Pieces Form the Whole
Entry posted by Josh ·
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A few technologies are converging that form the basis of Leadwerks Game Engine 4 and our extended future.
BlitzMaxNG is a new compiler that turns BMX source code into C++, and includes a 64-bit compile mode. This means we can do a 64-bit build of our editor in the future. It's not super important right now, but it's a nice option to have going forward, and it makes all our code future-proof in the long run.
I've been exploring the direct 2D drawing features in GDI (Windows), Quartz (Mac), and X11 (Linux). Virtually no one uses these APIs anymore, instead relying on a middle layer like SDL. Unfortunately, libraries like SDL, QT, and GTK are missing features or have fundamental architecture flaws. It's very interesting because it feels like some forbidden knowledge, perhaps opening a Lovecraftian-type world of dark and ancient forces beyond our comprehension. For now, I will just say that I am interesting in replacing our GTK-based GUI on Linux with something we build ourselves, and taking total control over our user interface on every system.
Finally, I've been testing out unicode strings, which will make Leadwerks more friendly to our friends in Russia, China, Japan, and everywhere else that uses non-Latin characters. Fun fact: The Russian Federation is the #2 country in numbers of Leadwerks users. These are the people who invented Tetris, so they're great users to have.
These are long-term developments that will take a while to roll out, which is why I am not going into a lot of detail right now, but it's interesting stuff I thought I would share with you.
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