fixing improving Blitz3d

Started by RemiD, August 11, 2019, 12:31:18

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RemiD

hi :)

i have some money to spend, so why not fix / improve the good old Blitz3d... That i will probably continue to use for many many many years ( i still use windows 7 :P )

from what i remember of my past experiments, i needed these fixes / mods :

->remove direct play dependency
->merge the addons by Bobysait (to create bones, to create skinned vertices, to set weights)
->separate the collisions system and the animation system ( updateworld()  -> updateanimations() updatecollisions() )
->separate animation system (update of skinned vertices depending on bones positions / orientations) and renderworld()
->be able to get the rigid mesh after a skinned mesh has been animated
->simplify the procedure / functions to be able to merge different riggs (bones) / skinned meshes / weights
->mod the stencil shadows system (devil shadow system) to make it work with rigid meshes and skinned meshes
->remove / increase the limit of vertices / triangles per surface (32000 ? 64000 ?)
->be able to customize the properties of a directx light (color, intensity, falloff, max range)
->render to texture and auto set each rendered black pixels with a alpha value of 0
->texture blendmode similar to drawimage (all black pixels are invisible)
->implement a fast glow (with 8 directions offsets for the outline)
->fix linepick which sometimes fails on terrain (ROAM)
->be able to update or not the terrain (ROAM)
->be able to get the built terrain mesh (ROAM)
->rename some functions names to make them more meaningful

so for the remaining users, what are your suggestions of fixes / mods ?

the base will still be directx7, i just want to make it even more easy to use and flawless.

Santiago

Hi RemiD, I am in the same situation.

I still use B3d, and Windows7, I will continue using it for many years, because that is what works for me.

I currently do some work for museums, and I always use b3d, since it is 100% stable and I can use low-performance PCs to run the games.

I don't know how much money it would take to develop a Blitz that has dx9 or dx11, it would be ideal to have Shaders, itineraries to generate soft-mesh.

My biggest problem now is that with the Naval Simulator, with Laptops + Windows 10, it runs very slow b3d, and there are several MAVs that I can't replicate on my computers.

Some things, I solved them by creating my own functions, but everything you mention, and many other things, I suppose only a genius could achieve them.

but without a doubt, if I left a Blitz with dx11 or something, I would happily put money that I don't have to be able to use it.

regards!!!!

Naughty Alien

Quote from: Santiago on August 12, 2019, 15:24:49
Hi RemiD, I am in the same situation.

I still use B3d, and Windows7, I will continue using it for many years, because that is what works for me.

I currently do some work for museums, and I always use b3d, since it is 100% stable and I can use low-performance PCs to run the games.

I don't know how much money it would take to develop a Blitz that has dx9 or dx11, it would be ideal to have Shaders, itineraries to generate soft-mesh.

My biggest problem now is that with the Naval Simulator, with Laptops + Windows 10, it runs very slow b3d, and there are several MAVs that I can't replicate on my computers.

Some things, I solved them by creating my own functions, but everything you mention, and many other things, I suppose only a genius could achieve them.

but without a doubt, if I left a Blitz with dx11 or something, I would happily put money that I don't have to be able to use it.

regards!!!!

Then you are looking no further than NB..its basically abandoned as B3D(except its not released in same way as B3D), but its very stable system, dx9/11 powered and very very fast on both low and high end hardware, while syntax is almost identical to B3D

Santiago

:) NB?

Sounds good! But I can't find it on Google, what does NB mean? Sometimes I feel like I'm coming from another planet, sorry for my ignorance.

saludos!

Santiago

i respond to my self. NB = Nuclear Basic :) i found it!! :) thanks

RemiD

Quote
and there are several MAVs that I can't replicate on my computers.
this is most likely due to too many rendered vertices / triangles in a surface, but apparently the limit that blitz3d has is not necessary, and was set to increase compatibility with old computers. but i plan to remove this limit (if it is not a directx 7 limit)...

GrindalfGames

You should check out Blitz3D-NG. I know Kevin removed dependency on DirectPlay Im not sure if he crossed off any others on your list there but its a good place to start.

STEVIE G

Quote from: RemiD on August 12, 2019, 19:31:24
Quote
and there are several MAVs that I can't replicate on my computers.
this is most likely due to too many rendered vertices / triangles in a surface, but apparently the limit that blitz3d has is not necessary, and was set to increase compatibility with old computers. but i plan to remove this limit (if it is not a directx 7 limit)...

I'm pretty sure this was a DX7 limitation so you would expect a MAV on all machines.  One thing which can cause a MAV on some machines but not others is trying to write to or read from a texture/image outwith the image size.

RemiD

or another cause of a MAV is trying to do something with an entity / pivot / mesh / surface which does not exist anymore (so an error in your code)

RemiD

about Blitz3d-NG, the goal of kfprimm is apparently to make it cross platform and more modern (quite a quest !), i just want to fix a few bugs and add some useful functionalities, but i don't plan to rewrite the whole thing...

and honestly i don't know if i will do it, because my motivation to make games is very low these days...

GrindalfGames

Oh and it also appears as if Kevin got rid of the NaN object bug as that was causing me some problems until I switched across to NG

Omnicode

Hello,
I managed to find this site after all this time since the official Blitz site went down. With regards to improving B3D, should someone want to contribute or need explanation of how to change the application/exe could this info be provided? I've always wanted to hunker down and add some unique functionality to my programs while still utilizing B3D.

RemiD

@omnicode>>bobysait did it, to add a few functionalities to blitz3d (create bones, create skinned vertices + set influences)
you can find some explanations about the necessary files here :
http://mojolabs.nz/posts.php?topic=105408 (#60, #61, #62)
https://github.com/blitz-research/blitz3d

however, after a first test, when i try to compile the source code of blitz3d in a exe, there are many errors (some apprently due to the use of external libs, some i don't know)

good luck

MikeHart

Quote from: RemiD on September 12, 2019, 20:43:49

however, after a first test, when i try to compile the source code of blitz3d in a exe, there are many errors (some apprently due to the use of external libs, some i don't know)

good luck


the latest github release from BRL (For MSVC 2010 and later) compiles without a problem for me.

3DzForMe

Quotethe latest github release from BRL (For MSVC 2010 and later) compiles without a problem for me.

Blitz3D:  You just can't keep a good programming language down.

Although I confess..... I'm tempted by Python, dipped my toe into Unity, Nuclear Basic also sounds appealing. Oh and there is AGK as well - just need a lottery win to get my head around all these creation tools.
BLitz3D, IDEal, AGK Studio, BMax, Java Code, Cerberus
Recent Hardware: Dell Laptop
Oldest Hardware: Commodore Amiga 1200 with 1084S Monitor & Blitz Basic 2.1