Release Glbasic Compiles Directly For Pandora

[GernotFrisch]

Hi,

I just wanted to inform you that the new GLBasic SDK can directly compile .png executables on your Windows PC now. No longer do you need a device and the awkward GCC installation routines.

For those who don't know about GLBasic:
GLBasic is an easy to learn programming language targeting a huge variety of platforms. It has a GCC powered backend, resulting in very fast executables. With the properly chosen command set it's easy to write really professional games. The 2D version is free for Windows, Linux and Mac builds.

Some Impressions of GLBasic games:
http://www.glbasic.com/forum/index.php?topic=3857.0


http://www.glbasic.com

Thanks for your attention.

 

[WizardStan]

The 2D version is free for Windows, Linux and Mac builds.

But not Pandora builds?
I kid, I'm sure it's totally worth it
I'll have to check it out later. Cheers!

edit: actually, regarding the 3D plugin, does it strictly target OpenGL, or does it switch to OpenGLES for the portables: Pandora, Wiz, and iPhone?

 

[Michoko]

Very interesting, thanks for the heads up! I didn't know GLBasic, but it seems to be quite a nice option, especially if you can use it to do iPhone development on Windows systems... I may play with it if I get a bit of free time

 

[scottm]

I have Blitzmax (which won't work on Pandora) on my PC - and I've programmed a couple of c64 strategy game remakes. Do you know how similar Blitzmax is to GLBasic? I would love to convert my games onto the Pandora (when my Pandora eventually arrives!!!) but don't fancy having to learn a completely new language to do it (yes I know they are both "basic languages").

Looking at the tutorial I can see a few similarities - GlBasic uses types instead of classes, and it seems to have inheritance as you can have a type that is made up of another type. Do you have to have all the code - in the same file, or can you refer to say a file that contains all your types and reference them there?

Also, is there a full functional debugger - can you step throuh the code and mark breakpoints etc

Finally, how much does it cost in £ (UK Pounds) to purchase?

 

[iprice]

I came from a Blitz and Blitzmax background to GLBasic and I've never looked back since. The language is so much easier to use than BMax, and just as powerful.

Think of all the things that annoyed you about BlitzMax. Lack of updates. Lack of documentation. Crappy IDE. Well GLBasic improves on all of those (except the IDE).

GLBasic is updated at least once every week (more if users discover and post bug finds). And the documentation includes pretty good examples for nearly every command (remember how much we liked Blitz3D for this - GLBasic is pretty much the same).

GLBasic does indeed use TYPES and there are a whole raft of inheritance style bits and bobs to go with them. You don;t have to use them, but you can - same as you can use a similar thing to BMax's Methods/OOP with functions running within types, only not (thankfully) quite so OOP.

You can have multiple files - makes compiling much quicker, with functions etc. in separate files.

The debugger is not as advanced as some, but it's perfectly functional and very useful. I tend not to use it a great deal myself.

It's 80Euros, which equates to about £68.81 at current exchange rates according to Expedia.

Cheaper than Monkey, with more platforms provided, better support, 3D and networking built in.

There is also a free Windows version which allows you to create free .EXEs for three formats (linux, Mac and pc IIRC) - at least you can learn the language and produce products for free. then you can decide if it's for you or not.

 

[torpor]

Whats it like porting code from Blitzmax to GLBasic, do you know? I've got the code for a few nice games written in Blitzmax, and I wouldn't mind the task if it wasn't too much fuss ..

 

[Bampt]

I also want to know if Glbasic is supporting GL ES,
would be awesome for making 3D games for pandora .

 

[WizardStan]

I downloaded the GLBasic SDK and just went with the free option. It warned me that I would only be able to compile for Win32, Linux, and Mac, and only 2D, yet on a whim I tried to compile some of the samples (including 3D ones) for my Pandora and they all worked (more or less)!
I made note of this on the official forum but no one has responded yet. I'm not certain if I simply misunderstood and I'm supposed to be able to do this and there are other restrictions that I didn't get to in my testing, or if someone made a mistake building the SDK this time and gave everyone full access they shouldn't have.
Simple answer: it does output OpenGLES, and it runs pretty well on my Pandora. It did not display any textures, however, so everything was a flat grey square. That could be one of the restrictions I mentioned about not knowing about, a bug in GLBasic itself, or something that could be fixed in the applications; I didn't test that deeply to figure it out. The important thing is that it is producing ES compatible code, so 3D games are a given, although possibly a little buggy right now.

I'm more than a little excited now.

 

[scottm]

... on a whim I tried to compile some of the samples (including 3D ones) for my Pandora and they all worked (more or less)!

downloading it now

 

[LineOf7s]

WizardStan, you got your response on the GLBasic forums, but in short the announcement for Version 8 said:

GLBasic is now free for non-commercial Projects of the platforms: Windows, Linux und Mac (2D und [sic] console). If premium services are used, the running app switches into the 5 minute demo mode.

Off to test that now.

 

[WizardStan]

Yeah, it says that in the news for version 8, but the actual text within the program still says that you cannot
Anywho, a 5 minute demo is great, it actually lets you try and test your stuff. I'm already well into C++ and SDL for the homebrew competition else I might have done it in GLBasic
Perhaps the next contest I will give it a shot.

 

[torpor]

Wow this really looks superb! I'm going to buy a license.

 

[GernotFrisch]

Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, GLBasic uses OpenGLES for graphics where applicable. If you see no textures, it might be because of missing a file in the Media directory. There might be a bug or two, still, as well. Pandora is quite new for me.

 

[scottm]

if (more likely when) I buy a full licence it will be because of the Pandora capabilities of GLBasic. I already own Blitzmax, but as it doesn't support Pandora I'm looking to change (and then re-write a 10,000 line Blitzmax prog to GLBasic :-( ).

So please continue to support and improve GLBasic for Pandora

 

[Poem58]

removed

 

[HackModford]

I take it there's no mac version? Just a windows version that can compile for everything?

 

[Bampt]

Thats very good news from the GLBasic front,
so there is hope that I can bring some 3dsomeness to the Pandora

 

[kavlor]

Yep thats cool,not used it much, more used to Darkbasic pro but DB is PC only.Gives the Pandora even more depth.