Greetings Everyone,

This was mostly a hobby programming project but I used POV-Ray to make some
graphics for a solitaire game similar to the one that used to be included with
Windows. The card faces are simple (intentionally) but the pips look great with
radiosity effect. The "reward" for winning the game is a spinning star that
sparkles with photons, ior, and dispersion. I was even able to use the 5-pointed
star character from my Master of Puppets font project as a button.

The game is at https://drive.proton.me/urls/3HX0BDVFGW#fJvqDikiL2sO if anyone
wants to see it.

Kind regards,
Dave Blandston

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hi,

"Dave Blandston" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Greetings Everyone,
> ...
> The card faces are simple (intentionally) but the pips look great with
> radiosity effect. ...
> The game is at https://drive.proton.me/urls/3HX0BDVFGW#fJvqDikiL2sO if anyone
> wants to see it.

agree on the "pips", and think the numbers/digits (font) too are nice, well
made.

"anyone" -- well, anyone using MS Windows :-).


regards, jr.

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On 11/14/25 03:42, Dave Blandston wrote:
> Greetings Everyone,
> 
> This was mostly a hobby programming project but I used POV-Ray to make some
> graphics for a solitaire game similar to the one that used to be included with
> Windows. The card faces are simple (intentionally) but the pips look great with
> radiosity effect. The "reward" for winning the game is a spinning star that
> sparkles with photons, ior, and dispersion. I was even able to use the 5-pointed
> star character from my Master of Puppets font project as a button.
> 
> The game is at https://drive.proton.me/urls/3HX0BDVFGW#fJvqDikiL2sO if anyone
> wants to see it.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Dave Blandston

Cool.

Bill P.

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"jr" <cre### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> "anyone" -- well, anyone using MS Windows :-).

Thanks, and if you're interested in the programming language, it's written with
QB64PE which is also available for Linux and macOS. Installation info is here
https://qb64phoenix.com/qb64wiki/index.php/QB64_FAQ#Q:_How_do_I_install_QB64_on_Windows,_Linux,_macOS?
The Linux and macOS versions of the compiler don't support some of the less
common commands so I looked at the list of unsupported commands and the
solitaire program doesn't rely on any of them. I posted the source code on the
QB64PE Forum here https://qb64phoenix.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4110

QB64PE is a lot of fun as a hobby language for anything that can't be programmed
with POV! One particularly interesting thing about it (to me, anyway) is that it
supports a relatively new image format called .qoi which is similar to .png but
significantly faster to encode and decode, and does better compression - might
be a good option for the next version of POV (forgive me if that's already been
discussed).

Here's a frame from the sparkling star animation - I love the photon effect!

Kind regards,
Dave Blandston

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Attachments:
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William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> Cool.

Thank you Sir!

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"Dave Blandston" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "jr" <cre### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> > "anyone" -- well, anyone using MS Windows :-).
>
> Thanks, and if you're interested in the programming language, it's written with
> QB64PE which is also available for Linux and macOS. Installation info is here
>
https://qb64phoenix.com/qb64wiki/index.php/QB64_FAQ#Q:_How_do_I_install_QB64_on_Windows,_Linux,_macOS?
> The Linux and macOS versions of the compiler don't support some of the less
> common commands so I looked at the list of unsupported commands and the
> solitaire program doesn't rely on any of them. I posted the source code on the
> QB64PE Forum here https://qb64phoenix.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4110
>
> QB64PE is a lot of fun as a hobby language for anything that can't be programmed
> with POV! One particularly interesting thing about it (to me, anyway) is that it
> supports a relatively new image format called .qoi which is similar to .png but
> significantly faster to encode and decode, and does better compression - might
> be a good option for the next version of POV (forgive me if that's already been
> discussed).
>
> Here's a frame from the sparkling star animation - I love the photon effect!
>
> Kind regards,
> Dave Blandston

Looks Great!
 I did similar a few years back, but the cards where more Bicycle Style. It was
wrote in c++ for my WinXP.(Have Win10 now) I put 3 different games together in
one program (which I still play today.) Strange but not one of those games are
in the style you did. It goes In the Games folder:)
 I downloaded the zip. It played Good after Win10 complained about opening it.
It maybe coincidence but FireFox locked up after I was done. I left it running
while playing. It maybe Win10 is mad at me for ignoring it.

Have Fun!

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"Leroy" <whe### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Looks Great!
>  I did similar a few years back, but the cards where more Bicycle Style. It was
> wrote in c++ for my WinXP.(Have Win10 now) I put 3 different games together in
> one program (which I still play today.) Strange but not one of those games are
> in the style you did. It goes In the Games folder:)
>  I downloaded the zip. It played Good after Win10 complained about opening it.
> It maybe coincidence but FireFox locked up after I was done. I left it running
> while playing. It maybe Win10 is mad at me for ignoring it.
>
> Have Fun!

Thank you, glad you like it! It's my opinion that Windows is becoming less
stable as time goes by. I've started noticing erratic behavior in basic
operating system functions that worked fine in the past. It appears that
Micro$oft is prioritizing advertising and spying over os functionality. I recall
trying to get two Windows computers to share files and a printer back in the
1990s without success. So M$ has had thirty years to make that feature workable
for non-IT professionals like myself and... no progress... just lots of junk
built into Windows that's not even operating system related. Sorry for your
trouble Leroy!

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hi,

"Dave Blandston" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "jr" <cre### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> > "anyone" -- well, anyone using MS Windows :-).
> ...
> QB64PE is a lot of fun as a hobby language for anything that can't be programmed
> with POV! One particularly interesting thing about it (to me, anyway) is that it
> supports a relatively new image format called .qoi which is similar to .png but
> significantly faster to encode and decode, and does better compression - might
> be a good option for the next version of POV (forgive me if that's already been
> discussed).

Quick Basic has "been around" for a long time too, so I can imagine it being a
good environment to program in/with.  also had not known there are Mac and Linux
versions, will try in the coming days to have a look at options wrt Debian.

also had not seen a '.qoi' (format) file before :-), and don't think it has been
discussed/considered yet.  good info, thanks !


regards, jr.

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