ClanLib rocks! I've been using it for a while and my project is happily running on the "big three" with it. (Win, OSX universal binaries, linux) I would recommend it to people who are very comfortable with C++ and concepts like sigslots. It's great, but the docs are thin so getting into the source is required to find info sometimes. We're working towards a final 0.8 release soon (a week or so?). If you want to play with it before then, I recommend working directly from SVN as the release candidates up for download are outdated.
Seconded Yeah I've been using clanlib too, and it's great. Some people say that it doesn't have a big community/forum but you can subscribe to the mailing list and/or go to the official IRC channel and you'll most likely find somebody to help you out. By the way, mrFun, are you the developer of Dungeon Scroll ? because I had a conversation a while ago with someone on the official IRC channel about casual games and clanlib (he said he developed dungeon scroll) , I didn't know you guys lurked around here .
that's weird -- there's nothing on the website about OSX.. are there any nasty hoops you need to jump through to get that working?
? uhm did you check http://www.clanlib.org/intro.html ? * Supports Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
Actually Blitzmax is pretty sophisticated, and you get all the module source, so expansion/fixes are possible... I think it's an excellent choice. My framework supports Popcap, PTK, or DX8 as a renderer- so I can easily switch between them. I have not used the Garage Games product, but I hear very great things about it. Popcap: Pros: Lots of features, really well tested, software rendering.... Cons: Not the easiest to use, no mac support yet.... PTK: Pros: Easy to use, Mac/PC porting is fairly easy, pretty well tested... Cons: No software rendering yet... BMax: Pros: EXTREMELY easy to use, Mac/PC, surprisingly robust, porting to mac/linux is a no-brainer Cons: bad debugger, not as well-tested as popcap/ptk, not C++ DX8 D3DXSprite: Pros: Relatively easy to use, very fast if you know what you're doing, very small executables... Cons: No mac, lower level than the others... All of them perform well.... I got d3dxsprite going the fastest, but that was before ptk batching. But they're all really fast. Overall, I think any of them are a fine choice, I guess it just comes down to what u value most. If you want near 100% pc compatibility, popcap is the choice. If you want easy Mac porting and ease of use, then I'd say PTK. If you want the fastest route to a final product and simple Mac porting, BMax is the choice.
I'm using Max for Starchon (almost complete). Before Max, I use to use DirectX and TrueVision3D 6.5 Beta. Also, I tried a fair amount of the SDK’s and languages available. Bax does have poor debugger; for the most part I use print statements! However, it’s the only engine with its own scripting language that is at least close to object oriented. I would think it would be hard to keep track of a large project using some of these scripting languages. The other negative thing about the cross platform capabilities of Max is that you have to compile the code OS in order to be cross platform. So I guess I will be bying a MAX; which in itself is not a bad idea. For my next project, I’d probably use Max because of the time I will save reusing code and so on. However, I will always have a soft spot for C++.
I only tried Torque3d so can't comment about builder. Popcap: seems powerful but honestly too much complex for a bad programmer like me that was using blitzbasic just 3 years ago (if you could look at my C code you would scream) PTK: it rulez. Is easy as Blitz, but powerful and fast. And well for those that complain about lack of software rendering... well, something COULD change soon BMax: easy to use, pc/mac, blablabla BUT - horrible debugger. You waste 2h to find a simple bug... if it had a good debugger I would probably use it.
I use BMX and think it's great. I don't complain about debugger - I rarely use it and when I use it it is good enough for me. But I guess I am a little bit better than a bad programmer cheers Roman
has anyone who's using blitzmax run into problems with alt-tab or other windows-application-functionality problems? i was excited to try it, but while playing a lot of "Grid Wars" (made with bmax) i found that if i alt-tabbed out of the game (or another app poped a window up, so that the game lost focus), the game would run _very_ slowly from then on. the only solution was to quit the game and restart it..
hm.. it seemed to even know that it had lost focus (it auto-paused). the reason i asked is that i've got the blitzmax demo, and i can't really find any docs on how to capture that sort of windows-API event. there's OnEnd() or something but nothing dealing with focus/task-switching/alt-tabbing..
There are commends like: AppSuspended(), AppTerminate() BMX forum is better to ask this kind of questions. cheers Roman
i would _love_ to participate in the forums, but for some stupid reason you first have to buy the product before you can post. it's better than garage games' ridiculous you-can't-even-READ-the-forums-without-purchase, but still.. very annoying.
"it's better than garage games' ridiculous you-can't-even-READ-the-forums-without-purchase" Well considering that engine code is talked about in the forums it would seem getting access to it would not only be against our interests, but the interests of all of our users who have paid for the engine. Also we have public forums available to see common pre-purchase questions and ask for help.
It sounds great. My only concern is that it's only at 0.8 so far, so there probably aren't many games out there using it. (Are there? Do any of your current ones use it?). There's just a critical mass I'd like to see before I trust it's going to work for almost all users, since Windows is a notorious pain in the ass when it comes to compatibility. If it is solid across a wide user base, it sounds exciting. I've been enjoying the Popcap framework, but it's PC only. As for the other engines mentioned, I love a good debugger and IDE, and I'm not going to get that with a custom scripting language.
I agree with the policy of not allowing users to post unless theu purchase the produce. You probably should reconsider the policy of not allowing them to see posts. Personally, I place a lot of weight on what is being posted in the forums. For example, if there were no post in the support forum for a product I wouldn't buy it.
The TGB (T2D) forums are incredibly active with lots of posts from the guys working at GG. Lots of good info both there and in their wiki area (TDN - torque developer network). There isn't much engine source posted there, so that's not the best argument for keeping it closed. I'm not sure why they persist in doing it.....