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498 sprites @ 150 FPS (coulnd't make more sprites?) 2.4 ghz amd athlon xp 128 ati radeon 9200se winxp pro dx9

at 498 sprites, my fps was 125 ati radeon 9000, 64 mb video memory, 768 mb system memory, win xp home, amd athlon xp, 1.8 hgz

got up to 498 sprites and the FPS didn't fall below 60 neither in normal window mode, nor maximized in my 1152x864 display. but it won't upper than this either. (altough I *think* my vsync is always off) My specs... Athlon XP 1.8 GHz GeForce2 MX AGP 128 MB 256 MB normal RAM Win XP Pro SP1 DirectX 9 Oh, and the contents of my RAM memory at the time I tested this were... 0111010010110101101010101110100101 1010110101010111010010110101101010 1011101001011010110101010111010010 1101011010101... hehe just kidding.

Ops sorry for doing that to the layout... I thought this would wrap... Please delete some binary data here someone... :p Oh and THIS comment here also.

I am getting an error: Automation Error '-2005530516 (8876086c)' blah blah blah... Any way my specs are: 500 MHz Pentium III 64MB Radeon 9200 SE 256 MB RAM Windows XP pro DirectX 9 (sort of)

I ran it on a friend of mine's computer and it worked fine... 498 sprites @ over 150 FPS... I could only get it below 60 if a hit the 'a' or 'r' keys in rapid succession. :) Specs: Pentium IV @ 2.40 GHz 128 MB Radeon 9700 512 MB RAM Windows XP Home DirectX 9.0b

I would also like to point out how fuzzy the font is. It was hard for me to read the FPS.

i got runtime error 5 when i run it

Same as everyone else: 498 @ 150 FPS. 3 Ghz Pentium 4 w/ hyperthreading 128 ati radeon 9800 pro 1 GB RAM Windows XP Pro dx9

Wow... I did not expect for anybody to go above a certain amount of sprites... my computer is really slow...lol, So I limited them in the example program, but the engine itself has the capability to run unlimited sprites.... I Also am sorry for the font, I ran this in a real low resolution 320.240 and the windowed mode stretches it, so I could get more people the ability to run it, But this engine, supports all resolutions. Also for the run time error sr. quapo, I can not figure out why you can't run it with those specs... unless it is the directx9(somewhat) thingy...I will look into the runtime errors, but I need specs to figure it out.... Also... When you hit 'a' and 'r' I have it doing some pretty heavy math.. The engine does every bit of this for you... but I need to speed that up a little more... also I have everysprite checking collision repetedly... which in a real game situation would be a waste of time... I was just trying to put a big enough load to bog it down on purpose... Again... thanks for the support... I will update the program to run more sprites... and work on the issues with font... DaBooda out.... p.s. You guys got that many sprites!! I need a new computer...lol

Does the engine use DX9? Also, Its a long story w/ DX9. I started a thread about it here if it helps.

The engine was written for dx8... in vb5...on a 400mhz celeron with 128 mb ram... I'm curious, do you get a display at all, are does it just error on you... I was looking and the engine, uses active movie control to play music, this way it can play mp3's too... and if the window media player is not updated right or missing some codecs... this might cause your problem... because graphically, your computer is fully compatible... or your sound card even... Alot of people tend to forget about that when it comes to gaming... but it does come into play. DaBooda out...

oh, and I apologize for the first screenshot... I put in the wrong picture... that is for my v1.0 engine... DaBooda out... Thats it for you booda, no more computer when you have been up all night!!

It turns the screen black and says "loading..." in the upper left, then after about a second, pops up the error and quits. It may be the sound, I don't really pay much attention to that stuff...

Same as everyone else - 498 sprites and doesn't drop below 60. 2.4 ghz Intel P4 512 meg ram (pc3200) Radeon 9600 Pro with 128 meg ram WinXP Pro DX9 Great work though, look forward to seeing what you end up creating from the engine :)

I received an automation error, possible missing run-time file??? Sys specs: Inspirion 8500 Pentium 4-M @2.0 ghz Windows XP Pro Dx 9.0b 512mb ram 64mb GeForce4 4200 Go

This engine was written in vb5, in directx8, and you need the active movie control(if you have a windows media player, you have this)... These are the runtimes you need... If you have vb6 installed, I believe you can run anything in vb5... but don't get me wrong... if you don't have those runtimes... you can get them easily online... DaBooda out...

I have everything... I even downloaded the new Media Player 9... It still is giving me the same error after a second of loading.

I looked online for your error, sr. quapo, and the closest answer I got, was your window is resizing itself during the present stage of the engine. The only thing I think would cause this is some external program running in the background, a virus(maybe) or your resizing your screen after the load screen pops up. Because the only thing the engine is initializing after that point is the sound. DaBooda out... P.s. This is wierd, because your the only one to get this error... I will figure it out.

DaBooda, I'm pretty sure it isn't a virus/spyware/whatever. My firewall is impenitrable, it barely let's me on the internet... It is most likely the sound. My card is pretty old, not to mention I haven't updated the drivers... ever...

I had a similar problem with the game I am writing in VB.Net and DX9. When the game loaded up, it would throw an exception saying something about "resizing". To make a long story short, my window was being resized somehow while the D3d device was lost (maybe just switching to fullscreen did it?) . My solution was to add an event handler for the device.DeviceResizing event with this code: If DeviceLost Then e.Cancel = True End If Obviously the code would be a bit different for you, but it sounds like to me you have the same problem.

I will put that on the list of things to do, thanks for the heads up, I didn't even think about that... I found out its only something that xp and directx 9 does, seeing how i'm poor and using win98 I didn't catch it, that is the purpose of these demo programs. Also when I incorporate that, I will give you inspirational credit for it, that way your name will be part of the engine.... but feel free to dig in and code it yourself, that way you can get programming credit, but either way your name is part of the engine.... I will also incorporate Sr. guapo's name into the engine, because he has been a big help with some debugging... If either of you do not wish me to do this, or you want to use a different name, just email me and I will respect your wishes... Dabooda out... P.s. thanks again for the help...

Hey, don't worry, this is my mother's old computer. I wouldn't have Win XP either (or VS .NET) if I couldn't download it (free) from the OSU website. Technically I'm a student... hehehe... I think I'm supposed to delete it when I'm done there, however... I need a job :( Anyway, tisn't a dll to go along with the project is there? I checked the zip file and I only saw the executable, plus the textures, music and sound. I do not mind if you mention me in your project (you can use my real name, it is in my profile), but I don't really see what I've done.

I got 60fps constantly from the time it opened to the time I closed it. I went to the maximum number of sprites as well. 498. Athlon64 3000+ Radeon 9800XT 1.5gb DDR400 RAM WinXP Pro DX9b

Oh... that was on a 1600x1200x32 desktop as well.

I programmed the demo on top of the class, so the executable is all that is needed. I have decided to leave it completely open source, and just let programmers program with the class in the project... I did this for two reasons... 1.) When I update the engine, programmers will not have to download and register a new .dll they can when starting a new game, just download the most reason update, also any program that uses a previous .dll, will not work anymore, unless you keep the original and I have not found a way around this, if anybody has more skill than I do, please let me know how to juggle these .dlls... because this engine, will be constantly updated. 2.) Also when a programmer creates a game with the classes, they just have to create an executable and export it like that, nobody else will need the .dlls to play the game... this would ensure full capability for anyone to play the game... but this doesn't mean the programmer could create the .dll and export it with their game... I want to leave all this up to the programmer... this way they can decide what works best for them. Also when you design a game from these classes, you are more likely to add something to it... say for example you find a better way to set a sprites position or something to that effect, you can change it in the engine and have an immediate solution, instead of requesting it for a later version... This, in my opinion promotes the collaboration of the engine... they can then report the change to me, and I will place it into the main engine, that way everybody can benifit from the change and the coder will get credit for it.. Of course, I could be going about this all wrong, if someone else has a better suggestion, feel free to let me know.. And to Sr. Guapo, you have done a lot, you have actually worked with me on this error, when a lot of people would have dismissed this engine, your actually helping me debug your problem... Adding your name to the credits, is the least I can do... DaBooda out... P.S. I am going to start a forum post for this engine, if the moderators don't mind... hopefully that will make things a little more simple, because I could post news there, insted of clogging up the news posts.... Also will have the Help File done shortly, this will be a big help, because programming this engine, is a little cryptic... and this file along with the tutorials, I hope will answer alot of questions...

Let's try this again. :) 1) I run the .exe. 2) A very blurry "loading" is displayed. 3) The computer's hard drive twirls for 1-2 minutes. 4) It exits back to the desktop. 5) No messages, nada. Windows 98 2nd Edition TNT Ultra 2 DirectX 9 installed.

I placed fail safes, into the demo that will let you escape by either 1.> hitting escape... or 2.> right or left clicking the screen... These can be done at any time...for I just reran the demo, and this is the only thing that would emulate the problem you wrote.. I clicked the screen when the load was up and after the load was about to disappear it closed the program. The only error reported to me that was even close to yours, gave a message... what you are describing to me is the genreral shut down of the demo... Generally I wouldn't have placed these exit methods into a game or demo, but this was the first one, to be accessed by other people for this engine... so I was trying to cover alot of bases... As for the hardrive whirring for 1-2 minutes, that means that the information is loading, because if it wasn't it would give you an error message... and the load time I don't see being quite that long... for on my 400mhz 128mb crappy machine, it is about 30 seconds... of course some hardrives are a little slower than others, but mine is ancient... The blurry loading is a byproduct of the fact that I made this demo in 320x240 and its in windowed mode, and have discovered that some hardware will be more blurry than others in windowed mode... fullscreen mode is fine... and my demos from here on out will be in that mode... for I have tried everything to extinguish the blurring for its how directx8 is when in windowed mode... this is the only flaw between it and directx7, because directx7 is clear in windowed mode, for me at least.... DaBooda out... P.S. Could you do me one more favor, 2dcoder and rerun the engine and not do anything until it loads... if it still does not run, I will do more research... because I really need to know why it will not run on your machine... also let me know if you are running anything external.. I would appreciate it...

Sr.guapo and 2dcoder, Do me a favor and download this again, I have changed it to run in fullscreen mode, as well as took out the fail safes, now you can only hit esc to exit... DaBooda out...

I did it, but I'm not sure if you will like it. This time, it did begin to play the music (which it may have done before, I usually leave my speakers off), so that eliminates that as the problem. However, the same error message popped up simultaneusly with the music start, and the music kept playing. I think we can assume the error is after the music begins playing, if that helps narrow it down. :)

This is embarassing, I just ran the same demo again. However, I now have tried the new one... It did not give me the error that it gave me before, which is the good news. Bad news: it never loaded. I let it go for about 2 minutes before hitting escape. I can try again, and just let it go a little longer...

Sr. Guapo, One question, did you run the newer version right after the older version... was there a restart of window's in between?... because I discovered something... if the engine closes because of an error, it ends up not unloading the music, so when you run engine again, window's beleives that the music is already running and will hang it... Short of this, I have no clue, and I am running out of ideas.... DaBooda out... p.s. the music is the last thing to load and set up, so if your getting that, you succesfully loaded everything.... there should be no reason for not running after that......

I let it run for about ten minutes there. It just sat and displayed "loading...". It played the music through once as well, then stopped. Anyway, what exactly is going on in the "loading" code? Are there any "On Error" catchers. I have used these and they occasionally do things like that. Just throwing that out there, it could be many things... Also, if the "loading..." were to fail, what happens? Does it exit with a message or just sit there. If you draw the "loading..." screen, then never update it because it never entered the game loop, it might appear to be sitting there indefinately. My Hardware is not very special, also. 498 MHz Pentium III 256 MB SDRAM 64 MB Radeon 9200 SE Win XP Pro DX 9.0b Yamaha DS1x Native audio (I think this is the sound card)

Alright, I hate to ask you one more favor, Sr. guapo, but I have tried one more thing and hopefully this will be the last thing... Could you please download this file: [url]http://dabooda.servegame.com/test1.zip[/url] I hate to keep asking you this, but I am going to solve this problem.... Also this version, I took out the fps loop, this is the only check that would put it into infinity like its been doing, it won't exit the engine render loop, until it hits the desired frame rate... then it presents the screen, I used queryperformancecounter, which is windows api and am wondering if certain cpu chips don't read write, because that is what it does..... because it is not making it to the game loop at all, and there is only one render call between loading the music and then making the game loop, and I am thinking it has to be that fps counter... also, if you hit +/- do you hear sound, because maybe it isn't displaying it?

I sownloaded the new file... same thing. As for the QueryPerformanceCounter, I have used it before with no problems. I tried hitting the + and - keys, but I did not hear any sound. Is it possible for you to get the source code to me? I could use VB's Step Into etc. to find out what is happenning. Don't worry about asking me to do stuff. I have no problem helping. It's not like I have anything better to do...

Ok, here is the source... http://dabooda.servegame.com/test2.zip The entire project is there, hopefully you will be able to trace to where the program is hanging... And thank you for all the help... this has become a mission now...lol DaBooda out...

oh forgot to add one thing... for windowed mode, just change this line in the Example.bas, under the SetUpDisplay sub... Engine.InitializeDisplay Main.hwnd, False, 320, 240, , D3DDEVTYPE_HAL to: Engine.InitializeDisplay Main.hwnd, True, 320, 240, , D3DDEVTYPE_HAL This will help debugging... I hope... DaBooda out...

VB gave me problems when I tried to load it "Path not found" & classPath... I will try adding all the classes to the folder it wants, and loading them into the project...

Yes... Found the exact line where I get the error... The error is during the render loop when it tries to draw the trianglestrip to the screen: Direct3DDevice.DrawPrimitiveUP D3DPT_TRIANGLESTRIP, 2, TextureStrip(0), Len(TextureStrip(0)) I have actually had this problem before, but I can't remember why, or more importantly, how to fix it... ARGHHHH! Does anyone know why I'm getting an automation error here?

I added a line of code before every DrawPrimitixeUP call (there were three): On Error Resume Next It did run, although all it did was display a very flickery "loading..." thing. Also, the keys worked. It was the strangess thing I have ever seen. The "loading..." flickered and the sprites did not display. Okay, the weird part: A strange light blue string of small vertical bars was moving in what I assumed to be the path of the hilighted sprite. It looked really ... err... interesting... Guess you had to see it...

I am completely clueless on this, I will try doing some research online, and maybe post the question in the forum... This is a first for me... It might have something to do with how I set up the strips, but it is the same set up as all other programs, I have made... including the dabooda2dengine v1.0... which coolpong was written with... I am at a loss here... Dabooda out...

oh, and sorry about the path not found, stuff, I only have one copy of the engine, and it is a folder of its own, I forgot to add them to the zip... DaBooda out...

Every once in a while, DX8 (in 2D, never in 3D) does this to me. I looked at one of my old 2D projects, and I couldn't find any major differences, both project used the exact same call (except Variable names...), yet this one worked fine... Weird...

It's probably something so easy too... like a something in the Initialize display sub, or something I didn't set... dx8 can be real picky sometimes... I really wish they would have built in a little more compatiblity into it... unfortunately I cannot emulate the error on my end... I did have some wierd errors one time, and it was as simple as updating my drivers for the video card, and it was even a brand new card... just had old drivers with it... The only thing I came close too online about the error, I found in xtreme vb forum and it will not let me in, hangs up my explorer for some reason... Check there maybe it will let you in... Dabooda out...

I've done everything suggested here in the latest posts. I am getting virtually the same problem as sr. guapo. At least now you know I was not bs'ing you.

Wow... if you were to keep up with this here the VBGamer server would explode sometime... :D

We made a forum post... lol.. I was afraid of exploding servers... If one of the moderators reads this, please remove the great debug of 2004... please...lol DaBooda out...