forum posts

[new-be-new]

Hi!

Why there is so few posts on PlayBasic forum?
Does anybody use playbasic, have problems, suggestions....

im registered few days ago, but saw so few posts!


why?  :blink:

[Calypson]

because we dont have enough people like you who start a posting fad.  I'd love this forum if more people were more active, but the most action i usually get is a one-on-one talk with kevin.  :P  I tried to start a few convos in here, but to no great success.

[kevin]

Why there is so few posts on PlayBasic forum?

 Well, i can think of one reason. Often when new users sign up (and in some cases don't sign up), they'll email/pm their questions/ideas directly to me.  It's frustrating, as often they could either find the answers here on the forums, or have somebody else reply with an answer.

Does anybody use playbasic, have problems, suggestions....

 Well all I can say is that are plenty of downloads, and the sign up rate on the forums and mailing lists are certainly increasing.  Often i think people are afraid to post their suggestions/problems for the fear of looking silly.  Which is why the "General" forums are only visible to registered users now.   So users can ask questions to the forums in with a degree of privacy.

  While on the subject of problems/beta testing.  When we make new betas availing for testing (registered users only), we are expecting feedback.  Most of the beta's get  10->20+ downloads.   Yet it's rare to hear anything about it until a complete upgrade is built.  If you want things fixed/added/changes made.  It's too late once the final build is posted.
   

im registered few days ago, but saw so few posts!

The sign up to post ratio is pretty low.  The only way to change that is to encourage users to ask/put forward ideas questions and mostly importantly visit/follow up daily.

[empty]

Yes, it's a bit difficult to consider user's ideas if they don't shout them out, or just send a private message because it's very likely that those ideas get lost then.

So if you have ideas, problems or whatever just post it! ;)

[Calypson]

hmmm... i think i'll post a tile making tutorial for side scrollers.  It might spark some interest within the community.

[dangerousbrian]

Well, i can think of one reason. Often when new users sign up (and in some cases don't sign up), they'll email/pm their questions/ideas directly to me.  It's frustrating, as often they could either find the answers here on the forums, or have somebody else reply with an answer.
  Well all I can say is that are plenty of downloads, and the sign up rate on the forums and mailing lists are certainly increasing.  Often i think people are afraid to post their suggestions/problems for the fear of looking silly.  Which is why the "General" forums are only visible to registered users now.   So users can ask questions to the forums in with a degree of privacy.

   While on the subject of problems/beta testing.  When we make new betas availing for testing (registered users only), we are expecting feedback.  Most of the beta's get  10->20+ downloads.   Yet it's rare to hear anything about it until a complete upgrade is built.  If you want things fixed/added/changes made.  It's too late once the final build is posted.
   
The sign up to post ratio is pretty low.  The only way to change that is to encourage users to ask/put forward ideas questions and mostly importantly visit/follow up daily.

[dangerousbrian]

Kevin, I'll post here to discuss the development of Ostriches if you want, I don't mind looking silly! :D

You can post my last attempt if you want to, just to demonstrate how it shouldn't be done!
dangerousbrian

[empty]

development of Ostriches

An interesting topic indeed. ;)

[new-be-new]

hmmm... i think i'll post a tile making tutorial for side scrollers.  It might spark some interest within the community.

well, thats more like it! :)

how about short tutorials:

- two layer (or three) starfield scrolling tutorial with explanations, step by step
- scrolling the image larger then screen (map)
- sprite movements with joystick, (how to jump, animate sprite ...)
- ...not just complete game making tutor but small (large :) ) codes for example:

- drawing the circle with points-dots (usable to move sprites in circle)
- making energy bar .... for example
- checking screen zones, fer example if mouse pointer is in specified part of the screen.

... and many more...

thanks

greets to all PB users

[kevin]

hmmm... i think i'll post a tile making tutorial for side scrollers.  It might spark some interest within the community.

Hows the platformer update going btw ?

[kevin]

Just a couple of quick replies

- drawing the circle with points-dots (usable to move sprites in circle)

PlayBASIC Code: [Select]

  Axis_Xpos=200
  Axis_Ypos=200

  Radius=100
  For Angle=0 to 359
      x#=Axis_Xpos+CosRadius(angle,Radius)
      y#=Axis_Ypos+SinRadius(angle,Radius)
      Dot X#,y#
  next
 Sync
 waitkey

- making energy bar .... for example

There's a demo in the Projects/Demo folder of a Percentage bar.  Which pretty much creates a energy bar..

- checking screen zones, fer example if mouse pointer is in specified part of the screen.

There's command called "MouseInBox"  which calc's if the current mouse position is within a rect region of the screen.

PlayBASIC Code: [Select]

; start a do/loop
 Do

  ; clear the screen to black each loop
   Cls 0 

    ; display a message  
  Print "Checking if the mouse is within a region of the screen"
  
   ; define the region coordinates
  
   ; top left coords of rect region
  x1=100
  y1=200
   ; bottom right coords of rect region
  x2=300
  y2=400
  
      ; check if the mouse is inside this region
  Result=Mouseinbox(x1,y1,x2,y2)  
  if result=true
  ; if the mouse if over the rect region then draw it
  ; a flashing box to prepresent this
     Boxc x1,y1,x2,y2,1,rndrgb() 
  else
  ; if the mouse is outside the rect region then only draw 
  ; the boxes outline.
     Box x1,y1,x2,y2,0
  endif
   
  ; Show the user the screen  
   Sync

; loop back to the Do marker above   
 loop

There's also a PointInBox command that will return is any point you give it, is within a rect box region also...

[tomazmb]

Hello,

My main concerns:

1. it's only 2D
2. it doesn't support DirectX features (DirectX 7, 8, 9)
3. it has no aggressive marketing
4. it has no boost selling game made with it
5. it's still young evolving language

But I have hope in Kevin and empty. The more they develope and spend time in developing the language, the more customers will come. The big selling boost will come, when Play Basic go 3D and perhaps OO and uses DirectX9 and higher. It's the human nature, DBPro it's not the best basic language, but it advertise "DirectX9 compatible", and people always whant the best, the newest, the shiniest,....

Have a nice day,

Tomaz

[dangerousbrian]

Hello,

My main concerns:

1. it's only 2D
2. it doesn't support DirectX features (DirectX 7, 8, 9)
3. it has no aggressive marketing
4. it has no boost selling game made with it
5. it's still young evolving language


Tomaz

All your points are true & very valid Tomaz, but (in my opinion) they are not all bad points. I'm sure there are quite a few folks like me who dabbled with basic on those old machines and despaired at the speed of the resulting display. We can't even get our heads around writing 3D programs, but speaking for myself I'm amazed & delighted by the speed that my badly written programs are running at in playbasic.
(Far faster than in Dark Basic)

People like me doubt that we will never write a commercially viable program but enjoy creating stuff that pleases us, and playbasic gives us the tool to do just that.

dangerousbrian

[Calypson]

Hows the platformer update going btw ?

actually its going great - im turning it into a mini game.  you collect coins within the least amount of time while avoiding enemies.  also with this cool auto tile feature i made (I told you a little about it) this game could easily be made into a load runner clone.  Right now im having problems displaying overlaying maps (for layered effects) for some reason, but once I work out that problem, this should be rolling along quite fast.  also, you were right about the background picture - its not needed.  but i noticed something about PB: when you do the colored-shaded box, its really really slow.  it knocked my FPS in half.  I'm gunna stick with a solid color background for speed reasons.

[kevin]

actually its going great - im turning it into a mini game. you collect coins within the least amount of time while avoiding enemies. also with this cool auto tile feature i made (I told you a little about it) this game could easily be made into a load runner clone.

 yeah that sounds cool, but don't get too crazy.  

Right now im having problems displaying overlaying maps (for layered effects) for some reason, but once I work out that problem, this should be rolling along quite fast.

Since maps in PB are like a huge images, position parallax layers can take a little getting used too.  

also, you were right about the background picture - its not needed. but i noticed something about PB: when you do the colored-shaded box, its really really slow. it knocked my FPS in half. I'm gunna stick with a solid color background for speed reasons.

Yesl, blitter based effects (drawing images) are always going to be faster than pixel based effects like gouruad.  So obviously if you cached the static shade backdrop to an image, it remove the real time demand.