Welcome… 26 March 2024

AGKWorkbench

Due to a consulting assignment I decided to take on, along with a family tragedy, there has been a delay in completing the development of the 4th release of the AGKWorkbench in the past 6 weeks.  The decision to take the consulting assignment was made with a desire to be refreshed from such extensive work on this project.  One tends to become rather stale when so much continuous time is spend developing a single endeavor.  Nonetheless, work has been restarted and it is hoped that in the next 2 weeks or so, development of this new release would have been completed and the documentation for all the new features can begin.

On a slightly different note, there has been consideration of renaming the project to the MSWorkbench for Military Simulation Workbench, which would better reflect the actual purpose of the project.  The origin, name of AGKWorkbench was decided upon based on the graphics engine that had been selected for eventual use.  However, at this time, it appears that the vendor of the AGK (AppGameKit) Graphics System has little interest in maintaining this easy-to-use engine that has grown popular among its users.  This then has forced a consideration for a better supported engine such as MonoGame.

Finally, please note the new features below that have been developed for the next release of the AGKWorkbench. This feature list  still recounts the features that the posting prior to this described…

A new set of features will be released with this latest release that entail the following items…

• Several new tables and forms have been added to the database and the system, which provide for the initial processes of working with hexagonal based maps. This includes the creation of map header records, which also include data entries for data paths to the Tiled Map Editor’s TMX and TSX files. Each map header record refers to a single scenario within a selected simulation.
• The creation of hexagon node data based upon the use of the entered TMX and TSX file data. Such node data is then used to support all processes relating to actual map nodes\tiles map coordinates in a displayed map. For example, this data will be used for pathfinding processes.
• The creation of map tile types allows for the general specification of terrain types and how they can affect movement and defensive fire from units in such tiles\hexagons.
• Finally, there is a form that allows for the uploading of specific tiles into the system’s map tiles folder that is based also on the Tiled TMX and TSX filed.

Several maintenance tasks will also been have completed…

• One database issue that will be corrected in this new release is the database update scripts for the previous, second release of this system.  This will be done in case a developer finds he needs to run this set of updates again.  Currently, there is a minor error with the scripts that will not show up during the actual update process but it was thought best to eliminate the issue so that the scripts run without errors at all.
• A bit of the code in the pages and windows will be made cleaner to make it more readable.New additions to the HELP File, other than the information to support the new forms noted above, will also include instructions on how to rerun database updates along with information on the use of the very popular Tiled Map Editor software tool, which this system relies on for the creation of all hexagonal maps.
• As a result of the use of the Tiled Map Editor, a complete library of 72×72 hexagonal tiles will be included in this new release. This tile library, which has been created by the developer at https://ratbyteboss.itch.io/hex-tile-assets, contains just about any tile type one would require to create a military simulation. Surprisingly, the only tile type missing is the one for roads. However, the river tiles should be able to be easily converted for such terrain.

If anyone has been having any difficulties with this application and requires some assistance, please post your questions using the site’s Contact form or send me an email at blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com …

This software is offered as a freely available Open Source package under the generous MIT license.

To download this package, please go to the “Free Software” menu option at the top of this site and select the option for the AGKWorkbench.

Firebird Database Engine – Data Access Layers (new versions coming)

With the continuing developments with the Microsoft .NET Core Frameworks, it is now time  to begin offering newly compiled versions of the Firebird Data Access Layers that are offered on this site.

As a result, work has begun on updated compilations for these data access layers that will provide compiled versions for .NET Core versions 6, 7, and 8.  All of these new compilations will use the latest Firebird ADO.NET Provider as provided by the Firebird Development Community (current version -> 10.x.x).

Please note that no release, target date has been set as of yet for these new versions of the data access layer…

CDOCS

CDOCS is a free Personal Document Management System.  And it appears that it is starting to get some notice.

Security Extension licensing is also available for purchase from within the application for a very modest price.  This extension allows a user to password protect the application as well as provide the database file with two levels of encryption for increased security.

CDOCS allows anyone to store an unlimited number of doc, docx, rtf, pdf, and txt files against any number of user defined categories.  This then allows for the centralization of all of one’s documents that can then be easily retrieved and read within the system’s own document viewers, downloaded for editing or printing.

As this is still the original release, please report any issues as soon as possible to Black Falcon Software by using the Contact page here or send me an email at blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com ….