Longevity of Blitz3D
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/Longevity of Blitz3D
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| Hi, I'm putting a lot of work into an engine made with Blitz3D. I was wondering, what are the chances my engine and the games I make with it will still work many years from now? I assume I may eventually have to distribute an older version of DirectX with my games, but is there anything else Blitz3D depends on that might be phased out by never versions of Windows? Or can just about everything be fixed with patches, .dlls, or whatever else. I'm talking like ten or twenty years from now. I want to make games for a long time and I don't want to have to make another game engine later. |
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| Ask Microsoft. bye |
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| Your chances of a Blitz3D game running in two or three years aren't great. DirectX has traditionally struggled to maintain compatibility beyond three versions, and DX7 is already three versions behind. The chances of everything working in ten or twenty years time? As close to nil as it's possible to get. On the plus side (I guess) almost no one will want to play a game which is based on twenty year old technology anyway. Particularly 3D, which dates far, far quicker than 2D does. |
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| I really doubt anyone can answer this with any certainty. Also, consider that we can still play DOS games (one way or another). Another thing to think about is that BlitzPlus uses DX1 with no problems that I know of. There are a lot of games made for DX7 out there. This must concern Microsoft. Maybe one day we will need a DX7 emulator or 'DX7 box' or something. Just random thoughts. |
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| I'm talking like ten or twenty years from now. I want to make games for a long time and I don't want to have to make another game engine later. You've no chance. There's no games company in the world that is still using 20 year old technology today, so why do you think this is even a sensible proposition? |
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| There is however, no reason why your engine couldn't be translated into blitzmax, using the minib3d, with little hassle. So, i'd say, plod on :o) |
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| There is however, no reason why your engine couldn't be translated into blitzmax, using the minib3d, with little hassle You mean *gasp* update it?Now we're getting somewhere! ;) |
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| I'm finally coming around to the ways of blitzmax. I'm afraid i may start liking Vista next :S |
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| I love Vista. Provided your PC has larger than average cojones, its a great OS. |
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| . moved to General... Lost Energy... IPete2. |
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| Well, I still play ancient games on my computer. Considering I even can, I'm not going to worry about it too much anymore. As long as there are things like emulators, I'm sure there'll always be people willing to make programs that keep Blitz3D games working. |
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| if the game is good, it will be around for a long time...look at doom... |
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| Doom? People are still making homebrew for the Atari 2600. |
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| ..i think you are safe with B3D next 2 years, maybe, just maybe 3... |
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| People are still making homebrew for the Atari 2600. But whos playing them? |
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| Diablo was directx 3.0 and still works 3.0 was released in 1996 Directx 7.0 was released for windows 2000 Windows vista has Directx 9 for reverse compatibility Directx 9 is backward compatible with the other versions of Directx Directx 10 only works with the new driver model in vista I think Microsoft would shoot themselves in the foot if they didn't have reverse compatibility |
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| Diablo still working?? Do you mind to share on what configuration Ice9? Im really surprised.. |
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| If you think Blitz3D will only work for a few more years, why use it? I think there may be problems in time, but then those problems will be solved. No, not a lot of people play old Atari games anymore, but how long do you think it will be possible for people to play Final Fantasy 7? Forever probably. You could make a game with anything, and if it's that good it'll be around forever, no question. |
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| If you think Blitz3D will only work for a few more years, why use it? Because the same is true of everything else too. If you can't accept it, you shouldn't be making games. You could make a game with anything, and if it's that good it'll be around forever, no question. I'm getting the sense that you never wanted straight answers to your question, but you just wanted people to tell you what you wanted to hear. If you'd said that in the first instance, I could have obliged. |
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| Oh no, I was just being optimistic. You telling me the worst possible outcome is just as important to me as someone else telling me the best possible outcome. I'm just trying to maintain some hope that I won't have to port my engine to another language later because I really like using Blitz. Well thanks for all your replies, I really appreciate it. There's no one around where I live that even knows what Blitz is, so this has really been a big help to me. |
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| I think you can be safe for several years. If Microsoft would use something different than DirectX in a few years, then no engine will work, whatever you may choose, even blitzMax with a DX-render engine (unless OpenGL will still be supported). I don't think they will do that. Every other company would have to re-design their engine to work with the new system, same as all graphics cards. Even if microsoft would do this, you could still install DirectX9.0c and you're fine, unless the processor-code and every other driver for every component in your pc uses new code. |
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| So certain compatibility problems can be fixed by including things like a newer version of DirectX, but are there some things that can't be fixed in that way? Like what you said about the processor code etc. being changed, were you just kidding or is that actually a possibility? Another thing I've been wondering is, someone told me it's not that hard to port a Blitz3D game to another language if it comes to that. I don't know any C++ right now, but would I be correct in assuming it has similar if not identical commands? Also, can you keep the same simplistic style if you want to, like just having variables then creation code then functions, or does it have to be more complicated than that in order to work? |
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| would I be correct in assuming that there are similar if not identical commands in C++? Also, can you keep the same simplistic style if you want to, like having just variables then creation code then functions, or does it have to have complicated syntax in order to work? C++ is irrevocably mid-level, meaning that you have to be explicit about your usage of pointers and get used to the de-reference operator. You're protected from having to think about this stuff in the Blitz languages so switching over will inevitably take a bit of readjustment. In terms of program-flow and the sort of data collections you'll typically use, however, there's a good deal of parity; Whether or not the more advanced, say, 3D-oriented commands are familiar or not will depend on the library/engine you adopt (for example I find Irrlicht a bit weird coming from B3D/MiniB3D because it seems obsessed with nodes). Another thing I've been wondering is, someone told me it's not that hard to port a Blitz game to another language Logic is logic and you'll find yourself expressing the same old stuff in most languages, only with whatever syntax they happen to favour. To this end, some sort of script-based solution (ie Unity, PyGame, Shiva or the like) might provide for an easier transition -- there's always going to be middleware and interacting with it at a high level is always going to amount to about the same thing. The stuff you learn with Blitz is eminently transferable. |
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