Hello,

I want to collect some information here on how a developer can remove all connections between a game/application and acknex/A7/gamestudio/conitec. The point is: when showing games to others, presenting prototypes to potential publishers or showcasing a game demo, Gamestudio developers have to fight prejudices which are well known.

Maybe you don't understand / don't like that idea, but what I want is a simple thing: I want to cloak the engine game distribution meaning all visible stuff that connects my game with the Gamestudio brand. People tend to raise their eyebrows when I say "its made with Gamestudio" - I'm sorry.

So here is my ultimate list of things I want to do. Some things have already some solutions, but for the unsolved things I want to hear your opinion, even if you have to swallow the pill about this topic.

  • PROBLEM: the exe icon. I want my own exe icon.
    STATUS: solved
    METHOD: use reshacker to change icon of the original acknex exe and compile the lite-c code -or- compile your own game exe with the SDK

  • PROBLEM: Taskbar icon
    STATUS: partly solved
    METHOD: I use the following code from within my application to load another icon:

    Code:
    #include <windows.h>

    #define IMAGE_ICON 1
    #define ICON_SMALL 0
    #define ICON_BIG 1
    #define LR_SHARED 0x8000
    #define LR_LOADFROMFILE 0x0010
    #define LR_VGACOLOR 0x0080
    #define WM_SETICON 0x0080
    #define ICON_FILE 10000

    long hIcon = LoadImage(0,"media\\picto.ico", IMAGE_ICON, 0, 0, LR_SHARED | LR_LOADFROMFILE | LR_VGACOLOR); // icon
    SendMessage(hWnd, WM_SETICON, ICON_BIG, hIcon); // refresh window
    SetWindowPos(hWnd, NULL, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_DRAWFRAME | SWP_NOZORDER | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE); // pose window


    But the icon is changed -after- the game has started - during the whole startup process you see that blue Lite-C logo which is not so good. Luckily, the Title attribute from the starter WDF takes account and is displayed in the taskbar. The problem is the icon saved in the acknex.dll. Though, I am not able to res-hack the acknex.dll for changing the icon ... even if I compile the EXE with the -nc flag, the game aborts when I open it with a res-hacked "acknex.dll". - Compile my own EXE with Visual Studio is no option, though, here are my suggestions:

    SUGGESTION: 1) when the engine starts and detects a "game.ico" file, this icon is loaded instead of the Lite-C icon into the taskbar -or- 2) you add a new ICON command to the STARTER-compiler which binds an icon file which will be loaded into the taskbar and engine window icon.

  • PROBLEM: the filename of the acknex.dll. This is a heavy indicator that I use Gamestudio.
    STATUS: unsolved
    SUGGESTION: Can't you add a predefined string or something that indicates the name of the dll so that after I compiled the exe, the Lite-C app is loading this specific dll as engine DLL? I just want to name it "engine.dll" or something like that.

  • PROBLEM: the file "ACKNEX.WDF". I want to use an own starter image which is fine with the starter-WDF, but why does it have to be named with "ACNEX.WDF"? Why can't I name it "starter.wdf" or so? It is only recognized when its named "acknex.wdf"
    STATUS: unsolved
    SUGGESTION: search the game directory and use the first *.wdf file that crosses your way.


That's it. Please don't tell me "if you don't want to have the Gamestudio brand in the files, write your own engine or don't use Gamestudio, etc". It's about the wrong bias most people have (and this is a fact!) when talking about the game and the engine. I can lie and I cannot tell them, but I don't want them to have a wrong oppinion, just because I use Gamestudio.

I hope you have some delightful answers on these things and how to solve them. Maybe you can also implement one or two of the suggested features. I posted this in ask conitec because its more a discussion between us as your customers/developers and you as provider of the engine and the brand.

Thanks in advance,
Christian