[Ian]

Just a quick heads up to say that I've now got a slightly updated version of B'lox! up and running on the GP2X Wiz.







http://iprice.remakes.org/my_stuff/Wiz_Blox.rar (2.7Mb)

The above download also contains the pc .EXE

Here is the updated PC ONLY version - http://www.iprice.remakes.org/my_stuff/Win_Blox.rar

This update fixes a couple of bugs and adds 20 more puzzles, making 120 and removes the old splashscreen.

[Sokurah]

Congratulations, it seems to work well...

Normally I like these kinds of games and I played until level 5 but that's all the time I'll give it.

I wasn't fun (for me) because it's pratically unplayable on my primary PC. The PC is a 3GHz Pentium 4 with an integrated Intel Q965 graphics card. Not exactly a top-end computer but it's still able to play a lot of things - things much more impressive than Blox, but for some reason it struggles with everything made in GL Basic.

[KungPhoo]

Yikes! Did you get the latest drivers for your graphics card?

[Sokurah]

Yikes! Did you get the latest drivers for your graphics card?

D'oh! - should it really be necessary to tell me a thing like that?...

...Hmm, yes, it seems so. That solved the problem. It still a bit choppy sometimes  but it's a LOT faster than it was before. Definitely playable now.

Thanks for the idea Gernot.

Oh, one small thing Ian. When the thing was damn slow I could see that the edge of the stars (that moves down the screen when you've completed a level) didn't look clean - they have an ugly border.

You can hardly see it when it's moving at it's normal speed but perhaps you can clean them up a bit?

[Tam Toucan]

Great little puzzler. Seems like a nice timesink for people into these. Me, my brain started to hurt after the 4th level

[Scottige]

I mind playing the PC ver like this and feeling like a total numpty when I had to ask you for a solution for which turned out to be a simple puzzle lol.

Cool wee game.

Grab the MMF2 demo and do a mobile phone version .

[caffeinekid]

That Wiz looks a bit smudgy - is it yours Ian?

Good work on getting the game sorted for the new console.

[Ian]

Cheers chaps.

Yes the Wiz is mine - it's not smudgy, it's got a plastic film screen protector on it, which I didn't bother to remove when taking the screenie. It's bubbled up in places, hence the smudgy looking. It's a lovely little machine - much nicer than the GP2X.

As for GLBasic games running slow on your machine Sokurah, I'm not sure what that's all about, as a PPC can run the game OK. As for the star edges, I am aware about that - it's a masking/rotation/interpolation problem that is only really obvious when the game is running slow (which it shouldn't do on any 1Ghz+ machine).

[caffeinekid]

It looks great on that screen anyway Ian.

Please tell me that they did in the end split up the second dpad into individual buttons?

[Ian]

They did. The right D-Pad is made up of four moving parts now, rather than one cross shaped bit. It's reet responsive and comfy.

[caffeinekid]

That's good news. It would have been shit as one solid lump.

[Sokurah]

Yikes! Did you get the latest drivers for your graphics card?

That solved the problem. It still a bit choppy sometimes  but it's a LOT faster than it was before. Definitely playable now.

Hmm, small update.

My computer has been exhibiting some strange behaviour lately. One game (Boulder Dash XMAS 2002) has begun running upside down but even worse - something has been adjusting the aspect on the games I've run - including my own.

What's been happening is that instead of stretching a 640x480 screen to fill my 16:9 screen the picture would get resized to have the right aspect, which sounds good, but if you do that to a 640x480 screen running in 640x480 you get a picture that is about 480x360 in size. It looks terrible and it's been damn annoying.

This has been buggin me for a few weeks so yesterday I tried to downgrade the drivers for my graphics card to the earlier version because upgrading them is the only thing that has changed about my computer in a while.

That worked - both problems were solved.

...but now I'm back to not being able to run B'lox!

[Ian]

Is it just B'lox! that's not working for you now? Have you tried any other GLBasic games? Do they have any issues?

The reason I ask, is that I wrote a scaling routine to increase screen size (x2) - perhaps this is causing the problem? I've not had a single report of problems with running the game though (which could just mean that nobody has let me know about it).

I could create a non-scaling version, but the screen would be tiny. I could also knock up a BlitzMax version I suppose, but it's not going to be ready any time soon.

[KungPhoo]

Definitely a driver problem. Get a new (old) card. GLBasic can't be blamed by definition.

[Sokurah]

Definitely a driver problem. Get a new (old) card. GLBasic can't be blamed by definition.

Heh, well, it's a small-form-factor PC and there's no room for a new graphics card in it.
However, I'll download a few GL games and see if it's a general problem or just B'lox! that's the problem. Can you recommend some good GL games?

[KungPhoo]

Quake, Doom, HalfLife and of the id Software.
Ian, are you using CREATESCREEN or GRABSCREEN for the zoom? CREATESCREEN might be faster on new cards, slower on old and vice versa.

[Sokurah]

Quake, Doom, HalfLife and of the id Software.

I meant games programmed in GLBasic - not just OpenGL.

[spacefractal]

this game diddent use fullscreen, but I do have it windowered mode because I have a widescreen too and I dosent like strected graphics.

The game run 25fps which is pretty nice, even it only support 4:3 resoultion and I dosent like strected graphics when I have a 16:9 widescreen.

I diddent have a problem with preforments and ran abour 25 (which I guess it as a locked fps).

Instead of double up direcly in software, you could also double up the graphics, so you dosent have to scaling the graphics, if it have problems on some machines.

There is also some graphics error in the scaling on some graphics, so you can see top/left corner in some graphics here.

I dosent like the "congratations" when completed a puzzle the default is set to cancel instead of ok.

Also I dont want the cousor to been moved after you moved a piece, instead it should stay hete, until you giving slip the key.

with these in mind, its a really nice puzzler :-D.

[Ian]

this game diddent use fullscreen, but I do have it windowered mode

There is no full-screen mode on pc. The game was designed for GP2X, with a resolution of 320x240, so to enable all pcs to run the game I had to scale it. A fair resolution was x2 (640x480), which pretty much every pc under the sun can run.

I diddent have a problem with preforments and ran abour 25 (which I guess it as a locked fps).

Nope, it's locked at 60fps, which even the GP2X can manage. Have you got a really old pc or OpenGL drivers?

Also I dont want the cousor to been moved after you moved a piece, instead it should stay hete, until you giving slip the key.

You do know that you can play with the mouse, don't you? Keys were coded in only so that GP2X F100 users could play. It's really designed for mouse and touchscreen.

There is also some graphics error in the scaling on some graphics, so you can see top/left corner in some graphics here.

I've never noticed any scaling problems - if you can post a screenshot I can see if there is a problem.

[spacefractal]

Dont think about FPS, it really pretty nice and it diddent fell sloppy at all :-D. Its just the main title screen when startup that happens some times, not in the game it self (which I dosent bother about FPS problem at all). So it not a key issue at all.

A Fullscreen mode, 320x240 and/or 640x480 fullscreen and possible to hide options would fit the game arcade friendly (PC games installed typical on a M.A.M.E. Emulator based cabinets). Hence why I really like the key control (if the little issue been fixed, it would been great)... or I could simply use a emulator for that :-D.

For the other graphics problem I found, I think its a alpha/transperancy problem.

I use Win7 RC, just installed for 2 weeks ago, and downloaded all drivers after that. I checking on my laptop soon.

[Sokurah]

For what it's worth I haven't experienced any graphicsl problems like that.
It's probably a driver problem on your computer. What GPU do you have?

[spacefractal]

1GB Nvidia 9500 with passive cooling (the reason I brought that, not the ram), Win 7 RC.

I guess the transperancy color used have been changed under loading of some way (DirectX, NVidia, OpenGL, Win7?).

I remember on Space Taxi Java. I did have the same problem (back to the around pentium 200mhz time), so I choiced to just checkout the top left color on each moveable image and use that as transperancy.

EDIT:
ps. no graphics problem with Ati Vista Laptop at all. just checked.

[Ian]

Ooh that's nasty! Definitely a driver/gfx card/OS (hedging my bets here ) issue, rather than a game issue. Nothing I can do about that I'm afraid

As for full-screen, I might just have a looksee at some point, as I'll be sorting out a score-saving bug anyway (apparently no score info is saved after level 100). I'll try adding an option for "sticky" cursor at the same time.

Can't say fairy-er than that

[Ian]

Ok. Here's a quick update.

The attachment fixes the score saving and offers a full screen/windowed option. Copy both .EXE files into your B'lox! folder. NOTE: This is just a patch and requires all the media from the full version.

I recommend copying the "PROFILE.CFG" file in your Data folder first, as the converter needs to change some values.

Run the "Blox Converter" file first (it only needs to be run once) - B'lox! will just crash if you try to run it without converting the data first.

You can now run B'lox! and choose full screen/windowed. I haven't looked at the "sticky" cursor yet.