Contents:
Introduction to Screaming Cabala Introduction to Blaising Cabala News Asking me for help SC-related links
Introduction to Screaming Cabala
Screaming Cabala is a library (actually two) for developing software-only 3D applications on the Macintosh. It was created by Andrew Meggs. Andrew has stopped working on it, and it is now maintained by Ingemar Ragnemalm.
What we have is a package that can be used by hobbyists to create pretty nice 3D games that will run on just about any PowerMac without any 3D acceleration, free for you to use.
The demos for Screaming Cabala are surprisingly fast on low-end PowerMacs like the 6100. However, don't expect too much; the speed depends on the detail, the number of polygons, the texture resolution. For full-screen animation in a real game, interlace and adjustable size is needed in order to take the best advantage of the hardware available.
Do yourself a favor and don't bother with the 68k version. I believe that 68k should be supported whenever reasonable. It isn't reasonable for a texture mapped 3D game!
Screaming Cabala is a rather low-level library a polygon renderer, not a complete 3D package. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The documentation is short but still complete, easy to grasp, but there is a lot that you need to build on top of it before you have a full 3D application. When I can release Blaising Cabala (see below) that will change a bit, but you will still have the freedom to go directly to the S.C. interface.
Download Screaming Cabala LGPL with source code (200k).
Download Andrew's demos for Screaming Cabala (1 meg, binaries only).
Download the Screaming Cabala SDK, with Andrew's demos and documentation (3 megs).
Note that the links to Andrew's original packages are, at this time, directly to his archive. I plan to have my own copies some time in the future.
Introduction to Blaising Cabala
Blaising Cabala is a set of add-on files for Screaming Cabala, aiming to solve two problems:
- It lets you access Screaming Cabala from Metrowerks Pascal. (Hence the name.)
- It provides high-level calls that Screaming Cabala doesn't have.
My goal is to make a game development kit along the same lines as SAT: Object oriented without using OO language extensions, usable from both Pascal and C (but only Pascal will be supported to begin with), kick-start interface that can get you up and running with pretty few calls.
The current version is a development version. For quite some time, I hesitated on uploading it until it was finished, but I can't see any time that allows me to make a complete, finished package out of this in the foreseeable future. Please understadn, and expect this to be rather incomplete, not too well documented, and with insufficient demos. I am making it available in case someone still can find some use for it.
This is a whopping 5 megs, much more than it really should be. I'll weed out junk, removing objects etc, when I have time.
Support? Well, you are welcome to ask if there's something you don't understand, and if you have corrections or additions, they are welcome. However, my time is limited so replies can be slow.
News:
Blaising Cabala 0.1d uploaded!
After months without progress, due to working on other projects, I decided to upload what I have. See above.
Cabala LGPL released!
If you ever wanted to hack around in the core source to Screaming Cabala, now is the time! Andrew has went on to new projects, and releases Screaming Cabala under the Gnu Public License for libraries. That means that you have access to all source code, and may use it in your own programs for free, but any modified versions of the liubrary must also fall under the same license.
Essentially, you may use it, modify it, but you may not steal it. Fair enough, right?
Note that what you really need for development is rather the Screaming Cabala SDK, unless you are up to some serious low-level 3D engine hacking.
Asking me for help
The following text is copied from the SAT page, but just as relevant here:
I do support SC/BC, and you are welcome to ask for help, but please:
- Check out the manual and see if the answer is there.
- Look if there is a demo that does exactly what you want to do.
- Use the debugger and see if there are any obvious problems like nil pointers, unexpected values etc.
- If you have any knowledgable friend nearby, see if you can get some advice there.
- Try to find the problem just once more.
When that fails, write to me. Please include vital information as development system, SC/BC version and type of Mac used. Make sure your message makes sense, is easy to understand. Source-code snippets often clarifies what you are doing. And please don't be impatient if it takes a few days for me to reply.
When you are sure you have found a bug in SC/BC which can happen, sure of course you should report it, but the best thing you can do is often to demonstrate it to me. Then I don't need to guess what you see, guess what graphics you use etc. What I need is a demo with source, project file and resource file, as small as possible still displaying the error. To quote Shawn Hargreaves, the guy who wrote the Allegro lib:
If you can send me a 10 line program, I will fix it. 100 lines, and I can probably fix it. 1000 lines, and I don't have a chance :-)
If, after making such a mini demo, you havn't found that it was a bug of your own and you fixed it (which often happens when you rewrite your code that way), you can send it to me, but please follow these rules:
- Again, make it small.
- Remove objects from the project file.
- Remove any large resources not in use.
- Trash any junk files like .SYM, .dbg, CodeWarrior's data folder etc.
- If it is fairly small, include the compiled application.
- Pack all files in an archive (Stuffit or Compact Pro).
That should end up as a rather small file, which I can quickly download and test.
SC-related links (SC programming and SC games and applications):
Note that the pages below may hold outdated information about SAT. For the latest release, with manual and demos, check out the links above.
Pages about development
The original Screaming Cabala home page, at Antennahead Industries, is still in place. It is no longer being updated, but presents the whole thing from Andrew's point of view, and also has some nice screen shots.
SC-using games
To my knowledge, there are only two released games using Screaming Cabala. Actually, that is pretty good for a 3D game library! Many libs live a long life, sometimes even as commercial libraries, and you never ever see any finished products.
The very first was Andrew Meggs' Shatterbat. It is a surrealistic shareware game, unlike anything else on the market.
The second is Cloudz by Adam Winiecki. Incidentally, this too is quite surrealistic, and highly original.
Copyright ©1999 Ingemar Ragnemalm.
Updated: 11-August 1999