Dx Starter Projects [Discussion]

[Electroman]

If you have anything to say about the projects posted in the DirectX Starter Projects Thread then post it here. For example performance issues, suggestions or even questions of how if works.

I do have plans to make a VB version eventually but I would be really glad if someone else wants to make it because it will probably be a while before I can get round to it.

Hope you like the projects though .


BTW this is the 6,000 thread in this section .

[SLH]

I tried the .net version of your sample code, but unfortunatly it restarted my computer.

I don't know why this would happen, but i did the following:

Loaded up the solution, and compiled it using ctrl-F5. Slight pause while DX was initalized, then it displayed a framerate of 800 fps, then ~1000 then my computer restarted.

No idea what caused it. I made no changes to the code what-so-ever.

[Electroman]

humm...strange, did it just happen the once or everytime? what other programs were open? Any Dx ones especailly?
I'll try to reproduce this some how though...what is your PCs spec? are you using nVidia or ATi? (Mind we have tested on both). Seems strange that it would display for a couple of seconds then stop .

When I compile in the IDE I normally use the Debug > Direct3D > Start with Direct3D Debugging (Ctrl + Alt + F5)
However I have used just Ctrl + F5 aswell.


As for the frame rate that is expected....it flips the surface as fast as it can without any frame limiting stuff. So on my PC I get approx 6000 fps and ~6300 when in release mode. NoteMe gets betwen 2000 to 3000. .

[SLH]

I'm using a geforce3, no dx programs running in the background and no others of note.

It didn't display for a couple of seconds, it literally did 2 rendering passes (updating the fps) then restarted.

I only ran the code once, but i'll try it again, and see what happens.... Wish me luck.

[Electroman]

Good luck *fingers crossed*

I meant to check what OS you are running too? Just because one of the things I found when doing the Multithreading was about how the Win95 line and the WinNT line handle it differently....I run XP and NoteMe runs Win2000 so really we've only tested it on the WinNT family . Hope thats not the problem otherwise it'll be one of those XP and later code samples .

[SLH]

It crashes every time, however i've worked out what the problem is.

I'm using a shell-altering program called object desktop. When i closed it and tested the program it ran fine.

It's still a bit strange though, because all other DX(9) programs/code samples i've tested have been fine.... :shrugs:

[Electroman]

ow thats good news then....mind don't know if i'm glad that this program only effects this app . The thing is I can't think of it being an individual function call or anything because you said the FPS was being shown (not as zero) and this only happens once a whole second has passed, which is a good few thousand loops, .


BTW out of interest what FPS did you get now its working?

Since I made the first post I disabled my Hyper-threading and tried it and saw the FPS go down to ~6100 for the release code.

Whats strange is if I have hyperthreading disabled then even when I Alt + Tab the Task Manager says the processor is going 100% whereas with hyper threading on I get 50% when Alt + Tab and 100% (on both processors) while its running


You've made Dx9 stuff before with C++ right? well do you normally just use the one thread or more? And if more than one is this close at all to yours?

[SLH]

The frame rate for a debug compile was around 1/2000 (my poor Geforce3 )

Originally posted by Electroman
You've made Dx9 stuff before with C++ right? well do you normally just use the one thread or more? And if more than one is this close at all to yours?

The game i'm developing at the moment only uses 1 thread when actually in the game loop. I have a 2nd thread during the loading of DX, so i can have a progress bar, but that gets destroyed having loaded DX.

while( uMsg.message != WM_QUIT )
	{
		if( PeekMessage( &uMsg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_REMOVE ) )
		{ 
			TranslateMessage( &uMsg );
			DispatchMessage( &uMsg );
		}
        else
		{
			if(IsLoaded)
			{
				GameThink();
				while(GetTickCount() < LastThink+10);
				LastThink = GetTickCount();
				Render();
			}
		}
	}

[NoteMe]

Originally posted by SLH

I'm using a shell-altering program called object desktop. When i closed it and tested the program it ran fine.

What kind of app is that? A kind of theme for your windows PC?

[NoteMe]

E...have you uploaded the changes we made to the project to the server? So the new one can be downloaded from the sticky thread?

[SLH]

Originally posted by NoteMe
What kind of app is that? A kind of theme for your windows PC?

It is a suite of programs that can alter pretty much any aspect of windows. The ones that i think didn't work with DX were one called windowsblinds (which changes the apperence of all windows/window controls), and one called windowFX, which does things like fading in messageboxes etc...

[Electroman]

Posted by NoteMe
E...have you uploaded the changes we made to the project to the server? So the new one can be downloaded from the sticky thread?

Sorry I forgot to upload the updates before I went to sleep last night......


I've uploaded some enhancments, these included:
* When you Alt + Tab out the program it now suspends and will use 1% of the processor. Unlike before where it used 100% and 50% on Hyper-Threading PCs.
* Added a few coments

[SLH]

Originally posted by Electroman
Sorry I forgot to upload the updates before I went to sleep last night......


I've uploaded some enhancments, these included:
* When you Alt + Tab out the program it now suspends and will use 1% of the processor. Unlike before where it used 100% and 50% on Hyper-Threading PCs.
* Added a few coments

Just had a proper look at the code; it sure is organised, think i'll be aranging my next project in a similar way!

[Electroman]

Thanx, I was trying to make it as clear to read as possible.


Ow yea I think I said this in the Sticking thread but if anyone else wants me to add their project shells then just send me a PM or somethign . I'm after any Dx version and both VB & C++, any versions.

When I get time I am planning to write a small article that will explain the current project in a bit of detail.

[NoteMe]

Originally posted by SLH
It is a suite of programs that can alter pretty much any aspect of windows. The ones that i think didn't work with DX were one called windowsblinds (which changes the apperence of all windows/window controls), and one called windowFX, which does things like fading in messageboxes etc...

I figgured it had to be something like that...but I still find it weird that it crashes our app..

[NoteMe]

Originally posted by SLH
Just had a proper look at the code; it sure is organised, think i'll be aranging my next project in a similar way!

At least Electroman sure didn't make it OOP like...

[NoteMe]

Originally posted by Electroman

When I get time I am planning to write a small article that will explain the current project in a bit of detail.

Tell me if you need any help on that. I can fix the UML diagram too, so it reflects all the changes from last time.

If I get the time today, I will try to use the project to make my first VS too...

[Electroman]

Posted by NoteMe
At least Electroman sure didn't make it OOP like...

Yea I know but I thought keeping it simple would be better....mind OOP isn't always your friend when making a game .... Speed wins over OOP when they fight . I will take a look and see if there is anythign we could turn OO without comprimising speed. The main thing i see with making games OOP is that when you have classes that there will only be one instance of (what they called again *scratches head*) then I don't see a reason to put it in a class when I could just give it a new file and then it is still encasulated but hasn't got any slow down from access speeds of the class . its like I could put the Dx stuff in a class but you'll never want to have more than oe Dx instance in your program so why do it .

BTW I think I broke our naming conversions for our classes already....the GameTimer class should have been CGameTimer, opps .

[Electroman]

Posted by NoteMe
Tell me if you need any help on that. I can fix the UML diagram too, so it reflects all the changes from last time.

If I get the time today, I will try to use the project to make my first VS too...

Yea that would be great if you could do the UML models...I haven't got used to using that weird add-on yet .

[NoteMe]

Originally posted by Electroman
Yea I know but I thought keeping it simple would be better....mind OOP isn't always your friend when making a game .... Speed wins over OOP when they fight . I will take a look and see if there is anythign we could turn OO without comprimising speed. The main thing i see with making games OOP is that when you have classes that there will only be one instance of (what they called again *scratches head*) then I don't see a reason to put it in a class when I could just give it a new file and then it is still encasulated but hasn't got any slow down from access speeds of the class . its like I could put the Dx stuff in a class but you'll never want to have more than oe Dx instance in your program so why do it .

BTW I think I broke our naming conversions for our classes already....the GameTimer class should have been CGameTimer, opps .

Yeah I know you love the speed. But when you hit 50k lines ++ then it is realy hard to follow this style. And it is harder to work more then one person on the project. At least the font thingy could have been in one class or at least in a file. But I will rewrite it a bit later on anyway, so we can have 3D text and so on too. Can be an add on to our basis framework..

BTW you should add version numbers to the downloads in the sticky, so people can see that something has been chagned...

[NoteMe]

Originally posted by Electroman
Yea that would be great if you could do the UML models...I haven't got used to using that weird add-on yet .

I can't remember it, but my flat mate told me today that I have promissed him to go out with him today. That will be the 3rd day on a row....I am not sure if I can handle that......I am getting to old. If I don't have to go out, I can do it today...

[Electroman]

Thanx for the reminder on the last updated thing...I meant to do that earlier, have done it now .

The Font thing can definitly be turned into a class, just seen as though you made that part I though i would let you do it cos I've never used fonts before in Dx .
Don't forget this is just the core of our program and needs the most speed....once we are working on seperate files everythign will be classed up though .
BTW we should make sure we don't start spamming this thread with things that are more related to our project than just the Basis .


As for the UML models there is no rush because I need to get some time to make the article first .

[Shaggy Hiker]

I'm interested in the .NET version of the DX9 program, but the link for the download is not currently working for me.

Any solution?

[NoteMe]

SEnd me a PM with you mail...and I will send it too you...

I downloaded it earlier today at school...

[SLH]

I downloaded it today as well, link works fine for me.

BTW, don't know what's changed but i can use my shell-altering prog and run the project with no problems now.

[NoteMe]

Your machine is unstable.......

Ohhh and it is HeMans server that has 99,9% downtime.......happens all the time...

[Electroman]

Posted by NoteMe
Your machine is unstable.......

Ohhh and it is HeMans server that has 99,9% downtime.......happens all the time...

lol, no its not....Mind the first month or two did seem that way.

SLH, I did make some changes awhile back, don't know if you had used the most up-to-date one when you had the problems. Maybe even SP2 has had something to do with it (Thats if you have it installed yet).

[SLH]

Originally posted by Electroman
Maybe even SP2 has had something to do with it (Thats if you have it installed yet).

Nope - after all the problems people have been having i'm staying away from it for a good long while.