration, Asphyre is the best choice I know, because its made for exactly this purpose.

b) I want maximum compatibilty. Will Asphyre automatically make use of hardware acceleration if it exists and revert to software if not?

Asphyre is designed to use the hardware acceleration. If you want to use software renderer, you code a fallback-function to use software mode if hardware acceleration is not present. Hardware mode needs DirectX 9.0c to be installed. Software mode is available for DirectX 7 and 8 (as far as I know)

c) I believe AsphyreEx.dll has to be distributed with any game written using Asphyre. What about commercial rights? Am I allowed to sell a game written with Asphyre?

Yes, Asphyre.dll has to be delivered to make your games running properly. But lifepower announced that he is working on a new version wich needs the DLL anymore.
As far as I know, you can code commercial products without falling into license payment or something. Asphyre is freeware. I remember lifepower said somewhere, that he would like the author to give credit, for example a sentence on title screen saying "powered by Asphyre".

d) Where to start. I'm moving over from DelphiX so where to start. Any sources other than those distributed in the examples folder? I can't get a couple of them to compile either (Delphi 7).

Do you have actual version of Asphyre? There is a demo game called Hasteroids available (including sources) which is the best point to start...

Which of the demo sources were not compilable? I had no problems using Delphi 7.

Hope this helps. I think lifepower can say a little more about the question concerning commercial products.

Regards,
Dirk