>and them stating that it is updated on a
>regular basis for the most part, yet he admitted it hadn't
>been updated in quite a while, but he stated it was do for
>an update,
Which is fact.
>as to imply that the newer features that I
>wanted would eventually find their way into blitz
Did he say that, or did you just understand it that way?
>now I
>am hearing a conflicting tale stating that the new
>features such as direct x 9 support will probably only be
>added into blitzmax, and that I bought a product pretty
>much at the end of its life cycle and that they wouldn't
>continue to update it a year or so from now.
Look, alot of people in this thread are putting forth their opinion as absolute truth, and I can understand that you are looking at B3D now, wondering if you bought an obsolete product which will be replaced tomorrow. When I first experienced these kinds of threads, I felt the same way...
However, bear in mind that only Mark Sibly knows what is what, and everything else is speculation.
I think alot of people are speculating too much... However, the speculation is propably due to the lack of information which is much sought after in the community. The problem is that when Mark comments on the future of B3D or Blitz MAX or even the language of Blitz products, then a heated debate begins. One side couldn't care less about compatibility and want B3D to be all DX9 with all of the bells and whistles to make DOOM3 clones, and the other side wants DX7 and stability in order to produce good looking games for the massmarket. Either side is full of egos and in the end Mark is caught in the middle having to make the long term plans, knowing that everybody will be offended because their pet feature didn't make it.
This is propably why he doesn't post more info and why he said that we just have to trust him.
Some people say that DBP has better features, which it has, but at the price of severely limited compatibility, a boatload of bugs and the slight problem that some features have been removed due to poor implementation.
Blitz MAX was first discussed on the 'Blitz Basement', in 2001-2002 as far as I can recall... However, it was called Blitz Pro then and was just a concept.
What I understand from reading Marks worklog, is that Blitz MAX only exists as a compiler in Alpha state... It is nowhere near 'feature complete' and as Mark Sibly recently stated there are no Betas in existance, which in my opinion means that Blitz MAX is nowhere near production ready. This is my opinion based on the worklogs.
>This is
>definitely not what I wanted or expected, I expected
>purchasing a product at least to have a useful updated
>product, for some time to come. This is not what I am
>seeing.
You are seeing bickering, hysteria, egos, speculation and uninformed opinion. Noone here knows what is coming, and in their infinite wisdom, many people are heating up the debate in order to stroke their own egos.
B3D doesn't magically lose the ability to create executables when Blitz MAX goes into production. It is very capable as it is, and I don't think that we will be disapointed in the future.
In the worklog, Mark Sibly writes that a DX9 update is in the cards, but will involve rewriting part of the engine. Many people here read that and think 'cool, so we'll have full DX9 support at the end of the week'... Come on, let the guy work in peace... When it's ready, we'll get to see it.
I am not the guy with all of the answers, and I speak for myself only, so take it for what it's worth.
Andy
>regular basis for the most part, yet he admitted it hadn't
>been updated in quite a while, but he stated it was do for
>an update,
Which is fact.
>as to imply that the newer features that I
>wanted would eventually find their way into blitz
Did he say that, or did you just understand it that way?
>now I
>am hearing a conflicting tale stating that the new
>features such as direct x 9 support will probably only be
>added into blitzmax, and that I bought a product pretty
>much at the end of its life cycle and that they wouldn't
>continue to update it a year or so from now.
Look, alot of people in this thread are putting forth their opinion as absolute truth, and I can understand that you are looking at B3D now, wondering if you bought an obsolete product which will be replaced tomorrow. When I first experienced these kinds of threads, I felt the same way...
However, bear in mind that only Mark Sibly knows what is what, and everything else is speculation.
I think alot of people are speculating too much... However, the speculation is propably due to the lack of information which is much sought after in the community. The problem is that when Mark comments on the future of B3D or Blitz MAX or even the language of Blitz products, then a heated debate begins. One side couldn't care less about compatibility and want B3D to be all DX9 with all of the bells and whistles to make DOOM3 clones, and the other side wants DX7 and stability in order to produce good looking games for the massmarket. Either side is full of egos and in the end Mark is caught in the middle having to make the long term plans, knowing that everybody will be offended because their pet feature didn't make it.
This is propably why he doesn't post more info and why he said that we just have to trust him.
Some people say that DBP has better features, which it has, but at the price of severely limited compatibility, a boatload of bugs and the slight problem that some features have been removed due to poor implementation.
Blitz MAX was first discussed on the 'Blitz Basement', in 2001-2002 as far as I can recall... However, it was called Blitz Pro then and was just a concept.
What I understand from reading Marks worklog, is that Blitz MAX only exists as a compiler in Alpha state... It is nowhere near 'feature complete' and as Mark Sibly recently stated there are no Betas in existance, which in my opinion means that Blitz MAX is nowhere near production ready. This is my opinion based on the worklogs.
>This is
>definitely not what I wanted or expected, I expected
>purchasing a product at least to have a useful updated
>product, for some time to come. This is not what I am
>seeing.
You are seeing bickering, hysteria, egos, speculation and uninformed opinion. Noone here knows what is coming, and in their infinite wisdom, many people are heating up the debate in order to stroke their own egos.
B3D doesn't magically lose the ability to create executables when Blitz MAX goes into production. It is very capable as it is, and I don't think that we will be disapointed in the future.
In the worklog, Mark Sibly writes that a DX9 update is in the cards, but will involve rewriting part of the engine. Many people here read that and think 'cool, so we'll have full DX9 support at the end of the week'... Come on, let the guy work in peace... When it's ready, we'll get to see it.
I am not the guy with all of the answers, and I speak for myself only, so take it for what it's worth.
Andy