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  • I know fundamental programming. But how do I get started in game development now?

    - by Rohan Menon
    I'm a 20 year old programming student. I know fundamental programming in BASIC, C, C++ and JAVA. What I wanted to ask is, where do I go from here? Are there any books that the community can mention that will help me develop a game or at least learn game development? I've had a lot of ideas and really want to make some sort of prototype to see if I'm suited for the industry. I really don't mind learning any new languages but I need to know what I should begin with. A good book that will help with a little more understanding as I go up will be very helpful. Maybe a tutorial to develop some basic 2D games like a side-scroller, snake or pocket tanks in an easy to understand SDK? I know that to get some credit under your belt, you need to be able to make a few games on your own. Also, what platform should I start on? The PC, iOS or Android (as an introduction) for now. I don't want to get into high level game design just yet. Just something a bit basic to help out in future development. Anything pointing me in the right direction will be really really helpful. Edit: Also, I want to say that I'm looking towards this from a game designer's point of view more than a game programmer. I want suggestions on any SDKs or easy to use programs I can use to understand game design. Then delve deeper into the programming after that. Not as employment but as developing your own games (for now).

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 10-19-2012

    - by Bob Rhubart
    One Week to Go: OTN Architect Day Los Angeles - Oct 25 Oracle Technology Network Architect Day in Los Angeles happens in one week. Register now to make sure you don't miss out on a rich schedule of expert technical sessions and peer interaction covering the use of Oracle technologies in cloud computing, SOA, and more. Even better: it's all free. Register now! When: October 25, 2012, 8:30am - 5:00pm. Where: Sofitel Los Angeles, 8555 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048. Moving your APEX app to the Oracle Cloud | Dimitri Gielis Oracle ACE Director (and OSN Developer Challenge co-winner) Dimitri Gielis shares the steps in the process as he moves his "DGTournament" application, along with all of its data, onto the Oracle Cloud. A brief note for customers running SOA Suite on AIX platforms | A-Team - SOA "When running Oracle SOA Suite with IBM JVMs on the AIX platform, we have seen performance slowdowns and/or memory leaks," says Christian, an architect on the Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team. "On occasion, we have even encountered some OutOfMemoryError conditions and the concomittant Java coredump. If you are experiencing this issue, the resolution may be to configure -Dsun.reflect.inflationThreshold=0 in your JVM startup parameters." Introducing the New Face of Fusion Applications | Misha Vaughan Oracle ACE Directors Debra Lilly and Floyd Teter have already blogged about the the new face of Oracle Fusion Applications. Now Applications User Experience Architect Misha Vaughan shares a brief overview of how the Oracle Applications User Experience (UX) team developed the new look. ADF Essentials Security Implementation for Glassfish Deployment | Andrejus Baranovskis According to Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovskis, Oracle ADF Essentials includes all the key ADF technologies, save one: ADF Security. In this post he illustrates a solution for filling that gap. Thought for the Day "Why are video games so much better designed than office software? Because people who design video games love to play video games. People who design office software look forward to doing something else on the weekend." — Ted Nelson Source: softwarequotes.com

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  • Simple Architecture Verification

    - by Jean Carlos Suárez Marranzini
    I just made an architecture for an application with the function of scoring, saving and loading tennis games. The architecture has 2 kinds of elements: components & layers. Components: Standalone elements that can be consumed by other components or by layers. They might also consume functionality from the model/bottom layer. Layers: Software components whose functionality rests on previous layers (except for the model layer). -Layers: -Models: Data and it's behavior. -Controllers: A layer that allows interaction between the views and the models. -Views: The presentation layer for interacting with the user. -Components: -Persistence: Makes sure the game data can be stored away for later retrieval. -Time Machine: Records changes in the game through time so it's possible to navigate the game back and forth. -Settings: Contains the settings that determine how some of the game logic will apply. -Game Engine: Contains all the game logic, which it applies to the game data to determine the path the game should take. This is an image of the architecture (I don't have enough rep to post images): http://i49.tinypic.com/35lt5a9.png The requierements which this architecture should satisfy are the following: Save & load games. Move through game history and see how the scoreboard changes as the game evolves. Tie-breaks must be properly managed. Games must be classified by hit-type. Every point can be modified. Match name and player names must be stored. Game logic must be configurable by the user. I would really appreciate any kind of advice or comments on this architecture. To see if it is well built and makes sense as a whole. I took the idea from this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller

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  • How exactly to implement multiple threads in a game

    - by xerwin
    So I recently started learning Java, and having a interest in playing games as well as developing them, naturally I want to create game in Java. I have experience with games in C# and C++ but all of them were single-threaded simple games. But now, I learned how easy it is to make threads in Java, I want to take things to the next level. I started thinking about how would I actually implement threading in a game. I read couple of articles that say the same thing "Usually you have thread for rendering, for updating game logic, for AI, ..." but I haven't (or didn't look hard enough) found example of implementation. My idea how to make implementation is something like this (example for AI) public class AIThread implements Runnable{ private List<AI> ai; private Player player; /*...*/ public void run() { for (int i = 0; i < ai.size(); i++){ ai.get(i).update(player); } Thread.sleep(/* sleep until the next game "tick" */); } } I think this could work. If I also had a rendering and updating thread list of AI in both those threads, since I need to draw the AI and I need to calculate the logic between player and AI(But that could be moved to AIThread, but as an example) . Coming from C++ I'm used to do thing elegantly and efficiently, and this seems like neither of those. So what would be the correct way to handle this? Should I just keep multiple copies of resources in each thread or should I have the resources on one spot, declared with synchronized keyword? I'm afraid that could cause deadlocks, but I'm not yet qualified enough to know when a code will produce deadlock.

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  • Architectural approaches to creating a game menu/shell overlay on PC/Linux?

    - by Ghopper21
    I'm am working on a collection of games for a custom digital tabletop installation (similar to Microsoft Surface tables). Each game will be an individual executable that runs full-screen. In addition, there needs to be a menu/shell overlay program running simultaneously. The menu/shell will allow users to pause games, switch to other games, check their game history, etc. Some key requirements of the shell: it intercepts all user input (mainly multitouch) first before passing it on to the currently running game (so that it can, for instance, know to pop-up at a "pause" command); can reveal on arbitrary portions of the screen, with the currently running (but presumably paused) game still showing underneath, ideally with its shape/size being dynamic, to allow for creation of an animated in/out drawer effect over the game. I'm currently looking into different architectural approaches to this problem, including Fraps and DirectX overlays, but I'm sure I'm missing some ways to think about this. What are the main approaches I should be considering? (Note the table is currently being run by Windows PC, but it could potentially be a Linux box instead.)

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  • Directx vs XNA - Which is better for me? [closed]

    - by tristo
    Recently I got Visual Studio 2012 from visual studio 2010, although did not expect Visual Studio to 2012 to designed the way it was. Anyway I am pleased with some of VS 2012 technology and have moved all of my projects to it. At this point of time since I got VS 2012 I have been into making windows applications and other non-game activities. ALTHOUGH have recently gotten into the spirit of game development and I am planning to make a 3d comical game, shader effects, not too complicated meshes, but it requires alot of lighting effects to emphasise certain parts of the game. When I was using VS 2010 I had a great time making 2d games with XNA, it uses a great language, and has a very awesome system. But I no longer have XNA with me, and the workarounds described in stackoverflow always gives me errors while using xna. Anyway it seems that microsoft have stuffed themselves up with xna anyway with the weirdness of Windows 8, and it being only avaliabe on pc and xbox. Due to these reasons I have decided to work with Directx and Direct3d to produce my new game, although the overflowing credits after each directx game gives me the shivers, and the low-level coding of directx also puts me on thin ice with my games, left in a confusional mess with what decision I should make. I don't know anything about directx or direct3d. I am an indie developer, but I am planning to take on alot of professional aspects of games. I don't have heaps of time(2-3 hours a day) I don't mind the complexity of how directx works, as long as I can learn how to make the fundementals of a game in a week. I am also unsure if directx is really for my situation, and keep with xna game development. Anyone can tell me the best technology for me would be great.

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  • Getting into the details of game engine programming

    - by Darkslash
    I am interested in learning game programming, but I really have an interest in the lower level engineering in games. I have OpenGL experience, and I am really interested in learning more about implementing AI, Physics, etc. I have a computer science degree, so I really like getting into technical stuff. Many times when I ask about this sort of thing, I get a lot of "Use an engine", "Use Unity3d", "Why waste your time writing code that already exists", etc, etc. My idea was to use simpler libraries such as SFML or XNA so that I could learn how to implement the more complex systems. The thing is, although I do want to write games, I want to learn things that using something like Unity simply doesn't teach you. My goal is not to make a current generation quality 3D game to sell, I just want to make some cool smaller games and learn all I can about the programming side of game development. Is this something that people just do not do anymore? It seems like everywhere I turn people are using Unity or UDK or GameMaker. I fully understand why you would use a tool like these, but I cant see how they would suit my purposes. So where does someone like myself turn? Am I trying to learn something that people just do not bother doing anymore? Is the innovation in this area gone and just all about gameplay now? I'm sorry if this question seems silly, but I am genuinely interested in knowing more about this and meeting more people who are interested in this sort of thing.

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  • 5 reason why you should upgrade to new iPad (3rd generation)

    - by Gopinath
    Apple released the new iPad, 3rd generation, couple of days ago and they will be available in stores from March 16 onwards.  It’s the best tablet available in the market and for first time buyers it’s a no brainer to choose it. What about the iPad owners? Should they upgrade their iPad 2 to the new iPad? This is the question on the lips of most of the iPad owners. In this post we will provide you 5 reasons why you should upgrade your iPad, if more than two reasons are convincing then you should upgrade to the new iPad. Retina display – The best display ever made for mobile device, a game changer The new iPad comes with Retina display with screen resolution of 2048 x 1536, which is twice the resolution of iPad 2. Undoubtedly the iPad 3’s display is the best display ever made for a mobile device and it’s a game changer. With better resolution on iPad 3 eBook reading is going to be a pleasure with clear and crisp text Watching HD movies on iPad is going to be unbelievably good The new Games targeted for Retina display are going to be more realistic and needless to explain the pleasure of playing such games Graphic artists and photo editors get a professional on screen rendering support to create beautiful graphics 2x Faster & 2x Memory – Better Games and powerful Apps The new iPad is more powerful with 2x faster graphics and 2x more memory. Apple claims that the A5x processor of new iPad is 2x faster than iPad 2 and 4x faster than the best graphic chips available from other vendors. The RAM of  new iPad  is upgraded to 1 GB compared from 512 MB of iPad 2. With the fast processor and more memory, Apps and games are going to be blazing fast. 4G Internet – Browse the web at the speeds of 42 MB/sec Half of the iPad owners are frequent commuters who access internet over cellular networks, the new iPad’s 4G LTE is going to be a big boom for their  high data access needs. With the new iPad’s 4G LTE connectivity you can browse the web at 42 MB/sec and it mean you can watch a HD video without buffering issues. iPad 2 comes with 3G network support and it’s browsing speeds are way less than the new iPad. 5MP Camera – HD Movie Recording & gorgeous Photography iPad 2 has a 0.7 mega pixel camera and the new iPad comes with 5 megapixels camera. That is a huge boost for hobbyist  photographers and videographers. With the new iPad you can shoot gorgeous photos and 1080p HD video. The iSight camera of new iPad uses advanced optics with features like auto exposure, auto focus and face detection up to 10 faces. Amazon Pays up to $300 for old iPad 2 16 GB Wifi and more for other models Do you know that you can trade in your iPad 2 16 GB Wifi for upto $300? Amazon has an excellent trade in program for selling your used iPad 2s. Depending on the condition of the iPad 2  Amazon offers $234, $270, $300.00 for 16 GB Wifi versions that in Acceptable, Good and Like New conditions respectively.  The higher models of iPad 2s fetch you more money. With this great deal from Amazon the amount of extra money you need to spend for new iPad is almost half of their price. Visit Amazon Trade In’s website or read Amazon’s brilliant plan to pay you crazy money for your iPad 2 for more details. Related: New IPad Vs. IPad 2–Side By Side Comparison Of Hardware Specification [Infographic]

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  • Combining template method with strategy

    - by Mekswoll
    An assignment in my software engineering class is to design an application which can play different forms a particular game. The game in question is Mancala, some of these games are called Wari or Kalah. These games differ in some aspects but for my question it's only important to know that the games could differ in the following: The way in which the result of a move is handled The way in which the end of the game is determined The way in which the winner is determined The first thing that came to my mind to design this was to use the strategy pattern, I have a variation in algorithms (the actual rules of the game). The design could look like this: I then thought to myself that in the game of Mancala and Wari the way the winner is determined is exactly the same and the code would be duplicated. I don't think this is by definition a violation of the 'one rule, one place' or DRY principle seeing as a change in rules for Mancala wouldn't automatically mean that rule should be changed in Wari as well. Nevertheless from the feedback I got from my professor I got the impression to find a different design. I then came up with this: Each game (Mancala, Wari, Kalah, ...) would just have attribute of the type of each rule's interface, i.e. WinnerDeterminer and if there's a Mancala 2.0 version which is the same as Mancala 1.0 except for how the winner is determined it can just use the Mancala versions. I think the implementation of these rules as a strategy pattern is certainly valid. But the real problem comes when I want to design it further. In reading about the template method pattern I immediately thought it could be applied to this problem. The actions that are done when a user makes a move are always the same, and in the same order, namely: deposit stones in holes (this is the same for all games, so would be implemented in the template method itself) determine the result of the move determine if the game has finished because of the previous move if the game has finished, determine who has won Those three last steps are all in my strategy pattern described above. I'm having a lot of trouble combining these two. One possible solution I found would be to abandon the strategy pattern and do the following: I don't really see the design difference between the strategy pattern and this? But I am certain I need to use a template method (although I was just as sure about having to use a strategy pattern). I also can't determine who would be responsible for creating the TurnTemplate object, whereas with the strategy pattern I feel I have families of objects (the three rules) which I could easily create using an abstract factory pattern. I would then have a MancalaRuleFactory, WariRuleFactory, etc. and they would create the correct instances of the rules and hand me back a RuleSet object. Let's say that I use the strategy + abstract factory pattern and I have a RuleSet object which has algorithms for the three rules in it. The only way I feel I can still use the template method pattern with this is to pass this RuleSet object to my TurnTemplate. The 'problem' that then surfaces is that I would never need my concrete implementations of the TurnTemplate, these classes would become obsolete. In my protected methods in the TurnTemplate I could just call ruleSet.determineWinner(). As a consequence, the TurnTemplate class would no longer be abstract but would have to become concrete, is it then still a template method pattern? To summarize, am I thinking in the right way or am I missing something easy? If I'm on the right track, how do I combine a strategy pattern and a template method pattern? This is part of a homework assignment but I'm not looking to be gifted the answer, I have deliberately been very verbose in my question to show that I have thought about it before coming here to ask a question

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  • Things one needs to know while writing a game engine

    - by Joe Barr
    I have been dabbling in game development as a hobby for a while now, and I cannot seam to quite get my games to sparkle at least a bit with some graphics. I have decided to write a simple test game engine that only focuses on the representation of graphics - shapes, textures and surfaces. While I have a few very simple game engines designed for my own games under my belt, I want to create a game engine that I can use to display and play with graphics. I'm going to do this in C++. Since this is my first time with a major engine, the engine in not going to focus on 3D graphics, it's going to be a mixture of isometric and 2D graphics. My previous engines have incorporated (been able to draw) or focused on simple flat (almost 2D) non impressive graphic designs and representations of: the player NPCs objects walls and surfaces textures Also, I had some basic AI and sometimes even sound. They also saved and loaded games. They didn't have a map editor or a level editor. Is this going to be a problem in the future? At this time I have to point out that some of my games didn't get finished because I was to lazy to write the few last levels. My question at this point would be: What are some things one should know if one wants write (develope) a better graphical game engine with all it's functions.

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  • How do I grab and use a variables coming back through ValueList from an AJAX call?

    - by Mel
    I'm trying the following code to execute a search and it's not working. On the search.cfm page, the only value coming back is the value I input into the search field (even if I click an autosuggest value, it's not coming back; only the letters I actually type myself come back). <cfform class="titleSearchForm" id="searchForm" action="search.cfm?GameID=#cfautosuggestvalue.GameID#" method="post"> <fieldset> <cfinput type="text" class="titleSearchField" name="TitleName" onChange="form.submit()" autosuggest="cfc:gz.cfcomp.search.AutoSuggestSearch({cfautosuggestvalue})"> <input type="button" class="titleSearchButton" value=" " /> </fieldset> </cfform> Query in CFC: <cfquery name="SearchResult" datasource="myDSN"> SELECT CONCAT(titles.TitleName, ' on ', platforms.PlatformAbbreviation) AS sResult, games.GameID FROM games Inner Join platforms ON games.PlatformID = platforms.PlatformID Inner Join titles ON titles.TitleID = games.TitleID WHERE UCase(titleName) LIKE Ucase('#ARGUMENTS.SearchString#%') ORDER BY titleName ASC; </cfquery> Two things: First of all, I would like to get the GameID back to the page making the AJAX request; I know why it is not coming back: Because I'm only returning sResult var, which does not include the GameID. Is there a way to return the GameID value without displaying it? The second thing: How to I grab a value from the auto-suggest once it is returned? Say I want to grab the GameID, or if I can't do that, the "TitleName" to use that in my query? I tried passing it to the form this way: action="search.cfm?GameID=#cfautosuggestvalue.GameID#" - but that does not work. How do I reference the autosuggestionvalue varaibles for use? Thanks

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  • Predicate crashing iPhone App!

    - by DVG
    To preface, this is a follow up to an inquiry made a few days ago: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2981803/iphone-app-crashes-when-merging-managed-object-contexts Short Version: EXC_BAD_ACCESS is crashing my app, and zombie-mode revealed the culprit to be my predicate embedded within the fetch request embedded in my Fetched Results Controller. How does an object within an object get released without an explicit command to do so? Long Version: Application Structure Platforms View Controller - Games View Controller (Predicated upon platform selection) - Add Game View Controller When a row gets clicked on the Platforms view, it sets an instance variable in Games View for that platform, then the Games Fetched Results Controller builds a fetch request in the normal way: - (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController{ if (fetchedResultsController != nil) { return fetchedResultsController; } //build the fetch request for Games NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init]; NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Game" inManagedObjectContext:context]; [request setEntity:entity]; //predicate NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"platform == %@", selectedPlatform]; [request setPredicate:predicate]; //sort based on name NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"name" ascending:YES]; NSArray *sortDescriptors = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:sortDescriptor, nil]; [request setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors]; //fetch and build fetched results controller NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:request managedObjectContext:context sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:@"Root"]; aFetchedResultsController.delegate = self; self.fetchedResultsController = aFetchedResultsController; [sortDescriptor release]; [sortDescriptors release]; [predicate release]; [request release]; [aFetchedResultsController release]; return fetchedResultsController; } At the end of this method, the fetchedResultsController's _fetch_request - _predicate member is set to an NSComparisonPredicate object. All is well in the world. By the time - (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section gets called, the _predicate is now a Zombie, which will eventually crash the application when the table attempts to update itself. I'm more or less flummoxed. I'm not releasing the fetched results controller or any of it's parts, and the only part getting dealloc'd is the predicate. Any ideas?

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  • Can't get screen pixel from a specific full screen game with any language?

    - by user1007059
    Okay, I know this might seem like I'm posting a duplicate question since I've asked something similar like a day ago HOWEVER, if anyone sees any problem with this, please read my question first before judging: Yesterday I tried getting a specific pixel from a fullscreen game in C#. I thought my C# code was faulty but when I tried with multiple full screen games today they all worked except for that specific game. I literally tried with 10 different full screen games, a couple being mmofps, mmorpg, mmotps, regular rpg games, regular shooters, regular action adventure games, etc. I tried with multiple programming languages, and with every game except that specific game I'm dealing with, it returns the pixel color to me like I wanted. So let me explain what I tried: first I tried returning an IntPtr with C# using GetDC(IntPtr.Zero) before invoking GetPixel(int x, int y) and then getting the color out of it. Then I tried using the Robot class in Java and using the getPixelColor(int x, int y) method. I also tried using GetDC(0) to return an HDC object in C++ and then invoking GetPixel(int x, int y) before again extracting the color. These three methods worked EXACTLY the same in every single game except that specific game I was talking about. They returned the pixel perfectly, and extracted the exact same color perfectly. I don't feel it's necessary to tell you the game name or anything, since you probably don't even know it, but what could possibly be causing this malfunction in 1 specific game? PS: The game ALWAYS returns an RGB color of: A = 255, R = 0, G = 0, B = 0. Also, I tried taking a snapshot of the game with the 3 programming languages, and then getting the pixel which actually works in all 3 languages, but since I need to get this pixel every 30 ms, it kind of makes my game lag a bit (+ I think it takes up a lot of memory)

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  • Why doesn't my UIViewController class keep track of an NSArray instance variable.

    - by TaoStoner
    Hey, I am new to Objective-C 2.0 and Xcode, so forgive me if I am missing something elementary here. Anyways, I am trying to make my own UIViewController class called GameView to display a new view. To work the game I need to keep track of an NSArray that I want to load from a plist file. I have made a method 'loadGame' which I want to load the correct NSArray into an instance variable. However it appears that after the method executes the instance variable loses track of the array. Its easier if I just show you the code.... @interface GameView : UIViewController { IBOutlet UIView *view IBOutlet UILabel *label; NSArray *currentGame; } -(IBOutlet)next; -(void)loadDefault; ... @implementation GameView - (IBOutlet)next{ int numElements = [currentGame count]; int r = rand() % numElements; NSString *myString = [currentGame objectAtIndex:(NSUInteger)r]; [label setText: myString]; } - (void)loadDefault { NSDictionary *games; NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]; NSString *finalPath = [path stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"Games.plist"]; games = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:finalPath]; currentGame = [games objectForKey:@"Default"]; } when loadDefault gets called, everything runs perfectly, but when I try to use the currentGame NSArray later in the method call to next, currentGame appears to be nil. I am also aware of the memory management issues with this code. Any help would be appreciated with this problem.

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  • Playing craps, asking and printing

    - by Angelo Mejia
    How do I ask the amount of games of craps someone wants to play and print the number of wins as a result of n number of games? Also How do I make a table in the main method using the previous methods I have? A table like this but shows the results: Percent Wins Games Experiment Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 public class CrapsAnalysis { public static int rollDie( int n) { return (int)(Math.random()*n) + 1 ; } public static int rollDice( ) { int die1 ; int die2 ; die1 = rollDie(6) ; die2 = rollDie(6) ; return die1 + die2 ; } public static boolean playOneGame( ) { int newDice ; //repeated dice rolls int roll ; //first roll of the dice int playerPoint = 0 ; //player point if no win or loss on first roll newDice = rollDice() ; roll = rollDice() ; if (roll == 7 || roll == 11) return true; else if (roll == 2 || roll == 3 || roll == 12) return false; else { playerPoint = roll; newDice = rollDice(); do { newDice = rollDice(); } while (newDice != playerPoint || newDice != 7) ; if (newDice == 7) return false; else return true; } } public static int playGames ( int n ) { int numWon = 0; for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++) if(playOneGame()) numWon++; return numWon; } public static void main(String[] args) { //Don't know how to ask and print out the results of the number of wins depending on the n number of games played } }

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  • Dealloc'd Predicate crashing iPhone App!

    - by DVG
    To preface, this is a follow up to an inquiry made a few days ago: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2981803/iphone-app-crashes-when-merging-managed-object-contexts Short Version: EXC_BAD_ACCESS is crashing my app, and zombie-mode revealed the culprit to be my predicate embedded within the fetch request embedded in my Fetched Results Controller. How does an object within an object get released without an explicit command to do so? Long Version: Application Structure Platforms View Controller - Games View Controller (Predicated upon platform selection) - Add Game View Controller When a row gets clicked on the Platforms view, it sets an instance variable in Games View for that platform, then the Games Fetched Results Controller builds a fetch request in the normal way: - (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController{ if (fetchedResultsController != nil) { return fetchedResultsController; } //build the fetch request for Games NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init]; NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Game" inManagedObjectContext:context]; [request setEntity:entity]; //predicate NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"platform == %@", selectedPlatform]; [request setPredicate:predicate]; //sort based on name NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"name" ascending:YES]; NSArray *sortDescriptors = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:sortDescriptor, nil]; [request setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors]; //fetch and build fetched results controller NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:request managedObjectContext:context sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:@"Root"]; aFetchedResultsController.delegate = self; self.fetchedResultsController = aFetchedResultsController; [sortDescriptor release]; [sortDescriptors release]; [predicate release]; [request release]; [aFetchedResultsController release]; return fetchedResultsController; } At the end of this method, the fetchedResultsController's _fetch_request - _predicate member is set to an NSComparisonPredicate object. All is well in the world. By the time - (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section gets called, the _predicate is now a Zombie, which will eventually crash the application when the table attempts to update itself. I'm more or less flummoxed. I'm not releasing the fetched results controller or any of it's parts, and the only part getting dealloc'd is the predicate. Any ideas?

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  • Is Steam for Mac effectively running as superuser?

    - by godDLL
    When you download the client it does not weigh too much, and seems to do very little. Inside the app bundle there is a script that—upon inspecting the environment and deciding you're not running Linux—launches the client, which downloads the full support environment and resources. For this to happen (all of this is saved inside the bundle, the app bundle gets updated in this process) Steam wants Universal Access for Assistive Devices, and your password. Cacheable resources, preferences (like keyboard shortcuts), support files (like game hardware requirement lookup tables) live inside the bundle, not in ~/Library/{Application Support|Preferences|Cache}; games' data get dumped into ~/Documents/Steam Content. I'd describe myself as a bit OCD (which really says a lot), and I wouldn't care that much still. I'd go comb this hairy mess and find out where stuff is, when and if I need to, even if it's in an unfamiliar place; that does not actually tick me off. Well, a little bit. What makes me concerned is the way Steam needs both Access for Assistive Devices, and my password to run. The former gives it the ability to talk very intimately with running apps and the underlying system; while the latter (admin account) could very well give it and it's publishers unrestricted access to all my software, hardware and data. With publishers like Rockstar using scene NOCD cracks to publish their games on Steam, I'm not so sure I'm OK with this. I'd like more games made available for the MacOS X and all the pretty machines that run it, but this arrangement does not seem very Mac-like to me. It looks like Valve is going around system security measures and best practices, foregoing sandboxing, code signing, relatively sane structured organization; all the things that would appeal to someone who's no fun at parties at all, and will die alone, in his long dead mother's basement… wait. Right. Anyway. Can we get some input on Steam for Mac security at the end-user machine, from someone who understands how Accessibility API works, whether games distributed on Steam can read and write outside the user homefolder, collect data from other running apps, or similar?

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  • Software for managing a gamenet

    - by Isaac
    I need a software for managing gamenet (Gamenet is like a cybercafe except people play games in gamenet instead of surfing the web!) The software should have this basic features: Accounting features (defining users, assigning a usage time to them, etc) Denying access to regular windows features (windows explorer, creating/editing/deleting files) Showing a list of available games to users to run. Creating login report I've tested a software named GamePort but it has some bugs and shortcomings.

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  • Software for managing a gamenet

    - by Isaac
    I need a software for managing gamenet (Gamenet is like a cybercafe except people play games in gamenet instead of surfing the web!) The software should have this basic features: Accounting features (defining users, assigning a usage time to them, etc) Denying access to regular windows features (windows explorer, creating/editing/deleting files) Showing a list of available games to users to run. Creating login report I've tested a software named GamePort but it has some bugs and shortcomings.

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  • I know it is a VLC know issue, but cant find a workaround

    - by Fladur
    I installed VLC player, because it works better that other video player on HD videos, but know I have an issue all most of my games (All of those using Bink Video, that means all Unreal Engine games, Call of duty, and more). When I load the game, I can hear the videos, the audio is working, so I know the videos is loading, but there is no image on the screen! Once I read that it was a known VLC issue with DivX or something like that, cant remember, does anyone, know a way to fix it? Thanks in advance

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  • Proxy within a proxy, tunneling?

    - by joeblogger
    At work there is a proxy that (understandably) blocks all ports except web ones. However, during lunch hours you are allowed to play online games. But as ports are blocked, multiplayer games are out of the question. So I was wondering, could I set up a tunnel on a web port, that would then allow me to access those blocked ports, through the port 80 tunnel whilst still being behind the work proxy? This is in a Windows environment.

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  • Developing for Mac, without a Mac.

    - by speeder
    Hello I am a "lone wolf" game developer, and games sell more on Mac (because noone make Mac games... bizarre), so I need to make Mac games. My problem is: I don't own a Mac, and I have no way to get one (unless someone donate one to me...), I don't have money even to upgrade my crappy 3 year old PC, or buy a netbook... So, how I develop for Mac without a Mac? I guess that if I installed Mac OS on my machine, it would do, or can I just use Open Darwin instead? Or Mac OS run on virtual machines?

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  • Blackjack game reshuffling problem-edited

    - by Jam
    I am trying to make a blackjack game where before each new round, the program checks to make sure that the deck has 7 cards per player. And if it doesn't, the deck clears, repopulates, and reshuffles. I have most of the problem down, but for some reason at the start of every deal it reshuffles the deck more than once, and I can't figure out why. Help, please. Here's what I have so far: (P.S. the imported cards and games modules aren't part of the problem, I'm fairly sure my problem lies in the deal() function of my BJ_Deck class.) import cards, games class BJ_Card(cards.Card): """ A Blackjack Card. """ ACE_VALUE = 1 def get_value(self): if self.is_face_up: value = BJ_Card.RANKS.index(self.rank) + 1 if value > 10: value = 10 else: value = None return value value = property(get_value) class BJ_Deck(cards.Deck): """ A Blackjack Deck. """ def populate(self): for suit in BJ_Card.SUITS: for rank in BJ_Card.RANKS: self.cards.append(BJ_Card(rank, suit)) def deal(self, hands, per_hand=1): for rounds in range(per_hand): if len(self.cards)>=7*(len(hands)): print "Reshuffling the deck." self.cards=[] self.populate() self.shuffle() for hand in hands: top_card=self.cards[0] self.give(top_card, hand) class BJ_Hand(cards.Hand): """ A Blackjack Hand. """ def __init__(self, name): super(BJ_Hand, self).__init__() self.name = name def __str__(self): rep = self.name + ":\t" + super(BJ_Hand, self).__str__() if self.total: rep += "(" + str(self.total) + ")" return rep def get_total(self): # if a card in the hand has value of None, then total is None for card in self.cards: if not card.value: return None # add up card values, treat each Ace as 1 total = 0 for card in self.cards: total += card.value # determine if hand contains an Ace contains_ace = False for card in self.cards: if card.value == BJ_Card.ACE_VALUE: contains_ace = True # if hand contains Ace and total is low enough, treat Ace as 11 if contains_ace and total <= 11: # add only 10 since we've already added 1 for the Ace total += 10 return total total = property(get_total) def is_busted(self): return self.total > 21 class BJ_Player(BJ_Hand): """ A Blackjack Player. """ def is_hitting(self): response = games.ask_yes_no("\n" + self.name + ", do you want a hit? (Y/N): ") return response == "y" def bust(self): print self.name, "busts." self.lose() def lose(self): print self.name, "loses." def win(self): print self.name, "wins." def push(self): print self.name, "pushes." class BJ_Dealer(BJ_Hand): """ A Blackjack Dealer. """ def is_hitting(self): return self.total < 17 def bust(self): print self.name, "busts." def flip_first_card(self): first_card = self.cards[0] first_card.flip() class BJ_Game(object): """ A Blackjack Game. """ def __init__(self, names): self.players = [] for name in names: player = BJ_Player(name) self.players.append(player) self.dealer = BJ_Dealer("Dealer") self.deck = BJ_Deck() self.deck.populate() self.deck.shuffle() def get_still_playing(self): remaining = [] for player in self.players: if not player.is_busted(): remaining.append(player) return remaining # list of players still playing (not busted) this round still_playing = property(get_still_playing) def __additional_cards(self, player): while not player.is_busted() and player.is_hitting(): self.deck.deal([player]) print player if player.is_busted(): player.bust() def play(self): # deal initial 2 cards to everyone self.deck.deal(self.players + [self.dealer], per_hand = 2) self.dealer.flip_first_card() # hide dealer's first card for player in self.players: print player print self.dealer # deal additional cards to players for player in self.players: self.__additional_cards(player) self.dealer.flip_first_card() # reveal dealer's first if not self.still_playing: # since all players have busted, just show the dealer's hand print self.dealer else: # deal additional cards to dealer print self.dealer self.__additional_cards(self.dealer) if self.dealer.is_busted(): # everyone still playing wins for player in self.still_playing: player.win() else: # compare each player still playing to dealer for player in self.still_playing: if player.total > self.dealer.total: player.win() elif player.total < self.dealer.total: player.lose() else: player.push() # remove everyone's cards for player in self.players: player.clear() self.dealer.clear() def main(): print "\t\tWelcome to Blackjack!\n" names = [] number = games.ask_number("How many players? (1 - 7): ", low = 1, high = 8) for i in range(number): name = raw_input("Enter player name: ") names.append(name) print game = BJ_Game(names) again = None while again != "n": game.play() again = games.ask_yes_no("\nDo you want to play again?: ") main() raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.") Since someone decided to call this 'psychic-debugging', I'll go ahead and tell you what the modules are then. Here's the cards module: class Card(object): """ A playing card. """ RANKS = ["A", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10", "J", "Q", "K"] SUITS = ["c", "d", "h", "s"] def __init__(self, rank, suit, face_up = True): self.rank = rank self.suit = suit self.is_face_up = face_up def __str__(self): if self.is_face_up: rep = self.rank + self.suit else: rep = "XX" return rep def flip(self): self.is_face_up = not self.is_face_up class Hand(object): """ A hand of playing cards. """ def init(self): self.cards = [] def __str__(self): if self.cards: rep = "" for card in self.cards: rep += str(card) + "\t" else: rep = "<empty>" return rep def clear(self): self.cards = [] def add(self, card): self.cards.append(card) def give(self, card, other_hand): self.cards.remove(card) other_hand.add(card) class Deck(Hand): """ A deck of playing cards. """ def populate(self): for suit in Card.SUITS: for rank in Card.RANKS: self.add(Card(rank, suit)) def shuffle(self): import random random.shuffle(self.cards) def deal(self, hands, per_hand = 1): for rounds in range(per_hand): for hand in hands: if self.cards: top_card = self.cards[0] self.give(top_card, hand) else: print "Can't continue deal. Out of cards!" if name == "main": print "This is a module with classes for playing cards." raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.") And here's the games module: class Player(object): """ A player for a game. """ def __init__(self, name, score = 0): self.name = name self.score = score def __str__(self): rep = self.name + ":\t" + str(self.score) return rep def ask_yes_no(question): """Ask a yes or no question.""" response = None while response not in ("y", "n"): response = raw_input(question).lower() return response def ask_number(question, low, high): """Ask for a number within a range.""" response = None while response not in range(low, high): response = int(raw_input(question)) return response if name == "main": print "You ran this module directly (and did not 'import' it)." raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")

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  • Advice needed: What tech expertise do I need to accomplish my goal?

    - by quaternion
    I have a business plan & money to hire a developer - the essentials involve simple online games for children (played via traditional computer over the internet) such that their scores are uploaded to a database that can be viewed via a nice portal. What I don't know is: what technologies I would want my developer to know (the only somewhat unusual requirement I have is that the games have relatively accurate timing of keypresses/mouse presses) how much I should expect to pay (in general, what is the appropriate range) how many hours a program of the complexity of a simple tower defense -type game should take to develop (to be clear, the idea is not to implement TD, but rather other games of similar complexity) whether I should go with capable acquaintances, some online kind of online web-dev bidding site, or just try to find a capable undergraduate at the local university who I can wow with his/her first big paycheck, how I should communicate the software's specifications to my hired developer... Is there a standard I should be using? whether I should hire a webdev consultant for a few hours to help me answer these questions, instead of asking stackoverflow Thanks for any advice!

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