Dark Basic Professional

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Publisher: The Game Creators Ltd
The lowest price: $62.99
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A lot of developers like to create and then self-publish their games, offering them for sale from their web sites. One such high-class example written in DarkBASIC Professional is 3D Mahjong. The quality level of graphics, sound and extreme playability showcase perfectly just what DarkBASIC Professional is capable of.

This version of DarkBASIC Professional is ideal for those of you who don't need the printed manual and can get by with the built-in help files. The help files list all of the commands by category and are available from within the editor at the touch of a key. Because there are no packages to send, you get the same programming language at a vastly reduced price and without the usual wait for the mailman to deliver your goods.

There are two versions of DarkBASIC Professional On-line. One is 11 MB and the other is 90 MB in size. When you order you will be given download links to BOTH versions - it is up to you to decide which one you prefer. So if you currently use a modem at home then you can start with the 11MB one, but should you upgrade to broadband then you can login to your account at any time and download the 90MB version too. There are no restrictions on this.

All of the help files are intact, but in the 11MB version especially most of the showcase examples have been removed to save space in the archive. This means when you view a help page and click "Load showcase example" most of the time you will not have that example to view. The 90MB version includes a lot more of these example files, but still not the full amount included with the boxed CD version.

3D Engine features:

Binary Space Partitioning (BSP), Potential Visibility Set, Pixel & vertex shaders, Real time shadows, True reflections, Lights, Matrices, Advanced terrain, Multiple camera views, Particle system, Lightning fast 2D sprites, Polygon collision detection, Bump mapping, Light mapping, Environment mapping, Multitexturing, Bone based animations, Cartoon shading, Rainbow rendering, Low level access of object data, Vector and matrix manipulation.

2D features:

Super-Fast 2D Sprites, Mirror, Stretch and Blur, Fade, Transparency and Rotate, Screen-Sized sprites, Fast Collision, Animated Sprites, Gamma Control, Scale Sprites, 2D Drawing Functions.

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Displaying 1-10 of 20 reviews
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Simple at a cost

By iandl2 on Tue, 2011-12-06 00:48
Pros: A lot of fun to play around with loads of included content simple to use
Cons: outdated very basic requires a 3D modelling understanding if you want to make your own graphics not the best rendering engine
Dark basic offers users with little programming experience to jump right in and start making 3D games. I am such user I have dabbled in the just basic development tool from Jasc so I felt I was...
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Pros: Makes it easy for beginners to learn how to make games
Cons: Slow compiling and outdated graphics make it a bit of an eyesore at times
At some point everyone wonders what it would be like to make video games for a career. Well thanks to Dark Basic Pro, you can learn how they do it. Dark Basic Pro is an entry level game design...
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Awesome Software, but Lack of Community

By Rageki on Mon, 2011-09-05 15:57
Pros: Could makes great games Software comes with some tutorials
Cons: Lack of community or forum
I brought this software a year ago. I did some programming and it work out pretty well. The software has a built-in code list that feature every single code that you could use in it. It also have...
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Awesome Software, but Lack of Community

By Rageki on Mon, 2011-09-05 15:57
Pros: Could makes great games Software comes with some tutorials
Cons: Lack of community or forum
I brought this software a year ago. I did some programming and it work out pretty well. The software has a built-in code list that feature every single code that you could use in it. It also have...
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Just the Basics

By runewake2 on Fri, 2010-12-17 20:02
Pros:
    Simple and Easy to Use.
    The Marketplace is a great way to find resources for your game.
    The tutorials are easy to understand and use.
Cons:
    Better Engines out there.
    Oudated.
    No support for powerful effects such as Tesselation or Bloom.
Dark Basic Professional is a good tool if you are just starting in the programming business. It allows you to write games relativly easily in both 2D and 3D. This means that, if you are new to the...
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Pros: its easy; in a few minutes you can develop a small working 3D engine; the internet site is a real community for every developer; allow you to create commercial quality game; are you a 3D modeler? You can sale your models on their webstore;
Cons: its only for Windows platform.
If You have tried to create a game using C++ language certainly You have found all the difficulties of that kind of development way, such as complex code analisys, thousands of code lines, high...
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Ease of Use: 
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Pros: its easy; in a few minutes you can develop a small working 3D engine; the internet site is a real community for every developer; allow you to create commercial quality game; are you a 3D modeler? You can sale your models on their webstore;
Cons: its only for Windows platform.
If You have tried to create a game using C++ language certainly You have found all the difficulties of that kind of development way such as complex code analisys, thousands of code lines, high...
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Ease of Use: 
Effectiveness: 
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Dark Basic - Basically a Great Tool

By kmontag42 on Tue, 2009-08-04 21:57
Pros: Massive Code Library, Speed, Ease of Language
Cons: Limitations of Basic, Lack of True Practical Use (Best for Education)
I work as a counselor at a computer programming summer camp in CT. At said camp I am the head instructor in both C++ and Basic. And have had extensive time to work with Dark Basic and many of its...
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Something to be proud of.

By JoshuaHiggins on Fri, 2008-11-07 06:25
Pros: Educational, Fun, Quick, and Constructive
Cons: Can be considered complex or daunting at first.
Having the great ability to create, edit, and write your own games is something a lot of computer/gaming enthusiasts have wanted to do, whether its just for fun, to feel constructive or just to...
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Almost for beginners.

By yaunk on Wed, 2008-10-29 05:48
Pros: One of if not the easiest to use video game programming software on the market. Bugs in the programming are easy to find.
Cons: Still a programming language, which are extremely complicated. Even though it has the simplest language available it is still complicated to learn.
This is probably the best game design software for someone looking to begin their first video game. That said I do warn anyone who is expecting this to be easy that you are dead wrong and couldnt be...
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