Now you can take full advantage of the game engine that powers DarkBASIC
Professional from within any of the Visual Studio .NET Express or Visual Studio
.NET Professional environments, with the DarkGDK.NET.
A whole new world of possibilities can be opened up by combining the features
that both Visual Basic.NET and C# offers, and the power of the DarkGDK.NET. The
GDK brings the flexibility of the DarkBASIC Professional engine to the world of
.NET development while still retaining the ease of use that DarkBASIC
Professional offers.
The DarkGDK.NET provides virtually* all of the command sets found within
DarkBASIC Professional nto an easy to use library format that is compatible with
the following development environments:
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2008
Microsoft Visual Basic.NET Express Editions
Microsoft Visual C#.NET Express Editions
Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 and above
Developing games with the DarkGDK offers many benefits:
Royalty Free License available
Near native execution speeds comparable with C++.
Amazingly small executables. EXE file sizes start from 3 to 5k, a typical
starting size for .NET based executables.
Significantly faster compile times and easier debugging (dependant on compiler
used)
Use virtually all of the commands and functions found in DarkBASIC Professional
Combine all of this with the features that .NET development offers such as the
chance to use object oriented code, an industry standard syntax, well developed
compilers and IDEs.
All game commands are covered: joystick handling, keyboard input, music, sound
and animation as well as the 3D game engine.
All the benefits of a .NET compiler and language structure / syntax found with
Visual Basic.NET and C#. All with the functions and features of DarkBASIC
Professional
A great way to get into .NET development. And take advantage of using .NET GUI
components such as WinForms.
Use industry standard .NET compilers
Once installed it only takes a few simple steps to be able to use the GDK within
your compiler and you can then start developing a .NET application that utilises
the features of the GDK. Full documentation and tutorials are available for
getting you started up straight away.
Here's an example in Visual Basic.NET to show just how easy the GDK is to use:
Public Shared Sub GameLoop()
Dim colonel As DarkGDK.Basic3D.Object3D
DarkGDK.Core.Print("Please wait, Loading model...")
DarkGDK.Core.Sync()
DarkGDK.Core.Sync()
DarkGDK.IO.File.SetCurrentDirectory("..\..\..\Media")
colonel = New DarkGDK.Basic3D.Object3D("Colonel-X.X")
DarkGDK.Camera.DefaultCamera.PositionCurrent(0, 50, -80)
colonel.LoopAnimation()
colonel.AnimationSpeed = 40
While DarkGDK.Engine.LoopGDK
DarkGDK.Core.Sync()
End While
End Sub
This example loads a 3D model, positions the camera and starts the animation for
the model, looping round until the escape key is pressed using a standard Visual
Basic.NET While loop. Many of you will recognise the commands as they are named
in a very similar manner to those in DarkBASIC Professional. You'll notice they
are all categorised under their own function groups, with no spacing. Using the
Intellisense feature of your preferred development environment, it is far easier
to find a function just by typing in the first few characters of the function
name. Your desired function will be highlighted in seconds. The commands
themselves work in exactly the same way as the DarkBASIC Professional
equivalents.
Examples and Help Files
A selection of example programs are provided with the DarkGDK.NET demonstrating
how to take advantage of its many features. Several brand new demos have been
created and others converted from the original DarkBASIC Professional to
demonstrate the benefits when using the DarkGDK.NET.
Also included with the DarkGDK.NET is a comprehensive help file detailing all of
the functions available. Also included are informative easy to follow tutorials
to get you up and running straight away. A useful index and search facility is
also provided.
* Some DarkBASIC Professional commands have been excluded, or have no GDK
equivalent.
Order Online
Order Dark GDK .NET on-line now. The process is safe and secure. Please note -
if you have purchased any previous versions of Dark GDK .NET then you are
entitled to a free upgrade, this can be found in your Order History.