B-li-tz Max is out!

Max.Â² · Post by **Max.Â²** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 4:55 pm

syntax error wrote:For those interested in benchmark results ..

Any chance to get a hold of the compiled Blitz Max benchmark executable?

syntax error · Post by **syntax error** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 9:44 am

The Author of BlitzMax (Mark Sibly) as requested that we do not distribute *.exe files compiled using beta versions of BlitzMax.

As soon as the Win32 version is done I'll post a link to the exe.

Karbon · Post by **Karbon** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 5:48 pm

As has been pointed out so many time on this forum those for loop how-many-times-can-I-do-something-pointless benchmarks are misleading at best. I'm sure BMax will be speedy, B+ and B3D sure are. I'm still disappointed in what is, IMHO, a half-finished release that really tears down a lot of my expectations for BMax (like 3D and MS-Windows support!).

The comparison of PB to BB is still not a good one. BB is a game language while PB is a general purpose language that you can use for games. PB still has quite a leg up on anything from Blitz if you are writing non-game applications, and probably always will. Having said that - if you're looking for a game language then Blitz is hard to beat!

LuCiFeR[SD] · Post by **LuCiFeR[SD]** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 7:16 pm

Bmax is hardly half finished Karbon. 3D is possible if you can be bothered to access OpenGL directly... infact, YOU could write a module to interface it a little easier too. Same with Windows API stuff... some of the demos that come supplied with Blitz max already can do this.

But mark hasn't added a lot of things like windows API support directly so that EVERYTHING that is written for one OS will automatically compile and run on ALL other supported operating systems. He has left the task of "Breaking Compatability" to YOU the user.. which IMHO, is the way it should be.

Alas, no exe's for the win32 or linux version can be distributed right now... But there are some rather impressive demos, epsecially those By Rob "Protean IDE" hutchinson.

Anyway, merry christmas all

An example of accessing OpenGL (courtesy of TeraBit)

Code: Select all

' More OpenGL Adventures

Framework BRL.BlitzGL
Import BRL.System
Import BRL.Basic
Import BRL.PNGLoader

Include "b3dloader.bmx" ' Cheesy but works, just about!

Global Verts#[65535]		' Vertex Array
Global Normals#[65535]		' Normal Array
Global texco#[65535]		' Texture Co-ordnate Array
Global ind[65535]			' Index Array
Global mx,my				' Mouse X & Y
Global FPS, RFPS,LastSEcs	' Frame Counter Stuff

bglCreateContext 1024,768,32,0,BGL_FULLSCREEN|BGL_BACKBUFFER|BGL_DEPTHBUFFER

bglSetSwapInterval 0

Global tex_name=bglTexFromPixmap( LoadPixmap( "trans.png" ) )

bglSetMouseVisible False

Local ax#,ay#

glShadeModel(GL_SMOOTH)

Global light_position#[] = [100.0, 100.0, 50.0, 0.0]   	' Spec's for the light
Global light_AMB#[] = [1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0]					' Uuuuugly
Global light_DIF#[] = [1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0]					' Nassssty

glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_POSITION, light_position)		' Horror
glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_AMBIENT, light_AMB)				' Shock
glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_DIFFUSE, light_DIF)				' Awrk!
glLightf(GL_LIGHT0, GL_CONSTANT_ATTENUATION, 1.5)
glLightf(GL_LIGHT0, GL_LINEAR_ATTENUATION, 0.5)
glLightf(GL_LIGHT0, GL_QUADRATIC_ATTENUATION, 0.2)

readb3d( "head.b3d" )									' Invoke the Cheesy(tm) B3DLoader

glEnableClientState (GL_VERTEX_ARRAY)					' Enable the Vertex Array
glEnableClientState (GL_NORMAL_ARRAY)					' Enable the Normal Array
glEnableClientState (GL_INDEX_ARRAY)					' Enable the Index Array
glEnableClientState (GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY)			' Enable the TexCoordinate Array

glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, verts)					' Set the Pointer
glNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, 0, normals)					' To where the Arrays
glIndexPointer (GL_INT, 0, IND)							' Live in System
glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT,0, texco)					' Memory

glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D)
glBindTexture GL_TEXTURE_2D,tex_name
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER,GL_LINEAR)
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER,GL_LINEAR)

glCullFace GL_BACK
glEnable(GL_CULL_FACE)
glEnable(GL_LIGHTING)
glColor3f(1,1,1)
glClearDepth(1.0)
glEnable(GL_LIGHT0)
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST)
glDepthFunc(GL_LEQUAL)	

glMatrixMode GL_PROJECTION
glLoadIdentity
gluPerspective 45,1024.0/768.0,0.1,1000

While Not KeyDown(KEY_ESCAPE)

	glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT)
	
	glMatrixMode GL_MODELVIEW
	glLoadIdentity

	glTranslatef 0,0,-4 '0'0
	glRotatef my,1,0,0
	glRotatef mx,0,1,0
	ax=ax+1
	ay=ay+2
	If KeyHit(KEY_W) Then 
		wire = wire + 1
		If wire = 3 Then wire = 0
	EndIf
	
	If KeyHit(KEY_C) Then 
		cull = cull ~ 1			' Where's my XOR gone then! :)
	EndIf
	
	If KeyHit(KEY_F) Then 
		flipmesh = flipmesh ~ 1			' Where's my XOR gone then! :)
	EndIf
	
	If flipmesh = 1 Then
	  glFrontFace GL_CCW
	Else
	  glFrontFace GL_CW
	EndIf

	If cull = 0 Then
	  glEnable(GL_CULL_FACE)
	Else
	  glDisable(GL_CULL_FACE)
	EndIf
	
	If wire = 0 Then
	  glPolygonMode(GL_FRONT, GL_FILL)
	  glPolygonMode(GL_BACK, GL_FILL)
	EndIf
	If wire = 1 Then
	  glPolygonMode(GL_FRONT, GL_LINE)
	  glPolygonMode(GL_BACK, GL_LINE)
	EndIf
	If wire = 2 Then
	  glPolygonMode(GL_FRONT, GL_POINT)
	  glPolygonMode(GL_BACK, GL_POINT)
	EndIf
	
	glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST)
	glDrawElements(GL_TRIANGLES, ICT, GL_UNSIGNED_INT, IND);

	mx = MouseX()
	my = MouseY()
	
	bglDrawText "Blitzmax Inline OpenGL. "+rfps+" fps.",20,20
	bglDrawText (vind/3)+" Vertices.",20,40
	bglDrawText (ICT/3)+" Triangles.",20,60
	bglDrawText "W - Cycle (Solid / Wireframe / Points) ("+wire+")",20,80
	bglDrawText "C - Toggle Backface Culling ("+cull+")",20,100
	bglDrawText "F - Flip Mesh ("+flipmesh+")",20,120

	checkfps()
	
	bglSwapBuffers
	
	FlushMem

Wend

Function CheckFPS()
	If (MilliSecs()-lastsecs) <1000 Then 
		fps = fps +1
	Else
		lastsecs = MilliSecs()
	rfps = fps
		fps = 0
	EndIf
End Function

Shannara · Post by **Shannara** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 7:47 pm

I agree with Karbon, except it looks exactly like BlitzMax is less thne 1/4 complete. So you are right

It is hardly 1/2 finished ...

LuCiFeR[SD] · Post by **LuCiFeR[SD]** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 8:00 pm

Well Shannara, you think what you want to think eh?... you always do

Shannara · Post by **Shannara** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 8:08 pm

Thats so true

I tell it as it is .. ooOo, and this time, it seems Karbon and I are thinking along the same lines.

Inner · Post by **Inner** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:09 am

what I'd like to know is, why people think BlitzMax is a "game" creation language? doesn't appear to be one to me, it appears to be along the same lines as PB, just because Mark didn't release a WinAPI module for it doesn't make it any less capable of doing so.

Having said that, BlitzMax exe's size is quite a bit larger than PB still, at least it's not 100's of kbs like before.

PB · Post by PB » Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:46 am

> what I'd like to know is, why people think BlitzMax is a "game" creation language?

From the official site (http://www.blitzmax.com/products/blitzmax.php):

BlitzMax is the new, next generation game programming language from Blitz Research.

That's why.

Inner · Post by **Inner** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 10:24 am

fare enough and correct, but I think that is an incorrect statement really, it more correct for 2d/3d than it is for max, since you can write your own winapi mod for it and use it like you would vb or pb etc, games don't have to enter into it really at all.

LuCiFeR[SD] · Post by **LuCiFeR[SD]** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 8:20 pm

I suppose it has been designed mainly for game programming, but you can make it do what you like, just the same as PB, you just have to write the modules to fill in the blanks. But from the word go it was never meant to have directX or winAPI support... it was designed to be portable accross all supported platforms. 3D isn't really an issue though as it is supported... well, kind of

... you just have to access the same as you would from c/++ or whatever..., but there isn't a nice "BASIC" way to access it (I could probably word this better, but I really can't be bothered, it is still beer drinking time lol).

I have bought Bmax, it sure as hell *IS* powerfull... it can do *ANYTHING* you can do in a lower level language. you just have to be prepared to get your hands dirty and get under the hood, instead of relying on somebody else to do it for you.
There will probably be a bucketload of 3rd party modules (just like there are for PB) released that will fill in the blanks.

Anyway, enough, wasting valuable drinking time here

TTFN.

tonnelier · Post by **tonnelier** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:35 pm

Concerning sieve : (from french PB's forum)
Pb and Blitzmax have almost the same rapidity without debugger.
With debugger, Blitz is very slower.

Not the same thing as said previously...

Denis · Post by **Denis** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 1:28 pm

Nico and I, we have done some tests with Blitz3D demo only.

With my tests, Blitz3D demo was a little bit faster than Pure (debugger off with the piece of code from english forum - 5000 iterations) but with Nico's tests (30000 iterations) it's the opposite.

:roll:

According Blitz3D demo doc, the demo is the same as Blitz3D except for exe file (not possible to do an exe file) and for source files (16K max)

Codemonger · Post by **Codemonger** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:50 pm

From what i understand BlitzMax uses GCC as its backend, to be cross-platform compatible.

So it seems Mark Sibly did not write the compiler , he only wrote the front-end. I may be 100% wrong , but thats what it seems like. You need to download cygwin or something like that to run the windows version of BlitzMax as far as I can tell.

morduun · Post by **morduun** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:36 pm

You're 100% wrong, and you don't need to download cygwin to run BlitzMax on Windows platforms. Silly thing to say.

[Edit]While I'm at it, it's worthwhile to say that a a Bmax Sieve exe outperforms everything but MSVC on Windows -- including DevC -- and comes very close to equalling MSVC's performance. Certainly there are weaknesses in max, but speed in this sense does not seem to be one of them.[/Edit]