Author Topic: Can you're game be played on many different computers?  (Read 3947 times)

SPYmaps

  • Visitor
  • *
  • Posts: 8
    • View Profile
    • SPYmaps - SP-leveldesign
    • Email
Can you're game be played on many different computers?
« on: 2010-12-03, 05:51:57 AM »
i have started working on a game of my own, and this is my first indie game dev.
i have made tons of sp-maps and sp-mods with fpshooter games though, and sometimes some people couldn't
play a map or mod due to a crash in a specific place. and that when lots of other people including myself and the dev
team had no trouble at all with it.

so, sometimes some computers can't play something that can be played by many other people.
do you have such experiences with you're game, if so, could you please tell me (us all) more about it?

thanks,
leon
I LOVE SP-MAPPING, (check my site for sp-mappacks, sp-mods, movies of them etc.)

bluemonkmn

  • SGDK Author
  • Administrator
  • Fanatic
  • *****
  • Posts: 2761
    • ICQ Messenger - 2678251
    • MSN Messenger - BlueMonkMN@gmail.com
    • View Profile
    • http://sgdk2.sf.net/
    • Email
Re: Can you're game be played on many different computers?
« Reply #1 on: 2010-12-05, 09:25:15 AM »
Vincent, how did your alpha/beta testing go?  Was LoK Revival playable on many systems?  Were there any problems in the framework/engine/drivers?

Vincent

  • SGDK2 Addict
  • Expert
  • Fanatic
  • *****
  • Posts: 612
  • Legacy of Kain: Revival is completed!!!
    • View Profile
    • Chivalrous Games
    • Email
Re: Can you're game be played on many different computers?
« Reply #2 on: 2010-12-05, 08:48:16 PM »
Hi guys!

Well, I must say that overall my experience with SGDK2 games was very positive.  :)   I don't have a hundred beta testers but I estimate that at least 20 persons tried my alpha version on their own computers.  I can only think of three problems that occurred depending on the system:

1- The person didn't have .NET framework 2.0 installed.  But it's a very easy problem to overcome: download, install and problem solved.
2- Problems with graphic cards when the graphic sheets are too big.  At first, I made huge graphic sheets, more than 1200 pixels by 1200 pixels.  On some computers, it resulted in an error when the game loaded.  Something about "GL ARB rectangle or texture", I don't remember exactly.  When the problem of the graphic sheet sized was identified, I cut my graphic sheets into smaller ones and that's it.  You just have to be careful and plan this well.  I think it occurs when the graphic card isn't a recent or powerful one.
3- Old graphic card drivers for OpenGL.  Not too hard to solve either: download the latest ones.

Overall, performance is great.  For my game, I load many big graphic sheets (still under 1200x1200 pixels though), many sprites, many music and sounds at the same time in memory (to cut in game loading times) and it runs at a smooth 60+ fps.  It takes around 380 megs of RAM to run the game, but it's almost all loaded in memory at start-up.

Of course, nobody tried my game on a Mac or Linux OS...  But on Windows I didn't get many compatibility problems.

Does that answer the question?  Do you want more details? :)
Legacy of Kain: Revival completed!
http://lokrevival.webs.com

See also my company website:
http://chivalrousgames.com