Help with BlitzBasic2 first steps

[BippyM]

Ok at let's start at the beginning.. download this and replace your instal lhttp://dragotech.net/tutorials/Bippys_BLITZ2.rar next have a look at some of the examples etc.

Later when home ill write you a small prog to rip shapes

[Shoonay]

Don't worry about it Bippy, if I don't learn how to do it myself I won't learn anything.
It simply appears this tutorial is not for me, I'll try a different one...

[BippyM]

I've not read the tutorial but if the only thing stopping this working is the shapes then dont give up.

Learn a little about shapes.... all you need to do is grab these properly and it should work..

[leathered]

Originally Posted by bippym

I've not read the tutorial but if the only thing stopping this working is the shapes then dont give up.

Learn a little about shapes.... all you need to do is grab these properly and it should work..

Agree 100%. I never got along with the shape grabber personally although Ive not tried the version Bippy mentioned. If you focus on getting the shapes file to save properly then your program can go ahead. I would also wonder whether or not anybody has written a tutorial for cutting the shapes.
You can code it yourself. All you need to do is load the .iff containing your shapes in the same way as above. Cut the shapes using

getashape n,x,y,w,h

where n is shape number, x and y are top left coordinates and w and h are width and height of the desired shape in pixels.
Do this for all shapes and then save the shapes file with

saveshapes n,n, "shapesfilename"

where n and n specify the range of the shapes you cut previously.
If you want to include the shape cutting as part of your main code you could do it all before you begin the main code and drop the "saveshapes" command as you will be cutting all your shapes "on the fly" at the start of your program. Then you could add the code

free bitmap n

to release the .iff memory for the rest of your program whilst retaining your newly cut shapes.

Whatever way you go good luck. Apologies for the lack of proper punctuation in this post, Im using a mates wierd norwegian mac

[BippyM]

shoonay,

Try the attached shapes.. it's not perfect but will do..

[BippyM]

The main problem I see with this tutorial, and I suppose a lot of other tutorials is there's not enough explanation about what is going on. yeah you can change this and that to see how it affects things, but without the basic understanding of what each routine does then you'll struggle..

I learnt blitz by trial and error, and I am learning now as I have never written a game, nor used blitzmode before.

I am hopefully going to finish this game and then move onto another, or maybe transfer this one to pc and mobile, using it as my "learning" project

[BippyM]

Shoonay,

Attached is an archive, included is some code to grab the sprites and save properly as a shapes file.

[Shoonay]

Thanks Bipps, but I've pressed the reset button and moved on to a different tutorial.
I'll get to shapes eventually...

[BippyM]

No worries