on the subject of sapi, bgt should always use the system default
unless you choose.
Hi all,
Thank you for the large number of suggestions! I'll respond to you
all below in one big message, as to avoid cluttering up the list.
Thomas. If I added force feedback I think it would actually be
advantageous for me to do everything through code, as the goal of
BGT is to wrap everything for the end users without requiring use of
the underlying facilities. I'll definitely look into it.
Kai. I have looked into XInput, but it does not support neither
keyboards nor mouse devices which makes it rather unatractive for
me. The only reason then to use it would be for extended joystick
and game pad support which is certainly an option, but not something
I'm sure about just yet. As for Midi support, I don't think this
will happen. In order to provide a soundtrack that sounds the same
for everyone, one would need to use some sort of instrument bank
such as a soundfont or similar to play the music, which would
require me to write an entire sound font player. This is not
something that I'm very keen on doing at the moment. And as regards
to reverse engineering, I'm doing as much as I can to avoid it (e.g.
applying layers of encryption, not encrypting the actual script but
rather the AngelScript byte code, including verification checks etc)
but as with any software, it is not impossible. You can reverse
engineer any program if you are determined enough, and BGT is no
exception. Having said that, however, it certainly isn't easy.
Lastly, Anti cheating is certainly possible in BGT. Right now there
are only hash functions, but I can add a crc32 function as well if
there's an interest in that.
Allen. Multithreading would indeed be nice, but let's take a look at
some of the practicalities there. Let us assume that you have two
loops running in two separate threads, and they both modify the same
global variable. You have no way of knowing what value the variable
may or may not have, at any given time. To prevent this, we would
need something similar to a critical section or a mutex to lock
access to some resource during a short amount of time while a thread
accesses or modifies it. Here we are getting into quite advanced
concepts of programming (e.g. thread synchronization), which is way
beyond the simplisity goals of BGT. Co-routines is one option that I
am considering, however.
Hayden. The idea with the helper layer is that it is meant to be
open source, so that users can go in and modify the includes to
their liking. Something like the sound pool or the dynamic menu
class are perfect examples where the functionality is necessary, but
not really as part of the engine's foundation. This way, you are
able to choose which of these components that you wish to include in
your game rather than having them forced upon you. The engine
implements all the low level control such as the sound and timer
classes, and then it is up to the script writer to make use of these
as I have done in these wrapper modules. In other words, the helper
layer is meant to let you pick and choose which bits and pieces you
do and do not want, which you can't do with the core functionality.
Ryan. Loading dll's would indeed be very useful, but the main issue
is that AngelScript currently does not support variable parameter
function calls or optional parameters to functions. I could do
something in the preprocessor stage like VB 6 does, where you
specify the name of the function that you want to import as well as
the dll filename but this still leaves me with the problem of
turning the AngelScript classes into structs when these are passed
as parameters, for instance. In short, this is probably possible
somehow but would require a huge amount of time. I'll keep it in
mind though, and if a lot of people want it it will make its way
into the engine eventually, as will COM support.
Bryan. I have an idea about what might be happening regarding your
Sapi issues. In the dynamic menu class, if you do not specify a
specific tts_voice object that you wish to use, a temporary one will
be created for you behind the scenes if you are using tts options.
The problem as I see it, is that NeoSpeech may not allow multiple
instances of its engine to be run simultaneously and so the menu
does not work. The solution is to always call the set_tts_object
method in the class before calling any of the run methods, so that
it uses your existing tts_voice object instance for its output.
Kind regards,
Philip Bennefall
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
