ENIGMA Development Environment

The main problem comes from LGM, more specifically the enigma jar - I have raised this issue so many times over the year, I too get very frequent crashes in LGM after working for a while, and I can reproduce this shit every time I save frequently, after few times spits those errors.... That's one thing that is a big pain in the arse to work with LGM.  After a while of testing / running / saving it happens.  The IDE itself is not the issue but the enigma plugin itself, it's as if it's not clearing unused memory or not properly resetting stuff, but definitely the problem is there, no matter what format you save in, everything goes through the enigma jar - even with maxing out the xms and other tweaks in settings... Last evening I was writing an application and had to restart 12 times the motherfucking LGM, luckily I knew this ahead of time so each time I save my project, I use incrementing (numbers) and each save I do I close LGM and re-open....I never do multiple saves inside 1 session. I learned my lesson ages ago.

Unfortunately I don't know java or enough to be able to fix it myself, though when I have some time I might have some ideas down the road.

DS2 i understand being paranoid but piracy and asset stripping is impossible to prevent and easy or not its still easy for just about any convinced hacker. It doesnt require hacking either, look at software media extractors they scan an exe for images sound video some docs flash and other media appended, and with no programming knowledge using user friendly (usually freeware) software to do this in minutes

LOL you just proved my point then, sure if they were appended to EXE yeah..... I tell you what when I find some time (in between the eating, sleeping, wanking, and work) I will set up an example and I will let you have fun to TRY to rip my file.....deal ?

without a tutorial and extract shit from your favorite AAA game, so how an indie like yourself could do any better is out of the question why try if it wont prevent much even if you were nintendo or EA games? The new Sims by EA Games has already had its models and textures ripped and you can import your own

lol - you'd be surprised of how many commercial games are not protected or done so correctly....most companies put more emphasis on their fucked up DRM they know can be easily cracked rather than encryption of their assets - sure eventually people will figure out how to decrypt your shite, but only if you use the same algorithm....what I plan to do is something that is not done by many company, even less, not a single commercial game....but anyhow, like I said, you just are inspiring me that's all.....I'll let you and Harri have fun cracking my example.
when and if you do, then if it tooks lots of efforts and time, it will be job well done....otherwise I will re-work my strategy.

models too in the game last i checked with a variety of trainers made by amateur programmers and hackers.

It's a joke how some companies lay out their  files in the oppen, it's as if some game companies are begging for people to steal assets from them, this should not even be a discussion it is fairly easy to rip most games out there, like I said these companies are focusing on other priorities, if they get stolen from they have lawyers and millions of $, not the poor motherfuckers like us.

The only thing "hard" to extract (or in this case decompiled or disasembled) from a game is the original c++ or whatever language used's code files or workspace. It is doable with that too but that is reasonably (but still far from entirely) safe when

Ok, when I'm done with my example I will let you go at it and try to rip it and crack it....and please stop reminding me of vram ripping, memory ripping I know and am aware of all that, this is covered

We already had this discussion millions of times - It's easy to rip resources (art, models, sound, music etc.) from every game engine in existence.

Right, and leaving the bloody resources raw and unprotected makes it super easy......might as well make the rippers work for it   Also there are ways to check for game focus and once out of focus said resources are removed from memory/VRAM or scrambled.  The way I would handle a game is only load resources for current level, not all the fucking resources in RAM.... That's how most commercial games work, so to hack my resources they'd only have access to whatever is loaded in memory but again as said - there are clever ways to deter cheaters.......So if they cannot do it from memory they won't be able using external ripping tools either as the files on the HD would be encrypted 

I think you lot are missing the point, I could give a shite less what Mike or any bloke thinks, as an advanced developer I want to be given freedom to do what I bloody want with my game assets - not be IMPOSED stuff !!!  I come on now - how many commercial games come in ONE EXE for fucksake !
Go look at any game, it's scattered with files all over....Some game companies don't protect their assets, and many do - but the point is they have freedom to..  putting everything in one EXE is bad practice, but it was done in GM for convenience and to calm the masses, because the kiddies using said software don't have advanced coding skills to make their own resource handling!!!  so GM will always cater to the 0-9 year old range......you will see others agree with me that YYG has cornered people and imposed things........If I didn't know better I'd say you both switched sides and praising YYG for their glory and fail to see their many flaws......I wish Robert was here to remind you of some of them.
because GM is not flawless.......

And the fact it extracts a 3rd party dll you didn't make into a temp folder gives absolutely nothing to a wannabe ripper. Dll's by themselves are actually quite useless as well,

Again you missed the point !  Think of developers who release their shite in the MarketPlace, and SELL IT !!!  Let's say for example you buy it and use it in your game........GUESS WHAT, the person who will run your game will have that DLL extracted in the temp folder ! THIS MEANS that anybody playing your game could steal your extension (the one you worked your tits off for and SELL!) and use it........This was reported to me by more than 1 developer on the MP!!!

So the fact is, the way GM handles resources and file includes is actually a much safer way than any other engine. If you used the now free Unreal4 or Unity engine, you would see how easy it is to get resources from those as well.

For most of the market segment they target yes, but they cannot be taken seriously by those who want flexibility.  They are clearly cornering people who want to do advanced stuff.

I don't give a FUCK! it is MY decision to make how I handle my resources, not theirs or anybody else's, regardless of the damned excuses.

They are very LAZY at best, the "we don't support this do your own" attitude is what has driven away some people from GM.  now they give people a Market Place to sell their extensions, that's good, but yet those extensions sold in the MP are in plain view when you run an EXE that was used with it, so free for anybody to steal and use without paying !  LW was the first person to tell me about this, so please don,t give me this rubbish about how secure YYG is. lol.
if I didn't know better I'd think some people here got hired by YYG ! when it was only not long ago some were talking trash......

the day people will use your stuff and take credit for it Sammy, you might have a different stance. How'd you like it if you worked your tits off for an extension and wanted to sell it in the MP but it was stolen because someone used it in their games and figured it was there visible in plain view in the temp folder lol!
maybe you don't mind, but some people are strong on principles. I pay motherfucking money to buy their software, I didn't steal / pirate it so I expect my shite not to be stolen or for YYG to facilitate and make so damn easy !!!  I know that nothing is fool proof but at least make it challenging/hard for the cunts out there to scam you !!!

Regarding the 1 exe vs. multi files, I can't believe what I'm reading, I'm in shock... there are many advantages to wanting to keep all aspects of your game in many files over 1 exe....... Take many commercial games, you will see proof of that.
When there are updates to a game at least you don't have to download the entire fucking game, but only the necessary files get updated........
Imagine you release a good game and break your game assets and levels into multi files like any commercial game, now imagine you want to add levels, update a level, fix some bugs, etc...would you rather tell your users, hey download my wank 600mb EXE file or hey, download this 5MB patch !  Come on now.......

Sure I agree, small games is a different story, but we should be given the choice damn it ! let's say I make a huge adventure games with lots of CG, video, etc, do you really think Harry and Samual that I will release a 1GB EXE LMAO! that is crazy if you think so, but currently with GMS you are stuck, but hey maybe YYG thought most people would make Catch the Fucks type of games.   ENIGMA is the lesser of 2 evils atm, sure there are pros to me using GMS, but there are pros to me using ENIGMA, I guess I have to compromise somewhere.  If I can find an alternative to sound_add that supports mp3, I can work from there and code my own extensions.

You are wrong - they removed sound_add when they changed their audio system to dynamic one. yeah they don't support much crap indeed.....well looks like I'll be continuing to use ENIGMA for a while then

they are really fucking lazy at best I mean they already use FFMPEG in their bloody software, why the wank can't they support those formats !?!?!?!?WHY.....!!!

and now with Playtec's acquisition they assured everybody that "nothing" will change.

That's reassuring  (Note the sarcasm!)

But obviously everyone seems content with GMS (GameMangledStudio) or the type of games they make are too basic for them to notice.

I might consider use GMS if MP extension bring back some of the stuff YYYG RAPED us from.

I dont normally post long ass shit like this but pleass bear with me guys this is very fucking important!!

LOL and they said my posts were long you probably beat my record mate  but don't worry luckily my speed reading skills will come in handy.

@Josh, ISM, ExDeus, Robert, DS2 and all the contributors here - love how you guys have been working on this game engine and ide for several to many years and your acting like now more than ever this project is dead and a pile of shit just about the exact same time were getting these new members telling you the oposite.

Dead might be a big word, it's stagnant, maybe it's time to face reality A piece of shit, now that is a big word, I would disagree.  Unfortunately some of the last contributions to the project were excellent but broke many things in the process.  The problem with this project is that those that have made big contributions in the past managed to break a lot of things in the process, then they left and didn't continue, leaving new contributors picking up the pieces, I think this might  discourage some people to contribute.  Is ENIGMA shit ? Not quite, EGM is now broken, (the format) among other things, but if you know enough C++ you can fix them OR you can find work arounds.  Just the other day I used ENIGMA to make an app, I almost fucking punched a bloody hole in the wall !!! I think the biggest problem is with IDE and the enigma.jar stability, but I found some work around and managed to get my work done.  Though this type of thing might not be attractive to most people who want a polished, finished project, but little do they know all the flaws of GMS, but to be honest, GM has gone a long way and improved.  But despite the pain in the arsehole that represents ENIGMA at times, I still use it, because unfortunatly GMS does not allow me to plug my own C++ functions, whereas ENIGMA allows me to fully modify the source.  I have some interesting plans to add encryption/decryption/resource handling etc to my own projects and modifying some of the functions for my use, can you do that shit with GMS ? No, so ENIGMA has its use still, unfortunately I am not yet at an advanced level in order to contribute to ENIGMA as much as Robert and other, though if I could I would have changed quite a lot of things in ENIGMA......First thing I would have loved to tackle is the IDE, but I don't know fuck all about JAVA !

damnit!! You may think its a good idea to leave the GM compatibility, but face it most people who like this product is because of the GM project support. Even DS2 who tries to pretend otherwise, as he said he may or may not switch back to GMS, but if he did hed need to rewrite his projects from shit if it wasnt for the amazing level of compatibility it has now.

Ok, the reason I am working in ENIGMA is not because of GM compatibility, I could give a shit less about GM, the reason I came to ENIGMA initially was because of the major blow YYG gave us with their YYC and the near extortionate price tag   Also because YYG deprecated some windows functions, so I found at the time ENIGMA more attractive to windows because it was COMPILED and at the same time fully modifiable!  When I start a project inENIGMA you can be damn sure that none of them would be GM compatible because most of my enigma projects have EDL and C++, non of which is supported by GM.  I have no problem re-writing projects mate, if you saw the speed at which I type you'd understand lol. The reason I may go back to using GMS is all dependent on its future....if they brought back some of the deprecated commands, optimised their YYC shit compiler, reduced file sizes, allowed C++ into the projects and made significant modifications, yes I might use GMS, they have made lots of improvements to their IDE and stability is far greater.
In the end it all comes down to what can get the job done.   Of course I will keep using ENIGMA so long as I am able to do what I want with it...... I honestly don,t think YYG/PT is going to make that much changes - in fact they are moving more towards mobile/console dev and unification of their product, this will fuck windows users in the arse because we have paid a big price over this whole retarded unification rubbish !  So given I am open minded I will wait to see what Playtec has to offer.  Until now, my using ENIGMA has never been about money, it's been about being able to do stuff I could not do with GMS.... one thing, the IDE in GMS is far more rock solid and stable.  enigma.jar seems to crash very regularly, the longer you work in LGM and save projects, run, save, the more eventually you will get crashes.....I don't get that in GMS......so if one day I decide to fuck off and use GMS it will be 1) better stability 2) features I don't have in ENIGMA....... who knows, maybe GMS 2 will be the right version after all this motherfucking years wait, but maybe I should not get my hopes up yet until I see concrete.

Not ready to give up on ENIGMA yet.

But apparently some people already did ..... where is our friend Wolf, he claimed he was going to make a game engine by new year, he was fucking with us all along yeah ? I knew something was odd about his claims, as I have not heard from him, so I reckon that he realised that he needed 10 more years

mention the YYG wiki/helpdesk and help doc. Are you really saying if we became an independent product from GM wed magically get the motivation to do more work and be more a competitor to YYG any sooner? Im pretty sure for the reasons given, that would slow down our progress greatly for years to come and would ultimately kill the project. People like this shit for the GM compatibility no matter how much you as

You'd be surprised at how much people will forget about GM real quick if they have a product just as EASY to use, quick learning curve and same features.
People like ENIGMA because they are already familiar with GM.....but what if ENIGMA kept some of the "ease of use" but used its own functions, just as easy to use and remember, more powerful, more features, etc.......the same people who knob GM would quickly change their mind.  In the end nobody gives a shit - people just want a product that allows them to do things they want done, and fast.  Right now GM caters to the young segment of the population, what was their demo target 0 to 9 years old ? 
Now imagine ENIGMA was its own product, nothing to do with GM GML, but a product with a better IDE, where you could get things done faster, more efficient, have the same level of ease of use, flexibility x10 + allow advanced functionality, would you use it ? You'd be able to make better games, FASTER execution, smaller files......would you prefer BETTER or stick to GM compatibility and its flaws ?
Right now given YYG made the YYC included and improved their product quite a bit, and made a free version that is suitable for most of the kids using it anyway, little reason to want to port to ENIGMA, yet they will always have ENIGMA in case there is something that cannot be done in GM.

Right now there are so many features that are integrated in the IDE in GMS that are not working on LGm, like the physics, etc.  so those porting their  catch the  clown games, sure, but some advanced games that used some IDE specific functions in GMS will be disappointed as they will need to code this from scatch in EDL !

As far as documentation I agree.  We should have better documentation and more complete one, either integrated to the product or through a PDF or site like docs.yoyogames.com.

almost completely, AND somehow "do a better job than YYG" in addition? REALLY, now?? Youll magically find the strength to do it then with life getting in theway just as much i can garentee it, you wont be able to

I think the devs mentioned their intention with ENIGMA from start was never to compete or make a new product.  I think now is too late to talk about re-writing ENIGMA, even though that would be ideal ,at this pace would probably take a solid 2 to 3 years with full time contributors, that is not going to happen

and those like agent wolf who claim they can write an entire engine in 6 months - good luck with that, they are truly delusional at best 

so this leaves ENIGMA with tons of broken pieces that new contributors are inheriting - don't you see a dead end here ?  Lack contributors, lack of time is the big factor.  so by the time ENIGMA is re-written GMS will probably be in version 5 or 6.......either way ENIGMA will always be behind.....so do you still think it is a good idea to be GM compatible and be always behind ?
This is damned if you do damned if you don't scenario.
Because right now ENIGMA lacks contributors and those still around lack time, so this stalls EGM development, how the bloody hell would one expect a new re-write of ENIGMA if the current devs don't have TIME for continuing on ENIGMA.....so yeah it's a dead end ATM, but aside from a shit unstable plugin, ENIGMA is still functional enough to do stuff in it.

Also the reason why you saw a comment of mine that I would return to GMS I was not pretending, the reason I said this is due to your mate Jason C. video engine, I could use his video engine, it would be ideal for making interactive games etc, he wanted it to work in EGM and was willing to do so freely, but...he needed pointer overloading (?) or some shit like that that we currently don't support or something about device or whatever..... If I can find shit in the market place that allows me to extend GMS to be able to do what I want, you bet I will do so, but right now there are still certain things I can do in EGM that I can't in GM, integrate my own C++ functions and compile it with my app or game.

as though using the original data.win. also dont act like GMS cant do videos, it can and much better than enigma,

I never said otherwise, but you missed something.  GMS can't do video for shit, natively.....You need an extension !  Before the market place which is basically the guinea pigs doing all the dirty work YYG was too lazy to do themselves, there was not any video support.  The only when that existed was deprecated ages ago ,and even that one was rubbish at best.
As to lonewolf's video engine, you seem to have something against it, it's very clever, as the video blends into the game as an asset, and not just some overlay video player window - so you can make amazing stuff with it, blending sprites in the video etc, you could make MYST type games with his video engine, few people understand its value
and yes you,re right, it,s far better than ENIGMA's nobody argued that ! When I first started using ENIGMA, there was no market place and there was no video extension other than the shitty one from gm8

not with lonewolffs shitty windows only hogwash, thats asworthless in my book as what enigma has,

Really ? how ? ENIGMA is a BASIC directshow player.
have you seen all the features you can do with Lone's engine ?? scaling ? rotating ? Depth, using the video as an object ? blending game objects on top of the playing video. etc....now unless I was in a coma for 20 years and missed something, ENIGMA's video is basic video playback.  Lone's video is advanced video which blends video rendering with the game renderer
allowing seamless integration of video and game elements together.......Lone's extension is more than just a video"player"

Get this, GMS supports Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android for Video playback thanks to two well updated extensions on the marketplace. everything that GM made obsolete one way or another can be just as easily added back with extensions just as ENIGMA did by being open source. Thats exactly what nearly all my extensions are doing.

You got a good point there hence why I mentioned I might consider using GMS again, however where I disagree with you is Lone's video engine being rubbish, he might be supporting windows only, but it has amazing functionality that the other video plugins don't ,as the other extensions are basic video players/streamers..... Lone's is video extension on steroids lol, I'm not sure he would be able to support other platforms with those advanced features.

Besides I'm a windows user and intend to use Windows for a very long future ahead, so I have no plans to develop for Mac or other platforms.  Wait for GMS2, you will be happy, it will allegedly run natively on Linux and other platforms, at that time I might also port my stuff to Windows / Linux as well.
As far as Android, there is no fucking way I am paying $199.99 for an export that got bumped $100. So compiling to android is off the table for now,.  Right now my focus will be on windows and maybe soon Linux.

@DS2 and lonewol-double-"f"-for-double-the-fuck -

LMFAO ! wow ok so I see there is still some tension between you two.......I thought you kissed and made up already ?!

(double the fuck) lol! thanks for the laugh mate, there is no better time than now for me to need it.....

Windows, Mac, and Linux (FFMPEG based, cant beat that!) (one crossplatform extension, an extension done right)
https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/1524/cttvideoplayer

Nice extension, but did you notice something TKG ?
FFMPEG is actually used by YYG themselves !!!!  Why the bloody hell didn't YYG offer us the video playback functionality when they COULD have considering it is a basic function in other products.......they clearly wanted other people to do their dirty work so they could profit from it.  Again, this is a basic video player, it does have some advantage, true, supports multiple video formats, is not codec dependent however it is bigger and carries some restrictions.  You can do the same in lone's extension, only it supports AVI (AVI is a container, you can use the same codec only it would be dependent on whether you have it in your system, and that is a non issue today with newer OSs........ BASIC video players vs. ADVANCED video functionality.  For people needing multi platform basic player functionality, sure they would go with the FFMPEG one.  It's a free market in the end, people are free to use what best suits them, develop exclusively or not, it's not always by choice, that people don't develop for all the platforms that exists.

Android (Android API based, still MUCH better than windows only shit!)
https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/1406/videoplay-android

You still need the $199 android add-on to compile to android......

You are expecting a one product for all platforms, but there has to be some compromise and taking into consideration the limits of these other platforms.
if lone did his video engine multi platform, I'm sure the windows part would suffer in functionality. Why the fuck do you think YYG deprecated functions in the first place ? because of their unified architecture.....so punishing windows users instead of finding alternatives.

Maybe mobile shite is the wave of the future but for some of us we will be using desktops for a long time.
I don't mind porting to Mac, Linux, Android, etc, but there again you need the money to buy all these add-ons, and unless you are expecting to earn significant profit out of this, it's bloody not worth it, it's always been a hobby for me and always will,
I did not want to be ripped the fuck off $299 for a YYC I certainly won't spend a bloody dime on the android export

So I will keep on making windows exclusive stuff for a while.......Until GMS2 comes out, then I will be able to run GMS2 natively in Linux, unless of course YYG will still charge for added exports, which I think they will, so it will be windows only for a long time.
I rather spend my money in better places than being ripped off!

This is where ENIGMA can(could have) really shined.

Well if PlayTec has the smarts they could easily win ENIGMA users over.

1) uncripple the windows side, that was raped and mangled by YYG, re-introduce back the functions that were deprecated for no reason other than laziness.

2) Optimise the bloody YYC!  I've managed to make ENIGMA project sizes more than half the size of the same project in YYC! I really like how ENIGMA groups certain functions as "extensions" and allows you to exclude categories of functions you don't need, making the compiled file much smaller!

3) add native video support, add ability to add external sounds (sound_add) yes they do handle audio dynamically,but some people want the add function back!!!)

4) add C++ support alongside GML.  Ability to mix GML and C++ in the same project would be great.

5) actually listen to the people who pay for their salaries, us users who buy their products
they have read over they years many complaints from users on their own community and here... now they have no more bloody excuses, they have the seed investment, they should get to work!

If they can do that they might win back some people.

Right now I plan on making my own dynamic resource handling/encryption/decryption engine in C++ and used alongside a project - I mean after all, YYC converts to C++ and compiles, so no reason not to offer C++/GML integration.
Mind you, they NEVER considered ENIGMA a threat anyway, and they are right lol.
BUT if they wanted maybe to start widening their market instead of their 0-9 year old demographic target, to target a wider group including advanced developers who want to make more than catch the fucking clown, burst the balloons and mario clones!

Cheers

Yeah, they clearly don't want users to install or run anything.

Yeah and there is a reason for that and well justified too, however a student should be able to get permission for approved programs.

If those PC's are meant for computer programming, then they should allow users to install new tools.

Exactly, they can allow him to install a free source, ENIGMA and then he can sign the release form   I mean some schools have GMS installed FFS 

Well im not a new user, but ill have you know that if it wasnt for the GM compatibility I'd find nothing about this project interesting enough to consider using it.

Well you might have changed your mind if you had a unique and different product not  compatible but with the same ease of use, that was more powerful and did even more than what you expect of it.

I guess people's minds will change soon - YYG announced officially the news and Playtech announced what they have in mind....This could all be rubbish talk but if what they say comes true, then ENIGMA will be really behind.....the only real valid reason people would continue using EGM is because it's FREE.  GMS 2 is due this year, + other things as well, would be amazing if they add C++ ability alongside GML like ENIGMA, there are ways where GM can win people over, but then ENIGMA will always be FREE, so it might not completely die and lose its user base, however feature and stability wise, I guess it is to be expected that GM will shine.  I admit I am skeptic as to GM's future as well, even with Playtec in the mix, I mean why the hell would a gambling company be interested in GMS - it's odd, and will they deliver or simply destroy the project will be seen, I guess maybe they will impress us all.  But one thing that worries me from the start.......they mention they plan to stay aligned with YYG's visions...That's a big fucking no-no from the start......