Could we please lose the nag screen that gets compiled into our EXEs, I am referring to the nag box that pops up griping about needing to upgrade your drivers for hardware support. People have to click through this just to get the program to run.
This is extremely unprofessional looking, and it is made worse by the fact that the warning is in multiple languages which makes it even more unprofessional looking if your target audience can't read all of the languages displayed.
Just making it optional would suffice, we shouldn't have to manually hack our EXEs to disable/remove this.
QuoteCould we please lose the nag screen that gets compiled into our EXEs, I am referring to the nag box that pops up griping about needing to upgrade your drivers for hardware support. People have to click through this just to get the program to run.
I've never had anyone ever complain to me about this after using my apps. Is this a common complaint to other GLB devs? Is this for Windows/OSX/Linux users? Chance of a screenshot to see what we are missing? Are their pcs very old? Lack GL? Are they netbooks?
None of the above have to do with my feature request, nor do they affect how GLB compiles an EXE. It has to do with GLB not letting its users handle something properly and choosing to handle it in a way that looks extremely unprofessional. GLB should really leave it up to the developer on how they want/choose to deal with this issue.
I realize it may be too difficult to generate an error code to allow the developer to handle, but at the very least we should easily be able to edit what information is shown in the message box and what language it is shown in.
I don't want people to scream in pain because GLBasic is sooooo slow, just because they are too stupid to install porper drivers.
But I can offer to implement more languages to that box.
You can also make a console program that checks and installs the driver if you want yourself.
Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2010-Apr-13
I don't want people to scream in pain because GLBasic is sooooo slow, just because they are too stupid to install porper drivers.
But I can offer to implement more languages to that box.
Just letting us edit the text would be a huge help. Casual gamers (my target audience) aren't always aware about updating drivers and an alarming number of Windows systems only ship with the graphics drivers that come with Windows itself, not the GFX card manufacturer's drivers. If the German text says the same thing as the English text, it is not exactly helpful as it doesn't explain things too well. The multiple languages on the same message box can be very off-putting if your target audience is not bilingual. Personally, if that popup has to be there, I would like to be able to configure the text so that it is more explanatory to the problem.
Just keep in mind, the forum says feature requests, not feature demands ;) Simply a request, not a demand.
Just curious, what sort of computer do I need to get to see this nagscreen? I have tested my programs on a few different computers but have never seen any sort of message on startup. Could this be on ATI cards or something else? I only have nVidiaÃ,´s to test on. Real crappy ones too.
Moru: Meant to attach this before, but forgot. FWIW, I always test any game that uses OpenGL on a system that doesn't support hardware acceleration. I am putting the finishing touches on two GLB games that do quite well on Windows with software emulation since there are not any moving sprites (they will probably be Linux only releases though).
[attachment deleted by admin]
Quote from: Ocean on 2010-Apr-13You won't see it on a contemporary pc with current drivers.
yes/no. New systems often ship without hardware support for OpenGL because they use the drivers that come with Windows instead of the video card manufacturer drivers. The casual (and lower) gamers do not always know they have to update drivers.
But that's why I put that screen there. To inform the gamers that there's something seriously broken with their drivers. BTW: Nvidia and Ati drivers of any Windows (Vista, Seven) already include OpenGL drivers. It might be XP that lacks them out of the box.
Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2010-Apr-13BTW: Nvidia and Ati drivers of any Windows (Vista, Seven) already include OpenGL drivers. It might be XP that lacks them out of the box.
Something is getting lost in translation. Vista and 7 do not ship with hardware OpenGL support, only software support. You must download the Intel/ATI/NVIDIA drivers from their sites to get hardware OpenGL support. Most PC manufacturers will preinstall the GFX card manufacturers drivers, but an increasing number of budget PC manufacturers don't (yet they still manages to install the shovelware).
Quote from: Ocean on 2010-Apr-13
that being the case, what is your gripe then with GLBasic warning its end-users that perhaps they should think about updating their drivers? Gernot's position is perfectly clear and sensible.
I am glad it is clear for you, it is not for me or any of my target audience, as they do not speak German. The English is borderline "broken English". The screen is extremely unprofessional looking.
I have no ptoblem with GLBasic warning its end users. However, this isn't the case is it? It is warning the end users of my programs created with GLBasic. Two entirely different things and demographics.
QuoteBeing mature and taking responsibility apparently is your thing if I interpret recent postings of yours correctly. Why not practice that with your clients and make sure they indeed are setup right for your software?
Unfortunately, I am not able to do that with GLBasic, can I? GLBasic takes that out of our hands and does not give us a chance to handle it properly. It should not be in our final EXEs. If it has to be, at least let us customize the text for our own needs?
OK, what would your text read then? I can exchange that easily.
Can't you make it read some textfile instead so he can change it as he wants it?
Perhaps an INI file that needs to be in the same location as the executable ? If its not present, it defaults to the standard text message.
I would put that stuff in "Project Options".
A checkbox whether the message would appear at all and a field where user can enter a string that will be shown on screen.
Quote from: doimus on 2010-Apr-15
I would put that stuff in "Project Options".
A checkbox whether the message would appear at all and a field where user can enter a string that will be shown on screen.
Agree 100% Frankly the text I would want displayed would vary by game, as I would want the game's name on the title bar of the message box.
Quote from: Ocean on 2010-Apr-15this would also reflect bad on GLB, which is the reason Gernot put in such a message box at all.
The only reason it would reflect bad on GLB is because it is in there. If this screen wasn't in there, nobody would know a shoddy game was written in GLB. But since this screen is in there, shoddy games will make GLB look bad because only GLB made games have this ugly screen in their exes ;)
ok, deal. I'll implement that it tries to read the text file "opengldriver.txt" from the .app directory. If it's there, I'll display that. If it's empty I'll display nothing.
QuoteThe only reason it would reflect bad on GLB is because it is in there. If this screen wasn't in there, nobody would know a shoddy game was written in GLB. But since this screen is in there, shoddy games will make GLB look bad because only GLB made games have this ugly screen in their exes ;)
I've seen shoddy games with shoddy messages written in every language - why shouldn't GLB be allowed to compete? ;) :P
A shoddy game written in any language doesn't put me off the language itself - just the developer. ;)
Thanks Gernot!
Now we can write driver warnings in Klingon! Qapla'!
:D
Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2010-Apr-15
ok, deal. I'll implement that it tries to read the text file "opengldriver.txt" from the .app directory. If it's there, I'll display that. If it's empty I'll display nothing.
Hm. I don't know if I like that o:
Because it has disadvantages:
1. You can't define more than one language.
2. The opengldriver.txt is readable for everyone. If everyone can read a errormsg trough just looking at the textfiles the program comes with and is able to modify it, it will probably make a nonprofessional impression. :/
3. Showing no error message, isn't an option for me too D:
I would like to display it in multiple languages, without giving the user the possibility to modify and read it D: Couldn't you make a function that checks for it and returns either true or false? Please? D:
Because then I could program a function which only displays it once and so on.
OK, I'll do both. I'll do a command for that and if there is no call to that and you have software, it tries to load noopengldriver.txt and if that's not there you get my message.
QuoteOK, I'll do both. I'll do a command for that and if there is no call to that and you have software, it tries to load noopengldriver.txt and if that's not there you get my message.
Although I do not use Shoebox files on Windows (I prefer Molebox), the noopengldriver.txt should be able to be read from shoebox files for those who use them?