Im developing a isometric Diablo-style rpg called GhostBlood...

It runs slow on some fairly hi-end systems...

1.3 Ghz AMD CPU
512 MB RAM
Geforce4 Ti 4200
WinXP


However on a slower system (than above) such as

p3 500mhz
128 MB RAM
Geforce4
Win98

It works fine.


Has anyone else come across this type of situation? Is it video drivers?

If interested you can download the demo from the link below.

http://www.lasthalfofdarkness.com/ghostblood



Thanks
Bill

>Is it video drivers?

Jup. Broken ddraw acceleration. Latest detornator fixes that issue.

[There was only one (43.45) deto so far with broken ddraw]

You have a very good looking game here. It looks good because you've taken Blizzard's design and carbon copied it.

I'm not knocking you; I'm trying to give you some constructive criticism. You've got a working isometric rpg engine, with a working GUI system. I think the most important thing you could do right now is make it look like your own design.

I am not even slightly tempted to download this game. It looks like a recreation of Diablo II, and I already have a version of that game that took hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of dollars to create.

But if it looked like your game had something different to offer (I have to be able to see this from the screenshots) I probably would have downloaded it to see what it's all about.

You're absolutely right.

I know I probably cant do much with the game the way it is. (As far as selling it or anything) When I started designing the game I knew I might be making it too similar to Diablo and Ive never copyied the design of another game so closely before like this. Normally my stuff is more original. I guess i just wanted to see how close I could get to recreating diablo?

But hey - im having fun making it.

It's the two globes and the equipment screen that screen Diablo so badly. If you could find another way to represent these, that would be a big step.

Then it's just the gameplay...

Exactly.

I think i wanted to create something really close to Diablo so players would know before they downloaded what they are getting. (even though it falls short of blizzards version)

I know this works against me too ("more diablo? oh no... too much? too similar - i will just wait for diablo 3 from blizzard")

But some people may get a "kick out of it" - who knows?

Well, hey. As long as you're having fun coding it, I say go for it. I wouldn't plan on getting rich from it, but you don't get rich from a lot of other fun things too - for instance, playing Diablo II ;)

...that is, of course, if you follow the rules and don't sell stuff on Ebay :P