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  • Kinect losing tracked players with Beta2 SDK

    - by Eric B
    So i'm creating a game using the Beta2 SDK for Kinect. The issue i am having is that in the middle of gameplay if another person enters the Kinects FOV it stops tracking the player and will not track anyone else for several minutes. Same deal if the player leaves the FOV and reenters it. Here is what im using to detect players. void nui_SkeletonFrameReady(object sender, SkeletonFrameReadyEventArgs e) { int playersAlive = 0; // reset lists skeletons = new Dictionary<int, SkeletonData>(); //create a new list for skeletons menuSkeleton = new List<SkeletonData>(); initialPlayers = new Dictionary<float, SkeletonData>(); //create a new list for initialPlayers foreach (SkeletonData s in e.SkeletonFrame.Skeletons) //for each skeleton the kinect has detected { if (s.TrackingState == SkeletonTrackingState.Tracked) // players found { menuSkeleton.Add(s); if (initialized) // after initialization { skeletons.Add(s.TrackingID, s); } else // before initialization initialPlayers.Add(s.Joints[JointID.ShoulderCenter].Position.X, s); //if we are not initialized then add this player to the inital player list. playersAlive++; } } if (playersAlive == TOTAL_PLAYERS_ALLOWED) // If there is one player { if (!inMiniGame) // Before the game starts gameStart = DateTime.Now; // Reset initialization timer if (!initialized) // Before initialization // NOTE TO SELF I TOOK OUT && inMenu { InitializePlayers(); if (DateTime.Now.Subtract(gameStart).TotalMilliseconds > INITIALIZATION_WAIT_TIME) { initialized = true; // initialize timers from fixed starting time if (inMiniGame) //if the game has started { gamePause = gameStart; //TODO ERIC: Initialize any Timers Here } } } } } /// <summary> /// this function initializes the players adding them to a list /// and making one of the players the menu controller, for LIM we will need to change the code so that the /// game only recognizes and supports one player at a time /// variable names will need to be change as well. /// </summary> private void InitializePlayers() { List<float> initialPos = new List<float>(); // used to track starting positions players = new Dictionary<int, Player>(); foreach (float pos in initialPlayers.Keys) { initialPos.Add(pos); //add position of each inital player to list } float first = initialPos[0]; // left player first, right second Player player = new Player(initialPlayers[first].TrackingID, true); player.PlayerNumber = PLAYER_ONE; player.Skeleton = initialPlayers[first]; player.Specifics = new PlayerSpecifics(player.PlayerNumber); player.Specifics.PauseTimer = gameStart; players.Add(initialPlayers[first].TrackingID, player); menuController = initialPlayers[first].TrackingID; //menu controller is player 1 } This is a one player game. Also when the game starts Initialize is set to false, and gets set to true when i go from the games menu into the gameplay. So can anyone see any issues with this code block that would cause the kinect to lose players as they enter/exit the FOV? and not re-track them? Thank you for any help.

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  • Bounding Box Collision Glitching Problem (Pygame)

    - by Ericson Willians
    So far the "Bounding Box" method is the only one that I know. It's efficient enough to deal with simple games. Nevertheless, the game I'm developing is not that simple anymore and for that reason, I've made a simplified example of the problem. (It's worth noticing that I don't have rotating sprites on my game or anything like that. After showing the code, I'll explain better). Here's the whole code: from pygame import * DONE = False screen = display.set_mode((1024,768)) class Thing(): def __init__(self,x,y,w,h,s,c): self.x = x self.y = y self.w = w self.h = h self.s = s self.sur = Surface((64,48)) draw.rect(self.sur,c,(self.x,self.y,w,h),1) self.sur.fill(c) def draw(self): screen.blit(self.sur,(self.x,self.y)) def move(self,x): if key.get_pressed()[K_w] or key.get_pressed()[K_UP]: if x == 1: self.y -= self.s else: self.y += self.s if key.get_pressed()[K_s] or key.get_pressed()[K_DOWN]: if x == 1: self.y += self.s else: self.y -= self.s if key.get_pressed()[K_a] or key.get_pressed()[K_LEFT]: if x == 1: self.x -= self.s else: self.x += self.s if key.get_pressed()[K_d] or key.get_pressed()[K_RIGHT]: if x == 1: self.x += self.s else: self.x -= self.s def warp(self): if self.y < -48: self.y = 768 if self.y > 768 + 48: self.y = 0 if self.x < -64: self.x = 1024 + 64 if self.x > 1024 + 64: self.x = -64 r1 = Thing(0,0,64,48,1,(0,255,0)) r2 = Thing(6*64,6*48,64,48,1,(255,0,0)) while not DONE: screen.fill((0,0,0)) r2.draw() r1.draw() # If not intersecting, then moves, else, it moves in the opposite direction. if not ((((r1.x + r1.w) > (r2.x - r1.s)) and (r1.x < ((r2.x + r2.w) + r1.s))) and (((r1.y + r1.h) > (r2.y - r1.s)) and (r1.y < ((r2.y + r2.h) + r1.s)))): r1.move(1) else: r1.move(0) r1.warp() if key.get_pressed()[K_ESCAPE]: DONE = True for ev in event.get(): if ev.type == QUIT: DONE = True display.update() quit() The problem: In my actual game, the grid is fixed and each tile has 64 by 48 pixels. I know how to deal with collision perfectly if I moved by that size. Nevertheless, obviously, the player moves really fast. In the example, the collision is detected pretty well (Just as I see in many examples throughout the internet). The problem is that if I put the player to move WHEN IS NOT intersecting, then, when it touches the obstacle, it does not move anymore. Giving that problem, I began switching the directions, but then, when it touches and I press the opposite key, it "glitches through". My actual game has many walls, and the player will touch them many times, and I can't afford letting the player go through them. The code-problem illustrated: When the player goes towards the wall (Fine). When the player goes towards the wall and press the opposite direction. (It glitches through). Here is the logic I've designed before implementing it: I don't know any other method, and I really just want to have walls fixed in a grid, but move by 1 or 2 or 3 pixels (Slowly) and have perfect collision without glitching-possibilities. What do you suggest?

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  • how to keep display tick rate steady when using continuous collision detection?

    - by nas Ns
    (I've just found about this forum). I hope it is ok to repost my question again here. I posted this question at stackoverflow, but it looks like I might get better help here. Here is the question: I've implemented basic particles motion simulation with continuous collision detection. But there is small issue in display. Assume simple case of circles moving inside square. All elastic collisions. no firction. All motion is constant speed. No forces are involved, no gravity. So when a particle is moving, it is always moving at constant speed (in between collisions) What I do now is this: Let the simulation time step be 1 second (for example). This is the time step simulation is advanced before displaying the new state (unless there is a collision sooner than this). At start of each time step, time for the next collision between any particles or a particle with a wall is determined. Call this the TOC time; let’s say TOC was .5 seconds in this case. Since TOC is smaller than the standard time step, then the system is moved by TOC and the new system is displayed so that the new display shows any collisions as just taking place (say 2 circles just touched each other’s, or a circle just touched a wall) Next, the collision(s) are resolved (i.e. speeds updated, changed directions etc..). A new step is started. The same thing happens. Now assume there is no collision detected within the next 1 second (those 2 circles above will not be in collision any more, even though they are still touching, due to their speeds showing they are moving apart now), Hence, simulation time is advanced now by the full one second, the standard time step, and particles are moved on the screen using 1 second simulation time and new display is shown. You see what has just happened: One frame ran for .5 seconds, but the next frame runs for 1 second, may be the 3rd frame is displayed after 2 seconds, may be the 4th frame is displayed after 2.8 seconds (because TOC was .8 seconds then) and so on. What happens is that the motion of a particle on the screen appears to speed up or slow down, even though it is moving at constant speed and was not even involved in a collision. i.e. Looking at one particle on its own, I see it suddenly speeding up or slowing down, becuase another particle had hit a wall. This is because the display tick is not uniform. i.e. the frame rate update is changing, giving the false illusion that a particle is moving at non-constant speed while in fact it is moving at constant speed. The motion on the screen is not smooth, since the screen is not updating at constant rate. I am not able to figure how to fix this. If I want to show 2 particles at the moment of the collision, I must draw the screen at different times. Drawing the screen always at the same tick interval, results in seeing 2 particles before the collision, and then after the collision, and not just when they colliding, which looked bad when I tried it. So, how do real games handle this issue? How to display things in order to show collisions when it happen, yet keep the display tick constant? These 2 requirements seem to contradict each other’s.

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  • Applying for internship

    - by Margus
    At the moment I'm thinking about applying for internship at Eesti Energia. I seem to be eligible, but before contacting them I need to learn how to compile an informative and complete CV and cover letter. I do not consider myself as shallow minded, but also I'm not sure how to convincingly justify the stand of interest and how internship will help me in my future career. Course of life Tallinna Tehnikagümnaasium 2003 - 2006 Tallinna Tehnikaülikool 2006 – 2009 Military service at Signal Batallion Tallinna Tehnikaülikool 2010 – ... I started my academic career as Computer and Systems Engineer, but as I excelled in programming classes, I changed my major to Software Engineer and taken my specialty in web applications and logic. Nowadays I mainly use Java, Mathematica and C# to solve problems. For 2 times, I have taken part in ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, where my team won the nationals and did pretty well in Europe. Also as part of notable thing in my academic career, my team wrote the Kalah game AI, that won in University's main programming class AI tournament. My hobbies are mind games and occasional problem solving. Few years ago I also competed in International Checkers EM (requires being in top 3 in nationals) as part of cadet and junior age group - I did not come close to winning, but I exceeded about half of the players each time. In high school and gymnasium I took part and later was the captain of team, that passes regionals and made it to top 3 of nationals (and later won) in (blitz) russian checkers. That was impressive because, it was a team effort as we only had (depending on year) 2-3 strong players. Although I started programming exactly 9,5 years ago I have no work experience. Well actually thats not true, as I completed my army duty, I was hired for a year (days still counting) to be apart of communicational (emergency) infrastructure action group where I'm the teams IT specialist (it's more complicated). So I consider myself to be aware of: rough conditions, teamwork, high stress tolerance, being on time and what responsibility means. As negative things I can mention: I do not have drivers licence. Although only Estonian and English are noted as requirements, then Russian is most likely required as well and I barely understand some of it. Reasons why I want to apply there, are: I need to do at least 4-6 week traineeship and it's in the right field I have the requirements and tasks seem easy enough Company is well known and has fairly good reputation Family and friend think, that it would be acceptable place to work Myriad of options to do final thesis about open up Work place is located in the same city I live atm. At moment, I see myself having a hard time explain why I would prefer it or where I see myself in 10 years if I was offered a job there. Question I have some idea how Curriculum Vitæ should look like, or I can google for template, but I'm not sure how to write informative one. Last I did one, it looked like: picture + contact information + education. Vaguely I only remember, that cover letter should be custom tailored for each place you apply containing ...

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  • Review: Windows 8 - Initial Experience

    - by Tim Murphy
    I originally started this post when I had the Windows 8 preview setup on VirtualBox image.  I have since put the RTM bits on a Dell E6530 that is my new work laptop.  It isn’t a table so I am not getting the touch experience, but as a developer this makes the most sense for the moment. This is the first Windows OS that I have had to spend much time exploring to even get started.  The first thing I ran into was when I clicked on the desktop icon I was lost.  Where is the Start menu? Where are my programs?  How do I get back to the Metro environment?  I finally tried hitting the Windows button and it popped back out to the Metro screen. Once I got past that I found that the look of the Metro interface is clean and well organized.  It should be familiar to anyone who is already using a Zune or Windows Phone 7.  In the Desktop, aside from the lack of the Start button to bring up programs the desktop is just like the Windows 7 environment we are all used to.  I do have to say though that I don’t like popping out to the Metro screen to find program.  I think installers for programs like ones that developers usually work in for a desktop mode will need to give an option for creating a desktop icon and pinning to the task bar of the desktop. One of the things I do really enjoy is having live tiles in the Metro environment.  It is a nice way of feeding my need for constant information.  The one drawback though is that the task bar at the bottom of my screen used to be where I got this information without leaving what I was working on.  It allowed me to see current temperatures and when there were messages waiting.  I have since found that these still work as expected in the Desktop and Toast message keep you up on what is going on in the Metro apps. Thankfully familiar functionality like Alt-Tab and Windows-Tab still work regardless of if apps are in the Metro or the Desktop environment.  Add to this the ability to find any application on the Metro screen by simply typing and things get very comfortable. I also started exploring some of the apps.  If you want see a ton of stats on your team at a glance check out the Sports app.  What games are coming up? Who are the leaders in a number of stats?  The Weather and Finance apps have good features as well and I am sure they will improve as users supply feedback. I have had to install Visual Studio 2010 side-by-side with VS2012 because the Windows Phone 7 SDK would only install on VS2010.  This isn’t a Windows 8 issue per se, but something that you need to be aware of if you are a developer moving to the new ecosystem. The overall experience is a joy despite a few hiccups.  For anyone moving to Windows 8 in on a non-touch laptop or desktop I do suggest this list of keyboard shortcuts.  Enjoy. del.icio.us Tags: Windows 8,Win8,Metro,Review

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  • Resolving collisions between dynamic game objects

    - by TheBroodian
    I've been building a 2D platformer for some time now, I'm getting to the point where I am adding dynamic objects to the stage for testing. This has prompted me to consider how I would like my character and other objects to behave when they collide. A typical staple in many 2D platformer type games is that the player takes damage upon touching an enemy, and then essentially becomes able to pass through enemies during a period of invulnerability, and at the same time, enemies are able to pass through eachother freely. I personally don't want to take this approach, it feels strange to me that the player should receive arbitrary damage for harmless contact to an enemy, despite whether the enemy is attacking or not, and I would like my enemies' interactions between each other (and my player) to be a little more organic, so to speak. In my head I sort of have this idea where a game object (player, or non player) would be able to push other game objects around by manner of 'pushing' each other out of one anothers' bounding boxes if there is an intersection, and maybe correlate the repelling force to how much their bounding boxes are intersecting. The problem I'm experiencing is I have no idea what the math might look like for something like this? I'll show what work I've done so far, it sort of works, but it's jittery, and generally not quite what I would pass in a functional game: //Clears the anti-duplicate buffer collisionRecord.Clear(); //pick a thing foreach (GameObject entity in entities) { //pick another thing foreach (GameObject subject in entities) { //check to make sure both things aren't the same thing if (!ReferenceEquals(entity, subject)) { //check to see if thing2 is in semi-near proximity to thing1 if (entity.WideProximityArea.Intersects(subject.CollisionRectangle) || entity.WideProximityArea.Contains(subject.CollisionRectangle)) { //check to see if thing2 and thing1 are colliding. if (entity.CollisionRectangle.Intersects(subject.CollisionRectangle) || entity.CollisionRectangle.Contains(subject.CollisionRectangle) || subject.CollisionRectangle.Contains(entity.CollisionRectangle)) { //check if we've already resolved their collision or not. if (!collisionRecord.ContainsKey(entity.GetHashCode())) { //more duplicate resolution checking. if (!collisionRecord.ContainsKey(subject.GetHashCode())) { //if thing1 is traveling right... if (entity.Velocity.X > 0) { //if it isn't too far to the right... if (subject.CollisionRectangle.Contains(new Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Rectangle(entity.CollisionRectangle.Right, entity.CollisionRectangle.Y, 1, entity.CollisionRectangle.Height)) || subject.CollisionRectangle.Intersects(new Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Rectangle(entity.CollisionRectangle.Right, entity.CollisionRectangle.Y, 1, entity.CollisionRectangle.Height))) { //Find how deep thing1 is intersecting thing2's collision box; float offset = entity.CollisionRectangle.Right - subject.CollisionRectangle.Left; //Move both things in opposite directions half the length of the intersection, pushing thing1 to the left, and thing2 to the right. entity.Velocities.Add(new Vector2(-(((offset * 4) * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalMilliseconds)), 0)); subject.Velocities.Add(new Vector2((((offset * 4) * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalMilliseconds)), 0)); } } //if thing1 is traveling left... if (entity.Velocity.X < 0) { //if thing1 isn't too far left... if (entity.CollisionRectangle.Contains(new Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Rectangle(subject.CollisionRectangle.Right, subject.CollisionRectangle.Y, 1, subject.CollisionRectangle.Height)) || entity.CollisionRectangle.Intersects(new Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Rectangle(subject.CollisionRectangle.Right, subject.CollisionRectangle.Y, 1, subject.CollisionRectangle.Height))) { //Find how deep thing1 is intersecting thing2's collision box; float offset = subject.CollisionRectangle.Right - entity.CollisionRectangle.Left; //Move both things in opposite directions half the length of the intersection, pushing thing1 to the right, and thing2 to the left. entity.Velocities.Add(new Vector2((((offset * 4) * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalMilliseconds)), 0)); subject.Velocities.Add(new Vector2(-(((offset * 4) * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalMilliseconds)), 0)); } } //Make record that thing1 and thing2 have interacted and the collision has been solved, so that if thing2 is picked next in the foreach loop, it isn't checked against thing1 a second time before the next update. collisionRecord.Add(entity.GetHashCode(), subject.GetHashCode()); } } } } } } } } One of the biggest issues with my code aside from the jitteriness is that if one character were to land on top of another character, it very suddenly and abruptly resolves the collision, whereas I would like a more subtle and gradual resolution. Any thoughts or ideas are incredibly welcome and helpful.

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  • Auto-organized / smart inventory system?

    - by VeXe
    for the past week I've been working on an inventory system with Unity3D. At first I got help from the guys at Design3 but it wasn't too long till we split path, because I really didn't like the way they did their code, it didn't have any smell of OOP whatsoever. I took it further steps ahead - items take more than one slot, advanced placement system (items tries their best to find the best close fit), local mouse system (mouse gets trapped in active bag area), etc. Here's a demo of my work. What we would like to have in our game, is an auto-organizing feature - not auto-sort. We want this feature because our inventory's going to be in 'real-time' - not like in Resident Evil 1,2,3 etc where you would pause the game and do things in your inventory. Now imagine your self in a sticky situation surrounded by zombies, and you don't have bullets, you look around, you see that there are bullets nearby on the ground, so you go for them and try to pick them up, but they don't fit! you look at your inventory and find out that if you reorganize some of the items, it will fit! - now the player - in that situation doesn't have time to reorganize because he's surrounded with zombies and will die if he stops and organizes the inventory to make space (remember inventory in real-time, no pausing) - wouldn't it be nice for that to happen automatically? - Yes! (I believe this has been implemented in some games like Dungeon siege or something, so sure it's doable) take a look at this picture for example: Yes, so if you auto-sort the issue you will get your spaces but it's bad because: 1- Expensive: it doesn't need a whole sort operation to free those spaces, in the first picture, just slide the red item at the bottom to the very left, and you get the same spaces that you got from the auto-sort. 2- It's annoying to the player: "Who the F told you to re-order my stuff?" I'm not asking for "How to write the code" for this, I'm just asking for some guidance, where to look, what algorithms are involved? Is this something related to graphs and shortest path stuff? I hope not cuz I didn't manage to continue my college studies :/ But even if it is, just tell me and I will learn the stuff related. Notice there could be more than just one solution. So I guess the first thing I have to do is figure out if the situation is 'solvable' - if I know how to determine if a situation is solvable or not, then I can 'solve' it. I just need to know the conditions that makes it 'solvable'. And I believe there must be some algorithm/data structure for this. Here's a pic for more than one solution of trying to fit a 1x3 item: The arrows show just one of the solutions, but if you look you will find more than one. This is what I ultimately not auto-sorting but find a solution and applying it. Note that if I spend time on it I will come up with a way to solve it, but it wouldn't be the best way, it's like, holding a car wheel with your feet instead of your hands! XD Or just like trying to solve an issue that requires arrays, but you're not yet aware of their existence! So what is the right approach to this? Hope somebody helps, thanks a lot in advance :)

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  • Getting 2D Platformer entity collision Response Correct (side-to-side + jumping/landing on heads)

    - by jbrennan
    I've been working on a 2D (tile based) 2D platformer for iOS and I've got basic entity collision detection working, but there's just something not right about it and I can't quite figure out how to solve it. There are 2 forms of collision between player entities as I can tell, either the two players (human controlled) are hitting each other side-to-side (i. e. pushing against one another), or one player has jumped on the head of the other player (naturally, if I wanted to expand this to player vs enemy, the effects would be different, but the types of collisions would be identical, just the reaction should be a little different). In my code I believe I've got the side-to-side code working: If two entities press against one another, then they are both moved back on either side of the intersection rectangle so that they are just pushing on each other. I also have the "landed on the other player's head" part working. The real problem is, if the two players are currently pushing up against each other, and one player jumps, then at one point as they're jumping, the height-difference threshold that counts as a "land on head" is passed and then it registers as a jump. As a life-long player of 2D Mario Bros style games, this feels incorrect to me, but I can't quite figure out how to solve it. My code: (it's really Objective-C but I've put it in pseudo C-style code just to be simpler for non ObjC readers) void checkCollisions() { // For each entity in the scene, compare it with all other entities (but not with one it's already compared against) for (int i = 0; i < _allGameObjects.count(); i++) { // GameObject is an Entity GEGameObject *firstGameObject = _allGameObjects.objectAtIndex(i); // Don't check against yourself or any previous entity for (int j = i+1; j < _allGameObjects.count(); j++) { GEGameObject *secondGameObject = _allGameObjects.objectAtIndex(j); // Get the collision bounds for both entities, then see if they intersect // CGRect is a C-struct with an origin Point (x, y) and a Size (w, h) CGRect firstRect = firstGameObject.collisionBounds(); CGRect secondRect = secondGameObject.collisionBounds(); // Collision of any sort if (CGRectIntersectsRect(firstRect, secondRect)) { //////////////////////////////// // // // Check for jumping first (???) // // //////////////////////////////// if (firstRect.origin.y > (secondRect.origin.y + (secondRect.size.height * 0.7))) { // the top entity could be pretty far down/in to the bottom entity.... firstGameObject.didLandOnEntity(secondGameObject); } else if (secondRect.origin.y > (firstRect.origin.y + (firstRect.size.height * 0.7))) { // second entity was actually on top.... secondGameObject.didLandOnEntity.(firstGameObject); } else if (firstRect.origin.x > secondRect.origin.x && firstRect.origin.x < (secondRect.origin.x + secondRect.size.width)) { // Hit from the RIGHT CGRect intersection = CGRectIntersection(firstRect, secondRect); // The NUDGE just offsets either object back to the left or right // After the nudging, they are exactly pressing against each other with no intersection firstGameObject.nudgeToRightOfIntersection(intersection); secondGameObject.nudgeToLeftOfIntersection(intersection); } else if ((firstRect.origin.x + firstRect.size.width) > secondRect.origin.x) { // hit from the LEFT CGRect intersection = CGRectIntersection(firstRect, secondRect); secondGameObject.nudgeToRightOfIntersection(intersection); firstGameObject.nudgeToLeftOfIntersection(intersection); } } } } } I think my collision detection code is pretty close, but obviously I'm doing something a little wrong. I really think it's to do with the way my jumps are checked (I wanted to make sure that a jump could happen from an angle (instead of if the falling player had been at a right angle to the player below). Can someone please help me here? I haven't been able to find many resources on how to do this properly (and thinking like a game developer is new for me). Thanks in advance!

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  • Asus X202e VivoBook, dual boot. How to get around UEFI and have Win8 & Ubuntu?

    - by Nukeface
    I've gotten my hands on an Asus Vivobook X202e. I like it, handy to use, small, etc etc. Oh, it's the i3 core version. For school I still need Windows * sigh * for the .NET development. (I know, possible in Ubuntu, this n that, but for ease atm wanting to keep it with Win8). So. How to install both on this little thing? I've found a way into the BIOS (before splash screen, mash F2. Works only after reboot, not cold boot). But the whole boot loading setup is different than from what I know, and I must've messed up something because it's been "Attempting Repairs", "Analyzing hard disk", and a bunch of other things for the past 15 minutes. (All I've done is selected "disabled" on secure boot, picky as ** Microsoft). Keeping the original Windows installation is of no concern. Found the product key already and have a clean install waiting. BTW, not trying to leech knowledge, even though first question and no answers. I'm more and more active on Stackoverflow. But, especially due to secure boot and windows 8, I'm going over to Ubuntu. Well, more and more anyway, I like my Windows based games as well ;) UPDATE Managed to do a clean install of Windows 8 Pro. After disabling Secure Boot, also had to disable fast boot, and enable Launch CSM, leaving the option which appeared (Launch PXE OpROM) disabled. Then I rebooted, with the USB Boot drive I created using the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool (scroll down for download link), provided by Microsoft. During the installation, I chose to install a clean version, therefor deleted the partitions containing current windows files. I left the Recovery partition (you never know...). Of course, the new Windows Installation dit not like this. Apparantly Windows cannot be installed on a GPT hard disk. Remember I hadn't changed the partition table, was still factory default! Minus a few partitions, granted. So deleted ALL partittions, did a format of the disk, created a new partition. Et voila, Windows installation started. FINALLY! WONDROUS After the installation, Windows still had background images located in C:/Users/ ME /AppData/Local/Microsoft/Themes/RoamedThemeFiles/DesktopBackground/ that I had in the previous installation. Before doing: format, delete partition, cascade partitions, create new partition of different size, format partition, install Windows. It managed to keep the images through all that. Anyone got an idea on that one? It also remembered the settings for the Windows Aero theme... UPDATED QUESTION: After all this you'd think I'd have the rest figured out. Wrong. Ubuntu 12.10, 64 bit installation can't read the partitioning of the hdd during the installation. Any ideas on how to fix this so the install for a dual-boot system can proceed? (Preferably without starting anew with Windows as well ;) )

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  • Building Enterprise Smartphone App &ndash; Part 1: Why Build Smart Phone Apps

    - by Tim Murphy
    This is part 1 in a series of post based on a talk I gave recently at the Chicago Information Technology Architects Group.  Feel free to leave feedback. Intro Most of us already carry smartphones. We play games on them. We keep up with what is going on with our friends and our favorite teams. We take pictures of our kids at their events. But the question is if that is all they are good for. Many companies have aspects of their business that lend themselves to being performed by mobile devices. Some of them lean toward larger device such as tablets, but many can be executed on smartphones. This and the following articles will discuss some of the possible applications of smartphone technology for businesses, the platforms that are available and the considerations you need to make when building them. I'll take a look at some specific scenarios and wrap up with a couple of capabilities that are just emerging that can be used in the future. Why Build Enterprise Smartphone Applications So what are some of the ways that you can leverage smartphone technology to gain efficiency in your business or a clients business. There are a few major areas that I have seen mobile platforms being an advantage to. Your mobile sales force is a key candidate for leveraging smartphone apps.  They can visit clients in their retail location and place orders on site. It is a more personal approach which can gain you customer loyalty.  A sales person may also gather information about the way a client does business or who their target market is. This allows them you to focus marketing information or build customized support for your customer. You may also have need to track physical inventory in a store. This is something that has historically been done with laser scanners, but with the camera capabilities in today's phones and tablets it is possible to use more general multi-purpose devices.  This can save costs on both hardware and telecommunication contracts. Delivery verification is another area that historically has been the domain of specialized devices but can now be accomplished with smartphones.  This also reduces costs because it is also used for communicating with the driver and other operations.  Add to that the navigation capability of smartphones and you can see how the return on investment increases. Executives are always on the go. They spend most of their time in meetings and yet they need access to decision making information at their finger tips. With a smartphone app they can get alerts when major sales are closed or critical accounting process are completed that may need their attention. They can also answer questions by instantly pulling up BI reports. I have often heard operations support people say that they need things like VPN and RDP from their phones. If they can also have notifications of outages or critical support requests they can be react to situations without needing to be tied to their desks. These are all valid reasons to need smartphone applications.  In the next installment I will discuss platforms and features. del.icio.us Tags: Smartphones,Enterprise Smartphone Apps,Architecture

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  • Slide 2d Vector to destination over a period of time

    - by SchautDollar
    I am making a library of GUI controls for games I make with XNA. I am currently developing the library as I make a game so I can test the features and find errors/bugs and hopefully smash them right away. My current issue is on a slide feature I want to implement for my base class that all controls inherit. My goal is to get the control to slide to a specified point over a specified amount of time. Here is the #region containing the code #region Slide private bool sliding; private Vector2 endPoint; private float slideTimeLeft; private float speed; private bool wasEnabled; private Vector2 slideDirection; private float slideDistance; public void Slide(Vector2 startPoint, Vector2 endPoint, float slideTime) { this.location = startPoint; Slide(endPoint,slideTime); } public void Slide(Vector2 endPoint, float slideTime) { this.wasEnabled = this.enabled; this.enabled = false; this.sliding = true; Vector2 tempLength = endPoint - this.location; this.slideDistance = tempLength.Length(); //Was this.slideDistance = (float)Math.Sqrt(tempLength.LengthSquared()); this.speed = slideTime / this.slideDistance; this.endPoint = endPoint; this.slideTimeLeft = slideTime; } private void UpdateSlide(GameTime gameTime) { if (this.sliding) { this.slideTimeLeft -= gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds; if (this.slideTimeLeft >= 0 ) { if ((this.endPoint-this.location).Length() != 0){//Was if (this.endPoint.LengthSquared() > 0 || this.location.LengthSquared() > 0) { this.slideDirection = Vector2.Normalize(this.endPoint - this.location); } this.location += this.slideDirection * speed * gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds;//This is where I believe the issue is, but I'm not sure. It seems right to me... (Even though it doesn't work) } else { this.enabled = this.wasEnabled; this.location = this.endPoint;//After time, the controls position will get set to be the endpoint. this.sliding = false; } } } #endregion this.location is the location of the control elsewhere defined in the class. I have looked at this blog as a huge reference and have googled around quite and have looked on many forums but can't find anything that shows how to implement it. Please and Thanks for your time! EDIT: I have switched this line "this.location += this.slideDirection * speed * gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds;" several times to see what it does. My issue is getting the control to smoothly move to the end location. It moves after the time has expired, but It doesn't move other then that except flash in my face. EDIT2: I have used the first slide method with 3 parameters and it works except it doesn't do it in a period of time and once it gets to its destination, it starts moving randomly towards the previous location and the end location.

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  • How to add dynamic profile fields in Invision Power Board?

    - by user361908
    I run a game server and want to link the persons in game character name and stats to Invision Power Board. I've setup IPB so players currently login with their in game login. That means their username on the forum is the same as their username for the game. They can have multiple characters on 1 account so ideally I'd like to allow them to choose a main character and display an actual image of that character and allow them to display other characters if they are online. Currently I'm doing something like this by hacking profileFields.php but it's messy and not very efficient on the user or server end. My code currently uses 2 custom fields which the player can enter their character names in. To display only their main character they enter the name in the first field. To also display other characters if they are online they enter the same name into the second field. To resolve the IDs I have to run a lot of queries. I know PHP but I am not familiar with IPBs code at all. I just need pointed in a direction where I can combine the 2 fields into 1 field. tl;dr: Here is my setup: Invision Power Board 3 Data is stored in MySQL on the same server the forum is hosted on. Usernames on the forum are identical to usernames in the game Here is a breakdown of what I'd like to do: In the edit profile section I need to resolve the forum username to the games account id then: Display a list of characters and allow them to choose which characters they want to display if they are online as well as a default character that will be displayed if none are online. In the posts user info pane: Display the online character or the default if none are online. Here is what I need to know: How to generate a list of characters in the profile edit form and allow selection (checkbox) of each character to display as well as the selection of a default character (radio or dropdown?) How to fetch the data and place it in the posts user info pane

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  • What's a good way to teach my son to program Java

    - by Software Monkey
    OK, so I've read through various posts about teaching beginner's to program, and there were some helpful things I will look at more closely. But what I want to know is whether there are any effective tools out there to teach a kid Java specifically? I want to teach him Java specifically because (a) with my strong background in C I feel that's too complex, (b) Java is the other language I know extremely well and therefore I can assist meaningfully without needing to teach myself a new but (to me) useless language, and (c) I feel that managed languages are the future, and lastly (d) Java is one of the simplest of all the languages I know well (aside from basic). I learned in basic, and I am open to teaching that first, but I am unaware of a decent free basic shell for Windows (though I haven't really searched, yet since it's not my first choice), and would anyway want to progress quickly to Java. My son is 8, so that's a couple of years earlier than I started - but he has expressed an interest in learning to program (possibly because I work from home a lot and he sees me programming all the time). If no-one can suggest a tool designed for this purpose, I will probably start him off with text/console based apps to teach the basics, and then progress to GUI building. Oh, one last thing, I am not a fan of IDE's (old school text editor type), so I would not be put off at all by a system that has him typing real code, and would likely prefer that to a toy drag/drop system. EDIT: Just to clarify; I really am specifically after ways to teach him Java; there are already a good many posts with good answers for other language alternatives - but that's not what I am looking for here. EDIT: What about Java frameworks for 2D video games - can anyone recommend any of them from personal experience? I like the idea of him starting with the mechanics in place (main game loop, scoring, etc) and adding the specifics for a game of his own imagining - that's what I did, though for me it was basic on a Commodore VIC-20 and a Sinclair ZX-81.

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  • Reverse engineering and patching a DirectX game?

    - by yodaj007
    Background I am playing Imperishable Night, one of the Touhou series of games. The shoot button is 'z', moving slower is 'shift', and the arrow keys move. Unfortunately for me, using shift-z ghosts my right arrow key, so I can't move to the right while shooting. This ghosting happens in all applications, and switching keyboards fixes it. Goal I want to locate in the disassembled code the directx function that gets the keyboard input and compares it against the 'z' key, and change that key to 'a'. I'm considering this a fun project. Assuming the size of the scan codes are the same, this should be fairly simple. And because the executable is only 400k, maybe this will provide a unique opportunity for me to explore the dark side of the computing underworld (kidding). Relevant experience I have some experience with coding in assembly, but not in the disassembly of such. I have no experience with the DirectX apis. Question I need some guidance. I've found a listing of directx keyboard scan codes, and a program called PEExplorer that looks like it will do what I need. Is there a means by which I can turn some of the assembly with C function calls so it's more easily read? I will need to locate where the game retrieves the currently pressed keys, compares those against a list, and it's that list I need to modify. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

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  • Roadmap to Android development

    - by Matthew
    Hello, I've done a little research, and am interested in developing for Android. I've never programmed before, and have no idea how to go from zero experience to developing for a mobile device. My interest is in eventually making some sort of 2d game. Is there a lesson plan for starting from the ground up? I would think one would need to learn the Java language to start. Looking at the Sun website, it's a bit daunting. Is there a book, specifically, that would wrap up this knowledge in a bit of a directed lesson plan? I'm not sure if opengl-es is what would be required for 2d games. I've done a little research on this, and it's even far more daunting than Java itself. I can't even begin to figure out where to start with even just opengl, sans -es. My best guess would be that I need further knowledge in Java to continue with this, but even still, is it possible to learn concurrently with Java?

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  • Can't find compiled resource bundles

    - by user351032
    I am using Adobe Flash Builder 4. I've run into this issue with my latest project, but I was able to re-create it with an almost empty project. Here is what I've done. Created a new Flex Project Created a locale/en_US folder within this project. Added a class that extends SparkDownloadProgressBar. All this class does is attempt to create a Label. When I try to debug this application, I get the following error. Error: Could not find compiled resource bundle 'components' for locale 'en_US'. at mx.resources::ResourceManagerImpl/installCompiledResourceBundle()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\resources\ResourceManagerImpl.as:340] at mx.resources::ResourceManagerImpl/installCompiledResourceBundles()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\resources\ResourceManagerImpl.as:269] at mx.resources::ResourceManagerImpl/processInfo()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\resources\ResourceManagerImpl.as:387] at mx.resources::ResourceManagerImpl()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\resources\ResourceManagerImpl.as:122] at mx.resources::ResourceManager$/getInstance()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\resources\ResourceManager.as:111] at mx.core::UIComponent()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\UIComponent.as:3728] at spark.components.supportClasses::TextBase()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\spark\src\spark\components\supportClasses\TextBase.as:154] at spark.components::Label()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\spark\src\spark\components\Label.as:384] at Preloader()[C:\SVN\Games\Social\Test\src\Preloader.as:21] at mx.preloaders::Preloader/initialize()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\preloaders\Preloader.as:253] at mx.managers::SystemManager/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::initialize()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\SystemManager.as:1925] at mx.managers::SystemManager/initHandler()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\SystemManager.as:2419] The Flex Compiler/Additional Compiler Arguments section does contain "-locale en_US", but I do not want to just remove this as I am planning to have this load different property files based on the localization region at run-time and how I understand it, I will need to add each locale that I am planning to use on the compile argument line. I am at a loss as to how to attack this problem. If you need anymore information from me to help with this, I will be more than happy to provide it. Thanks ahead of time for the help!

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  • Draw on screen border in Commodore 64

    - by Stefano Borini
    Ok. I hope it does not get closed because I have this curiosity since 25 years and I would love to understand the trick. In the commodore 64 the border was not addressable by the 6569 VIC. All you could do was to draw pixels in the central area, the one where the cursor moved. The border was always uniform, although you could change its color with poke 53280,color if i remember correctly. Nevertheless I clearly remember games intros where the border was featured with graphics, like it was fully addressable. I tried to understand how it worked but never got to the point. legends say it was a clever use of sprites, which could, under some circumstances, be drawn on the border, but I don't know if it's an urban legend. edit: just read this from one of the provided links Sprites were multiplexed across vertical raster lines (over 8 sprites, sometimes up to 120 sprites). Until the Group Crest released Krestage 3 in May 2007 there was the common perception that no more than 8 sprites could appear at one raster line, but assigning new Y coordinates made it reappear further down the screen. This is evil.... you beat the raster and reposition the sprite before it gets there...

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  • iPhone programming - problem with CoreFoundation forking, PLEASE for the love of god help! lol

    - by Tom
    Hello all, I've been working on an iPhone for several months. It's a 2d shooting game akin to the old Smash TV type games. I'm doing everything alone and it has come out well so far, but now I am getting unpredictable crashes which seem to be related to CoreFoundation forking and not exec()ing, as the message THE_PROCESS_HAS_FORKED_AND_YOU_CANNOT_USE_THIS_COREFOUNDATION_FUNCTIONA LITY_YOU_MUST_EXEC__ always shows up somewhere in the debugger. Usually it shows up around a CFRunLoopRunSpecific and is related to either a timer firing or _InitializeTouchTapCount. I cannot figure out exactly what is causing the fork to occur. My main game loop is running on a timer, first updating all the logic and then drawing everything with openGL. There is nothing highly complex or unusual. I understand you cannot make CF calls on the childside of a fork, or access shared memory and things like that. I am not explicitly trying to fork anything. My question is: can anyone tell me what type of activity might cause CoreFoundation to randomly fork like this? I'd really like to finish this game and I don't know how to solve this problem. Thanks for any help.

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  • Sum of XML duration elements in SQL2008

    - by Matt
    I have a XML column that holds information about my games. Here's a sample of the information looks like. <game xmlns="http://my.name.space" > <move> <player>PlayerA</player> <start movetype="Move">EE5</start> <end movetype="Move">DF6</end> <movetime>PT1S</movetime> </move> <move> <player>PlayerB</player> <start movetype="Move">CG7</start> <end movetype="Move">DE6</end> <movetime>PT3S</movetime> </move> <move> <player>PlayerA</player> <start movetype="Move">FD3</start> <end movetype="Move">EG8</end> <movetime>PT4S</movetime> </move> </game> I'm trying to design an XML query to take the sum of my movetime element. Basically I need the sum of each players move time. So using the above sample, PlayerA would have a total move time of 5 seconds and PlayerB would have a total move time of 3 seconds. Here's the XML query that I've been currently been working with SELECT GameHistory.query('declare default element namespace "http://my.name.space"; data(/game/move/movetime)') AS Value FROM GamesWHERE Id=560 I'm a newbie to XSLT / XPATH functions :P

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  • Why calling Process.killProcess(Process.myPid()) is a bad idea?

    - by Tal Kanel
    I've read some posts saying using this method is "not good", shouldn't been use, it's not the right way to "close" the application and it's not how android works... I understand and accept the fact that Android OS knows better then me when it's the right time to terminate the process, but I didn't heard yet a good explanation why it's wrong using the killProcess() method?. after all - it's part of the android API... what I do know is that calling this method while other threads doing in potential an important work (operations on files, writing to DB, HTTP requests, running services..) can be terminated in the middle, and it's clearly not good. also I know I can benefit from the fact that "re-open" the application will be faster, cause the system maybe still "holds" in memory state from last time been used, and killProcess() prevents that. beside this reason, in assumption I don't have such operations, and I don't care my application will load from scratch each run, there are other reasons why not using the killProcess() method? I know about finish() method to close an Activity, so don't write me about that please.. finish() is only for Activity. not to all application, and I think I know exactly why and when to use it... and another thing - I'm developing also games with the Unity3D framework, and exporting the project to android. when I decompiled the generated apk, I was very suprised to find out that the java source code created from unity - implementing Unity's - Application.quit() method, with Process.killProcess(Process.myPid()). Application.quit() is suppose to be the right way to close game according to Unity3d guides (is it really?? maybe I'm wrong, and missed something), so how it happens that the Unity's framework developers which doing a very good work as it seems implemented this in native android to killProcess()? anyway - I wish to have a "list of reasons" why not using the killProcess() method, so please write down your answer - if you have something interesting to say about that. TIA

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  • What is a good standard exercise to learn the OO features of a language?

    - by FarmBoy
    When I'm learning a new language, I often program some mathematical functions to get used to the control flow syntax. After that, I like to implement some sorting algorithms to get used to the array/list constructs. But I don't have a standard exercise for exploring the languages OO features. Does anyone have a stock exercise for this? A good answer would naturally lend to inheritance, polymorphism, etc., for a programmer already comfortable with these concepts. An ideal answer would be one that could be communicated in a few words, without ambiguity, in the way that "implement mergesort" is completely unambiguous. (As an example, answering "design a game" is so vague as to be useless.) Any ideas? EDIT: I have to remark that the results here are somewhat ironic. 10 upvotes and (originally) 5 favorites suggest that this is a question others are interested in. Yet the most upvoted answer is one that says there is no good answer. Oh well. I think I'll look at the textbook below, I've found games useful in the past for OO.

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  • Game login authentication and security.

    - by Charles
    First off I will say I am completely new to security in coding. I am currently helping a friend develop a small game (in Python) which will have a login server. I don't have much knowledge regarding security, but I know many games do have issues with this. Everything from 3rd party applications (bots) to WPE packet manipulation. Considering how small this game will be and the limited user base, I doubt we will have serious issues, but would like to try our best to limit problems. I am not sure where to start or what methods I should use, or what's worth it. For example, sending data to the server such as login name and password. I was told his information should be encrypted when sending, so in-case someone was viewing it (with whatever means), that they couldn't get into the account. However, if someone is able to capture the encrypted string, wouldn't this string always work since it's decrypted server side? In other words, someone could just capture the packet, reuse it, and still gain access to the account? The main goal I am really looking for is to make sure the players are logging into the game with the client we provide, and to make sure it's 'secure' (broad, I know). I have looked around at different methods such as Public and Private Key encryption, which I am sure any hex editor could eventually find. There are many other methods that seem way over my head at the moment and leave the impression of overkill. I realize nothing is 100% secure. I am just looking for any input or reading material (links) to accomplish the main goal stated above. Would appreciate any help, thanks.

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  • iPhone programming - problem with CoreFoundation forking

    - by Tom
    Hello all, I've been working on an iPhone for several months. It's a 2d shooting game akin to the old Smash TV type games. I'm doing everything alone and it has come out well so far, but now I am getting unpredictable crashes which seem to be related to CoreFoundation forking and not exec()ing, as the message __THE_PROCESS_HAS_FORKED_AND_YOU_CANNOT_USE_THIS_COREFOUNDATION_FUNCTIONA LITY___YOU_MUST_EXEC__ always shows up somewhere in the debugger. Usually it shows up around a CFRunLoopRunSpecific and is related to either a timer firing or _InitializeTouchTapCount. I cannot figure out exactly what is causing the fork to occur. My main game loop is running on a timer, first updating all the logic and then drawing everything with openGL. There is nothing highly complex or unusual. I understand you cannot make CF calls on the childside of a fork, or access shared memory and things like that. I am not explicitly trying to fork anything. My question is: can anyone tell me what type of activity might cause CoreFoundation to randomly fork like this? I'd really like to finish this game and I don't know how to solve this problem. Thanks for any help.

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  • Any good tutorials or resources for learning how to design a scalable and "component" based game 'fr

    - by CodeJustin.com
    In short I'm creating a 2D mmorpg and unlike my last "mmo" I started developing I want to make sure that this one will scale well and work well when I want to add new in-game features or modify existing ones. With my last attempt with an avatar chat within the first few thousand lines of code and just getting basic features added into the game I seen my code quality lowering and my ability to add new features or modify old ones was getting lower too as I added more features in. It turned into one big mess that some how ran, lol. This time I really need to buckle down and find a design that will allow me to create a game framework that will be easy to add and remove features (aka things like playing mini-games within my world or a mail system or buddy list or a new public area with interactive items). I'm thinking that maybe a component based approach MIGHT be what I'm looking for but I'm really not sure. I have read documents on mmorpg design and 2d game engine architecture but nothing really explained a way of designing a game framework that will basically let me "plug-in" new features into the main game and use the resources of the main game without changing much within my 'main game code'. Hope someone understands what I mean, any help will is appreciated.

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  • php get, random records, and the back button

    - by Andrew Heath
    My site has a library full of games, nations, game scenarios, etc. library.php is given a type=___ & id=___ for example library.php?type=scenario&id=ABCD001 library.php saves the id to a session variable and loads an include appropriate for the type This all works just dandy. Now, I wanted to give my users the option of pulling up a random scenario. To do that, I added a special id to the logic within lib-scenario.php (the include) such that if given library.php?type=scenario&id=random the include knows to run an alternate query for a random record rather than for the actual id This also works just dandy... unless someone hits the Random Scenario button two+ times in a row, and decides that the previous random scenario was way cooler, I want to go back to that. Because the http address is always directory/library.php?type=scenario&id=random no matter how many times you click Random Scenario, as soon as you click back you'll be taken to the last page with an alternate address you visited. So, if you start at the Home page, and hit Random Scenario 35 times, then decide the 34th one was what you wanted and click BACK, you'll be put back onto the Home page. I must admit this was not a problem I had anticipated. One of my testers was the first to have the urge to back-up in the random scenario stream and here we are. How can I add back-up functionality to my script?

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