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• Test a simple multi-player (upto four players) Android game in single developer machine

  - by Kush

  I'm working on a multi-player Android game (very simple it is that it doesn't have any game-engine used). The game is based on Java Socket. Four devices will connect the game server and a new thread will manage their session. The game server will server many such sessions (having 4 players each). What I'm worried about is the testing of this game. I know it is possible to run multiple android emulators, but my development laptop is very limited in capabilities (3 GB RAM, 2 Ghz Intel Core2Duo and on-board Graphics). And I'm already using Ubuntu to develop the game so that I have more user memory available than I'd have with Windows. Hence, the laptop will burn-to-death on running 4 emulator instances. I don't have access to any android device, neither I have another machine with higher configuration. And I still have to develop and test this game. P.S. : I'm a CS student, and currently don't work anywhere, and this game is college project, so if there are any paid solutions, I cannot afford it. What can I do to test the app seamlessly? ability to test even only 4 clients (i.e. only 1 session) would suffice, its alright if I can't simulate real environment with some 10-20 active game sessions (having 4 players each).

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• B.S.in Computer Science, weak eyes => career change

  - by Prometheus

  So I am going to earn B.S. in Computer Science soon. I like computers. I like programming. The problem is that my eyes are very weak. Depending on their condition, I can only put in about 6 hours in front of computer a day. If I push myself, I have trouble even keeping my eyes open because of soreness/pain, consequently headaches. My eyes do not have medical conditions. I was just born with weak eyes. I tried many different approaches to work around this problem - better monitor, breaks every 10 minutes, supplements... I even memorized a lot of shortcuts to reduce my time on computers! But I am finally giving up. I do not think I can be a programmer for the rest of my life. I was the top of my class in high school because all works were paper-based, I did average in college due to the nature of my eyes and the difficulty of the material. So what do you recommend I do? Or, Is there a career that is similar to programming but requires interacting with computers less?

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• Design Pattern Advice for Bluetooth App for Android

  - by Aimee Jones

  I’m looking for some advice on which patterns would apply to some of my work. I’m planning on doing a project as part of my college work and I need a bit of help. My main project is to make a basic Android bluetooth tracking system where the fixed locations of bluetooth dongles are mapped onto a map of a building. So my android app will regularly scan for nearby dongles and triangulate its location based on signal strength. The dongles location would be saved to a database along with their mac addresses to differentiate between them. The android phones location will then be sent to a server. This information will be used to show the phone’s location on a map of the building, or map of a route taken, on a website. My side project is to choose a suitable design pattern that could be implemented in this main project. I’m still a bit new to design patterns and am finding it hard to get my head around ones that may be suitable. I’ve heard maybe some that are aimed at web applications for the server side of things may be appropriate. My research so far is leading me to the following: Navigation Strategy Pattern Observer Pattern Command Pattern News Design Pattern Any advice would be a great help! Thanks

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• XNA C# Platformer - physics engine or tile based?

  - by Hugh

  I would like to get some opinions on whether i should develop my game using a physics engine (farseer physics seems to be the best option) or follow the traditional tile-based method. Quick background: - its a college project, my first game, but have 4 years academic programming experience - Just want a basic platformer with a few levels, nothing fancy - want a shooting mechanic, run and gun, just like contra or metal slug for example - possibly some simple puzzles I have made a basic prototype with farseer, the level is hardcoded with collisions and not really tiled, more like big full-screen sized tiles, with collision bodies drawn manually along the ground and walls etc. My main problem is i want a simple retro feel to the jumping and physics but because its a physics simulation engine its going to be realistic, whereas typical in air controllable physics for platformers arent realistic. I have to make a box with wheel body fixture under it to have this effect and its glitchy and doesnt feel right. I chose to use a physics engine because i tried the tile method initially and found it very hard to understand, the engine took care of alot things to save me time, mainly being able to do slopes easily was nice and the freedom to draw collision bounds wherever i liked, rather then restricted to a grid, which gave me more freedom for art design also. In conclusion i don't know which method to pick, i want to use a method which will be the most straight forward way to implement and wont give me a headache later on, preferably a method which has an abundance of tutorials and resources so i dont get "stuck" doing something which has been done a million times before! Let me know i haven't provided enough information for you to help me! Thanks in advance, Hugh.

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• Am I too young to burn out?

  - by Steve McMesse

  I feel like I have burned out, even though I am only out of college for 5 years. For the first 3 years of my career, things were going awesome. I was never anything special in school, but I felt special at my company. Looking back, I could tell that I made all the right moves: I actively tried to improve myself daily. I made a point of helping anyone I could. I made a point (and read books about) being a good team member. I had fun. After 3 years in a row as being rated as a top employee, I converted that political capital into choosing to work on an interesting, glamorous project with only 2 developers: me and a highly respected senior technical leader. I worked HARD on that project, and it came out a huge success. High in quality, low in bugs, no delays, etc. The senior tech lead got a major promotion and a GIGANTIC bonus. I got nothing. I was so disappointed that I just stopped caring. Over the last year, I have just kind of floated. During my first 4 years I felt energized after a 10 hour day. Now I can barely be bothered to work 6 hours a day. Any advice? I don't even know what I'm asking. I am just hoping smart people see this and drop me a few pieces of wisdom.

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• Is it more valuable to double major in Computer Science/Software Engineering or get an undergraduate CS degree with a Masters in SE?

  - by Austin Hyde

  A friend and I (both in college) are currently in a debate over which is better, in terms of employment opportunities, experience, and education: a Bachelors degree in both Computer Science and Software Engineering, or a Bachelors in Computer Science with a Masters in Software Engineering. My point of view is that I would rather go to school for 4-4.5 years to learn both sides of the field, and be out working on real projects gaining real experience, by going the double major route. His point of view is that it would look better to potential employers if he had a Bachelors in CS and Masters in SE. That way, when he's finally done after 4 years of CS and 2-4 of SE (depending on where he goes), he can pretty much have his choosing of what he wants to do. We are both in agreement on the distinction between the two degrees: CS is "traditional" and about the theory of algorithms, data structures, and programming, where SE is the study of the design of software and the implementation of CS theory. So, what's your stance on this debate? Have you gone one route or another? And most importantly, why?

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• Is there a canonical book for learning Java as an experienced developer?

  - by Steven Elliott Jr

  I have been a .NET developer now for about the past 5/6 years give or take. I have never done any professional Java development and the last time I really touched it was probably back in college. I have been toying with the Scala language a little bit but nothing serious. Recently, I've been offered an opportunity to do some pretty cool work, but using Java instead of .NET. I think I can get by alright with my current skill set, meaning I already know how to program well and am familiar with languages such as C# and C++, etc. So, the syntax and all that language stuff are really not a problem. What I need is a really good reference book and a book about how to think in Java. Each language/Framework/Stack tries to address things a certain way and I'm sure Java is no different. What are some great Java books that you simply can't live without? Are there any books that talk about the most important parts of Java that must be understood before all else? As a side note, I will be doing mostly Java web development. Not really 100% on what types of stuff they are using for persistence, framework, server, etc.

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• I need some career guidance, please.

  - by user18956

  Hi, I have been a teacher of guitar and music theory for the last ten years or so, and I have decided to get out of it and pursue something involving computers, but I am very confused about it all. I have no training related to programming besides a knowledge of xhtml and css - which I realize are not even programming languages. My problem is that I know I want to do something with either making video games, computer/online applications, or some other programming job, but I haven't a clue how to begin. I picked up a book from the Head First series entitled, Head First Programming that uses Python to teach programming concepts, but after that, I don't really know what is a good direction for me in terms of balancing career satisfaction with job availability and acceptable pay. I am not looking for a huge salary, I just want to be able to survive doing something I love, and which challenges me. I don't know even a single person involved in a related field, so I am in need of guidance. The first thing I would like to know is whether pursuing a career as a programmer for video games is a realistic option. I love video games, and play them all the time, and I have always wanted to make them. If this is an option, what would be the recommended course of action? What is a good language or technology to get involved in for the job market now? I have read that PHP/MySQL is a good place to find a job for some. Can I find a job without school, or do I need to got o college? Also, will the Python I learn in this book translate into any other language I need to learn? If it is anything like music, then I am sure it will, but I don't know much about programming - yet. And last, yet perhaps most important, is thirty years old too old to take such a radical redirection in careers? Thank you for any help you can offer. I really need it.

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• Too sell or give for free

  - by QAH

  Hello everyone! I am currently making a game that I was originally planning to sell. It is a simple 2D arcade style game for the PC. I've seen many indie games become popular and generate revenue from advertisements, but the game itself remains free. I need some advice on whether or not I should sell my game, release it for free with advertisements, or ask for donations and keep the game free. I feel that my game is fun, but of course the graphics aren't tip top because I am a programmer, not an artist. I just take screenshots of 3D models I get from Turbosquid and crop around it to make a sprite. Also, and I could be very wrong about this, it seems that there are more legal issues surrounding selling a game than making it free and generating revenue from advertisement, or asking for donations. If I am wrong, someone please correct me. Also, I am very interested in generating some revenue for my work, but that isn't at the very top of my list. I am in my last year of high school, soon to be going to college, and I am going to major in computer science/software engineering. So I am trying to gain some preliminary experience at home by coding stuff every day. One way of getting this experience is by making this game. So what do you think? What route should I take? What has worked well with other indie games? Thanks in advance.

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• Programming in academic environment vs industry environment [closed]

  - by user200340

  Possible Duplicate: Differences between programming in school vs programming in industry? This is a general discussion about programming in the industry environment. The background story is that my colleague sent me a very interesting article called "10 Things Entrepreneurs Don’t Learn in College." The first point in that post is about the author's experience of programming in the academic environment vs industry environment. After finishing a 4 year Computer Science degree course, I am currently working in the academic environment as a developer, mainly writing Java, J2EE, Javascript code. I know there are differences between academic programming and industry programming, but I was shocked after reading that post. Trying to avoid this happening on me in the future, or the others. Can anyone from industry give some general advice about how to program in industry. For example, What exactly happens when a task is received? What is the flow from the beginning to the end? What are the main differences between the programming in industry and academia? Is it more structured? Are more frameworks used? It would be great if some code examples could be given. Thanks.

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• Entry / JR Php Programmer - What do I learn next?

  - by dtj

  I got very interested in programming toward the end of college. Took a few classes, but learned most everything on my own via books and such. Its mostly been Php and MySQL. Right out of school, I got a job working at a company for 2 years (web media) and ended up learning a lot of stuff and programming some things for them. I am no longer at that company but I am looking for my next steps as a programmer. I really enjoy Web Development and Php and MySQL seems to be my thing. Basically, I know how to do CRUD operations, i am mediocre at OOP and still have more to learn, I know HTML and CSS quite well, I know my way around a Unix terminal and can access MySQL through it and set up cron jobs and such. I know some basic Javascript. Whats a good next step? I don't anything about 3rd party services, PDO, APIs (twitter, facebook, etc), Drupal / Joomla, Unit Testing, E-Commerce, PECL, PEAR ....in other words A LOT I get easily overwhelmed by the amount of stuff there is to learn, so I'm sort of trying to find a path. Right now, I'm digging into OOP more, as that seems like a good conceptual first-step. Any suggestions?

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• Stackify Gives Devs a Crack at the Production Server

  - by Matt Watson

  Originally published on SDTimes.com on 7/9/2012 by David Rubinstein.It was one of those interviews where you get finished talking about a company’s product, and you wonder aloud, “Well, THAT makes sense! Why hasn’t anyone thought of that before?” Matt Watson, CEO of Kansas City, Mo.-based startup Stackify, was telling me that the 10-person company is getting ready to launch its product in August (it’s in beta now) that will give developers an app-centric look into production servers so they can support and troubleshoot apps and fix bugs. Of course, this hasn’t happened in the past because of the security concerns of IT administrators, and a decided lack of expertise on the part of developers. Stackify installs on a server and acts like a proxy for developers, collecting data about the environment, discovering all the applications, scanning for config file changes, and doing server monitoring. “We become the central point that developers can see everything they need to know about their applications,” he said. “Developers can look at the files that are deployed, and query databases in a safe way.”  In his words:“The big thing we’re hoping is just giving them (developers) visibility. Most companies want to hire the junior developers that they pay $50,000 a year right out of college to do application support and troubleshooting and fix bugs, but those people don’t have access to production servers to troubleshoot. It becomes very difficult for them to do their job, so they end up spending all of their day bugging the senior developers, the managers or the system administrators to track down this stuff, which creates a huge bottleneck. And so what we can do is give that visibility to those lower-level people so that they can do this work and free up the higher-level people so they can be working on the next big thing.”Stackify itself might just prove to be the next big thing.

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• What stands out on a Juniors CV

  - by DeanMc

  Hi all, I am looking for advice, hopefully from people more experienced that me. I am going to start applying for junior positions for .net development in the summer. At the moment the only thing on my CV is a project I have done for Windows Phone 7 called sprout sms. It allows the user to send webtext as provided by Irish Operators. The app is doing well and is top ten in my local marketplace (Ireland). By trade I am a salesman and that is the extent of most of my employment. I haven't been to college and due to financial commitments I would not be able to go down the road of full time education. I have kept up to date with various .net related tech in a junior capacity and am looking to now change careers. What I am look to see is what stands out on a juniors CV. My lack of education stands against me so I am looking to offset this with practical experience. I am open to all suggestions and from the end of this month I am free to pursue "notches" which will make my CV stand out. So in short if you where hiring a Junior, what would you like to see that would make you take a second look or request an interview? NOTE: I do fear this is a subjective subject, rather than debate what is the best items to have on a Juniors CV I would like to concentrate on what info you would give to a junior who is looking to apply for a job this year. Thanks to all that respond.

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• Future Trends and Challenges for Aircraft Cabins

  - by Bill Evjen

  Ingo Wuggetzer The aircraft cabin changes from the 60s till now has worsened. First class is actually premium / economy is still moving down in quality The challenge is to do efficiency and comfort Graying population is a challenge will be 14% of the world’s population soon Obesity increasingly becoming an all-milieu core societal problem Will have impact on seat sizes Female forces – women will increasingly influence business and lifestyle There are now more women in college than men People want to be green and this reflects into aircrafts. You can now buy carbon-offsets when you buy a ticket in some airlines 20% are willing to pay for green products 13% would like to but are not doing it yet Seamless Connectivity Internet is obviously mainstream and the influence of our daily lives 2 billion users in 2010 One direction is going mobile Another direction is going social computing We have to explore this to use more with our products Convergence of products iPad usage on Finair , Virgin, Jetstar iPhone share 2% Other smartphones – 11% Feature Phone – 87% Plans to invest in technology trends within the next 3 years connectivity to/from aircraft – 21% major investment / 47% R&D nominal investment Web 2.0 – 22% major investment / 57% R&D nominal investment Cabin technical investments Lighting Wireless Sensors Displays People want to use technologies on the plane that they can use on the ground Planes have moved to digital in the last decade – now they are moving to wireless Data volumes are going through the roof – (Moore’s Law)

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• Virtual Trade Show Available On Demand

  - by Theresa Hickman

  If you missed the Oracle Applications Virtual Trade Show on Feb. 3rd, 2011, you can still view all the recordings now and for the next three months. There are 36 sessions at 30 minutes each, covering 5 tracks, such as Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Fusion, and Hyperion. Multiple product areas are covered from Financials, Procurement, Supply Chain, CRM, Performance Management, etc. The following lists the Financials sessions for the various product lines. Planning Your Successful Upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Financials 12.1. In this session, Bryant and Stratton College talk about their upgrade. Planning Your Successful Upgrade to PeopleSoft Financials 9.1. In this session, the University of Central Florida share their upgrade story. Fusion Financials: The New Standard for Finance. In this session, Terrance Wampler, the VP of Financial Application Strategy discusses the business value of Oracle's next generation financial applications and how customers can take advantage of Fusion Financials alongside their existing investments. Click here, to register and view any session recording at your convenience!

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• Is knowledge of hacking mechanisms required for an MMO?

  - by Gabe

  Say I was planning on, in the future (not now! There is alot I need to learn first) looking to participating in a group project that was going to make a massively multiplayer online game (mmo), and my job would be the networking portion. I'm not that familiar with network programming (I've read a very basic book on PHP, MYSQL and I messed around a bit with WAMP). In the course of my studying of PHP and MYSQL, should I look into hacking? Hacking as in port scanning, router hacking, etc. In MMOs people are always trying to cheat, bots and such, but the worst scenario would be having someone hack the databases. This is just my conception of this, I really don't know. I do however understand networking fairly well, like subnetting/ports/IP's (local/global)/etc. In your professional opinion, (If you understand the topic, enlighten me) Should I learn about these things in order to counter the possibility of this happening? Also, out of the things I mentioned (port scanning, router hacking) Is there anything else that pertains to hacking that I should look into? I'm not too familiar with the malicious/Security aspects of Networking. And a note: I'm not some kid trying to learn how to hack. I just want to learn as much as possible before I go to college, and I really need to know if I need to study this or not.

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• Squid 3 and Internet Explorer 11 with authentication

  - by StBlade

  Need some help. My college has up until now been running Squid 3 on Ubuntu 12.02 and now 14.04 successfully. That was till recently. Our WSUS server is dishing out updates to all our workstations of which Internet Explorer 11 is one of them. Now all of a sudden users do not need to authenticate via the squid proxy to be able to use the internet. This makes it rather difficult as I also use SARG to generate usage logs for all users each day. All our workstations also have Chrome on them, and Chrome authenticates fine via the Squid proxy. Doing a couple of Googles, I ran into and article, where someone made mention that Microsoft has deprecated digest and basic authentication from IE 11. Reason was given that Office 2013 was giving problems as it was not giving the popup screen for authentication when Office tries to download templates from the internet. I have run into this problem, but by setting those sites to not authenticate via squid fixed the problem. Has anyone else run into something similiar? Would changing to NTLM or Kereberos be a solution?

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• Best Java Book(s) for an Experienced Developer

  - by Steven Elliott Jr

  I have been a .NET developer now for about the past 5/6 years give or take. I have never done any professional Java development and the last time I really touched it was probably back in college. I have been toying with the Scala language a little bit but nothing serious. Recently, I've been offered an opportunity to do some pretty cool work, but using Java instead of .NET. I think I can get by alright with my current skill set, meaning I already know how to program well and am familiar with languages such as C# and C++, etc. So, the syntax and all that language stuff are really not a problem. What I need is a really good reference book and a book about how to think in Java. Each language/Framework/Stack tries to address things a certain way and I'm sure Java is no different. What are some great Java books that you simply can't live without? Are there any books that talk about the most important parts of Java that must be understood before all else? As a side note, I will be doing mostly Java web development. Not really 100% on what types of stuff they are using for persistence, framework, server, etc. Thanks again for the consideration.

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• Long term plan of attack to learn math?

  - by zhenka

  I am a web-developer with a desire to expand my skill-set to mathematics relevant to programming. As 2nd career, I am stuck in college doing some of the requirements while working. I was hoping the my education will teach me the needed skills to apply math, however I am quickly finding it to be too much easily-testable breadth-based approach very inefficient for the time invested. For example in my calculus 2 class, the only remotely useful mind expanding experience I had was volumes and areas under the curve. The rest was just monotonous glorified algebra, which while comes easy to me, could be done by software like wolfram alpha within seconds. This is not my idea of learning math. So here I am a frustrated student looking for a way to improve my understanding of math in a way that focuses on application, understanding and maximally removed needless tedium. However I cannot find a good long term study strategy with this approach in mind. So for those of like mind, how would you go about learning the necessary math without worrying too much about stuff a computer can do much better?

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• How to decide on a price for the project as a freelancer

  - by Shekhar_Pro

  I have seen similar question on this SE site but none comes close to a sure shot answer and many are rather subjective. So i am taking a website as an example to be more objective for you to decide its development price i should quote for the complete work.I would like to have specific figures. In past I have developed many projects for my classmates (Computer science and few .net) when i was in college and there i just arbitrarily quoted the price i will take depending on my mood and customer's ability to pay.. usually ranging from Rs.500 (about $10 USD) to Rs. 1500 (about $30 USD). I have also developed few websites but that was open-source and free. But this time impressed by my work i have got a client that wants to get a website developed similar to this: [ http://www.jeetle.in/ ]. So taking this website as an example tell me how much should i charge for complete work from designing to payment gateway implementation (Excluding the charge the payment gateway provider will take). Few information you might like to consider. I am the only developer on this project if that makes any difference. And i would be using ASP.Net and MSSQL Express for server side processing and jQuery on client. Time period for development offered is about 4 to 6 Weeks. Its like i know my work but not how much I'm worth

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• .NET development on Macs

  - by Jeff

  I posted the “exciting” conclusion of my laptop trade-ins and issues on my personal blog. The links, in chronological order, are posted below. While those posts have all of the details about performance and software used, I wanted to comment on why I like using Macs in the first place. It started in 2006 when Apple released the first Intel-based Mac. As someone with a professional video past, I had been using Macs on and off since college (1995 graduate), so I was never terribly religious about any particular platform. I’m still not, but until recently, it was staggering how crappy PC’s were. They were all plastic, disposable, commodity crap. I could never justify buying a PowerBook because I was a Microsoft stack guy. When Apple went Intel, they removed that barrier. They also didn’t screw around with selling to the low end (though the plastic MacBooks bordered on that), so even the base machines were pretty well equipped. Every Mac I’ve had, I’ve used for three years. Other than that first one, I’ve also sold each one, for quite a bit of money. Things have changed quite a bit, mostly within the last year. I’m actually relieved, because Apple needs competition at the high end. Other manufacturers are finally understanding the importance of industrial design. For me, I’ll stick with Macs for now, because I’m invested in OS X apps like Aperture and the Mac versions of Adobe products. As a Microsoft developer, it doesn’t even matter though… with Parallels, I Cmd-Tab and I’m in Windows. So after three and a half years with a wonderful 17” MBP and upgraded SSD, it was time to get something lighter and smaller (traveling light is critical with a toddler), and I eventually ended up with a 13” MacBook Air, with the i7 and 8 gig upgrades, and I love it. At home I “dock” it to a Thunderbolt Display. A new laptop .NET development on a Retina MacBook Pro with Windows 8 Returning my MacBook Pro with Retina display .NET development on a MacBook Air with Windows 8

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• What happened to the Journal of Game Development?

  - by Ricket

  The lengthy mission statement from its website states: The lack of game-specific research has prevented many in the academic community from embracing game development as a serious field of study. The Journal of Game Development (JOGD), however, provides a much-needed, peer-reviewed, medium of communication and the raison d'etre for serious academic research focused solely on game-related issues. The JOGD provides the vehicle for disseminating research and findings indigenous to the game development industry. It is an outlet for peer-reviewed research that will help validate the work and garner acceptance for the study of game development by the academic community. JOGD will serve both the game development industry and academic community by presenting leading-edge, original research, and theoretical underpinnings that detail the most recent findings in related academic disciplines, hardware, software, and technology that will directly affect the way games are conceived, developed, produced, and delivered. The Journal of Game Development was established in 2003. It's hard to find any information about the issues but at four issues per year, I estimate the last issue was distributed sometime in 2005 or 2006. It had a good editorial board of college professors and a founding editor from Ubisoft. The list of articles looks good. The price was reasonable. So what happened to it? Its website recently went down but you can see the last Archive.org version. The editor-in-chief is a professor at my school so I intend to ask him in person in a week or two, but I thought I'd see what you might be able to dig up about it first. Of course I will be sure to add an answer with his official word on the matter at that time.

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• Challenge Accepted

  - by Chris Gardner

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/freestylecoding/archive/2014/05/20/challenge-accepted.aspxIt appears my good buddies in The Krewe have created The Krewe Summer Blogging Challenge. The challenge is to write at least two blog posts a week for 12 weeks over the summer. Consider this challenge accepted. So, what can we expect coming up? I still have the Kinect v2 Alpha kit. Some of you may have seen me use it in talks. I need to make some major API changes in The Krewe WP8 App. Plus, I may have Xamarin on board to help with getting the app to the other platforms. I am determined to learn F#, and I'm taking all of you with me. I am teaching a college course this summer. I want to post some commentary on that side of training. I am sure some biometric stuff will come up. Anything else you guys may want. I have created tasks on my schedule to get a new blog post up no later than every Tuesday and Friday. We'll see how that goes. Wish me luck.

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• Can I become a Game Designer? [on hold]

  - by user32721

  This is my first time posting something on a forum in 4 years. I am posting this because I want to adjust my expectations and goals regarding game design. I am in college in Morocco (Al Akhawayn university). just started my junior year. I am a communications major (school of humanities) and a gender studies minor. I want to become a video game designer. It is the only career that I am interested in. I have been playing ever since I was 5 and haven't stopped yet. Currently I don't have any noteworthy skills to become a designer. I don't know how to program (don't really have the patience for it) and I can't draw to save my life. I haven't tried visual software like MAYA or MAX so I can't comment on graphic design. So I basically want to know whether my current education is capable of helping me reach my goal. If not then should I take a master's in game design (in the U.S?) or switch my minor to computer science? I am sorry that this post is long! I look forward to hearing your advice!

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• Fixed-Function vs Shaders: Which for beginner?

  - by Rob Hays

  I'm currently going to college for computer science. Although I do plan on utilizing an existing engine at some point to create a small game, my aim right now is towards learning the fundamentals: namely, 3D programming. I've already done some research regarding the choice between DirectX and OpenGL, and the general sentiment that came out of that was that whether you choose OpenGL or DirectX as your training-wheels platform, a lot of the knowledge is transferrable to the other platform. Therefore, since OpenGL is supported by more systems (probably a silly reason to choose what to learn), I decided that I'm going to learn OpenGL first. After I made this decision to learn OpenGL, I did some more research and found out about a dichotomy that I was somewhere unaware of all this time: fixed-function OpenGL vs. modern programmable shader-based OpenGL. At first, I thought it was an obvious choice that I should choose to learn shader-based OpenGL since that's what's most commonly used in the industry today. However, I then stumbled upon the very popular Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming by Jason L. McKesson, located here: http://www.arcsynthesis.org/gltut/ I read through the introductory bits, and in the "About This Book" section, the author states: "First, much of what is learned with this approach must be inevitably abandoned when the user encounters a graphics problem that must be solved with programmability. Programmability wipes out almost all of the fixed function pipeline, so the knowledge does not easily transfer." yet at the same time also makes the case that fixed-functionality provides an easier, more immediate learning curve for beginners by stating: "It is generally considered easiest to teach neophyte graphics programmers using the fixed function pipeline." Naturally, you can see why I might be conflicted about which paradigm to learn: Do I spend a lot of time learning (and then later unlearning) the ways of fixed-functionality, or do I choose to start out with shaders? My primary concern is that modern programmable shaders somehow require the programmer to already understand the fixed-function pipeline, but I doubt that's the case. TL;DR == As an aspiring game graphics programmer, is it in my best interest to learn 3D programming through fixed-functionality or modern shader-based programming?

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