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Hi everyone,
would like to get some info/advice on DB Pro please.
Iv'e worked with teams as a c\c++ programmer,and i'm
used to programming in D3D,and using scripting systems
such as Lua and python.

I'm taking a break from working on others projects to
attempt a project of my own.

The application wouldn't have to be too"Performance Based"
needy,though good speed is always nice-):

Iv'e been looking at many 3rd Party tools/languages,and have
been attracted more to Dark Basic Proffessional,over the others.

Some of the questions i have:

(1): What version of Direct3D is DB-Pro currently using for
rendering?

(2): Which technique is used for "Realtime Shadows"...Planar,volumes,
hardware mapping? is there a small example of "Realtime-Shadows"
i could download to see?

(3)Vertex and Pixel Shaders) is it possible to use your own(CG
Toolkit,RenderMonkey etc?) how does this process work in DB-Pro?

(4)Custom Data formats)for example,protecting
resources,artwork,media etc,e.g say if i wanted to have
several ."DAT" files or similar?

(5):Video(Avi,Mpeg etc)what formats are supported in DB Pro for
playing video?

(6)C++ Dll's)how flexible/possibilities with using custom dll's
with DBPro,are there any known limitations?

(7):How good is the technical support? is there an additional service
(e-mail,telephone?).
(that i could subscribe to)to get more support(if needed)directly
from the DB-Pro programming team? what are the prices for this?
12-months? 6-months? etc.

(8): How good/efficient is DB-Pro for managing quite large projects?
is the speed quite "reasonable" in DB-Pro?

Thank you.

Paul Thompson.

I think this one is for Lee or Rich.

directx is 8.1 at the moment and works fine with dx 9, will have more dx 9 type support later, uses the hardware to render shadows (so your gfx card has to support them) nobody I know of has had much luck with shaders yet, I havent got round to trying them either, but there are some examples floating around IIRC on the RGT online reference page (real game tools.. the US site for DB).
custom data?? several tools for this including a unzip tool on RGT and you could add other methods by calling a DLL or some commercial tools, or just code something in pro to decode your media, video is most of what the directx supports so AVI,DVD and Mpeg work ok, you can use the video stream for a texture too (apart from DVD).
no real limitations, like all programming languages it`s more what you are capable of than what the language is capable of , mind you there are still some unresolved bugs in pro that require workarounds at the moment, big improvements should come with patchs 5 and 6, plus some features are to be expanded on or enhanced but can`t say more since I don`t know exactly what myself.
tech support. you have two Official english forums with several capable programmers on them (this one and RGT) plus several enthusiast sites and you can join the DBDN (Dark Basic Developer Network) you can link to info on that from darkbasic pro`s website, can`t recall the costs since I am too mean to pay for it, but I understand it isn`t that expensive, plus you get to play with pre release patchs .
the language is Basic so you dont get the OOP structure of C++, but I never had the need for OOP anyway, I never have problems with my code structure and plenty of other people haven`t either, check out the "Pea Guy" demo on RGT and a commercial game called "StarWraith" for some idea of the speed and capability (these projects have large amounts of source in them too), also check the entries for the retro competion (link on DB`s website) and the demos, you can also download a Demo of the language (old version...it currently isn`t that buggy but I don`t think you can patch the demo so you may find some now solved bugs in the compiler/editor)
both official forums are quite helpful, and the enthusiast sites are pretty good too, for full bodied support it is best to join DBDN because as far as I know they are the only forums that have Lee and Rich on them on a regular basis, hope thats some help, cheers.

Mentor.

1. DirectX 8.1 (patch5 will include DirectX 9.0 Extensions)

2. I believe that it is a Vertex Shader "Volumetric" Shadow Shader

3. Yes possible, and you can currently use only ASM Vertex or Pixel Shaders ... however full Shader Support including .FX (HLSL) is planned i believe

4. This is achieved roughly the same way you'd go about it in C++

5. Any Codecs installed for use with DirectX/Media Player (on the target system)

6. Currently the limitations on DLL's and TPF DLL's are unknown however a few of us have recently hit snags trying to include the lower level DirectX functions conserning the Rendering Device itself.

7. Technical support usually takes between a day to a week from any of the team members and you can email whoever you feel would be suited best to answer your problem from the DBS Team.

8. from a personal point of veiw the IDE just isn't setup for projects which are too large in size, hopefully the new IDE will issue this but it can be combersome to create larger projects with the way the IDE currently works. Speedwise Pro now is fairly good on that front, and you can get comperable speeds to currently released titles for the PC with similar density of media.

Thanks for the help Mentor,Raven,guys.
helped a lot.
most likely,i'll see you around the forums soon.
Cheers,
Paul.