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Dark GDK / Plugin question

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Avien Langley
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Joined: 29th Jan 2004
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Posted: 28th Jul 2007 23:17
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Well, after years of using DBPro, I finally felt the call of being able to use a structured programming environment while still having access to the extremely convenient and powerful Darkbasic commands, so I broke down and got the Dark GDK.

I've started porting one of my projects from DBPro to DGDK and everything's going well for the most part so far. I just have one question. I seem to recall that DB's built-in text commands were hellaciously slow and would really drag the framerate of my games down. Since, by my understanding, the DarkGDK is using the same functions that DBPro does, I doubt the text commands would be any faster just because I'm now using the DGDK.

Now, with DBPro, I found a third-party plugin that provides highly improved, ultrafast text display, so that took care of that problem... when I was using DBPro. I'd really like to be able to keep using said plugin with the DGDK or take similar measures to give myself access to fast text commands, because my games tend to rely heavily on printing a lot of text to the screen (lots of stats to keep track of and the like), and I don't want to think about what will happen to my performance if I fall back on the built-in text command.

So, my question is... is there any way to make DBPro plugins work with the DGDK, or failing that, is there some other way I can get my fast text back?

Thanks a bunch,

langley
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Try
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Posted: 29th Jul 2007 09:24
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I think you're talking about Cloggy's Plugin for DBP, He has released the code, I'm sure you can use it in DGDK with a little twist! (Haven't tried my self though)

Cheers,
-Try
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Morcilla
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Posted: 29th Jul 2007 11:26
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Yep, Cloggy's D3DFunc plugin can be used almost straight.
You only need to include in your project the header and source files that are available at his thread.

So any plugin with the source code available should be easily ported to any DGDK project, while on the other side already compiled for DBPro ones cannot be used (as far as I know).
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Avien Langley
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Posted: 29th Jul 2007 16:06
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Yeah, D3D, that's the one.

I have the source, but unfortunately, I'm not nearly good enough to convert C++ functions that were written as a Darkbasic plugin into C# for use with Visual Studio .net. Even if I were using the C++ version, I'm sure a lot of modification would still be needed, and I have no idea how to go about doing that. Porting a game I wrote myself from DBPro into C# is one thing, but converting a DBP plugin for use with .net... definitely beyond my knowledge. (:

If this is the best solution available for this problem, I might be better off just writing my own method to display the text I need by pasting images using a self-drawn font or something... I'm sure I can't be the only person who's run into this issue, though. I'd venture to say that the DGDK community would be highly appreciative if someone could offer a comprehensive guide for how to convert the D3D plugin for use with the DGDK...
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Morcilla
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Posted: 30th Jul 2007 12:14
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Quote: "Even if I were using the C++ version, I'm sure a lot of modification would still be needed"


Uh, I must have no credibility

Also now you talk about C#, while no reference was done to this at your first post.

You guys should try instead of giving up before starting.
Full source for Cloggy's D3DFunc is at his web, and I've been using it at DGDK for years now. If I remember properly, it only needed to comment a couple of lines to make it run.
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Avien Langley
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Posted: 30th Jul 2007 22:23 Edited at: 30th Jul 2007 22:26
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There's no need to get snippy; I wasn't aware anything in my post could be construed as offensive.

"Uh, I must have no credibility "

It has nothing to do with your credibility and everything to do with the fact that, *to me*, converting functions that were made as a plugin for DBPro for use with Visual Studio .net *seems* like it would require a fair degree of modification to make it work. If I was wrong, well, I just came out and admitted that the problem in general is pretty far beyond my knowledge, didn't I?

"Also now you talk about C#, while no reference was done to this at your first post."

I didn't really think it was relevant to my problem.

"You guys should try instead of giving up before starting."

No low blows when I'm just asking for help, please. Who said anything about giving up? All I said was, since I have *no idea* how to implement the solution you've suggested, I think it would be easier for me to just write my own function instead... which is exactly what I intend to do. On the other hand, if anyone would like to explain to me just what kind of modifications I'd need to make to D3D's source before I could use it, I'd be happy to do so and eternally grateful to them! And that would certainly be more helpful than calling me a quitter when I've in no way implied I'm giving up on the issue.

Regardless, while I do think you were a little oversensitive, I'm genuinely grateful for the fact that you responded to my post and have helped me out. We're all just random guys trying to have fun by making games in our free time, and it's safe to say that some of us are more proficient at what we're doing than others, so let's keep it friendly shall we? (:
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Morcilla
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Posted: 31st Jul 2007 22:09 Edited at: 13th Aug 2007 11:29
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Yep of course, we can be friends.

I was told that if you give to a man a fish, he will eat one day, but if you teach that person to fish for, he will be able to eat all his days.

Don't worry, I'll try to post a template project this week

[Edit : Original link and some templates are posted here :
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=111366&b=22]
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Cellbloc Studios
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Posted: 1st Aug 2007 08:08
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That would be great Morcilla. I emailed you about it, pero talvez ud no entiendo yo. Lo siento!

Your mod has been erased by a signature
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Avien Langley
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2007 04:30
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Awesome, very much appreciated.
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