Search Results

Search found 3146 results on 126 pages for 'games brainiac'.

Page 114/126 | < Previous Page | 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121  | Next Page >

  • Why is Lua considered a game language?

    - by Hoffmann
    I have been learning about Lua in the past month and I'm absolutely in love with the language, but all I see around that is built with lua are games. I mean, the syntax is very simple, there is no fuss, no special meaning characters that makes code look like regex, has all the good things about a script language and integrates so painlessly with other languages like C, Java, etc. The only down-side I saw so far is the prototype based object orientation that some people do not like (or lack of OO built-in). I do not see how ruby or python are better, surely not in performance ( http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=lua&lang2=python ). I was planning on writting a web app using lua with the Kepler framework and Javascript, but the lack of other projects that use lua as a web language makes me feel a bit uneasy since this is my first try with web development. Lua is considered a kids language, most of you on stackoverflow probably only know the language because of the WoW addons. I can't really see why that is... http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaVersusPython this link provides some insights on Lua against Python, but this is clearly biased.

    Read the article

  • Which book should I choose?

    - by sebastianlarsson
    Hi guys, I'm looking for a good read on object oriented design. The two books I'm currently looking Head First Design Patterns and Head First Object object-oriented analysis & design. They seem very similar when looking at the contents and browsing through available sample text. Which one would be the best choice? About myself: I have a bachelor in computer science and I am currently studying Msc. Software Quality Engineering (read Software Engineering with focus on Quality). I am already confident in object-oriented design and have a lot of programming courses in my backpack. I have done games in c++, courses in advanced java programming (I am SCJP certified), but my preferred language is C#. I have also worked with Java for the last 7 months while studying. I am currently also studying for certificates in C# (apart from my usual studies). So I believe I have the prerequisites of actually understanding the contents of both books. Reason: I just want to be better and keep evolving as a programmer. I think it is fun. I believe Bert Bates and Kathy Sierra are involved in both these books and I have previously read their SCJP preparation book in java. I really do enjoy their style of writing. Other books which I am considering are: Clean Code: A Handbook Of Agile Software Craftsmanship Thx in advance Sebastian

    Read the article

  • Correct use of setEmtpyView in AdapterView

    - by Sebi
    I'm really having trouble using the setEmptyView method. I tried it to implement it in GridView and ListView, but both of them didnt work. Here a sample codeblock: networkGames = (GridView) baseLayer.findViewById(R.id.all_game_grid_network); networkGames.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.game_border); networkGames.setSelector(R.drawable.game_active_border); networkGames.setOnItemClickListener(new NetworkGameListener()); networkGames.setEmptyView(View.inflate(baseLayer, R.drawable.no_network_games, null)); networkGames.setAdapter(new NetworkAdapter()); The network adapter contains no items: private class NetworkAdapter extends BaseAdapter { /* (non-Javadoc) * @see android.widget.Adapter#getCount() */ @Override public int getCount() { return 0; } /* (non-Javadoc) * @see android.widget.Adapter#getItem(int) */ @Override public Object getItem(int position) { return null; } /* (non-Javadoc) * @see android.widget.Adapter#getItemId(int) */ @Override public long getItemId(int position) { return 0; } /* (non-Javadoc) * @see android.widget.Adapter#getView(int, android.view.View, android.view.ViewGroup) */ @Override public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) { return null; } } I also tried to call networkGames.setAdapter(null), but this doesnt work either. My emtpyView looks like this: <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/LinearLayout01" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <TextView android:text="There are currently no network games available. Start a new one." android:id="@+id/TextView01" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:gravity="center"> </TextView> </LinearLayout> I really don't know what I'm doing wrong. I also read various tutorials, but none of them metnioned any problems.

    Read the article

  • Rubygems on Debian: Gems won't load (LoadError)

    - by daswerth
    I've installed the development version of Crunchbang, a linux distro based off Debian. I got Ruby and Rubygems installed, but I can't get the gems I've installed to load. Here is a command-line session: $ ruby -v ruby 1.9.1p378 (2010-01-10 revision 26273) [i486-linux] $ gem env RubyGems Environment: - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.3.6 - RUBY VERSION: 1.9.1 (2010-01-10 patchlevel 378) [i486-linux] - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /usr/lib/ruby1.9.1/gems/1.9.1 - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /usr/bin/ruby1.9.1 - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /usr/bin - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS: - ruby - x86-linux - GEM PATHS: - /usr/lib/ruby1.9.1/gems/1.9.1 - /home/corey/.gem/ruby/1.9.1 - GEM CONFIGURATION: - :update_sources => true - :verbose => true - :benchmark => false - :backtrace => false - :bulk_threshold => 1000 - REMOTE SOURCES: - http://rubygems.org/ $ echo $PATH /home/corey/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games:/home/corey/.gem/ruby/1.9.1:/usr/lib/ruby1.9.1/gems/1.9.1 $ gem list -d nokogiri `*** LOCAL GEMS ***` nokogiri (1.4.1) Authors: Aaron Patterson, Mike Dalessio Rubyforge: http://rubyforge.org/projects/nokogiri Homepage: http://nokogiri.org Installed at: /usr/lib/ruby1.9.1/gems/1.9.1 Nokogiri (?) is an HTML, XML, SAX, and Reader parser $ ruby -r rubygems -e "require 'nokogiri'" -e:1:in `require': no such file to load -- nokogiri (LoadError) from -e:1:in `' I've encountered similar problems on Ubuntu before, but they were easy to fix. I can't figure out what's wrong in this particular case, and Google didn't seem to know either. Any help would be greatly appreciated! By the way... this is my first submission to stackoverflow. I hope this question is relevant. :)

    Read the article

  • How can I protect this code from SQL Injection? A bit confused.

    - by Craig Whitley
    I've read various sources but I'm unsure how to implement them into my code. I was wondering if somebody could give me a quick hand with it? Once I've been shown how to do it once in my code I'll be able to pick it up I think! This is from an AJAX autocomplete I found on the net, although I saw something to do with it being vulnerable to SQL Injection due to the '%$queryString%' or something? Any help really appreciated! if ( isset( $_POST['queryString'] ) ) { $queryString = $_POST['queryString']; if ( strlen( $queryString ) > 0 ) { $query = "SELECT game_title, game_id FROM games WHERE game_title LIKE '%$queryString%' || alt LIKE '%$queryString%' LIMIT 10"; $result = mysql_query( $query, $db ) or die( "There is an error in database please contact [email protected]" ); while ( $row = mysql_fetch_array( $result ) ) { $game_id = $row['game_id']; echo '<li onClick="fill(\'' . $row['game_title'] . '\',' . $game_id . ');">' . $row['game_title'] . '</li>'; } } }

    Read the article

  • Ideas for jumping in 2D with Actionscript 3 [included attempt]

    - by befall
    So, I'm working on the basics of Actionscript 3; making games and such. I designed a little space where everything is based on location of boundaries, using pixel-by-pixel movement, etc. So far, my guy can push a box around, and stops when running into the border, or when try to the push the box when it's against the border. So, next, I wanted to make it so when I bumped into the other box, it shot forward; a small jump sideways. I attempted to use this (foolishly) at first: // When right and left borders collide. if( (box1.x + box1.width/2) == (box2.x - box2.width/2) ) { // Nine times through for (var a:int = 1; a < 10; a++) { // Adds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. if (a <= 5) { box2.x += a; } else { box2.x += a - (a - 5)*2 } } } Though, using this in the function I had for the movement (constantly checking for keys up, etc) does this all at once. Where should I start going about a frame-by-frame movement like that? Further more, it's not actually frames in the scene, just in the movement. This is a massive pile of garbage, I apologize, but any help would be appreciated.

    Read the article

  • Oracle syntax - should we have to choose between the old and the new?

    - by Martin Milan
    Hi, I work on a code base in the region of about 1'000'000 lines of source, in a team of around eight developers. Our code is basically an application using an Oracle database, but the code has evolved over time (we have plenty of source code from the mid nineties in there!). A dispute has arisen amongst the team over the syntax that we are using for querying the Oracle database. At the moment, the overwhelming majority of our queries use the "old" Oracle Syntax for joins, meaning we have code that looks like this... Example of Inner Join select customers.*, orders.date, orders.value from customers, orders where customers.custid = orders.custid Example of Outer Join select customers.custid, contacts.ContactName, contacts.ContactTelNo from customers, contacts where customers.custid = contacts.custid(+) As new developers have joined the team, we have noticed that some of them seem to prefer using SQL-92 queries, like this: Example of Inner Join select customers.*, orders.date, orders.value from customers inner join orders on (customers.custid = orders.custid) Example of Outer Join select customers.custid, contacts.ContactName, contacts.ContactTelNo from customers left join contacts on (customers.custid = contacts.custid) Group A say that everyone should be using the the "old" syntax - we have lots of code in this format, and we ought to value consistency. We don't have time to go all the way through the code now rewriting database queries, and it wouldn't pay us if we had. They also point out that "this is the way we've always done it, and we're comfortable with it..." Group B however say that they agree that we don't have the time to go back and change existing queries, we really ought to be adopting the "new" syntax on code that we write from here on in. They say that developers only really look at a single query at a time, and that so long as developers know both syntax there is nothing to be gained from rigidly sticking to the old syntax, which might be deprecated at some point in the future. Without declaring with which group my loyalties lie, I am interested in hearing the opinions of impartial observers - so let the games commence! Martin. Ps. I've made this a community wiki so as not to be seen as just blatantly chasing after question points...

    Read the article

  • Foosball result prediction

    - by Wolf
    In our office, we regularly enjoy some rounds of foosball / table football after work. I have put together a small java program that generates random 2vs2 lineups from the available players and stores the match results in a database afterwards. The current prediction of the outcome uses a simple average of all previous match results from the 4 involved players. This gives a very rough estimation, but I'd like to replace it with something more sophisticated, taking into account things like: players may be good playing as attacker but bad as defender (or vice versa) players do well against a specific opponent / bad against others some teams work well together, others don't skills change over time What would be the best algorithm to predict the game outcome as accurately as possible? Someone suggested using a neural network for this, which sounds quite interesting... but I do not have enough knowledge on the topic to say if that could work, and I also suspect it might take too many games to be reasonably trained. EDIT: Had to take a longer break from this due to some project deadlines. To make the question more specific: Given the following mysql table containing all matches played so far: table match_result match_id int pk match_start datetime duration int (match length in seconds) blue_defense int fk to table player blue_attack int fk to table player red_defense int fk to table player red_attack int fk to table player score_blue int score_red int How would you write a function predictResult(blueDef, blueAtk, redDef, redAtk) {...} to estimate the outcome as closely as possible, executing any sql, doing calculations or using external libraries?

    Read the article

  • Image drawing library for Haskell?

    - by absz
    I'm working on a Haskell program for playing spatial games: I have a graph of a bunch of "individuals" playing the Prisoner's Dilemma, but only with their immediate neighbors, and copying the strategies of the people who do best. I've reached a point where I need to draw an image of the world, and this is where I've hit problems. Two of the possible geometries are easy: if people have four or eight neighbors each, then I represent each one as a filled square (with color corresponding to strategy) and tile the plane with these. However, I also have a situation where people have six neighbors (hexagons) or three neighbors (triangles). My question, then, is: what's a good Haskell library for creating images and drawing shapes on them? I'd prefer that it create PNGs, but I'm not incredibly picky. I was originally using Graphics.GD, but it only exports bindings to functions for drawing points, lines, arcs, ellipses, and non-rotated rectangles, which is not sufficient for my purposes (unless I want to draw hexagons pixel by pixel*). I looked into using foreign import, but it's proving a bit of a hassle (partly because the polygon-drawing function requires an array of gdPoint structs), and given that my requirements may grow, it would be nice to use an in-Haskell solution and not have to muck about with the FFI (though if push comes to shove, I'm willing to do that). Any suggestions? * That is also an option, actually; any tips on how to do that would also be appreciated, though I think a library would be easier.

    Read the article

  • Need help finding a good curriculum/methodology for self-teaching to program from scratch

    - by BrotherGA2
    My friend and I have both dedicated ourselves to learning the essentials of programming by June of this year from nearly no programming experience. I have done some research and have come to the conclusion that using the Python language will be the best for us, but I am open to suggestions with good reasoning behind them. My motives for learning programming are: Potential Career Path to be able to create programs that can: solve problems; entertain, i.e. useful applications and games. Online college lectures + book (which I am willing to purchase) sounds like a good combination, but I do not know which would be most suitable for me. tl;dr: What I would like to find from the excellent people here is the following: a good, potentially best, programming course and/or book that is well structured and uses good pedagogy so that a person dedicated to learn programming may do so by following its curriculum (or use it to develop a curriculum) over the course of a few months. Thanks! (I apologize if this type of question is not considered proper etiquette, but I haven't found a consensus on this, and would like some guidance beyond the research I've already done)

    Read the article

  • mysql subselect alternative

    - by Arnold
    Hi, Lets say I am analyzing how high school sports records affect school attendance. So I have a table in which each row corresponds to a high school basketball game. Each game has an away team id and a home team id (FK to another "team table") and a home score and an away score and a date. I am writing a query that matches attendance with this seasons basketball games. My sample output will be (#_students_missed_class, day_of_game, home_team, away_team, home_team_wins_this_season, away_team_wins_this_season) I now want to add how each team did the previous season to my analysis. Well, I have their previous season stored in the game table but i should be able to accomplish that with a subselect. So in my main select statement I add the subselect: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM game_table WHERE game_table.date BETWEEN 'start of previous season' AND 'end of previous season' AND ( (game_table.home_team = team_table.id AND game_table.home_score > game_table.away_score) OR (game_table.away_team = team_table.id AND game_table.away_score > game_table.home_score)) In this case team-table.id refers to the id of the home_team so I now have all their wins calculated from the previous year. This method of calculation is neither time nor resource intensive. The Explain SQL shows that I have ALL in the Type field and I am not using a Key and the query times out. I'm not sure how I can accomplish a more efficient query with a subselect. It seems proposterously inefficient to have to write 4 of these queries (for home wins, home losses, away wins, away losses). I am sure this could be more lucid. I'll absolutely add color tomorrow if anyone has questions

    Read the article

  • Questions on method to use: Facebook Business Page with Flash or Facebook Application?

    - by Jay
    Hi there, I'm new to Facebook's Graph API / FBML / etc. So if at any point in my post I make a mistake or wrong assumption, please point them out. One of the projects that I am working on has a need to get data/info from an existing web site in addition to the friends list and such that FB can provide. This is for a platform that allows people from all over the world to help out in small scale projects that will benefit various communities. These projects are usually to help out people in unfortunate / less than ideal situations / living conditions so that their environment improves. You can read about it in detail at http://www.getitdone.org. The initial idea was to develop a Business Page (this is the same as a Fan Page right?) for each Project with a Static FBML tag to do the displaying. However, iframes are not allowed in Pages (as far as I know, iframes are only allowed in an FB Application). So it is no longer possible to get data from the web site to be displayed in the FB Page. So one of the options is to embed a Flash in the Page's Tab. I am fairly certain that the Flash can retrieve data on the User's friends and connections in an Application's context (because of all of those darn FB games that I'm addicted to :p). However, I would like to confirm if it can do the same if it's embedded in a Business Page's Tab. Could someone please confirm on this issue? The other option that we arrived at was (if the earlier options fails) to have an Application built instead. However, this means that we would need to create an Application for each Project. Not an ideal situation. Is there any other option that we have missed that can help us achieve the desired result with as little hassle as possible? Any help that you can provide on this matter is most welcome. Thank you.

    Read the article

  • How to process AJAX requests more securely in PHP?

    - by animuson
    Ok, so I want to send AJAX requests to my website from my Flash games to process data, but I don't want people downloading them, decompiling them, then sending fake requests to be processed, so I'm trying to figure out the most secure way to process in the PHP files. My first idea was to use Apache's built in Authorization module to require a username and password to access the pages on a separate subdomain of my website, but then you'd have to include that username and password in the AJAX request anyway so that seems kind of pointless to even try. My current option looks pretty promising but I want to make sure it will work. Basically it just checks the IP address being sent using REMOTE_ADDR to make sure it's the IP address that my server runs on. <? $allowed = new Array("64.120.211.89", "64.120.211.90"); if (!in_array($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], $allowed)) header("HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden"); ?> Both of those IP addresses point to my server. Things I'm worried about: 1) If I send a request from Flash/ActionScript, will that affect the IP address in any way? 2) Is it possible for malicious users to change the IP address that is being sent with REMOTE_ADDR to one of my IP addresses? Any other ways you would suggest that might be more secure?

    Read the article

  • Creating Mobile Cross-Platform Scripting Solution

    - by Aplomb
    I am having the dream to design a Mobile cross-platform scripting solution to achieve Developer only need to code once by scripting language(it's possible be Javascript or others need further investigation), then the solution will be able to generate the installation files for multiple mobile platforms like J2me, Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile/Phone, iPhone, etc. Using the scripting language, developer can code with unified platform API. And other extension frameworks under scripting language, like, 1. 2D UI framework Most probably using for Mobile Applications, the UI style will compete with native UI framework and no longer every application in particular platform looks similar. 2. 3D UI framework Provide the platforms who has 3D capability can represent their Mobile Application with more fashion 3D style which will be much more abstractive. 3. Variable game engine Developers can can use it for easily and high-quality build games. 4. etc This Mobile solution is providing three points, 1. Cross-Platform 2. Scripting 3. Middleware So guys, what do you think about this idea, is it good for Developers? is it profitable? where is the better direction for this idea?

    Read the article

  • How can we best represent the SDLC process as a board game?

    - by Innogetics
    I recently got interested in financial board games and saw how they can be very useful in educating children about certain concepts. It got me thinking whether it was also possible to represent certain aspects of executing a software project via a boardgame and make it fun. Here are a few things that I have come up so far: human resources and tools / techniques are represented as cards. requirements are also represented as cards, which are dealt equally to each player, and the objective is to move all requirement cards through an "SDLC" board (one per player) that represent a series of squares grouped according to phases (design all the way to deployment) the passage of time is represented in a main square board like monopoly, and completing a trip around the board (passing "Go") allows the player to move each of the requirement cards a number of steps through the SDLC board depending on the capability of the resource cards (senior programmer allows one requirement to move two squares in the dev phase, junior programmer only one, etc.) players will start with play money representing the project budget, and at every pass at "Go" is payday. the player is out of the game if he runs out of funds. the main board also has "chance" / "risk" cards, which represent things that can mess up a project. damage is applied at the roll of a die, and chance modifiers depend on whether the user has "bought" tools / techniques. I haven't implemented this idea yet as I'm still looking at more play elements that can make the game more engaging, as well as soliciting for more ideas. I am planning to release this under Creative Commons license but haven't decided on the exact license yet. Any more game play suggestions are welcome. UPDATE: This was posted in BoardGameGeek and there's now an active discussion thread there. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/4436694

    Read the article

  • Clean up domain list in Excel - regex / macros?

    - by Tim
    I have a huge spreadsheet of domains that I need to clean up as follows: Remove all http:// (simple replace all - "http://" with "") Remove any www. (simple replace all - "www." with "") Delete any sub-domains (delete the actual row completely, not just the subdomain from the url) Remove anything after the domain extension (i.e. website.com/blah/blahbah/ becomes just website.com (simple replace all - "/*" with "", then replace all "/" with "") So what I'm left with is just a spreadsheet of clean domains like "website.com". I think I've got 1, 2 and 4 sorted (as above), but I'm really struggling with 3. Any ideas? Can I do this with regexp / vba, and actually delete the row completely? Sample data: http://www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/games/ http://imgworld.teamworkonline.com/ http://topfreegraphics.com/ http://www.workcircle.co.uk/ http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/index-eng.php http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/soft.html Post 1, 2 and 4 would leave me with: scholastic.com imgworld.teamworkonline.com topfreegraphics.com workcircle.co.uk healthycanadians.gc.ca gsociology.icaap.org It's those pesky sub-domains I need to just delete completely, just delete the row. I've realised I can't just search for 2 x ".", because obviously plenty of domain extensions (i.e .co.uk) include that. Any help appreciated.

    Read the article

  • Scheduling Jobs On web server

    - by sirasad
    Hi Folks We Want to Create an online game like this.I think that ,this type of games have a scheduling software on web server. For Example : Player Click to create a resource And resource creation will be take a moment like 20 Minutes.(Every resource creation time will be different). This message will send to web server application but this message will not processed at same time for example must be processed after 20 Minutes. The web server application after getting the message must be put the order in the Queue. We have Some big problems : 1- The Jobs must be complete by the web server application Even the player Exit the Game. I think that we must create something like Windows service on Web Server. Can we do it? or Is there a better way? 2- The Second problem depended on problem 1 .Because we will have many Jobs (every player can create 20,30 Jobs in every Loggin and we will have thousands of users) , So Our Scheduling System Must be Work On time . it's possible that , there is 100 , 1000 jobs in a same second , if application Can't Done Jobs in him Second will be use the next second Time and the next second jobs will shift to next second and etc. How We can do for this problem ? Cheers Asad Safari Agile Coach , Scrum Master

    Read the article

  • AI navigation around a 2d map - Avoiding obstacles.

    - by Curt Walker
    Hey there, I know my question seems pretty vague but I can't think of a better way to put it so I'll start off by explaining what I'm trying to do. I'm currently working on a project whereby I've been given a map and I'm coding a 'Critter' that should be able to navigate it's way around the map, the critter has various other functions but are not relevant to the current question. The whole program and solution is being written in C#. I can control the speed of the critter, and retrieve it's current location on the map by returning it's current X and Y position, I can also set it's direction when it collides with the terrain that blocks it. The only problem I have is that I can't think of a way to intelligently navigate my way around the map, so far I've been basing it around what direction the critter is facing when it collides with the terrain, and this is in no way a good way of moving around the map! I'm not a games programmer, and this is for a software assignment, so I have no clue on AI techniques. All I am after is a push in the right direction on how I could go about getting this critter to find it's way around any map given to me. Here's an image of the map and critters to give you an idea of what i'm talking about. Here's a link to an image of what the maps and critters look like. Map and Critter image I'm in no way looking for anyone to give me a full solution, just a push in the general direction on map navigation. Thanks in advance!

    Read the article

  • How to learn how to program?

    - by twinbornJoint
    I would like to know the best methods for learning to program. I've been directed towards the Python language because I was told it is good for beginners. I ultimately want to make games for OS X/iPhone. My problem is that I understand what I read but I can't apply my knowledge to anything. I am a programming noob. Should I stick with Python? (is there a better language I should be learning?) Where can I learn programming theory? I get very hyper when reading my book sometimes, any tips on staying calm and focusing? What are effective ways to learn how to program? Are there standard exercises for programming? (I feel solving problems helps my understanding immensely) Ultimately I feel like I am in a never ending tunnel that leads me no where. It feels like I am just completely unable to pursue anything in the world of programming, yet it is something I want to do very much. Thanks.

    Read the article

  • 'Bank Switching' Sprites on old NES applications

    - by Jeffrey Kern
    I'm currently writing in C# what could basically be called my own interpretation of the NES hardware for an old-school looking game that I'm developing. I've fired up FCE and have been observing how the NES displayed and rendered graphics. In a nutshell, the NES could hold two bitmaps worth of graphical information, each with the dimensions of 128x128. These are called the PPU tables. One was for BG tiles and the other was for sprites. The data had to be in this memory for it to be drawn on-screen. Now, if a game had more graphical data then these two banks, it could write portions of this new information to these banks -overwriting what was there - at the end of each frame, and use it from the next frame onward. So, in old games how did the programmers 'bank switch'? I mean, within the level design, how did they know which graphic set to load? I've noticed that Mega Man 2 bankswitches when the screen programatically scrolls from one portion of the stage to the next. But how did they store this information in the level - what sprites to copy over into the PPU tables, and where to write them at? Another example would be hitting pause in MM2. BG tiles get over-written during pause, and then get restored when the player unpauses. How did they remember which tiles they replaced and how to restore them? If I was lazy, I could just make one huge static bitmap and just grab values that way. But I'm forcing myself to limit these values to create a more authentic experience. I've read the amazing guide on how M.C. Kids was made, and I'm trying to be barebones about how I program this game. It still just boggles my mind how these programmers accomplisehd what they did with what they had. EDIT: The only solution I can think of would be to hold separate tables that state what tiles should be in the PPU at what time, but I think that would be a huge memory resource that the NES wouldn't be able to handle.

    Read the article

  • How do I create a good evaluation function for a new board game?

    - by A. Rex
    I write programs to play board game variants sometimes. The basic strategy is standard alpha-beta pruning or similar searches, sometimes augmented by the usual approaches to endgames or openings. I've mostly played around with chess variants, so when it comes time to pick my evaluation function, I use a basic chess evaluation function. However, now I am writing a program to play a completely new board game. How do I choose a good or even decent evaluation function? The main challenges are that the same pieces are always on the board, so a usual material function won't change based on position, and the game has been played less than a thousand times or so, so humans don't necessarily play it enough well yet to give insight. (PS. I considered a MoGo approach, but random games aren't likely to terminate.) Any ideas? Game details: The game is played on a 10-by-10 board with a fixed six pieces per side. The pieces have certain movement rules, and interact in certain ways, but no piece is ever captured. The goal of the game is to have enough of your pieces in certain special squares on the board. The goal of the computer program is to provide a player which is competitive with or better than current human players.

    Read the article

  • Programming methods design phase assignment

    - by Shakir
    Hey, i have an assignment (NCC) which deals with the design phase. The Scenario is that you have four soccer divisions (divisions 1,2,3 and 4) which consist of 22 teams each and hence each team plays 42 games (home and away). The concept is similar to the barclays premier league whereby ranking is based on points or else goal difference or else goals scored by team. The difference is that the top 2 teams are promoted and the bottom 2 are relegated and this includes Div 1 and Div 4 as the top 2 of Div1 are promoted to the national league which is above division 1 regional league and bottom 2 of Div4 are relegated to the local league below Division 4 regional league. Hence there are 3 total leagues and 4 divisions in the regional league (which has 22 teams each). Now the referee has to add the result of the match and thus automatic tables have to be generated now, There are two reports League Tables for 4 divisions List of all results for any chosen team during the season by date it was played on There are a couple of things to be done... i know its gonna be terrible to make everything but atleast explain to me how i should go about drawing these and what things i should include (generally) Logical Data Structure Diagram (DSD) for each report Preliminary Program Structure (PSD) for each report Detailed Program Specification for each report Flowchart for each report There are other things but i think our teacher will give us clear "clues" for it Thanks a lot Update - Project so far: Data Structure Diagram Preliminary Program Structure

    Read the article

  • Which Stroustrup book should I use?

    - by Chris Simmons
    I'm a C# programmer that is looking to branch out. I'm bored of writing business software and want to start getting into graphics programming and games/simulators. So I figured, although writing that stuff isn't impossible in managed code, the "right" way to do that would be to look to C++, of course focussing on the language first, then getting into OpenGL or DirectX (or whatever). Way way back ('98? '99?) I had tried and failed to really grasp Stroustrup's The C++ Programming Language. I know that this book is often not recommended for the beginner. Anyway, I picked it back up (in a much more recent printing) and I'm actually getting it and enjoying it. I also have a copy of his textbook, Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++, which, as I understand it, is really geared toward teaching programming, not necessarily C++. I'm certainly not arrogant enough to claim I don't have anything more to learn about programming, data structures, algoriths, etc., however I'm not a novice there either. So my question is, with the goal of gaining the broader and more real-world-useful understanding of C++ and given my background, on which should I focus? The denser (as I perceive it) TCPPPL or the gentler Programming? EDIT: I thank everyone for the responses. However, I've got a personal choice here to make between these two books. Granted there are other very good books out there, but I'm already a good length into both of the books I mention and I'd like to finish one. So, can anyone respond on which would be the better and why? Time is not an issue; I'm not looking (at this point) at an "accelerated" read.

    Read the article

  • Game architecture: modeling different steps/types of UI

    - by Sander
    I have not done any large game development projects, only messed around with little toy projects. However, I never found an intuitive answer to a specific design question. Namely, how are different types/states of UI modeled in games? E.g. how is a menu represented? How is it different from a "game world" state (let's use an FPS as an example). How is an overlaid menu on top of a "game world" modeled? Let's imagine the main loop of a game. Where do the game states come into play? It it a simple case-by-case approach? if (menu.IsEnabled) menu.Process(elapsedTime); if (world.IsEnabled) world.Process(elapsedTime); if (menu.IsVisible) menu.Draw(); if (world.IsVisible) world.Draw(); Or are menu and world represented somewhere in a different logic layer and not represented at this level? (E.g. a menu is just another high-level entity like e.g. player input or enemy manager, equal to all others) foreach (var entity in game.HighLevelEntities) entity.Process(elapsedTime); foreach (var entity in game.HighLevelEntities) entity.Draw(elapsedTime); Are there well-known design patterns for this? Come to think of it, I don't know any game-specific design patterns - I assume there are others, as well? Please tell me about them.

    Read the article

  • Modelling deterministic and nondeterministic data separately

    - by Superstringcheese
    I'm working with the Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework for a game project. Following the advice of other posters on SO, I'm considering modelling deterministic and nondeterministic data separately. The idea for this came from a discussion on multiplayer games, but it seemed to make sense in a single-player scenario as well. Deterministic (things that aren't going to change during gameplay) Attributes (Strength, Agility, etc.) and their descriptions Skills and their descriptions and requirements Races, Factions, Equipment, etc. Base Attribute/Skill/Equipment loadouts for monsters Nondeterministic (things that will change a lot during gameplay) Beings' current AttributeModifers (Potion of Might = +10 Strength), current health and mana, etc. Player inventory, cash, experience, level Player quests states Player FactionRelationships ...and so on. My deterministic model would serve as a set of constants. My nondeterministic model would provide my on-the-fly operable data and would be serialized to a savegame file to maintain game state between play sessions. The data store will be an embedded SQL Compact database. So I might want to create relations between my Attributes table (deterministic model) and my BeingAttributeModifiers table (nondeterministic model), but how do I set that up across models? Det model/db Nondet model/db ____________ ________________________ |Attributes | |PlayerAttributeModifiers| |------------| |------------------------| |Id | |Id | |Name | |AttributeId | |Description | |SourceId | ------------ |Value | ------------------------ Should I use two separate models (edmx) that transact with a single database containing both deterministic-type and nondeterministic-type tables? Or should/can I use two separate databases in one model? Or two models each with their own database? With distinct models/dbs it seems like this will get really complicated and I'll end up fighting EF a lot, rolling my own transaction code, and generally losing out on a lot of the advantages of the framework. I know these are vague questions, I'm just looking for a sanity check before I forge ahead any further.

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121  | Next Page >