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Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:27 am
by srod
Since buying Purebasic I haven't look back...... which probably explains why I keep crashing my car!!! :wink:

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:59 pm
by Tipperton
Mistrel wrote:I can to PureBasic from DarkBasic Professional.
I also have Dark Basic Professional and still use it but only for testing ideas. The ones that work or that I like are eventually translated to PureBasic. I'd do all my game programming in Dark Basic except that the way it builds executables is really hard to adequately protect.

It compiles your program then appends it to a runtime module and most if not all protection system see that appended data as data and not program and so don't protect it very well if at all.
srod wrote:Since buying Purebasic I haven't look back...... which probably explains why I keep crashing my car!!! :wink:
:lol: :shock: ;)

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 2:19 pm
by Rook Zimbabwe
Since buying Purebasic I haven't look back...... which probably explains why I keep crashing my car!!! :wink:
Srod, you are supposed to drive it FORWARD on the M!!! :wink:

Just like PB keeps moving forward!

Which is also my favorite motto from the Cartoon Meet the Robinsons...

Hey.. on topic and off topic at the same time. Yeah! 8)

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:07 pm
by Mistrel
Tipperton wrote:It compiles your program then appends it to a runtime module and most if not all protection system see that appended data as data and not program and so don't protect it very well if at all.
Since 6.8 you can specify a command line switch to prevent the modules from being loaded into the executable.

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:18 am
by pdwyer
I own an old version of dark basic, I bought it I think in 2000 or 2001 (can't remember for sure). Played a little but didn't use it much.

Can it do much for me that PB can't?

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:34 pm
by Mistrel
pdwyer wrote:I own an old version of dark basic, I bought it I think in 2000 or 2001 (can't remember for sure). Played a little but didn't use it much.

Can it do much for me that PB can't?
DarkBasic or DarkBasic Professional? The original product 'DarkBasic' has been discontinued. The new flagship product DarkBasic Professional product has many free and commercial libraries that make game and tool development easier and faster.

PureGDK allows you to use the functions from the DarkBasic Professional engine and provides framework user libraries for the following plugins:

Licensed Plugins:
  • 2D Plugin Kit
    3D Cloth & Particles Physics
    Advanced Terrain
    Dark Physics
    Dark AI
    Dark Lights
    Enhanced Animations
    eXtends
    EZ Rotate Enhanced
    STYX
    TextureMax
    Unity
Free Plugins:
  • D3DFunc
    DarkSide Starburst
    DBP Collisions
    DKAVM
    DKSHOP
    EZ Rotate Basic
    Multisync
    Newton Game Dynamics
    zParticles
For the sake of simplicity I'm only linking to the commercial plugins here because they have pictures. There are many similar free sources/plugins:

http://darkbasicpro.thegamecreators.com/?f=dark_lights
http://darkphysics.thegamecreators.com/
http://darkbasicpro.thegamecreators.com/?f=dark_ai
http://darkbasicpro.thegamecreators.com/?f=2dplugin

DarkBasic Professional is a game engine and the command libraries reflect this. It makes game development easier because most of the engine components (actors, particles, lights, animation, audio) are already developed for you. All of the functions are easy to work with allowing you to build whatever you want.

DarkBasic Professional is a complete solution with an extensible plugin framework. Consider it a 3D library for PureBasic rather than a competing product. With PureGDK you can have your cake and eat it too. :)

Here is a great example of a game made with DarkBasic:

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=for ... =64844&b=8

You can download examples of PureGDK from the website:

http://puregdk.com/index.php?f=examples

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:34 pm
by Tipperton
Mistrel wrote:Since 6.8 you can specify a command line switch to prevent the modules from being loaded into the executable.
Does that mean my compiled Dark Basic program would be a stand alone executable that loads the run time modules from separate files when it starts?

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 4:18 pm
by Mistrel
A new field in SETUP.INI called ExternaliseDLLS will exclude ALL DLLs from your executable if set to yes. This allows you to have extremely small executables and place the required DLLs alongside the main executable.

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:49 pm
by Tipperton
Mistrel wrote:
A new field in SETUP.INI called ExternaliseDLLS will exclude ALL DLLs from your executable if set to yes. This allows you to have extremely small executables and place the required DLLs alongside the main executable.
I'll have to look into that, if it eliminates the compiled program being appended to a startup stub, that would make Dark Basic a bit more usable to me.

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:33 pm
by Mistrel
Tipperton wrote:I'll have to look into that, if it eliminates the compiled program being appended to a startup stub, that would make Dark Basic a bit more usable to me.
I don't know what you mean by 'startup stub'. Having the DLLs appended to the exe is a convenience.

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:04 am
by Tipperton
Mistrel wrote:I don't know what you mean by 'startup stub'. Having the DLLs appended to the exe is a convenience.
When Dark Basic compiles your program it appends it to a startup stub that extracts and or loads the DLLs, then runs your appended program.

This is fine and convenient but if you want to use something like Execryptor or Armadillo, they see the appended program as data and won't protect as well as it could be if it was just a stand alone executable with the DLLs separate and no startup stub to extract and or load them.

I like Dark Basic for game programming but didn't like the way it built the final program. If there's a command line or INI file option to resolve the way it builds the final program, I'd use Dark Basic a lot more for games.

Now that we have successfuly hi-jacked this thread.... ;)

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:39 am
by White Eagle
Ionic Refugee wrote:I can't decide who is worse: Bob Zale or Paul Turley
Easy, Paul Turley is the worst.

Regards,
Brice Manuel

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:16 pm
by Fred
Please don't go in public name bashing on this forum, thanks.

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:26 pm
by pdwyer
..again :twisted:

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:47 pm
by White Eagle
Fred wrote:Please don't go in public name bashing on this forum, thanks.
Won't happen again :wink: