TURBU

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.

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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 »

(Plus, the future of the map engine.)

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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.

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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.

This time last year, I was putting the finishing touches on the Map Viewer, a proof-of-concept clone of the RPG Maker 2000 game engine that had taken me 9 months to write and almost worked perfectly.  (Almost.)  Then I switched away from it towork on the editor.  12 months later, I’ve got barely anything to show for it.  School and work have been getting in the way all year.

And I’ve been thinking.  I don’t have any real reason to keep the whole project to myself anymore.  Any income I might have earned by selling the finished product would be nowhere near what I’m making at the programming job that keeps taking time away from working on the editor.  And development’s going far too slowly with just me working at it alone.  So… I’m not going to anymore.  Over the next couple weeks, I’m gonig to clean up the code a bit, (because frankly it’s in an embarrassing state right now,) set up a SVN repository on the turbu-rpg.com server, and officially convert project TURBU into an open-source project.

Merry Christmas, everyone.  You’re getting a look under the hood of the engine, and (hopefully) faster development.  It won’t be easy to contribute.  I’m well aware of that.  All coding is being done in the Delphi language, and relies heavily on the Generics features introduced in the most recent release, so nobody without a copy of Delphi 2009 will be able to contribute code. (At least not all that easily.)  But anyone who wants to will be welcome to help out in any way they can, and I’ll still be doing the bulk of the coding work.  And hopefully I can get a few talented coders to join forces with me and we can get development going strong again.

Here’s to a strong 2009!

*wanders in and blows the dust off* Wow, it’s been too long since I updated here.  So here’s what’s going on.  About a month ago, I got a job as a professional coder.  I’ve always enjoyed Delphi programming, and now I’m doing it for a living!

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