Planet: Invasion

[Devion]

Might as well start making a milestone checklist.. 2 actually.. one tech, one content. And use K.I.S (Keep it simple)

Ex.:
Tech:
- Render fully textured room with reflections
- Fully textured room with shadow casting
- Room with bouncing ball (Physics)
- Positional Sound
- Sound reverb
- EAX Support

Content:
- Story
- Storyboard split in 'acts'
- Game script (story wise) per 'scene'

etc.

[Devion]

This is going to be a *****-post with some pointers. Thou are warned :]

Looking at that test.rar there are few things that bothered me a bit, mostly code layout and type declaration. I know this is a test so I'll ignore the type dims but..

Public Function Initialise() As Boolean
On Error GoTo ErrHandler:
 
Dim DispMode As D3DDISPLAYMODE '//Describes our Display Mode
Dim D3DWindow As D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS '//Describes our Viewport
 
Set Dx = New DirectX8  '//Create our Master Object
Set D3D = Dx.Direct3DCreate() '//Make our Master Object create the Direct3D Interface
 
D3D.GetAdapterDisplayMode D3DADAPTER_DEFAULT, DispMode '//Retrieve the current display Mode

Looks a lot better when

Public Function fbInitD3D() As Boolean
On Error GoTo ErrHandler
          
      'Describes our Display Mode and Port.
      Dim DispMode As D3DDISPLAYMODE 
      Dim D3DWindow As D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS 
 
      'Create our Master Object and D3D Interface.
 
      Set Dx = New DirectX8
      Set D3D = Dx.Direct3DCreate() 
 
      D3D.GetAdapterDisplayMode D3DADAPTER_DEFAULT, DispMode

Which gets me to a few pointers:
- We need to set a certain rulebase regarding type definitions, function naming, etc.
- Layout.. use tabs.. use a LOT of tabs if necessary.. having everything splattered against the left makes code look chaotic.
- Commenting.. Each module/form should have a top comment saying basically who edited it last, what was edited and when. (WWW) - Also place comments above code .. not behind it as it might be obscured by the width of the code window.
- Option Explicit.... needs no explanation.. if someone is wondering why option explicit I'm going to pull out an IRC trout and slap 'm
- No Variants without damn good reasons.. The most common mistake:

Dim A, B as string.

^ A is a variant...
- For I/O matters... no Open "x" for input as #1 or #2.. or #5.. use Freefile.

My 2 million cents ;]