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Work in Progress / rss DLL package

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dj chainz
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2006 16:26
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We have started work on a red spark studios package of DLLs. So far we have three:

*AntiAliased Text DLL - better than cloggy's, for text at least. Add a text area (a box containing an amount of text that auto-wraps), get text width & height, and specify the full 255 alpha range. We have also added extra bold and thin styles for advanced typography. We are half-way through creating a command to load a font file and then use that.

*Input DLL - stop using the dbpro keyboard input to decrease the cpu usage, and to allow other programs to change the input that oyur program recieves, and take in the input for obscurer keyboard keys like the calculator key.

*Images operations DLL - blend two images with multiply/screen/overlay, do a fast image comparison and many more commands.

We have other ideas as well but we want to know what the community think... And we'll get some screenshots if possible. We are prepared to create any DLL. The package will be available at a small price but we are unsettled on this.

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
http://www.redsparkstudios.co.uk
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Essence
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2006 16:48
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Wouldnt it be better to create a small package of handy dll's for free and the big one's for a small price?
I think you'll attract more people to it then

What i'm still waiting for:

- AVI/MPG to Image (to place a movie on an object)
- Text-over-sprite function (i know this is already there, but it doesnt work very handy )
- Splash screen DLL
- Console DLL (like a quake style console in your game)

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2006 17:26
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Damn, I really thought from the title of this thread you were making a DLL that could parse/generate RSS feeds from within DBPro.

Ah well.

Bite my shiny metal ass
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dj chainz
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2006 18:21
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@Essence: Isn't there a movie to image command already? Anyhow, anything like that would be slow.

Our text is over sprites.

Splashscreens are a possibility.

A console would be interesting, but its probably best to do it in dbpro code to make it more customisable... imagine loads of games with the same console. With our text function you can add multiple lines to the same print and have it wrap, so it would be easy with this, just take the user's input and display the text over a sprite.

@Rich: An xml parser is a possibility... We have toyed with the idea of xml-based windows.

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
http://www.redsparkstudios.co.uk
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Eddie Gordo
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2006 20:20
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@Rich thats why i thought when they made the rss bar...

Quote: "- Splash screen DLL"


theres already one of these somewhere...ill see if i can find it...

~Cyrano De Bergerac~
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dj chainz
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Posted: 7th Mar 2006 11:13
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Ok, here are some more idaes of what we are going to do:

* File download - given the url and the destination file, it will download your file. Useful for game updates, new levels, etc.
* More image functions, e.g. average brightness, channelswapping and HSL
* Resolution changer/launcher program. Use this as a games frontend, it will launch and give you a selection for the different resolution options you want for your game, then it will edit the game's exe so it launches in that resolution.
* Some nice windows functions, e.g. changing taskbar, point colour on desktop, always on top for window, etc.
* Audiere audio - load mp3/ogg/wav/aiff/any other supported format, then you can play it with pitch alteration, volume/panning with or without directsound and plays whilst the app is in background.

Any more suggestions whilst we get to work?

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
http://www.redsparkstudios.co.uk
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Chris Franklin
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Posted: 7th Mar 2006 11:14
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Quote: "* File download - given the url and the destination file, it will download your file. Useful for game updates, new levels, etc."

Dbp can already do this



Theme park simulator wip
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=71731&b=8
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dj chainz
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Posted: 7th Mar 2006 17:41
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That needs FTP access - you need to set up an account, which cannot be done on free hosting and will cost more off a webhost. And, we know we'd never set up an FTP account for a game to download data through because of this.

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
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The admiral
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Posted: 8th Mar 2006 05:05
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use xupdate its free and does all tis work through http

The admiral
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Torrey
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Posted: 9th Mar 2006 00:03
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splash screen dll:

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=71698&b=1

What would the benefit be from being able to parse/generate RSS feeds from within dbpro?

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dj chainz
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Posted: 9th Mar 2006 08:42
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Use your imagination...

News based games, you could send out new scenarios in your RSS feed (like that game they made which would let you relive the gunfights in Iraq each weekend), or if you were doing an online game you could easily have a ticker with various game events on... etc. We might not do an XML dll anyhow.

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
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David R
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Posted: 9th Mar 2006 19:04
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Quote: "That needs FTP access - you need to set up an account, which cannot be done on free hosting and will cost more off a webhost. And, we know we'd never set up an FTP account for a game to download data through because of this."


There is actually a free DLL availible that does this already (via HTTP).

Quote: "* Audiere audio - load mp3/ogg/wav/aiff/any other supported format, then you can play it with pitch alteration, volume/panning with or without directsound and plays whilst the app is in background."


Are you planning to charge for this plugin? If so, then most users would just head straight for the DBP enhancement pack - because it allows encoding and playback of OGG and various other formats.

Quote: "Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
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dj chainz
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Posted: 10th Mar 2006 08:51 Edited at: 10th Mar 2006 17:50
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We were thinking of charging about $10 for a pack of 100+ commands, all our DLLs combined. And lifetime updates. Compare that to the DBP audio plugin @ $25 for 179 commands (of which many are wrapped windows calls).

Anyhow, we have the blend modes done: Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Difference, Darken and Lighten. We are just finishing Alpha blending as well. It takes 0.18seconds (800x600 pixels) on average for any mode, and that includes converting to/from a memblock of the source, destination and output images, and this is on a 1.7ghz machine.

Any more real requests? We want to be inspired to make something original...

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
http://www.redsparkstudios.co.uk
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David R
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Posted: 10th Mar 2006 20:36
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Could you possibly dabble with some 3d? I'm very interested to see if a plugin can do dynamic LOD on DBP objects. This is entirely possibly, because one of the DX8 samples shows dynamic LOD in action. If somebody's DLL could do the equivalent, I'd be impressed.

Otherwise though, I'll just make my own DLL...

Quote: "Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
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Chris Franklin
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Posted: 10th Mar 2006 20:43 Edited at: 11th Mar 2006 10:14
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i wonder if irrlicht 3d engine can fit into a dll

Theme park simulator wip
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=71731&b=8
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dj chainz
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Posted: 11th Mar 2006 01:54
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@David : http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22dynamic+LOD%22+inurl%3Amsdn&btnG=Search&meta=
There seems to be no msdn evidence for the easy way to do this.

@Sunrise : lol there is a 'perfectly decent' dbpro 3d engine that must be in use when your app runs anyhow...

* Done the http download
* Done alpha blending + some bugfixes .. 0.15seconds per 800x600 blend now (inc. conversion of memblock to image)
* Done splashscreen functions - the splashscreen can be opened with one command and closed with another (load files whilst it's displaying)
* Various other things, like Always on Top window, CPU/Mem Usage, some easy windows functions added...

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
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Chris Franklin
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Posted: 11th Mar 2006 10:15
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Quote: "@Sunrise : lol there is a 'perfectly decent' dbpro 3d engine that must be in use when your app runs anyhow..."

Yea combine irrlicht with dbp and then you could set dx versions from it i think

Theme park simulator wip
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=71731&b=8
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David R
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Posted: 11th Mar 2006 13:57 Edited at: 11th Mar 2006 13:59
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Quote: "There seems to be no msdn evidence for the easy way to do this."


Sorry, I think I actually misworded what I meant. I had a look at the DirectX sample that does this, and it calls it a 'progressive mesh', and it allows you to select the quantity of vertices shown/dynamically increase or decrease them.

There's nothing special about how the model used in the sample works - I believe it simply just chops the vertcies off the rendering queue. It can do this until you hav nothing left


Here's a screeny of it in action:

BEFORE:


Quote: "Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."

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David R
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Posted: 11th Mar 2006 13:58 Edited at: 11th Mar 2006 13:58
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AFTER: (Vertex reduction)



Quote: "Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."

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dj chainz
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Posted: 11th Mar 2006 14:14
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http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/directx9_c/ProgressiveMesh_Sample.asp

Ah right. Well sorry, but to generate a progressive mesh with directx, it creates a new ID3DXPMesh Interface object - this will not be picked up by the dbpro renderer, which I assume uses ID3DXMesh (no P for progressive). The data structure for a PMesh is completely different as well (in a tree-based layout). This would require an entirely new render system for progressive meshes, so you can't have objects that are dynamically changed like this.

The algorithm for dynamically changing meshes is also rather complex, hence its inclusion in DirectX to save others programming it. So therefore, we won't reprogram it either. Sorry.

Any other ideas?

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
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dj chainz
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Posted: 17th Mar 2006 16:18
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We are now deciding to open our commands with a free package first and then some paid DLLs. The free ones will be available through our login system to all free members, and then you will be able to get the remaining DLLs for the same small price of $10/£5.50.

We are currently fiddling with more directx commands

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
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dj chainz
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Posted: 27th Mar 2006 21:59
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Current Commands (not all complete, but all to be implemented) :

rss_text DLL (free when released!) 7 commands +


rss_file DLL (package) 4 commands +


rss_image DLL (package) 6 commands +


rss_windows DLL (package) 5 commands +


rss_audiere DLL (package) 11 commands +


rss_slidemessage DLL (package) 3 commands +


Future possibilities:
XML
CSS
More Image commands
HTTP Post

I am the lead programmer at red spark studios
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