Blitz Not Fast Enough?

[spathi]

I've noticed a number of comments from users and admins here (Shockwave I think, specifically) on the thread about software renderers and elsewhere, indicating that Blitz just isn't fast enough for writing fast software renderers.

Is this the case with Blitzmax or does it apply only to the older versions (Plus, Blitzbasic and 3D?)

Is Blitzmax worthwhile to stick with, for a few games at least, or will it be necessary to move to something faster?  It seems that Blitzmax is more than fast enough for any sort of retro title I'd be likely to do, especially since it can do OpenGL.  Is this the case?  I do know C and C++, except for templates, but I am completely blown away by Blitz and I would like to bring a couple of products to market with it.

[zawran]

I have done a lot of different pixel based effects using blitzmax and I if people feel it is too slow then it might be because they do not know how to make use of the language. It is every bit as fast as any other basic language on the market. In my own opinion it is not a lot behind C speedwise. You can even use C with blitzmax if you need to. Blitzplus and Blizt3d is probably not as fast as something like freebasic and purebasic, but I doubt that a lot of people uses those languages anymore, people have generally either moved onto either blitzmax or one of those other basic languages or jumped to C, C++ or C#. There have been produced a fair amount of commercial game titles using blitzmax, my guess is about 30 titles or so. If you are looing to make games, blitzmax is one of the easiest to use languages out there, especially if you want to focus on getting things done quickly and efficiently.

But I am somewhat biased since I have been using it for years now and it is my favority programming language of all time.

[spathi]

I haven't been using it for long enough to really say for sure but from what I've seen of it, it's absolutely excellent, and you're right that you can of course do C externs, I did some of that today actually and it was easy as pie.

What's your take on the new BRL product, Monkey or whatever they are calling it now?

[Shockwave]

I've noticed a number of comments from users and admins here (Shockwave I think, specifically) on the thread about software renderers and elsewhere, indicating that Blitz just isn't fast enough for writing fast software renderers.

I would have been speaking of Blitz2d or Blitz3D and we did indeed write some software rendering with it (low res stuff 320 * 240 for the most part).  There were even some softrendered demos in 640 * 480 but that was about the limit.

I've only written a couple of small programs in Bmax (which seems a great language) and be honest, how many people write software rendered things these days?

If you like the language then stick with it because there's nothing wrong with it 

[spathi]

Even if it had some things wrong with it, I might stick with it anyway.  I find myself typing long classes and they work the first time, which they never do with C++ if I don't use my code generator.  There's something about the syntax of Blitz that is just very simple and good.