The map-converting code is ready and working. There’s not much that can be done with it just yet, since I don’t have any code for converting RPG Maker’s tilesets or actually displaying the map in the editor. That’s what I’m working on right now, and I’ll post an update once that’s working. Read the rest of this entry »
There really hasn’t been anything interesting for anyone to do with TURBU lately. That’s about to change. I’m currently building the map conversion logic for the project importer and starting to work on the map engine. I should have a basic map editor working within a few weeks, which will allow users to play around with terrain. That was basically how the original map viewer got started: it would display the map, and that’s it. And then I started gradually adding in new features as quickly as I could code them, until you had a (almost) fully functional map engine. Hopefully it’ll go a lot faster this time, since I’ve learned a lot in the past couple years and I’ve still got the original code, most of which can be reused or adapted.
Also, a big Delphi update just got released last week. The latest version contained a feature called Generics, which lets you write code that can be used to do lots of very similar tasks with minor variations much more easily. Unfortunately, it was badly broken and didn’t work very well. The update fixed the Generics issues, which means I can set up a lot of new features more quickly. 
A few posts ago, I wrote that I’d submitted a proposal for a session on game programming at the upcoming Delphi Live conference, and that it had been accepted. Well, the conference is no longer upcoming, it’s currently in progress, and I just presented my session. Read the rest of this entry »
I just uploaded the new update. I managed to get the RM2003 issues fixed, and now it’s nice and stable. You can get it on the Downloads page.
I’ve spent the last few weeks setting up some stuff to make it possible to embed a SDL rendering window in a Delphi form. This last weekend I finally got the last of the little details worked out, and now it’s working. I’m going to build an update sometime this week. I’d have one already, but I recently noticed a bunch of incoming hits from the Everlong site, and I downloaded it and tested Everlong in the project importer. The author’s done some really incredible things with RPG Maker 2003, really pushing the envelope in a few places, and it helped me find a few holes in the import code, which I want to fix first.
I also managed to track down and patch an issue in SDL’s image loading code that was slowing things down. The new update won’t look much different from the last one, but it’ll run the project importer a lot faster, especially for projects with lots of images, and the sluggish feeling some people have been getting when changing from one class to another in the database viewer will be gone.
A few months ago, my coworker and friend Jim McKeeth pointed me to a post on Olaf Monien’s blog about an upcoming conference on Delphi programming. I mentioned in a reply post that the conference needed some people who would talk about game programming in Delphi. Mr. Monien, who’s one of the organizers of the conference, agreed that that would be a good idea, and Jim saw it and told me that I ought to submit a proposal on the subject myself. So I did, and somehow it got accepted. Read the rest of this entry »
This morning, I was finally able to work out a workaround for a compiler glitch that’s been causing trouble for weeks. There’s one more issue to work out, (a relatively minor one,) and then I’ll be ready to officially release the source code for the TURBU project and we’ll get down to some serious development. It should be finished by tomorrow evening at the latest, possibly even tomorrow morning.
After several delays that ended up taking way longer than they should have, I’ve gotten the code cleaned up enough to publish.
I just got the last of the known bugs worked out of the editor about an hour ago. I’m currently in the process of sorting through all my code, marking the source files with MPL headers, and preparing to upload them to a SVN repository on Google Code. I wanted to host it here, but when I called my hosting company about some technical issues involved in setting it up they said that it wouldn’t be possible. The code should be available by this evening, Pacific time.
EDIT: It won’t be ready by tonight. Getting everything ready is taking longer than I thought, and there’s a possible legal issue that I need to get resolved first. I should have everything by tomorrow night, though.