Will BMAX's 3D Module support the latest 3D FX?
BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/Will BMAX's 3D Module support the latest 3D FX?
| ||
| Shaders? etc. |
| ||
| Well the Alpha demo wouldn't run on anything less than a pretty hefty shader-capable card, so that seems pretty certain. In fact, I think Mark specifically said he was unsure of whether or not he would support non-shader cards. A lot of programmers seem to have found problems when mixing fixed-function with shaders and stick to one or the other. <SoapBox> I can't pretend I'm happy about the ( very premature, in my opinion ) switch of focus to the 3d module though. I understand why a lot of people want it, obviously. But those of us who've already bought it and are trying to make something with it are suffering pretty badly in the meantime with missing features, poor docs and quite a collection of bugs. </SoapBox> |
| ||
| there isn't a focus on the 3d module. Mark is working on all sorts of things as the last update showed. As for using older hardware, supporting fallback materials isn't a big deal. In c++ land I use Ogre which deals with it nicely. You simply have a list of 'techniques' and it'll try each one in sucession until it finds one that your card supports, so the top most one is full of fancy shaders and multitextures and you just tone it down with techniques further down the list until you hit a single plain texture :) Here's an example material file... In fact... could someone wrap Ogre into blitz please? :D http://www.ogre3d.org/docs/manual/manual_15.html#SEC24 (format section) |
| ||
| there isn't a focus on the 3d module. Mark is working on all sorts of things as the last update showed. I didn't say anything about the focus being exclusive. |
| ||
| Question is: Can you handle the latest 3D FX? |
| ||
| - duplicate post - read below - sorry |
| ||
| Good point Ozak! (I'm a bit of the opinion of Sybixsus. I'll be glad to see the release of the 3D module but I hope the rest of blitzmax keeps being updated and improved) |
| ||
| Frank: Yes. Dig out Marks worklogs & posts, he's talked a lot about shaders, and also check his 'alpha' demo. |
| ||
| I can't pretend I'm happy about the ( very premature, in my opinion ) switch of focus to the 3d module though. I know what you mean, but I think what's more worrying is there doesn't seem to be a focus. I hinted at this with my quote in response to the big update being put off again. I would welcome this - regular small updates to the main core - rather than dabling with the GUI and the 3d engine and the compiler and bug fixes over several months. - Steve Elliott |
| ||
| I know what you mean, but I think what's more worrying is there doesn't seem to be a focus. I hinted at this with my quote in response to the big update being put off again. That's really what I was trying to say, though I accept I made a bit of a hash of it. |
| ||
| From what I can see there is a focus - on the GUI module at the mo. Someone on Coder's Workshop mailed James and he said there should be a new demo out in the next few weeks - sounds like a major update. |
| ||
| I'm not surprised focus is on the 3D module although I would also like more development on the existing code. It'd be nice if there was some official comment and/or inclusion of the good stuff that's being produced .. e.g. FrameWork Assistant, Wave's tutorial and code additions/optimisations such as the single-surface, deltatime and TMap stuff. ... and IMAGEBUFFERS!!! or being asked for... Imagebuffers, improved sound, better doc. |
| ||
| Just wanted to say I'm not interested in any of that stuff. I have all the language features I'll ever need and am waiting for the 3d module. I have a game blocked in with a temporary 2d render that I hope I will be able to replace easily with the 3d render when it arrives. There are one or two bugs in the sound system that I'm concerned about but other than that I would like to see the 3d stuff get the most attention. :) |
| ||
| The 3D module will be nice, but yeah bug fixes and what not should get a slightly higher priority. At least then people will have stuff to do while waiting for the goodness. If there is decent fall backs in Max3D for shaders, IE 3.0 falls back to 2.0, which falls back to 1.4, which falls back to 1.0, which falls back to fixed function if not supported. The only problem is the fall backs (especially ff) will look absolutely hideous. For instance, add the line -useff to your Halo shortcut. Run the Map 'Silent Cartographer' and look at the water. Now remove the -useff and run the same map.... mhmm nice water ;) |
   |