Sprite Kit, Box2D, Performance and LiveCode's Approach to Game Coding
Dear LiveCode Gurus, hello all...
As you know, Apple introduced a new framework named Sprite Kit targeting mainly
game developing, 2D of course.
It's quite promising and not just for games, either.
Particle systems and physics engine could serve business apps, too, with nice
little effects and sleek animations.
It probably will do a lot of damage to Cocos2D, Box2D, Sparrow
and in time maybe a possible threat to gaming consoles {see link #1 at the
bottom of the post}.
What do you think RunRev's approach will be to this move?
Are we going to continue with Box2D which is merely a physics engine not a full
gaming framework?
Box2D's wide support for Desktop, Android, etc. is a strong point, though.
But how about accessing that flawless animations of iOS 7 via LiveCode syntax
and some support for Sprite Kit?
Do RunRev realize the potential of gaming {especially indie games, 2D, 2.5D,
platform, side-scrolling, top-down etc.}?
I don't have any well-studied statistics under my sleeve
but huge successes of Cut the Rope, Angry Birds and other games akin is hard to
ignore.
Even Apple did realize the importance of gaming.
I'm quoting from Steffen's article here:
The Biggie: Apple acknowledges games!
Apple finally understands the significance of games for their platforms! Sprite
Kit is acknowledgement of that fact. Rejoice!
And one more thing {this could be a separate topic, actually, but anyways}:
What's with the performance issues with LiveCode?
I know it's not a native low-level language but still…
Some research has shown that Javascript is 50-times slower than C++.
I assume that we would see same results if LiveCode's compared to C++.
Yet, Javascript is capable of doing some amazing things like Mozilla's Citadel
port.
{http://www.unrealengine.com/html5/}
But here we are; not able to even effectively live-resize images on an iPhone.
Try for yourself:
{http://forums.runrev.com/viewtopic.php?f=49t=14259#p70375}
Was this topic too inconsiderate? Sorry, if it is.
I'm not a decent programmer, I know that.
I can't write my own game engine, I don't know even where to start.
And I'm not willing to enter Objective-C's or C++'s obscure environments, again.
I love LiveCode, with it's many unique features.
I love its IDE, its speed, ability to script right into the objects.
However, I had to turn down 4 fairly-big game projects in last couple of months.
We don't have physics engine, particle support, strong animations, 3D, etc.
But most importantly, performance issues are a real deal-breaker.
I couldn't dare to accept them.
Any of them would rotate the wheels of my business for at least a year,
possibly longer :)
Interestingly, day after day the number of my business-app-demanding customers
shrinks
where game projects on my table are increasing.
I assume that I'm not alone here.
It's a global trend, I think.
Don't you wanna see some 10-million sold, fluent and addictive games in the
LiveCode showcase page?
I know I do :)
It'll make proud all of us.
I need some clarifications or insights of more experienced developers -like
you- to draw a roadmap for my company.
What do you think about these, I'd love to hear your opinions.
Links related to Sprite Kit:
http://www.learn-cocos2d.com/2013/06/apple-create-spritekit/
http://www.imore.com/ios-7-preview-sprite-kit
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/GraphicsAnimation/Conceptual/SpriteKit_PG/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40013043-CH1-SW1
Kind Regards,
~ Ender Nafi
~… together, we're smarter …~
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Re: Mac/WIndows ASCII characters
Thanks for the clarification Mark. Am I right in thinking no special action is necessary for Linux? Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 6:53 PM, Mark Schonewille m.schonewi...@economy-x-talk.com wrote: Hi Pete, Either use isoToMac(numToChar(182)) or numToChar(166). The isoToMac and macToIso functions apply to all ASCII character above 128 and not only if store on one platform and displayed on another. If you use the Latin-1 character table on Mac, like you're doing now, you'll always need the isoToMac function to convert the characters to MacRoman. -- Best regards, Mark Schonewille Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer KvK: 50277553 Use Color Converter to convert CMYK, RGB, RAL, XYZ, H.Lab and other colour spaces. http://www.color-converter.com We have time for new software development projects. Contact me for a quote. On 17 aug 2013, at 03:43, Peter Haworth wrote: I'm displaying data from a custom property in a scrolling list field. Before I put the data into the field, I replace return chars in it with numToChar(182) - the paragraph symbol. This works fine on Windows but on a Mac I get a completely different character - an O with some sort of accent over it. I'm aware of the ISOToMac/MacToISO functions but I thought those were only for ascii chars 128 that were stored on Windows then displayed on Mac or vice versa. In this case, I'm just replacing the return character before loading it into the field, not changing it in the custom property. What am I doing wrong? Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Mac/WIndows ASCII characters
Thanks Curry. That might be the easiest way to go - no platform check involved. I'm also putting a horizontal ellipsis character in the text so hopefully there's an html equivalent of that. Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 10:51 PM, Curry Kenworthy cu...@pair.com wrote: Pete wrote: I replace return chars in it with numToChar(182) - the paragraph symbol. This works fine on Windows but on a Mac I get a completely different character - an O with some sort of accent over it. Try para; with htmltext! Best wishes, Curry K. __**_ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/**mailman/listinfo/use-livecodehttp://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Control From Outside
I thought there was a way to launch a LC app with parameters, i.e. stdin. Maybe I'm thinking of another IDE. Launching the app isn't the problem. It's passing the parameters to it at launch. I could also create a file somewhere for the app to read. On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 7:31 PM, Mark Schonewille m.schonewi...@economy-x-talk.com wrote: Hi Mike, On Windows, your best option is probably to use sockets, if you are trying to communicate between two LiveCode standalones. If you want to communicate between a LiveCode standalone and another non-LiveCode application, it depends on the options available in the other application. What exactly do you want? -- Best regards, Mark Schonewille Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/**xtalkprogrammerhttp://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer KvK: 50277553 Use Color Converter to convert CMYK, RGB, RAL, XYZ, H.Lab and other colour spaces. http://www.color-converter.com Buy my new book Programming LiveCode for the Real Beginner http://qery.us/3fi Fill out this survey please http://livecodebeginner.**economy-x-talk.com/survey/http://livecodebeginner.economy-x-talk.com/survey/ On 8/15/2013 19:38, Mike Kerner wrote: I can't remember how to set up a stack/standalone to respond to calls from another application. This is on Windows. The other application will be telling the stack/standalone to do something. There is no two-way communication necessary. __**_ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/**mailman/listinfo/use-livecodehttp://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode -- On the first day, God created the heavens and the Earth On the second day, God created the oceans. On the third day, God put the animals on hold for a few hours, and did a little diving. And God said, This is good. ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Mac/WIndows ASCII characters
Looking into this further, it appears the list of namd html entities in the dictionary entry for htmltext is very incomplete. I just tried crarr; and hellip; and they both work fine but are not listed in the dictionary. Does anyone have an up to date list of what LC recognizes in htmltext for ascii chars 127? Is it possible it supports them all, as listed at http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_symbols.asp? This also makes me wonder if the list of tags supported by htmltext is complete. Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Peter Haworth p...@lcsql.com wrote: Thanks Curry. That might be the easiest way to go - no platform check involved. I'm also putting a horizontal ellipsis character in the text so hopefully there's an html equivalent of that. Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 10:51 PM, Curry Kenworthy cu...@pair.com wrote: Pete wrote: I replace return chars in it with numToChar(182) - the paragraph symbol. This works fine on Windows but on a Mac I get a completely different character - an O with some sort of accent over it. Try para; with htmltext! Best wishes, Curry K. __**_ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/**mailman/listinfo/use-livecodehttp://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Mac/WIndows ASCII characters
On 08/17/2013 12:34 PM, Peter Haworth wrote: hopefully there's an html equivalent of that. http://www.html-entities.org/ ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Mac/WIndows ASCII characters
Hi Pete, You can treat Linux in the same way as Windows. -- Best regards, Mark Schonewille Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer KvK: 50277553 Use Color Converter to convert CMYK, RGB, RAL, XYZ, H.Lab and other colour spaces. http://www.color-converter.com We have time for new software development projects. Contact me for a quote. On 17 aug 2013, at 19:33, Peter Haworth wrote: Thanks for the clarification Mark. Am I right in thinking no special action is necessary for Linux? Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Mac/WIndows ASCII characters
On 08/17/2013 09:38 PM, Mark Schonewille wrote: Hi Pete, You can treat Linux in the same way as Windows. Really? That's odd as I didn't know it was that similar! LOL. -- Best regards, Mark Schonewille Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer KvK: 50277553 Use Color Converter to convert CMYK, RGB, RAL, XYZ, H.Lab and other colour spaces. http://www.color-converter.com We have time for new software development projects. Contact me for a quote. On 17 aug 2013, at 19:33, Peter Haworth wrote: Thanks for the clarification Mark. Am I right in thinking no special action is necessary for Linux? Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Mac/WIndows ASCII characters
Thanks Warren, that works. Do you happen to know if all the entities mentioned there are supported within htmltext? Per my other post, they're not all mentioned in the dictionary entry for htmltext Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Warren Samples war...@warrensweb.uswrote: On 08/17/2013 12:34 PM, Peter Haworth wrote: hopefully there's an html equivalent of that. http://www.html-entities.org/ __**_ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/**mailman/listinfo/use-livecodehttp://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Mac/WIndows ASCII characters
Thanks Mark. I decided to go the htmltext route so I don't have to worry about platforms. Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 11:38 AM, Mark Schonewille m.schonewi...@economy-x-talk.com wrote: Hi Pete, You can treat Linux in the same way as Windows. -- Best regards, Mark Schonewille Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer KvK: 50277553 Use Color Converter to convert CMYK, RGB, RAL, XYZ, H.Lab and other colour spaces. http://www.color-converter.com We have time for new software development projects. Contact me for a quote. On 17 aug 2013, at 19:33, Peter Haworth wrote: Thanks for the clarification Mark. Am I right in thinking no special action is necessary for Linux? Pete lcSQL Software http://www.lcsql.com ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
RE: Sprite Kit, Box2D, Performance and LiveCode's Approach to Game Coding
As you know, Apple introduced a new framework named Sprite
Kit targeting mainly game developing, 2D of course.
It's quite promising and not just for games, either.
Particle systems and physics engine could serve business
apps, too, with nice little effects and sleek animations.
It probably will do a lot of damage to Cocos2D, Box2D,
Sparrow and in time maybe a possible threat to gaming
consoles {see link #1 at the bottom of the post}.
What do you think RunRev's approach will be to this move?
Are we going to continue with Box2D which is merely a physics
engine not a full gaming framework?
This is something that they should stay away from. Runtime has the herculean
task of providing a multiplatform solution. All operating systems are
evolving with some very intensive graphicly rich features. We have wars of
resolution on desktop and mobile that need to be addressed. Media enrichment
is a must. But how much? You should be able to handle casual games. But...
My team did Frankin 3D, which for the most part encapsulates the Irrlicht
game engine. What made Irrlicht attractive is that it has a lot of
implementations that are mature, and can handle both OpenGL and DirectX. It
is hugely complex. What you end up with is the ability to interact with the
engine in a way that's quite a bit easier than learning C++, but you still
need to be a seasoned LiveCode user to use it.
You could look at a solution like Unity 3D but there againits a great
visual environment with a big learning curve. It's got a lot of power and
really great tools that are focused on 3D. But Unity 3D cannot make standard
applications or even 2D applications without another big learning curve -
totally not a LiveCode replacement.
An investment that cannot work on all supported platforms and not leverage
the natural productivity of LiveCode isn't a good investment for Runtime.
Now they could implement cross platform support that might otherwise send
you to some other 2D game tool, but certainly Apple isn't out to support
Windows, Linux or Android. Those who went down the road years ago with
Quicktime 3D know what Im talking about ;-)
Best regards,
Lynn Fredricks
President
Paradigma Software
http://www.paradigmasoft.com
Valentina SQL Server: The Ultra-fast, Royalty Free Database Server
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Re: Control From Outside
Hi Mike, On Windows and Linux, you can start a standalone from the command line with parameteres. The parameters can be found in $0, $1 etc. You can do the same on Mac OS X, but you will have probems with the GUI. On Windows, you can also use the relaunch message to decide how a standalone should respond to the command line. The problem with the command line is that you can fire the app only once and can't interact. Using sockets, you may have more control. On Mac OS X, you can use Apple events, but you might also use sockets. If you explain what you want to do exactly, I or someone else might give you better advice. -- Best regards, Mark Schonewille Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer KvK: 50277553 Use Color Converter to convert CMYK, RGB, RAL, XYZ, H.Lab and other colour spaces. http://www.color-converter.com We have time for new software development projects. Contact me for a quote. On 17 aug 2013, at 19:36, Mike Kerner wrote: I thought there was a way to launch a LC app with parameters, i.e. stdin. Maybe I'm thinking of another IDE. Launching the app isn't the problem. It's passing the parameters to it at launch. I could also create a file somewhere for the app to read. ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: IDE versus MSG Box - Field Tabstops
On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 12:57 PM, Jim Lambert j...@netrin.com wrote:
get the backcolor of someControl as {colorName | RGBcolor | HEXcolor}
I definitely like the as syntax. Not to stir up a dead conversation, but
the tabs situation could be cleanly solved in the same way:
set the tabs of fld 3 to myList -- could be tabstops, tabwidths, or a mix
put the tabs of fld 3[ as stops|widths] -- defaults to stops
tabstops would then be a deprecated synonym for tabs
For colors, the color part itself seems unnecessary:
get the backcolor of someControl[ as {Name|RGB|HEX}]
Hopefully the default would be RGB.
And there is the question of what to return if asked for Name and there is
no name for the exact color. The nearest color? RGB instead?
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Re: IDE versus MSG Box - Field Tabstops
Geoff- Saturday, August 17, 2013, 4:04:38 PM, you wrote: And there is the question of what to return if asked for Name and there is no name for the exact color. The nearest color? RGB instead? theColorThatShallNotBeNamed -- -Mark Wieder mwie...@ahsoftware.net ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: IDE versus MSG Box - Field Tabstops
On 8/17/13 7:51 PM, Mark Wieder wrote: Geoff- Saturday, August 17, 2013, 4:04:38 PM, you wrote: And there is the question of what to return if asked for Name and there is no name for the exact color. The nearest color? RGB instead? theColorThatShallNotBeNamed :) It's name is Argie Bee, but we don't say it. -- Jacqueline Landman Gay | jac...@hyperactivesw.com HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
