DarkBasic! WHOO

None, you sissy. DB is for girls. Even BlitzBasic is better.

Ok, I have nothing against DB. It''s just not meant for gamedev. Gamedev is meant for serious programmers. DB is DEFINATLY not for serious programmers

DBUser - Don''t even try to find it out. Go for c++

Depends. Do you use db?

DarkBasic is game creation software. But don't get too excited. It's very, very limited, and only good for making those natty side-scrolling platformers you used to find on the Spectrum (don't get me wrong, some of them were half-decent ).

If you're serious about making games, go out and buy something like "C For Dummies". That'll teach you C, which most games are programmed in. When you've read both volumes of that, go and get something like "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus". That'll teach you DirectX, which you can use for drawing on the screen, input, and sound. Then you can move on to 3D game programming, with either Direct3D or OpenGL...

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Movie Quote of the Week:

"You've been eating retard sandwiches again."
- Birdman, Beautiful Girls.

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Try http://uk.geocities.com/mentalmantle. Seriously. It's brilliant.
And I just completely redesigned it so it looks even better.
DarkVertex Beta 0.8 available soon!

[edited by - iNsAn1tY on October 10, 2002 5:37:08 PM]

/me wonders if Weaver is all of the AP''s on this thread...

naaaaaah

I programmed in DB a year ago. I liked it, after awhile tho I started c++, and like it more. If you wish to start 3D graphics right away, then go for DB, but if you want to be serious then I would start learning C or C++.

Jeff D

Well... I have DarkBasic.
I''m a C++ programmer with games development hobbies and I get this DB for two reasons:
* was currios to see what it''s about;
* free resources that are shipped with it.

For the money I give on it (about 40$ I guess) it worth it.
I think if you are new to game programming and if you have pacience you can do pretty good stuff with it. It saves you from the lowlevel programming. You have an API pretty good to learn and make some games.
I''m not going to use it because I allready have a big codebase in C++ to do game development, but the ideea is the same as soon as you have a point to start (not from 0) you can develop from there and see if you are confortable or not.
Pet.

You payed 40$ for that .... Petru!?!?

"only good for making those natty side-scrolling platformers"

in fact, DB1 wasn''t good for that as its 2d support really sucked... but DBPro is much better in the 2d arena. DB1''s 3d wasn''t too bad either

as for "only good for making those natty side-scrolling platformers"? ...

http://www.allusionware.com

have fun. made in DB1.

Hehe, as a *girlie* programmer...

My brother bought DarkBasic to play around with... he never even got through the tutorials... I did instead.. its pretty good but although it makes it almost easy to make a simple scene of a walking man using objects that come with the software its not really extendable to programming other areas if you are interested in programming in general and not just games.

I then drifted onto DirectX with VB for a while and managed to get some idea about it from various tutorials on the DXSDK CD and on-line.

But now I work in OpenGL with C++ and found it is not nearly as complicated as I first though last year when I first attempted it... perhaps the stint with DXSDK8 tutorials helped me understand the basic 3D programming commands.

So to summarize I would say that if you just want to make games with as little code as possible and without the need to learn something like C++ then DB may be a good way to start out... maybe after a while you''ll decide it doesn''t do what you want and you''ll then spread your wings to other elements.

However, if you already understand a fair portion of C programming then you may well be better off using DirectX or OpenGL to handle your games programs.

Of course the choice is always up to the programmer in question but then again if money is an issue then OpenGL source code is probably already on your machine if it came with your programming software.

Tina

I started off with Jamagic, another scripting language like Dark Basic. I personally prefer it as it isa lot more advanced in many respects, though graphically lacking in areas. The problem with dark basic is it is basic meaning a language without the same power as C/C++. As a result it is easy to pick up a horde of bad habits and assumations, I speak from personal experience .
What it is good for is learning the basics of programing like while, for, if, and basic engine design but then I would recomend what I used (at www.clickteam.com) for its language is much more akin to C/C++.

DarkBASIC rocks. I''ve already made a kickass FPS with it (It''s similar to the arcade game called "The Grid"). It supports LAN and Internet games with up to 50 people in one game. It has great models and animation. It also runs plenty fast on a 500Mhz AMD chip (Radeon 9800 XT video card).

STOP DISSING DB!!!!!!

--Daniel Teichman
daniel@danielteichman.com
AIM/ICQ: coolestdesignz
AIM/ICQ: coolestdesignz2

Darkbasic...

afk all, gonna go try to stop laughing.

Take it from someone who long ago tried to make a game in basic, its not worth it. Some of these posters are acting like the hardest part of game programming is setting up DirectX! Its not hard, and even if you can''t figure it out, you can take someone else''s code and paste it into your startup function. And if you think its easier to learn how to use basic''s 130+ tokens over c++''s 27 you''re crazy. And have any of you ever tried to deal with DB''s file I/O system? Its a mess. Trust me if you really plan on going through everything required to make even a 2D game use c++, it really isn''t harder to learn, whatever the DB users might have to say. I''ve used both and DB is no comparison to c++.

lol. someone's been busy round the store

[edited by - oliii on April 22, 2004 4:47:17 PM]

DBUser: ignore the C++ evangelists and people who say that DB doesn't have a place on these board. DarkBasic and BlitzBasic have a place in game development. For teaching games programming techniques and prototyping games there's nothing better. Also for producing even moderately complex games in a very short space of time.

[edited by - teamonkey on April 22, 2004 5:48:04 PM]

blah dark basic, use c++

[edited by - clayasaurus on April 22, 2004 5:58:41 PM]

Whats wrong with you guys, you are behaving like kids. You should be realistic and practical when you make such statements. Do these statments make sense that "c is for serious game programmers", "basic is for student/bedroom coders" ? This is like kids saying "My dad is stronger than yours", "No! My dad is stronger than yours".

There is a tradeof between simplicity and perfomane/flexibility when choosing between Basic or c/c++. DarkBasic provides relativly highlevel interface for gameprogramming but there is a cost you have to pay? Perfornce/Flexibilty. C/C++ are fast,close-hardware,flexible but there is cost? usally you have to fight with a lot of issues which are not part of your actaull purpose. So you have to decide what you can afford.

Im a c/c++ programmer and I have seen many simple and great games made using such simple enviroments. Some "Garage Games" top games are also made this way. I dont know whats the reason some c/c++ programmers think they are smarter and have same thoughts about Basic/C#/ and RAD tools, as those ASM and ML programmers had about highlevel languages.

End-Users dont care about how they were made. Tell to your grandmother that X game was writtin in C++ with 99999 lines of codes by 30 programmers. Will that make any difference?

So in conlusion do not underestimate people/things. Be positive and moderate.

I havent used DB or BB myself but I''m by no means a C++ zealot. DB and BB are nice in the way that they allow you to do precisely what you want to do - make games. If the game is cool, so what does it matter how you made it? It''s the ends, not the means. Not only that, DB and BB have large developer communities which will be a lot more supportive than what you see here on gamedev.

I kinda wish I had picked it up before but right now I''m too involved in other C++ projects, I don''t really have any time for DB or BB. They do sound cool though, if you have it, keep at it.