Fund Darkwire Software development

Hey folks!
I've been supporting Clickteam community for a while now, with plenty of free services and products.

However, new expenses have made that a tough thing to keep up.
For those who are able and willing to give a little back, I would love for you to go on my Patreon.

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Thanks for any support! There's rewards too, like pre-release extension access, and it would take a load off my back!

Cheers,
~Phi

Just a note, fellas, you get best time to monies ratio if you sign up on the 1st (i.e. today).
Due to exts being sent upon subscription on certain tiers, Patreon is set to charge immediately for the current month you sign up in, even if the month is nearly over.

So signing up on the 1st of a month is better

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Thanks for any support!

Just Please login to see this link.! This discusses changes to DebugObject, a useful extension for debugging, logging, and handling crashes with events.
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Quote from AlanRuno

Great Phi!
I will surely join as a patreon.
You've made great extensions for fusion!
I bet you're not done yet.

Thanks AlanRuno!
The new DebugObject update should save a ton of time in debugging!

I also have another object coming out that will completely revamp how Fusion coders write their events. Should make events even faster to code, the next best speed-up after CF2.5+ DLC child events!
Depending on patreon support it might take a while to complete, so thanks for your help!

Quote from Volnaiskra

Certainly sounds intriguing! Are you able to give us a few more hints as to what sort of functionality we're talking about? I haven't personally made use of most of your extensions (they appear to primarily be online-focused, which my game is not) though I've certainly appreciated your helpful presence on the forums in general. If this new object is something I might use it may push me over the edge.

Functional-programming style in Fusion, using expressions to call events which set the expression's return value.
Think of it like you being able to tuck away all the unreadable complications into their own little subroutine events.

It has pre-defined function templates (preset the parameters), with strict typing (e.g. first parameter "Username" must be string), but it allows flexibility too (e.g. Any parameter type, types of function readable at runtime).
There'll also be dynamic evaluation from a string with usual maths, checks for recursion, and I'll see if I can throw in stuff like object scoping, maybe some built-in code for reading common object properties - although using the object you could roll your own function that returns them.
Fun part about the object is any hole in functionality, you can simply roll a patch for it, a bit like polyfill in browsers.
(For example, optional parameters not in the function object? Just define a function with less parameters that will return whatever the function with more parameters does. For example, Apple(A,B) internally returns Apple(A,B,C_default).)

Here's an extract of the most optimised thing I could get currently, using an existing function object:
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Where the input global string with all parameters is parsed in Eggtimer function, first by string split, the result looked up by current language + an ini++ object, defaults thrown in, macros (like the peer count) replaced, and returned via global string Translate.
While that works (it's far from readable), there's no way to keep the object scoping in the Eggtimer function. Having said that, Eggtimer is useful! (for now, at least.) And yes, the typo is in original Eggtimer.

Whereas with my object, you'll simply do:

Set alterable string to FuncSSI$("Func", "Translate", "Lobby", "JoinedLobby", Channel_PeerCount("Lacewing"))

(no puzzling extra actions, no fluff.)

Oh, and you can add a parameter to an expression or change a parameter type with just changing a letter of the expression name. FuncSSI can be SSS, ISS, FIF, FI, $ for returning string, etc.

It also has delayed function calling, repeating functions (retaining original object scoping), will work in Unicode, Windows, and Android, from Fusion 2.0 and higher...
it's gonna be intense.
(hence the working name, Intense Functions object, hehe - might rename it Expressive Functions Object)

I've already produced a proof-of-concept and Fusion can run events this way, so once I get to IFO on my task list, it's just a matter of making sure I get the auto-generated A/C/E menus right, because I can't change the A/C/E internal IDs later without bricking MFAs. So I gotta get all the features pre-allocated first try.

Quote from Volnaiskra

Sounds fantastic. Have you done any performance measurements of it? Like, is using your function object slower/faster/similar to doing comparable tasks without functions?

I have not measured it, but since I know how C++ and Fusion events work, I'll explain why it'll be faster...
There's less actions to do in Fusion, so that's faster to do. All the complications of compacting parameters into string or splitting the string apart in the function area is gone too, so faster again.
The storage and use of the parameters would be done in C++ level, rather than the Fusion level, and C++ compiles to assembly, so... in short, all combined it'll definitely be faster than other function objects, and faster than a homebrew with fastloops.

Currently, just funding is needed. I've done a proof of concept, events can be spawned from expressions, and anyone signed onto the second tier or higher of Please login to see this link. will get a pre-release weeks before public release.

Hey folks,
Lacewing Blue has been having large overhauls, and unfortunately the Patreon's not gathered much steam. That's on me, I've been too busy working to actually keep notifying everyone about what I'm working on.

Any sponsorship is appreciated, and you can gain access to pre-release extensions, including file compression, RTSP video transcoding/display, pre-releases of Lacewing Blue for Android, and of course access to the ClickStore paid extensions. There's also cloud file storage, SQL database access objects, and more humble tree lister extension and >4GB file size reader extension.

Your funding will go into extensions released to the community, so it's doing your bit for Clickteam community as well!
First goal on Patreon is Unicode support for Lacewing, giving all users access to the full "alphabet" of Arabic, Asian, emojis, etc. in Lacewing messages!
Of course, backwards compatible, no server upgrade necessary (although it helps), and usable in Fusion 2.0 for those who have the 2.0 Unicode addon; 2.5 comes with Unicode built-in.
So anyone with French usernames or foreign languages, having hopelessly destroyed chat messages, no issue. And no need to use a complicated workaround with binary messages and memory addresses.

Thanks to Volnaiskra, Michael B, Trent G, SkyLight Gaming, Blake F, and the Mystery J for their sponsorship so far, and also to Fernando, Fredrik, Konitama and Ljonalfheim! It's been a great help in Please login to see this link. of upgrading and cleaning up the open-source repository for future extension developers.

I'll probably do a poll soon and ask folks what they most want to see. My community task list can be rearranged some.

Cheers,
~Phi

Thanks for sponsorship Airo ! Hope the unreleased SQL object works out for ya!

Another link for folk who don't wanna scroll back up to the ISS:
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Quote from StingRay

This Intense Functions object sounds really fantastic, especially if it works on win and mobile (ios & android) it can be a game changer. how far this is away from becoming real?

A proof-of-concept was tested and works okay. Project was paused for other priorities, but if you sub on this thread you'll get a notif when I'm making a poll post.
The reason I haven't thrown a preview object out there is if I redesign the parameters, all existing ACEs on MFAs using the preview version will fail to load, basically bricking any project the old ext was in. Rolling back the ext will make it accessible, but every single function would need to be commented out so it's no longer registered as an use of the expression (e.g. putting it in double quotes), which'll take an age on big projects.

Porting to Android would be a bit of a slower job if I include object selection parameters, as the main functionality of the extension would be in C++ and the main functionality of the Android runtime would be in Java (runtime hasa the object-selection/filtering functions), but it is possible to communicate C++ <-> Java via JNI. The SDK already uses JNI to read ACE parameters.
Most of the code wouldn't need recoding though, so Android would "shortly" follow a Windows release.
iOS would be far future unless I have funding to buy a Mac device - you can't program for Mac outside of Apple hardware. Then it'd be a question of how easy it is to port the SDK and relink the runtime-accessing functions, but the base extension itself won't need any changes as it doesn't use OS-based functions.

So in conclusion: Android would shortly follow Windows release, if not accompany it. The amount of work the extension needs for Windows is around a couple months.

Quote from Phi

...other priorities, but if you sub on this thread you'll get a notif when I'm making a poll post.

Poll thread is available Please login to see this link..