Anyone got Dark Physics?
Anyone any opinions on it?
Anyone any opinions on it?
Dark Physics
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Dark Physics Most things are good except it forces you to install PhysX runtime - that's pretty weird coz I can directly use PhysX DLLs in Eliza without install those runtimes...
EDIT:
I think that's a licensing issue with TGC and AEGIA, so users are forced to install PhysX runtime even they have no PhysX card.
EDIT:
I think that's a licensing issue with TGC and AEGIA, so users are forced to install PhysX runtime even they have no PhysX card.
As much as I love Blitzmax, I have been using Darkbasic with the DARK PHYSICS expansion pack.
I must say I love it to pieces. I urge you all just to buy it for the documentation alone... I never thought they'd turn their product quality around but Dark Physics is a truely, truely professional piece of software.
You can do anything! I have been using physics with tokamak, ode, you name it I've tried it but nothing even remotely comes close to how easy you can do stuff in this!
It does physics on particles as well built in! for example you could have a fog you brushed through or spraying sparks! its not just for cars and rope bridges that sway then snap like indiana jones!
I love it, its like a new toy. Its cheap too - price of a game, so I'll be playing with this for a long time to come.
BTW... get facts right about the runtimes - you need these even if you install a game with PhysX
The official word from Aegia is: "The runtime drivers need to be installed for latest version of the PhysX SDK which is 2.5.0"
Dark physics uses the latest version... now I'll be off playing with my new physics toys (which is why I've been so quiet recently *laughs*)
I must say I love it to pieces. I urge you all just to buy it for the documentation alone... I never thought they'd turn their product quality around but Dark Physics is a truely, truely professional piece of software.
You can do anything! I have been using physics with tokamak, ode, you name it I've tried it but nothing even remotely comes close to how easy you can do stuff in this!
It does physics on particles as well built in! for example you could have a fog you brushed through or spraying sparks! its not just for cars and rope bridges that sway then snap like indiana jones!
I love it, its like a new toy. Its cheap too - price of a game, so I'll be playing with this for a long time to come.
BTW... get facts right about the runtimes - you need these even if you install a game with PhysX
The official word from Aegia is: "The runtime drivers need to be installed for latest version of the PhysX SDK which is 2.5.0"
Dark physics uses the latest version... now I'll be off playing with my new physics toys (which is why I've been so quiet recently *laughs*)
BTW... get facts right about the runtimes - you need these even if you install a game with PhysX
Yep. I had the drivers installed recently by a game which uses PhysX. I think it was GRAW.
thx for the mini review 'Jacks... nothing beats reliable, first hand info...
--Mike
--Mike
I have to admit, I started out with DarkBasic, and was shown Blitz, and got sucked in by it.
But lool at that link, and taking some time to find out just what DarkBasic, has progressed to, I am starting to wonder if my money spent on max was a waste.
I'm still not in a position to spend any large amount of time on big development projects bit I now have to consider if they should be made with DBPro or Max.
and thats a choice I did not think I would have to consider.
Why has Blitz fallen behind DB? its goto be simply that they have a much bigger development team to throw at it than mark has to throw at Blitz.
So whats better. Sticking with a language I like, but knowing its development team is rather small so major updates are always going to take time, or go some a new/old language that has a much stronger development team, even tho the language is ugly, its still got more to offer at the moment.
But lool at that link, and taking some time to find out just what DarkBasic, has progressed to, I am starting to wonder if my money spent on max was a waste.
I'm still not in a position to spend any large amount of time on big development projects bit I now have to consider if they should be made with DBPro or Max.
and thats a choice I did not think I would have to consider.
Why has Blitz fallen behind DB? its goto be simply that they have a much bigger development team to throw at it than mark has to throw at Blitz.
So whats better. Sticking with a language I like, but knowing its development team is rather small so major updates are always going to take time, or go some a new/old language that has a much stronger development team, even tho the language is ugly, its still got more to offer at the moment.
I'd hate to say it but DBLtd do seem to have a lot more 'packages' available for DBPro than Max does and IMHO this will sway loads of users in the long run over multiplatform compatibility.
But doesnt that Dark Basic folks have a larger staff than say...Mark?
Neuro:
"But doesnt that Dark Basic folks have a larger staff than say...Mark? "
Yes; is that for or against? And which? <shrug>
"But doesnt that Dark Basic folks have a larger staff than say...Mark? "
Yes; is that for or against? And which? <shrug>
It's not all rosy in DBP & AGEIA PhysX world. There's a small question of the licence if one wants to produce a commercial game. This is from Dark Physics Features page:
-------------------
How does the license work?
There is a license included with Dark Physics and the following text explains how it works:
* The AGEIA PhysX™ SDK is embedded into Dark Physics, created by The Game Creators (TGC)
* Endusers who purchase Dark Physics from TGC can create non-commercial games with PhysX™ support for no additional fee
* If an enduser wants to commercialize a game, they must complete a standard license contract with AGEIA
* PhysX™ -specific support is through the AGEIA Public Forum (and through TGC)
* DarkBASIC Professional and Dark Physics specific support is handled through TGC
-------------------
And this is from AGEIA's pages:
The AGEIA PhysX SDK is free for non-commercial use. Standard pricing for commercial use is $50,000/title/platform. Licensed developers who implement PhysX accelerator support in their PC title are not required to pay this fee.
Barney
-------------------
How does the license work?
There is a license included with Dark Physics and the following text explains how it works:
* The AGEIA PhysX™ SDK is embedded into Dark Physics, created by The Game Creators (TGC)
* Endusers who purchase Dark Physics from TGC can create non-commercial games with PhysX™ support for no additional fee
* If an enduser wants to commercialize a game, they must complete a standard license contract with AGEIA
* PhysX™ -specific support is through the AGEIA Public Forum (and through TGC)
* DarkBASIC Professional and Dark Physics specific support is handled through TGC
-------------------
And this is from AGEIA's pages:
The AGEIA PhysX SDK is free for non-commercial use. Standard pricing for commercial use is $50,000/title/platform. Licensed developers who implement PhysX accelerator support in their PC title are not required to pay this fee.
Barney
I agree Barnabius, this is from DB boards.
I think BRL could do the same sort of marketing as TGC if they wanted. It not specificaly that TGC have a greater staff, Its that TGC "BUY" these "addons" from their user base and sell them on.
So for example they would apprach Grey and buy his framework, then Realease "BMax Game Framework Plugin", or that wrapper that Gman has done for one of the 3d engines, (irriellllgtet or somthing). Or Heaven forbid, they could buy aurora, and market that.
(Mind you it does cost like 6 million quid to get all the addons)
You probably would be best having decent Ageia logo's and copyright notices - the Ageia guys want people to buy phys cards, so they are doing what they can to encourage this and give themselves a better foothold on this technology - think 3Dfx back in the day with it's Voodoo 3D cards.
Rich stated in a post that the commercial licence concearns can be bodyswerved. Basically keep the standards up, encourage them to buy a phys card by supporting it in your game, and you can probably sell your product without to many problems - I'm thinking it would have to go throught Ageia to be approved, but it's not the problem I thought it would be!.
Rich stated in a post that the commercial licence concearns can be bodyswerved. Basically keep the standards up, encourage them to buy a phys card by supporting it in your game, and you can probably sell your product without to many problems - I'm thinking it would have to go throught Ageia to be approved, but it's not the problem I thought it would be!.
I think BRL could do the same sort of marketing as TGC if they wanted. It not specificaly that TGC have a greater staff, Its that TGC "BUY" these "addons" from their user base and sell them on.
So for example they would apprach Grey and buy his framework, then Realease "BMax Game Framework Plugin", or that wrapper that Gman has done for one of the 3d engines, (irriellllgtet or somthing). Or Heaven forbid, they could buy aurora, and market that.
(Mind you it does cost like 6 million quid to get all the addons)
IMO the PhyX is not so great without hardware... basically I feel it much like Newton/Tokamak.
However DarkPhysics is well packaged/documented and advertised, and users'll say "Wow, this is a great product"
In comparsion of BMax's documents is like Da-Vinci Code, which may scary many potential customers off.
However DarkPhysics is well packaged/documented and advertised, and users'll say "Wow, this is a great product"
In comparsion of BMax's documents is like Da-Vinci Code, which may scary many potential customers off.
Yes, it's the information file that actually made me order Physics add-on. It's very well written and contain lots of info. I must say that the reference file is even better. Light years away from BMax docs I regret to say.
Barney
Barney
God not the licensing again, please read everything before saying there is a licensing issue... jeez!
And read it from TGC's PHYSX's license because they have a special arrangement with them.
As long as you send a copy of your game to ageia and they approve it, you are free to sell your game period.
You don't need to give them a dime!!!
They want to make sure it plays nice with their hardware, after all, it's their name at stake!
And read it from TGC's PHYSX's license because they have a special arrangement with them.
As long as you send a copy of your game to ageia and they approve it, you are free to sell your game period.
You don't need to give them a dime!!!
They want to make sure it plays nice with their hardware, after all, it's their name at stake!
But you are not free to just sell your game, They have to approve it. And any external approval is just not what I need. (I might at a push let the Certificate ppl give it an approval)
What happens if they say "No, the physics in this game doesnt show the card to its best, so you cannot sell it"?
or
"Sorry you have shown the vietcong in a bad light, and so you cannot sell it"?
And this approval is for games that use either the hardware or the software.
If I sent a game to a publisher, then fair enough I'll have to accept any changes they want. But a card manufaturer???? no!
What happens if they say "No, the physics in this game doesnt show the card to its best, so you cannot sell it"?
or
"Sorry you have shown the vietcong in a bad light, and so you cannot sell it"?
And this approval is for games that use either the hardware or the software.
If I sent a game to a publisher, then fair enough I'll have to accept any changes they want. But a card manufaturer???? no!
i have no first hand knowledge of how well, or how bad, the latest addons for the 'Dark' series of game dev tools (DBPro, FPSC, DARKGDK) works... but you have to admit, they're giving their audience lots of stuff to play with...
... and some of it doesn't look that bad at all
now, so far, i've always run into a ton of problems getting certain things to work seamlessly in DBPro (fog and bumpmapping for instance)... but i can see where, if i weren't making such a demanding set or demands on the language, DBPro, or even that FPSC(don't laugh) might be something to pursue...
anyways... i just wish we here at the Blitz farm had a few goodies... one goodie in particular would make me a happy farm hand (hint, hint)...
--Mike
... and some of it doesn't look that bad at all
now, so far, i've always run into a ton of problems getting certain things to work seamlessly in DBPro (fog and bumpmapping for instance)... but i can see where, if i weren't making such a demanding set or demands on the language, DBPro, or even that FPSC(don't laugh) might be something to pursue...
anyways... i just wish we here at the Blitz farm had a few goodies... one goodie in particular would make me a happy farm hand (hint, hint)...
--Mike
So that's what rumored "TGC knows how to SELL"...
It may be true...
It may be true...