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Newcomers AppGameKit Corner / What can not be done

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askewd
7
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Joined: 29th Dec 2016
Location:
Posted: 31st Dec 2016 13:31
Hi! A bit of an open ended question here , just curious really...

So far, glancing at the commands lists etc, it seems AppGameKit is a very capable piece of software and the imagination is the only real limit on what's possible.

So rather than listing everything you CAN do with it, i was wondering what was the general consensus on what you can NOT do with it. I mean, what are AGK2's weaknesses? What kind of projects would one be crazy to consider creating using AppGameKit? Or is litterally anything possible?

Also, in terms of Speed , is AppGameKit considered fast? I know C++ is considered fast and AppGameKit converts to C++(?) so does that mean that AppGameKit is C++ fast?

Warmest regards!
DALE

Dybing
12
Years of Service
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Joined: 12th Sep 2011
Location: Bergen, Norway
Posted: 31st Dec 2016 14:52
What would be great would be having some serial port commands to handle USB and bluetooth. Then it'd be reasonably easy to implement support for say head-trackers and other various gear. A GUI designer would also be nice - though that is more of an external tool. Better support for video would also be handy. Not just playback, but also using a phone or tablets cameras to record and even do simple edits, like trimming the fat at the start and end.

Can't think of anything else right now. We just got UTF8 encoding at long last (yay!) and True-Type Fonts (yay! though there have been reports of some issues with these, so I am using bitmap fonts for the time-being). So all in all things are shaping up nicely.

As for AppGameKit and speed. Well, AppGameKit follows more or less the Java-the-Mess way of doing things. The runtime (binary) is actually a Virtual Machine that sits between your compiled bytecode and the hardware, why we got such great cross-platform abilities with AGK. However, unlike Java the Terrible, the AppGameKit VM is pretty lightweight and optimized to move graphics around (using the OpenGL 3D library).

So in terms of raw speed, AppGameKit sits somewhere between languages that compile down to a native binary (like C++) and interpreted languages (like Python). Exactly where on that scale I do not know. It'd be interesting to do some benchmarks. Like say find the first 1000 prime numbers in C, C++, Go, Java, AppGameKit, Javascript and Python. Incidentally, I think that'd be more or less the order the results would come to.
damothegreat
User Banned
Posted: 31st Dec 2016 15:08
This is more like ideas for Feature request style thread - which there is plenty about

We just be opening up another Feature style thread to be fair here

Damo
Using Tier 1 AppGameKit V2
Started coding with AMOS
Anything is possible if put mind to it
GarBenjamin
AGK Developer
7
Years of Service
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Joined: 30th Nov 2016
Location: USA
Posted: 31st Dec 2016 17:04 Edited at: 31st Dec 2016 17:06
Probably anything within reason (meaning it is possible on the target platform) is possible. Might have to make a kludge in some cases when dealing with external programs / interfaces but if that is what has to be done that is what has to be done.

There are always trade-offs that have to be made. Things scaled back. In any project with any tool. Maybe the resolution needs to be lowered. Maybe the size of a world needs to be lowered. Maybe lighting and shadows cannot be top of the line and still get max performance, maybe the game has to support only 4-player multiplayer instead of the 4,096 you wanted, etc.

I guess basically you could just think of a game that is tiny in scope yet has a feature that if you saw it in another game would really knock your socks off. Then do it.
TI/994a (BASIC) -> C64 (BASIC/PASCAL/ASM/Others) -> Amiga (AMOS/BLITZ/ASM/C/Gamesmith) -> DOS (C/C++/Allegro) -> Windows (C++/C#/Monkey X/GL Basic/Unity/Others)
Jeff Miller
19
Years of Service
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Joined: 22nd Mar 2005
Location: New Jersey, USA
Posted: 31st Dec 2016 18:32
I think it depends somewhat on whether you are looking at Tier1 or Tier2. With Tier 2 I believe that you can develop C++ code to add features not yet developed (and that possibly might never be developed) in the AppGameKit command set. In Tier 1, from what I can tell, what you see is what you get. I agree with damonthegreat that there is another thread more appropriate for detailing "feature requests", but as a general matter many of those requests (in my opinion) are not likely to see the light of day, especially in the 3D/desktop category. The cross-platform nature of the AppGameKit product seems to generate specific needs/bugs for specific mobile devices that keep the lead developer exceptionally busy in addressing them rather than allowing him much time to develop new features. He must, and does, make bug-fixing for specific devices that you or I might not care about a priority, and he is the most responsive and communicative developer I have encountered on this site in a over a decade. If you are into desktop applications exclusively, you might find some of your particular feature desires not addressed for a long time. I was initially somewhat miffed over this, but in stepping back and looking at the overall objective of AppGameKit, I can understand that the focus on cross-platform and making the product work correctly cross-platform is absolutely necessary.
askewd
7
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Joined: 29th Dec 2016
Location:
Posted: 1st Jan 2017 09:58
Would it be possible to create a music synth type app in agk?

For example, the ability to change the pitch of a sample or create an audio sine wave oscillator?

I have an idea for an app but it would require a sine wave playing at different frequencies.

Happy new year!
Dale
damothegreat
User Banned
Posted: 1st Jan 2017 12:09
Softmotion3d done something similar and various others

https://forum.thegamecreators.com/thread/218355

I sure anything possible if put mind to it
Using Tier 1 AppGameKit V2
Started coding with AMOS
Anything is possible if put mind to it
askewd
7
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th Dec 2016
Location:
Posted: 1st Jan 2017 17:34
Thanks for that damo.

A lot of that was a little over my head at moment, I was just wondering really, if there were any simple basic commands such as 'SoundPitch' or playTone etc. Ie built in audio manipulation tools.

Cheers
Dale
BatVink
Moderator
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Apr 2003
Location: Gods own County, UK
Posted: 3rd Jan 2017 16:08
SetSoundInstanceRate is as close as you get to changing pitch. I'm an audiophobe so I don't know technically whether this is the same thing or not.
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