Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / You wanted to know what is being done - here it is...

Author
Message
Rob K
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2002
Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: 29th May 2004 04:04 Edited at: 29th May 2004 04:06
@Lee / Mike

I have a suggestion re: hardware compatibility: Just hire out some older PCs for a few days. Aim for a mid to low specification (eg: PIII 1Ghz, GeForce 2MX or worse, 256MB of RAM or less).

Failing that, just find a computer fair near you and you could probably buy the parts to built that kind of PC for very little. (I found a PIII 500, NVidia TNT 1 for £50 last time I went to one).

Beta testing by us probably wouldn't reveal all the problems, after all, we are here because we *can* run Pro.

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
Over 140 new commands
Dave J
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Feb 2003
Location: Secret Military Pub, Down Under
Posted: 29th May 2004 04:58
...Speaking of forums, any idea when the new one will be fully implemented? The test seemed quite stable.


"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
zenassem
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Mar 2003
Location: Long Island, NY
Posted: 29th May 2004 05:14 Edited at: 30th May 2004 21:19
Hey Rich, This is amazing!!! Just when I thought that it would be years for you "non-humans" to receive an update to your faulty A.I.B.O. emotion engines. I'm glad SONY came through with a patch!

J/K

This is really great news. I had been feeling discouraged lately with some of the responses to threads like LOD. And Now I see this thread and... Wham! I just can't believe my eyes.

P.S.
Just checking the fine print for instances of. "We didn't actually say we would give..." .J/K again. It's hard to resist.

This information truly makes me feel like... Zen.

Great Job Rich!

~Zen


Duffer
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Feb 2003
Location: chair
Posted: 29th May 2004 11:46
@ Mike,

See above, anything to add to points 1 -3 ?
Mike Johnson
TGC Developer
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 29th May 2004 11:50
Upgrade 5.3 will be going on DBDN in the next few days. Once it's been tested and we are sure it's okay then it will be released on the main site.

The "Save Object" command is in place and ready to go. We'll see this in upgrade 5.4

Mike
Dave J
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Feb 2003
Location: Secret Military Pub, Down Under
Posted: 29th May 2004 11:52
If the Save Object command is ready then why not just stick it in U5.3? Not complaining or anything, just wondering.


"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
Final Epsilon
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2004
Location: CA, USA
Posted: 29th May 2004 12:30
YAY. New updates!! ^_^

Methinks that TGC has come up with a plan that the entire community will like, and not attack.

*dances around*
Richard Davey
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Apr 2002
Location: On the Jupiter Probe
Posted: 29th May 2004 13:25
Exeat - there are quite a few commands / changes that are ready, but 5.3 isn't the time to be experimenting with them all.

"I am not young enough to know everything."
- Oscar Wilde
Shadow Robert
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 29th May 2004 14:14
hahaa ya can't please everyone all the time Epsilon; but atleast it's shut up the loudest members.
can see some classic Microsoft tactics at work ^_^

but this will benifit the community for a while.
@Fog; i know this thread is about communication, but it would've been better to have a) Sticky with the information, then create a thread for the responses which wasn't a sticky.

That way the information is always there to read, but when the answers become obsolete they're a search engine away.
This said I hope the new forum basically wipes all of the current posts; as the forum is exceedingly large for no good reason (most are multiple posts about the same thing) and such. So it's very messy to read through, especially when trying to find lost topics.

well oki i've had my 2c now; time to just stand back and see what happens exactly. Oh, and mike; don't let the forum suck you in - i've noticed you've been on here almost as much as me the past week, think you should do what Lee does and spend a day or so answering posts then disappear again. Else it'll just suck you in, then update 5.3 will never appear

David T
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: England
Posted: 29th May 2004 14:44
@Rich:

Quote: "we're not Microsoft, we aren't going to offer "phone activation"! "


I didn't mean to imply you should offer phone activation, I just thought you were a bit rude to the guy.

I really, really like the idea of a Veteran's forum - keep all the nasty spammers at bay

Two strings walk into a bar. I'll have a pint says the first$%ASLDJ09920D"$"$D. Excuse my friend says the second, he isn't null terminated.
M00NSHiNE
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Aug 2003
Location: England, UK
Posted: 29th May 2004 16:53
Nice to read this - things are looking good for the future. In regards to the "old timer" thing, a suggestion - only mods can decide who is granted access based on their previous forum input.

Kentaree
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Oct 2002
Location: Clonmel, Ireland
Posted: 29th May 2004 17:10
@Moonshine: This mightnt work though for people who are here a long time, but hardly ever post. I do think the mods should be given the discretion to ban people from posting if they show themselves unfit to post normally.

Its not a bug, its a feature!
JoeFoo
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Apr 2004
Location:
Posted: 29th May 2004 17:28
COME ON!!!!! YES THIS IS DEFINATELY THE BEST NEWS ON THE SITE 4 A WHILE!
*calms down*
Thank you TGC!

Bitchin' Goat Entertainment Ltd.
Visit - http://www.Bitchingoat.com
Richard Davey
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Apr 2002
Location: On the Jupiter Probe
Posted: 29th May 2004 17:31
It's not fair to expect mods to know everyone well enough to grant them access. It will be based on how long they've been registered for only and right now I'm think around the 12 months mark.

"I am not young enough to know everything."
- Oscar Wilde
Rob K
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2002
Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: 29th May 2004 17:36
@Rich

Good point, although having said that time is not always experience. Nor is postcount. Asylum Hunter is a good example, very rarely posts anything, but is the creator of 2 commercial games for DBPro.

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
Over 140 new commands
Dave J
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Feb 2003
Location: Secret Military Pub, Down Under
Posted: 29th May 2004 17:48
Maybe the registration time and then mods or yourself have the ability to add specific people in the list that they/you think should be granted access. That way you could overcome the problem where old people had to re-register and would be unable to use the forum and also have the right to include specific exceptions where people are deemed 'worthy' by the mods.


"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
MikeS
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 2nd Dec 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 29th May 2004 18:58
@Richard Davey

Perhaps something like codebase entries should justify whether users can see the DBDN forums. It's more likely that someone who's given a set amount of codebase entries(let's say 5) will be the one's who actually can post useful stuff and take in the knowledge of the 'vetern forums'

This way, new veterns who're experienced can just upload some of their code to help the community out even more for the benefit of full use of the vetern forum.

Of course, there's two consequences to this.
1.) Users spam the codebase just to gain access.
2.) Codebase entries become repetitive and reduced in quality.



Just something to think about.

A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.
(Formerly known as Yellow)
Rob K
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2002
Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: 29th May 2004 19:09
There is already enough rubbish in the CodeBase as is, no need to further it (speaking of which, it would be useful if mods could remove or "hide" silly codebase entries like Sphere-On-Matrix demos)

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
Over 140 new commands
Ian T
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 12th Sep 2002
Location: Around
Posted: 29th May 2004 19:22 Edited at: 29th May 2004 19:33
Horray Rich, Lee, Mike, Rick... the whole TGC team ! This is indeed fantastic news.

Edit-- Though it will mean I can't develop on my main development computer for many months, until I get a network for it . Oh well.

Edit Again-- Perhaps the admin could have the power to mark a user as a veteran 'early' if they know he is, but hasn't been on the forums that long; IE, someone who's just registered but already made several quality games in DBP?

fog
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Oct 2003
Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 29th May 2004 20:49
The Veteran Forums sounds like a good idea. Even if I wouldn't yet be eligable to post it would still make the forums more readable from my point of view....... unfortunately a few of the "veteran" members are some of the worst spammers around.

Don Malone
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Apr 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Posted: 29th May 2004 21:00 Edited at: 29th May 2004 21:01
@Veteran Status

To give some one (early) veteran status have them vouched by three Veteran level members or maybe one and one Mod.

That way some of the more respected members can be added and keep the balanace. You will have people petitioning for status but the verterns should be able to keep them down.

Wasting CPU Cycles since the 286 was a hot machine.
Hamish McHaggis
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Dec 2002
Location: Modgnik Detinu
Posted: 29th May 2004 21:40 Edited at: 29th May 2004 21:43
How did I miss this thread?!?

Well done TGC, thanks very very very much for doing something in response to our "suggestions" , it's much appreciated .

I think a verteran's forum would be an excellent idea, I presume it would be several boards rather than just one. Although there may be a problem when people sign up with new accounts for whatever reason, although they could probably sort it out by emailing you .

I agree with DBoy, mods should be able to "veteranise" and "un-veteranise" members in some way or another, and the need for 3 people to vouch for them or something will prevent noobs spamming the mods to try and get permission.

Athelon XP 1600+/Radeon 9600 Pro/256 RAM
Everwhat Studios
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Apr 2004
Location: UK
Posted: 29th May 2004 22:30
Haven't had time to read all the responses here, but from reading Rich's first post I'm a lot more happy about the way everythings shaping up in theory. I've long thought that dev diaries should be public and that DBDN should be scrapped. Big fixes should always be priority for a product such as this, glad its finally going to be as such.

The forum user formerly known as Kangaroo2.
If the apocalypse comes, email me
M00NSHiNE
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Aug 2003
Location: England, UK
Posted: 29th May 2004 23:28
And what happens when the spammers who are still around reach the twelve months mark? It wouldnt be a good idea to rely on an automated system, there are too many variables to take into account as have been demonstrated in the above posts. I, as an example, joined the board on the 4th of August 2003. I bought DBC and have been using it since November 2000. Even though I have been using it this long, the 12 months system would mean I would be unable to access this board. Most people on the board know who the spammers are so I think there should be a better way of deciding who gets in and who doesnt. The veteran system is a good idea, but it should be kept to a small, reliable group (the mods) to avoid conflicts about decisions.

IanM
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Sep 2002
Location: In my moon base
Posted: 29th May 2004 23:48
There is a definite time-scale for this stuff. Initially, I think it best to use a simple system so that Rich has time to implement it. Allowing mods or others to include/exclude people from the veterans list may come later when the time pressure is off.

*** Coming soon - Network Plug-in - Check my site for info ***
For free Plug-ins, source and the Interface library for Visual C++ 6, .NET and now for Dev-C++ http://www.matrix1.demon.co.uk
ReD_eYe
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Mar 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th May 2004 00:02
Wooo! all sounds great chaps

Hamish McHaggis
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Dec 2002
Location: Modgnik Detinu
Posted: 30th May 2004 01:44
Moonshine - Ye, that's what I meant. Have an automated system, but mods can add and "ban" people from the forums too.

Athelon XP 1600+/Radeon 9600 Pro/256 RAM
Kale
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th May 2004 05:13
Quote: "Over this past week we (TGC) have been re-evaluating the way in which things are going to be handled from this point on."

Well its about fecking time! I curse the day i wasted my money on DBPro (from launch), time u lot started to work on bug fixes instead of patting each other on the back for such a good scam! I hope this will disuede me from thinking that DBPro is the biggest waste of time i have ever encounted in the programming community.

What the flame does not consume, consumes the flame.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD XP2100+, Geforce4Ti 4400, 512Mb DDR, Abit KX7, WinXP Home
Richard Davey
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Apr 2002
Location: On the Jupiter Probe
Posted: 30th May 2004 05:20
Kale - and yet it still amazes me how many people produce incredible things with it.

Other than you, naturally.

"I am not young enough to know everything."
- Oscar Wilde
Ron Erickson
Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 6th Dec 2002
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Posted: 30th May 2004 06:08
How about this idea for the Veteran Board:

Handle it in a Hall-of-fame fashion. Just select a few key people, such as the mods, to "induct" a few people per week to Veteran status. The "committe" could select as many people that they want per week (maybe around 10 at first then less later) to add to the ranks. That way you are SURE not to have any spammers. People would be added by their abilities and how much they help the community rather than by how long the've been here or thier post count.
That is the point, right?

EZrotate!
Tokamak Physics Wrapper!
Dave J
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Feb 2003
Location: Secret Military Pub, Down Under
Posted: 30th May 2004 07:08
Yeah, that sounds like a fairly decent idea.


"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
Teh Go0rfmeister
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 17th Aug 2003
Location:
Posted: 30th May 2004 13:08
about the forum thing:

can't u retrieve the crap out of the crap by making another board, called "crap" cos face it, the talks that go on in general chat are pointless once it gets locked/goes for 30 days without a reply. for the noobs, they can talk in "crap", and once the thread gets locked, after 24hrs it gets deleted, unless it's in someone's favourites, cos that means the thread was useful to someone.

Mentor
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th May 2004 13:30 Edited at: 30th May 2004 13:56
RE: the original post
all this seems reasonable, but no mention of the IDE, what are you doing about the IDE?, do you have the source for the original?, will that be repaired and updated? or will you adopt some other IDE like Blue?, if you do then will the Blue IDE get the variable watcher added to it?, the IDE is one of Pro`s main bugbears, I was gutted the first time it irretreviably ate my code and presented me with a blank page, talking about users being to stupid to use it properly won`t cut it, some, (me included) have been using IDE`s and wordprocessors for decades, you can hardly put it down to not knowing how to use such software (unless you intend to redefine the industry standards ).

Some direction on the IDE would be nice, maybe you could make it a competition, the Pro IDE competition, just give all the details on what the compiler likes to be fed and how it returns debug info, then we can all have a bash at writing an official IDE for Pro, 1ST prize could be a decent gfx card and FPSmaker with some new Darkmatter models or something, plus your name embedded in Pro forever , hey! you could even end up with an IDE for Pro written in Pro

also, whats the timescale for all this?, will we see it in the next month? or will it be another "a legend in their own definition of soon" delivery date that keeps sliding into the distance, I notice P6 has now evaporated into the clouds above vapourware land, since 5.3 onwards will be doing some of the fixes claimed for P6, so it seems safe to assume P6 will not be any day soon since you refer to several point increments being released.

and could we have a little less sarcasm aimed at the customers please?, Kale is correct if a little strongly worded in saying that DB is bug riddled and not that usable, yes!, you can write some good code if you allow the bugs to dictate what you can`t do and spend time writing workarounds that should not be neccesary, but I can`t even get an over the top, highly detailed space invaders to go at a reasonable framerate since cloned or instanced objects don`t have animation data, and loading multiple models reduces the framerate too far when you have several hundred on screen at once (including primitives), plus weird crashes back to the desktop with no error messages and corrupted models from the db classic modelsets, joins showing on some primitives placed adjacent due (I suspect) to lack of precision in the floating point values (a switch for single or double would be nice), or maybe you could explain to me how to render several bumpmapped, ghosted, transparent, flame textured spheres inside one another to use as explosions, and have them render correctly, never mind about when they are overlaid by ghosted, transparent plains used as vapour trails,as well as music that loops three or four times and then stops playing for no reason, all these issuse and others occured in ONE small program, hardly a "Professional" language to throw all these recognised bugs IMO, so lay off the disgruntled customers, when I was in commercial work we where told the customer was always right, not that the merchandiser was always right, a very prevalent attitude in modern commerce I notice, some companies even think they are above the merchantability legislation (goods suitable for the purpose for which they where sold, described accuratley and with no misleading claims).

Anyway, (paraphraseing) I came not to diss Lee/TGC but to praise him for his (belated) correction of the problems that have hag-ridden DB-Pro from the day of it`s release, a look at the advanced programmers guide for the C64 and the original Spectrum manuals would give some good pointers on how this new manual could go, also I respectfully request that you have the advanced manual ring bound rather than glued, glued ones won`t stay at the page when you lay em flat unless you break the back, then they fall to bits (this happend to me with the C64 manual...ended up punching all the pages and putting it in a ring binder, much better ), in fact a ring binder could be the way to go, then when you move onto enhancement packs, you can sell a set of pages to insert into the binder with the extra commands on them for that pack .

Enough of this rambling, I am gonna be surpassing Raven at this rate, thank you for keeping us all informed on the matter, and I hope to see the diaries and the first bugfix release soon .

Mentor.

PC1: P4 hyperthreading 3ghz, 1gig mem, 2x160gig hd`s, Nvidia FX5900 gfx, 6 way surround sound, PC2: AMD 1.2ghz, 512mb ram, FX5200 ultra gfx, stereo 16 bit soundblaster, ups.
OSX Using Happy Dude
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Aug 2003
Location: At home
Posted: 30th May 2004 13:45
Rich has said there wont be anothing IDE related until next year.


The place for wonderful plug-ins and things.
Keep your friends close, and your cats even closer.
Mentor
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th May 2004 13:48
I know, but when they do, what will they do with the IDE?, to Blue or not to Blue?, that was the question, wether it is nobler to use the IDE that is not official, or to suffer the slings and arrows of the official IDE, this I do not know

Mentor.

PC1: P4 hyperthreading 3ghz, 1gig mem, 2x160gig hd`s, Nvidia FX5900 gfx, 6 way surround sound, PC2: AMD 1.2ghz, 512mb ram, FX5200 ultra gfx, stereo 16 bit soundblaster, ups.
Duffer
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Feb 2003
Location: chair
Posted: 30th May 2004 14:09
@ Mike,

You star. Cant wait for U5.4!
Hamish McHaggis
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Dec 2002
Location: Modgnik Detinu
Posted: 30th May 2004 14:31 Edited at: 30th May 2004 14:33
Kale and Mentor - DBPro is bug riddled, but far from being useless like you two have said, and they have been fixing bugs as far as I can see, just not giving us much info on it. This is a good step towards fixing that problem.

Mentor - I'd say switch to BLUE or Twilight. Try both of them and see which, if either, takes your fancy. Just because they are not officially supported doesn't mean they aren't good. And besides, once you've switched, there's no reason why you can't switch back to the NEW official IDE (when it comes out, which seems to me to be a long way off).

Come on June 21st!!!

Athelon XP 1600+/Radeon 9600 Pro/256 RAM
Richard Davey
Retired Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Apr 2002
Location: On the Jupiter Probe
Posted: 30th May 2004 14:37
Mentor - see my previous reply re: the IDE, there are no plans to do anything on the IDE front *at this moment in time*. The editor technology we're building for FPSC is extremely powerful and we've already recognised the potential for it to be used in DBPro - but there is NO timescale.

"whats the timescale for all this?" - as listed in the original post. You have a very precise 5.4 release date. Releases at a maximum of 1 per month thereafter.

"and could we have a little less sarcasm aimed at the customers please?" - some people/attitudes I can tolerate, some are just too anal for their own good and that will be reflected in my replies sometimes - all posts on this forum a personal opinions (even TGC ones). If you want baby-glove handling, bring it in via the support system.

"I am not young enough to know everything."
- Oscar Wilde
Hamish McHaggis
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Dec 2002
Location: Modgnik Detinu
Posted: 30th May 2004 14:43
Rich - You say everything will start on 21st of June with 5.4 being released, well when is 5.3 and the terrain system planned for release? I saw in a post the other day you said you were releasing the beta on DBDN in a few days.

Athelon XP 1600+/Radeon 9600 Pro/256 RAM
IanM
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Sep 2002
Location: In my moon base
Posted: 30th May 2004 16:54
@Wolf,

Voting people into the 'advanced user' group has the potential to make it an exclusive 'friends' club. I'm thinking that it's better to have automatic inclusion with manual exclusion than the other way around. In fact, I think that having a vote-in type system would encourage spam ("make me a member and I'll shut up")

*** Coming soon - Network Plug-in - Check my site for info ***
For free Plug-ins, source and the Interface library for Visual C++ 6, .NET and now for Dev-C++ http://www.matrix1.demon.co.uk
Rob K
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2002
Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: 30th May 2004 18:13
Quote: " hey! you could even end up with an IDE for Pro written in Pro "


How exactly do you intend to do syntax highlighting in DBPro though?

BlueIDE works and I prefer it to the original IDE, but its not really in a "professional" state that I'd be happy to see used as the prime editor.

I *may* take another look at the editor situation later this year, but I think the features required would be:

- Better compiler/debugger/editor integration
- Scintilla text editing component (has folding & brace matching)
- Written in C++ (in order to make multithreading possible)
- Effectively a clone of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
Over 140 new commands
Proteus
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Oct 2002
Location: The Future
Posted: 30th May 2004 19:35 Edited at: 30th May 2004 19:37
I think that time in the forums should be considered when adding people to the vets-board, but it can't be the only thing...

Also the banning/adding people from the board has to be a swift process("One strike and you’re out" policy)

zenassem
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Mar 2003
Location: Long Island, NY
Posted: 30th May 2004 21:39 Edited at: 30th May 2004 21:49
@mentor - I agree with the ring-bound idea as well. It is always great to run into a fellow C64 programmer. I also prefer my spiral bound books for C64/& Atari. Some are from 1982 and are still 100% intact.

@Rich - I don't know much about publishing and costs. But I would honestly be willing to pay for a professionally printed, Spiral/Ring bound version of the book. (Especially if it could be somewhere in the range of ($35.00 to $65.00). Would it be [possible/cost effective] for TGCs to offer this to members who like to have hard-copy documentation? Additionally, you wouldn't have to actually include the binder, just good quality print/paper that could be inserted into either a standard 3 ring binder or a smaller standard.

When the "new board" is rolled out, I believe some of the older stuff needs to be archived. Like someone else posted, the code snippets area is over burdened with useless snippets. And although I like the live code-base, it really needs some polishing. As well as standards for how they should be posted, commented, TESTED, and documented. With regard to the snippets area, perhaps the posts need to be approved first. Like a submission process, with a form that includes fields that must be filled out to specification.

And yes, since I am making the suggestion, I would also be willing to proofread all/some of the submissions. (Depends on how many come in daily.)

As far as testing, I think it's a great idea to reach out to this community, many of us have equipment or access to a variety of equipment that would be nearly impossible for TGC to do in-house. For instance I work for a school that has various computers, processors, video cards. If you allow us to download some test/beta code, I would gladly run it on these machines and return the results to you, with a printout of the computers specs, DxDiag reports, etc...

~zen


Don Malone
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Apr 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Posted: 30th May 2004 22:14
I also like the idea of having the binder ready pages available with or without an official TCG binder. I myself can aquire a binder of reasonable size for ninty-nine cents US. It makes it easier to handle changes. Corrections and additions can be posted to the website in maybe PDF format for download and printing until the next official release of the manual is made.

The only downside to this is that it would make a less attractive bookstore/online bookseller item without the wulti-colored printed paperboard binding.

Still it is something to think about.

But with publishing binding, It pretty much seems if you are goiung to bind some you might have to bind them all to reduce binding costs.

Wasting CPU Cycles since the 286 was a hot machine.
Jess T
Retired Moderator
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th Sep 2003
Location: Over There... Kablam!
Posted: 30th May 2004 23:56
wow.
Great News TGC.
Thanks

I like the idea of the Vet's forum. Sounds like it could be quite a nice ( and a little less hectic ) area to have discussions etc.

Great news about the bug fixes.

@Rich,
When you say that only the fixes in the Bug Reports forum will be adressed, does this mean that you not be ( for now at least ) looking into emails that contain Bug reports not posted on the forums? Or have those already been adressed as a result of FPSC, or some other happenings?

Also, when you release the Beta's for the Upgrades/Patches, how will you be handling the reports from testers? A seperate forum, that gets cleaned out with each new release, or an email account set up to receive just the reports, or maybe a form for filling in?

I liked the idea suggested about the Form to fill in for the Code Snippets section by zen, but that would take alot of looking after.

About the IDE,
I don't see why it's such a hastle?
I know that the default IDE has some issues, and the ones that I personally have come up against ( since updating to the latest version ) haven't rendered it unusable. And of course the alternatives will have at least some bugs in them, since they have only been created recently, and are still in the dev stages.
But, I forgot what my point was going to be now...

Anyway, to continue...

Just out of curiosity, how many people are on the TGC team?
I have heard of Rich, Lee, Mike, Ravey, Rick and Simon... is there any others? Even so, what you guys have done so far is such an amazing feat!

It started as an ambition to make a BASIC language set that was primarily for game creation. Then that dream became real, and now you have all this...

wow!

Ok, that's enough typing for me now...

Great work again TGC, I'm glad that this is happening

Jess.


Team EOD :: Programmer/Logical Engineer/All-Round Nice Guy
TheAbomb12
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Aug 2003
Location: Amist the blue skies...
Posted: 31st May 2004 01:46
If TGC isn't going to bother with a new IDE anytime soon (which is reasonalbe given how much work they currently have), they should try to indorse and support 3rd party IDEs as much as possible.

my $0.02

Amist the Blue Skies...
DMXtra
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Aug 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 31st May 2004 03:12 Edited at: 31st May 2004 03:12
Quote: "
Well its about fecking time! I curse the day i wasted my money on DBPro (from launch), time u lot started to work on bug fixes instead of patting each other on the back for such a good scam! I hope this will disuede me from thinking that DBPro is the biggest waste of time i have ever encounted in the programming community.
"


Well go back to purebasic and stop posting here. If it were up to me, you would be banned in the first place. Stick to what you can do and not what you can't do. Isn't the orge engine supposed to be out by now? I guess not and I guess thats why you are here wasting bandwidth and wasting time as you say. Nobody wants a troll.

Dark Basic Pro - The Bedroom Coder's Language of choice for the 21st Century.
Rob K
Retired Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Sep 2002
Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: 31st May 2004 04:21
Quote: "can't u retrieve the crap out of the crap by making another board, called "crap" cos face it, the talks that go on in general chat are pointless once it gets locked/goes for 30 days without a reply. for the noobs, they can talk in "crap", and once the thread gets locked, after 24hrs it gets deleted, unless it's in someone's favourites, cos that means the thread was useful to someone."


The fact that we have users on the board of this intellectual calibre might explain why relatively few games are announced on the appropriate boards considering the size of the community.

Seriously though, the fact that there has been as much discussion about the setup of a new forum as there had been for changes in DBPro really worries me.

BlueGUI:Windows UI Plugin - All the power of the windows interface in your DBPro games. - Plus URL download, win dialogs.
Over 140 new commands
Lost in Thought
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Feb 2004
Location: U.S.A. : Douglas, Georgia
Posted: 31st May 2004 04:46
I was just thinking the same thing.

"People don't fail ..... they stop trying." Specs. P4 2.8GHz 800 FSB | 512MB DDR333
GeForce FX 5200 AGP 256MB | Windows XP Pro Full
Kale
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 31st May 2004 05:21
Quote: "Kale is correct if a little strongly worded in saying that DB is bug riddled and not that usable, yes!, "

yes, maybe a little too strong worded for the DBPro lot, but i think i'm entitled to an opinion on DBPro, being a paid up customer, strong or not?
Quote: "but I can`t even get an over the top, highly detailed space invaders to go at a reasonable framerate since cloned or instanced objects don`t have animation data, and loading multiple models reduces the framerate too far when you have several hundred on screen at once"

wow, that is really wierd, this is exactly what i was planning on writing for the retro comp a few months/years ago (even posted some screenies) but having run into exactly what you describe bored me to tears trying to find workarounds which tbh solid basic is supposed to shield you from.
Quote: "or maybe you could explain to me how to render several bumpmapped, ghosted, transparent, flame textured spheres inside one another to use as explosions, and have them render correctly, never mind about when they are overlaid by ghosted, transparent plains used as vapour trails,as well as music that loops three or four times and then stops playing for no reason, all these issuse and others occured in ONE small program, hardly a "Professional" language to throw all these recognised bugs IMO, so lay off the disgruntled customers"

Don't get me started! lol i tried from launch to write 'cool' games/tech demos which featured all this nice stuff and was badly disapointed, i still can't believe the terrain commands STILL aren't working, sheshhh!
Quote: "(goods suitable for the purpose for which they where sold, described accuratley and with no misleading claims)"

A solicitor friend of mine reckoned i had a good case to bring before the trading standards peeps (just read the box and try to code the things it describes), but i guess its not worth the hassle.
Quote: "Kale and Mentor - DBPro is bug riddled, but far from being useless like you two have said, and they have been fixing bugs as far as I can see, just not giving us much info on it. This is a good step towards fixing that problem."

I agree with you saying that they (DBPro bods) do not give enough info on what is being done to squash the bugs and yes having a regular update (forum post) would rectify this.
Quote: "some people/attitudes I can tolerate, some are just too anal for their own good and that will be reflected in my replies sometimes - all posts on this forum a personal opinions (even TGC ones)."

What is ANAL about people complaining about a product they have bought that doesn't do what it says on the box? To me that is just false advertising and your response is inexperience.
Quote: "If you want baby-glove handling, bring it in via the support system."

Wheres that?
Quote: "Voting people into the 'advanced user' group has the potential to make it an exclusive 'friends' club. I'm thinking that it's better to have automatic inclusion with manual exclusion than the other way around. In fact, I think that having a vote-in type system would encourage spam ("make me a member and I'll shut up")"

intelligent point.
Quote: "Also the banning/adding people from the board has to be a swift process("One strike and you’re out" policy)"

Wow, too harsh! this is not a dictatorship! sometimes the most radical posts are the most intriguing and profitable. Obviously once a pre-determined boundry has been reached then sure, ban away.
Quote: "well go back to purebasic and stop posting here. If it were up to me, you would be banned in the first place. Stick to what you can do and not what you can't do."

Which is?
Quote: "Isn't the orge engine supposed to be out by now?"

It has been out for years, but not yet fully supported in PureBasic and btw its spelt OGRE.
Quote: "Nobody wants a troll."

I think you'll find 'disgruntled customer' fits the bill more accurately.
The thing about DBPro that really sets me on fire is the fact i loved DBC and it was really my first exposure to 3D graphics and game programming and having wrote a few games and tech demos that featured lots of 'special' effects i recommended the new up and coming DBPro to lots of people in the online community i was involved in, telling them that this language is all they would ever need and having used DBC they agreed. When DBPro finally dropped i lost a lot of respect from these guys who all shelled out cash! It wouldn't of been half as bad if the support had been there (and not the racket that was DBDN). Looking back on this makes me so mad.

What the flame does not consume, consumes the flame.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD XP2100+, Geforce4Ti 4400, 512Mb DDR, Abit KX7, WinXP Home

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-05-30 01:15:59
Your offset time is: 2024-05-30 01:15:59