New Gamemaker Version

Silverware · Post by **Silverware** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 5:20 pm

Since there is now Gamemaker 8 Out is TH15 going to port it to GM8 code?
Or is he going to stay with GM7, or start work with a real programming language?

jwa8402 · Post by **jwa8402** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:32 am

Apparently its fairly easy to open v7 files in v8, but there seems to be some bugs still. If it actually is relatively simple to transfer, might be worth the gains in speed. Also curious what do the code monkeys think about Construct? Is it any good?

Silverware · Post by **Silverware** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:23 am

Construct looks interesting but yet again its a entry level coding platform, so why change? if they have to rewrite the code they may as well switch to C++ or another real language and build it in that, they would get upwards of 10x speed boosts from that.
But the only thing that would really need to be recoded for BSF in GM8 would be the sprite loading as GM8 supports 4byte color in the form of PNGs
full alpha transparency anyone?

Then theres also the boosts to loops and preloading of large games, so BSF would improve rather dramatically in moving to GM8. Only thing is the 25$ cost to TH15 and his monkies, that and the hassle of bug hunting again.

Well anyway its still their desision. We can only hope to poke em with a stick.

Post by **Kaelis** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:31 am

I was wondering when will this pop up...

As of now its impossible to tell how much performance there is to be gained by converting BSF to GM8. It might not even be worth the 25$. Same for GM8 bugs, potential fixing/recoding, plugin compatibility, etc. There is not enough data. And there are also some... other things to consider.

But ultimately its not my decision.

As for Construct, its all nice and shiny, but its scripting support is nearly nonexistent, which makes it a bad choice for anything more advanced than a simple platformer.

Silverware wrote:his monkies

Hey, i resent that

Post by **Arcalane** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:47 am

Silverware wrote:Then theres also the boosts to loops and preloading of large games, so BSF would improve rather dramatically in moving to GM8. Only thing is the 25$ cost to TH15 and his monkies, that and the hassle of bug hunting again.

Yeah, pre-Jan 1st '09 purchase here, so no free upgrade, which is kind of BS if you ask me. The GM guys sure have a shitty idea of customer service.

Silverware · Post by **Silverware** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:07 pm

Have to agree with you there arca.

Other things?
Like the next versions getting built or something?
Or you are actually thinking about porting to C++?

But I'm guessing we won't get it out of you till its time for what that means to be revealed.

=P

And we are all monkeys of a kind. Or descendant from em.

Post by **th15** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 6:42 pm

Shrug, I'll be getting GM8 sooner or later anyways. The problem with porting it to GM8 is that the sprite handling functions are fairly different (because GM8 actually supports alpha channels in sprites properly) and BSF uses a lot of those functions, which will need to be rewritten. On top of that, many assets need to be converted to use the new sprite system.

Long story short, it won't be easy to convert BSF, and since we're not very sure it will be any better at all, it just doesn't seem to make sense to try until I know more about GM8.