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  • Stream computer screen to TV via network instead of a USB wireless link

    - by user24559
    I want to stream my computer screen (not just video or a limited amount of content) to my TV via the network. I know there are wireless devices that use USB to tranfer the screen to the TV. However, these are limited to a short distance. What I want to do is stream the data via the network so I can be anywhere within the network and have the data shown on the tv. I am looking for video and sound to transfer. I want the entire computer screen to transfer just like when you connect the computer to the tv via VGA or HDMI and the sound out using the 3.5mm plug. I have been unable to find a unit that allows for the entire computer screen to transfer via the network. I just find the ability to stream video. I am using Windows 7 Ultimate with a quad processor and 16 GB of memory so I have the power to handle the transfer. My tv is hdtv.

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  • Laptop monitor being very dark, no backlight?

    - by ldigas
    I'm asking for a diagnose of what is probably the problem. Here goes ... laptop monitor (hp 6715s) went dark. I'm using also an external monitor with the laptop, and since it kept its picture, I'm guessing it's not the graphics card. When the night came, and I turned on my desk lamp, I noticed that the laptop monitor is not really not showing anything, but is actually showing my desktop picture - only it's very very very dark. You cannot see anything on it, unless the lamp is focused on it, then you can see the picture, only very dark. Does anybody have any clue what it could be? I'm just looking for informed guessed here, so I have at least some idea of where the problem lies. The closest repair shop is quite some distance away, so going for a bit of self-diagnose before thinking of taking it to them.

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  • Multiple viewport problem

    - by PSilo
    I'm setting up so I can switch between either one or four viewports but I got some trouble. In my bottom right viewport I got camera view, the same camera that I can switch to full view on. The other three viewports are working with fixed locations but the bottom right viewport is compressed on the y scale and half of the picture on the x scale is missing. void display(int what) { if(what==5){glViewport(0, 0, w, h); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); ca.lookAt();} if(what==1){glViewport(0, 0, w/2, h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(75,15,-5,0,5,-5,0,1,0);} if(what==2){glViewport(w/2, h/2, w, h); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(0,110,0,20,0,20,1,0,0);} if(what==3){glViewport(w/2, 0, w, h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, float(320) / float(240), 0.1f, 100.0f); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); ca.lookAt();} if(what==4){glViewport(0, h/2, w/2, h); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(185,75,25,0,28,0,0,1,0);} //glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); //glLoadIdentity(); ////gluLookAt(cos(shared.time) * shared.distance, 10, sin(shared.time) * shared.distance, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0); // Roterar kameran kring origo genom att skapa en ny vymatris varje bildruta ////ca.orbitYaw(0.05); //ca.lookAt(); glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT|GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); drawScene(); drawCamera(); glutSwapBuffers(); } void viewport(){ glEnable(GL_SCISSOR_TEST); if(!divided_view_port) { glViewport(0, 0, w, h); glScissor(0,0,640,480); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 100.0f); display(5); } else { ////////////////////// bottom left - working glViewport(0, 0, w/2, h/2); glScissor(0,0,w/2,h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(1); ////////////////////// ////////////////////// top right - working glViewport(w/2, h/2, w, h); glScissor(w/2,h/2,w,h); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(2); ////////////////////// ////////////////////// bottom right -working glViewport(w/2, 0, w, h/2); glScissor(w/2,0,w,h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(3); //////////////////////// ////////////////////////// top left glViewport(0, h/2, w/2, h); glScissor(0,h/2,w/2,h); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(4); /////////////////////////// } glDisable(GL_SCISSOR_TEST); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); }

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  • CSG operations on implicit surfaces with marching cubes [SOLVED]

    - by Mads Elvheim
    I render isosurfaces with marching cubes, (or perhaps marching squares as this is 2D) and I want to do set operations like set difference, intersection and union. I thought this was easy to implement, by simply choosing between two vertex scalars from two different implicit surfaces, but it is not. For my initial testing, I tried with two spheres circles, and the set operation difference. i.e A - B. One circle is moving and the other one is stationary. Here's the approach I tried when picking vertex scalars and when classifying corner vertices as inside or outside. The code is written in C++. OpenGL is used for rendering, but that's not important. Normal rendering without any CSG operations does give the expected result. void march(const vec2& cmin, //min x and y for the grid cell const vec2& cmax, //max x and y for the grid cell std::vector<vec2>& tri, float iso, float (*cmp1)(const vec2&), //distance from stationary circle float (*cmp2)(const vec2&) //distance from moving circle ) { unsigned int squareindex = 0; float scalar[4]; vec2 verts[8]; /* initial setup of the grid cell */ verts[0] = vec2(cmax.x, cmax.y); verts[2] = vec2(cmin.x, cmax.y); verts[4] = vec2(cmin.x, cmin.y); verts[6] = vec2(cmax.x, cmin.y); float s1,s2; /********************************** ********For-loop of interest****** *******Set difference between **** *******two implicit surfaces****** **********************************/ for(int i=0,j=0; i<4; ++i, j+=2){ s1 = cmp1(verts[j]); s2 = cmp2(verts[j]); if((s1 < iso)){ //if inside circle1 if((s2 < iso)){ //if inside circle2 scalar[i] = s2; //then set the scalar to the moving circle } else { scalar[i] = s1; //only inside circle1 squareindex |= (1<<i); //mark as inside } } else { scalar[i] = s1; //inside neither circle } } if(squareindex == 0) return; /* Usual interpolation between edge points to compute the new intersection points */ verts[1] = mix(iso, verts[0], verts[2], scalar[0], scalar[1]); verts[3] = mix(iso, verts[2], verts[4], scalar[1], scalar[2]); verts[5] = mix(iso, verts[4], verts[6], scalar[2], scalar[3]); verts[7] = mix(iso, verts[6], verts[0], scalar[3], scalar[0]); for(int i=0; i<10; ++i){ //10 = maxmimum 3 triangles, + one end token int index = triTable[squareindex][i]; //look up our indices for triangulation if(index == -1) break; tri.push_back(verts[index]); } } This gives me weird jaggies: It looks like the CSG operation is done without interpolation. It just "discards" the whole triangle. Do I need to interpolate in some other way, or combine the vertex scalar values? I'd love some help with this. A full testcase can be downloaded HERE EDIT: Basically, my implementation of marching squares works fine. It is my scalar field which is broken, and I wonder what the correct way would look like. Preferably I'm looking for a general approach to implement the three set operations I discussed above, for the usual primitives (circle, rectangle/square, plane)

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  • CSG operations on implicit surfaces with marching cubes

    - by Mads Elvheim
    I render isosurfaces with marching cubes, (or perhaps marching squares as this is 2D) and I want to do set operations like set difference, intersection and union. I thought this was easy to implement, by simply choosing between two vertex scalars from two different implicit surfaces, but it is not. For my initial testing, I tried with two spheres, and the set operation difference. i.e A - B. One sphere is moving and the other one is stationary. Here's the approach I tried when picking vertex scalars and when classifying corner vertices as inside or outside. The code is written in C++. OpenGL is used for rendering, but that's not important. Normal rendering without any CSG operations does give the expected result. void march(const vec2& cmin, //min x and y for the grid cell const vec2& cmax, //max x and y for the grid cell std::vector<vec2>& tri, float iso, float (*cmp1)(const vec2&), //distance from stationary sphere float (*cmp2)(const vec2&) //distance from moving sphere ) { unsigned int squareindex = 0; float scalar[4]; vec2 verts[8]; /* initial setup of the grid cell */ verts[0] = vec2(cmax.x, cmax.y); verts[2] = vec2(cmin.x, cmax.y); verts[4] = vec2(cmin.x, cmin.y); verts[6] = vec2(cmax.x, cmin.y); float s1,s2; /********************************** ********For-loop of interest****** *******Set difference between **** *******two implicit surfaces****** **********************************/ for(int i=0,j=0; i<4; ++i, j+=2){ s1 = cmp1(verts[j]); s2 = cmp2(verts[j]); if((s1 < iso)){ //if inside sphere1 if((s2 < iso)){ //if inside sphere2 scalar[i] = s2; //then set the scalar to the moving sphere } else { scalar[i] = s1; //only inside sphere1 squareindex |= (1<<i); //mark as inside } } else { scalar[i] = s1; //inside neither sphere } } if(squareindex == 0) return; /* Usual interpolation between edge points to compute the new intersection points */ verts[1] = mix(iso, verts[0], verts[2], scalar[0], scalar[1]); verts[3] = mix(iso, verts[2], verts[4], scalar[1], scalar[2]); verts[5] = mix(iso, verts[4], verts[6], scalar[2], scalar[3]); verts[7] = mix(iso, verts[6], verts[0], scalar[3], scalar[0]); for(int i=0; i<10; ++i){ //10 = maxmimum 3 triangles, + one end token int index = triTable[squareindex][i]; //look up our indices for triangulation if(index == -1) break; tri.push_back(verts[index]); } } This gives me weird jaggies: It looks like the CSG operation is done without interpolation. It just "discards" the whole triangle. Do I need to interpolate in some other way, or combine the vertex scalar values? I'd love some help with this. A full testcase can be downloaded HERE

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  • Is Fast Enumeration messing with my text output?

    - by Dan Ray
    Here I am iterating through an array of NSDictionary objects (inside the parsed JSON response of the EXCELLENT MapQuest directions API). I want to build up an HTML string to put into a UIWebView. My code says: for (NSDictionary *leg in legs ) { NSString *thisLeg = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"<br>%@ - %@", [leg valueForKey:@"narrative"], [leg valueForKey:@"distance"]]; NSLog(@"This leg's string is %@", thisLeg); [directionsOutput appendString:thisLeg]; } The content of directionsOutput (which is an NSMutableString) contains ALL the values for [leg valueForKey:@"narrative"], wrapped up in parens, followed by a hyphen, followed by all the parenthesized values for [leg valueForKey:@"distance"]. So I put in that NSLog call... and I get the same thing there! It appears that the for() is somehow batching up our output values as we iterate, and putting out the output only once. How do I make it not do this but instead do what I actually want, which is an iterative output as I iterate? Here's what NSLog gets. Yes, I know I need to figure out NSNumberFormatter. ;-) This leg's string is ( "Start out going NORTH on INFINITE LOOP.", "Turn LEFT to stay on INFINITE LOOP.", "Turn RIGHT onto N DE ANZA BLVD.", "Merge onto I-280 S toward SAN JOSE.", "Merge onto CA-87 S via EXIT 3A.", "Take the exit on the LEFT.", "Merge onto CA-85 S via EXIT 1A on the LEFT toward GILROY.", "Merge onto US-101 S via EXIT 1A on the LEFT toward LOS ANGELES.", "Take the CA-152 E/10TH ST exit, EXIT 356.", "Turn LEFT onto CA-152/E 10TH ST/PACHECO PASS HWY. Continue to follow CA-152/PACHECO PASS HWY.", "Turn SLIGHT RIGHT.", "Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto PACHECO PASS HWY/CA-152 E. Continue to follow CA-152 E.", "Merge onto I-5 S toward LOS ANGELES.", "Take the CA-46 exit, EXIT 278, toward LOST HILLS/WASCO.", "Turn LEFT onto CA-46/PASO ROBLES HWY. Continue to follow CA-46.", "Merge onto CA-99 S toward BAKERSFIELD.", "Merge onto CA-58 E via EXIT 24 toward TEHACHAPI/MOJAVE.", "Merge onto I-15 N via the exit on the LEFT toward I-40/LAS VEGAS.", "Keep RIGHT to take I-40 E via EXIT 140A toward NEEDLES (Passing through ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, TEXAS, OKLAHOMA, and ARKANSAS, then crossing into TENNESSEE).", "Merge onto I-40 E via EXIT 12C on the LEFT toward NASHVILLE (Crossing into NORTH CAROLINA).", "Merge onto I-40 BR E/US-421 S via EXIT 188 on the LEFT toward WINSTON-SALEM.", "Take the CLOVERDALE AVE exit, EXIT 4.", "Turn LEFT onto CLOVERDALE AVE SW.", "Turn SLIGHT LEFT onto N HAWTHORNE RD.", "Turn RIGHT onto W NORTHWEST BLVD.", "1047 W NORTHWEST BLVD is on the LEFT." ) - ( 0.0020000000949949026, 0.07800000160932541, 0.14000000059604645, 7.827000141143799, 5.0329999923706055, 0.15299999713897705, 5.050000190734863, 20.871000289916992, 0.3050000071525574, 2.802999973297119, 0.10199999809265137, 37.78000259399414, 124.50700378417969, 0.3970000147819519, 25.264001846313477, 20.475000381469727, 125.8580093383789, 4.538000106811523, 1693.0350341796875, 628.8970336914062, 3.7990000247955322, 0.19099999964237213, 0.4099999964237213, 0.257999986410141, 0.5170000195503235, 0 )

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  • A rocket following the tracks height. Not Homing Missile.

    - by confusedEj
    What I am trying to create is a rocket that will hug the track in a straight direction. ie) The rocket travels in a straight direction and can orientate based on its local x axis. This is so it can go up/down ramps and never hit the ground. Currently I am using PhysX opengl and C++. This is the method I'm trying right now: 1. Ray cast from ahead of the missile (ray casting downwards) 2. If the ray cast is less then the expected ray cast length, then I have to orientate up. 3. If the ray cast is more then the expected ray cast length, then I have to orientate down. Now the problem, I am having is that my missile is orientating at an arbitary angle (I'm giving it 1 degrees.) Though I think this is a bad approach because the amount of frames in the game is not as much as I would think there would be. So the rocket would run into a ramp. My main question is: is there a better way of approaching this and how? NxVec3 frontRayLoc = m_rocketConfig->getValueForKey<NxVec3>("r_frontRayCastLocation"); float threshhold = m_rocketConfig->getValueForKey<float>("r_angleThreshhold"); float predRayCastHeight = m_rocketConfig->getValueForKey<float>("r_predRayCastHeight"); NxVec3 rayGlobalPos_1 = m_actor->getGlobalPosition() + m_actor->getGlobalOrientation() * frontRayLoc; NxVec3 dir = m_actor->getGlobalOrientation() * NxVec3(0,-1.0,0); NxReal dist1 = castRay(rayGlobalPos_1, dir); // Get the percentage difference float actualFrontHeight = abs(1 - (dist1/predRayCastHeight)); // See if the percentage difference is greater then threshold // Also check if we are being shot off track if ((actualFrontHeight > threshhold) && (dist1 != m_rayMaxDist)){ // Dip Down if (dist1 > predRayCastHeight){ printf("DOWN - Distance 1: %f\n", dist1); // Get axis of rotation NxVec3 newAxis = m_actor->getGlobalOrientation() * NxVec3(1.0,0,0.0); // Rotate based on that axis m_orientateAngle = -1.0 * m_orientateAngle; // For rotating clockwise NxQuat newOrientation(m_orientateAngle, newAxis); NxMat33 orientation(newOrientation); m_orientation = m_orientation * orientation; // Orientate the linear velocity to keep speed of rocket and direct away from road NxVec3 linVel = m_actor->getLinearVelocity(); m_actor->setLinearVelocity(m_orientation * linVel); } // Go Up else if (dist1 < predRayCastHeight){ printf("UP - Distance 1: %f\n", dist1); // Get axis of rotation NxVec3 newAxis = m_actor->getGlobalOrientation() * NxVec3(1.0,0,0.0); // Rotate around axis NxQuat newOrientation(m_orientateAngle, newAxis); m_actor->setGlobalOrientationQuat(newOrientation); NxMat33 orientation(newOrientation); m_orientation = m_orientation * orientation; // Orientate the linear velocity to keep speed of rocket and direct away from road NxVec3 linVel = m_actor->getLinearVelocity(); m_actor->setLinearVelocity(m_orientation*linVel); } m_actor->setGlobalOrientation(m_orientation); } Thanks for the support :)

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  • Roguelike FOV problem

    - by Manderin87
    I am working on a college compsci project and I would like some help with a field of view algorithm. I works mostly, but in some situations the algorithm sees through walls and hilights walls the player should not be able to see. void cMap::los(int x0, int y0, int radius) { //Does line of sight from any particular tile for(int x = 0; x < m_Height; x++) { for(int y = 0; y < m_Width; y++) { getTile(x,y)->setVisible(false); } } double xdif = 0; double ydif = 0; bool visible = false; float dist = 0; for (int x = MAX(x0 - radius,0); x < MIN(x0 + radius, m_Height); x++) { //Loops through x values within view radius for (int y = MAX(y0 - radius,0); y < MIN(y0 + radius, m_Width); y++) { //Loops through y values within view radius xdif = pow( (double) x - x0, 2); ydif = pow( (double) y - y0, 2); dist = (float) sqrt(xdif + ydif); //Gets the distance between the two points if (dist <= radius) { //If the tile is within view distance, visible = line(x0, y0, x, y); //check if it can be seen. if (visible) { //If it can be seen, getTile(x,y)->setVisible(true); //Mark that tile as viewable } } } } } bool cMap::line(int x0,int y0,int x1,int y1) { bool steep = abs(y1-y0) > abs(x1-x0); if (steep) { swap(x0, y0); swap(x1, y1); } if (x0 > x1) { swap(x0,x1); swap(y0,y1); } int deltax = x1-x0; int deltay = abs(y1-y0); int error = deltax/2; int ystep; int y = y0; if (y0 < y1) ystep = 1; else ystep = -1; for (int x = x0; x < x1; x++) { if ( steep && getTile(y,x)->isBlocked()) { getTile(y,x)->setVisible(true); getTile(y,x)->setDiscovered(true); return false; } else if (!steep && getTile(x,y)->isBlocked()) { getTile(x,y)->setVisible(true); getTile(x,y)->setDiscovered(true); return false; } error -= deltay; if (error < 0) { y = y + ystep; error = error + deltax; } } return true; } If anyone could help me make the first blocked tiles visible but stops the rest, I would appreciate it. thanks, Manderin87

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  • WP7 listbox binding not working properly

    - by Marco
    A noob error for sure (I started yesterday afternoon developing in WP7), but I'm wasting a lot time on it. I post my class and a little part of my code: public class ChronoLaps : INotifyPropertyChanged { private ObservableCollection<ChronoLap> laps = null; public int CurrentLap { get { return lap; } set { if (value == lap) return; // Some code here .... ChronoLap newlap = new ChronoLap() { // Some code here ... }; Laps.Insert(0, newlap); lap = value; NotifyPropertyChanged("CurrentLap"); NotifyPropertyChanged("Laps"); } } public ObservableCollection<ChronoLap> Laps { get { return laps; } set { if (value == laps) return; laps = value; if (laps != null) { laps.CollectionChanged += delegate { MeanTime = Laps.Sum(p => p.Time.TotalMilliseconds) / (Laps.Count * 1000); NotifyPropertyChanged("MeanTime"); }; } NotifyPropertyChanged("Laps"); } } } MainPage.xaml.cs public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage { public ChronoLaps History { get; private set; } private void butStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { History = new ChronoLaps(); // History.Laps.Add(new ChronoLap() { Distance = 0 }); LayoutRoot.DataContext = History; } } MainPage.xaml <phone:PhoneApplicationPage> <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent"> <Grid Grid.Row="2"> <ScrollViewer Margin="-5,13,3,36" Height="758"> <ListBox Name="lbHistory" ItemContainerStyle="{StaticResource ListBoxStyle}" ItemsSource="{Binding Laps}" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="5,25,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="444"> <ListBox.ItemTemplate> <DataTemplate> <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> <TextBlock Text="{Binding Lap}" Width="40" /> <TextBlock Text="{Binding Time}" Width="140" /> <TextBlock Text="{Binding TotalTime}" Width="140" /> <TextBlock Text="{Binding Distance}" /> </StackPanel> </DataTemplate> </ListBox.ItemTemplate> </ListBox> </ScrollViewer> </Grid> </Grid> </phone:PhoneApplicationPage> Problem is that when I add one or more items to History.Laps collection, my listbox is not refreshed and these items don't appear. But if I remove comment on // History.Laps.Add(new ChronoLap()... line, this item appear and so every other inserted later. More: if I remove that comment and then write History.Laps.Clear() (before or after setting binding) binding is not working anymore. It's like it gets crazy if collection is empty. I really don't understand the reason... UPDATE AND SOLUTION: If i move History = new ChronoLaps(); LayoutRoot.DataContext = History; from butStart_Click to public MainPage() everything works as expected. Can someone explain me the reason?

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  • Box 2d basic questions

    - by philipp
    I am a bit new to box2d and I am developing an game with type and letters. I am using an svg font and generate the box2d bodies direct from the glyphs path definition, using the convex hull of them. I also have an decomposition routine the decomposes this hull if necessary. All this it is more or less working, except that I got some strange errors which definitely are caused by the scale factors. The problem is caused by two factors: first: the world scale of box2d, second: the the precision of curve-approximation of the glyph vectors. So through scaling down the input vertices for box2d, it happens that they become equal caused by numerical precision, what causes errors in box2d. Through scaling the my glyphs a bit up, this goes away. I also goes away if I chose a different world scale factor, but this slows down the whole animation quite much! So if my view port is about 990px * 600px and i want to animate Glyphs in box2d which should have a size from about 50px * 50px up to 300px * 300px, which scale factor of the b2world should i choose? How small should the smallest distance from on vertex to another be, while approximating the glyph vectors? Thanks for help greetings philipp EDIT:: I continued reading the docs of box2d and after rethinking of the units system, which is designed to handle object from 0.1 up to 10 meters, I calculated a scale factor of 75. So Objects 600px width will are 8 meters wide in box2d and even small objects of about 20px width will become 0.26 meters width in box2d. I will go on trying with this values, but if there is somebody out there who could give me a clever advice i would be happy!

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  • Oracle Australia Supports MS Sydney to Gong Ride by Chris Sainsbury

    - by user769227
    What is the Sydney to Gong Ride? The Gong Ride is a one of a kind fundraising event. You can pedal 90 km from Sydney to Wollongong on any day of the year but it's only on the first Sunday of November that you'll experience the camaraderie, fellowship, unity, safey, scenery and sense of achievement for pedalling in support of people living with MS. Well done to the 22 members of the Oracle Sydney to Gong ride on Sunday 6 November. For many, this was the first time riding over distance – officially a 90km event, by GPS about 84km. The event started in Sydney Park, Newtown. We left in a few separate groups between 6.30 and 7.30am – and finished with times between 2 hours 45 mins and 6 hours. With 10,000 riders there was a lot of congestion at the start but that soon thinned out as we left Sydney. It was a great spring day for the event but at 34 degrees it was getting pretty warm once we left the shade of the Royal National Park and carried on over the Sea Cliff bridge and down the coast road towards Wollongong. Unfortunately Dan managed to get himself a facial scrub when someone clipped his front wheel on the descent from Bald Hill lookout. No major incidents thankfully and Dan soldiered on. Most importantly everyone had a good time (even Dan) and we raised $5,800 for Multiple Sclerosis Australia. In total more than $3.7m was raised for this good cause.

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  • Step Aside Google

    - by David Dorf
    Step aside Google. While search will always be a huge part of the web, I can see a day in the not-too-distance future where search takes a backseat to the social graph. Links between pages will give way to relationships between people, including context like location. What does this mean for retail? It means your e-commerce strategy will slowly transition to an f-commerce strategy. Remember when a large portion of the online population was held captive inside the walls of AOL? All the commercials listed an AOL keyword, not a web address because that's where the majority of people surfed. Now, people are spending a huge amount of time in Facebook (despite Betty White's proclamation that its a big waste of time). According to Facebook, users spend 500 billion minutes per month on the site. Selling products where consumers are spending their time makes sense. The power of Like and Share are the most effective approach to marketing. More and more stores are popping up on Facebook, and soon they will be the front-end to e-commerce systems. As sites adopt the Facebook Open Graph API, users will have a harder time distinguishing the open web from their Facebook experience, including shopping. Of course e-commerce sites won't go away, but a large portion of their traffic will emanate from Facebook and in some cases Facebook will act as the front-end for the web store. Ignore Facebook Open Graph at your peril. In a Mashable article, Mitchell Harper made several predictions about how e-commerce will change based on Facebook. His five points are not far-fetched at all, so we need to watch this space carefully.

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  • Implementing fog of war in opengl es 2.0 game

    - by joxnas
    Hi game development community, this is my first question here! ;) I'm developing a tactics/strategy real time android game and I've been wondering for some time what's the best way to implement an efficient and somewhat nice looking fog of war to incorporate in it. My experience with OpenGL or Android is not vast by any means, but I think it is sufficient for what I'm asking here. So far I have thought in some solutions: Draw white circles to a dark background, corresponding to the units visibility, then render to a texture, and then drawing a quad with that texture with blend mode set to multiply. Will this approach be efficient? Will it take too much memory? (I don't know how to render to texture and then use the texture. Is it too messy?) Have a grid object with a vertex shader which has an array of uniforms having the coordinates of all units, and another array which has their visibility range. The number of units will very probably never be bigger then 100. The vertex shader needs to test for each considered vertex, if there is some unit which can see it. In order to do this it, will have to loop the array with the coordinates and do some calculations based on distance. The efficiency of this is inversely proportional to the looks of it. A more dense grid will result in a more beautiful fog of war... but will require a greater amount of vertexes to be checked. Is it possible to find a nice compromise or is this a bad solution from the start? Which solution is the best? Are there better alternatives? Which ones? Thank you for your time.

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  • Procedural Generation of tile-based 2d World

    - by Matthias
    I am writing a 2d game that uses tile-based top-down graphics to build the world (i.e. the ground plane). Manually made this works fine. Now I want to generate the ground plane procedurally at run time. In other words: I want to place the tiles (their textures) randomised on the fly. Of course I cannot create an endless ground plane, so I need to restrict how far from the player character (on which the camera focuses on) I procedurally generate the ground floor. My approach would be like this: I have a 2d grid that stores all tiles of the floor at their correct x/y coordinates within the game world. When the players moves the character, therefore also the camera, I constantly check whether there are empty locations in my x/y map within a max. distance from the character, i.e. cells in my virtual grid that have no tile set. In such a case I place a new tile there. Therefore the player would always see the ground plane without gaps or empty spots. I guess that would work, but I am not sure whether that would be the best approach. Is there a better alternative, maybe even a best-practice for my case?

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  • DC Comics Identifies Krypton on the Star Map

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    This week Action Comics Superman #14 hits the stands and DC comics reveals the actual location of Kyrpton, delivered by none other than beloved astrophysicist Neil Tyson. Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy reports on the resolution of fans’ long standing curiosity about the location of Krypton: Well, that’s about to change. DC comics is releasing a new book this week – Action Comics Superman #14 – that finally reveals the answer to this stellar question. And they picked a special guest to reveal it: my old friend Neil Tyson. Actually, Neil did more than just appear in the comic: he was approached by DC to find a good star to fit the story. Red supergiants don’t work; they explode as supernovae when they are too young to have an advanced civilization rise on any orbiting planets. Red giants aren’t a great fit either; they can be old, but none is at the right distance to match the storyline. It would have to be a red dwarf: there are lots of them, they can be very old, and some are close enough to fit the plot. I won’t keep you in suspense: the star is LHS 2520, a red dwarf in the southern constellation of Corvus (at the center of the picture here). It’s an M3.5 dwarf, meaning it has about a quarter of the Sun’s mass, a third its diameter, roughly half the Sun’s temperature, and a luminosity of a mere 1% of our Sun’s. It’s only 27 light years away – very close on the scale of the galaxy – but such a dim bulb you need a telescope to see it at all (for any astronomers out there, the coordinates are RA: 12h 10m 5.77s, Dec: -15° 4m 17.9 s). 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7 HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8

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  • 2D soft-body physics engines?

    - by Griffin
    Hi so i've recently learned the SFML graphics library and would like to use or make a non-rigid body 2D physics system to use with it. I have three questions: The definition of rigid body in Box2d is A chunk of matter that is so strong that the distance between any two bits of matter on the chunk is completely constant. And this is exactly what i don't want as i would like to make elastic, deformable, breakable, and re-connection bodies. 1. Are there any simple 2D physics engines, but with these kinds of characteristics out there? preferably free or opensource? 2. If not could i use box2d and work off of it to create it even if it's based on rigid bodies? 3. Finally, if there is a simple physics engine like this, should i go through with the proccess of creating a new one anyway, simply for experience and to enhance physics math knowledge? I feel like it would help if i ever wanted to modify the code of an existing engine, or create a game with really unique physics. Thanks!

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  • Triangulation A* (TA*) pathfinding algorithm

    - by hyn
    I need help understanding the Triangle A* (TA*) algorithm that is described by Demyen in his paper Efficient Triangulation-Based Pathfinding, on pages 76-81. He describes how to adapt the regular A* algorithm for triangulation, to search for other possibly more optimal paths, even after the final node is reached/expanded. Regular A* stops when the final node is expanded, but this is not always the best path when used in a triangulated graph. This is exactly the problem I'm having. The problem is illustrated on page 78, Figure 5.4: I understand how to calculate the g and h values presented in the paper (page 80). And I think the search stop condition is: if (currentNode.fCost > shortestDistanceFound) { // stop break; } where currentNode is the search node popped from the open list (priority queue), which has the lowest f-score. shortestDistanceFound is the actual distance of the shortest path found so far. But how do I exclude the previously found paths from future searches? Because if I do the search again, it will obviously find the same path. Do I reset the closed list? I need to modify something, but I don't know what it is I need to change. The paper lacks pseudocode, so that would be helpful.

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  • How can I read data from a generated pointcloud, but from an other perspective of the camera? [migrated]

    - by Vlad Lata
    Basically what I'm trying to do is as follows: I have a software that generates and shows a pointcloud by analyzing Time-of-Flight data (Z-Data). This software has a GUI that delivers this pointcloud on a grid, and you can watch it and adjust the camera to change the perspective, or apply filtering to it and so on. Since the Z-data was recorder through a stereoscopic system, I want to obtain a perspective transformation. My idea was to simply change the position of the camera in the GUI and than add a button that sais (ex. New Perspective) that calls a function that would measure the distances from the existing pointcloud to the camera I'm viewing it from. Of course this would generate some occluded areas, but I want this to happen. And now the main question is: How can I do that? Are there any functions in OpenGL that measure the distance from an object to a camera, or is it even possible to do something like his? Or has someone some other idea? P.S. The software uses the qt sdk and opengl

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  • Manager keeps changing requirement specification after every demo.

    - by Jungle Hunter
    Background of my working environment My manager has no background or understanding of computers or software whatsoever. It is highly likely he hasn't seen code in any form (not even from a physical distance of 10 feet or less) in his life. There is no one who understands the complexity of what I am asked to implement. To the point that if I semi-hardcode no one would know. On Joel's test we score an unbelievable score 0. The problems The manager and at times other "senior" keep changing the requirement specification. Changes which, if good engineering be done and not patchy "fixes", require change in the underlying design. There is absolutely no one who looks at code (probably because no one knows how to, or even if it should be done) which means no one will ever be able to: Appreciate the complexity of the problem or the elegance of the solution. Suggest improvement to the approach. Appreciate the quality of the code. Point out where the code can be improved. A lot of jargon is used which makes sense grammatically but fails to make any sense any other way. Doesn't feel, behave or work like a software company. The question What should be done? Especially regarding there being no one who would point out improvements in my code. Update To answer HLGEM's (and possibly others) question about what I've done to try and fix it. I offered to set up Redmine and introduce source control to everyone. I said I would recommend distributed (git or mercurial) but will also talk about centralized ones and let the team decide. Response was that things are being done and will be done within weeks. Haven't seen that nor am I aware if other parts of the company use it.

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  • Monster's AI in an Action-RPG

    - by Andrea Tucci
    I'm developing an action rpg with some University colleagues. We've gotton to the monsters' AI design and we would like to implement a sort of "utility-based AI" so we have a "thinker" that assigns a numeric value on all the monster's decisions and we choose the highest (or the most appropriate, depending on monster's iq) and assign it in the monster's collection of decisions (like a goal-driven design pattern) . One solution we found is to write a mathematical formula for each decision, with all the important parameters for evaluation (so for a spell-decision we might have mp,distance from player, player's hp etc). This formula also has coefficients representing some of monster's behaviour (in this way we can alterate formulas by changing coefficients). I've also read how "fuzzy logic" works; I was fascinated by it and by the many ways of expansion it has. I was wondering how we could use this technique to give our AI more semplicity, as in create evaluations with fuzzy rules such as IF player_far AND mp_high AND hp_high THEN very_Desiderable (for a spell having an high casting-time and consume high mp) and then 'defuzz' it. In this way it's also simple to create a monster behaviour by creating ad-hoc rules for every monster's IQ category. But is it correct using fuzzy logic in a game with many parameters like an rpg? Is there a way of merging these two techniques? Are there better AI design techniques for evaluating monster's chooses?

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  • Do you think natively compiled languages have reached their EOL?

    - by Yuval A
    If we look at the major programming languages in use today it is pretty noticeable that the vast majority of them are, in fact, interpreted. Looking at the largest piece of the pie we have Java and C# which are both enterprise-ready, heavy-duty, serious programming languages which are basically compiled to byte-code only to be interpreted by their respective VMs (the JVM and the CLR). If we look at scripting languages, we have Perl, Python, Ruby and Lua which are all interpreted (either from code or from bytecode - and yes, it should be noted that they are absolutely not the same). Looking at compiled languages we have C which is nowadays used in embedded and low-level, real-time environments, and C++ which is still alive and kicking, when you want to get down to serious programming as close to the hardware as you can, but still have some nice abstractions to help you with day to day tasks. Basically, there is no real runner-up compiled language in the distance. Do you feel that languages which are natively compiled to executable, binary code are a thing of the past, taken over by interpreted languages which are much more portable and compatible? Does C++ mark an end of an era? Why don't we see any new compiled languages anymore? I think I should clarify: I do not want this to turn into a "which language is better" discussion, because that is not the issue at hand. The languages I gave as example are only examples. Please focus on the question I raised, and if you disagree with my statement that compiled languages are less frequent these days, that is totally fine, I am more than happy to be proved mistaken.

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  • What should I quote for a project I hope to get a job at the end of?

    - by thesunneversets
    Long story short: I applied for a (CakePHP, MySQL, etc) development job in London, UK. I grew up in Britain but am currently based quite a few thousand miles away in Canada, so I wasn't really expecting success. But quite a few emails and phone interviews later it seems that they really like me. At least to a point. Because such a major relocation would be a horrible thing to go wrong, they've sensibly suggested a trial run of getting me to build a website at a distance. I have the spec for this and it's quite a substantial amount of work. My problem is that I now need to suggest both a fee and a timescale for the job, and I haven't got any significant experience of working as a contractor. Looking at the spec, which is 1500 words of many concisely stated features, some fairly trivial and some moderately involved, I can easily imagine there being 2 weeks of intensive work there. (If everything went really well it might be closer to one week, but even though I want to impress, I definitely don't want to fall into the inexperienced-contractor trap of massively underestimating the amount of time a project will run to.) As an extra complication, there is no expectation that I should give up my day job to get this trial project done, so the hours will have to be clawed from evenings and weekends. I don't want to overcommit to a quick delivery date, only to find myself swiftly burning out due to an unrealistic workload. So, any advice for me? My main question is, what is a realistic hourly figure to demand of a stable but not excessively wealthy London-based company in the current market, bearing in mind that I'd like them to hire me afterwards? But any more general recommendations based on my circumstances above would be much appreciated too. Many thanks!

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  • Minecraft-style player-gound collision detection

    - by khyperia
    The title pretty much says it all... (Minecraft is a game consisting of evenly-spaced cubes for terrain, like voxels) Note: I am using C# XNA. I am pretty sure AABB is the way to go, yet I don't know how to implement it. I admit, I'm almost looking for code, but theories/ideas are very welcome. Important capabilities of my code: I have a function that can get a block anywhere in the world, and get a BoundingBox for that cube. Hence, I have created a BoundingBox for the player to collide with those cubes. My idea was to get the blocks around the player (maybe 4x6x4) and test against those. The problems I have been having: Say the world is a flat plane. If I use the method of go the shortest distance out, then if the player is slightly clipped into the ground (from gravity), but even slighter into the next block over, then the player will be pushed sideways (and so cannot walk along ground). Of course, this is assuming I react to every block intersected. Another problem is knowing which direction to go (aka negative x or positive). That takes me to my final problem- Getting the amount of intersection, in the correct direction (+ or -) has been tough for me. I hope I haven't been too hard to understand, I'm not too good at explaining things... And if this question has already been asked, I'm sorry, I looked for it... for 3 days straight. One last thing, if someone knows exactly how minecraft does it, or has source (I know MC modders have the source, how else would they mod), please point me to it.

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  • As a solo programmer, of what use can Gerrit be?

    - by s.d
    Disclaimer: I'm aware of the questions How do I review my own code? and What advantages do continuous integration tools offer on a solo project?. I do feel that this question aims at a different set of answers though, as it is about a specific software, and not about general musings about the use of this or that practice or tech stack. I'm a solo programmer for an Eclipse RCP-based project. To be able to control myself and the quality of my software, I'm in the process of setting up a CSI stack. In this, I follow the Eclipse Common Build Infrastructure guidelines, with the exception that I will use Jenkins rather than Hudson. Sticking to these guidelines will hopefully help me in getting used to the Eclipse way of doing things, and I hope to be able to contribute some code to Eclipse in the future. However, CBI includes Gerrit, a code review software. While I think it's really helpful for teams, and I will employ it as soon as the team grows to at least two developers, I'm wondering how I could use it while I'm still solo. Question: Is there a use case for Gerrit that takes into account solo developers? Notes: I can imagine reviewing code myself after a certain amount of time to gain a little distance to it. This does complicate the workflow though, as code will only be built once it's been passed through code review. This might prove to be a "trap" as I might be tempted to quickly push bad code through Gerrit just to get it built. I'm very interested in hearing how other solo devs have made use of Gerrit.

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  • SQL Bits X – Temporal Snapshot Fact Table Session Slide & Demos

    - by Davide Mauri
    Already 10 days has passed since SQL Bits X in London. I really enjoyed it! Those kind of events are great not only for the content but also to meet friends that – due to distance – is not possible to meet every day. Friends from PASS, SQL CAT, Microsoft, MVP and so on all in one place, drinking beers, whisky and having fun. A perfect mixture for a great learning and sharing experience! I’ve also enjoyed a lot delivering my session on Temporal Snapshot Fact Tables. Given that the subject is very specific I was not expecting a lot of attendees….but I was totally wrong! It seems that the problem of handling daily snapshot of data is more common than what I expected. I’ve also already had feedback from several attendees that applied the explained technique to their existing solution with success. This is just what a speaker in such conference wish to hear! :) If you want to take a look at the slides and the demos, you can find them on SkyDrive: https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=377ea1391487af21&resid=377EA1391487AF21!1151&parid=root The demo is available both for SQL Sever 2008 and for SQL Server 2012. With this last version, you can also simplify the ETL process using the new LEAD analytic function. (This is not done in the demo, I’ve left this option as a little exercise for you :) )

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