ID:132541
 
Will we ever see byond released as a stand-alone programming language?
Akushumi wrote:
Will we ever see byond released as a stand-alone programming language?

If you mean one that compiles directly to machine code, then no. That would be quite impossible.

Lummox JR
Note that it's already possible to package a game in an EXE and distribute that to people without BYOND.
When ran, the EXE will prompt to install BYOND when necessary (the installation can be included within), then run the game (according to how it's configured).
In response to Kaioken
With the standalone executable, would it be possible to have a Single Player game as a standalone and someone to run it while they were not connected to the internet? Or do you need internet connection to download the minuscule version of Byond necessary to run it.
In response to Darkjohn66
Darkjohn66 wrote:
With the standalone executable, would it be possible to have a Single Player game as a standalone and someone to run it while they were not connected to the internet?

Yes.
You need to configure it accordingly during the packaging wizard.

Or do you need internet connection to download the minuscule version of Byond necessary to run it.

No, as I said: "(the installation can be included within [the EXE])"
This option wasn't there initially, but it was added.

Note that games from Dream Maker-packaged EXEs use a regular BYOND version, not a mini one or anything.
In response to Lummox JR
This question has already been answered and everyone after the answer (Lummox's) has been completely off topic.
In response to Akushumi
Akushumi wrote:
This question has already been answered and everyone after the answer (Lummox's) has been completely off topic.

Seemed on topic to me; until you decided to post that just now.
In response to Falacy
There talking about ways to download byond.
If your downloading it wouldn't be stand alone.

By stand alone I mean that if something is written in DM using an ide (Dream Maker) and then compiled into an executable.
In response to Akushumi
Akushumi wrote:
There talking about ways to download byond.
If your downloading it wouldn't be stand alone.
By stand alone I mean that if something is written in DM using an ide (Dream Maker) and then compiled into an executable.

That would be exactly what they're talking about. BYOND comes included when you make the exe for your game. Last I heard it could run without the player even knowing BYOND existed, but I could be wrong about that.
In response to Falacy
If your downloading byond then it wouldn't be stand alone.
In response to Akushumi
Akushumi wrote:
If your downloading byond then it wouldn't be stand alone.

Which was already mentioned. I don't get your argument, is there a point to it?

There talking about ways to download byond.

No they were not, re-read the posts. The OP was asking if a stand-alone version of the EXEs from BYOND would one day be possible and the answer, from the very next post, was no (see previous hyperlink).

What was mentioned, which you may have misinterpreted, is that the EXE now is able to be bundled with the DM installation and is able to install + play the game in the EXE if you do not have the internet.

Now that we all understand each other, can we let the post die?
In response to GhostAnime
GhostAnime wrote:

Now that we all understand each other, can we let the post die?

Now what fun would that be?
In response to GhostAnime
Off topic, but I'd like to clarify some misconceptions about Make EXE's power.

By including the Zip'd version of BYOND in the same folder as your EXE, your players can run the game as a guest without ever installing BYOND.

So in theory, you could write your own EXE that would extract the game and BYOND to a temporary folder, creating the illusion of a standalone EXE, as opposed to a zip with a seemingly random folder called "BYOND".

I can't remember the specifics of how to set it up, but Metamorphman put together a handy little tool to do it automatically: dmb2exe (although, I have to admit, I never got around to trying it; I never finish anything! :P)
In response to DarkCampainger
dmb2exe is way out of date, I stopped updating it after I realized there isn't going to be much use hehe. However, you can still use NSIS to make a little package for your game. It isn't particularly hard.

You will need to download NSIS first.

Steps:
  1. Create an exe using DM's make exe function. Make the command executed by this exe 'file://[game_name].dmb##trusted##guest' and name the exe game.exe. The icon and other properties do not matter.
  2. Place this exe along with your dmb and rsc file in a new folder on your desktop.
  3. Download the BYOND binary files and extract the zip file into the aforementioned folder.
  4. Create a new NSIS script on your desktop and paste in the following code. Remember to look through the script and make changes as necessary. I've left comments to help you out. NSIS comments are preceded by a semi-colon (;).


; This is the  name of the temporary directory that the 
; game will be extracted to.
; Change it to something random so that it doesn't
; accidentally interfere with another game's temporary folder.
; Comment it out if you want to extract the files into the
; directory of the final exe.

!define dir 'dmb_temp12345678'

; The directory of the folder with the game's dmb, rsc and exe files plus byond data. Change as needed.
!define dataDirectory 'gamedata'

; Name of the final exe.
!define exe 'PlayGame.exe'

; Directory that the game files will be extracted to.
; Comment out next line and uncomment the line afterwards to extract the game into the same folder as the exe.
!define mainDir '$TEMP\${dir}'
;!define mainDir '$EXEDIR\my_game_data'

; Comment out the "SetCompress Off" line and uncomment
; the next line to enable compression. Startup times
; will be a little slower but the executable will be
; quite a bit smaller
SetCompress Off
;SetCompressor /SOLID lzma

Name 'Play'
OutFile ${exe}
SilentInstall silent

; This will be the icon of the final exe. It must be in the same folder as this script.
; Un-comment and change the next line to the name of an icon file if provided.
;Icon 'Ooze.ico'

Section

IfFileExists '${mainDir}\*.*' runGame copyFiles

copyFiles:

SetOutPath ${mainDir}
File '${dataDirectory}\*.*'

SetOutPath '${mainDir}\byond\bin'
File '${dataDirectory}\byond\bin\*.*'

runGame:
SetOutPath '${mainDir}'
nsExec::Exec game.exe

SectionEnd


If everything went right, you should now have a new and completely standalone exe for your game. Voila.

Notes:
- You can delete dreammaker.exe from the byond bin folder because you will not need it for the final product. The help and cfg files will not need to be touched as the script will not be include them in the game's final package either.

- Be sure to change the script settings if you are using server-side savefiles in your game. Currently, as it is, the game files will be extracted into a temporary folder, which means that any savefiles in your game will also be created there. Temporary folders will be automatically deleted by your system after some time and there will be confusion regarding the whereabouts of your savefiles.
So make sure to change the settings so that your game's data is extracted into a local directory, rather than a temporary one if needed.

- You can change the command executed by the exe you create in dreammaker (how-to) but be sure to keep ##guest and ##trusted as they are essential.
In response to GhostAnime
The OP was asking if a stand-alone version of the EXEs

I think I know what I was asking.


can we let the post die?

I think you mean this thread.