roncli.com blog: Revisiting Numbers

Some time ago, I decided to rewrite Numbers from scratch. This is now its 5th implementation, the previous versions written in C64 Basic, Apple QuickBasic, C128 Basic, VB6, and now a combination of VB.Net & C#.Net 2005.

This version, while not yet complete, is playable. My original intent with the game was to learn how to get good performance out of GDI+, and I don't think I did too badly with the game running approximately 60 fps on my work computer. But I knew that GDI+ performance blows, and wanted to do better. So, I downloaded the DirectX SDK, and in my free time over the last few days, created a new option to use DirectX for rendering. After much code crunching, I got a version that performs 5 times as well - that's over 300 fps - than the GDI+ renderer.

Granted, DirectX is overkill for a game as simple as Numbers, but the proof of concept for creating rich 2D games - and even 3D games if I ever bother to learn that much - is now there for the taking.

Still to come is a high score list, a full screen option, and a few tweaks to the game to determine what happens when blocks reach the bottom of the display. Once all that's done, I'll give it the ol' freeware release and take what I've learned along the way to the next project.

My goodness. I might actually finish a project for once. What's the world coming to?

Labels: Coding, Gaming, Numbers

1 Comments

Micah Epps @ 2/25/2008 09:39:00 AM:
My goodness. I might actually finish a project for once. What's the world coming to?

Isn't that true!!!

Post a Comment