Many people in the blind gaming community still use XP, yet you push us to
switch tu 7 or above. So much for the third point.
As to the second, should Jim Kitchen stop using what he is comfortable using
to create games, cutting those with older systems out as far as being able
to access his games? Should he learn a newer language in order to cater to
the new while losing the old? I don't think so.
---
Be positive! When it comes to being defeated, if you think you're finished,
you! really! are! finished!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2013 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] mac versus windows sales plus iOS question
Hi Shaun,
Although I basically agree with your sentiments next time you should
try and word your opinions using less profanity and not be so harsh.
The way you worded your message below could be very offensive to some
developers and I'd prefer we not do that while expressing a point of
view. That said, the points you raised do need to be openly discussed.
As for your first point I agree Visual Basic 6 has passed its prime
and game developers do need to move on with something else. It has
been unsupported since 2008, a good five years ago, and a lot of
Visual Basic 6 components are broken on newer Windows platforms. I
strongly feel that developers would be better served if they stopped
developing games and other software in VB 6 and started using
something else better suited to newer Windows releases.
As to your second point about language I'm not really sure about Pure
Basic as a replacement for Visual Basic 6.
I do not know it well so can't really judge it accurately. What I do
know is that Visual Basic .NET would be a very decent replacement for
Visual Basic 6. Combined with SlimDX VB .NET would be modern, offer VB
developers more features, and still have the familiarity of Visual
Basic they have come to like.
As for your third point I disagree. Switching over to 64-bit
exclusively right now would be a huge mistake for any developer. The
reason is that there are plenty of computers out there running Vista,
Windows 7, etc on older 32-bit hardware. I see no need to drop those
users and their computers just because they don't have a modern
processor. I myself have a handful of 32-bit computers that have been
refurbished and upgraded to Windows 7 and I'd be blowing my own foot
off by dropping support for 32-bit Windows machines not to mention not
being able to sell to anyone else who was running similarly upgraded
machines for no real gain.
As for your fourth point I agree that game developers need to begin
supporting something other than DirectSound. Especially, if 3d audio
etc is involved. DirectSound is OK for basic 2d stereo panning but
beyond that it is seriously problematic on Windows Vista, Windows 7,
and Windows 8, and is a poor choice for audio gaming now days. I think
right now OpenAL is the best all around choice for audio game
developers, and should be seriously considered for future audio games.
As for your final point about supported hardware that all depends on
the type of game and of course the platform involved. While supporting
joysticks, mice, and keyboards is a good idea as a general rule of
thumb there are cases where such support is unnecessary.
To give you an example STFC was by and large a menu driven game. I
could not see adding joystick support or mouse support would improve
that game in any specific way. On the other hand a game like GMA's
Tank Commander would be awesome with joystick and mouse support. So it
all depends on the type of game being considered.
Cheers!
On 12/21/13, shaun everiss <[email protected]> wrote:
Well I don't know exactly how this would need to change in practical
terms but there needs to be some serious canges.
I won't mince words, and I am going to be blunt.
I am not saying that any of this is easy in fact it may be darn hard
but it needs to happen.
1. Visual basic 6 is a pile of crap, its shit and needs to die.
Yes vb6 is good and simple but we all know that its support is
unsertain and thats the big deal.
I realise that 90% of all audiogames are still in vb6.
Firstly we need to stop developing anything new in vb6.
Next we need to convert over to something that is not vb6.
that may mean python, vb dotnet or something.
We need to start supporting 64 bit exclusively as this is probably
going to be the future.
We need to find either an 32 bit extender to run 16 bit programs like
eamon in dos or find a way to run this stuff in a windows console or
something same with dos games that can not be run by other means.
3. direct sound is als a pile of crap.
Direct sound is good, but in later windows its broken and frankly its
not even supported.
So we need to move away from that.
Using open al support or fsl is a good thing though there are some
all direction echos that are part of the way it handles effects and
it appears that its author can not fix those right now if ever.
3. game devices.
Its probably not as important as the other 2 but more games need to
start supporting mice, joysticks, etc as well as keyboard maybe even
touch screens.
We need things to support the latest tech if not gaming grade
sertainly the basic tech.
That was the keyboard, joystick and gamepad, now the mouse, touch
tablet and stuff like that need to be added to that.
In practice.
I realise in the short term we are probably stuck with direct sound
and probably vb6.
It would be nice to get games that use more than the keyboard and or
to get some that use the stick run a bit better but thats probably
not going to happen, most use the keyboard.
I know some devs are working hard to convert away from vb6 draconis
is, and gma is rumored to be moving.
L works I am not sure but it may vary well be doing so as well.
Now I do realise some of this is not cheap and for a while may be
almost impossible to do but thats what I feel are the main points.
In the long run there is probably no answer.
In theory as long as there are no major changes in what windows os
configs do, we may catch up but who knows?
Pure basic may be a replacement for vb6.
I have run some games from it, there compiled versions have crashed
with some memmory error on exit but they run ok and also run ok from
source.
You may or may not be able to alt tab away from them and there are
questions over the stability of pure basic over 5.00 versions.
Python is another language.
nvda and its add on engine is python based and its almost crash
proof, it still crashes but for a fully running screen reader for
what it does it sertainly shows what a scripter like python can do.
One thing that has not been really looked at as such is console apps
which look and run like dos apps but are not dos apps as such stuff
like the richard disteno games are donsole apps.
Again This is my opinion.
You asked and I gave it straight up.
You don't like it, then delete it.
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