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• What is a good way to store tilemap data?

  - by Stephen Tierney

  I'm developing a 2D platformer with some uni friends. We've based it upon the XNA Platformer Starter Kit which uses .txt files to store the tile map. While this is simple it does not give us enough control and flexibility with level design. Some examples: for multiple layers of content multiple files are required, each object is fixed onto the grid, doesn't allow for rotation of objects, limited number of characters etc. So I'm doing some research into how to store the level data and map file. This concerns only the file system storage of the tile maps, not the data structure to be used by the game while it is running. The tile map is loaded into a 2D array, so this question is about which source to fill the array from. Reasoning for DB: From my perspective I see less redundancy of data using a database to store the tile data. Tiles in the same x,y position with the same characteristics can be reused from level to level. It seems like it would simple enough to write a method to retrieve all the tiles that are used in a particular level from the database. Reasoning for JSON/XML: Visually editable files, changes can be tracked via SVN a lot easier. But there is repeated content. Do either have any drawbacks (load times, access times, memory etc) compared to the other? And what is commonly used in the industry? Currently the file looks like this: .................... .................... .................... .................... .................... .................... .................... .........GGG........ .........###........ .................... ....GGG.......GGG... ....###.......###... .................... .1................X. #################### 1 - Player start point, X - Level Exit, . - Empty space, # - Platform, G - Gem

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• Game Components, Game Managers and Object Properties

  - by George Duckett

  I'm trying to get my head around component based entity design. My first step was to create various components that could be added to an object. For every component type i had a manager, which would call every component's update function, passing in things like keyboard state etc. as required. The next thing i did was remove the object, and just have each component with an Id. So an object is defined by components having the same Ids. Now, i'm thinking that i don't need a manager for all my components, for example i have a SizeComponent, which just has a Size property). As a result the SizeComponent doesn't have an update method, and the manager's update method does nothing. My first thought was to have an ObjectProperty class which components could query, instead of having them as properties of components. So an object would have a number of ObjectProperty and ObjectComponent. Components would have update logic that queries the object for properties. The manager would manage calling the component's update method. This seems like over-engineering to me, but i don't think i can get rid of the components, because i need a way for the managers to know what objects need what component logic to run (otherwise i'd just remove the component completely and push its update logic into the manager). Is this (having ObjectProperty, ObjectComponent and ComponentManager classes) over-engineering? What would be a good alternative?

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• Suggestions for implementing a dynamic 2D level

  - by Wouter

  I am working on a game that needs a level that is completely generated. Currently my approach is to draw textures for the levels pixel by pixel during the game (in XNA with SpriteBatch). This is too intensive unfortunately. The game has frame drops even when I only draw 1 level texture each draw cycle. Here is an example of the current prototype. It is a simple sidescroller with the avatar swimming through a cave. The shape of this cave will alter throughout the level (textures and physics collision shapes). You can clearly see the boundaries of the level tiles in the screenshot below. These are generated just before they move into camera view. For inspiration I looked at PixelJunk Shooter 2. These levels are obviously not generated, but some of the levels have movement. How do you guys think they implemented it? My guess is that the level and other objects in the game are actually flat 3d models, but I am not sure..

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• Friday Fun: Wake Up the Box

  - by Mysticgeek

  Another Friday and it’s time to waste the rest of your Friday playing a  fun flash game online. Today we take a look at a relaxing physic based puzzle game called Wake Up the Box. Wake Up the Box This goal of this game is to wake up the box character by attaching parts of existing wood objects in each stage. You can start a new game or continue your progress from where you left off. At the beginning you get a tutorial showing what you need to do to wake the box. You get wood parts and can attach them to other wood pieces but not metal or brick. After successfully waking up Mr. Box, you can go to the next level or restart a level at any time if your having problems figuring out the puzzle. Each level gets more difficult and the puzzles are more challenging. Wake Up the Box is a relaxing and challenging game that will allow you to have fun, not working on TPS reports until the whistle blows. Play Wake Up the Box at FreeWebArcade Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Stop the Mouse From Waking Up Your Computer from Sleep ModeFix "Sleep Mode Randomly Waking Up" Issue in Windows VistaStop Your Mouse from Waking Up Your Windows 7 ComputerPrevent Windows Asking for a Password on Wake Up from Sleep/StandbyUse Sleep.FM to Wake Up with the Web TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff

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• Final Man vs. Machine Round of Jeopardy Unfolds; Watson Dominates

  - by ETC

  The final round of IBM’s Watson against Ken Jenning and Brad Rutter ended last night with Watson coming out in a strong lead against its two human opponents. Read on to catch a video of the match and see just how quick Watson is on the draw. Watson tore through many of the answers, the little probability bar at the bottom of the screen denoting it was often 95%+ confident in its answers. Some of the more interesting stumbles were, like in the last matches, based on nuance. By far the biggest “What?” moment of the night, however, was when it answered the Daily Double question of “The New Yorker’s 1959 review of this said in its brevity and clarity, it is ‘unlike most such manuals, a book as well as a tool’”. Watson, inexplicably, answered “Dorothy Parker”. You can win them all, eh? Check out the video below to see Watson in action on its final day. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware The Citroen GT – An Awesome Video Game Car Brought to Life [Video] Final Man vs. Machine Round of Jeopardy Unfolds; Watson Dominates Give Chromium-Based Browser Desktop Notifications a Native System Look in Ubuntu Chrome Time Track Is a Simple Task Time Tracker Google Sky Map Turns Your Android Phone into a Digital Telescope Walking Through a Seaside Village Wallpaper

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• How can i be sure that professional programming is not for me ?

  - by user17766

  Hello everybody I love programming, developing projects for hobby and learning new concepts. I am getting harder too much in current job Despite learnt many thing well. I can even hardly understand assigned tasks. I am asking why i am getting harder to myself. It may not my fault? Our architecture doesn't spend enough time to explain complicated sides of project for us or i am not enough smart one for understand fastly. Our architecture also doesn't know what kind of hell he is creating ? Seeing 3 level generic types and 4-5 level generic inheritance in domain model objects hell makes me think so really. It looks abusing concepts more than reduce complexity. Thinking that he hasn't experienced before such a big project while he is getting confused in problems of the project. May i am not in right company ? May i am not good programmer ? May i am really stupid ? Become good in programming concepts is not enough to deal big project's complications so someone should to tell me that i have to still effort too much even i am good programmer for adopting myself to any big project ? Also i had another bad experiences from previous job but my professional experiences is almost few months but i spend 2 years for learning and coding for fun and i really can say that i have well skills on OOP, Design Patterns, coding standards and deep knowledge in language currently used. Sometimes i am thinking to leave programming professionally and work in any lame job while doing programming just for hobby. Waiting suggestions and insights

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• Add an Easy to View Notification Badge to Tabs in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you tired of manually switching between tabs to see if you have new e-mails, messages, or items in your RSS feeds? Then say goodbye to the hassle! Tab Badge adds an awesome counter badge to your tabs and lets you see the number of new items with just a glance. Tab Badge displays equally well whether you have a tab set at full size or pinned as an app tab. As you can see above the badge really stands out and the text is easy to read. Installing the add-on does not require a browser restart, so just click and go to start enjoying that tab notification goodness! Note: Works with Firefox 4.0b7 – 4.0.* Add Tab Badge to Firefox (Mozilla Add-ons) [via DownloadSquad] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Never Call Me at Work [Humorous Star Wars Video] Add an Image Properties Listing to the Context Menu in Chrome and Iron Add an Easy to View Notification Badge to Tabs in Firefox SpellBook Parks Bookmarklets in Chrome’s Context Menu Drag2Up Brings Multi-Source Drag and Drop Uploading to Firefox Enchanted Swing in the Forest Wallpaper

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• Creating Transparent Game Menu Items using AndEngine

  - by Chaitanya Chandurkar

  I'm trying to create a Game Menu which contains some Menu Items like New Game Multiplayer Options Exit I want to make this Menu Items Transparent. Only Text in White color should be visible. So i guess i do not need any background image for Menu Items. I have seen examples of SpriteButton like given below. ButtonSprite playButton = new ButtonSprite(0, 0, btnNormalTextureRegion, btnPushedTextureRegion, this.getVertexBufferObjectManager(), new OnClickListener() { @Override public boolean onAreaTouched(TouchEvent pSceneTouchEvent, float pTouchAreaLocalX, float pTouchAreaLocalY) { // Do Stuff here } } The thing which i don't understand is how can i initialize btnNormalTextureRegion? I use the code give below to initialize ITexture and ITextureRegion for objects. mBackgruondTexture = new BitmapTexture(activity.getTextureManager(), new IInputStreamOpener() { public InputStream open() throws IOException { return activity.getAssets().open("gfx/backgrounds/greenbg.jpg"); } }); mBackgruondTextureRegion = TextureRegionFactory.extractFromTexture(mBackgruondTexture); This code openes up an Image from assest. As i do not want to use any image for Menu Item How can i initialize btnNormalTextureRegion for SpriteButton. OR Is there any alternative to create Game Menu?

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• Interpolate air drag for my game?

  - by Valentin Krummenacher

  So I have a little game which works with small steps, however those steps vary in time, so for example I sometimes have 10 Steps/second and then I have 20 Steps/second. This changes automatically depending on how many steps the user's computer can take. To avoid inaccurate positioning of the game's player object I use y=v0*dt+g*dt^2/2 to determine my objects y-position, where dt is the time since the last step, v0 is the velocity of my object in the beginning of my step and g is the gravity. To calculate the velocity in the end of a step I use v=v0+g*dt what also gives me correct results, independent of whether I use 2 steps with a dt of for example 20ms or one step with a dt of 40ms. Now I would like to introduce air drag. For simplicity's sake I use a=k*v^2 where a is the air drag's acceleration (I am aware that it would usually result in a force, but since I assume 1kg for my object's mass the force is the same as the resulting acceleration), k is a constant (in this case I'm using 0.001) and v is the speed. Now in an infinitely small time interval a is k multiplied by the velocity in this small time interval powered by 2. The problem is that v in the next time interval would depend on the drag of the last which again depends on the v of the last interval and so on... In other words: If I use a=k*v^2 I get different results for my position/velocity when I use 2 steps of 20ms than when I use one step of 40ms. I used to have this problem for my position too, but adding +g*dt^2/2 to the formula for my position fixed the problem since it takes into account that the position depends on the velocity which changes slightly in every infinitely small time interval. Does something like that exist for air drag too? And no, I dont mean anything like Adding air drag to a golf ball trajectory equation or similar, for that kind of method only gives correct results when all my steps are the same. (I hope you can understand my intermediate english, it's not my main language so I would like to say sorry for all the silly mistakes I might have made in my question)

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• Seas0nPass Now Offers Untethered Apple TV Jailbreaking

  - by ETC

  If you’d been holding off jailbreaking your Apple TV because you wanted an untethered jailbreak, Seas0nPass just updated and now offers the tether-free action you crave. Untethered jailbreaking means you’ll never have to retether your jailbroken device to activate the jailbreak again. Install XBMC or FireCore’s aTV Flash for expanded functionality. Seas0nPass is a free download, hit up the link below to read more and grab a copy. Seas0nPass Cuts the Cord [FireCore via The Unofficial Apple Weblog] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Seas0nPass Now Offers Untethered Apple TV Jailbreaking Never Call Me at Work [Humorous Star Wars Video] Add an Image Properties Listing to the Context Menu in Chrome and Iron Add an Easy to View Notification Badge to Tabs in Firefox SpellBook Parks Bookmarklets in Chrome’s Context Menu Drag2Up Brings Multi-Source Drag and Drop Uploading to Firefox

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• Designing javascript chart library

  - by coolscitist

  I started coding a chart library on top of d3js: My chart library. I read Javascript API reusability and Towards reusable charts. However, I am NOT really following the suggestions because I am not really convinced about them. This is how my library can be used to create a bubble chart: var chart = new XYBubbleChart(); chart.data = [{"xValue":200,"yValue":300},{"xValue":400,"yValue":200},{"xValue":100,"yValue":310}]; //set data chart.dataKey.x = "xValue"; chart.dataKey.y = "yValue"; chart.elementId = "#chart"; chart.createChart(); Here are my questions: It does not use chaining. Is it a big issue? Every property and function is exposed publicly. (Example: width, height are exposed in Chart.js). OOP is all about abstraction and hiding, but I don't really see the point right now. I think exposing everything gives flexibility to change property and functionality inside subclasses and objects without writing a lot of code. What could be pitfalls of such exposure? I have implemented functions like: zooming, "showing info boxes when data point is clicked" as "abilities". (example: XYZoomingAbility.js). Basically, such "abilities" accept "chart" object, play around with public variables of "chart" to add functionality. What this allows me to do is to add an ability by writing: activateZoomAbility(chartObject); My goal is to separate "visualization" from "interactivity". I want "interactivity" like: zooming to be plugged into the chart rather than built inside the chart. Like, I don't want my bubble chart to know anything about "zooming". However, I do want zoomable bubble chart. What is the best way to do this? How to test and what to test? I have written mixed tests: jasmine and actual html files so that I can test manually on browser.

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• SQL SERVER – Select Columns from Stored Procedure Resultset

  - by Pinal Dave

  It is fun to go back to basics often. Here is the one classic question: “How to select columns from Stored Procedure Resultset?” Though Stored Procedure has been introduced many years ago, the question about retrieving columns from Stored Procedure is still very popular with beginners. Let us see the solution in quick steps. First we will create a sample stored procedure. CREATE PROCEDURE SampleSP AS SELECT 1 AS Col1, 2 AS Col2 UNION SELECT 11, 22 GO Now we will create a table where we will temporarily store the result set of stored procedures. We will be using INSERT INTO and EXEC command to retrieve the values and insert into temporary table. CREATE TABLE #TempTable (Col1 INT, Col2 INT) GO INSERT INTO #TempTable EXEC SampleSP GO Next we will retrieve our data from stored procedure. SELECT * FROM #TempTable GO Finally we will clean up all the objects which we have created. DROP TABLE #TempTable DROP PROCEDURE SampleSP GO Let me know if you want me to share such back to basic tips. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Stored Procedure, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• 2D Tile Map files for Platformer, JSON or DB?

  - by Stephen Tierney

  I'm developing a 2D platformer with some uni friends. We've based it upon the XNA Platformer Starter Kit which uses .txt files to store the tile map. While this is simple it does not give us enough control and flexibility with level design. Some examples: for multiple layers of content multiple files are required, each object is fixed onto the grid, doesn't allow for rotation of objects, limited number of characters etc. So I'm doing some research into how to store the level data and map file. Reasoning for DB: From my perspective I see less redundancy of data using a database to store the tile data. Tiles in the same x,y position with the same characteristics can be reused from level to level. It seems like it would simple enough to write a method to retrieve all the tiles that are used in a particular level from the database. Reasoning for JSON: Visually editable files, changes can be tracked via SVN a lot easier. But there is repeated content. Do either have any drawbacks (load times, access times, memory etc) compared to the other? And what is commonly used in the industry? Currently the file looks like this: .................... .................... .................... .................... .................... .................... .................... .........GGG........ .........###........ .................... ....GGG.......GGG... ....###.......###... .................... .1................X. #################### 1 - Player start point, X - Level Exit, . - Empty space, # - Platform, G - Gem

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• Suspended Sentence is a Free Cross-Platform Point and Click Game

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you want a fun point and click game to play on your favorite operating system? Then get ready to play Suspended Sentence! In the game you are woken from cryogenic sleep to assist in repairing the ship you are traveling on. Can you successfully complete the repairs and get your prison sentence suspended in return? Note: Suspended Sentence is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. Suspended Sentence Homepage [via OMG! Ubuntu!] Access the Walkthrough for Suspended Sentence Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The Legend of Zelda – 1980s High School Style [Video] Suspended Sentence is a Free Cross-Platform Point and Click Game Build a Batman-Style Hidden Bust Switch Make Your Clock Creates a Custom Clock for your Android Homescreen Download the Anime Angels Theme for Windows 7 CyanogenMod Updates; Rolls out Android 2.3 to the Less Fortunate

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• Current Technologies

  - by Charles Cline

  I currently work at the University of Kansas (KU) and before that Stanford University, to be particular the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).  Collaborating with various Higher Ed institutions the past several years has shown a marked increase in the Microsoft side of the house.  To give you an idea of our current environment, here are some of the things we (Enterprise Systems) have been working on the past two years I’ve been at KU: Migrated from Novell to Active Directory (AD), although we’re still leveraging Novell for IDM.  We currently have 550,000+ objects in AD, and we still have several departments to bring in. Upgraded from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) Implemented SCCM 2007 for Windows systems management Implemented central file storage using EMC products for the backend, using CIFS as the frontend Restructuring AD domains and Forests to decrease the administrative overhead and provide a primary authentication mechanism for the entire University Determining Key Performance Indicators for AD and Exchange Implemented SCOM 2007 to monitor AD and Exchange Implemented Confluence for collaboration within IT and other technology providers at the University Implemented Data Protection Manager (DPM) for backup of AD and Exchange Built a test and QA environment to better facilitate upcoming changes to the environment Almost ready to raise the AD domain level to 2008 R2   I’m sure I’m missing things, and my next post will be some of the things we’re getting ready for – like Centrify to provide AD for OS X and Linux systems.  If anyone would like more info on a particular area, please drop me a line.  I’d be happy to discuss.

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• What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology?

  - by Eric Z Goodnight

  If you ever played Super Mario Brothers or Mario Galaxy, you probably thought it was only a fun videogame—but fun can be serious.  Super Mario has lessons to teach you might not expect about graphics and the concepts behind them. The basics of image technology (and then some) can all be explained with a little help from everybody’s favorite little plumber. So read on to see what we can learn from Mario about pixels, polygons, computers and math, as well as dispelling a common misconception about those blocky old graphics we remember from when me first met Mario. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Seas0nPass Now Offers Untethered Apple TV Jailbreaking Never Call Me at Work [Humorous Star Wars Video] Add an Image Properties Listing to the Context Menu in Chrome and Iron Add an Easy to View Notification Badge to Tabs in Firefox SpellBook Parks Bookmarklets in Chrome’s Context Menu Drag2Up Brings Multi-Source Drag and Drop Uploading to Firefox

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• Order of operations to render VBO to FBO texture and then rendering FBO texture full quad

  - by cyberdemon

  I've just started using OpenGL with C# via the OpenTK library. I've managed to successfully render my game world using VBOs. I now want to create a pixellated affect by rendering the frame to an offscreen FBO with a size half of my GameWindow size and then render that FBO to a full screen quad. I've been looking at the OpenTK example here: http://www.opentk.com/doc/graphics/frame-buffer-objects ...but the result is a black form. I'm not sure which parts of the example code belongs in the OnLoad event and OnRenderFrame. Can someone please tell me if the below code shows the correct order of operations? OnLoad { // VBO. // DataArrayBuffer GenBuffers/BindBuffer/BufferData // ElementArrayBuffer GenBuffers/BindBuffer/BufferData // ColourArrayBuffer GenBuffers/BindBuffer/BufferData // FBO. // ColourTexture GenTextures/BindTexture/TexParameterx4/TexImage2D // Create FBO. // Textures Ext.GenFramebuffers/Ext.BindFramebuffer/Ext.FramebufferTexture2D/Ext.FramebufferRenderbuffer } OnRenderFrame { // Use FBO buffer. Ext.BindFramebuffer(FBO) GL.Clear // Set viewport to FBO dimensions. GL.DrawBuffer((DrawBufferMode)FramebufferAttachment.ColorAttachment0Ext) // Bind VBO arrays. GL.BindBuffer(ColourArrayBuffer) GL.ColorPointer GL.EnableClientState(ColorArray) GL.BindBuffer(DataArrayBuffer) // If world changed GL.BufferData(DataArrayBuffer) GL.VertexPointer GL.EnableClientState(VertexArray) GL.BindBuffer(ElementArrayBuffer) // Render VBO. GL.DrawElements // Bind visible buffer. GL.Ext.BindFramebuffer(0) GL.DrawBuffer(Back) GL.Clear // Set camera to view texture. GL.BindTexture(ColourTexture) // Render FBO texture GL.Begin(Quads) // Draw texture on quad // TexCoord2/Vertex2 GL.End SwapBuffers }

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• BlitzMax - generating 2D neon glowing line effect to png file

  - by zanlok

  Originally asked on StackOverflow, but it became tumbleweed. I'm looking to create a glowing line effect in BlitzMax, something like a Star Wars lightsaber or laserbeam. Doesn't have to be realtime, but just to TImage objects and then maybe saved to PNG for later use in animation. I'm happy to use 3D features, but it will be for use in a 2D game. Since it will be on black/space background, my strategy is to draw a series of white blurred lines with color and high transparency, then eventually central lines less blurred and more white. What I want to draw is actually bezier curved lines. Drawing curved lines is easy enough, but I can't use the technique above to create a good laser/neon effect because it comes out looking very segmented. So, I think it may be better to use a blur effect/shader on what does render well, which is a 1-pixel bezier curve. The problems I've been having are: Applying a shader to just a certain area of the screen where lines are drawn. If there's a way to do draw lines to a texture and then blur that texture and save the png, that would be great to hear about. There's got to be a way to do this, but I just haven't gotten the right elements working together yet. Any help from someone familiar with this stuff would be greatly appreciated. Using just 2D calls could be advantageous, simpler to understand and re-use. It would be very nice to know how to save a PNG that preserves the transparency/alpha stuff. p.s. I've reviewed this post (and many many others on the Blitz site), have samples working, and even developed my own 5x5 frag shaders. But, it's 3D and a scene-wide thing that doesn't seem to convert to 2D or just a certain area very well. I'd rather understand how to apply shading to a 2D scene, especially using the specifics of BlitzMax.

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• Project Corndog: Viva el caliente perro!

  - by Matt Christian

  During one of my last semesters in college we were required to take a class call Computer Graphics which tried (quite unsuccessfully) to teach us a combination of mathematics, OpenGL, and 3D rendering techniques.  The class itself was horrible, but one little gem of an idea came out of it.  See, the final project in the class was to team up and create some kind of demo or game using techniques we learned in class.  My friend Paul and I teamed up and developed a top down shooter that, given the stringent timeline, was much less of a game and much more of 3D objects floating around a screen. The idea itself however I found clever and unique and decided it was time to spend some time developing a proper version of our idea.  Project Corndog as it is tentatively named, pits you as a freshly fried corndog who broke free from the shackles of fair food slavery in a quest to escape the state fair you were born in.  Obviously it's quite a serious game with undertones of racial prejudice, immoral practices, and cheap food sold at high prices. The game itself is a top down shooter in the style of 1942 (NES).  As a delicious corndog you will have to fight through numerous enemies including hungry babies, carnies, and the corndog serial-killer himself the corndog eating champion!  Other more engaging and frighteningly realistic enemies await as the only thing between you and freedom. Project Corndog is being developed in Visual Studio 2008 with XNA Game Studio 3.1.  It is currently being hosted on Google code and will be made available as an open source engine in the coming months.

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• How do I implement a Bullet Physics CollisionObject that represents my cube like terrain?

  - by Byte56

  I've successfully integrated the Bullet Physics library into my entity/component system. Entities can collide with each other. Now I need to enable them to collide with the terrain, which is finite and cube-like (think InfiniMiner or it's clone Minecraft). I only started using the Bullet Physics library yesterday, so perhaps I'm missing something obvious. So far I've extended the RigidBody class to override the checkCollisionWith(CollisionObject co) function. At the moment it's just a simple check of the origin, not using the other shape. I'll iterate on that later. For now it looks like this: @Override public boolean checkCollideWith(CollisionObject co) { Transform t = new Transform(); co.getWorldTransform(t); if(COLONY.SolidAtPoint(t.origin.x, t.origin.y,t.origin.z)){ return true; } return false; } This works great, as far as detecting when collisions happen. However, this doesn't handle the collision response. It seems that the default collision response is to move the colliding objects outside of each others shapes, possibly their AABBs. At the moment the shape of the terrain is just a box the size of the world. This means the entities that collide with the terrain just shoot away to outside that world size box. So it's clear that I either need to modify the collision response or I need to create a shape that conforms directly to the shape of the terrain. So which option is best and how do I go about implementing it? It should be noted that the terrain is dynamic and frequently modified by the player.

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• Google Sky Map Turns Your Android Phone into a Digital Telescope

  - by ETC

  Whether you’re an astronomy buff or just somebody looking for a perfect “look how sweet my smartphone is!’ application, Google’s Sky Map application for Android phones is a must have app. If all the application did was show you detailed views of the night sky it would be pretty awesome based on that alone. Where Sky Map dazzles, however, is in linking together the GPS and tilt-sensors on your phone to turn your phone into a sky-watching window. Whatever you point the phone at, the screen displays. Want to see what stars are directly above you despite it being the middle of the day? Point the phone up. Curious what people on the opposite side of the word are seeing? Point the phone down and take a peek right through the Earth. Check out the video below to see the application in action: Google Sky Map is free and works wherever Android does. Google Sky Map [AppBrain] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware The Citroen GT – An Awesome Video Game Car Brought to Life [Video] Final Man vs. Machine Round of Jeopardy Unfolds; Watson Dominates Give Chromium-Based Browser Desktop Notifications a Native System Look in Ubuntu Chrome Time Track Is a Simple Task Time Tracker Google Sky Map Turns Your Android Phone into a Digital Telescope Walking Through a Seaside Village Wallpaper

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• Is HTML5/WebGL performance bad on low-end Android tablets and phones?

  - by Boris van Schooten

  I've developed a couple of WebGL games, and am trying them out on Android. I found that they run very slowly on my tablet, however. For example, a game with 10 sprites or so runs as 5fps. I tried Chrome and CocoonJS, but they are comparably slow. I also tried other games, and even games with only 5 or so moving sprites are this slow. This seems inconsistent with reports from others, such as this benchmark. Typically, when people talk about HTML5 game performance, they mention well-known and higher-end phones and tables. While my 7" tablet is cheap (I believe it's a relabeled Allwinner tablet, apparently with the Mali 400 GPU), I found it generally has a good gaming performance. All the games I tried run smoothly. I also developed an OpenGL ES 2 demo with 200 shaded 3D objects, and it ran at 50fps. My suspicion is that many low-end and white-label devices may have unacceptable HTML5/WebGL support, which means there may be a large section of gamers you will not reach when you choose this as your platform. I've heard rumors about inconsistent performance of HTML5 and WebGL on different devices, but no clear picture emerges. I would like to hear if any of you have had similar experiences with HTML5 or WebGL, or whether I can find information about the percentage of devices I can expect to have decent performance.

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• Advantages of Singleton Class over Static Class?

  Point 1)Singleton We can get the object of singleton and then pass to other methods.Static Class We can not pass static class to other methods as we pass objectsPoint 2) Singleton In future, it is easy to change the logic of of creating objects to some pooling mechanism. Static Class Very difficult to implement some pooling logic in case of static class. We would need to make that class as non-static and then make all the methods non-static methods, So entire your code needs to be changed.Point3:) Singleton Can Singletone class be inherited to subclass? Singleton class does not say any restriction of Inheritence. So we should be able to do this as long as subclass is also inheritence.There's nothing fundamentally wrong with subclassing a class that is intended to be a singleton. There are many reasons you might want to do it. and there are many ways to accomplish it. It depends on language you use.Static Class We can not inherit Static class to another Static class in C#. Think about it this way: you access static members via type name, like this: MyStaticType.MyStaticMember(); Were you to inherit from that class, you would have to access it via the new type name: MyNewType.MyStaticMember(); Thus, the new item bears no relationships to the original when used in code. There would be no way to take advantage of any inheritance relationship for things like polymorphism. span.fullpost {display:none;}

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• How do I detect and handle collisions using a tile property with Slick2D?

  - by oracleCreeper

  I am trying to set up collision detection in Slick2D based on a tilemap. I currently have two layers on the maps I'm using, a background layer, and a collision layer. The collision layer has a tile with a 'blocked' property, painted over the areas the player can't walk on. I have looked through the Slick documentation, but do not understand how to read a tile property and use it as a flag for collision detection. My method of 'moving' the player is somewhat different, and might affect how collisions are handled. Instead of updating the player's location on the window, the player always stays in the same spot, updating the x and y the map is rendered at. I am working on collisions with objects by restricting the player's movement when its hitbox intersects an object's hitbox. The code for the player hitting the right side of an object, for example, would look like this: if(Player.bounds.intersects(object.bounds)&&(Player.x<=(object.x+object.width+0.5))&&Player.isMovingLeft){ isInCollision=true; level.moveMapRight(); } else if(Player.bounds.intersects(object.bounds)&&(Player.x<=(object.x+object.width+0.5))&&Player.isMovingRight){ isInCollision=true; level.moveMapRight(); } else if(Player.bounds.intersects(object.bounds)&&(Player.x<=(object.x+object.width+0.5))&&Player.isMovingUp){ isInCollision=true; level.moveMapRight(); } else if(Player.bounds.intersects(object.bounds)&&(Player.x<=(object.x+object.width+0.5))&&Player.isMovingDown){ isInCollision=true; level.moveMapRight(); } and in the level's update code: if(!Player.isInCollision) Player.manageMovementInput(map, i); However, this method still has some errors. For example, when hitting the object from the right, the player will move up and to the left, clipping through the object and becoming stuck inside its hitbox. If there is a more effective way of handling this, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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• Consistency of an object

  - by Stefano Borini

  I tend to keep my objects consistent during their lifetime. In some cases, setting up an object requires multiple calls to different routines. For example, a connection object may operate in this way: Connection c = new Connection(); c.setHost("http://whatever") c.setPort(8080) c.connect() please note this is just a stupid example to let you understand the point. In between calls to setHost and setPort the object is inconsistent, because the Port has not been specified yet, so this code would crash Connection c = new Connection(); c.setHost("http://whatever") c.connect() Meaning that it's a requisite for connect() to have previous calls to both setHost and setPort, otherwise it won't be able to operate as its state is inconsistent. You may fix the issue with a default value, but there may be cases where no sensible default may be devised. We assume in the later example that there's no default for the port, and therefore a call to c.connect() without first calling both setHost and setPort will be an inconsistent state of the object. This, to me, points at an incorrect interface design, but I may be wrong, so I want to hear your opinion. Do you organize your interface so that the object is always in a consistent (i.e. workable) state both before and after the call ? Edit: Please don't try to solve the problem I gave above. I know how to solve that. My question is much broader in sense. I am looking for a design principle, officially or informally stated, regarding consistency of object state between calls.

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