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  • Debugging Tips for Skinning

    - by Christian David Straub
    Another guest post by Jeanne Waldman.If you are developing a skin for your Fusion Application in JDeveloper you should know these tips.   1. Firebug is your friend 2. Uncompress the css style classes 3. CHECK_FILE_MODIFICATION so that you see your skinning changes right away 4. View the generated CSS File   1. Firebug is your friend Install Firebug (http://getfirebug.com/layout) into Firefox and use it to view your rendered jspx page in the browser. You can select the HTML dom nodes on your page and you can see the css styles applied to each dom node.   2. Uncompress the css style classes By default the styleclasses that are rendered are compressed. You may see style classes like class="x10" and class="x2e". But in your skin css file you have styleclasses like: af|inputText::content or af|panelBox::header   It is easier for you to develop a skin and debug a skin with Firebug if you see the uncompressed styleclasses. To do this, a. open web.xml b. add   <context-param>     <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.DISABLE_CONTENT_COMPRESSION</param-name>     <param-value>true</param-value>   </context-param> c. save d. restart the server and re-run your page.   3. CHECK_FILE_MODIFICATION so that you see your skinning changes right away   For performance sake the ADF Faces framework does not check if you skin .css file has changed on every render. But this is exactly what you want to happen when you are developing or debugging a skin. You want your changes to get noticed right away, without restarting the server.   To do this, a. open web.xml b. add   <context-param>     <description>If this parameter is true, there will be an automatic check of the modification date of your JSPs, and saved state will be discarded when JSP's change. It will also automatically check if your skinning css files have changed without you having to restart the server. This makes development easier, but adds overhead. For this reason this parameter should be set to false when your application is deployed.</description>     <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.CHECK_FILE_MODIFICATION</param-name>     <param-value>false</param-value>   </context-param> c. save d. restart the server and re-run your page. e. from then on, you can change your skin's .css file, save it and refresh your page and you should see the changes right away   4. View the generated CSS File   There are different ways to view the generated CSS File which is your skin's css file merged in with all the skins it extends and processed and generated to the filesystem and linked to your generated html page. One way is to view it with Firebug. The problem with this approach is you might see something that is a little different than the actual css file because Firebug may do some extra processing. I like to view the generated css file by: Right click on your page in the browser 

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  • Stretching an ADF Faces Component to (near) 100%

    - by Christian David Straub
    In the past, many users would want their component to stretch to fill 100% of a horizontal area. However, to account for scrollbars that may or may not have been there, they would set the percentage to 98%, etc.A much better way to do this is to use the new "AFStretchWidth" style class, which will do this automatically for you.For instance, avoid this:<af:foo inlineStyle="98%" />and instead do this:<af:foo styleClass="AFStretchWidth" />You can learn more about ADF Faces layout management here.

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  • How to use caching to increase render performance?

    - by Christian Ivicevic
    First of all I am going to cover the basic design of my 2d tile-based engine written with SDL in C++, then I will point out what I am up to and where I need some hints. Concept of my engine My engine uses the concept of GameScreens which are stored on a stack in the main game class. The main methods of a screen are usually LoadContent, Render, Update and InitMultithreading. (I use the last one because I am using v8 as a JavaScript bridge to the engine. The main game loop then renders the top screen on the stack (if there is one; otherwise, it exits the game) - actually it calls the render methods, but stores all items to be rendered in a list. After gathering all this information the methods like SDL_BlitSurface are called by my GameUIRenderer which draws the enqueued content and then draws some overlay. The code looks like this: while(Game is running) { Handle input if(Screens on stack == 0) exit Update timer etc. Clear the screen Peek the screen on the stack and collect information on what to render Actually render the enqueue screen stuff and some overlay etc. Flip the screen } The GameUIRenderer uses as hinted a std::vector<std::shared_ptr<ImageToRender>> to hold all necessary information described by this class: class ImageToRender { private: SDL_Surface* image; int x, y, w, h, xOffset, yOffset; }; This bunch of attributes is usually needed if I have a texture atlas with all tiles in one SDL_Surface and then the engine should crop one specific area and draw this to the screen. The GameUIRenderer::Render() method then just iterates over all elements and renders them something like this: std::for_each( this->m_vImageVector.begin(), this->m_vImageVector.end(), [this](std::shared_ptr<ImageToRender> pCurrentImage) { SDL_Rect rc = { pCurrentImage->x, pCurrentImage->y, 0, 0 }; // For the sake of simplicity ignore offsets... SDL_Rect srcRect = { 0, 0, pCurrentImage->w, pCurrentImage->h }; SDL_BlitSurface(pCurrentImage->pImage, &srcRect, g_pFramework->GetScreen(), &rc); } ); this->m_vImageVector.clear(); Current ideas which need to be reviewed The specified approach works really good and IMHO it is really has a good structure, however the performance could be definitely increased. I would like to know what do you suggest, how to implement efficient caching of surfaces etc so that there is no need to redraw the same scene over and over again? The map itself would be almost static, only when the player moves, we would need to move the map. Furthermore animated entities would either require updates of the whole map or updates of only the specific areas the entities are currently moving in. My first approaches were to include a flag IsTainted which should be used by the GameUIRenderer to decide whether to redraw everything or use cached version (or to not render anything so that we do not have to Clear the screen and let the last frame persist). However this seems to be quite messy if I have to manually handle in my Render method of the screen class if something has changed or not.

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  • Initial Review - Mastering Unreal Technology I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3

    - by Matt Christian
    Recently I purchased 3 large volumes on using the Unreal 3 Engine to create levels and custom games.  This past weekend I cracked the spine of the first and started reading.  Here are my early impressions (I'm ~250 pages into it, with appendices it's about 900). Pros Interestingly, the book starts with an overview of the Unreal engines leading up to Unreal 3 (including Gears of War) and follows with some discussion on planning a mod and what goes into the game development process.  This is nice for an intro to the book and is much preferred rather than a simple chapter detailing what is on the included CD, how to install and setup UnrealEd, etc...  While the chapter on Unreal history and planning can be considered 'fluff', it's much less 'fluffy' than most books provide. I need to mention one thing here that is pretty crucial in the way I'm going to continue reviewing this book.  Most technical books like this are used as a shelf reference; as a thick volume you use for looking up techniques every now and again.  Even so, I prefer reading from cover to cover, including chapters I may already be knowledgable on (I'm sure this is typical for most people).  If there was a chapter on installing UnrealEd (the previously mentioned 'fluff'), I would probably force myself to read it, even though I've installed the game and engine multiple times on different systems. Chapter 3 is where we really get to the introduction piece of UnrealEd, creating your first basic level.  This large chapter details creating two small rooms, adding static meshes, adding lighting, creating and adding particle emitters, creating a door that animates with Unreal Matinee and Kismet, static meshes with physics, and other little additions to make your level look less beginner.  This really is a chapter that overviews the entire rest of the book, as each chapter following details the creation and intermediate usages of Static Meshes, Materials, Lighting, etc... One other very nice part to this book is the way the tutorials are setup.  Each tutorial builds off the previous and all are step-by-step.  If you haven't completed one yet, you can find all the starting files on the CD that comes with the book. Cons While the description of the overview chapter (Chapter 3) is fresh in your mind, let me start the cons by saying this chapter is setup extremely confusing for the noob.  At one point, you end up creating a door mesh and setting it up as a InteropMesh so that it is ready to be animated, only to switch to particles and spend a good portion of time working on a different piece of the level.  Yes, this is actually how I develop my levels (jumping back and forth), though it's very odd for a book to jump out of sequence. The next item might be a positive or a negative depending on your skill level with UnrealEd.  Most of the introduction to the editor layout is found in one of the Appendices instead of before Chapter 3.  For new readers, this might lead to confusion as Appendix A would typically be read between Chapter 2 and 3.  However, this is a positive for those with some experience in UnrealEd as they don't have to force themselves through a 'learn every editor button' chapter.  I'm listing this in the Cons section as the book is 'Introduction to...' and is probably going to be directed toward a lot of very beginner developers. Finally, there's a lack of general description to a lot of the underlying engine and what each piece in UnrealEd is or does.  Sometimes you'll be performing Tutorial after Tutorial with barely a paragraph in between describing ANY of what you've just done.  Tutorial 1.1 Step 6 says to press Button X, so you do.  But why?  This is in part a problem with the structure of the tutorials rather than the content of the book.  Since the tutorials are so focused on a step-by-step (or procedural) description of a process, you learn the process and not why you're doing that.  For example, you might learn how to size a material to a surface, but will only learn what buttons to press and not what each one does. This becomes extremely apparent in the chapter on Static Meshes as most of the chapter is spent in 3D Studio Max.  Since there are books on 3DSM and modelling, the book really only tells you the steps and says to go grab a book on modelling if you're really interested in 3DSM.  Again, I've learned the process to develop my own meshes in 3DSM, but I don't know the why behind the steps. Conclusion So far the book is very good though I would have a hard time recommending it to a complete beginner.  I would suggest anyone looking at this book (obviously including the other 2, more advanced volumes) to pick up a copy of UDK or Unreal 3 (available online or via download services such as Steam) and watch some online tutorials and play with it first.  You'll find plenty of online videos available that were created by the authors and may suit as a better introduction to the editor.

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  • Retro Video Game Collection

    - by Matt Christian
    Recently I've decided, in true nerd fashion, to collect either comic books or video games.  Considering I'm much more versed in the technological arts and not in ACTUAL art, I thought collecting old video games would be an interesting venture.  After all, I am a self-described compulsive shopper (my bank statement at the end of the month has a purchase every few days).  (Don't worry, I'm not in debt and still pay my bills on time!) I went to a local video game store in Stevens Point called Gaming Generations which is a neat little shop with loads of old games for great prices.  For example, any NES cartridge on the shelf (not behind glass) is, at most, $4.99 with the cheaper ones around $1.99.  During my first round at GG, I picked up the following: NES: - Fester's Quest - Adventures of Link (Zelda 2, grey cart) - Little Nemo - Total Recall - The Goonies 2 PSX: - Galerians N64: - Mission: Impossible - Hybrid Heaven I was a little cautious, would I even like collecting old games?  As soon as I popped a few of those games in I knew right away the answer was an astounding YES!  Not only is it fun to bring back memories of all these old games, but searching for them in stores is also a blast and saying 'I have that one, I need the second one.' After finding such joy in buying these games, I decided to go search through 4-5 stores in Wausau for old games as well.  While the prices were a bit higher and selection smaller, the search was still fun.  I found the following: NES: - Maniac Mansion - T&C Surf - Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers - TMNT (the first one) - Mission: Impossible N64: - Turok - Turok 2 Genesis: - Sonic the Hedgehog Dreamcast: - Shenmue And I found a Gamegear for $5!  Now I just need to find games for it... Tonight I will go on one more small expedition into the used, once again stopping at GG and another second hand store to see if I can find any items for my collection.

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  • How to set all locale settings in Ubuntu

    - by Christian Schneider
    A remote installed application has some encoding problems and on my local machine it is running fine. What is the best way to "copy" my locales to the remote machine? The locales on my personal machine are configured like this: $ locale LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 LANGUAGE=de_DE:en LC_CTYPE="de_DE.UTF-8" LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8 LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8 LC_COLLATE="de_DE.UTF-8" LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8 LC_MESSAGES="de_DE.UTF-8" LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8 LC_NAME=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ADDRESS=en_US.UTF-8 LC_TELEPHONE=en_US.UTF-8 LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=

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  • More Retro Games

    - by Matt Christian
    Last week I made 2 stops to my local game stores and spent a load of cash on a bunch of new retro games for my collection.  Here are the recent additions: NES - Mega Man 2 - The Adventures of Bayou Billy - Ducktales - Metal Gear - Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt - Firestorm - Dragon's Lair - Bartman Meets Radioactive Man N64 - Superman 64 - Zelda: Ocarina of Time (in original box, box is in poor condition) Atari - Superman - Adventure - Donkey Kong - Raiders of the Lost Ark Dreamcast - Memory card with view screen - Space Channel 5 Genesis (all in case) - Jurassic Park - Sonic Spinball - Sonic the Hegehog 3 (missing manual) - Spiderman (also called Spiderman vs. The Kingpin) GameGear - Bart vs The Space Mutants Quite a large haul given it was all purchased in 2 days.  Although, Metal Gear I got for a great deal and almost considered buying their other copy simply to resale for more though I decided against it to let another lucky soul find it.  I may need to run over there again because I think they had TMNT 2 (NES) for around $6 and it usually sells for more than that.  I could have sworn I grabbed it and bought it but my receipt tells me differently. I also found my copy of Super Mario 3 and added that to my collection.  Unfortunately one of the corners of the label has begun to peel up pretty badly which sucks although it's still a good item for the collection. In other retro news, this weekend was Easter and while at my grandparents the cousins wanted to play on their NES which was not working.  Me being the retro NES nerd I am, grabbed a screw driver, some Windex, a few toothpicks, and a few cotton swabs and had it up and running under an hour (that includes eating dinner!).  The NES holds the games tighter, has a better connection, and works almost instantly.  I should do THAT for a living!

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  • Sign of a Good Game

    - by Matt Christian
    (Warning: This post contains spoilers about SILENT HILL 2.  If you haven't played this game, you are dumb) What is one sign of a great game? One of the signs I realized recently is when a game continues to stun and surprise you years and years after you've played and beaten it.  As a major Silent Hill fan, I recently was reminded of Silent Hill 2 and even though see it as one of my favorite Silent Hill games, there are still things I'm learning about it that are neat little additions that add to the atmosphere (atmosphere also makes a great game!). For instance, when you start the game you are given a letter by your wife who has been deceased for years and years.  You are directed to Silent Hill and start treking through hell all by your lonesome (with the exception of a few psychos).  As you continue through the game, pieces of the letter begin to fade and disappear until eventually it is completely non-existent, thus implying the letter was never real and the letter was a delusion you created. Another example is the game's use of imagery the player knows about but might not notice at first.  For me, the most apparent of these was the dress you find near the start when you find the flashlight, which is the same dress you see Mary (your wife) wearing in the flashback sequences.  However, one thing I didn't know was that several deceased bodies you encounter laying around Silent Hill are actually the body of the main character (James) which invokes an idea you've seen that body before but can't pinpoint where... It's amazing to see a game go to such unique lengths to provide a psychological horror game.  Sure, all the dead bodies could be randomly modelled and the dress could be any ol' dress, but just the idea of your brain knowing something deep down but you can't pinpoint it is a really unique idea.  In my opinion, it ties less into subconscious and more into natural tendencies, it taps into the fear hidden inside us all.

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  • P90X or How I Stopped Worrying and Love Exercise

    - by Matt Christian
    Last Wednesday, after many UPS delivery failures, I received P90X in the mail.  P90X is a series of DVD's and a nutrition guide you use to shed pounds and gain muscle.  Odds are you've seen the infomercial on TV at some point if you watch a little tube now and again.  I started last Thursday and am still standing to tell this tale. At it's core, P90X is a 12 DVD set of exercise videos.  Each video is comprised of a different workout routine that typically last around an hour (some up to 1 1/2 hours).  Every day you are supposed to do one of the workouts which are different every day (sometimes you may repeat a shorter 6 min workout dedicated to abs twice a week).  There are different 'programs' focused on different areas, for weight loss you do the Lean Program, standard weight loss and muscle gain do the Regular Program, and for those hardcore health-nuts, the Insane Program (which consists of 2 - 1 hour long exercises per day).  Each Program has a different set of workouts per week which you repeat for 3 weeks, followed by a 'Relaxation Week' which is essentially a slightly different order.  After the month of workouts is over, you've finished 1 phase out of 3.  P90X takes 90 days, split into 3 Phases (1 phase per month).  Every phase has a different workout order which is also focused on different areas (Weight Loss, Muscle Gain, etc...)  With the DVD's you also get a small glossy book of about 100 pages detailing the different workouts and the different programs as well as a sample workout to see if you're even ready to start P90X. The second part of P90X, which can also be considered the 'core' (actually the other half of the core) is the nutrition guide that is included.  The Nutrition Guide is a book similar to the one that defines the exercises (about 100 glossy pages) though it details foods you should eat, the amounts, and a number of healthy (and tasty!) recipes.  The guide is split up into 3 phases as well, promoting high protein and low carb/dairy at during Phase 1, and levelling off through to Phase 3 where you have a relatively balanced amount of every food group. So after 1 week where am I?  I've stuck quite close to the nutrition guide (there isn't 'diet food' in here people, it's ACTUALLY food) and done my exercise every day.  I think a lot of the first week is getting into the whole idea and learning the moves performed on the DVD.  Have I lost weight?  No.  Do I feel some definition already starting to poke out?  Absolutely (no pun intended). Tony Horton (the 51-year old hulk that runs the whole thing) is very fun to listen and work along with and the 'diet' really isn't too hard to follow unless all you eat is carbs.  I've tried the gym thing and could not get motivated enough to continue going.  P90X is the first time I've ached from a workout, BEFORE starting my next workout.  For anyone interested, Google 'P90X' or 'BeachBody' to find out more information about this awesome program!

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  • Undeploying Apps Running JDev 11g WLS

    - by Christian David Straub
    Guest post from Jeanne Waldman:I was running my application in JDeveloper when I noticed log messages in the console for a different application, let's call it OldApp. I stopped and started the my application server, the WLS server, re-ran my application, and still I'd see messages for OldApp. I shut down JDeveloper, restarted, and still when I ran my application, I'd see the OldApp's messages   Well, it turns out that at some point in time the OldApp was not properly undeployed. To really stop OldApp, I had to:   Go to http://127.0.0.1:7101/console.   This deployed the console app where you configure WLS. By default the login credentials are:   username: weblogic password: weblogic1 I clicked on Deployments and I saw that OldApp was still running. I selected the checkbox next to OldApp and clicked on the Stop -> Force Stop Now.  Now when I run my application, I do not see the OldApp log messages.

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  • Unreal Tournament 3 vs UDK: What Should I Choose?

    - by Matt Christian
    Many people in the mod community were very excited to see the release of the Unreal Developer Kit (UDK) a few months ago.  Along with generating excitement into a very dedicated community, it also introduced many new modders into a flourishing area of indie-development.  However, since UDK is free, most beginners jump right into UDK, which is OK though you might just benefit more from purchasing a shelf-copy of Unreal Tournament 3. UDK UDK is a free full version of UnrealEd (the editor environment used to create games like Gears of War 1/2, Bioshock 1/2, and of course Unreal Tournament 3).  The editor gives you all the features of the editor from the shelf-copy of the game plus some refinements in many of the tools.  (One of the first things you'll find about UnrealEd is that it's a collection of tools grouped into the same editor so it really isn't a single 'tool') Interestingly enough, Epic is allowing you to sell any game made in UDK with a few catches.  First off, you must purchase a liscense for your game (which, I THINK is aproximately $99 starting).  Secondly, you must pay 25% of all profits for the first $5,000 of your game revenue to them (about $1250).  Finally, you cannot use any of the 'media' provided in UDK for your game.  UDK provides sample meshes, textures, materials, sounds, and other sample pieces of media pulled (mostly) from Unreal Tournament 3. The final point here will really determine whether you should use UDK.  There is a very small amount of media provided in UDK for someone to go in and begin creating levels without first developing your own meshes, textures, and other media.  Sure, you can slap together a few unique levels, though you will end up finding yourself restriced to the same items over and over and over.  This is absolutely how professional game development is; you are 'given' (typically liscensed or built in-house) an engine/editor and you begin creating all the content for the game and placing it.  UDK is aimed toward those who really want to build their game content from scratch with a currently existing engine.  It is not suited for someone who would like to simply build levels and quick mods without learning external 3D programs and image editing software. Unreal Tournament 3 Unless you have a serious grudge against FPS's, Epic, or your computer sucks, there really is no reason not to own this game for PC.  You can pick it up on Steam or Amazon for around $20 brand new.  Not only are you provided with a full single-player and multiplayer game, but you are given the entire UnrealEd 3.0 including all of the content used to build UT3.  If you want to start building levels and mods quickly for UT3, you should absolutely pick up a shelf-copy. However, as off-the-shelf UT3 is a few years old now, the tools have not been updated for quite a while.  Compared to UDK, the menus are more difficult to navigate through and take more time getting used to.  Since UDK is updated almost every month, there are new inclusions to the editor that may not be in UT3 (including the future addition of 3D!).  I haven't worked enough with shelf UT3 to see if there are more features in UDK or if they both feature the same stuff in different forms, however you should remember that the Unreal Engine 3.0 has undergone numerous upgrades between it's launch and Gears of War 2 (in fact, Epic had a conference to show off what changed just between the Gears of Wars games). Since UT3 has much more core content, someone who wants to focus on level editing or modding the core UT3 game may find their needs better suited with an off-the-shelf copy of UT3.  If that level designer has a team that is generating custom assets, they may be better off with UDK. The choice is now yours...

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  • Win32 strange exception

    - by Christian Frantz
    When creating 2500 objects, I get a strange windows exception. It says the operation copmleted successfully at my constructor line. The program doesn't run or anything. I'm assuming it has something to do with memory. Each object has 32 indices and 8 vertices, so that 640,000 bytes or whatever vertices and indices are stored as. Any idea on how to fix this? Creating 25 objects works fine\ System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception was unhandled Message=The operation completed successfully Source=System.Drawing ErrorCode=-2147467259 NativeErrorCode=0 StackTrace: at System.Drawing.Icon.Initialize(Int32 width, Int32 height) at System.Drawing.Icon..ctor(Type type, String resource) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.WindowsGameWindow.GetDefaultIcon() at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.WindowsGameWindow..ctor() at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.WindowsGameHost..ctor(Game game) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.EnsureHost() at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game..ctor() at Cube_Chaser.Cube..ctor(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice, Vector3 Position, Color Color) in C:\Users\daj\Desktop\Cube Chaser after removal of cubedrawable - Copy\Cube Chaser\Cube Chaser\Cube.cs:line 31 at Cube_Chaser.Cube.CreateMap() in C:\Users\user\Desktop\Cube Chaser after removal of cubedrawable - Copy\Cube Chaser\Cube Chaser\Cube.cs:line 247 at Cube_Chaser.Game1.LoadContent() in C:\Users\daj\Desktop\Cube Chaser after removal of cubedrawable - Copy\Cube Chaser\Cube Chaser\Game1.cs:line 86 at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Initialize() at Cube_Chaser.Game1.Initialize() in C:\Users\daj\Desktop\Cube Chaser after removal of cubedrawable - Copy\Cube Chaser\Cube Chaser\Game1.cs:line 77 at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.RunGame(Boolean useBlockingRun) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Run() at Cube_Chaser.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\Users\user\Desktop\Cube Chaser after removal of cubedrawable - Copy\Cube Chaser\Cube Chaser\Program.cs:line 15 InnerException:

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  • SEO impact on subdomain for full name and obscure ccTLD

    - by Dan Christian
    There have been a few questions on subdomains and their impact on SEO, mostly in comparison to subfolders. The closest question I've found is this question but it still doesn't completely answer my query. I'm setting up a blog for 'Sam Smith'. It's imperative the SEO is based around his full name as he is a prominent blogger and his name is his value. All ccTLD variations of 'samsmith' (samsmith.com, samsmith.cc etc) are taken. However there has been the opportunity to register an obscure ccTLD for 'smith'. In regards to SEO value purely from the URL... 1) Will there be any negative SEO implications on searches for 'Sam Smith' when setting up the subdomain as 'sam.smith.' compared to a more regular 'samsmith.' domain? Will a search engine recognise the subdomain as the full name as oppose to just 'smith'? 2) Are there any negative SEO implications with an obscure ccTLD. For instance if Sam Smith was a prominent blogger in Canada with most of his audience based there, would there be any negative SEO if he had, for example, a .co ccTLD.

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  • Lost transparency in SDL surfaces drawn manually

    - by Christian Ivicevic
    I want to create SDL_Surface objects for each layer of my 2d tile-based map so that I have to render only one surface per layer rather than too many tiles. With normal tiles which do not have transparent areas this works well, however I am not able to create a SDL_Surface with transparent pixels everywhere to be able to draw some tiles on specific parts which should be visible (I do NOT want the whole surface to appear with a specific opacity - I want to create overlaying tiles where one can look through). Currently I am creating my layers like this to draw with SDL_BlitSurface on them: SDL_Surface* layer = SDL_CreateRGBSurface( SDL_HWSURFACE | SDL_SRCALPHA, layerWidth, layerHeight, 32, 0, 0, 0, 0); If you have a look at this screenshot I have provided here you can see that the bottom layer with no transparent parts gets rendered correctly. However the overlay with the tree tile (which is transparent in the top left corner) is drawn own its own surface which is black and not transparent as expected. The expected result (concerning the transparency) can be seen here Can anyone explain me how to handle surfaces which are actually transparent rather than drawing all my overlay tiles separately?

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  • New Computer

    - by Matt Christian
    Last night I received my computer that was ordered with my tax return money.  Here are the specs of my old computer: - Pentium 4 Processor - 3-4 GB RAM - ~256 GB HDD space (2 drives) - nVidia card (AGP 8x) Sorry I can't be more specific, my memory is gone :p  Here are the new computer specs (mostly): - 2.8ghz Pentium i7 quadcore - 6 GB RAM - 1 TB HDD space (1 drive) - 1 GB Radeon card (PCI-X) I also got a new monitor (22" Asus with HDMI) so will be using my 19" widescreen as a secondary monitor. If I remember I'll hop on here and post the specifics later on...

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  • ibus symbol disappears for Japanese language selection

    - by Christian Becker-Asano
    Similar to this post No ibus icon in Kubuntu, I have trouble with the ibus icon in Ubuntu 12.04. Each time an update is installed, the language selector for Japanese disappears from the top panel. I need to uninstall and install Japanese again, then reboot, to make the symbol appear again. In this thread No iBus icon in Kubuntu 12.04 the suggestion was to install the Japanese Version of Ubuntu, but is it really true that one has to stick to a special version of Ubuntu to get this problem solved? If so, how can I transfer the settings easily from the current version to the Japanese one?

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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 exactly are textures drawn on faces of cubes?

    - by Christian Frantz
    Are they drawn from the lower left corner clockwise? I know how triangles are created, I'm not just sure if textures are the same way. The texture on my cube is skewed way off and after playing around with the U,V coordinates, I still can't get it right. //front left bottom corner ok vertices[0] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector2(1, 0))); //front left upper corner vertices[1] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(0, 1, 0), new Vector2(1, 1))); //front right upper corner ok vertices[2] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(1, 1, 0), new Vector2(0, 1))); //front lower right corner vertices[3] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(1, 0, 0), new Vector2(0, 0))); //back left lower corner ok vertices[4] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(0, 0, -1), new Vector2(0, 1))); //back left upper corner vertices[5] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(0, 1, -1), new Vector2(1, 1))); //back right upper corner ok vertices[6] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(1, 1, -1), new Vector2(1, 0))); //back right lower corner vertices[7] = (new VertexPositionTexture(new Vector3(1, 0, -1), new Vector2(0, 0)));

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  • SEO optimization for AJAX site and dynamic HTML canvas

    - by Christian Benincasa
    I have a site that uses AJAX to query the Last.fm database and then dynamically draws a graph of the results on an HTML canvas. In the search function, I have a command that sets window.location.hash to the search parameters. I also have a function that checks if a hash was provided in the url and if so, generates the page. For example, http://www.thenlistento.com/#!/led+zeppelin will automatically navigate to a search page for Led Zeppelin. My question is, how do optimize this set up for SEO? Can it be done at all? I've taken a look at Google Webmaster Docs and read over the hashbang protocol, but I'm not totally sure how to apply it to my situation..or even if I can at all. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Link to the site: http://www.thenlistento.com

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  • My Thoughts on Reinventing the Wheel

    - by Matt Christian
    For awhile now I've known that XNA Game Studio contains built-in scene management however I still built my own for each engine.  Obviously it was redundant and probably inefficient due to the amount of searching and such I was required to do.  And even though I knew this, why did I continue to do it? I've always been very detail oriented, probably part of my mild OCD.  But when it comes to technology I believe in both reinventing the wheel and not reinventing it all at the same time.  Here's what I imagine most programmers doing.  When they pick up XNA, they're typically focused on 'I want to make a game with as little code as possible'.  This is great and XNA GS is a great tool, but what will it do for programmers that want to make games with XNA?  If they don't have any prior experience with other tools they will probably not ever learn scene management. So is it better to leverage code and risk not learning valuable techniques, or write it all yourself and fight through the headaches and hours of time you may spend on something already built?

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  • Enabling SSL Requests on Jdev's Integrated Weblogic

    - by Christian David Straub
    Often times you will want to enable SSL access for such things as secure login or secure signup. By default, the integrated WLS that ships with JDev does not listen to SSL requests. However, this is easily fixed.Just navigate to http://127.0.0.1:7101/console. This will deploy the console app where you can configure WLS. By default the login credentials are:username: weblogicpassword: weblogic1Then go to Environment -> Servers -> DefaultServer. Check the "SSL Listen Port Enabled" box and your server will now listen to SSL requests (just make sure to use the listen port that is specified).For added security, you can always check while processing your request that it is going through an SSL connection by first checking HttpServletRequest.isSecure().

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  • Flash Actionscript 3.0 Game Projectile Creation

    - by Christian Basar
    I have been creating a side-scrolling Actionscript 3.0 game. In this game I want the Player to be able to shoot blow darts as weapons. I had some trouble getting the darts to be created in the right place (in front of the player), but eventually got it working with some help from this page (please look at it for background information on this problem): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8031553/flash-actionscript-3-0-game-projectile-creation I got the darts to be created in the right place (near the player) and a 'movePlayerDarts()' function moves them. But I actually have a new problem. When the player moves after firing a dart, the dart tries to follow him! If the player jumps, the dart rises up. If the player moves to the left, the dart moves slightly to the left. Obviously, there is some code somewhere which is telling the darts to follow the player. I do not see how, unless the 'playerDartContainer' has something to do with that. But the container is always at position (0,0) and it does not move. Also, as a test I traced a dart's 'y' coordinate within the constantly-running 'movePlayerDarts()' function. As you can see, that function constantly moves the dart down the y axis by increasing its y-coordinate value. But when I jump, the 'y' coordinate being traced is never reduced, even though the dart clearly looks like it's rising! If anybody has any suggestions, I'd appreciate them! Here is the code I use to create the darts: // This function creates a dart public function createDart():void { if (playerDartContainer.numChildren <= 4) { // Play dart shooting sound sndDartShootIns.play(); // Create a new 'PlayerDart' object playerDart = new PlayerDart(); // Set the new dart's initial position and direction depending on the player's direction // Player's facing right if (player.scaleX == 1) { // Create dart in front of player's dart gun playerDart.x = player.x + 12; playerDart.y = player.y - 85; // Dart faces right, too playerDart.scaleX = 1; } // Player's facing left else if (player.scaleX == -1) { // Create dart in front of player's dart gun playerDart.x = player.x - 12; playerDart.y = player.y - 85; // Dart faces left, too playerDart.scaleX = -1; } playerDartContainer.addChild(playerDart); } } // End of 'createDart()' function This code is the EnterFrameHandler for the player darts: // In every frame, call 'movePlayerDarts()' to move the darts within the 'playerDartContainer' public function playerDartEnterFrameHandler(event:Event):void { // Only move the Player's darts if their container has at least one dart within if (playerDartContainer.numChildren > 0) { movePlayerDarts(); } } And finally, this is the code that actually moves all of the player's darts: // Move all of the Player's darts public function movePlayerDarts():void { for (var pdIns:int = 0; pdIns < playerDartContainer.numChildren; pdIns++) { // Set the Player Dart 'instance' variable to equal the current PlayerDart playerDartIns = PlayerDart(playerDartContainer.getChildAt(pdIns)); // Move the current dart in the direction it was shot. The dart's 'x-scale' // factor is multiplied by its speed (5) to move the dart in its correct // direction. If the 'x-scale' factor is -1, the dart is pointing left (as // seen in the 'createDart()' function. (-1 * 5 = -5), so the dart will go // to left at a rate of 5. The opposite is true for the right-ward facing // darts playerDartIns.x += playerDartIns.scaleX * 1; // Make gravity work on the dart playerDartIns.y += 0.7; //playerDartIns.y += 1; // What if the dart hits the ground? if (HitTest.intersects(playerDartIns, floor, this)) { playerDartContainer.removeChild(playerDartIns); } //trace("Dart x: " + playerDartIns.x); trace("Dart y: " + playerDartIns.y); } }

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  • Can and should a game design be patented?

    - by Christian
    I have an idea for a game that I want to develop and I feel is unique, and I'm wondering if I should patent it. I read on the web that games can be patented, but just because it can be done doesn't mean that it makes sense to do it. I actually don't really want patent it (it's expensive, a hassle and I don't believe in patenting of ideas... unless it's something truly revolutionary). However, I'm concerned a bigger company could come along, with more experienced game designers and developers and steal the idea.

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  • creating bounding box list

    - by Christian Frantz
    I'm trying to create a list of bounding boxes for each cube drawn, so I can use the boxes to intersect with a ray that my mouse position is casting, but I have no idea how. I've created a list that stores the boxes, but how am I getting the values from each box? for (int x = 0; x < mapHeight; x++) { for (int z = 0; z < mapWidth; z++) { cubes.Add(new Vector3(x, map[x, z], z), Matrix.Identity, grass); boxList.Add(something here); } } public Cube(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { device = graphicsDevice; var vertices = new List<VertexPositionTexture>(); BuildFace(vertices, new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector3(0, 1, 1)); BuildFace(vertices, new Vector3(0, 0, 1), new Vector3(1, 1, 1)); BuildFace(vertices, new Vector3(1, 0, 1), new Vector3(1, 1, 0)); BuildFace(vertices, new Vector3(1, 0, 0), new Vector3(0, 1, 0)); BuildFaceHorizontal(vertices, new Vector3(0, 1, 0), new Vector3(1, 1, 1)); BuildFaceHorizontal(vertices, new Vector3(0, 0, 1), new Vector3(1, 0, 0)); cubeVertexBuffer = new VertexBuffer(device, VertexPositionTexture.VertexDeclaration, vertices.Count, BufferUsage.WriteOnly); cubeVertexBuffer.SetData<VertexPositionTexture>(vertices.ToArray()); } There aren't any clearly defined variables for the bounds of each cube created, so where do I create the bounding box from?

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