Still using Blitz - BlitzCoder.net

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Socoder -> Blitz -> Still using Blitz
Fri, 09 Aug 2013, 10:01
Dither	Hi, everyone. It's been a while! Years ago, I was teaching myself to program for games using Blitz Basic (i.e. BlitzPlus). I learned a lot, but my efforts were derailed by other responsibilities (read: kids!) that ate up all my free time and energy and brainpower. Anyway, I'm thinking of picking up where I left off, but I'm wondering: Is Blitz out-of-date? Will a Blitz program run on newer PCs? I like the cross-platform compatibility of newer languages, but I'd hate to have to start from scratch and learn a new syntax. BlitzMax sounds good. But is it very different from BlitzPlus (syntax, the way that arrays and types work, etc.)? Please keep in mind the following: I'm not an experienced programmer and, although I do enjoy programming, for me it's more a means to an end (i.e. I'd like to keep it simple); Also, I'm mainly interested in making games to be played on computers with keyboards/gamepads, not mobile devices or such. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
Fri, 09 Aug 2013, 10:12
Jayenkai	Hello! Welcome back! BlitzMax is a "different" syntax, but it still feels very blitz-like, and it's not a huge difference. The fact that you've taken time out, would probably help make the switch, since you'll more than likely need to pickup a few things from scratch, anyway.. Monkey takes things a little further than BlitzMax, and allows you to compile for Android and iOS, too. But it's an even bigger syntax leap than BlitzMax. .. Well, it's more a logic change than a syntax one, actually. I've come to the conclusion that, syntax wise, Monkey is actually a lot closer to Blitz than BlitzMax is. Instead, you need to deal with Update vs Render methods, and things like that. The Monkey demo is free, and lets you compile and run HTML5 games, to get a feel for it. Compatibility wise, as far as I'm aware, everything I coded, a decade ago, in Blitz2D still runs on modern PCs. BlitzMax games still run fine. For Monkey, I'll need to wait a few years, and see how much Microsoft can knacker Windows -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 09 Aug 2013, 13:34
Dither	Thanks, Jayenkai! One of the reasons I was able to figure things out in Blitz Basic was that there were books like the one by John Logsdon. I might as well give Max and Monkey a look, and see if I can manage with whatever documentation is available.
Fri, 09 Aug 2013, 14:39
dna	BMax might be better but B3D is also still a very popular language. -=-=- DNA
Fri, 09 Aug 2013, 17:11
steve_ancell	The way I see it, if a programming langage is still in use by even just one person then it still serves a purpose.
Fri, 09 Aug 2013, 19:02
9572AD	I bought Max and never used it once due to an extreme dearth of documentation. Monkey is definitely more fiddly than Blitz, but has decent documentation. There's a beginner's book, too, though it's probably going to have invalid sections due to changes in Monkey in the past year. You could also give GLBasic a try. It's quite capable, more Blitz-like as far as being more kit-like, and free to fiddle with, too. -=-=- All the raw, animal magnetism of a rutabaga.
Fri, 09 Aug 2013, 20:11
dna	Oh yes. There's also something called FreeBasic Dither. It too is Blitz like but does not have the response team like this site has. FreeBasic was written in FreeBasic. -=-=- DNA
Fri, 09 Aug 2013, 23:00
Dither	Thanks for the responses! I'm reading about each of these options. What do you guys think of PureBasic? There's a Krylar book about it.
Sun, 11 Aug 2013, 18:04
dna	I have a Purebasic license but have not used the software much. It can be strongly typed but the last I saw of the language it had a great particle engine. better than BB but I'm not sure if it was better than B3D. The good thing about that is that it is still being developed, and it exists for many platforms in many varieties, including the outdated Amiga. If it goes forward enough to broaden itself to include hand held devices then it might be near the top of the list. All these varying languages are nice but whatever one you chose will depend upon what you intend to do with the software. There's also a free version of B3D floating on the internet somewhere. Dated, static, but it might be the next step if you are truly picking up where you left off with a Blitz product. -=-=- DNA
Mon, 12 Aug 2013, 08:01
Dither	Thanks, dna.
Tue, 13 Aug 2013, 16:56
Hotshot	There is so Many Basic out there ThinBasic PureBasic BlitzBasic 3D BlitzMax(Quite Advance!) FreeBasic GLBasic QBasic 64 Nuclear Basic It depend on what you want to do. For Beginner 2D\3D Game? Blitz 3D OR GLBasic or Nuclear Basic(they seem getting better all the time!) IF You want make Demoscene Demo then PureBasic or Freebasic
Tue, 13 Aug 2013, 20:18
dna	Thanks for making that list Hotshot. It's probably what he needs. There's also Tiny Basic and probably more. I never knew that QBasic went into the 64 Bit realm. I'll have to check it out. -=-=- DNA
Tue, 26 Nov 2013, 21:13
BGDDisco	I was coding with an old bought-and-paid-for Blitz2D which satisfied my coding requirements, but whenever I compiled something and tried it on another computer it failed to run. I bought BlitzMax but like many others couldn't get into the syntax. Recently I noted that BRL were letting Blitz+ go for free, so I downloaded it and use it lots, no issues with compiled code on other machines, it is very much like the old B2D. Most of my old 2D source runs in B+ with no changes needed. -=-=- God gave Man a brain...and a penis...but only enough blood to run one at a time!
Wed, 27 Nov 2013, 00:20
Dabz	Most of my old 2D source runs in B+ with no changes needed. Only problem is, even though B+ is a great little bit of kit, and probably what the vast majority of people need (For Windows development), its plain and simply past it, if they fixed the OpenGL driver issue, then, the thing wouldnt have to rely on DX7, and will surely have a longer life... You really really done want to be relying on DX7 anymore. Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Thu, 28 Nov 2013, 14:27
Hotshot	There is good old life in Blitz 3D due Direct X 9 Library thanks to guys from Blitz forum who making them!
Wed, 29 Jan 2014, 23:47
Dither	Thanks for all the responses. A problem I've had with Blitz Basic is that I could never get a music file to play. Some of you might remember this from a while back. The code was right but it wouldn't work on any of my machines. I own the old Idigicon version of Blitz (purchased along with Krylar's book), but I tried the code with the demo versions of BlitzPlus and Blitz3D, with the same result. So that had me worried. Also, how do those old programs that are intended to run full-screen appear on newer monitors with wide screen aspect ratio? Maybe I'm imagining this as a bigger problem than it is. But in order to get my 640x480 Blitz programs to run without distortion (stretching) on my wife's laptop, I had to change the video card settings.
Thu, 30 Jan 2014, 05:21
steve_ancell	I use both Blitz3D and Monkey-X at the moment. Monkey could be a good choice for you if you're having to change video card settings and stuff, with it you can put your games into a browser and let the end user worry about making sure they have a browser that's man enough to use HTML5.
Thu, 30 Jan 2014, 05:46
Jayenkai	Classic Blitz2D isn't very good for multi-resolution scaling, mostly because it doesn't have scaling techniques. It can do simple window rescaling, but fullscreen's tricky at the best of times. If you switch to Blitz3D, you could use a simple 2D-in-3D engine to rescale your game into different resolutions, but like Steve says, both BlitzMax and Monkey are better at handling these things, in 2D, without extra faffing about. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 12 Mar 2014, 09:25
Hotshot	Blitz 3D is still going strong due great Blitz Hardwired - DirectX 9 Userlib and there will be DirectX 11 Userlib and Irrlicht 1.8.1 too which is pretty amazing for what is... What is so good about it is that you can do own Phototype(another words for making own test game) before converting other programming language like Monkey X
Tue, 18 Nov 2014, 13:46
zzoom	I still get a lot of coding satisfaction from Blitz3D without using the recent advances with the hardwired plug in. And, Incredibly, Blitz3D is now free when you register an account with BRL. -=-=- Happy coding!
Tue, 18 Nov 2014, 14:10
Jayenkai	Indeed.. I used B3D myself, last night. It's handy for "rendering" quick little 3D doohickeys! Considering i've been using Monkey for nearly 2 whole years, now, I still get a fair amount of use from B3D and Max. They have, and always will have, their uses. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 19 Nov 2014, 03:11
Afr0	Keep in mind, anyone reading this topic, that Blitz3D and BlitzMax are never going to be able to do MMO servers natively. For that, you'll need a userlib for Winsock. However, you can do clients just fine -=-=- Afr0 Games Project Dollhouse on Github - Please fork!