* Indie Developer FAQ *

Dear community,

After some absence I am now working with Blitzmax again. Can we consolodate the outstanding issues that have been fixed/are still at large that will affect serious Indie Developers using the Blitzmax language? We can then Sticky this Thread and provide a working resource like I kicked off with the FMOD stuff.

Here are some FAQ questions we can start off with.

1. Is the input lag fixed where BMax would buffer ahead frames so your mouse pointer appeared several seconds behind?

2. What sound issues are there and which sound should I be using for what OS?

3. Is the default input stable for BMax? should I be using an OS input library?

4. What vista "gotchas" are there?

5. Anything else you can add that I should watch out for? links for any of the above questions also very welcome.


If this becomes popular may I ask for a sticky? an "Indie Developer FAQ" will motivate people and help us push Blitzmax as the premier solution for Indie development. Thank you!

Yes, as far as I'm aware. There was a fix a while back that is now part of the current module. I've not heard of anyone having any problems for a while now.


Delayed sound and/or cracking with certain drivers on certains OSs. The current thinking is to use FreeAudio on XP, OpenAL on everything else (DirectSound where OpenAL is not available). OS X and Linux don't suffer, so FreeAudio is the best there also.


Are there any problems? I've not heard of anyone experiencing any problems, so I think it's safe to assume that this is perfectly safe.


- The audio issue, mentioned above - use OpenGL/DirectSound.

- Folder/file permissions - especially between accounts. These can be set by the installer, but there is also a fix posted by Grey Alien that allows the program to create and set these permissions as well.

- Location of save/data files - should be the CommonAppsDir or the user's own folder as a last resort. Data that needs to be modified should not be saved in the same dir as the app.


Can't think of any at the moment.