Delphi Games Creator

[kokopeli]

Can something like the Delphi Games Creator be made with VB? You can download DGC from here http://www.ex.ac.uk/~PMBearne/DGC.html
It comes with source code. The makers of it seem to have given up on it.

[BoB]

yeah i think so if you make the interputter in C++ because its faster and you can make all the functions do what you wanna . I think you could make the rest of the program in vb .

[/\/\isanThr0p]

DOes the program make a compilable code? or is it just a game hm player for it's own scripts?
please tell me more about it!

[kokopeli]

This is what they say. "DGC is a set of native Delphi 2 ccomponents that make it easy to use the Microsoft DirectX API. The components are designed for games and demo programming and for all types of users from beginner to expert." The version at the link I posted is for Delphi 4 and uses DX6. Like OCX files I think.
Here is some code opened in wordpad so you can get an idea.

//Clear the specified palette to a black palette adding system colors if specified
procedure ClearPalette(var ImgPalette: TImgLibPalette; AddSysCols: Boolean);
var
n: Integer;
SysCols: array[0..9] of TPaletteEntry;
dc: HDC;
Handle: Hwnd;
begin
//First Blat everything
FillChar(ImgPalette, SizeOf(ImgPalette), 0);

//Get System Colors?
if not AddSysCols then exit;
Handle := GetFocus;
dc := GetDC(Handle);
ImgPalette[0].Used := True;
GetSystemPaletteEntries(dc, 0, 10, SysCols);
for n := 0 to 9 do
begin
with ImgPalette[n] do
begin
Red := SysCols[n].peRed;
Blue := SysCols[n].peBlue;
Green := SysCols[n].peGreen;
Used := True;
end;
end;
GetSystemPaletteEntries(dc,246, 10, SysCols);
for n := 0 to 9 do
begin
with ImgPalette[n + 246] do
begin
Red := SysCols[n].peRed;
Blue := SysCols[n].peBlue;
Green := SysCols[n].peGreen;
Used := True;
end;
end;
ReleaseDC(Handle, dc);
end;

[/\/\isanThr0p]

I understand!

So do you want to create such a Game Creator yourself (that's possible not even too hard!) or do you want one?
I think if there is a GameCreator for VB it must be very old.

But it would be really fun creating one! I'm sure I could create one but in the beginning you'd only get some basic DX7 initialisations. If you'd like to make one which games are nearly finished after using the Gamecreator you must be really good! I don't know anything about your skills but believe me that would be hard.

Perhaps I'll make a small thing similar to this just for one-click-and-finished DDraw7 / DDinput initialisation.

Only one more question:
Have there been any OCX that where compiled to your program or just an addin wich created code?

[kokopeli]

I did some stuff with it in Delphi. It is like ocx or classes that have properties and methods already. I never got too far because I am new to programming. My question is could a bunch of us get together and convert this thing to VB.

[/\/\isanThr0p]

To me this seems to hard. When it had its own properties and stuff like this i doesn't sound to me like just a code creator. I must have had some stuff already built in!! We could do a 'code creator' just doing some basic stuff.

with the delphi GC was it like building a graphic engine or even the game GUI and so on

MisanTr0p

[Bart]

What about just creating a class with DX functions? (Just a thought)

[/\/\isanThr0p]

I allready tried it!

it be possible but I'm notr sure if I should do this because I can't get the optimal speed out of classes! I build small modules each time a make DXgame

I wouldn't like to build a class for the blitting operations, but I could give you some useful code for laoding Files to surfaces! just like:

surfLoader ("bitmapname", surf As FSurf)

the fsurf is a type with the surfacedescriptor, the surface it self, and a rect structure!

[Bart]

That would be great! Could you please mail it to me?
Thanks in advance!

[/\/\isanThr0p]

Hey bart Of course I can send it to you!
But in the moment I'm not at my computer. But when I'm at home I'll send it to you but I must say it's real basic and the work you save by using it is only ¿small?. (I'm sure that's not the right word!)

So it can only load surfaces! that's all