Frequently Asked Questions by Developers with 4.0

ID:271555
 
Aug 2 2007, 11:02 pm
  • How does the new interface system work?

  • The interface system is the crown jewel of 4.0. It finally connects it with the modern engines; now you can finally make your game stop looking like crap! (Of course, no insult intended to the AMAZING designers of the 3.5-and-below Dream Seeker screen, which sat there for about ten years before being slightly updated.)

    It's recommended to read Lummox JR's introduction to the system, as it will give you much information on it.

  • How do I prevent hosts from banning other players using the new Dream Daemon features?

  • You don't. The new Dream Daemon was designed to empower the host; there is nothing that you can override.



Feel free to reply with your own additions to this FAQ. I hope this doesn't get deleted for some reason.
Aug 3 2007, 3:33 am
Will BYOND 4.0 Beta Slow Down My Computer By allot?

No, it will just slightly slow you down more than than 3.5 if you have a XP,Premium,Vista then it shouldn't make that much of a difference but if you have lower I suggest that you keep 3.5

Aug 3 2007, 5:49 am
In response to Spartagus
Spartagus wrote:
Will BYOND 4.0 Beta Slow Down My Computer By allot?

No, it will just slightly slow you down more than than 3.5 if you have a XP,Premium,Vista then it shouldn't make that much of a difference but if you have lower I suggest that you keep 3.5


Will BYOND slow down my computer?

Short answer, no. If your computer is a lesser quality, you may experience some slowness when playing a game. The best way to counter this is to disable OpenGL for Dreamseeker.

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My Options and Messages window displays, but dreamseeker doesn't, why?

This error was found recently on my Vista computer and has been reported by others. The only cure I found for it to date, was to disable OpenGL. Even if your computer has the ability to run it.

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Should I just stick with 3.5?

That's your choice. The more people we have testing 4.0 and giving decent bug reports (use the damn template!) the quicker it will be debugged and the quicker it will become stable. It's really your choice, but remember, once 4.0 is deemed stable, 3.5's support will most likely be completely cut off, much like 340.

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Where can I find documentation on the software

By pressing F1 (Or if you're on the pager, Help->General...). Every BYOND application now comes with a help feature.
Aug 3 2007, 8:40 am
Although this hasn't come up from anyone yet:

  • Can I develop my game for 4.0 but still make it 3.5-compatible?

    You can keep your code in a state where it will compile under either 3.5 or 4.0, and then keep compiling under 3.5 until you're ready for a 4.0-only release. Here's how you do it:
#if DM_VERSION >= 400
// 4.0-specific code goes here
#else
// 3.5-specific code goes here
#endif


You may also want to use this approach for icons. If you keep one version of your icons in the DMI3 format used by BYOND 3.5, and keep a different file for the new format, you can use this #if code to choose one file or the other. This way you can also gradually change your icons to 32-bit and take advantage of alpha blending.