Comments on: Compatibility Thoughts (And More, Part 2)

By: Juuso Hietalahti

Juuso Hietalahti — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:57:59 +0000

@Sargon: Yeh, well I must say that I’d been using Blitz3D for ages (not OO stuff really) and then decided to take a leap forward to Bmax (similar syntax, but with more OO stuff). This has really helped me also in PHP side (and vica versa) since the languages & tools are similar – and fit my style.

In c++ there’s way too much pointers and too geeky stuff for my taste, and c# has again compatibility issues (.NET stuff required), so yes… I do agree that it can be a good experience to try different languages…

I don’t see how using DX would help (first of all because DX uses OpenGL and secondly… if SM 3.0 doesn’t exist then it won’t work. Leadwerks has good support for logging so I can send the log files to Leadwerks developer and help him figure out this stuff)

By: Sargon

Sargon — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:47:59 +0000

Great. :)
What I ment is, you should try a different language to get a different perspective, not to necesseraly use it.
It shouldn’t take too long to learn a new language, at least the basics. If the langauge seem very alien to you, that might mean that it has a lot of new things to offer. But not necesseraly.
My thoughts about design patterns is that you don’t need to remember them exactly the way they are.
Moreover, some patterns have several different ways of implementation.
My best explaination would be perhaps by pencil art.
When you study to draw with a pencil, you start by drawing and shading all sort of shapes. Such as shapes, cubes and cones.
They help you to learn how to draw, but they are not necesseraly what you are going to draw, eventually.
So design patterns are like those shapes you draw for practice.
I took one course about designing software that really opened my mind.
I think that a good lecturer is valuable, and maybe you should look for one such course.
Just my suggestion.

Oh, I also have a suggestion how you might solve the compatability problem.
Before your program starts even calling Leadwerks, use directX.
Not for the graphics, but just to check if there is shader model 3 available.
Do you think this can solve your problem?

By: Juuso Hietalahti

Juuso Hietalahti — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:16:11 +0000

Sargon – I didn’t take your words as offensive. Not at all. I mainly blamed myself for not expressing the situation clearly. :)

There were some people making assumptions about different things… so I thought I could try to save the situation and explain a bit more about who I am and what I do. (Okay, maybe the tone of voice wasn’t the best here – so maybe my zenish attitude needs more zen… ;)

My main programming languages are blitzmax (not sure what it resembles, maybe “some sort of basic with object oriented stuff” is the closest it gets) and then web programming languages (PHP, Javascript for example). bmax is good stuff – can’t really say much more about it. Jake Birkett uses it. Ask him :)

I know absolutely nothing about DirectX/OpenGL programming, and C++/C# go way over my head (I suppose they have some resemblance with PHP/blitzmax etc. but I see no reason to go into that direction). I’d say I don’t have such math/programming skills that I could build a DirectX engine (that’s way too geeky anyway ;) – and I never plan to get one (I try to go to the direction of ‘less engine programming, more game programming’ as much as possible :)

Btw – During Edoiki development for example I really dug into multiplayer programming and now have pretty good understand on how to create a nice networking system with UDP – so there I was learning new, and I think it was valuable insight that I have used in different context.

(Hmm… Why the hell am I listing all this? :D)

Gotta add that right now I’m trying to get more information about different patterns. I think learning programming languages is fine, but learning different good patterns on how to code is very, very valuable.

Maybe at some point it indeed could make change to learn a new programming language (or two ;)) but at the moment I think it’s better to stick with what I have, and instead of languages try learn better ways to program (better OO, better patterns etc).

With that being said – I do appreciate your comments, and things aren’t black & white. Your comments seem sensible to me – nothing to disagree with those.

By: Sargon

Sargon — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:21:51 +0000

Hmm… I believe you didn’t take my words as offensive juuso, but as a precaution I would like to say that I didn’t try to doubt your abilities or experience as a programmer, I wanted to help.
Perhaps lack of experience was the wrong words to choose.
But I can tell you something from my experience.
About 8 years ago, I wrote a game in C(not cpp!) and direct draw.
I worked about a year of my life on that game, I didn’t had a job, and I postponed going to university because of that.
My game had a lot of bugs and there was no justification to demand money for it.
I thought I could write everything in C and that there is no need for me to learn CPP, because I am good at C and could do everything at C.
At university I have learned CPP and java and designing software.
The courses that taught me those things were about 3 out of 40.
Most of the other stuff was math.
What I am trying to say is, that sometimes making the effort of learning something new, could save you a lot of time and make you do things a lot better.
Its not that all the experience you had before in programming goes to the trash, its just that sometimes when you get a new perspective or a new tool in programming, you can do a lot better than you did before. And it doesn’t take a lot of time for you to become that much better with the new tool.
As much as I appreaciate books, I think taking a course with the right lecturer on the right subject, can make wonders. If you already have the experience in programming. Otherwise, it won’t feel right to you.

I believe you are using some sort of basic? I am not even sure how it is called.
I believe trying to learn a new language, and in addition taking a GOOD course about desiging software, can enlighten you.

I do not pretend to know if you are a good programmer or not, or what experience you got. I just wanted to give you an advice I have learned on myself.

By: Ezequiel

Ezequiel — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:35:37 +0000

I don’t understand why some people think they can show up on somebody’s blog and chide him. You are not a professional game developer, we are not investors, you don’t owe anything to us. We are just bystanders, watching you doing games or trying (which is cool), and we are hopefully learning something in the process.

I think the answers were a little harsh because the question was a little odd. Engine to use and 2d vs 3d are decisions that should be made at the very beginning of the developing process. While I understand the points you made and your reasons for considering changing, the question sounded like going back to zero. But at the end of the day, it is a valid question since you are the boss and you don’t owe us anything.

The only thing I would recommend (as a person who has your blog in his rss reader) is that you focused your posts on game producing. I thought this last two posts (and this one too) were much more interesting than the ones related to unauthorized reproduction of intellectual property.