New version of PF in the next few days...

[fzammetti]

With the completion of Invasion: Trivia, I've had a few hours today to start on a new version of PF. Things are going well at the moment and I expect to have a new version out in the next few days (possibly this weekend). So far, I've implemented the following:

+ Overloaded Rasterizer::DrawRect to accept a Rect object.
+ Overloaded Rasterizer::FillRect to accept x1,y1,x2,y2 like DrawRect.
+ Added Rasterizer::DrawPoly to draw polygons. Accepts an array of Point objects and a color.
! Fixed a problem with the VLine algorithm function that was causing any vertical line to be drawn one pixel too short on the bottom. This is why DrawRect and FillRect was always missing the bottom right-hand corner pixel.

What I plan on adding before release:

* FillPoly for drawing filled polygons.
* FloodFill (this is giving me trouble at the moment, might not make it this release).
* Assuming FloodFill makes it, I'll also add a FillCircle function, just for consistency's sake.
* 8x16 VGA-standard non-proportional font support. I'll also post the 100 or so fonts I have on the PocketFrog Developer's Corner site ().
* An extra sample app to show off a couple of pixel shaders (the shaders are done, just have to throw the app together). This will also make use of the other new functions in some way, although except for the font stuff it's not necassery.

Note that this release will NOT include Gersen's sound extensions... I spoke to him yesterday and he has plans of releasing a PocketFrogPlus version shortly... Hopefully I can be ahead of him with regular PF and he can add the extensions to the new version (tentatively 0.6.1).

I still have the list of suggestions and requests that everyone posted here from a few weeks ago, but I frankly just plucked the easiest to implement from the list and am doing them first, just to get a first release from me out the door. But, if there's anything that you feel exceptionally strongly about being in this release, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[Conan]

Glad to hear that you are progressing with PF. I was beginning to think that you were jumping ship to GD. Personally I don't need any increase in performance as my game runs well both on my old iPaq & my new Axim. The time taken to integrate 3D and the overall learning curve also puts me off at the moment. Add to that the dll (no source code) & for now anyway I will stick with PF. When this game is finished I will take stock but I'm hoping that PF keeps on going as it's easy to learn & to use & seems to be very functional.

All the best, hope the game is doing well.

[fzammetti]

I'm still looking at GD for my next project, but I'm by no means decided. I too find the performance of PF to be more than sufficient at this point and really the only reason I was looking a GD was because it will be supported going forward (I don't consider myself maintaining PF on the same level even remotely as GD being really supported!).

In any case, I'll continue to work on PF, but the one area that I'd like to see people pitch in on is device compatibility. I'd like to throw together one sample application that uses every PF function in some way, and then maintain a list of devices that it is tested on and the results.

I'd also like to see someone smarter than me add DirectX support to PF. I've never tried, but Thierry stated a while ago that PF can be used for desktop apps, but it is using GDI only. If it was using DirectDraw like GD does, I think that would be a major step forward. Aside from that, device compatibility is my only concern with PF.

[adde]

[fzammetti]

[Conan]

Was Invasion Trivia developed using eVC only? I have used VC6 for a few months & found my development time greatly improved through none of that time spent messing with the PPC device. Also debugging is much better. It's only in the char TCHAR etc areas there are real differences ( plus file paths of course )

[fzammetti]

Yeah, I always use eVC. I don't seem to have all the trouble with it that everyone else does. Yes, the annoying message about the wrong CPU type is omnipresent... and yes, using the debugger is a painful experience (which is why I tend to debug without the debugger except for those really hard-to-find errors). Otherwise though, it's always been pretty stable for me (well, ok, it does crash whenever I Stop Debugging on my home PC, but that doesn't happen at work... go figure).

Come to think of it, I can honestly say I've had no real trouble with eVC EXCEPT when using the debugger. So, I just simply write flawless code the first time (there's a good laugh for ya! )

[Conan]

[Presto]

[adde]

[Conan]

I will have a try using the procedure on the AximSite and see if my Axim will work where my iPaq would not. I have no trouble getting wireless access to my PCs so I can map a drive & surf the net but getting activesync to kick in has never worked.