Anything new?
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Anything new?
| ||
| I absolutely love Blitz3d and have made some great little programs with it, but its looking a bit old now! I have a big project coming up which should keep me occupied, but its going to need great graphics, reflective water, large vistas, dynamic lighting, good looking trees stuff like that. I've seen a few gallery photos of decent-ish looking graphic screen shots (but with no links to a program, a code example or even a way of getting in touch with the author!). Is there any news of an update for blitz3d's graphics or are we stuck with those we have now? If not i may have to go to another language, which i'll hate to do, but if the game has to look good, it seems blitz3d doesn't cut it anymore :/ |
| ||
| Bmax + LE will do for you everything you need |
| ||
| So long as i have the £220 necessary to purchase both of them. Seriously why do the prices of blitz software NEVER change! |
| ||
| great graphics, reflective water, large vistas, dynamic lighting, good looking trees stuff like that Blitz3D will handle all - but not as fast as Leadwerks Engine. This is my current vanilla Blitz3D stuff:    Many Blitz3D users are snapping up the FastLibs - especially FastExtension as they are so cheap: http://www.fastlibs.com/ Xors3D is another option for DX9 graphics: http://xors3d.com/ For large landscapes: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=84809#958795 Personally, I use my own terrain system which is tiled. |
| ||
| Seriously why do the prices of blitz software NEVER change! Because they're already worth many times the asking price. Blitzmax is a bargain for what its capable of. |
| ||
| @ puki thanks i will have a look at that Fast Libs its seems pretty good, as do your screenshots (but i would recommend a bit more variation in the land level it looks totally flat). The one thing that worries me though, in fast libs it does have nice looking water, but its flat. Is it possible to alter the water so its "wavey" (not with a shader but actually has peaks and troughs, or does it have to be a flat plane? @gfk i must agree having used blitz for at least six years. I've made nothing really releasable, but have had fun making it! |
| ||
| You can do wavey water but you'd have to write your own code to manipulate the vertices. |
| ||
| Have you tried the FastExtend3d lib? |
| ||
| @puki - Very impressive! Crinkle, althnough a fair peroportion of the community seem to have adopted BMax, many still appear to be doing some B3D stuff. I doubt there will be much in the way of official updates regarding B3D's graphical capabilities (i.e stuck with DirectX 7) but there's still a lot of work floating around with regards to virtual shadereffects and such. Ultimately, I think B3D is past it's prime for keeping up with the technology of today, but it's still a capable language for some promising games and plenty of people are still plugging away. Having said that, I've noticed a slight decline in the frequency of posts on the B3D forums, but that may be related to the time of year and stuff too. |
| ||
| @puki - How do get your shadow map to align onto the surface? Also, it looks like your shadows stop a few meters ahead.. |
| ||
| Crinkle - With some good graphics artists things will look good even with plain Blitz3D. A Screen Designer and Art Director are required to get a modern overall style. But you probably won't have the latest FX, including state of the art shadows and other fotorealism approaches as seen in todays AAA titles. If this is what you want then you may have to use a new engine that will be much more complex than Blitz3D to deal with, will require a team of specialists to get something that could be compared distantly to todays top games (I am only talking about quality, not quantity). And the costs for an engine that is state of the art are often immense. Some of them take millions only for license fees. So if LE really is that good as people say then it's a bargain. I yet want to see a released game based on LE, or on any other of the existing Enhancements to Blitz3D, such as XORs etc. Once upon a 12 year old kid could write a game on his Spectrum on sunday afternoon and sell hundred thousands of copies of it. Today the quality of tha AAA games, our work is often compared to, is so extremly high that a single person had to work for 200 Years on it. The production costs of some Games reached the budget of an average Hollywood production, this is a fact. Making a game is about as hard as to build a submarine or a spacestation ,and actually one that works :) Of course there are always niches for little games people like joe average can do in his spare time. And they may even look nice, have decent graphics and a modern style. But the better the 3D graphics are, the longer it's gonna take to design level for level. |
| ||
| Blitz3D + FastExt is pretty nice. Running on todays high-end computers, you can't tell it's "dated" as you say. |
| ||
| Sure it is "dated", just wait for a future update of DirectX and it won't run anymore on newer systems without a major update (and I don't think we'll ever see that update für B3D)... see this thread I was really shocked when Gothic I and II didn't run on Windows 7 and nVidia cards anymore and nVidia said "oh yes if we have time there will be an update for it, later, perhaps...". As long as it runs it is sufficient for the enthusiasts like me to create a quick and dirty scene in a few hours. And it still has the major advantage over other languages, even Blitzmax. It is very easy to learn and you get stunning results if you're not completely incompetent. And enthusiasts like me never start a game and finish it. I would have to quit my job first to have enough time and privacy for that. So I limit myself to single scenes and tech demos and hope that B3D runs as long as I have fun with it. |
| ||
| Latest nVidia drivers have fixes for Gothic 1 and 2. So far all my B3D stuff still works fine on Win 7 + nVidia and ATI. |
| ||
| Hi all, I bought Blitz3D several years back - played around with it than-had great ideas and visions - but due to other commitments had to shelve it. It was the Mutz Nutz back than - and very powerful. But recently i'm reading a mixed bag of reviews here and at other places. It was only earlier this year that i decided to open up the box and start to see what can be done - but it does seem a bit dated with just DX7 support - compared to another programming language that supports DX9. Why has development on Blitz3D been abandoned? And whats so special about BlitzMax? Installing FastLibs or Xor3D - would this bring DX9 functionality to Blitz3D? More importantly - would it make it comparable to DBasic Pro - or woudl one simply have to abandon B3D and purchase that system instead? Looking at some of the samples here (and other places)-especially puki's screenshots above (totally brilliant puki - well done) - I think that I have a lot of catching up to do...but can't get my head round the .b3d format (am disecting Rob Cummings FPS test program to get back into the swing of things...so any help or pointing in the right direction would be appreciated). At this point in time - am I making a good choice in continuing with B3D (i was even thinking of purchasing FastLibs or Xor3D), or should i concentrate on other avenues? And like @Krischan has mentioned - with work (and other) commitments, it makes it very difficult to spend full time on these products, so single scenes and tech demos are the best that us working class can do...lol :) I take it that all these software libraries, lieke FastLibs-Xor3D-LeadWerksEngine etc- haven't yet succeded in implemeting a fully fledged product - apart from tech demos or simple scene tests. Your advice and help would be most appreciated. Regards James |
| ||
| Why has development on Blitz3D been abandoned? And whats so special about BlitzMax? Blitz3D is a complete product. Development ended when the product reached its specification. BRL have since moved on to other, completely new products, including BlitzMax and the new BMX2. BlitzMax isn't tied to a single graphics engine (it's first and foremost a language; engine is a separate issue) and can use any standard system, but you have to supply it yourself (much like C, Java et al.). Installing FastLibs or Xor3D - would this bring DX9 functionality to Blitz3D? FastExtension gives you "full" DX7 functionality (more advanced features that weren't reliable at the time Blitz3D came out) and is essentially more of the same thing. Xors3D gives you DX9 by completely replacing the entire Blitz3D engine (i.e. "fixing" it by getting rid of it altogether). SoftPixel is another (free) option that supports DX9 and OpenGL. FastExtension is different from the others in that it builds onto the existing engine rather than completely replacing it. I take it that all these software libraries, lieke FastLibs-Xor3D-LeadWerksEngine etc- haven't yet succeded in implemeting a fully fledged product - apart from tech demos or simple scene tests. Totally incorrect. Leadwerks especially is a top-end solution and far more advanced and complete than Blitz3D. It's also correspondingly more expensive. Essentially... Blitz3D is a product, that does a specific thing (make programs that use DX7). I suggest you approach the problem in terms of what you want to achieve, and how you want to solve it, and assess Blitz3D in terms of how far it addresses said problem, alongside other solutions (i.e. find the best solution to your problem, not find the best problems for your solution). My only personal recommendation from the above is that you get FastExtension if you're going to continue using Blitz3D. It's dirt cheap (£8 or so), and as Puki shows above, can make a huge difference without needing to change very much at all. |
| ||
| Thanks Yasha, Lets see if I can get my head round understaning Rob's code... I feel like a right twonk asking newbie questions several years down the line while others have basically tamed B3D to the click of their fingers (so to speak)... James |
| ||
| Just one word of advise: avoid B3D sprites at all costs. Otherwise, you'll have severe problems on your games. And who knows what will pop up with newer driver releases... |
| ||
| Thanks Yasha for the helpful info. I really wasn't aware of SoftPixel. I had looked at Xors3D but just getting the demo to run is so tricky I decided not to go any further. I'll try SoftPixel. SLotman: Oops, I used sprites extensively in my soon-to-be released driving game (for the hud and for road signs). I don't believe they are parented or entityorder-ed, which I just read seem to cause at least some of the problems. I guess we'll see how they work when I post a beta... -Pete |
   |