debug PureBasic dll's

Quentmeier · Post by **Quentmeier** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 10:47 am

Would it be possible to bebug PureBasic dll's when you call them from a different programming language? There are a few cool 3d-engines that allow you to write your game-code as a dll that is plugged into the engine. Principally you could therefore use any language you want. Practically this is not possible if the programming language doesn't support debugging of the dll's.(I have to use C++ right now and I hate it!)
This would be a really cool feature.
Greetings Lars

Moonshine · Post by **Moonshine** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:44 pm

Certainly an interesting concept... which 3d engines for example?

How can a game be written in a DLL, would all the game code have to be placed in the internal Constructor() procedure or something?

NoahPhense · Post by **NoahPhense** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 3:46 pm

I use DebugView from SysInternals.. here's the link and a dll sample usage:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freew ... view.shtml

Code: Select all

Global ReturnValue$ 

; This procedure is called once, when the program loads the library 
; for the first time. All init stuffs can be done here (but not DirectX init) 
; 
ProcedureDLL AttachProcess(Instance)
  OutputDebugString_("AttachProcess(Instance) = " + Str(Instance))
EndProcedure 


; Called when the program release (free) the DLL 
; 
ProcedureDLL DetachProcess(Instance)
  OutputDebugString_("DetachProcess(Instance) = " + Str(Instance))
EndProcedure

; Both are called when a thread in a program call or release (free) the DLL
;
ProcedureDLL AttachThread(Instance)
  OutputDebugString_("AttachThread(Instance) = " + Str(Instance))
EndProcedure

ProcedureDLL DetachThread(Instance)
  OutputDebugString_("DetachThread(Instance) = " + Str(Instance))
EndProcedure


ProcedureDLL proc1(main$)
  Returnvalue$ = "in::" + main$
  ProcedureReturn @ReturnValue$
EndProcedure

- np

Shannara · Post by **Shannara** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:59 pm

Moonshine wrote:Certainly an interesting concept... which 3d engines for example?

Quake 3 SDK comes to mind.

Moonshine · Post by **Moonshine** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:42 pm

Shannara wrote:Quake 3 SDK comes to mind.

Phew, thats costs loads, doubt I'll be using that

Quentmeier · Post by **Quentmeier** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:42 pm

I use Cipher! Or at least I'm trying to.
Cipher is a lot like Quake3.
www.cipherengine.com
Greetings Lars

Quentmeier · Post by **Quentmeier** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:45 pm

But it would also be cool to use with other Engines like Blitz3d, Torgue or Gamestudio. A dll debugger is always handy.
Greetings Lars

NoahPhense · Post by **NoahPhense** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:56 pm

Quentmeier wrote:I use Cipher! Or at least I'm trying to.
Cipher is a lot like Quake3.
www.cipherengine.com
Greetings Lars

Thats a pretty kewl engine..

- np

blueznl · Post by **blueznl** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:00 pm

i suspect gamestudio 3d

it's a route i have been considering, in the end i decided to wait a little more... too much other stuff going on

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:05 pm

cipher looks cool. But is there a demo to try out? Just for testing if i can use it.

Sorry but im tired 8O

Moonshine · Post by **Moonshine** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:21 pm

I wanted to try a 3d game with an external engine in PB, and I think I can safely say Ive been through every single possibility (within the free/indie price range). My most hopeful engine was TrueVision 3d because of the COM interface, just like DirectX, but I got an unexplainable crash whenever I initialized it.

Cipher I was really interested in, but I couldnt use it because theres no demo to try (and Im not gambling on purchasing a license for something I cant use). Aztica 6DX looked promising as far as implementing a PB binding went, but overall it looked dated and bland, so I never attempted it.

Personally I think there should be a community effort to get as many 3d engines bound to PB as possible, PB has this advantage over Blitz/Dark etc whereby it isnt bound to a set of rules or an engine or anything like that, its open for you to use as you please. We should exploit that as a community. Virtually everything is geared at C++ only, and we need someone with the necessary skills to help bind them.

Others of note were PowerRender, but I didnt bother because of the stupid lisencing rules. You have to spend a few grand for an unlimited license to remove the splash screen and recieve the source code, for which I have no use for whatsoever.

NeoEngine looked good but was open source and didnt have any available binaries.

So have a think, maybe we could start a few maintained bindings.

[edit] Cipher's price is certainly reasonable, $100USD (approx. Â£54.82GBP; approx. 82.96EUR) and for the license:

*full engine/tools source code
*no limit on the number of games you can make and sell however you wish, with no royalties
*Access to sample source, forums and documentation

Quentmeier · Post by **Quentmeier** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 8:00 am

Unfortunately there is no demo of Cipher. But you can test Quake3. Cipher looks and works very very similar.

I've tried some 3d-engines over the last years. Right now I have 4 that I really like:
1) Torgue(cheap, platform independent, large user base,powerfull)
2) Cipher(cheap,fast on low end machines[good for shareware])
3) BlitzBasic3d(huge user database, really easy to use, good for shareware)
4) Gamestudio(easy,easy,easy)

Greetings Lars

Post by **Dare2** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 9:06 am

This is not my area of interest, but I stumbled on these sites and maybe they have something for you:

http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html
http://www.opengl.org/applications/wind ... oper_tool/

Moonshine · Post by **Moonshine** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 4:09 pm

Ive been on both before, the first hasnt been updated for ages and the second contains all that Id already found before.

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