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The Kiwi's TaleWitchBlasterDerelict Blow Stuff Up

Giving up on C++ (for now)

My failed attempt to learn C++ and OGRE

After doing a little bit of experimentation and some of the tutorials with OGRE in Visual C++, I have decided to put it aside for the mean time and instead go to BlitzMax for 3D game development. The reasons why:

  1. I am already quite familiar with the BlitzMax language.
  2. BlitzMax applications can be compiled for Mac and Linux.
  3. At least in theory, porting my existing games from Blitz3D to BlitzMax shouldn't be too difficult.
  4. I invested a lot of time developing the Earok Engine, so I don't want to throw that out.
  5. There are a wide variety of graphics engines that have wrappers for BlitzMax - The Blitz3D SDK, MiniB3D, Truevision, Irrlicht, and yes, even OGRE.
  6. For me at least, the performance gains from using C++ probably isn't enough to justify the extra complexity.
  7. You don't need C++ to make great games - look at the games by Yahtzee and Cactus for instance.
  8. Even though C++ experience is important for the industry, I'm not looking for an industry job yet.
  9. Perhaps most importantly, BlitzMax is a New Zealand product!

I have decided to set some actual goals - something I haven't done in awhile.

  1. Offer Mac versions of all of my games (excluding Derelict) by the end of August.
  2. Offer a Mac version of Derelict by the end of September.
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arran4
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Yeah it is!

arran4
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Whow.. Two pages... 

Earok
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Yes. It's now the most commented post on the entire site :P

arran4
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Heh, and it's about your resignation from c++!

Earok
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I know, it couldn't be a worse post to have at #1 !

arran4
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Maybe the worse it is to your reputation the higher it will be on the active thread list! :P

 

Say, when are you giving it a go again?

Earok
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I wonder how long before this thread reaches 100 comments

arran4
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Depends on how much Meta conversation we can have. ;P

hydra9
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Adding one more comment:

Just watched Sintel. That film is AMAZING!

arran4
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It is.

Earok
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Agreed. And.. uh.. wow, this is the first post to make it to 40 comments on my blog.

hydra9
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It also has a very fine picture adorning it.

Earok
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Heh, cheers. I probably should add it to my deviantart. From memory I did the basic sketch at Denny's.

arran4
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Heh. Ah. DeviantArt. I haven't done any art which is good enough to upload to it. I should try something someitme. :S

But "The Room Knight' is catching up!

Denny's? A bar?

Earok
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Done. As far as I know, there's no real quality guidelines for uploading to DeviantArt.

Denny's is.. well.. it's Denny's. I didn't realise they don't have it in Australia.

Unless it's under a completely different name to what everyone else calls it.

arran4
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Hah. Quality guidelines would be excessive censorship. :P Or at least trying to tell you what is and isn't art. ;P

Yuck, Fast food. But make sense now.

Earok
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It's not really "fast food" per se, you do have to sit down and wait. Quality wise, I'd say it's dead in the middle between fast food and regular restaurants.

arran4
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Has it been designed to be low-cost?

Earok
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It really depends on what you get, I guess. A burger or sandwhich meal might cost approx $10NZ, a full meal with meat, potatoes or chips and salad or vegetables might cost approx $20NZ. Most expensive meal is near $30NZ I think.

arran4
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Whow, kind of expensive for fast food. Is it more like a Grill'd sort of place http://www.grilld.com.au/ which probably isn't going to clear things up as much.. I am just going to have to ask my friend who is currenlty in NZ to answer this for me.

Earok
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As I mentioned before, it doesn't really meet the definition of "fast food" as you have to sit down and wait, which can be anything from 10-15 minutes.

I don't know about "Grill'd", but probably the most directly comparable experience is the American Diner. Just, franchised.