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• What is this JavaScript gibberish?

  - by W3Geek

  I am studying how to make a 2D game with JavaScript by reading open source JavaScript games and I came across this gibberish... aSpriteData = [ "}\"¹-º\"À+º\"À+º\"À+º\"¿¤À ~C_ +º\"À+º\"À+º\"À*P7²OK%¾+½u_\"À<¡a¡a¡bM@±@ª", // 0 ground "a ' ![± 7°³b£[mt<Nµ7z]~¨OR»[f_7l},tl},+}%XN²Sb[bl£[±%Y_¹ !@ $", // 1 qbox "!A % @,[] ±}°@;µn¦&X£ <$ §¤ 8}}@Prc'U#Z'H'@· ¶\"is ¤&08@£(", // 2 mario " ´!A.@H#q8¸»e-½n®@±oW:&X¢a<&bbX~# }LWP41}k¬#3¨q#1f RQ@@:4@$", // 3 mario jump " 40 q$!hWa-½n¦#_Y}a©,0#aaPw@=cmY<mq©GBagaq&@q#0§0t0¤ $", // 4 mario run "+hP_@", // 5 pipe left "¢,6< R¤", // 6 pipe right "@ & ,'+hP?>³®'©}[!»¹.¢_^¥y/pX¸#µ°=a¾½hP?>³®'©}[!»¹.¢_^ Ba a", // 7 pipe top left "@ , !] \"º £] , 8O #7a&+¢ §²!cº 9] P &O ,4 e", // 8 pipe top right " £ #! ,! P!!vawd/XO¤8¼'¤P½»¹²'9¨ \"P²Pa²(!¢5!N*(4´b!Gk(a", // 9 goomba " Xu X5 =ou!¯­¬a[Z¼q.°u#|xv ¸··@=~^H'WOJ!¯­¬a=Nu ²J <J a", // 10 coin // yui "@ & !MX ~L \"y %P *¢ 5a K w !L \"y %P *­a%¬¢ 4 a", // 11 ebox // yui "¢ ,\"²+aN!@ &7 }\"²+aN!XH # }\"²+aN!X% 8}\"²+aN!X%£@ (", // 12 bricks "} %¿¢!N° I¨²*<P%.8\"h,!Cg r¥ H³a4X¢*<P%.H#I¬ :a!u !q", // 13 block makeSpace(20) + "4a }@ }0 N( w$ }\" N! +aa", // 14 bush left " r \"²y!L%aN zPN NyN#²L}[/cy¾ N" + makeSpace(18) + "@", // 15 bush mid makeSpace(18) + "++ !R·a!x6 &+6 87L ¢6 P+ 8+ (", // 16 bush right " %©¦ +pq 7> \"³ s" + makeSpace(25) + "@", // 17 cloud bottom left "a/a_#².Q¥'¥b}8.£¨7!X\"K+5cqs%(" + makeSpace(18) + "0", // 18 cloud bottom mid "bP ¢L P+ 8%a,*a%§@ J" + makeSpace(22) + "(", // 19 cloud bottom right "", // 20 mushroom "", // koopa 16x24 "", // 22 star "", // 23 flagpole "", // 24 flag "", // 25 flagpole top " 6 ~ }a }@ }0 }( }$ }\" }! } a} @} 0} (} $} \"² $", // 26 hill slope "a } \"m %8 *P!MF 5la\"y %P" + makeSpace(18) + "(", // 27 hill mid makeSpace(30) + "%\" t!DK \"q", // 28 hill top "", // 29 castle bricks "", // 30 castle doorway bottom "", // 31 castle doorway top "", // 32 castle top "", // 33 castle top 2 "", // 34 castle window right "", // 35 castle window left "", // 36 castle flag makeSpace(19) + "8@# (9F*RSf.8 A¢$!¢040HD", // 37 goomba flat " *(!¬#q³¡[_´Yp~¡=<¥g=&'PaS²¿ Sbq*<I#*£Ld%Ryd%¼½e8H8bf#0a", // 38 mario dead " = ³ #b 'N¶ Z½Z Z½Z Z½Z Z½Z Z½Z Z½Z =[q ²@ ³ ¶ 0", // 39 coin step 1 " ?@ /q /e '¤ #³ !ºa }@ N0 ?( /e '¤ #³ ¿ _a \"", // 40 coin step 2 " / > ] º !² #¢ %a + > ] º !² #¢ 'a \"", // 41 coin step 3 " 7¢ +² *] %> \"p !Ga t¢ I² 4º *] %> \"p ¡ Oa \"" // 42 coin step 4 ], What does it do? If you want to look at the source file here it is: http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/mario/mario.js Beware, there is more gibberish inside. I can't seem to make sense of any of it. Thank you.

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• A Slice of Raspberry Pi

  - by Phil Factor

  Guest editorial for the ITPro/SysAdmin newsletter The Raspberry Pi Foundation has done a superb design job on their new $35 network-enabled Linux computer. This tiny machine, incorporating an ARM processor on a Broadcom BCM2835 multimedia chip, aims to put the fun back into learning computing. The public response has been overwhelmingly positive.Note that aim: "…to put the fun back". Education in Information Technology is in dire straits. It always has been, but seems to have deteriorated further still, even in the face of improved provision of equipment.In many countries, the government controls the curriculum. It predicted a shortage in office-based IT skills, and so geared the ICT curriculum toward mind-numbing training in word-processing and spreadsheet skills. Instead, the shortage has turned out to be in people with an engineering-mindset, who can solve problems with whatever technologies are available and learn new techniques quickly, in a rapidly-changing field.In retrospect, the assumption that specific training was required rather than an education was an idiotic response to the arrival of mainstream information technology. As a result, ICT became a disaster area, which discouraged a generation of youngsters from a career in IT, and thereby led directly to the shortage of people with the skills that are required to exploit the potential of Information Technology..Raspberry Pi aims to reverse the trend. This is a rig that is geared to fast graphics in high resolution. It is no toy. It should be a superb games machine. However, the use of Fedora, Debian, or Arch Linux ARM shows the more serious educational intent behind the Foundation's work. It looks like it will even do some office work too!So, get hold of any power supply that provides a 5VDC source at the required 700mA; an old Blackberry charger will do or, alternatively, it will run off four AA cells. You'll need a USB hub to support the mouse and keyboard, and maybe a hard drive. You'll want a DVI monitor (with audio out) or TV (sound and video). You'll also need to be able to cope with wired Ethernet 10/100, if you want networking.With this lot assembled, stick the paraphernalia on the back of the HDTV with Blu Tack, get a nice keyboard, and you have a classy Linux-based home computer. The major cost is in the T.V and the keyboard. If you're not already writing software for this platform, then maybe, at a time when some countries are talking of orders in the millions, you should consider it.

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• How can story and gameplay be artfully merged?

  - by NauticalMile

  Let me give some context. Three of my friends and I have a pretty good game idea cooking. It's based off of a prototype I made that's evolving into a cool game mechanic. The mechanic itself is a toy that's fun on its own, but we haven't designed any puzzles around it yet. We have a design document going, and we are answering a lot of questions about what's in the game. It's become clear early on that everyone (including myself) likes the characters and the story a lot. Considering what our favorite games are, this is unsurprising. A story driven game makes sense to me. I like the emphasis that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year-Door, Portal 2, and Tomb Raider place on story, and I imagine our game will have a similar feel (lots of dialogue, plot twists, lovable characters). However, one team member raised this point in the design doc: I am feeling like [fleshing out the story] is our biggest hurdle right now for making more design decisions - like more specific decisions about levels etc. Is this true? I am uncertain about working on the story extensively before gameplay, and my uneasiness was reinforced when I read this question about story vs. gameplay. What I want to say is: "Let's continue to work on the story, but also start brainstorming and prototyping abstract puzzles and combat sequences, and we'll creatively match them together later." Is this a reasonable approach? If so, how much of the development of these elements should be done independently? Should I try and create a whole bunch of puzzles while my other teammates focus on story and aesthetics? Then when we have a lot of story and game 'chunks' we can match them with eachother to build something meaningful. Or should we focus on iterating individual levels as distinct units where puzzles, story, etc... are designed together? Or maybe we need to put our excitement about the story on hold and just focus on gameplay. Is there another approach to design that we can take? Am I missing something crucial? I have discussed story and gameplay because they seem the most likely to be at odds with each other, but we also have to consider user interface, music, art direction, etc... Can we design these independently as well?

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• Proxy settings do not promulgate to fat or thin clients

  - by solizin47

  I work in Hertfordshire schools, which use a proxy eg http://wf1.thegrid.org.uk on port 80 to allow graded access by all users, within the schools, to the Internet. I have Ubuntu 10.04LTS successfully running and I want to set up 12.04LTS to replace it. Many other replies to this question have answered questions about stand-alone computers and not addressed the LTSP server and its clients. I have come to a complete stop over the problem of the proxy server settings not promulgating over the local network to Ubuntu 12.04 thin or fat clients. When you input this setting (there are others for HTTPS and FTP) into the System Settings/Network Manager GUI on the server, then when a user logs into the server, both Firefox and Chrome can read the settings and will gain access to the Internet. HOWEVER, these settings are not promulgated to either thin or fat clients on the local network. Their System Settings/Network Manager GUI remains stubbornly blank. I have rebuilt the image after inputting the proxy settings, but it appears they are not part of the image. /etc/environment (on the server) already has: PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games" http_proxy="http://wf1.thegrid.org.uk:80/" https_proxy="https://wf1.thegrid.org.uk:80/" ftp_proxy="ftp://proxy.intra.thegrid.org.uk:3128/" I have also tried this export http_proxy="http://wf1.thegrid.org.uk:80" export https_proxy="http://wf1.thegrid.org.uk:80" export ftp_proxy="http://proxy.intra.thegrid.org.uk:3128" within /etc/environment, and that had no effect, either. etc/apt/apt.conf also has: Acquire::http::proxy "http://wf1.thegrid.org.uk:80/"; Acquire::https::proxy "https://wf1.thegrid.org.uk:80/"; Acquire::ftp::proxy "ftp://proxy.intra.thegrid.org.uk:3128/"; The clients still have no proxy settings in their Network Manager, and no client user can access the Internet from Firefox or Chrome. Three questions: Why doesn't the “Apply system wide” button work? It does on 10.04, and every new user, and all existing users have access to the internet through the proxy without problem. How can I set up proxy settings that work for all the 12.04 clients? I noticed that if user West input the settings himself, they would follow him around the clients. However, this is not secure, because there are grades of settings which prevent visits to various sites, eg wf3 allows fewer sites than wf2 or wf1, so I can't allow users to input this setting themselves. Since the proxy setting followed the user around the clients, the setting must be somewhere in the user profile, since none of the other users have the proxy settings. Do you know where, and how I could fix the setting for users, or better, groups? The setting must then be unchangeable by the user, with no access to the Network Manager. If either 2. or 3. can't be done, then the Ubuntu 12.04LTS server is simply no use to us...

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• Creating predefinied camera views - How do I move the camera to make sense while using Controller?

  - by Deukalion

  I'm trying to understand 3D but the one thing I can't seem to understand is the Camera. Right now I'm rendering four 3D Cubes with textures and I set the Project Matrix: public BasicCamera3D(float fieldOfView, float aspectRatio, float clipStart, float clipEnd, Vector3 cameraPosition, Vector3 cameraLookAt) { projection_fieldOfView = MathHelper.ToRadians(fieldOfView); projection_aspectRatio = aspectRatio; projection_clipstart = clipStart; projection_clipend = clipEnd; matrix_projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(projection_fieldOfView, aspectRatio, clipStart, clipEnd); view_cameraposition = cameraPosition; view_cameralookat = cameraLookAt; matrix_view = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, cameraLookAt, Vector3.Up); } BasicCamera3D gameCamera = new BasicCamera3D(45f, GraphicsDevice.Viewport.AspectRatio, 1.0f, 1000f, new Vector3(0, 0, 8), new Vector3(0, 0, 0)); This creates a sort of "Top-Down" camera, with 8 (still don't get the unit type here - it's not pixels I guess?) But, if I try to position the camera at the side to make "Side-View" or "Reverse Side View" camera, the camera is rotating to much until it's turned around it a couple of times. I render the boxes at: new Vector3(-1, 0, 0) new Vector3(0, 0, 0) new Vector3(1, 0, 0) new Vector3(1, 0, 1) and with the Top-Down camera it shows good, but I don't get how I can make the camera show the side or 45 degrees from top (Like 3rd person action games) because the logic doesn't make sense. Also, since every object you render needs a new BasicEffect with a new projection/view/world - can you still use the "same" camera always so you don't have to create a new View/Matrix and such for each object. It's seems weird. If someone could help me get the camera to navigate around my objects "naturally" so I can be able to set a few predtermined views to choose from it would be really helpful. Are there some sort of algorithm to calculate the view for this and perhaps not simply one value? Examples: Top-Down-View: I have an object at 0, 0, 0 when I turn the right stick on the Xbox 360 Controller it should rotate around that object kind of, not flip and turn upside down, disappear and then magically appear as a tiny dot somewhere I have no clue where it is like it feels like it does now. Side-View: I have an object at 0, 0, 0 when I rotate to sides or up and down, the camera should be able to show a little more of the periphery to each side (depending on which you look at), and the same while moving up or down.

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• Why learn Flash Builder 4 (Flex) when I can just use Flash Professional?

  - by Jason McKenna

  I want to learn Flash Builder 4 (Flex) because I see so many jobs requesting experience with it. I also just like knowing stuff. I am also very interested in focusing on RIA development now. BUT... can anyone tell me CLEARLY why the heck I would ever use FLEX over Flash Pro? It is a time investment, so is it worth it? All I read are misguided posts about how Flash Pro is for games and banner ads, and Flex is for programmers and RIAs blah blah... this simply isn't so from my 9 years of contracting experience. I'm 99.9% certain that I can build anything a flex developer can build, but using Flash Pro. I can build powerful AS3-driven apps for the desktop, mobile device, or browser, and I can link to databases with XML and I can import text files and communicate with ColdFusion and everything. The advantage with Flash Pro is that I can also easily and clearly animate transitions and build custom elements that look the way I want/need them to look for my specific client. Why would I want to use a bunch of pre-built components that drive my file sizes to the moon? Who is happy with a drag-n-drop button? Is Flex just a thing made for programmer people with no artistic inclination? What is the advantage of using it? It takes me back to Visual Basic class. Seems like a pain to have to use multiple tools to import crap from Flash Pro into Flex and yada yada... why when I can do it all nicely in Flash Pro to begin with. Am I clueless, or missing some major piece of the puzzle? Thanks for any clarity. PS, I couldn't care less about the code editors. It ain't that bad people. They make it out like the thing doesn't even respond to keyboard input or something. Does everything I need it do anyways. Please help out here. If I just don't need to learn it, I don't want to waste the time.

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• Ideas for attack damage algorithm (language irrelevant)

  - by Dillon

  I am working on a game and I need ideas for the damage that will be done to the enemy when your player attacks. The total amount of health that the enemy has is called enemyHealth, and has a value of 1000. You start off with a weapon that does 40 points of damage (may be changed.) The player has an attack stat that you can increase, called playerAttack. This value starts off at 1, and has a possible max value of 100 after you level it up many times and make it farther into the game. The amount of damage that the weapon does is cut and dry, and subtracts 40 points from the total 1000 points of health every time the enemy is hit. But what the playerAttack does is add to that value with a percentage. Here is the algorithm I have now. (I've taken out all of the gui, classes, etc. and given the variables very forward names) double totalDamage = weaponDamage + (weaponDamage*(playerAttack*.05)) enemyHealth -= (int)totalDamage; This seemed to work great for the most part. So I statrted testing some values... //enemyHealth ALWAYS starts at 1000 weaponDamage = 50; playerAttack = 30; If I set these values, the amount of damage done on the enemy is 125. Seemed like a good number, so I wanted to see what would happen if the players attack was maxed out, but with the weakest starting weapon. weaponDamage = 50; playerAttack = 100; the totalDamage ends up being 300, which would kill an enemy in just a few hits. Even with your attack that high, I wouldn't want the weakest weapon to be able to kill the enemy that fast. I thought about adding defense, but I feel the game will lose consistency and become unbalanced in the long run. Possibly a well designed algorithm for a weapon decrease modifier would work for lower level weapons or something like that. Just need a break from trying to figure out the best way to go about this, and maybe someone that has experience with games and keeping the leveling consistent could give me some ideas/pointers.

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• How and when to ask for a pay raise?

  - by Nico

  When should one ask for a pay raise? Will I know when the time is right for a pay raise? or should I just think "I deserve a pay raise for X and Y." When would be a moment to ask for a pay grade? For instance, if you are in a company that outsources to others, could it be the right moment to ask when they move you to a different physical workplace? Maybe a few weeks/months after you started working as a consultant at the client? Should you ask for one after engaging new technologies or something you've never worked with before? In short, should you ask for a raise for a "business motive" (they move you, they assign you new responsibilities), a "professional motive" (you are required to learn new languages or technologies), or a "personal motive" (you are having twins, your mother died and you need to arrange the funeral), or are all of the above potentially valid motives? How should one ask for it? Asking for a pay raise can be difficult for some people, how you deal with this? Do you just walk up to your manager and tell him "I need more money", "I think I deserve a pay raise"? Do you suggest you might have other offers on the table? Couldn't this be counterproductive if you actually really want to stay in the company you are in (because you like the environment, made a few friends, and like all the features they give you besides your pay grade; say: free sodas, parties, after-offices that happen pretty often, a ps3 you can grab when you are tired or want to chill out, courses, english classes, football games, etc, etc. [these would be my reasons not to leave]). I mean, how would you ask for a pay raise, effectively, but without pretending to threaten to leave the company if you don't get it? Because you don't actually want to. How would you deal with their answer? If they tell you they don't think you deserve a raise, would you ask for their reasons, would you get furious and trash the room? If they give you their reasons why they think you don't deserve a pay raise yet, would you discuss this with them or just take their opinion as factual? What if they ask you how much more you think you deserve to be being paid? Should you have thought this before-hand, or expect them to set the new grade? If they do agree to a pay raise, should you expect extra work to be thrown your way, or should everything remain the same, except your pay grade?

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• How to build a 4x game?

  - by Marco

  I'm trying to study how succefully implement a 4x game. Area of interest: 1) map data: how to store stellars systems (graphs?), how to generate them and so on.. 2) multiplayer: how to organize code in a non graphical server and a client to display it 3) command system: what are patters to catch user and ai decisions and handle them, adding at first "explore" and "colonize" then "combat", "research", "spy" and so on (commands can affect ships, planets, research, etc..) 4) ai system: ai can use commands to expand, upgrade planets and ship I know is a big questions, so help is appreciated :D 1) Map data Best choice is have a graph to model a galaxy. A node is a stellar system and every system have a list of planets. Ship cannot travel outside of predefined paths, like in Ascendancy: http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/221/Ascendancy_2.png Every connection between two stellar systems have a cost, in turns. Generate a galaxy is only a matter of: - dimension: number of stellar systems, - variety: randomize number of planets and types (desertic, earth, etc..), - positions of each stellar system on game space - connections: assure that exist a path between every node, so graph is "connected" (not sure if this a matematically correct term) 2) Multiplayer Game is organized in turns: player 1, player 2, ai1, ai2. Server take care of all data and clients just diplay it and collect data change. Because is a turn game, latency is not a problem :D 3) Command system I would like to design a hierarchy of commands to take care of this aspect: abstract Genericcommand (target) ExploreCommand (Ship) extends genericcommand colonizeCommand (Ship) buildcommand(planet, object) and so on. In my head all this commands are stored in a queue for every planets, ships or reasearch center or spy, and each turn a command is sent to a server to apply command and change data state 4) ai system I don't have any idea about this. Is a big topic and what I want is a simple ai. Something like "expand and fight against everyone". I think about a behaviour tree to control ai moves, so I can develop an ai that try to build ships to expand and then colonize planets, upgrade them throught science and combat enemies. Could be done with a finite state machine too ? any ideas, resources, article are welcome!

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• Own a KINECT for MS-XBOX before anyone does

  Following is the announced by Richik Nandi from Microsoft team. Dear Customer, We believe that our privileged customers shouldn't have to wait for good things. So, here's a special offer exclusively for you. Be one of the first in India to own and experience Kinect for XBOX 360, few days before it is even launched in stores. Introducing the new Kinect for XBOX 360®. Kinect needs no controllers. You are the controller. Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways without using a controller. The sensor recognizes your face, eyes and body movements to deliver a superb gaming experience. Easy to use and great fun, Kinect gets everyone off the couch. See a ball? Kick it. Want to join a friend in the fun? Simply jump in. Imagine controlling movies and music with the wave of a hand or the sound of your voice! Kinect is all about fun for you and your family. And the best part is Kinect works with every Xbox 360®. There are two options you can choose from: •  Kinect sensor + 4GB Xbox 360 bundle + Kinect Adventures game at Rs 22,990/-and get Dance Central game worth Rs 1999 from Redington, 20% discount voucher from Starwood on food and beverages, T-shirt from PUMA and a Kinect adventure live card absolutely free using your unique promo code : XbTXXZl2Sb •  Kinect Sensor at Rs 9,500/-and get 20% discount voucher from Starwood on food and beverages, T-shirt from PUMA and a Kinect adventure live card absolutely free using your unique promo code : lDg6o8SuYh We want you to own your Kinect before the official launch. The promotion closes by 10th November. To know more about Kinect click here. To book your Kinect PRE-ORDER now! Enter your details along with the above mentioned promo code to avail of the free gifts offer. We will have your Kinect delivered by 19th November 2010. Enjoy being the controller. Enjoy the Kinect. span.fullpost {display:none;}

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• Android Touch Event Collision Detection

  - by chrissb

  I'm relatively new to both Java and Android, so hopefully the problem I'm having is stemming from something pretty minor that I've overlooked. I've got a (very early stage) game that I've started working on, for Android using Java. At this stage, when the user touches the screen, if they touched a point at which there is an enemy, the enemies health is decreased and they become immobile (for the current implementation at least). The issue that I'm having is that the touch detection doesn't always seem to work. I've got a testing sprite set up that goes to the eventX and eventY coordinates of the touch down event, and it always seems to collide with the enemy object. Yet, the enemy doesn't always register as being hit, and sometimes a hit is registered when the sprite indicates the touch coordinates were outside of the enemies bounding box. I realise that this probably doesn't mean much without any code, so here's what I've got so far. Be gentle, as this is literally my first attempt at something more than basic movement etc. First off, the MainGamePanel class registers the touch event, and informs the levelmanager class (which is what I set up to monitor/handle enemies) public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) { if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){ levelManager.handleActionDown((int)event.getX(), (int)event.getY()); targetX=event.getX(); targetY=event.getY(); } if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE) { //the gestures } if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP) { //touch was released } return true; } From there, in the levelmanager class the touch event is passed on to all of the enemies within a list array: public static void handleActionDown(int eventX,int eventY){ hit=false; for (enemy1 en : enemy1array){ en.handleActionDown(eventX, eventY); } } The rest of the collision code is handled within the enemies handleActionDown function: public void handleActionDown(int eventX, int eventY) { if(eventX>this.x-enemy1bitmap.getWidth() && eventX<this.x+enemy1bitmap.getWidth() && eventY>this.y-enemy1bitmap.getHeight() && eventY<this.x+enemy1bitmap.getHeight()){ takeDamage(1); levelmanager.setHit(); } } I should probably be using getWidth()/2 and getHeight()/2 for it to be more accurate, but I expanded the area to test this - although I've noticed no improvement. At this stage, the games detection over whether or not the enemy is hit is spotty at best. Generally it takes two or three attempts before a collision is successfully registered, even though the sprite that is being used for testing and set to the eventX and eventY coordinates always indicates that the collision should have worked. Hopefully someone can steer me in the right direction here, and if more information is needed, ask away! Cheers, -Chris

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• Windows Phone 7 Development Updates &ndash; March 8th 2011

  - by Nikita Polyakov

  Here are the latest update from the Windows Phone 7 Developer Worlds that went live this month. Here are some of the latest numbers: Windows Phone Marketplace currently offers more than 9,000 quality apps and games and enjoys a base of over 32,000 registered developers, delivering an average of 100 new apps every day. There have been over 1 million downloads of the developers tools for Windows Phone 7. Trial version help you sell more Trials result in higher sales by the numbers: Users like trials  - paid apps with trial functionality are downloaded 70 times more than paid apps that don’t Nearly 1 out of 10 trial apps downloaded convert to a purchase and generate 10 times more revenue on average than paid apps that don’t include trial functionality. Trial downloads convert to paid downloads quickly. More than half of trial downloads that convert to a sale do so within the 1st 24 hours of trial download, and mostly within 2 hours of trial download. Microsoft Ad Control is gaining traction By the numbers - ad supported Windows Phone 7 apps are: Roughly ¼ of all registered U.S. WP7 developers have downloaded the free Ad SDK for Silverlight and XNA Of ad funded apps, over 95 percent use the free Microsoft Advertising Ad Control Monthly impressions from our Ad Exchange has continued to grow by double digits – impressions increased by 376 percent since January Ad Control, the first wave of “How Do I” videos are now available on MSDN: Create an Ad in a Windows Phone 7 XNA Game App Register Ad-Enabled Windows Phone 7 Apps Measure Ad Performance of Windows Phone 7 Apps Boarder International App submission for Free Apps through Yalla Apps As of today you can start submitting your free applications in developer markets that are currently not covered by Microsoft. To submit your Free application if you DO NOT belong to one of the Marketplace supported countries, go to: Yalla Apps Marketplace Policy Updates: Free App Marketplace Submission upped to 100 and other news Microsoft has been revisiting a few of our Marketplace policies based on feedback from developers to reduce friction and cost, word for word: 1. We have raised the limit on the number of certifications that can be performed for FREE apps at no cost to the registered developer from five to 100. This was a common request from developers which we are glad to implement after building alternate methods to ensure that users can find and download high quality apps. 2. We have converted policy 5.6 - related to the inclusion of contact information for support - from a mandatory to an optional policy. This is still a strongly recommended best practice, but we recognized and responded to developer feedback that this policy was creating excessive drag on the certification process for developers without commensurate user benefit for all apps. 3. We also understand the desire for clarification with regard to our policy on applications distributed under open source licenses.  The Marketplace Application Provider Agreement (APA) already permits applications under the BSD, MIT, Apache Software License 2.0 and Microsoft Public License.  We plan to update the APA shortly to clarify that we also permit applications under the Eclipse Public License, the Mozilla Public License and other, similar licenses and we continue to explore the possibility of accommodating additional OSS licenses. Enjoy and happy coding! Official Blog Post for reference.

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• Skyrim Creation Kit with Xbox 360

  - by funseiki

  I posted this on stackoverflow but was advised to post here (here is a link to the stackoverflow question). I'm hoping for constructive feedback on its plausibility. Update on progress: It looks like there are ways to stuff files back onto the console (horizon, modio, xplorer360, etc) and they do require some form of signing. As of now, though, I've had no luck. I was hoping I could get away with just placing the ".esp" into the directory containing marketplace downloads for Skyrim, along with the signed ".bsa" file (basically a zipped up file containing any extra content the .esp will need to refer that doesn't exist in the basic game). This doesn't work, at least not in the ways I've tried, so next I'm going to try install the entire game to my flash drive (if possible) and attempt to traverse through the game's directory (this is probably unlikely). If anyone else has suggestions or luck or wants more detail on my failures comment/answer away. Here is the question: I'm thinking about buying the PC version of Skyrim to get the Creation Kit (I already own a copy for the Xbox). I have read the faq and scoured plenty of forums to see if there was some way to mod Skyrim for a console (Xbox 360, in particular), but they are generally coming up negative. I realize the CreationKit is on the PC, but I was wondering if there was a way to set up the '.esp' (hopefully I'm interpreting this correctly) files to be placed on the Xbox 360 file system in a similar manner to how game add-ons are downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace. I believe it is possible to transfer saves between the console and the PC (e.g. google: 'skyrim mod xbox360'), but these are referencing items that already exist in the game (e.g. a console command for maximum carry weight does not require reference to new animations or models). It would probably be easier if one could navigate through the xbox's file system to see where the games' files are placed, but with the current setup, the file system is abstracted away. Any help or insight on the matter would be much appreciated. I would love to work on a project that would make it possible to let console gamers experience and enjoy all the great mods available to the PC community.

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• Need help to install Ubuntu on Win7 Alienware M17xR3, installing not working

  - by Rodrigo

  Please I need help to install linux on my computer to start analyzing Next Generation Sequencing (molecular genetics) for my work. I've tried to install from all different ways and forms and it gave me different errors. First I will describe my system: Alienware M17x R3 Raid Drive 596GB (2x 298 GB) Windows7 primary partition C: The hardrive is divided in 3 primary partitions (can't do 4 don't know why) 1st: Fat16 no name capacity 40mbs almost not used (has files like command.com, dellbio.bin, dellrmk.bin and oobedone.flg) I dont know what this is for but is blocked and non system (Status:none). 2nd: Recovery NTFS 9GB (Status:system) and it seems to have boot files. 3rd: CD: Windos OS (status:boot). And I have 2 Logical drivers F: data for backup and games :D (300gb) G: For trying to install the Linux (Already tried with Fat32, Ext2, ext3 and ext4) Installing with Wubi on F: and G: Instalation looks good on windows ask to restart dos mode appears: try (HD0,0) non-ms:skip try (HD0,1) NTFS5: No Wibildr try (HD0,2) NTFS5: Error: "Prefix" is not set. Installing with Wubi on C: Installation looks good on windows ask to restart dos mode apears: Mount denied becouse NTFS volume is already exclusive opened, the volume may be already mounted or another software may use it which could be identified for example by the help of the 'FUSER' command Mount devdm-4 Could not find installation files /ubuntu/install custom-installation Run 'Chkdsk /r' on windows and restart...blablablalba... that should correct. done this didn't work. Tried installing with USB drive and after burning a CD with the Iso file download from the official website: I've tried the option to install along windows with a G: drive in FAT32, EXT2,3 and 4, I've tried to leave unallocated data, without the driver G at all... appears this everytime: http://i.stack.imgur.com/eo2Ie.png pres ok it ask me to: Not possible to install the boot loader at the location: specify new location: I've tried to select all the drivers non is accepted If I ask to continue without installing the boot loader he ask me to install later by myself which I'm trying to figure it out but I'm not really good to understand how ppl get to the programming part like a DOS to write down couse I'm a newb and I've dont work on dos or linux before... I've read that the boot loader has to be installed on the primary partition, but I'm not sure what I can delete from those 2 partitions that would let me get 1 extra... and it seems that the one that windows use is protected to write down so the software is not touching it... Please if someone have any idea to help me out... I've got a course tomorrow of how to use the software to analyze the data and I wanted to take my computer with me, so I've passed the last 3 days trying to search different ways to solve. My question is also post on the bugs.launchpad.net link here: lounchpad.net bug #882695

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• Booting Ubuntu on HP Pavilion g7 - 13.04 [duplicate]

  - by death2040

  This question already has an answer here: My computer boots to a black screen, what options do I have to fix it? 24 answers I have a HP Pavilion G7 with an AMD A4 processor and Radeon graphics. I want to install Ubuntu on my laptop but whenever I put the Ubuntu live CD in it and boot to it, the screen shows the Ubuntu logo and the four little dots then after about a minute or two the screen goes black. I can tell the screen is still on but it doesn't have anything on it. I'm beginning to wonder if its a driver problem but I can't really install the drivers when I cant even get Ubuntu to show anything except a loading screen. I've already tried using 12.04 and 12.10 and all the others down to Ubuntu 10. none of them worked. All the other versions don't even show the Ubuntu logo. I'd prefer to have Ubuntu 13.04 on it if its possible but I haven't had any luck finding a solution. I've also tried using WUBI installer in Windows 7 but all that did was make my computer slower for windows and it does the same with the screen when i boot it to Ubuntu. I'm trying to use Ubuntu alongside Windows 7. I cant find any solution on Google. It wont load anything and I know that there is a program called grub on Ubuntu that I used on my desktop computer when it had graphics trouble but the trouble with my desktop was minor things like the screen would flash and then show weird patterns on the screen. But I can't find anything on what to do with the HP laptop. Please help. I use this laptop a lot for games on Windows 7 and I just want to use Ubuntu for when I take my laptop to school and for school stuff. Edit: I just tried booting it in nomodeset and some other things and still didn't work. It did boot up but now when it goes to install alongside windows it crashes and says Ubuntu is forcing reboot or something like that Also, this question is different from the black screen at boot issue because when I do use nomodeset on my computer and select install Ubuntu it will go as far as the screen where you can choose to replace Windows or run alongside Windows. Then after I click continue it ejects the live CD and turns off my computer without installing anything. The error message it shows when it ejects the disk says signal 15, shutting down - modem manager [1675]: <info> Caught nm-dispatcher.action: Caught signal 15, shutting down... *Deconfiguring network interfaces... Please remove installation media and close the tray (if any) then press ENTER *Deactivating swap... *Stopping remaining crypto disks... *stopping early crypto disks... unmount: /run/lock: not mounted unmount: /run/shm: not mounted

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• Euler angles to Cartesian Coordinates for use with gluLookAt

  - by notrodash

  I have searched all of the internet but just couldn't find the answer. I am using LibGDX and this is part of my code that loops over and over: public void render() { GL11 gl = Gdx.gl11; float centerX = (float)Math.cos(yaw) * (float)Math.cos(pitch); float centerY = (float)Math.sin(yaw) * (float)Math.cos(pitch); float centerZ = (float)Math.sin(pitch); System.out.println(centerX+" "+centerY+" "+centerZ+" ~ "+GDXRacing.camera.position.x+" "+GDXRacing.camera.position.y+" "+GDXRacing.camera.position.z); Gdx.glu.gluLookAt(gl, GDXRacing.camera.position.x, GDXRacing.camera.position.y, GDXRacing.camera.position.z, centerX, centerY, centerZ, 0, 1, 0); if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.A)) { yaw--; } if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.D)) { yaw++; } } I might just be bad at the math, but I dont get it. Does someone have a good explanation and an idea about how to deal with this? I am trying to make a first person camera. By the way, the camera is translated by +10 on the Z axis. Currently when I run the application, this is what I get: Watch video in browser | Download video (for those who cant download the video, everything shakes in a clockwise/anticlockwise action, depending on if I increase or decrease the Yaw value) -Thank you. [edit] and with this code: public void render() { GL11 gl = Gdx.gl11; float centerX = (float)(MathUtils.cosDeg(yaw)*4); float centerY = 0; float centerZ = (float)(MathUtils.sinDeg(yaw)*4); System.out.println(centerX+" "+centerY+" "+centerZ+" ~ "+GDXRacing.camera.position.x+" "+GDXRacing.camera.position.y+" "+GDXRacing.camera.position.z); Gdx.glu.gluLookAt(gl, GDXRacing.camera.position.x, GDXRacing.camera.position.y, GDXRacing.camera.position.z, centerX, centerY, centerZ, 0, 1, 0); if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.A)) { yaw--; } if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.D)) { yaw++; } } it slowly swings from the left to the right. This approach worked for turning left and right for 2d games though. What am I doing wrong?

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• How to keep balance / Unlock items / achievement rules

  - by Mark Knol

  I'm working on an engine for a game, too learn javascript and just because its fun. I'm a flashdeveloper, I know how to build websites. Now making games is a different challenge, javascript is a challenge, but I'd love to learn how to structure code and what patterns are common. I dont mind if the game ever finish, I'm mostly interested in the programming part of it. I dont have a particular endresult in mind, so I'll see where it takes me. I currently have a system where you can buy items. The items cost a specified amount of gold, silver, diamonds etc. When you have selected and bought the item, it takes time before getting rewarded. When time is over, you are getting rewarded with other properties (gold, energy, diamonds). For example, you can buy an apple for 50gold, It takes a minute, you get rewarded with 75energy. Or if you take a run, it cost 50energy, it takes 5minutes, reward is 25gold and 25silver. These definitions is what i call actions. Currently I already have a system where this already works and I can define as much actions with as much properties as I want. The definitions I have kinda looks like this: {id:101, category:544, onInit:{gold:-75}, onComplete:{energy:75}, time:2000, name:"Apple", locked: false} {id:102, category:544, onInit:{gold:-135}, onComplete:{energy:145}, time:2000, name:"Banana", locked: false} {id:106, category:302, onInit:{energy:-50, power: -25}, onComplete:{gold:100, diamonds:2}, time:10000, name:"Run", locked: false} {id:107, category:302, onInit:{energy:-70, silver: -55}, onComplete:{gold:100}, time:10000, name:"Dance", locked: false} {id:108, category:302, onInit:{energy:-230, power: -355}, onComplete:{gold:70, silver:70}, time:10000, name:"Fitness", locked: false} Now, I would love to add a system where I can lock/unlock the actions using achievement rules. Lets say, if you buy 10 apples, you unlock a new action, like bananas which cost more, and reward more. In the future I maybe want to restrict achievements and actions to levels. I am kinda stuck how to structure this. I have 2 questions: Which patterns are used to define achievements? How/where are they defined? Should it be part of the action, or should it be a separate controller? Is it a good idea to register all completed actions to it? I think I want multiple types of achievement rules, Id love to hear some ideas how to develop it. How do you create/find a good balance, so the user does not get stuck or can cheat by repeat a pattern of actions to get too much rewards. I know there is not a simple answer and i'm lacking of a good game-concept, but I wonder if anyone created such a game and how you dealed and played with it.

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• Why is my laptop so sluggish? Or Damn You Facebook and Twitter! Or All Hail Chrome!

  - by John Conwell

  In the past three weeks, I've noticed that my laptop (dual core 2.1GHz, 2Gb RAM) has become amazingly sluggish.  I only uses for communications and data lookup workflows, so the slowness was tolerable.  But today I finally got fed up with the suckyness and decided to get to the root of the problem (I do have strong performance roots after all). It actually didn't take all that long to figure it out.  About a year ago I converted to Google Chrome (away from FireFox).  One of the great tools Chrome has is a "Task Manager" tool, that gives you Windows Task Manager like details for all the tabs open in the browser (Shift + Esc).  Since every tab runs in its own process, its easy from Task Manager (both Windows or Chrome) to identify and kill a single performance offending tab.  This is unlike IE, where you only get aggregate data about all tabs open.  Anyway, I digress.  Today my laptop sucked.  Windows Task Manager told me that I had two memory hogging Chrome tabs, but couldn't tell me which web page those tabs are showing.  Enter Chrome Task Manager which tells you the page title, along with CPU, memory and network utilization of each tab.  Enter my amazement.  Turns out Facebook was using just shy of half a Gb of RAM.  Half a Gigabyte!  That's 512 Megabytes!524,288 Kilobytes! 536,870,912 Bytes!  Or 4,294,967,296 Bits!  In other words, that's a frackin boat load of memory.  Now consider that Facebook is running on pretty much 96.3% (statistics based on absolutely nothing) of every house hold desktop, laptop, netbook, and mobile device in America, that is pretty horrific! And I wasn't playing any Facebook games like FarmWars or MafiaVille.  I just had my normal, default home page up showing me who just had breakfast, or just got finished with their morning run. I'm sorry...let me say that again...HALF A GIG OF RAM!  That is just unforgivable. I can just see my mom calling me up:  Mom: "John...I think I need a new computer.  Mine is really slow these days" John: "What do you have running?" Mom: "Oh, just Facebook" John: "Ok, close Facebook and tell me how fast your computer feels" Mom: "Well...I don't know how fast it is.  All I do is use Facebook" John: "Ok Mom, I'll send you a new computer by Tuesday" Oh yea...and the other offending web page?  It was Twitter, using a quarter of a Gigabyte. God I love social networks!

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• TouchDevelop: The Fast Path to Windows 8 and Phone Apps

  - by Clint Edmonson

  Are you looking for a little extra cash for the upcoming holidays? Then you might be interested in creating some cool apps to sell in the Windows Store. Or maybe you’re simply curious and want to try your hand at developing for Windows 8 and Windows Phone. In either case, the newly released TouchDevelop Web App is for you. TouchDevelop Web App is a development environment to create apps on your tablet or smartphone, without requiring a separate PC. Scripts written by using TouchDevelop can access data, media, and sensors on the phone, tablet, and PC. The script can interact with cloud services, including storage, computing, and social networks. TouchDevelop lets you quickly create fun games and useful tools, turning your scripts into true Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps. A year ago, Microsoft Research released TouchDevelop for Windows Phone, which is being used by enthusiasts, students, and researchers to program their phones in fun, inventive, and interesting ways. These scripts are available at TouchDevelop for anyone to download and use. Ever since we released TouchDevelop, we’ve been eyeing the tablet form factor and working on a version for the browser. Now, with the release of TouchDevelop Web App, the wait is over: the tablet version is ready, so go play around with it. All TouchDevelop scripts that are developed on the smartphone can be downloaded to the tablet and run (if hardware allows). Any script that is developed on the tablet can also be accessed on the phone. And scripts can be converted to Windows Phone or Windows 8 apps and submitted to the Windows Phone Store or Windows Store, respectively. TouchDevelop Web App’s editor and programming language have been designed for tablet devices with touchscreens, but you can also use a keyboard and a mouse. So grab your web-enabled device and give the TouchDevelop Web App a try. It’s fun and easy, and could even put a little cash in your holiday-depleted wallet. Or at least give you bragging rights at family get-togethers. Are you interested in further tips on Windows 8 development?  Sign up for the 30 to launch program which will help you build a Windows Store application in 30 days.  You will receive a tip per day for 30 days, along with potential free design consultations and technical support from a Windows 8 expert. As always, stay tuned to my twitter feed for Windows 8, Windows Azure and other Microsoft announcements, updates, and links: @clinted

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• How to implement an intelligent enemy in a shoot-em-up?

  - by bummzack

  Imagine a very simple shoot-em-up, something we all know: You're the player (green). Your movement is restricted to the X axis. Our enemy (or enemies) is at the top of the screen, his movement is also restricted to the X axis. The player fires bullets (yellow) at the enemy. I'd like to implement an A.I. for the enemy that should be really good at avoiding the players bullets. My first idea was to divide the screen into discrete sections and assign weights to them: There are two weights: The "bullet-weight" (grey) is the danger imposed by a bullet. The closer the bullet is to the enemy, the higher the "bullet-weight" (0..1, where 1 is highest danger). Lanes without a bullet have a weight of 0. The second weight is the "distance-weight" (lime-green). For every lane I add 0.2 movement cost (this value is kinda arbitrary now and could be tweaked). Then I simply add the weights (white) and go to the lane with the lowest weight (red). But this approach has an obvious flaw, because it can easily miss local minima as the optimal place to go would be simply between two incoming bullets (as denoted with the white arrow). So here's what I'm looking for: Should find a way through bullet-storm, even when there's no place that doesn't impose a threat of a bullet. Enemy can reliably dodge bullets by picking an optimal (or almost optimal) solution. Algorithm should be able to factor in bullet movement speed (as they might move with different velocities). Ways to tweak the algorithm so that different levels of difficulty can be applied (dumb to super-intelligent enemies). Algorithm should allow different goals, as the enemy doesn't only want to evade bullets, he should also be able to shoot the player. That means that positions where the enemy can fire at the player should be preferred when dodging bullets. So how would you tackle this? Contrary to other games of this genre, I'd like to have only a few, but very "skilled" enemies instead of masses of dumb enemies.

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• How to export 3D models that consist of several parts (eg. turret on a tank)?

  - by Will

  What are the standard alternatives for the mechanics of attaching turrets and such to 3D models for use in-game? I don't mean the logic, but rather the graphics aspects. My naive approach is to extend the MD2-like format that I'm using (blender-exported using a script) to include a new set of properties for a mesh that: is anchored in another 'parent' mesh. The anchor is a point and normal in the parent mesh and a point and normal in the child mesh; these will always be colinear, giving the child rotation but not translation relative to the parent point. has a normal that is aligned with a 'target'. Classically this target is the enemy that is being engaged, but it might be some other vector e.g. 'the wind' (for sails and flags (and smoke, which is a particle system but the same principle applies)) or 'upwards' (e.g. so bodies of riders bend properly when riding a horse up an incline etc). that the anchor and target alignments have maximum and minimum and a speed coeff. there is game logic for multiple turrets and on a model and deciding which engages which enemy. 'primary' and 'secondary' or 'target0' ... 'targetN' or some such annotation will be there. So to illustrate, a classic tank would be made from three meshes; a main body mesh, a turret mesh that is anchored to the top of the main body so it can spin only horizontally and a barrel mesh that is anchored to the front of the turret and can only move vertically within some bounds. And there might be a forth flag mesh on top of the turret that is aligned with 'wind' where wind is a function the engine solves that merges environment's wind angle with angle the vehicle is travelling in an velocity, or something fancy. This gives each mesh one degree of freedom relative to its parent. Things with multiple degrees of freedom can be modelled by zero-vertex connecting meshes perhaps? This is where I think the approach I outlined begins to feel inelegant, yet perhaps its still a workable system? This is why I want to know how it is done in professional games ;) Are there better approaches? Are there formats that already include this information? Is this routine?

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• Ideas for time-keeping in a webbased RPG?

  - by ashy_32bit

  I'm assigned a task of doing the preliminary research stuff for a web-based MMO RPG. Now my buggiest problem here is "web based" vs "MMO RPG". I did some research about time keeping systems and I'm totally confused as how exactly something as real-time as an MMO-RPG can work on some pull-only (unidirectional) platform like HTTP. I know there is also a turn-based alternative to time keeping but can it work in an MMO setting ? EDIT: Take a battle for example, player A (human) wants to attack Player B (also human) in the open. How does it work when when player A issues the "attack" command on player B ? how do I inform player B that he is being attacked ? and then how exactly the battle goes on between the two in an HTTP based communication channel? To my knowledge this is impossible unless you resort to another technology (HTML is 1-way, that is you can just ask server and get response, server can't update you unless being asked to. this is very well-known and simply explained). So I though maybe I can somehow change the whole timekeeping model from real-time to a more non-real-time model (towards a turn based RPG for example) and somehow work around the whole problem of "interactivity". EDIT2: It is not that I don't wanna use any server side technologies. For sure it is not gonna work client-side-only even for the most trivial of the multi-player games, let alone an RPG. So sure there would be a (probably complex) server side component to it (the so called Game Engine I suppose). The problem is not the technology that implements the logic (game mechanics) bits but the communication technology and how it limits the game mechanics abilities (like how real-time or turn based it is gonna be). HTTP is a request-response protocol meaning you get served only if you ask for it (explicitly send a GET or POST request to the server). HTTP server can not inform you if anything of interest happens in the game world unless you refresh the page (as some suggested) or you use some bi-directional tech (totally different animals) like Flash, WebSock, HTML5 etc etc. So maybe the question is: Is it possible to implement a MMORPG using only HTML5/PHP and no periodic page refreshes? if so what would be rules to make it an MMO-RPG? Can't explain it any clearer. Sorry :D

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• Expanding Influence and Community

  - by Johnm

  When I was just nine years of age my father introduced me to the computer. It was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (aka: CoCo). He shared with me the nuances of writing BASIC and it wasn't long before I was in the back seat of the school bus scribbling, on a pad of paper, the code I would later type. My father demonstrated that while my friends were playing their Atari 2600 consoles, I had the unique opportunity to create my own games on the Coco. One of which provided a great friend of mine hours and hours of hilarity and entertainment. It wasn't long before my father was inviting me to tag along as he drove to the local high school where a gathering of fellow Coco enthusiasts assembled. In these meetings all in attendance would chat about their latest challenges and solutions. They would swap the labors of their sleepless nights eagerly gazing into their green and black screens. Friendships were built and business partners were developed. While these experiences at the time in my pre-teen mind were chalked up to simply sharing time with my father, it had a tremendous impact on me later in life. This past weekend I attended the Louisville SQL Saturday (#45). It was great to see that there were some who brought along their children. It is encouraging to see fresh faces in the crowd at our  monthly IndyPASS meetings. Each time I see the youthful eyes peering from the audience while the finer details of SQL Server is presented, I cannot help but to be transported back to the experiences that I enjoyed in those Coco days. It is exciting to think of how these experiences are impacting their lives and stimulating their minds. Some of these children have actually approached me asking questions about what was presented or simply bragging about their latest discovery in programming. One of the topics that arose in the "Women in Technology" session in Louisville, which was masterfully facilitated by Kathi Kellenberger, was exploring how we could ignite the spark of interest in databases among the youth. It was awesome to hear that there were some that volunteer their time to share their experiences with students. It made me wonder what user groups could achieve if we were to consider expanding our influence and community beyond our immediate peers to include those who are simply enjoying their time with their father or mother.

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• MatheMagics - Guess My Age Method 1

  - by PointsToShare

  © 2011 By: Dov Trietsch. All rights reserved MatheMagic – Guess My Age – Method 1 The Mathemagician stands on the stage and asks an adult to do the following: ·         Do the next few steps on your calculator, or the calculator in your phone, or even on a piece of paper. ·         Do it silently! Don’t tell me the results until I ask for them directly ·         Compute a single digit multiple of 9 – any one of 9, 18, 27, … all the way to 81, will do. ·         Now multiply your age by 10 ·         Subtract the 9 multiple from this number. ·         Tell me the result. Notice that I don’t know which multiple of 9 you subtracted from 10 times your age. I will nonetheless immediately tell you what your age is. How do I do this? Let’s do the algebra. 10X – 9Y = 10X – 10Y + Y = 10(X – Y) + Y Now remember, you asked an adult, so his/her age is a two digit number (maybe even 3 digits), thus reducing it by the single digit multiplied by nine is still positive – the lowest is can be is 100 – 81 which yields 19. Now make two numbers out of the result. The last digit and the number before it. This number is X – Y or the age minus the single digit you selected. The last digit is this very single digit. This is always so regardless of the digit you selected. So… Add tis digit to the other number and you get back the age! Q.E.D Example: I am 76 years old and here is what happens when I do the steps 76 x 10 = 760 760 – 18 = 742 made of 74 and 2. My age is 74 + 2 760 – 81 = 679 made of 67 and 9. My age is 67 + 9 A note to the socially aware mathemagician – it is safer to do it with a man. The chances of a veracious answer are much, much higher! The trick may be accomplished on any 2 or 3 digit number, not just one’s age, but if you want to know your date’s age, it’s a good way to elicit it. That’s All Folks PS for more Ageless “Age” mathemagics go to www.mgsltns.com/games.htm and also here: http://geekswithblogs.net/PointsToShare/archive/2011/11/15/mathemagics---guess-my-age---method-2.aspx

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• Actor and Sprite, who should own these properties?

  - by Gerardo Marset

  I'm writing sort of a 2D game engine for making the process of creating games easier. It has two classes, Actor and Sprite. Actor is used for interactive elements (the player, enemies, bullets, a menu, an invisible instance that controls score, etc) and Sprite is used for animated (or not) images with transparency (or not). The actor may have an assigned sprite that represents it on the screen, which may change during the game. E.g. in a top-down action game you may have an actor with a sprite of a little guy that changes when attacking, walking, and facing different directions, etc. Currently the actor has x and y properties (its coordinates in the screen), while the sprite has an index property (the number of the frame currently being shown by the sprite). Since the sprite doesn't know which actor it belongs to (or if it belongs to an actor at all), the actor must pass its x and y coordinates when drawing the sprite. Also, since a actors may reset its sprite each frame (and usually do), the sprite's index property must be passed from the old to the new sprite like so (pseudocode): function change_sprite(new_sprite) old_index = my.sprite.index my.sprite = new_sprite() my.sprite.index = old_index % my.sprite.frames end I always thought this was kind of cumbersome, but it never was a big problem. Now I decided to add support for more properties. Namely a property to draw the sprite rotated, a property to draw it flipped, it a property draw it stretched, etc. These should probably belong to the sprite and not the actor, but if they do, the actor would have to pass them from the old to the new sprite each time it changes... On the other hand, if they belonged to the actor, the actor would have to pass each property to the sprite when drawing it (since the sprite doesn't know which actor it belongs to, and it shouldn't, since sprites aren't just meant to be used by actors, really). Another option I thought of would be having an extra class that owns all these properties (plus index, x and y) and links an actor with a sprite, but that doesn't come without drawbacks. So, what should I do with all these properties? Thanks!

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