I'm going to suggest that Mark and co. release the source to the Blitz3D runtime library/engine so that people can -really- upgrade the engine instead of just hacking at it via memory read/write functions.
I'm not asking for the source to the compiler/linker/etc., just the 3D engine (keep the rest of it to yourself- shouldn't make much difference). Doing this, people could move it to OpenGL or Direct3D 9.
As people may have noticed, Blitz3D is beginning to show its age with lack of support for now-common features like stencil shadows and mirrors- which Scouse has been able to add via access to the Direct3D Device- among other things (like decent support for normal mapping, specular mapping, pixel and vertex shaders, etc.).
So all I'm suggesting is that Blitz Research release the source to the 3D engine and give people the chance to make it better. This could potentially bring in a lot of new sales if people provide new graphics engines.
You could add in a license that does not permit commercial distribution of the engine itself unless in compiled form (e.g., in a Blitz3D application). Distributing it could be controlled through the Updates section of the Account page.
As I said, this could potentially bring in a lot of sales if people added pixel and vertex shaders instead of adding them via a third-party DLL that 'overrides' the normal engine and window (e.g. VividGL).
I'm not asking for the source to the compiler/linker/etc., just the 3D engine (keep the rest of it to yourself- shouldn't make much difference). Doing this, people could move it to OpenGL or Direct3D 9.
As people may have noticed, Blitz3D is beginning to show its age with lack of support for now-common features like stencil shadows and mirrors- which Scouse has been able to add via access to the Direct3D Device- among other things (like decent support for normal mapping, specular mapping, pixel and vertex shaders, etc.).
So all I'm suggesting is that Blitz Research release the source to the 3D engine and give people the chance to make it better. This could potentially bring in a lot of new sales if people provide new graphics engines.
You could add in a license that does not permit commercial distribution of the engine itself unless in compiled form (e.g., in a Blitz3D application). Distributing it could be controlled through the Updates section of the Account page.
As I said, this could potentially bring in a lot of sales if people added pixel and vertex shaders instead of adding them via a third-party DLL that 'overrides' the normal engine and window (e.g. VividGL).