Rewrite OSA Kit in C++ ATL?

[sphinx]

The only benefit I can see is reducing its size (No VB runtime)

What do you think?
Does it worth it?

[george]

i think it is definitely worth it. it will be smaller, possibly faster, and it will require no runtime or additional downloads. and because it is written in vb, it might scare some potential customers away (remember, a lot of programmers think vb is crap :-) ). if you can do it and it won't take too much time, go for it.

[Evak]

I think it's definately a good idea. Anything that makes the users experience more friendly is going to improve the product. And not having VB errors will do just that. It's one more thing that woudl deter people fom running a game set up online with it.

I think after all the scare stories from the media, most people are a bit weary of popups asking you to confirm anything whilst browsing online. SO C++ is probably a good thing if it streamlines the experence.

I use blitzbasic languages, and I cringe at the mention of the word basic, it does carry a stigma that you can't really shake off.

[mot]

Definitely not a good idea. It's never, ever, a good idea to rewrite from scratch, period. If you have performance issues, rewrite the critical parts, put them in a DLL. If you don't, well, why bother?

EDIT: By the way, I tried to run the demos on your website, but none of my browsers would open them (Firefox, Opera, IE on WinXPSP2).

[gmcbay]

It's never, ever, a good idea to rewrite from scratch, period.


All things being equal, this is true. But in this case, things aren't equal because while VB is great for a lot of things, it does impose issues in terms of increased runtime size, extra dependencies (more things that can go wrong when you can least afford for there to be any problems) and negative market perception (his market being game developers, not the end user or business programmers).

[sphinx]

By the way, I tried to run the demos on your website, but none of my browsers would open them (Firefox, Opera, IE on WinXPSP2

It is only work with IE and compatible browsers unless you have the ActiveX plugin installed for the other browsers like FireFox, Opera,.... etc

Did you allow the browser to install the OSA Kit by clicking on the Yellow tool bar and choosing Install.. from the drop down menu?!

Have a look HERE (http://www.ancientsoft.com/images/certxp.png)

[mot]

There was a yellow tool bar at the top, but it only contained some information and it was not possible to click it to install the game. I had to go to IE settings, enable ActiveX, reload the page, wait for VB service pack to install (no progress indicator, but I guess there's no way to control that) and wait for the game to load (flickering load indicator).

Sorry if this sounds rude but that's my experience.

The "castle" demo itself was pretty good. Is there a way to save the game for playing "offline"?

[indiemaker]

sphinx,

I tried using your package maker but it said, path not found when I selected Generate Package. I added all the necessary files.

What am I doing wrong?

This is for the demo version of your software.


*edit*

Ok, I got it to create the package. I restarted it and this time it worked.

Now, I followed all the instructions to test it out, and I got a runtime error '6' over flow message about halfway during the download.

I only uploaded the ocx, html, and the osa file.

What did I do wrong?

[sphinx]

could you please send a link of your game?

[etiumsoft]

I experienced the same problem, you must create the the directory c:\output manually. A little bug of the great product :)

[indiemaker]

Yes, it's a great product. If he could get the bugs sorted out, I would buy it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for my game, although it worked for other games.
The other option is to learn activex/atl myself which is going to take a looong time. For now, I'm just going to stick with downloads.

[sphinx]

I am working on it and it should be sorted out soon!