Going Professional!
BlitzPlus Forums/BlitzPlus Beginners Area/Going Professional!
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| Yo, guys and gals. If you was thinking about becoming a professional programmer, programming videos games like Super Sonic Advanced 2 for the GBA for the PC or programming Snes clones for the PC. Would it be adviceable to once knowing the basics to making videos games in a high level programming language such as BBPlus. To move on to a lower level programming level for more control and freedom when creating videos games, or can these kind of video games be made using such a high level programming language? I mean if you was going to take things very seriously and maybe even start recruiting and friend to help you with the load forming a team. For some serious video game making to get known in the video game industry. Thanks for any advice given today, and I hope my English isn't that bad. |
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| gals? here in this place? :) If you can make such a game in B+, then you obviously managed to make the game without OOP .. so, the c++ advantage of having OOP doesn't add much. Perhaps math is faster in a lower-codelanguage .. how much math do you need? GFX-performance .. well, I dunno how blitz compares to other languages .. but there's a maximum you can draw I guess, since you're using blitz' native draw routines, there's not much you can do about that .. I dunno how those native blitz draw routines compare to lower-languages ...? |
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| You can always do more in C++ but that doesn't necessarily mean that you need to. I suggest you try your hand at Blitz first and see how far it gets you. Depending on your needs, it may be all you need. And remember that even if you hit a shortcoming of BlitzPlus while making your game, a move to Blitz3D may keep you in motion and all of the code you wrote will still work (unless you're using B+'s GUI elements). |
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| gals? here in this place? :) I bet you could find at least ONE gal here... though she would be hard to find. |
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| The most a game has to lose in being in eg: B+ instead of C++ is in terms of Image Loading times (by slight slight amounts),Image editing Routines (eg Alphablitting) and calculations. just simple ones. Mainly compatibility though. Data structures also take up more ram .so as long as your not using transparency or calculating too much, why not.. |
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| Some blitz code is interpreted on the fly on other is compilied, I heard? Is this true? If so then yes C++ should be faster for doing routines that are processor heavy but it also takes ages to get a basic game structure coded without buying in or searching for free game libraries. Blitz is cool for getting instant results and working on them. You can get your game skills up in this language and only go "mainstream" if you need more speed. |
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| Some blitz code is interpreted AFAIK, this is only a rumor. Blitz is not an interpreted language. |
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| I am pleased it is only a rumour, but it is slower at some stuff than C or ASM don't u think? But much easier to use and with great support, these forums! It also ruled on the Amiga. I used Devpac 2 assembler for years and then bought Blitz Basic for the Amiga and changed overnight and never looked back. You could also include your own inline assembly language which was great for copper routines etc. Can you include inline asm in Blitz Plus? P.S. what does AFAIK mean? I am not from this planet so I don't know it. |
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| As far as I know it means: "as far as I know" o_O |
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| "It's better to burn out, than to fade away." - Kurt Cobain is it me, or do burning out and fading away seem about the same? |
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| Grey Alien, have you looked at blitz max yet, think blitz+ and c++ together with some asm stuff as well i think. If you don't need 3d streight away maybe give this a look. |
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| I bought B+ just last week and I am planning to use it in a semi-professional indie game project. I see no reason why B+ wouldn't be perfectly suitable for professional 2D projects. In my opinion it is close to optimal, save the lack of real time rotation, hardware accelerated alpha blending and Mac support. Professional 2D C++ projects tend to use simple libraries (SDL, Allegro etc) that are almost as easy as B+ in syntax and about as fast. Going for low level stuff is not a professional choise in itself, in my opinion, as you end up wasting a lot of time tweaking "secondary" stuff like opening files and making simple drawing routines work on most gfx drivers. Though with C++ you get access to numerous libraries and practically unlimited amounts of ready source code. I would have gone for BlitzMax, but it seems to still be in beta phase. OpenGL is an issue as well, and going for BlitzMax would have required me to write a wrapper for SDL or similar library, which at this point (BlitzMax is so new) felt like a bit too risky route. |
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| Burning out is when you forget about yourself, fading away is when everyone forgets about you. I could go more in-depth but at this moment in time I can't be arsed. |
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| Yeah, I've used C++ and Allegro, very good. I wouldn't condone using low level stuff any more but I like to know that the compilers I am using make very fast code. I am confused about BlitzMax (I should probably read a bit more on the web) but isn't it just for Macs? Or is it a new improved BlitzBasic that also works for Macs? Anyone? |
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| Grey Alien, BlitzMax is a new improved BlitzBasic that works for Mac, Windows and Linux. Only Mac version is available for purchase at the moment, but there is a beta version of Windows and Linux versions for those who have bought the Mac version. You should check out BlitzMax (see the "Products" button at the top of the page) as it is faster and more versatile than Blitz3D or BlitzPlus. |
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| Thanks for the info Artic. I'll check it out. ... OK it seems cool. Basically it's BlitzPlus with better IDE, more project orientated (which I am used to), Open GL support, low level functionality etc. But what about the 3D side of things? i.e. If I wanted to make a full on 3D game, is the OpenGL support everything I need? |
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| >Some blitz code is interpreted on the fly on other is >compilied I'll explain how it works. The only interpretation is done when the Blitz EXE has been loaded and it ONLY regards the calls to Blitz' language commands, that is all addresses to such functions are set at run-time. But that happens ONLY at beginning. All the rest of your code is compiled. |
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| 3D isnt supported officially yet in BMax, but it does support modules that you can make your own. |
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