What happened to Blitzbasic

Started by Amanda Dearheart, August 02, 2017, 00:49:08

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Rick Nasher

Couldn't agree more, for AGK is very well worth the money and a bit more actually; It is relatively cheap for so much fun and productivity (if you have a some spare time to code).


I can imagine their need for a more featured IDE in order to stay relevant. Just take a look at Godot or similar free coding platforms.

So I support them by purchasing the Studio version, just to keep the ball rolling and put some bread on their table.

Hopefully they'll listen better to their customers and see the bigger picture (unlike a certain Mark Silby of BRL), keep on building on their solid base, adding things like vehicle physics, simple vertex commands, spotlights, asynchronous threads/loading, auto-loading textures, a 3d placement editor, etc. Basically(hence the word),  the tools that make life easier and give more time to coding something interesting.


Unfortunately, currently you won't hear a lot of voices in the community asking for the 3D side, for most of those oriented peeps are at Unity3D and the likes, hoping that would solve all their needs. However, if those same people would get their hands on a full fledged enhanced 3D AGK then there's no telling how many would bail out of that, for most of the other 3D engines come at the cost of a headache.  ;D


If they add to all that official support for C# and Python they could have a real all-round winner imho.



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

#106
One more comment before I go back to lurking mode while making use of this excellent repository of Blitz BASIC information...

Of the type of games that I'm interested in and working on, Blitz3D provides the best examples of code and 'bedroom developer' progress and accomplishments that I've ever come across.

For example:
https://www.youtube.com/user/tepasopatroden

Now, there's a lot about the above development (which has apparently been abandoned) that I'm not crazy about, but the core capabilities and gameplay elements are all there, at least the ones I'm interested in. I'm sure it could have been done with any other 3D game engine, but with B3D it's been proven to me. That's very motivational to me.

There were other examples on YouTube, but like the extremely cool holographic work that one guy was doing with B3D, they've apparently been removed as I can't find them anymore. One guy even had a nice functional virtual cockpit (although I prefer an old-school multi-panel 2D pit) and great atmospheric effects (lightning and rain) in his B3D flight sim project.

Functional cockpit-style combat flight sims are a relatively small (no longer popular) specialized genre of game, from the very realistic and complex (BMS [current Falcon 4.0] and Eagle Dynamics' DCS series) to the retro/lite sim (but not arcade like H.A.W.X.), the later being perfect for B3D. EF2000 and Fleet Defender (F-14) come to mind.

The only concern I have with B3D is, will my executables continue to work properly under the latest Windows (and whatever becomes of 10)? I don't care if the B3D IDE (or IDEal) isn't working in Win10+ as I'll be happy with Win2k/XP for life. As long as the final product keeps working properly in the current Windows, I'm all set.

BTW, thank you for having this resource available for those of us, however few, are still using the ancient BB tools.

MarkG

Forgot to mention this incredible (to me) bit of B3D development, especially the radar code...
https://www.bridgecommand.co.uk/

"Bridge Command 4.7 is still available for Windows only, and was programmed using the Blitz3D language. Blitz3D is now available free and with an open source licence - please see the Blitz forum for details."

GrindalfGames

@MarkG So far B3D has been doing well(compatibility wise) and to be honest I don't see it having any problems until Microsoft drops 32bit support. I believe that Blitz3D NG has removed the need for DirectPlay so a new user will not get the notification to download DirectPlay.

Back to Mark dropping B3D...In a way I get it. You have to have a passion for what you are doing and maybe he had no passion for what people were asking of him. Maybe he had a passion for whatever sparked his interest in Monkey/Monkey 2...But what ever the reason he went down this pathway now hes working at a company where it doesnt matter if he has a passion or not in what he is developing. I wonder if he regrets those choices


MarkG

#109
grindalf, thanks for the info.

According by this...

"Visual Basic 6.0 is supported until at least November 2027"
https://vb6awards.blogspot.com/2017/06/visual-basic-60-is-supported-until-at.html

...I think we'll have 32-bit support in Windows for quite a while. :)

I do get the passion part. A lot of my own passion derives from doing my thing in a retro way, with very small but robust tools (including Win2k itself, sometimes XP). Part of the fun for me is that I do plan to release my games on optional floppies (maybe 4 or 5 and with professional looking labels). Like what Cheap Trick did about 10 years ago when they released an album on 8-track tape...

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/07/cheap-tricks-latest-available-on-8-track.html

I'm 51 BTW, so I remember 8-track well (had my own system, hitting yard sale 8-track bargains in the early-80's). :D It's just fun nostalgia that adds to the enjoyment (thus the passion) of a project. When I get to the point of release, I'm going to find ways to reduce the size of my B3D project (including EXE) as much as possible, that I was not kidding about.

Qube

Quote"Visual Basic 6.0 is supported until at least November 2027"
I think they'll support the VB6 runtime side beyond that as there are so many legacy apps out there that businesses rely on. I can't see Microsoft dropping 32bit support for a long long time as there is just too much software out there that has zero change of being updated. It wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft actually gave a decades notice in regards to dropping 32bit support.
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Until the next time.

Rick Nasher

Off topic(again ;) ) 8 track? Heard about them in US movies, never ever seen them in the Netherlands though. I'm 49 btw.
It's like as if they went straight from these large tape recording spindels to compact cassette tapes, early/mid 70's I believe.

Strange it never caught on here as they apparently originate from the 60's already.
Then again, when compared to the US we didn't have an extensive youth 'car-culture' as distances are much smaller in the Netherlands, so perhaps that played a role in it. Plus the rebuilding of the country after WWII, which took tole on economy and only now seems to be completed as the last empty spot in the center of Rottterdam (which was bombed away) is being build upon. Gave it a very nice center with high rise modern office buildings though, nicknamed 'Manhattan of the Maas river'.





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

Dabz

At work, the fire systems still rely on MSDOS and WinXP!!!  :P

Nissans very own IT departments, yes, plural, they have 2, dont actually support anything in the plant which is XP or older... Which was really handy when the whole system went down one day... An entire plant the size of a small town lost all its fire protection, and the IT departments both went "Nothing to do with us", just like that!!!

It took three days for my gaffers to get it back up and running again, honestly, the system is that obsolete they had to buy spare parts on Ebay from Australia, which now, they struggle get any from anywhere.

Nissan know there are issues with it, but since they dont see this backend system, they sorta choose to ignore it, thinking the problem will go away!

The whole lot should be updated in one hit, but, we've got one new panel in since, thats been attached to Nissans main network and, well, thats been it really, hopefully we'll get another one when the system goes down again, because it will, its as creaky as hell!

Dabz
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Xerra

Quote from: Rick Nasher on June 05, 2019, 01:06:58
Gave it a very nice center with high rise modern office buildings though, nicknamed 'Manhattan of the Maas river'.


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peteswansen

I tried to get into the new Visual Studio Community code, but I am too tired of new things! :)
So I pulled out my old Visual Basic 6 cd and installed it on my Win 10 computer. It still works just fine......