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• How are components properly instantiated and used in XNA 4.0?

  - by Christopher Horenstein

  I am creating a simple input component to hold on to actions and key states, and a short history of the last ten or so states. The idea is that everything that is interested in input will ask this component for the latest input, and I am wondering where I should create it. I am also wondering how I should create components that are specific to my game objects - I envision them as variables, but then how do their Update/Draw methods get called? What I'm trying to ask is, what are the best practices for adding components to the proper collections? Right now I've added my input component in the main Game class that XNA creates when everything is first initialized, saying something along the lines of this.Components.Add(new InputComponent(this)), which looks a little odd to me, and I'd still want to hang onto that reference so I can ask it things. An answer to my input component's dilemma is great, but also I'm guessing there is a right way to do this in general in XNA.

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• Procedural object generation and unique identification

  - by 2080

  My question relates to procedural content generation and data management of the emerging objects in a database. I assume a networked game, with a server-client model. Unspecified objects in the game world are generated while the game is running with procedural algorithms (for example perlin noise). The players (/clients) can modify the properties of these objects, but have to notify the server of these changes. How could this communication address unique objects, so that both the server and the client know of which object they are speaking? Not only the inner properties of the objects can differ, but also visible, such as the position. When the player wants to select one of these objects the game has to find out the id - does anyone know which methods or algorithms can accomplish that?

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• Defining the track in a 2D racing game

  - by Ivan

  I am designing a top-down racing game using canvas (html5) which takes a lot of inspiration from Micro Machines. In MM, cars can move off the track, but they are reset/destroyed if they go too far. My maths knowledge isn't great, so I'm finding it hard to separate 3D/complex concepts from those which are directly relevant to my situation. For example, I have seen "splines" mentioned, is this something I should read up on or is that overkill for a 2D game? Could I use a single path which defines the centre of the track and check a car's distance from this line? A second path might be required as a "racing line" for AI. Any advice on methods/techniques/terms to read up on would be greatly appreciated.

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• Managing multiple references of the same game entity in different places using IDs

  - by vargonian

  I've seen great questions on similar topics, but none that addressed this particular method: Given that I have multiple collections of game entities in my [XNA Game Studio] game, with many entities belonging to multiple lists, I'm considering ways I could keep track of whenever an entity is destroyed and remove it from the lists it belongs to. A lot of potential methods seem sloppy/convoluted, but I'm reminded of a way I've seen before in which, instead of having multiple collections of game entities, you have collections of game entity IDs instead. These IDs map to game entities via a central "database" (perhaps just a hash table). So, whenever any bit of code wants to access a game entity's members, it first checks to see if it's even in the database still. If not, it can react accordingly. Is this a sound approach? It seems that it would eliminate many of the risks/hassles of storing multiple lists, with the tradeoff being the cost of the lookup every time you want to access an object.

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• Of which bad practice is require calling functions in order a sign?

  - by stijn

  Sometimes I find myself writing comments on class methods like this: class A : public Base { public: /** * Sets variable; * should be called before ImplementsInterfaceMtehod(), * else has no effect. */ void SetSomeVariable( var_type value ); virtual void ImplementsInterfaceMethod(); } The callers of Base::ImplementsInterfaceMethod obviously do not know about the variable, and should not. But the users of A should set the variable if they want it to take effect. It is not required to set the variable (else it could be a parameter for the constructor), so I cannot throw exceptions in ImplementsInterfaceMethod if it is not set. Is this a sign of some typical bad practice? Is there a better way than writing a comment as shown to deal with this?

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• How to improve programming skills?

  - by Mike

  I'm very new to programming. I started learning PHP about half a year ago, so I do know something. I can write small functions, I can export and import information from a database and I can make a website. I don't know OOP principles and I don't know about objects and classes. Should I move to OOP principles and learn about classes, methods and objects? If not, what should I do? Continue writing simple code? How can a programmer write his/her own API? Is OOP necessary to do this? So how can i improve my skills? I love programming. I spend my 24/7 on it, so any help will be appreciated.

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• Creating a bootable USB recovery drive to be used by someone who isn't computer savvy

  - by David

  I am looking for a way to prepare an image of an Ubuntu machine which would be bootable and installable in the easiest way possible. I'm actually preparing an Ubuntu machine for someone living far, and not computer savvy. If he ever has troubles with his installation, he could just put a USB drive in, boot the machine and everything would be resetted for him. I know there are many methods of creating/loading an image of a drive, but the ones I've found so far have complicated menus with several options to choose from, etc. Ideally, perhaps only asking a Yes/No question such as "Would you like to reinstall?" would be great. Does such a tool exist? Thank you in advance!

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• How can I test a parser for a bespoke XML schema?

  - by Greg B

  I'm parsing a bespoke XML format into an object graph using .NET 4.0. My parser is using the System.XML namespace internally, I'm then interrogating the relevant properties of XmlNodes to create my object graph. I've got a first cut of the parser working on a basic input file and I want to put some unit tests around this before I progress on to more complex input files. Is there a pattern for how to test a parser such as this? When I started looking at this, my first move was to new up and XmlDocument, XmlNamespaceManager and create an XmlElement. But it occurs to me that this is quite lengthy and prone to human error. My parser is quite recursive as you can imagine and this might lead to testing the full system rather than the individual units (methods) of the system. So a second question might be What refactoring might make a recursive parser more testable?

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• Changing DisplayMode seems not to update Input&Graphic Dimension

  - by coding.mof

  I'm writing a small game using Slick and Nifty-GUI. At the program startup I set the DisplayMode using the following lines: AppGameContainer app = new ... app.setDisplayMode( 800, 600, false ); app.start(); I wrote a Nifty-ScreenController for my settings dialog in which the user can select the desired DisplayMode. When I try to set the new DisplayMode within this controller class the game window gets resized correctly but the Graphics and Input objects aren't updated accordingly. Therefore my rendering code just uses a part of the new window. I tried to set different DisplayModes in the main method to test if it's generally possible to invoke this method multiple times. It seems that changing the DisplayMode only works before I call app.start(). Furthermore I tried to update the Graphics & Input object manually but the init and setDimensions methods are package private. :( Does someone know what I'm doing wrong and how to change the DisplayMode correctly?

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• Structure vs. programming

  - by ChristopherW

  Is it bad that I often find myself spending more time on program structure than actually writing code inside methods? Is this common? I feel I spend more time laying the foundation than actually building the house (metaphorically). While I understand that without a good foundation the house will cave in, but does it legitimately need to take half of the project to finalize code structure? I understand design patterns, and I know where to go if I need help on choosing one, but often I find myself doubting my own choices.

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• Understanding Unity3d physics: where is the force applied?

  - by Heisenbug

  I'm trying to understand which is the right way to apply forces to a RigidBody. I noticed that there are AddForce and AddRelativeForce methods, one applied in world space coordinate system meanwhile the other in the local space. The thing that I do not understand is the following: usually in physics library (es. Bullet) we can specify the force vector and also the force application point. How can I do this in Unity? Is it possible to apply a force vector in a specific point relative to the given RigidBody coordinate system? Where does AddForce apply the force?

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• How a graphic designer can get into game programming?

  - by Robert Valdez

  I'm a graphic design student hoping to pursue a career as a video game artist. However, I want to do some game development as a hobby. I'd like to develop games for the desktop or mobile phones. The only programming experience I have is that I took an intro to programming with java class in which I learned how to make web applets using java's swing library. It was awful. I think the only things I took from the class was what OOP is and how to work with variables and data types and some methods. I also learned some actionscript myself which was fun unfortunately my flash tutorial expired and it's too expensive to buy;( What I was looking to do is learn one programming language and build a game with it without having to go through so many hoops and with minimum cost. If it's possible. I would love to learn C++, but I read it's not best for a beginning programmer. What programming languages or maybe software kits/platforms would you recommend?

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• How do I find which isometric tiles are inside the cameras current view?

  - by Steve

  I'm putting together an isometric engine and need to cull the tiles that aren't in the camera's current view. My tile coordinates go from left to right on the X and top to bottom on the Y with (0,0) being the top left corner. If I have access to say the top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right corner coordinates, is there a formula or something I could use to determine which tiles fall in range? This is a screenshot of the layout of the tiles for reference. If there isn't one, or there's a better way to determine which tiles are on screen and which to cull, I'm all ears and am grateful for any ideas. I've got a few other methods I may be able to try such as checking the position of the tile against a rectangle. I pretty much just need something quick. Thanks for giving this a read =)

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• C++11 support for higher-order list functions

  - by Giorgio

  Most functional programming languages (e.g. Common Lisp, Scheme / Racket, Clojure, Haskell, Scala, Ocaml, SML) support some common higher-order functions on lists, such as map, filter, takeWhile, dropWhile, foldl, foldr (see e.g. Common Lisp, Scheme / Racket, Clojure side-by-side reference sheet, the Haskell, Scala, OCaml, and the SML documentation.) Does C++11 have equivalent standard methods or functions on lists? For example, consider the following Haskell snippet: let xs = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] let ys = map (\x -> x * x) xs How can I express the second expression in modern standard C++? std::list<int> xs = ... // Initialize the list in some way. std::list<int> ys = ??? // How to translate the Haskell expression? What about the other higher-order functions mentioned above? Can they be directly expressed in C++?

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• Creating Rectangle-based buttons with OnClick events

  - by Djentleman

  As the title implies, I want a Button class with an OnClick event handler. It should fire off connected events when it is clicked. This is as far as I've made it: public class Button { public event EventHandler OnClick; public Rectangle Rec { get; set; } public string Text { get; set; } public Button(Rectangle rec, string text) { this.Rec = rec; this.Text = text; } } I have no clue what I'm doing with regards to events. I know how to use them but creating them myself is another matter entirely. I've also made buttons without using events that work on a case-by-case basis. So basically, I want to be able to attach methods to the OnClick EventHandler that will fire when the Button is clicked (i.e., the mouse intersects Rec and the left mouse button is clicked).

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• Mount encrypted volumes from command line?

  - by cha

  If I have an encrypted external disk (or an internal disk that is not in fstab), I see an entry for it in Nautilus -- with an entry like "X GB Encrypted Volume". I can click on this volume, and am prompted for a password to decrypt and mount the device. But how do I do this from the command line? This wiki page, and other docs I can find, only refer to GUI methods of decrypting the device; but this won't do in the context of headless servers or SSH logins. Is there a simple way to get devices to mount to automatic locations in "/media" just like they would with the GUI? (I'm not asking about encrypted home directories -- I'm aware of ecryptfs-mount-private. This question is about additional encrypted volumes.)

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• API always returns JSONObject or JSONArray Best practices

  - by Michael Laffargue

  I'm making an API that will return data in JSON. I also wanted on client side to make an utility class to call this API. Something like : JSONObject sendGetRequest(Url url); JSONObject sendPostRequest(Url url, HashMap postData); However sometimes the API send back array of object [{id:1},{id:2}] I now got two choices (): Make the method test for JSONArray or JSONObject and send back an Object that I will have to cast in the caller Make a method that returns JSONObject and one for JSONArray (like sendGetRequestAndReturnAsJSONArray) Make the server always send Arrays even for one element Make the server always send Objects wrapping my Array I going for the two last methods since I think it would be a good thing to force the API to send consistent type of data. But what would be the best practice (if one exist). Always send arrays? or always send objects?

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• Unable to install 12.10 on asus r500v

  - by bmdr38

  I have been unable to get beyond the grub boot screen of the live dvd/usb. The Try Ubuntu without installing, Install Ubuntu, etc menu shows, and I have tried adding/replacing nomodeset and no splash with neither helping. Even "Check disc for defects" does not display anything when selected. I am at a complete loss as to how to fix this one. I have had many successful installs in the past, but this is definitely a first for me. Just as FYI, Gfx card: Geforce GT 635M I realize this particular card has Optimus on it, however even the alternative boot/command line install fails to load. Any help would be appreciated. I realize there have been multiple threads on this, but none of the methods within them have solved this yet. Thanks

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• Best practices for upgrading user data when updating versions of software

  - by Javy

  In my code I check the current version of the software on launch and compare it to the version stored in the user's data file(s). If the version is newer, then I call different methods to update the old data to the newer data version, if necessary. I usually have to make a new method to convert the data with each update that changes user data in some way, and cannot remove the old ones in case there was someone who missed an update. So the app must be able to go through each method call and update their data until they get their data current. With larger data sets, this could be a problem. In addition, I recently had a brief discussion with another StackOverflow user this and he indicated he always appended a date stamp to the filename to manage data versions, although his reasoning as to why this was better than storing the version data in the file itself was unclear. Since I've rarely seen management of user data versions in books I've read, I'm curious what are the best practices for naming user data files and procedures for updating older data to newer versions.

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• Plan variable and call dependencies

  - by Gerenuk

  I'd like to write down the design of my program to understand the dependencies and calls better. I know there are class diagrams which show inheritance and attribute variables. However I'd also like to document the input parameters to method functions and in particular which calls the methods function executes inside (e.g. on the input parameters). Also sometimes it might be useful to show how actual objects are connected (if there is a standard structure). This way I can have a better understanding of the modules and design before starting to program. Can you suggest a method to do this software design? It should be one-to-one to programming code structure so that I really notice all quirks beforehand (instead of high-level design where thing are hard to implement without further work). Maybe some special diagram or tool or a combination? It is static dependency and call design rather than time dependent execution monitoring. (I use Python if you have any specialized recommendations).

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• Handling cameras in a large scale game engine

  - by Hannesh

  What is the correct, or most elegant, way to manage cameras in large game engines? Or should I ask, how does everybody else do it? The methods I can think of are: Binding cameras straight to the engine; if someone needs to render something, they bind their own camera to the graphics engine which is in use until another camera is bound. A camera stack; a small task can push its own camera onto the stack, and pop it off at the end to return to the "main" camera. Attaching a camera to a shader; Every shader has exactly one camera bound to it, and when the shader is used, that camera is set by the engine when the shader is in use. This allows me to implement a bunch of optimizations on the engine side. Are there other ways to do it?

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• Expressions that are idiomatic in one language but not used or impossible in another

  - by Tungsten

  I often find myself working in unfamiliar languages. I like to read code written by others and then jump in and write something myself before going back and learning the corners of each language. To speed up this process, it really helps to know a few of the idioms you'll encounter ahead of time. Some of these, I've found are fairly unique. In Python you might do something like this: '\n'.join(listOfThings) Not all languages allow you to call methods on string literals like this. In C, you can write a loop like this: int i = 50; while(i--) { /* do something 50 times */ } C lets you decrement in the loop condition expression. Most more modern languages disallow this. Do you have any other good examples? I'm interested in often used constructions not odd corner cases.

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• How to optimize a one language website's SEO for foreign languages?

  - by moomoochoo

  DETAILS I have a website that's content is in English. It is a niche website with a global market. However I would like users to be able to find the website using their own language. The scenario I envision is that the searcher is looking for the English content, but is searching in their own language. An example could be someone looking for "downloadable English crosswords." MY IDEAS Buy ccTLDs and have them permanently redirect to subdirectories on domain.com. The subdirectories would contain html sitemaps in the target language e.g.-Redirect domain.fr to domain.com/fr OR perhaps it would be better to maintain domain.fr as an independent site in the target language with the html sitemap linking to pages on domain.com ? QUESTION Are the above methods good/bad? What are some other ways I can optimize SEO for foreign languages?

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• Is MVC now the only way to write PHP?

  - by JasonS

  Hey... its XMAS Eve and something is bugging me... yes, I have work on my mind even when I am on holiday. The vast amount of frameworks available for PHP now use MVC. Even ASP.net has its own MVC module. I can see the attraction of MVC, I really can and I use it frequently. The only downside that I can see is that you have to fire up the whole system to execute a page request. Depending on your task this can be a little wasteful. So the question. In a professional environment is this the only way to use PHP nowadays or are their other design methods which have alternative benefits?

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• ASP.NET GridView And TreeList: 2 Export Improvements v2010 vol 1

  Two very useful export enhancements have been added to the ASPxGridView and ASPxTreeList. Starting with DXperience v2010.1, you can change the exported column width size and export to the Excel 2007 XLSX document format: 1. Change Column Width To change the column width before exporting, use the ExportWidth property. This property has been added to both the GridViewColumn and TreeListDataColumn classes. 2. Excel XLSX Format Two new methods have been added to the ASPxGridViewExporter and ASPxTreeListExporter...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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