Downloaded demo - More noob questions :)

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Beginners Area/Downloaded demo - More noob questions :)

Farflame(Posted 2009) [#1]
Ok, I like what I see. The MaxGui thingy seems perfect for making apps - maybe not as easy as drawing them on the screen in VB but still pretty easy. A few observations though.....

I feel as if BlitzMax has two 'modes'. One seems to be exactly the same as Blitz3d - which is good because I've done loads of b3d programming, and the other seems to be MaxGUI. Would I be right in thinking that I should be working in one more or the other - infact, is it possible to mix between the two?

What I'm thinking here is, if I write a program like a B3D program - open with 'Graphics 640,480', and do Repeat / Flip / Forever loop, then it seems quite happy accepting all the old B3D commands - drawtext, drawimage etc. But if I follow one of the MaXGUI tutorials with buttons etc, opening a window is different, the loop is basically a waitevent loop etc. So are they basically two different modes altogether?

I want to write mostly B3D stuff anyway, little games etc and since I think it's identical to B3D in that 'mode', I'll have no problem there. But I also want to write a small App, so I have a couple more questions.

1) Is there an equivalent to a VB NumericUpDown control? That's basically a textbox that only accepts numbers and has small arrows to increase/decrease the number.

2) If I want to draw directly onto my form/window, how do I do that? It doesn't seem to want DrawImage etc. Do I need to use a Label type control, or can I draw directly somehow?


therevills(Posted 2009) [#2]
I havent got MaxGui, but in the BlitzMax samples there is "rockout_gui.bmx" (Samples/hitoro/) which combines MaxGui with the game "Rockout", have a look at that.


Farflame(Posted 2009) [#3]
That's really nice, quite addictive too, been on it for the last 10 minutes :)

On other question. Is the 'B3D' portion of BlitzMax basically more up to date than B3D now? If I was gonna write a game just using the old B3D style, would I be better of using BM?


xlsior(Posted 2009) [#4]
Is the 'B3D' portion of BlitzMax basically more up to date than B3D now? If I was gonna write a game just using the old B3D style, would I be better of using BM?


MiniB3D is almost up to par with B3D, with a few omissions.
On the plus side, it's platform independent, so you can also compile your game on the Mac and Linux, which you can't do with the 'real' B3D.

Max3D is a bit in limbo: better in some areas, lacking in others.

Blitz3DSDK is windows only, but from what I gather pretty much directly wraps the old B3D into Blitzmax (among others, it can be called from some other languages as well). This is a seperate commercial product sold by BRL.

there's also about half a dozen or so 3rd party 3D modules that work with BlitzMax. Some free, some commercial, with varying features and ease-of-use.


degac(Posted 2009) [#5]

1) Is there an equivalent to a VB NumericUpDown control? That's basically a textbox that only accepts numbers and has small arrows to increase/decrease the number.

2) If I want to draw directly onto my form/window, how do I do that? It doesn't seem to want DrawImage etc. Do I need to use a Label type control, or can I draw directly somehow?



1. The most similar thing (in MaxGUI!) is the Spinner Proxygadget - it works very well

2. You can draw directly on a 'CanvasGadget' in the window, then you can use any other 'graphical' commands on it (DrawLine, DrawRect, DrawOval, DrawImage...SetBlend etc...)


Farflame(Posted 2009) [#6]
Thanks guy, much appreciated. Going through the tutorials now too so that should help me pick up most of the basics.


Czar Flavius(Posted 2009) [#7]
I feel as if BlitzMax has two 'modes'. One seems to be exactly the same as Blitz3d...all the old B3D commands - drawtext, drawimage
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the topic here, but just to make sure you're aware, "out-of-the-box" BlitzMax doesn't do 3D like Blitz3D. It shares only the 2D commands.


Farflame(Posted 2009) [#8]
Yeah, that's fine anyway, I really meant the 2d graphics commands.


schilcote(Posted 2009) [#9]
Yeah, I can pretty much code in B+ with BMax and have no real problems. When I first looked at it, it looked really ailen, but my playing with the demo shows only good things.