Advise for a DarkBasic Pro and Playbasic user?

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Beginners Area/Advise for a DarkBasic Pro and Playbasic user?

G-Lyst(Posted 2008) [#1]
I have been using DarkBasic Pro for about 3 years, but it didn't gave me enough command for 2D Game making process. I later switch to Playbasic, which is very powerful for 2D, but also very buggy and the community support is very slow. Now, I decided to use BlitzMax. Because I'm used to some of the syntax names in DBPro and PB, what advise would you guys for me to learn Blitz Max syntax?


big10p(Posted 2008) [#2]
Like everyone else, read the docs (such as they are), experiment with code and ask any questions you have on these forums. I'm currently in the process of learning blitzmax too.


iprice(Posted 2008) [#3]
I used to use PlayBasic too, so I know exactly where you're coming from. The support from the community isn't that bad though - they are a pretty friendly bunch on the whole, although Kevin can be very abrasive - whether by accident or design, I'm not sure. However, his knowledge of programming techniques is excellent as is his passion for PB. Since using BMax, I've not gone back to PB.

I used PB to code Sorcery, Shadow Of The Beast, B'lox! Easter Edition, scrolling deformable terrain (Lemmings stylee), torchs, RockRush, Sokoban, MapEdit and many other R&D texh/demos. I know how capable it is.

BlitzMax is different to PB, but it also shares a lot of similarites. It's also faster and offers many features that are much easier to implement than they are in PB.

Honestly, if you can get on with DB Pro and PB, you'll have few problems adapting to BlitzMax. It'll do pretty much every 2D trick that PB can with ease and then some. It is different, but the differences soon become umimportant, as the power of BlitzMax allows you to do exactly what you want with the minimum of fuss.


MGE(Posted 2008) [#4]
"BlitzMax is different to PB, but it also shares a lot of similarites. It's also faster and offers many features that are much easier to implement than they are in PB."

Really? I thought PB was much more suited to 2D game design compared to Blitzmax? The only reason I went with Bmax over PB was the idea of porting to mac at some point.


iprice(Posted 2008) [#5]
Nope, PlayBasic does offer some things that BMax doesn't (some of which is nice in theory, but not particularly useful), but it's a lot harder to implement and it's nowhere near as smooth or as fast. Scaling, rotation, blending etc. are all so much better in BlitzMax than PlayBasic.


G-Lyst(Posted 2008) [#6]
I guess there's no sprite command in here? Drawimage is basically a sprite for BlitzMax??


Taron(Posted 2008) [#7]
Just to add my few cents to it, I've just stared with Bmax a few months ago (is it already? Dear god!?)...but I remember it took me 3 days to have my first game at a very nice playable state and just as predicted by some of the gurus here the only thing that slows you down for a moment is figuring out the final kinks for tweaking smoothness and the likes. Once you've got that, man... it's pretty fluent and it's so incredibly fast to learn. If you have any experience already, you'll soon find out the powers in Bmax... (and the pains, I'm sure!).
I'm freshly in love with it and already had a couple of fights...didn't change a thing about my feelings! LOL

I'm also running maxGui, which screams even more for a love/hate relationship, but love still wins. It makes a lot of foundational things extremely simple and quick to write which otherwise are here and there even next to impossible. I havn't tried the wxGui stuff, but after trying to minimize the resulting filesize and still getting hammered with megabytes I decided against further experimentations until someone tries to convince me again... if that was gonna happen?!

AND, above all, the community here is overall absolutely great! Very fast and 99.9% helpful responses... (i just don't want to sound insane, but to me it feels even closer to 100%). You can dig around here to find almost anything. I personally don't quite like to ask too much unless I'm horribly frustrated, but ...no wait...that'll come out kinda wrong, haahahaha... heck, there are always weak moments and the forum catches you well.

Enuff said! ;)


Hotshot2005(Posted 2008) [#8]
I am selling Darkbasicpro with Hand on Volume 1 book on Ebay.

Purebasic and BlitzMax are both are good. Playbasic can play under just Direct x 1 and it alright but nowt to shout about.


Bremer(Posted 2008) [#9]
I guess there's no sprite command in here? Drawimage is basically a sprite for BlitzMax??


Yes, its basically the same thing.


iprice(Posted 2008) [#10]
Playbasic can play under just Direct x 1 and it alright but nowt to shout about.


Have you actually used it HotShot? Not just tried it for a few minutes. Or seen a game made with it, but actually tried it? Have you actually seen what it's really capable of? Have you seen what you can do with it and how quickly and easily? I doubt it.

It is actually a very good language. It's powerful and fast (although not quite up to BMax standards), but it's faster, smoother and offers a hell of a lot more than BlitzBasic, including real-time blending, scaling, rotating, 3D including Mode7 to name just a few of it's tricks. I think it's woth shouting about.

I'm not trying to sell it, but as I have real experience with it, I had to shout you down. Sorry, nothing personal.


GaryV(Posted 2008) [#11]
I would advise everybody to avoid all of Hotshot2005's ebay auctions.


Hotshot2005(Posted 2008) [#12]
I already sold my darkbasicpro and I am glad it is gone!