DX8+

[William]

Since this is a tutorial request for DX8, and you have already done the conversion for your MS project. Why not create the tutorial?

[Matt]

He hasn't done this for MS, to my knowledge. He created his own engine or something.

[Robin]

I've done both. But as I said before, I don't want to make a tutorial because people simply wouldn't be able to adapt it to their own games.

It's quite a bit more complicated than DX7 and unless people know how to create the rendering loop, the vertices and the texture calls, they won't be able to effectively add add-ons to the DX Engine (such as arrows, extra layers etc.)

And of course, there is the fact that I am in no way DX8 literate. All my code is just fragmented knowledge, so I wouldn't be able to help people when they came across problems or wanted help with a certain part of it.

If they really want to learn, they can just take a look at Lucky's DX8 tutorials. They helped me out a ton.

http://rookscape.com/vbgaming/tutorials.php

[William]

Well, at the least, this is a request for a tutorial on how to swap out the Dx7 engine with a DX8 rendering engine. So at the least, you could just put up a Tutorial .. or even Spodi could Others could pitch in with corrections and support, and what-not.

Any how, I guess this thread need to be cleaned as those very few who have done the conversion is not interested?

[Spodi]

Just thinking about what it would require to get it to work gives me a headache. I haven't done a DX7 to DX8 conversion in ages, and I am proud of it - its a horrible process full of crashes, bugs and problem solving. :wink:

First thing you would have to do is convert your tiles from one huge graphic because you work in textures. This is a good first step anyways, though. Its easier having one huge graphic (if your computer can handle it), but you have to load that whole thing into one surface, which means it will be stuck there... as a whole. If you do it individually, you can automatically unload textures when they go unused for too long, and load them up when you need them (and they're unloaded). Huge bonus to the RAM usage.

Secondly, you have to convert them to powers of two - if your texture isn't a power of two (2^X), then it will end up stretched and distorted, and just nothing that you wanted.

Lets see... then you have to start with the drawing. Not sure where to tell you to start on that, but you will want to know how Tu and Tv values work. Basically, you will probably want to do a Triangle Strip, which means you define 4 verticies:

Code:

0-------1
        /
     /
  /
2-------3

This is what will make up your graphic. As you can see, its just two triangles. The values you will have to worry about are the X, Y, Tu, and Tv. X and Y are self-explanitory. Point 0 is (X,Y) while point 3 is (X + Width, Y + Height). Tu and Tv are the texture co-ordinates, in percentages. So if you have a 512x512 texture, and you want the first 32x32 tile, you would have:

Point 0: (0 / 512, 0 / 512)
Point 3: (32 / 512, 0 / 512)

Tu = texture X, Tv = texture Y.

There a starter for ya.

[bpendz]

Note: I haven't read through this whole post.

I recommend working in C# if anything. Its not very much live Visual Basic, but it is a good transition. Alot better then Plain C lol. DirectX 7 use's Direct Draw, and blt functions, which make it allot easier to program in. Theres no point in adding DX8-DX10 for mirage, if you can pull that off I recommend making a whole new source because, you basically overhauled the engine. I'm working on a game at Myth Inc. based on the outdated realm crafter engine working on scripting. Then I have projects on dx8 dx9 engines, much much different.

Thats just my little bit of cents.

-bpendz

[bpendz]

I haven't been active for a while please take it easy. :lol:

-bpendz

[bpendz]

Very true, Very true. I thank you and I will watch what and where I post, I just feel the need when bored to throw my information in. I like how you explained it.

[Robin]

Well, with the deadline for the summer competition having been stepped forward quite a bit, I will most probably be posting a tutorial on how to convert MSE1 to DX8.

Mind you, it won't be copy and paste, and you'll need to know how Mirage works to be able to do it!

[Matt]

Awesome! I will love you forever on that. >.>

[Robin]

^_^

[Dragoons Master]

Robin, if you do that, I'll post my new AI system! Plx do it !!!xD

[Robin]

Yay! Share code! =D

[Matt]

O_o

Butt sex from you, right? hock:

[Robin]

I'm gonna put the tutorial out >.>

I have one more week of exams then I'm off for a few months. i have two months to make the tutorial so it wont be hard.

Keep in mind I won't be going indepth about how it all works, because I hardly know myself xD

But to make the tutorial I'm gonna have to dig up all my old projects made with DX8 and then convert everything to Mirage, so I make sure I put everything that needs changing into the tutorial.

It's gonna be a massive change though.

You're gonna have to break up all your tiles and chars into files sized in 2x2 multiples (2x2, 4x4... 32x32, 64x64, 128x128, 256x256 (any bigger is silly))

Soooo get ready to not be able to use your source till you find out how to implement the code into your client

[Robin]

But I won't be posting how xD

It wont be hard to fix though