Some words about AGK

Started by Xaron, June 10, 2017, 20:11:53

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muruba

Never heard of it before, just bought a license (only 32 bucks) seems interesting from the samples... also android player is neat. Thanks for the tip!

MikeHart


Naughty Alien

..is it possible to use AGK directly from Visual Studio (C++), so i can utilize serial communication from C++ side, as i need that actually...

Qube

Quote from: Naughty Alien on July 19, 2017, 07:04:59
..is it possible to use AGK directly from Visual Studio (C++), so i can utilize serial communication from C++ side, as i need that actually...
Via their Tier 2 you use Visual Studio with C++ and interact with their API. From what I understand they may be shifting to support just the latest two version of Visual Studio but at the moment they support the latest four versions. Don't quote me on that, it's just from memory :)
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Naughty Alien

..what would be performance of their 3D engine?? I cant find any tech demo which will push system to its limits and 3D forum is not so active..is there any benchmark available??

Jason_W

I am thinking about getting AGK.   Does AGK Tier 2 work with VS CE, because I do not feel like buying anything from Microsoft again.

Thanks,

Jason


Qube

Quote from: Jason_W on July 19, 2017, 14:44:51
I am thinking about getting AGK.   Does AGK Tier 2 work with VS CE, because I do not feel like buying anything from Microsoft again.
Yup, Tier 2 works with the community edition of VS. I've never used Tier 2 though as C++ makes my toes curl.
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Jason_W

Thanks for the fast response.


Couldn't you just do C instead of C++ in VS while using the AGK classes ?   Just an idea.

Jason

Rick Nasher

#38
It looks like this just became more interesting(summary of publication):



AppGameKit Version 2017.07.19 Released!
Posted on Thursday, 20th July 2017 1:43 PM  in  TGC News,  AppGameKit News, 

In this new version of AppGameKit we've added some great new commands that bring you significant visual effects. There are now automatic 3D shadows, 3D Particles and normal mapping support. The build includes many fixes and improvements with full details below.

Note: This version contains breaking changes, bytecode compiled with older versions will not work with this version, and bytecode compiled with this version will not work with older players. So please update your player apps (iOS player is pending Apple approval).

3D Shadows
•AppGameKit now supports 3D shadow effects. Shadows are cast automatically from the directional light.


•There are three different shadow modes you can choose from: ◦Uniform shadow mapping
◦Light Space Perspective shadow mapping
◦Cascade shadow mapping

•The new shadow commands are; ◦SetShadowMappingMode
◦SetShadowSmoothing
◦SetShadowMapSize
◦SetShadowRange
◦SetShadowBias
◦SetShadowLightStepSize
◦SetObjectCastShadow
◦SetObjectReceiveShadow

•New tier 1 shadow demo (found in the 3D demo folder)

3D Particles
•Added 3D particle commands
•Added a 3D Particle example to demonstrate their usage

3D
•Added SetObjectNormalMap command to add a normal map to a 3D object that uses the default shaders
•Added LoadShaderFromString command to specify the shader source code directly as a string
•Changed the mesh to light distance calculation to prefer closer lights regardless of light range when the number of lights is exceeded
•If the number of pixel lights affecting a mesh exceeds the limit (currently 4) then the additional pixel lights will be applied to the mesh as vertex lights if possible
•Added support for tangent and binormal attributes in 3D objects loaded from external files
•Objects using a normal map that don't have any tangents or binormals will have them generated at runtime


•Added normal mapping example project
•Added support for the vertex color attribute for 3D objects using the default shaders

3D Model formats
•Upgraded to version 3.3 of the Open Asset Import Library for 3D model loading
•Currently supported 3D model formats are: .x .fbx .dae .3ds .obj .b3d .3d

Multiplayer
•Fixed spelling mistake in GetSocketListnerConnection command name, this is a breaking change and will need to be corrected in existing apps
•Fixed network client disconnect not being forwarded to other clients
•Added SetNetworkAllowClients to restart client listening after calling SetNetworkNoMoreClients
•Added KickNetworkClient to kick a network client off the network, only the host can do this

Full story here: https://www.thegamecreators.com/post/appgamekit-version-20170719-released




Is this the rise of a brand new Blitz3d 2.0?[/i]
Certainly looks interestingly enough: has higher level (they call it script) similar as BlitzBasic and lower level C++ coding options + multiplayer, physics and crosplatform stuff.
Minimum specs are pretty good also.

I'm seriously considering buying this if the 3d features are up to par with at least Blitz3d -sorry Mark, but they seem to be jumping the void you left behind, thus taking your market share+Unity disappointed people along-.
*Currently it's only $40 bucks until 31st of July: https://www.appgamekit.com/order#product-specs


Question: Does it allow you free updates once purchased, as was with Blitz?


_______________________________________
B3D + physics + shaders + X-platform = AGK!
:D ..ALIENBREED *LIVES* (thanks to Qube).. :D
_______________________________________

Qube

QuoteQuestion: Does it allow you free updates once purchased, as was with Blitz?
Yes, from what I can gather it's life time updates per version. I bought AGK2 early on and I've not had to pay for the many updates that followed.

QuoteI'm seriously considering buying this if the 3d features are up to par with at least Blitz3d
I'd say go grab a copy :D - I adapted my asteroids type game in 15 minutes for shadows and normal maps. It's a subtle change but it certainly looks nicer.

Even though I only use Tier 1 ( the basic interpreted side of it ) I've not come across any speed issues at all.
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

LineOf7s

Just a quick question (since why not?  That's why we're here):

On desktop machines (ie Windows) is there a way (Tier 1) to specify a resolution to use other than native resolution?  I saw a couple of different methods to place things on the screen that were either absolute or relative to the current resolution (handy for having the same code regardless of screen size) but I didn't see anything to select (fullscreen) resolution itself.
"Life's biggest obstacles are your greatest opportunities to excel"

Qube

QuoteOn desktop machines (ie Windows) is there a way (Tier 1) to specify a resolution to use other than native resolution?
SetWindowSize( 1920, 1080, 0 ) - The last parameter is 0 for a windowed or 1 for full screen

There are also the following commands :

SetDisplayAspect( 1920 / 1080 )
SetVirtualResolution ( 1920, 1080 )

Aspect ratio should be self explanatory and the virtual resolution command automatically scales up to match the devices display resolution.

With regard to the placement on screen there are two methods. Either by percentage or by pixel location.

If you don't use the virtual resolution command then it's by percentage ( 0,0 top left, 100, 100 bottom right ). If you do use the virtual resolution command ( I always do ) then it's by x / y based on the virtual resolution.

I'm sure that's a clear as mud :P
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

LineOf7s

I found it hard to believe that it was missing something I thought was so fundamental, no matter how much it wanted to allow for mobile gaming.  I figured I'd missed something obvious... and happily I was right!  :)

The rest of it all made perfect sense.  It was just being able to set the fullscreen resolution on non-mobile machines that was doing my head in.

Thanks!
"Life's biggest obstacles are your greatest opportunities to excel"

MikeHart

The recent 3D shadow update is sweeeeet.!

GW

I'm really liking the new shadows and the agk api is not too bad, but the scripting language is an abomination.
If we could only get basic shadow mapping on Openb3d, It would make agk totally redundant in IMO.