Pocket Burning Sand (Open Source)

[agraham]

I don't have a "system" to work with. I just write code to do what I want it to do. Sometimes I use B4PPC sometimes I use Visual Studio 2005 and C# or VB.NET. If I need performance in a B4PPC app on a device I am lucky enough to have the skills and experience to implement the code in C# in a library. When other people express a need they themselves can't fulfill I try to use my experience to help them out.

I entered this thread to try to point out the performance limitations of B4PPC that you will encounter before you wasted too much time and effort on something that is not achievable - at least not on a device and not to the standard that you seem to expect. I sorry but I don't have a solution - you will need to find and evaluate one yourself.

[neilnapier]

When I said system I meant your code. I suppose I could learn another language BUT then I need to start from scratch. If PocketSand was able to do it why can't I???

There must be a way. I think that every single modder on this forum should contribute to it an ventually i'm sure it will be done well.

Plus once BASIC4PPC V6 comes out then it should be much faster.

[agraham]

My code is written in C# - it is another entirely different (and more complex) language.

If PocketSand was able to do it why can't I???

Because they used the right tool for the job and you are not.

[neilnapier]

I know what C# is...
I do know of a few other PPC languages but have yet to learn them... any advice on which to pick.

[agraham]

You need a truly compiled language (Basic4PPC is not fully compiled. In its' present form it is effectively interpreted , hence the lack of performance and your problems) that can handle low-level graphics.

With .NET (apparently)the way of the future if you are learning a new language it makes sense to use a .NET based language but even then to get fast graphics at the pixel level you will need to learn how to lockdown bitmaps and access them directly - C# is better for this than VB as it has pointer support.

If you want to compile for Pocket PC you must make sure that your chosen development environment and language can do this there are not many around that produce truly compiled codefor a device. The obvious choices are Visual Studio or SharpDevelop in the language of your choice though I believe that the current version of Delphi .NET can target devices.

By the way. Even a fully compiled version of Basic4PPC is unlikely to match the speed of compiled C# or VB.NET if it is to maintain compatibility with its' present code base because supporting weak typing effectively means that everything is a string that is converted to numbers when required. This is inevitably slower than a strongly typed language that knows what type variables are at compile time.

[neilnapier]

How do you compile using VB or C# to get it to work on a PPC? I know some VB but very little C#

[agraham]

You write and compile in a desktop environment and download the resultant code via ActiveSync(XP) or WindowMobile(Vista) to the device. I don't know about SharpDevelop but VisualStudio supports remote debugging on the device or on a desktop emulator.

[neilnapier]

I'm not giving up using this... even if it is slow it will be better than nothing. I hope that everyone that has so far helped will continue to do so.

[colin9876]

Thanks to AGraham for the explanation and example. I actually think its brilliant that he has got it more than 10 times faster!
Ive learnt something. I didnt realise that SDL didnt do most of the work, but in a way thats a good thing, because that means we are not dependent on a library we know nothing about.

I can do a little C but I dont have the kit - I only have the device (no pc or SDK), nor knowhow about dlls.

Im sure that with the use of a library to do the cpu intensive bits we could do this, and the moddable functions that u want can be done in Basic4ppc.

The library would need two functions
calculatepoints(px(),py(),pdx(),pdy(),pcolor(), rules(),n) 'looks at what the points have hit, how they interact etc
plotpoints(px(),py(),pcolor(),n) 'plots them on the screen in the specified colour

I would invisage the rules array containing some data like
Rules(color1,color2)=(colourchange,dx,dy,...)
Rules(yellow,white)=(red,0,0.5,...)
i.e. a yellow hitting a white pixel will turn the yellow pixel into red and move it at half speed down)

This would be loaded in from the mods file at the start of the program (in Basic)


Just out of interest Agraham - how long did it take u to port the tt demo etc into ur ttt library? If u did could do that again for the calculatepoints physics when Ive written it in Basic then we would be half way there???
Also just curious, saw u changed the Dim x(...) to INT32. Do C procedures have to accept numbers as 32bits?, what would be the default 'type' if the INT32 wasnt specified?

[neilnapier]

The fun of it isn't just playing about with it... it is modding for it and creating cool things with it. With BS2 you can create pictures or have backdrops and make REAL games like asteroids and such.

I myself made a cyberpet mod in BS1 about 6 months ago that was very good. (made some not so good ones since then)
I even started making a pacman game for Burning Sand too... and that is just with 2 functions.

It is all about the challenge.