AGK Studio

Steve Elliott · July 26, 2019, 08:41:10

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Did they provide Tier2 projects and libs in AGKs?

Yes.

Derron · July 26, 2019, 10:18:41

@ Mike
Feel free to report progress on Cerberus here too (so not about fixes but interesting new stuff).
Maybe some AGK-boys will try once they are a bit annoyed of AGK(Studio).

@ Qube
If you want you could provide binaries to test (am not owning AGKStudio).

Might the stuttering have to do with your display refresh rate? eg. "144 Hz" does not divide well and some rounding takes place?
Any maybe "classic" split update and rendering or does some tweening or ... ?

bye
Ron

Qube · July 26, 2019, 10:40:51

QuoteQube, it could be that the MoltenVK path will be an invalid solution in the next OSX release, which is scheduled for September 2019. If TGC is smart, their will go for Metal2 directly.

I'd wouldn't be surprised if Apple fiddle with the Metal API somehow in order to break MoltenVK on purpose from time to time. As for TGC going for Metal directly I can't see that as then they would be maintaining 3 different renderers. Be interesting to see if the Vulkan renderer on Mac appears within weeks ( as they say ) or months+

QuoteWhat I find more disturbing is that theiy said that AGKS 1.x is only about the IDE and the vulkan renderer. New features will be added in V2.x which was a payed upgrade in AGKC. As the vulkan render doesn't give that much advantage, it would be smart and IMHO cheaper to wait for V2 if someone wants to upgrade from AGKC.

So within a year they ask for people to pay again you think?. I say within a year as once the shiny new renderer is done on all platforms there really isn't much more they can do beyond adding new V2 features.

What bothers me is that after AGK Classic 2018-07-12 the raw FPS dropped significantly which has never been fixed. Also the v1 release of Studio has screwed up constant silky smooth scrolling with hiccups and judders happening at random times. Reporting these will just get ignored at the moment as it's all about the new renderer so I'll wait until things have settled.

TGC seem to be in an awful rush at the moment to have shiny new products and things to shout about whilst ignoring a full back catalogue of bugs and issues to fix. What I find scary is the amount of people that accept this and get excited that a shiny new feature is arriving instead. I guess it's the vocal minority that never really produce much that get excited rather than hope and pray bugs and issue are squashed first.

Hopefully things will sort themselves out over the coming months as things settle down or else it'll be goodbye to AGK.

QuoteIf you want you could provide binaries to test (am not owning AGKStudio).

Good idea. Later today I'll do some binaries of Classic and Studio for comparison.

QuoteMight the stuttering have to do with your display refresh rate? eg. "144 Hz" does not divide well and some rounding takes place?
Any maybe "classic" split update and rendering or does some tweening or ... ?

Nah, my iMac display is locked at 60hz.

MikeHart · July 26, 2019, 11:10:48

Qube, IMHO there seem to be no real reason for the fps drop in agkc. Only to make AGKs new renderer look better

Steve Elliott · July 26, 2019, 11:15:58

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Qube, IMHO there seem to be no real reason for the fps drop in agkc. Only to make AGKs new renderer look better

lol Qube and myself have dicussed that 'theory' too Mike.

Derron · July 26, 2019, 11:45:16

Maybe they abstracted some stuff in the renderer class - like an API. And added a bit of overhead here and there - and a little compromise hidden in this or that corner so that Vulkan and the likes are possible.

Even switching from timers to events or whatever is possible can lead to measurable differences.

Yet we had the issue of this Geany-fork-thing ("editor") being sluggish after an update - it is open source and one could try to spot what change resulted in this behaviour. Yet this should not be the work of _paying_ customers.
An editor (which you use to code in that language) should work flawless - else it is a product defect (it is not useable as intended - like smoothly typing in code words in the editor). If it was sold in Germany we could give it back then - maybe this is similar to the UK or where AGK is coming from.
Especially with only some hundred of sales (or how many they have) each individual lost sale is something they miss.

bye
Ron

Steve Elliott · July 26, 2019, 11:52:10

Just received an email from them

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We've had a few issues reported via TheGameCreators forums and we're working on a new build for next week

Qube · July 27, 2019, 00:02:34

I got that email too but I don't think it's anything to do with the speed drop or jitters since AGK Classic 2018-07-12

Currently doing Mac / Win and Linux versions of AGK Classic 2018-07-12 vs 2019-06-11 vs Studio 2019-07-23 so they can see the difference. I'll post the source + downloads here and there too and hopefully they'll look into it without saying "wait for the Vulkan engine to be fully ready"

3DzForMe · July 27, 2019, 10:07:42

Not to put the old cat amongst the pigeons, Blitz3D + Fastlibs still cuts my mustard

Steve Elliott · July 27, 2019, 10:21:51

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I got that email too but I don't think it's anything to do with the speed drop or jitters since AGK Classic 2018-07-12

I agree, but they might notice some incorrect code as they look at solving something unrelated. It's concerning though.

Rick Nasher · July 27, 2019, 16:15:19

QuoteBlitz3D + Fastlibs

Is no competition, even with the lag. Major shortcoming: it's not cross-platform, so too limited for my needs.

3DzForMe · July 28, 2019, 06:13:43

I'm guessing AGK classic seems like the best choice for stable FPS for the time being then?

MikeHart · July 28, 2019, 09:05:56

Quote from: 3DzForMe on July 28, 2019, 06:13:43
I'm guessing AGK classic seems like the best choice for stable FPS for the time being then?

I would bet money on it that it won't get any updates anymore. And the people that have projects depending on glsl shaders are screwed either way as you can't tell AGKs to use opengl. If it detects that the driver is supporting vulkan, it will use that.

Steve Elliott · July 28, 2019, 10:58:19

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I'm guessing AGK classic seems like the best choice for stable FPS for the time being then?

I would bet money on it that it won't get any updates anymore.

That's why Studio is the only version I now have installed; hopefully they'll get their act together with this new version at some stage. At least Qube's post on the AGK Forum is now being looked at.

https://forum.thegamecreators.com/thread/224808

Naughty Alien · July 28, 2019, 13:00:50

..i think i can explain all this as simple as it can be..

1) They do not care for your requests or any critical thinker developer who want best out of platform
2) They want quick bucks (false adverts does this, fueled by hordes of fanbois, masturbating on to shiny screenshots of shader based work which they will never see)
3) They 'care' for fanboi base, which is as clueless as zombie listening Verdi's Aida, and very easy to milk out..

..thats all about it..how i know this? I bought damn thing some time back, got excited and realized that documentation is at Mesozoic, while existing one, available, demonstrate features which doesnt work at all. You go to dev web site and ask, and you get eaten by fanboi zombiez. So, it seems, nothing has been changed after all.