Hello from DIV HQ!

MikeDX · February 12, 2016, 01:50:55 AM

Hi Everyone

I thought I'd join up here and let you know about the latest div games studio, version DX (official successor to DIV1 + DIV 2)

With some help from Daniel Navarro, we have been working towards making DIV fully compatible with the 21st century! This is 100% compatible with DIV1 + DIV2 programs, including those that are compiled to EXE! So any old DIV games (1 or 2) can be converted to play on new systems. This is not a rewrite or remake, this is genuine DIV code, promoted to 2015 :)

The IDE has been upgraded to 32bits full HD, keeping the graphic editor, sprite gen, font manager (and new TTF support), online help, fpg manager and everything else DIV GAMES STUDIO had :)

Here is a little taster of the new IDE in action (work in progress, window decorations to come)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhEQDuVtkbU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv3r_T2MZ2U

here is the classic IDE running natively in OSX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIBxS110apk

DIV now runs on over 10 platforms including varios android builds, raspberry pi, linux, windows, dos, osx and html/javascript. I have been porting and uploading old div games to my site at http://js.mikedx.co.uk and to the reborn http://div-arena.co.uk

The next stage is to make the runtime 32bits, which has already begun with 32bit mode7. I hope to have some examples to show you all very soon!

This year should be quite exciting for DIV after a long rest. Daniel and I hope you will all enjoy it!

FreeYourMind · February 12, 2016, 06:31:35 AM

Hi Master Mike.

There will have a new DIV version for windows ? Standalone exe games like old DIV games distro I ask, without HTML browser requeriment ?
I want to update some old DIV games to run on Windows, games I never adapt to fenix or Bennu.

Another question, DIV will be open source some day ? Or games like bert the barbarian will be open source some day ?

My last and more important question, the IDE from DIV2 will be updated ? I'm talking about DIV Graphic Editor Interface, this still is one of the best graph editor interface of the history.

Thanks a lot.

MikeDX · February 12, 2016, 09:24:42 AM

Quote from: FreeYourMind on February 12, 2016, 06:31:35 AM
Hi Master Mike.

Hello!

Quote from: FreeYourMind
There will have a new DIV version for windows ? Standalone exe games like old DIV games distro I ask, without HTML browser requeriment ?
I want to update some old DIV games to run on Windows, games I never adapt to fenix or Bennu.

There is no HTML browser requirement for this new version of DIV :) The IDE runs on windows, osx, linux, android, raspberry pi and each IDE can create games to run on HTML and all other platforms (You can use the linux version to create android builds or the windows ver to create osx, any combination). All the IDE platforms create downloads, you can see examples on http://js.mikedx.co.uk/crazytetris.html where the game runs in a browser or you can download the windows / lnux versions :)

Quote from: FreeYourMind
Another question, DIV will be open source some day ? Or games like bert the barbarian will be open source some day ?

I am uploading ALL the div games source to github that I have access to, this is taking a long time though! I will also try to keep source code archived.

DIV itself may become open source one day, I haven't really got that far yet - it's not even finished :)

Quote from: FreeYourMind
My last and more important question, the IDE from DIV2 will be updated ? I'm talking about DIV Graphic Editor Interface, this still is one of the best graph editor interface of the history.

Yes the IDE is being updated, it currently runs in 32bit HD modes.

Thanks a lot.

panreyes · February 12, 2016, 09:57:09 AM

Awesome work! :)

One quick question: How does it render the 32bpp games?
Does it use OpenGL?

MikeDX · February 12, 2016, 10:25:10 AM

Quote from: PiXeL on February 12, 2016, 09:57:09 AM
Awesome work! :)

One quick question: How does it render the 32bpp games?
Does it use OpenGL?

It uses SDL1 or 2 depending on platform. SDL2 I believe uses openGL. SDL1.2 is purely software rendering.

josebita · February 12, 2016, 02:38:27 PM

Wow, this is certainly impressive! I'm guessing the code is both 32 and 64 bit compatible, right?

Hope to see more of it soon :)

JaViS · February 12, 2016, 02:46:15 PM

First of all: Welcome! and thank you for sharing the news with us.

Secondly: WTF?!!

I mean, it is a great news for sure, but it was totally unexpected. After many year, I thought "DIV 3" was a total vaporware!

Now, I want to start listing my concerns:

* Are you going to take any (legal or not) action against the open source projects derived from DIV? (Bennu, Pixstudio and the other HTML5 engines) We have had issues in the past, due to the format of the files, etc.
Please please please don't. Do not become an enemy of the community, remember, these open source projects are the reasons why there is still a community for DIV to come back to.

* You haven't mention much new features. Fenix, Bennu and others have evolved and implemented many importante new features, such as the ability to render a scroll on a map, 32bpp colors, multitouch support, the precompiler and the ability to import pieces of source code from other files, etc. Which of these features will come with DivDX? What is the objective of this new version? to be fully compatible with old source code? or to improve the language and add new features?

MikeDX · February 12, 2016, 03:24:20 PM

Quote from: JaViS on February 12, 2016, 02:46:15 PM
First of all: Welcome! and thank you for sharing the news with us.

Secondly: WTF?!!

I mean, it is a great news for sure, but it was totally unexpected. After many year, I thought "DIV 3" was a total vaporware!

Now, I want to start listing my concerns:

* Are you going to take any (legal or not) action against the open source projects derived from DIV? (Bennu, Pixstudio and the other HTML5 engines) We have had issues in the past, due to the format of the files, etc.
Please please please don't. Do not become an enemy of the community, remember, these open source projects are the reasons why there is still a community for DIV to come back to.

I have no intentions of "shutting down" any div-alike projects, much as when div-arena.com was in full boom, we supported fenix and with this new version, the new community will have the options of all the div variants. I am even considering supporting them officially in the IDE to use DIV, Fenix, Gemix, Bennu (and any others? Div-GO maybe?) I have already spoken to Gemix about this possibility. I'm not imposing this version of DIV on anybody, it is just the next step on the evolutionary ladder from the original DIV authors from Daniel (the father of DIV) and myself (from DIV1+2 english and original windows port).

Quote from: JaViS

* You haven't mention much new features. Fenix, Bennu and others have evolved and implemented many importante new features, such as the ability to render a scroll on a map, 32bpp colors, multitouch support, the precompiler and the ability to import pieces of source code from other files, etc. Which of these features will come with DivDX? What is the objective of this new version? to be fully compatible with old source code? or to improve the language and add new features?

The plan is to create the "best" version of DIV possible. It is currently 100% compatible (except mode8 but a new 3D engine hopefully soon) with ALL existing div1+2 prg and compiled files - even dll extension files work with some small changes. If there is a wishlist of features, maybe this can be looked into. This version should be the DIV we always dreamed of :)

At present it has been a long journey to convert all the old DOS code to modern compilers, it has taken a lot of time and effort but we are finally nearly 100% complete with DIV1+2 port and progress on HD/ true colour has begun. A lot of the IDE still needs converting but

Quote from: josebita on February 12, 2016, 02:38:27 PM
Wow, this is certainly impressive! I'm guessing the code is both 32 and 64 bit compatible, right?

Hope to see more of it soon :)

Yes, both 32bit and 64bit cpus are supported on al platforms - Mips, arm, intel and virtual (javascript).

I post regular updates on div-arena.co.uk , youtube and twitter and the demo site at js.mikedx.co.uk is updated almost daily with new builds of old (and new) games.

If anyone has any games they would like to send to me for conversion to the modern platforms, please let me know and i will convert and share them to the wip site.

JaViS · February 12, 2016, 03:37:02 PM

Quote from: MikeDX on February 12, 2016, 03:24:20 PM

I have no intentions of "shutting down" any div-alike projects, much as when div-arena.com was in full boom, we supported fenix and with this new version, the new community will have the options of all the div variants. I am even considering supporting them officially in the IDE to use DIV, Fenix, Gemix, Bennu (and any others? Div-GO maybe?) I have already spoken to Gemix about this possibility. I'm not imposing this version of DIV on anybody, it is just the next step on the evolutionary ladder from the original DIV authors from Daniel (the father of DIV) and myself (from DIV1+2 english and original windows port).

Glad to hear that.
Honestly, I don't think Fenix is being used much anymore. Bennu is pretty much the continuation of that project, and Fenix is long abandoned. ( Bennu wasn't updated in a long time either) DivGO seems to be doing good with lot of updated, although I don't know any project using it. Gemix, well, gemix is a bad word around here.. The lead developer of Gemix seems to dislike the idea of having competition.

Quote from: MikeDX on February 12, 2016, 03:24:20 PM
The plan is to create the "best" version of DIV possible. It is currently 100% compatible (except mode8 but a new 3D engine hopefully soon) with ALL existing div1+2 prg and compiled files - even dll extension files work with some small changes. If there is a wishlist of features, maybe this can be looked into. This version should be the DIV we always dreamed of :)

At present it has been a long journey to convert all the old DOS code to modern compilers, it has taken a lot of time and effort but we are finally nearly 100% complete with DIV1+2 port and progress on HD/ true colour has begun. A lot of the IDE still needs converting but

Great news! I'm not that interested in retro-compatibility to be honest, mostly because I think DIV had many non consistent function and vars names, and I would like to see the language evolve most of all (pixtudio is taking a good direction in that matter). But I'm pretty sure there is people who would like to see their games running on new platforms.
Regarding the new features, it would be great to do a public wishlist, I'm interested in importing reusable parts of code (through the years I've come to build a pretty big library of reusable code) and rendering the scrolls in maps, to be able to zoom and rotate the screen.
What's your twitter? I'd like to follow your updates

MikeDX · February 12, 2016, 03:57:18 PM

Quote from: JaViS on February 12, 2016, 03:37:02 PM
Great news! I'm not that interested in retro-compatibility to be honest, mostly because I think DIV had many non consistent function and vars names, and I would like to see the language evolve most of all (pixtudio is taking a good direction in that matter). But I'm pretty sure there is people who would like to see their games running on new platforms.
Regarding the new features, it would be great to do a public wishlist, I'm interested in importing reusable parts of code (through the years I've come to build a pretty big library of reusable code) and rendering the scrolls in maps, to be able to zoom and rotate the screen.
What's your twitter? I'd like to follow your updates

my twitter is @themikedx

The importing of other prg files is something I have already looked into since its something I want to use myself.

A lot of the new features in DIV will be based on supporting the creation of the games at the time. Much as when DIV was born, it was created to enable SNES / Megadrive style games of that time, the new version will be built to enable creation of modern day equivalents such as the Android app store popular games. It should be trivial to create angry birds So a physics engine with a VERY simple interface is already being made and I have simple physics demos already created.

I don't really know where this will go, but I know it's been an exciting few months so far of relentless day and night development to get where we are, with 14 platforms supported and more being added as we can.

JaViS · February 12, 2016, 04:05:29 PM

The multiplatform support it already has is impressive. I must say. And it's a very attractive feature. Great work on that

MikeDX · February 12, 2016, 04:09:54 PM

Quote from: JaViS on February 12, 2016, 04:05:29 PM
The multiplatform support it already has is impressive. I must say. And it's a very attractive feature. Great work on that

A note to this - you only need *one* version of div on any platform to generate any build for any platform. No additional licenses to buy. Also it will be integrated with div-arena and have a version control built in (based on git and linked to github)

JaViS · February 12, 2016, 06:08:12 PM

Quote from: MikeDX on February 12, 2016, 04:09:54 PM
Quote from: JaViS on February 12, 2016, 04:05:29 PM
The multiplatform support it already has is impressive. I must say. And it's a very attractive feature. Great work on that

A note to this - you only need *one* version of div on any platform to generate any build for any platform. No additional licenses to buy. Also it will be integrated with div-arena and have a version control built in (based on git and linked to github)

Sounds awesome.

Do you have any idea of the licenses you wanna make available and how much they will cost?

MikeDX · February 12, 2016, 06:32:50 PM

Quote from: JaViS on February 12, 2016, 06:08:12 PM
Sounds awesome.

Do you have any idea of the licenses you wanna make available and how much they will cost?

I have a few ideas. One is a simple subscription model on div-arena like €2 per month, but you can gain credits by making and uploading games and helping others out, so you get back from the community if you are an active user

Still all in idea phases at the moment, but realistically div will be very cheap to create multiplatform games to sell on app stores :)

FreeYourMind · February 12, 2016, 06:57:23 PM

Amazing! All our whises comes true, the only problem is came to late , 15 years late ;D
But we are happy to dream again, and come back in time and emotions :)

This morning I don't see, but it's beautifull see the IDE updated to our days and amzaing the ports to different platforms you have.

I ask for a little thing, can you separate the downloads from HTML Game pages ? Because my browser it's to slow and running game at same time to download is very hard to do.

I believe you will not be capable to get a sense with the other commercial div like, I think with time you will ignore it, because it's very difficult to agree with this person ideas....

I will consider the new DIV version in my tools in the future.

Thanks for all!