Aurora. Feel a bit Awkward saying this.

I consider Antony a friend so I'm not sure how to feel about the situation with Aurora. Support has vanished and the forums are dead. Antony is nowhere to be found and I feel like I've wasted £40.

Even though I consider him a friend, am I right to complain a little about the current situation? I thought that he would support this engine and be dedicated to it but it doesn't look like it's happening. I also hear that antony is now working on a different project.

Dunno really.

Has anyone been in contact with him? £40 is £40.

I spoke to Ant today, and he only seems to be supporting a C# of his engine through the development of his football game.

The other odd thing today was that he was asking me for his old b3d loader stuff from Trinity 2 and is now thinking of starting another engine using MiniB3D combined with irlicht and Bmax.

Damien and I stopped using Aurora when Ant started stepping on our toes on the game dev side of things and neglecting supporting the Engine and the people that paid for it.

-------------

At the moment, if your using Bmax, it seems that SOW is going to be the best bet for an Ogre engine, it already supports as much as Aurora did, and in some instances more. And best of all it is totaly free.

If all you want is something akin to Blitz3D but in Bmax, then you might want to look at Simon H's Mini B3D.

There's also Gabriels TV3D module that I have no experience with.

Thanks for the reply Evak.

I'm dissapointed that there will be no more support for BMax users of Aurora. That's definately not what was promised when I purchased.

Well, That's £40 I'll never see again :/

As long as 'surprised' isn't one of those things you're felling, you should be doing alright.

Consider it a lesson learnt.

Yes. But here probably isn't the right place to do it.

Sue him for breech of contract, maybe get a claas action lawsuit going. Do they have those in the UK?

I'd mention his behavior to the folks selling Aurora and see what they have to say about it. I doubt they want to sell products made by unreliable people.

I agree that this may not have been the best place to post this. I don't want to diss Antony but he took my £40 squids and done a runner. :)



I'm not going to do that but will voice my dissapointment in an email to him. If I can find his email addy.

Chances are that's more expensive than it's worth.

Financially? Possibly. For entertainment value? Surely you jest.

heh what upsets me most about Antony, is that he has talent, and it always seems like a little extra push in the right direction and he could go far.

Damien and I thought that he went a long way to redeeming himeself earlier on in Aurora's development. And people were starting to give him some respect. All I can say for him is that in the last 3 years he has improved. I just don't think people are going to give him any more chances.

If you need his email, you can email me and I'll send it your way Amon.

Some people were expecting right that and it was one reason why the support for Aurora was - well - kind of not so strong.

Maybe Antony should realize that continuity of product support is one of the most important features.

Although, we should not judge anyone who is not here and therefor cannot defend himself.

My thoughts exactly.

I think the Aurora was his last chance on this forum to show that he is dedicated to a project. I remember back in the day when he went crazy creating SOTA. He had drive then.



I think I've found it. Is it the btinternet one?

I have his email as well and I have emailed him on the subject. I have been granting him a sub domain on my webserver for a few months now and I've been taking the bandwidth hit in hopes that my free license will earn its worth but without any updates or support im afraid I might be mistaking. I hope antony has just been really busy as I use to talk to him on Yahoo messenger and he sounded like he was excited about Aurora. I will be taking his subdomain down if he doesnt reply to my last email.

yeah thats the one Amon.

I'm kind of hoping he might check out the forums here, and give it another go.

Just so you know, he has rematerialized on his forums.

Probably not posting here all that much for obvious reasons.



Maybe if we hound him constantly, he will not change to a new project...
So far, he's actually shown a surprising amount of dedication... hopefully whatever game he works on here will keep him busy thinking about Aurora.

This is Antony we're talking about here.

Surely you were aware of his previous track record?

He has released and abandoned so many net and 3D libs that I've lost count at this point.

The nice thing is that regardless of how this turns out, I don't lose a cent. How wonderful it is to be good at drawing tiny signature images.

Thats what happens when people with bipolar savant disorder (if there is such a thing) tries to develop something and promote it himself. Everyone should of seen that comming. Nonetheless, he did provide several minutes of entertainment everytime the looniness overtakes him.

Bipolar Savant Disorder.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bipolar+savant+disorder&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

It does exist.

well he replied back and said he has just been busy with the c# side of things with the engine and that the bmax updates are coming.

Uh I don't see Bipolar Savant Disorder on there. There's Bipolar Disorder and Autistic Savant ... but not an actual listing of Bipolar Savant Disorder.

Antony just has commitment issues would be my guess. He doesn't mind putting forth a supreme effort in short bursts but when he realizes that what he's doing with each of his engines isn't going to fully take off in a short period of time and that they'd actually take months or years of dedication then he backs away. A straightforward commitment problem ... that meshed with a supreme desire for success doesn't mix well though and is probably kind of depressing for him.

I can see his point of view and I kind of felt the same way at times only I think I'm more even keel ... but that doesn't mean I can't see where he's coming from. Once he gets a bit older he'll probably realize that most things worth doing just take a long-term commitment. I think a lot of us were raised hearing about the successes of game developers before us when it was a bit easier and we still think that one or a couple of guys can make millions off a game and you still can but with so many people developing stuff the likelihood of some short term project becoming a major success is limited. It might not be anymore limited than it ever was truth be told but none of us probably realizes just how limited the chances really are.

Naaaaa,

I think he just realises hes onto a good thing.

He'll wait a bit, post he has something fantasticly new, but you cannot see it less you buy it.
Sell a few dozen (or what ever copies), and laugh all the way to the bank.

I mean come on why bother actualy finishing somthing, when you can sell as many copies just buy saying you promise to finish it

Ahh autistic savant....thats whats antony's problem is. Someone else mention he had bipolar and something else. I guess you can also throw in a little ADD in his case. So put it all together and it does make sense......

ADHD and aspbergers is what my money is on. With no one around to keep him on track, he'll keep doing this forever.

> Antony just has commitment issues would be my guess. He doesn't mind putting forth a supreme effort in short bursts but when he realizes that what he's doing with each of his engines isn't going to fully take off in a short period of time and that they'd actually take months or years of dedication then he backs away. A straightforward commitment problem ... that meshed with a supreme desire for success doesn't mix well though and is probably kind of depressing for him.

you reminded me of the old story of the hare and
the tortoise, Ant is like the hare, and in this race
of software development it's the tortoise that wins
the race. :)

It's a real shame, Aurora looked very promising. But... this wasn't entirely unexpected.

Hopefully this thread will stay around long enough to warn people in future.

Ant's a good guy really, I do hope he continues to support Aurora, which really does show he's capable of good things.

Ant if you're reading this you *know* you can help yourself and eventually get somewhere with Aurora. Just stick with it. And for gods sake, stay in touch with your customers! :)

Maybe he just want quick money?

Now using Irrlicht so don't touch OGRE for while, feeling OGRE is bloated and choose it'll be inconvenient in the future.

If I have spare time I may look into Jolt3D... this is the only one that get 4.5 stars on DevMasters, looks pretty nice.

You guys are your own worst enemy.

Why don't you ever learn what this guy is like??

The developer of gamebench gave the money back to his customers when he stopped the project...

Nuff said.

He just goes about things wrong, and ends up making things worse for himself. He'll get there one day. Hopefully. I don't think the above is the case.

Dunno... didn't he do that "Vivid" thing a while ago and sell it on shareit before he'd even finished it to a point where it was saleable? And that's to say nothing of his countless unfinished/abandoned 'schemes'.

How many chances do you give somebody?

> How many chances do you give somebody?

heh, that sounds like a rhetorical question.

but, i think it's 9. :)

http://www.moviesounds.com/amadeus/laughing.wav

--Mike

It's unbeleviable that some of you still defend this piece of s***. And even call him a friend.

People like him give a bad name to shareware developers...

Without meaning to rub salt in the wounds, I can't believe after how guy acted like a bit of a dick on these forums, that you still went ahead and bought his stuff. He was banned from these forums for a reason, take heed in the future of the blindly obvious facts staring you in the face.

> Maybe if we hound him constantly, he
> will not change to a new project...

LOL WOW! what a top idea! Let's go and hound him.

Better still, let's all gang up, drive round to Anthony's house in a jeep and go kick his head in and steal Amon's 40 quid back! YEAH! and of course stopping off on the way en route to Eddie's house to get Boiled Sweet's 15 quid back that he lost on Visual Blitz.

We can call ourselves the THE BLITZ INDY AVENGERS!



Heheh man, some people seriously need a reality check.
If I ever make an app you all buy, my name is never going on it. :)

Every time he releases a *product* on here people dive in the thread and post, so it's very clear to those interested in anything he does is going to be short lived, bugged and dropped at any second.

If you have bought from him, you have no excuse that you were unaware of his track record, so why post dissapointment in the first place. His track record is just that, half finished, null supported, gimme your money and I'll run product line.

He's moved on now to con other communities with his "never to be finished" products. I hope if he ever posts another product for sale thread here, its wiped off the forum on site, or a post underneath to say "Don't buy from this guy, you'll waste money" and its get locked.

It's not harsh, it is reality. Everyone on this forum knows he takes money and never delivers anything of worth. I'm amazed he got a single sale from the blitz community selling Aurora.

I would go as far to say that anyone who bought Aurora on his promises were really gulable and had no excuse considering there were blunt warnings from members all over the threads.

> I'm amazed he got a single sale from
> the blitz community selling Aurora.

Don't worry, there's enough goldfish people to go around.

Seriously. Keep sticking your head in the car door while Antony continually slams it shut. Just don't complain to me about your headache.

He's a loser who will never fully finish anything. Every project is the same. As soon as the initial technology rush/high is over and the engine requires real, actual work to finish - he's gone.

It is harsh, and I don't think you personally know him well enough to second guess his true motivation, so I think it's a bit far from most peoples definition of reality.

Now please be advised I'm not making excuses for what Antonys done, or the way he behaved. He reaped the whirlwind, and to a lesser degree, the same goes for everyone who bought Aurora.

However this passive-aggressive Antony bashing needs to stop.

First of all, it's against the forum conduct rules, and while I concede the point that outright banning is unlikely in this particular case, it's not the kind of thing you should gamble with.

Secondly, if all the bad things said about Antony are actually true, do you think he's gives a flying (duck -Ed) what you think about him? I somehow doubt that.

i'm gonna have to agree with 'duck here (although i'm really not too sure what passive aggressive means here)... this does noone any good... and we all share in the mess...

even those of us who were 'smart' enough not to be suckkered in...

Heeeee Hawwwwww :)

(sorry, just had to throw that one in there.... hahahahahaaaaaaaa)

--Mike

You know, when Antony started spamming the forums advertising Aurora, I thought it was obvious enough from that point on that things weren't going too well...

Or at least when the price dropped to 50% ...

That's never stopped you relentlessly bashing Microsoft, FlameDuck.

It's nothing to do with knowing him personally. Do you know the people personally behing every item you buy? of course you dont. If you got stung for buying a product you wouldn't be thinking "well, maybe he has other motivations".


No, its quite simple. He's great coming out of the gate, but not much for the long haul.

I resent that. I am openly aggressive.

Well, if he didn't care the first time around then he wouldnt of went nuts and spammed the forum - on several occasions - just to get his "point" across about his product. And if he's really supporting his product, he really should care what people are thinking of him - based on his past track record.

Fact of the matter is, it's not his commitment issues, poor decision making, or whatever else anyone can come up with for him. His erratic behavior would eventually get him bashed, he had it comming eventually, and the folks here are dishing it out...

Bashing can often be very therapeutic, especially when bishops are involved.

Why do/would anyone think its a commitment problem.

Hes a griffter.

Take Aurora3D,
He responded to any thread that requested a 3d enginge, posting that non existed except his. http://www.blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=58883#656220
He posted blanent questions, just so he could post his code (Which he called but didnt show), with wild claims about how ,much faster it was than BMax.
http://www.blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=58513
He then, refused to let ppl see his engine, incase they pirrated it.
http://www.blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=58607#652880
Then took everyones money, (Well just the money of the people born in minutes)

How many people *did* buy it then? Any ideas?

Hopefully not many, but at least 4 ppl said they were happy with it.
But how many ppl who dont ever post bought it?

I'm thinking of wrapping MiniB3d, and selling that ;)

(That IS a joke)

lol

MiniB3D is awesome though, best news for bmax in ages :)

funny how people all ganged up on blitz research for removing his aurora bullshit.

Perhaps they had a point?

Next time he posts with a product, I suggest you all reply with a link to this thread. Enough is enough - he is finished in blitz and will no longer be able to work here.

How hard is it to write a wrapper for someone elses engine like that? Genuine question.

It seems morally suspect to me. Charging for an interface to a free engine I mean. People are really paying for the engines functionality aren't they?

I'm going to re-wrap that, called it "BOREALIS" and sell for $39. :)

@ John, really really easily

Obviously it depends on what the engine is written in, but miniB3D, is in BMaX, so.....

Im going to call it Max3D, And make loads of posts with a bit fat advert for it

When youre not talking about MiniB3D, it can be quite a challenge. Ant was charging really for his time, since its not just a case of :

Function CreateEntity()
   Created=Cfunc("CreateEntity")
   Return Created
End function

We all agreed he charged too much from day one for the time though.

I was well aware of his previous track record, at least with Vivid. However, I'm no Hitler, and therefore believe that everyone deserves a second chance.

As for bipolar-whatever, it seems there's a disease for every excuse nowdays. Maybe he can do a bipolar with the cash he took, and give it back.

Do you think a refund would work with this guy ? I think not.

He did it for a quick buck, in one thread he was still stating that he desperately needed the money, there is no way he would part with it now.

Ofcourse someone with more scruples(sp) would think of giving money back.

Oh well, the dosh doesn't really bother me tooooo much. Otherwise I wouldn't have started the annoyances thread in the first place. I guess that was why the other buyers were afraid to add their concerns to the thread. I was (and still am) more irate at the way that everyone gave him another chance and he threw it back in our faces.

As for some of the comments by certain people about donkeys, fish, level of intelligence etc....you shouldn't have pre-concieved notions about why any person makes a certain decision. It would be more intelligent to be asking the person deciding first, before fabricating any of your own reasons. That way you might be more inclined to base your comments on....you know...facts.

Pop Quiz hotshots, what do you do when you slag someone off for something that has not happened?

Aurora has not be dropped at all, I've just stopped visiting the blitz forums lately, and one look at this thread should answer the question why. too many trolls in it for themself who have no regard for other people's feelings. seriously invest a little time in self improvement and little less in judging other people.

To repeat. Aurora is still on sale, is still being worked on and will still recieve updates.

To go on even further, it has recieved FOUR updates in a little over a month. That's more than bmax gets ffs and you're accusing me of dropping support. Seriously take a reality check.

And if anyone says that not enough, please point me in the direction of your product you update at least five times a month to make your point.

kbyethx.

5 updates a month? Sounds like it was released too soon.

http://glimmergames.com/forum/index.php?topic=14.0

At least 8 times in the last week.

Also, if you post there I'll answer within 8 hours, not several weeks! No charge.

What was the problem with your posting on your product forum? Go to some remote area recently? It is, after all, the one forum you should be frequenting the most as you now have paying customers.

Love or hate the guy - you'll miss him when he's gone! These forums are like being trapped in Sunday on some sprawling middle class estate these days...er what were we talking about again?