Erm... I would like to point out, there is no reference to DarkBASIC Professional apart from ABomb12's post.
TGE = Torque Game Engine (just for those not sure)
Put down in a fine line, what should be happening is;
DarkBASIC vs Blitz3D
DarkBASIC Professional vs Torque Game Engine
A6 Gamemaker doesn't really get a show in because quite frankly it is too limited, being nothing more than an FPS Creator really.
:: coughs ::
Anyways, lets see if we cannot decypher this post and the claims.
"Torque is better than Dark Basic"
Althought better is a relative term, yes a C++ Library Engine/Compiled Script Format using a DirectX8.0 base has a clear advantage over DarkBASIC.
"Blitz3D is better than darkbasic"
Another relative term, but in all honestly; Blitz's speed and data access, I would have to agree. (This said PureBASIC outperforms even C++ and can use Native OpenGL and DirectX, so it is just lucky no one ever includes that in one of these eh?)
"better max plugins"
It doesn't have any Max plugins, it has Milkshape3D plugi-ns, but no Max plug-ins ... So that is just plain wrong.
"lets you use max as your level editor"
again, without the plug-ins, this is wrong also.
"use custom meshes with collision or BSP"
DarkBASIC allows for Custom Meshes, and has built-in collision which is simple to use. BSP Support is not native in either language, however it is possible to program support for both.
"good support for the tocomack physics library and is pretty fast if you know how to use it"
Tokomak Physics Engine, which no DarkBASIC does not have a plug-in for. Blitz3D's support for the Engine is enough for it to be used, however it does suffer from very bad lag problem if you have too many objects and/or complex collisions. Simply because of the DirectX 7.0 Interfaces, no slant on the programmer in anyway.
"Normal Mapping"
There are one of two things he could mean here, Normalization as in Smooth/Enhanced Phong Shading or Normal Maps as in the depth mapping. Both languages support the former, but the later neither support; infact not even DarkBASIC Professional supports non-shader Normal Mapping which is a shame.
"global illumination"
The ONLY way to achieve GI Real-Time is through Shaders, even then you need a Geforce FX 5800/5900 to achieve it. No slant on the Radeon 9800, but they don't have enough instruction lines to achieve it properly. Even the Geforce FX 5900 has just enough!
"radiosity lightmaps"
Neither Support this, infact not even DarkBASIC Professional supports this. DirectX 9.0b introduced these.
Please see SPHR in the DirectX 9.0 Summer 2003 Update SDK documentation for more details.
"refractive surfaces"
Depending on his take on what a refractive surface is, then technically yes but then so can DarkBASIC. The only true way to Refract a surface right now though is through a Shader.
So no neither are capable of it.
"multiply2x blend mode for prince of persia style blow and bloom effects and all running pretty fast."
Oki, well apart from yes Blitz3D can boast this feature over DarkBASIC natively and at some speed faster when hand-coded ... the second part just cracks me up.
Prince of Persia achieves it's Bloom and Light Beams through Shaders, the game requires a Radeon 8500/Geforce3 as minimum. Mul2x Blending might be useful but c'mon it can't do the impossible no matter how bloody good you are at coding!
"Specular maps"
True, however Blitz3D does not support Specular Colour and DarkBASIC does; hardly a fair trade but that said there is little call to use a Specular Map unless you want to fake Bump Mapping, or perhaps use a Single Texture where you could as easily use 2.
"realtime reflectins"
Hmm. Could he mean Sphere Mapping and Cube Mapping?
Sphere Mapping is possible in DarkBASIC (annoying to do but possible), Cube Mapping however isn't. Without Multiple cameras this makes RT Reflections impossible... This said, that is technically not an RT Reflection and it doesn't portray the same data.
"several GL engines"
This is an advantage on a Windows Only BASIC Language?
"MP network solutions"
DarkBASIC MultiPlayer Networking was pretty flawless (shame the same can't be said about DarkBASIC Professional's), so why would anyone need another Solution? Again the point being is unless you intended to use it outside of Windows, why add something which makes little difference in connectivity or speed.
The only real problem of DarkBASIC <-> Blitz3D is the fact that really, they can't be compared.
DarkBASIC is interpretive (Virtual Machine Based) and Blitz3D is compiled. Really you can't compare the languages.
This is the same with DarkBASIC Professional vs Torque Game Engine, they are totally different levels of difficulty and types of programming. So you can't really compare them.
The way I see it is, who gives and flying monkies what language can do what. What ACTUALLY should matter is what can YOU do with the language and do YOU enjoy using it?
A language is a tool to create a program, and it is a poor workman who blames his tools.
Athlon64 FX-51 | 1.5Gb DDR2 PC3400 | GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 56.60 | DirectX9.1 SDK | Audigy2 | Windows XP 64-Bit