12-04-2017, 05:03 PM
Thanks again for your suggestions. To get some donations I already have an Itch.io page and a Patreon one. The problem with patreon is that is goal-based, you charge a specific amount to get something done, or charge for letting people download already made sets. So it's a good platform for selling, but not for accepting free donations. I give tilengine for free so I don't have anything to charge for, so I can't set up objectives. At least Itch.io lets people donate just for supporting.
I already have a youtube channel too where I upload recorded demos and work in progress of projects. Didn't have you see it? Or you mean that it needs more videos?
Your idea to use tilengine for demoscene is great! I already love the demoscene, although I started on PC so I missed the C64 and Amiga scene. Please keep in mind that the Amiga had a framebuffer and a blitter, whereas tilengine is a tile engine without framebuffer. So technically the type of demos you can program are more similar to the Mega Drive or Super Nintendo than the Amiga. With some trickery it's possible to manipulate independent pixels in these framebuffer-less systems (and in tilengine too), but it's not easy and has poor performance. Tilengine has a background bitmap feature (check this section). The pixels on a bitmap can be modified on the fly (check TLN_GetBitmapPtr) so you can use this feature as a kind of framebuffer and overlay sprites in top of it. However this feature is limited compared to real framebuffers, as they can be a bit bigger than the screen and perform basic scroll. Maybe I can enhance a bit this feature...
What kind of library do you need for text manipulation? You can do text with sprites, one sprite per character so it can move freely. Please let me know.
Don't worry, I don't give up :-) I enjoy working on tilengine. But my free time is limited and there's a lot to do. The most difficult part is to promote it and make it be known. So I'd really appreciate any promotion you do in your social networks.
I already have a youtube channel too where I upload recorded demos and work in progress of projects. Didn't have you see it? Or you mean that it needs more videos?
Your idea to use tilengine for demoscene is great! I already love the demoscene, although I started on PC so I missed the C64 and Amiga scene. Please keep in mind that the Amiga had a framebuffer and a blitter, whereas tilengine is a tile engine without framebuffer. So technically the type of demos you can program are more similar to the Mega Drive or Super Nintendo than the Amiga. With some trickery it's possible to manipulate independent pixels in these framebuffer-less systems (and in tilengine too), but it's not easy and has poor performance. Tilengine has a background bitmap feature (check this section). The pixels on a bitmap can be modified on the fly (check TLN_GetBitmapPtr) so you can use this feature as a kind of framebuffer and overlay sprites in top of it. However this feature is limited compared to real framebuffers, as they can be a bit bigger than the screen and perform basic scroll. Maybe I can enhance a bit this feature...
What kind of library do you need for text manipulation? You can do text with sprites, one sprite per character so it can move freely. Please let me know.
Don't worry, I don't give up :-) I enjoy working on tilengine. But my free time is limited and there's a lot to do. The most difficult part is to promote it and make it be known. So I'd really appreciate any promotion you do in your social networks.