Lets Put All Help Together...

[Racemaniac]

*edit, adding soome links provided by quiest

i started with fenix yesterday, i already understand the basics a bit, nice language . but finding everything i needed was all but simple...
lets try and put all help together in one thread again, i've for example been searching nearly an hour how to get my fenix app on the gp32 (i know, it's very simple and obvious, but you wouldn't think it was written in any of the tutorials i found so far, or was told in a readme with the gp32 fenix package or wherever i've seen so far...)
most i learned so far from the shoot project (although knowing some c and java also helped a lot ^^), for which i thank the maker and quiest for advising it to me .

so, what i've used so far to be able to make something basic (pong , easy game to start with )
evil dragon's tutorials are good for some basic things about fenix, threads:
http://www.gp32x.de/Fenix/Chapter_0.pdf (thanx quiest for the link)
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=16909
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=18082

a basic game with very well documented code , ideal to understand some basics of fenix
http://www.gp32x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,48,587

also useful to visit: http://www.flamingbird.com/public_html/index.php
the forum has some good information , also the download sections contains some good IDE's (kind of texteditors to program with, they highlight stuff, make it easy to compile and run etc....), and good tools too

and now how to get a fenix game on the gp32: take the basic fenix fxe you get with the fenix package, rename it to yourgame.fxe, put it in gpmm, make in the gpmm folder the folder yourgame, and put there the compiled (yourgame.dcb) file and ohter recources(unless you specified some specific locations of where files are to be expected i presume). that's all ^^
and there are several options for the fxe it appears (thanx quiest):
There are three fenix.fxe file you can use, here are two:
Without Splash Screen
This one is very small, just 80kb and it only displays that blue loading screen.
With Splash Screen
It`s a bit larger, around 300kb, but if you put a 320x240 (duh) png image, named like your game in the game folder, it gets displayed instead of that blue loading screen.

You can use ratx` FXEGui to edit the FXE and change the title, author and icon.



and one little question: i currently use the flamebird IDE, but it compiles to a huge file, if i manually compile my game (with dos commands) it becomes 4kb, if i do it with flamebird it gives me a file of 50kb.... WHY??

 

[fitzsteve]

Thanks for the post, probably one we should Sticky...

I think I will have a go at coding something... I made a space invaders game on my spectum when I was a Kid LOL I did have the code in a book though so I guess that dosnt really count!

 

[Quiest]

Oh, sorry, racemaniac, I thought you know about chapter 0 of ED`s tutorials when you asked me, he has more info about setting it up in there:

Chapter 0


I am, too, for making this sticky!

Are you sure sou are using Flamebird2?
Don`t know what causes the large file, have to see that for myself now.
Thanks for the info.

And some more info added from me:

There are three fenix.fxe file you can use, here are two:
Without Splash Screen
This one is very small, just 80kb and it only displays that blue loading screen.
With Splash Screen
It`s a bit larger, around 300kb, but if you put a 320x240 (duh) png image, named like your game in the game folder, it gets displayed instead of that blue loading screen.

You can use ratx` FXEGui to edit the FXE and change the title, author and icon.


If this gets made sticky, maybe you can take this info, racemaniac, and add it to your first post.

 

[Racemaniac]

Are you sure sou are using Flamebird2?
Don`t know what causes the large file, have to see that for myself now.
Thanks for the info.

​

added
and yes i use flamebird2
about tutorials: np ^^, i found it ^^ doesn't matter does it

 

[Moogle]

On the dcb size, Flamebird probably automatically compiles with debug mode on(-g command line parameter). This consists of a few extra's:

Debug mode
* Profiler -> Press Alt-P to bring up(down actually) the profiler screen, this contains information about the cpu time the different processes are currently consuming and their cpu minimum and maximum.
* Debugger -> Alt-C brings up the debugger, which is just a small terminal where you can get information about the program, check variables, display the current instances etcetera. Very usefull, type 'help' for a complete list of available options.

Of course, since the keys it requires this is only usefull when running it on the PC, so for the GP just compile without the -g option or turn it off in the IDE configuration.

IDE's

Flamebird seems to be the standard around here, but there are a few other (nice) options as well. Fenix Desktop is a very nice and clean IDE, less options than Flamebird but personally I find this a big attraction since all major functionality is there. Very easy to code in. Then what I use myself, but takes some time to setup is ConTEXT, a freeware multi-language editor with a ton of very nice features and a clean slick interface. If you want to use this you will have to get the Fenix language highlighter, which is available from here. And if none suit your needs there is always Notepad of course .

Tutorials
To add to the tutorials section, there is a collection of DIV tutorials here, close to, if not, 100% compatible with Fenix. Good explanations of timers, structures and tile engines, written by DIV guru Retep. Check them out here.

Fpg/Fnt Edit
Two usefull utilities that originally were written for Cdiv(a C/C++ implementation of the DIV/Fenix command set), one for creating map archives(FPG's) and one for creating fonts(Fnt's). They can be found here:

FPG Edit
FNT Edit


Right, I don't feel like writing more for now, maybe later . Do with it as you like Racemaniac

 

[Racemaniac]

On the dcb size, Flamebird probably automatically compiles with debug mode on(-g command line parameter). This consists of a few extra's:

Debug mode
* Profiler -> Press Alt-P to bring up(down actually) the profiler screen, this contains information about the cpu time the different processes are currently consuming and their cpu minimum and maximum.
* Debugger -> Alt-C brings up the debugger, which is just a small terminal where you can get information about the program, check variables, display the current instances etcetera. Very usefull, type 'help' for a complete list of available options.

Of course, since the keys it requires this is only usefull when running it on the PC, so for the GP just compile without the -g option or turn it off in the IDE configuration.

IDE's

Flamebird seems to be the standard around here, but there are a few other (nice) options as well. Fenix Desktop is a very nice and clean IDE, less options than Flamebird but personally I find this a big attraction since all major functionality is there. Very easy to code in. Then what I use myself, but takes some time to setup is ConTEXT, a freeware multi-language editor with a ton of very nice features and a clean slick interface. If you want to use this you will have to get the Fenix language highlighter, which is available from here. And if none suit your needs there is always Notepad of course .

Tutorials
To add to the tutorials section, there is a collection of DIV tutorials here, close to, if not, 100% compatible with Fenix. Good explanations of timers, structures and tile engines, written by DIV guru Retep. Check them out here.

Fpg/Fnt Edit
Two usefull utilities that originally were written for Cdiv(a C/C++ implementation of the DIV/Fenix command set), one for creating map archives(FPG's) and one for creating fonts(Fnt's). They can be found here:

FPG Edit
FNT Edit


Right, I don't feel like writing more for now, maybe later . Do with it as you like Racemaniac

​

that would indeed explain the difference when compiling

about the extra info, i think i'm gonna wait a bit before adding it to the first post, lets first collect all info and then i'll make a new thread or so with all info nicely presented, like this it's gonna get messy, and i'm not gonna edit after every single post

i hope ofcourse more people will contribute

 

[Moogle]

I'm wondering, maybe it would be better if we had two sticky's, one with general info(like this one) and one with code info. Since it's hard to get the correct documentation some things go completely undocumented, would be nice if those who picked up the trail from one of those hidden features could post it there. For instance, who knew type's?

type position;
  int x;
  int y;
  int z;
end

Other opinions on the matter?

 

[Racemaniac]

I'm wondering, maybe it would be better if we had two sticky's, one with general info(like this one) and one with code info. Since it's hard to get the correct documentation some things go completely undocumented, would be nice if those who picked up the trail from one of those hidden features could post it there. For instance, who knew type's?

type position;
  int x;
  int y;
  int z;
end

Other opinions on the matter?

​

is there anywhere some useful documentation on how fenix exactly works?
i already understand how i can use graphs from fpg's and manipulate them etc. but don't ask me what graph will overlap what graph and why, how palettes work etc...

even more mysterious for me atm is the draw commands (draw line, rectangle,...) i need to find somewhere how exactly fenix builds up it's screen , are there any good guides/references? i also read some people often just use the div reference, where can i find that etc....


i now know the basics, but i want to get to know a lot more, making some graphs move across the screen is easy, how do i add a background? are there some kind of layers? of so how do they work? etc...


also, i've been experimenting a bit with draw_line, if i draw a lot of lines (a lot being 30+) the program doesn't respond anymore? is there a reason to this (maybe every line creates it's own layer or so?), well frankly, i couldn't have a clue since i haven't got a clue what the command exaclty does :s, what a line is when i've drawn it (can i still manipulate it, erase it, whatever?

 

[Quiest]

Hmm layers, you mean just sprites over other sprites?

Every process has a z value (like x and y)
z=1; //==on top
z=2; //==second layer
z=3; //==third layer and so on.

There is also a z value for sprites placed by draw commands, if I remember correctly, it`s drawing_z(xyz); where xyz is the number of the layer.

Backgrounds work like this:
put_screen("fpgname.fpg",#); #=number of graphic in the fpg.


And thanks for the great info about these debug option, moogle!
Didn`t know!
And I have to try that editor, as Flamebird2 is going on my nerves because it does not save the "optical" changes (resizing project window and variable window).

 

[Goity]

nuh uh, z=0 is the higerest one.
and Divqs is also a good tutorial, though I don't have a link for it.

 

[Quiest]

Oh okay, wasn`t sure if it started with 0 or 1

 

[Moogle]

Z can be -2000 too if you want it to be above -1999

 

[Quiest]

A sweet, so there is no limit Fuck, I know too less

 

[Quiest]

*bump*

This should stay on the first page of the Fenix forum.