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"Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W game
Post by David Williams on Feb 26^th, 2010, 03:28am

OK, it's essentially 'Space Invaders'.

You can opt to run the program in either 640x512 'Windowed mode', or 'Fullscreen mode' (recommended!).

Although *not* required for Windowed mode, you will need to have DirextX 9 installed on your system to play the game in fullscreen mode (this, I believe, is the first BB4W game to offer a 'true' DirectX fullscreen playing experience! Do try it, if you can.).

Oh, another thing: I suggest you turn your volume down a bit first, as the music and sound effects may be a bit loud.


Download link:

http://www.bb4w-games.com/temp/alien_eliminator_1_0beta2.zip

[EDIT: File removed. You can download the latest version from http://www.bb4w-games.com]

Consider reading the accompanying 'Read Me' file first, as it contains some important information.

As usual, and especially as this is a beta release, I'd appreciate any feedback. Thank you.


Known issues:

* The code (very kindly devised and contributed by Michael Hutton) which sets up the optional DirectX Fullscreen requires DirectX 9; sorry about this. He did put considerable effort into trying to get a DirectX 8 version up and running, but soon discovered that this task is somewhat less than straightforward.

* Aspect ratio in fullscreen mode. The 'internal' 640x512 bitmap onto which *all* the graphics are rendered is hardware-stretched up to whatever your screen resolution happens to be (mine's 1280x800). You'll probably notice that the fullscreen image looks a little squashed. Or very squashed. Personally, I don't find this a distraction (much), but it's something I'll bear in mind in future projects.

* No joystick/gamepad support (and none is planned).


Happy zapping.

One more thing (as Lieutenant Columbo would say): I did try to make a lengthy Demo Mode (as once suggested to me by Richard), but ran into problems due to various random processes going on "under the bonnet". Actually, it's down to poor program design, but...


Regards,
David.

dwilliams64 AT hotmail DOT com
http://www.bb4w-games.com

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Re: "Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W gam
Post by David Williams on Feb 27^th, 2010, 09:15am

2nd beta released:

http://www.bb4w-games.com/temp/alien_eliminator_1_0beta2.zip

[EDIT: File removed. You can download the latest version from http://www.bb4w-games.com]

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Re: "Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W game
Post by Michael Hutton on Mar 4^th, 2010, 05:09am

David,

I have completed version 1.00 of GFXD3D9LIB which will (hopefully!) interest you.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bb4w/files/%22Temp%20Folder%22/MDCH/DirectX/DirectX%209%20with%20GFXLIB/GFXD3D9LIB.bbc

(Obviously, goes in @lib$)

It 'seemlessly' (ahem!) integrates DirectX9 with GFXLIB. You can request it conserves the GFX aspect ratio or not. There is NO D3DX9 support and does require that DirectX9 has been previously installed on the target machine. So should work with XP (is it SP 2??) and above.

I will leave it in my temp area until I get some feed back.

And here is a little demo to show it works.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bb4w/files/%22Temp%20Folder%22/MDCH/DirectX/DirectX%209%20with%20GFXLIB/GFXLIB%20with%20DirectX9%20-%20Demo%20using%20GFXD3D9LIB.bbc

Michael

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Re: "Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W gam
Post by David Williams on Mar 4^th, 2010, 05:53am

on Mar 4^th, 2010, 05:09am, Michael Hutton wrote:

David, I have completed version 1.00 of GFXD3D9LIB which will (hopefully!) interest you. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bb4w/files/%22Temp%20Folder%22/MDCH/DirectX/DirectX%209%20with%20GFXLIB/GFXD3D9LIB.bbc

I do have a feeling that this might interest me.


on Mar 4^th, 2010, 05:09am, Michael Hutton wrote:

And here is a little demo to show it works. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bb4w/files/%22Temp%20Folder%22/MDCH/DirectX/DirectX%209%20with%20GFXLIB/GFXLIB%20with%20DirectX9%20-%20Demo%20using%20GFXD3D9LIB.bbc

Ah! Correct aspect ratio, too.

I am very pleased that we (well, you) have managed to remedy the DirectX fullscreen aspect ratio issue (much to Simon's delight, no doubt!).

Don't consider this as 'feedback', Michael; I'll get back to you soon with something hopefully more useful to say.

[ EDIT: Anyone wishing to download and run the demo program will have to download and install the GFXLIB II package from here (GFXLIB II is still in the BETA stage, bear in mind): http://www.bb4w-games.com/gfxlib2/gfxlib2page.html ]

Regards,

David.
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Re: "Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W game
Post by Michael Hutton on Mar 4^th, 2010, 06:32am

Version 1.01

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bb4w/files/%22Temp%20Folder%22/MDCH/DirectX/DirectX%209%20with%20GFXLIB/GFXD3D9LIB.bbc

Now, windowed or fullscreen mode can be selected but beware windowed mode will not preserve aspect ration when the size of the window is changed by dragging the window frame. I suppose you could set up code to only change to acceptable aspect ratios by subclassing the window but I suspect that is a bit fiddly.

Michael

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Re: "Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W gam
Post by admin on Mar 4^th, 2010, 08:12am

on Mar 4^th, 2010, 05:09am, Michael Hutton wrote:

So should work with XP (is it SP 2??) and above.

Stating the obvious, I guess, but it's largely irrelevant what facilities are provided by a Service Pack. If somebody has a Service Pack it almost certainly means they have an internet connection (OK, I know they can be purchased on CD but rarely are) so they can download DirectX9 too!

The continuing importance of DirectX8 is that it comes with Windows XP so anybody with Windows XP, even those very many without any kind of internet connection, have it. Only yesterday I received an enquiry about BB4W from somebody with no internet connection.

If you want to advertise a program as "will work with XP and above" (out of the box) then it must not rely on anything later than DirectX8.

Richard.

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Re: "Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W gam
Post by admin on Mar 4^th, 2010, 10:13am

on Mar 4^th, 2010, 06:32am, Michael Hutton wrote:

Now, windowed or fullscreen mode can be selected but beware windowed mode will not preserve aspect ration when the size of the window is changed by dragging the window frame. I suppose you could set up code to only change to acceptable aspect ratios by subclassing the window but I suspect that is a bit fiddly.

I suggested to David using ON MOVE and adjusting the scaling dynamically to suit the size of the window. If the window was resized to the wrong aspect ratio black bars would automatically appear. No need for anything complicated like subclassing!

Richard.

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Re: "Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W game
Post by David Williams on Mar 8^th, 2010, 6:35pm

I'm pleased to announce the release of "Alien Eliminator" (version 1.0):

http://www.bb4w-games.com/alieneliminator.zip


A fast PC with DirectX 9 installed is recommended - though not required - to run this program.

Please read the "Read Me" file before running the program.

Happy zapping


David.

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Re: "Alien Eliminator" -- A new BB4W game
Post by 81RED on Mar 8^th, 2010, 8:24pm

Congratulations on the 1.0 release David!

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