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• Best practices for implementing collectible virtual item "packs"?

  - by Glenn Barnett

  I'm in the process of building a game in which virtual items can be obtained either by in-game play (defeating enemies, gaining levels), or by purchasing "packs" via microtransactions. Looking at an existing example like Duels.com's item packs, it looks like a lot of thought went into their implementation, including: Setting clear player expectations as to what can be obtained in the pack Limiting pack supply to increase demand and control inflation Are there other considerations that should be taken into account? For example, should the contents of the packs be pre-generated to guarantee the advertised drop rates, or is each drop rate just a random chance, and you could end up with higher or lower supply?

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• Basic tutorial/introduction for 3d matrices, idealy in c++, without openGl or directX

  - by René Nyffenegger

  I am wondering if there is a simple tutorial that covers the basics of how to initialize rotation, translation and projection matrices, and how to multiply them, and how to get the screen coordinates afterwards for a 3d point. Idealy, the tutorial comes with compilable code and is not dependent on any 3rd party library. Searching the internet, I found lots of tutorials, so this is not the problem. Yet, it seemed all of these either covered openGl or directX, or they were theoretical in nature.

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• My grid based collision detection is slow

  - by Fibericon

  Something about my implementation of a basic 2x4 grid for collision detection is slow - so slow in fact, that it's actually faster to simply check every bullet from every enemy to see if the BoundingSphere intersects with that of my ship. It becomes noticeably slow when I have approximately 1000 bullets on the screen (36 enemies shooting 3 bullets every .5 seconds). By commenting it out bit by bit, I've determined that the code used to add them to the grid is what's slowest. Here's how I add them to the grid: for (int i = 0; i < enemy[x].gun.NumBullets; i++) { if (enemy[x].gun.bulletList[i].isActive) { enemy[x].gun.bulletList[i].Update(timeDelta); int bulletPosition = 0; if (enemy[x].gun.bulletList[i].position.Y < 0) { bulletPosition = (int)Math.Floor((enemy[x].gun.bulletList[i].position.X + 900) / 450); } else { bulletPosition = (int)Math.Floor((enemy[x].gun.bulletList[i].position.X + 900) / 450) + 4; } GridItem bulletItem = new GridItem(); bulletItem.index = i; bulletItem.type = 5; bulletItem.parentIndex = x; if (bulletPosition > -1 && bulletPosition < 8) { if (!grid[bulletPosition].Contains(bulletItem)) { for (int j = 0; j < grid.Length; j++) { grid[j].Remove(bulletItem); } grid[bulletPosition].Add(bulletItem); } } } } And here's how I check if it collides with the ship: if (ship.isActive && !ship.invincible) { BoundingSphere shipSphere = new BoundingSphere( ship.Position, ship.Model.Meshes[0].BoundingSphere.Radius * 9.0f); for (int i = 0; i < grid.Length; i++) { if (grid[i].Contains(shipItem)) { for (int j = 0; j < grid[i].Count; j++) { //Other collision types omitted else if (grid[i][j].type == 5) { if (enemy[grid[i][j].parentIndex].gun.bulletList[grid[i][j].index].isActive) { BoundingSphere bulletSphere = new BoundingSphere(enemy[grid[i][j].parentIndex].gun.bulletList[grid[i][j].index].position, enemy[grid[i][j].parentIndex].gun.bulletModel.Meshes[0].BoundingSphere.Radius); if (shipSphere.Intersects(bulletSphere)) { ship.health -= enemy[grid[i][j].parentIndex].gun.damage; enemy[grid[i][j].parentIndex].gun.bulletList[grid[i][j].index].isActive = false; grid[i].RemoveAt(j); break; //no need to check other bullets } } else { grid[i].RemoveAt(j); } } What am I doing wrong here? I thought a grid implementation would be faster than checking each one.

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• How to fetch only the sprites in the player's range of motion for collision testing? (2D, axis aligned sprites)

  - by Twodordan

  I am working on a 2D sprite game for educational purposes. (In case you want to know, it uses WebGl and Javascript) I've implemented movement using the Euler method (and delta time) to keep things simple. Now I'm trying to tackle collisions. The way I wrote things, my game only has rectangular sprites (axis aligned, never rotated) of various/variable sizes. So I need to figure out what I hit and which side of the target sprite I hit (and I'm probably going to use these intersection tests). The old fashioned method seems to be to use tile based grids, to target only a few tiles at a time, but that sounds silly and impractical for my game. (Splitting the whole level into blocks, having each sprite's bounding box fit multiple blocks I might abide. But if the sprites change size and move around, you have to keep changing which tiles they belong to, every frame, it doesn't sound right.) In Flash you can test collision under one point, but it's not efficient to iterate through all the elements on stage each frame. (hence why people use the tile method). Bottom line is, I'm trying to figure out how to test only the elements within the player's range of motion. (I know how to get the range of motion, I have a good idea of how to write a collisionCheck(playerSprite, targetSprite) function. But how do I know which sprites are currently in the player's vicinity to fetch only them?) Please discuss. Cheers!

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• How can I view an R32G32B32 texture?

  - by bobobobo

  I have a texture with R32G32B32 floats. I create this texture in-program on D3D11, using DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32_FLOAT. Now I need to see the texture data for debug purposes, but it will not save to anything but dds, showing the error in debug output, "Can't find matching WIC format, please save this file to a DDS". So, I write it to DDS but I can't open it now! The DirectX texture tool says "An error occurred trying to open that file". I know the texture is working because I can read it in the GPU and the colors seem correct. How can I view an R32G32B32 texture in an image viewer?

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• Client side latency when using prediction

  - by Tips48

  I've implemented Client-Side prediction into my game, where when input is received by the client, it first sends it to the server and then acts upon it just as the server will, to reduce the appearance of lag. The problem is, the server is authoritative, so when the server sends back the position of the Entity to the client, it undo's the effect of the interpolation and creates a rubber-banding effect. For example: Client sends input to server - Client reacts on input - Server receives and reacts on input - Server sends back response - Client reaction is undone due to latency between server and client To solve this, I've decided to store the game state and input every tick in the client, and then when I receive a packet from the server, get the game state from when the packet was sent and simulate the game up to the current point. My questions: Won't this cause lag? If I'm receiving 20/30 EntityPositionPackets a second, that means I have to run 20-30 simulations of the game state. How do I sync the client and server tick? Currently, I'm sending the milli-second the packet was sent by the server, but I think it's adding too much complexity instead of just sending the tick. The problem with converting it to sending the tick is that I have no guarantee that the client and server are ticking at the same rate, for example if the client is an old-end PC.

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• The best way to structure/design game code

  - by Edward

  My question is quite broad and related to the 2D game code design/architecture/structure. Usually the main game consists of the main loop where you update & render your world states. However, it's recommended for many purposes to separate rendering from the game-logic and so on. I am kinda confused about the whole situation. Many game engines/libs/sdks don't follow separation schema. They propagate a way where you define some scenes/stages and they contain some objects and the scene/stage controls the user input and so on. For example, in cocos2d(-x) and libgdx (stage2d) the games are usually done the way that the update logic happens at the same time/place as rendering. Also, the propagated way is to have a structure where an object knows how to draw itself - which is not a separation of updating & rendering. The same with Flash based games, they are usually done the way when an object (class) contains a swf or a texture and some data and holds some update logic itself, or updated from main Scene. And again this object already knows how to draw itself via "addChild". Also, some people recommend to use MVC pattern, which will require to completely obey the structure of those engines/libs/sdks. Maybe I am overthinking everything, but I am totally confused. I would be grateful if somebody could point me to a correct direction with the game code structures. What is your way of doing things in libgdx/cocos2d/flash?

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• GUI device for throwing a ball

  - by Fredrik Johansson

  The hero has a ball, which shall be thrown with accuracy in a court on iPhone/iPad. The player is seen from above, in a 2D view. In game play, the player reach is between 1/15 and 1/6 of the height of the iPhone screen. The player will run, and try to outmaneuver his opponent, and then throw the ball at a specific location, which is guarded by the opponent (which is also shown on the screen). The player is controlled by a joystick, and that works ok, but how shall I control the stick? Maybe someone can propose a third control method? I've tried the following two approaches: Joystick: Hero has a reach of 1 meter, and this reach is marked with a semi-opaque circle around the player. The ball can be moved by a joystick. When the joystick is moved south, the ball is moved south within the reach circle. There is a direct coupling with the joystick and the position of the ball. I.e. when the joystick is moved max south, the ball is max south within the player reach. At each touch update the speed is calculated, and the Box2d ball position and ball speed are updated. NB, the ball will never be moved outside the reach as long as the player push the joystick. The ball is thrown by swiping the joystick to make the ball move, and then releasing the joystick. At release, the ball will get a smoothed speed of the joystick. Joystick Problem: The throwing accuracy gets bad, because the joystick can not be that big, and a small movement results in quite a large movement of the ball. If the user does not release before the end of the joystick maximum end point, the ball will stop, and when the user releases the joystick the speed of the ball will be zero. Bad... Touch pad A force is applied to the ball by a sweep on a touchpad. The ball is released when the sweep is ended, or when the ball is moved outside the player reach. As there is no one to one mapping between the swipe and the ball position, the precision can be improved. A large swipe can result in a small ball movement. Touch Pad Problem A touchpad is less intuitive. Users do not seem to know what to do with the touch pad. Some tap the touchpad, and then the ball just falls to the ground. As there is no one-to-one mapping, the ball can be moved outside the reach, and then it will just fall to the ground. It's a bit hard to control the ball, especially if the player also moves.

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• Can I use DllImport/PInvoke in libraries loaded as Assets in Unity Free?

  - by sebf

  I am interested in using utilising third-party libraries in Unity Free. I know Unity can use managed libraries as Assets, but only the Pro version supports using native libraries. (DllImport within scripts). This thread however suggests that it is possible to import DLLs in the free version. I would like to utilise native libraries (as a hobbyist I cannot afford Pro), but want to do it the supported way so I don't have to worry about Unity 'fixing' this hole if that is what it is. Is there any supported way to use native libraries with Unity free? (i.e. does that thread suggest a workaround or is it a 'bug'? Is it supported to use DllImport/PInvoke in libraries loaded as assets? (could I create a wrapper myself?)

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• Making organic 2D tilemaps for tile based games...

  - by Codejoy

  So I have always wondered how one makes a nice (not so squarish) 2d tile map, is it possible? all games now days I think use textured polygons...but my game engine (and engine) doesn't support that to my knowledge. But it does support nice TMX files generated by mapeditor.org's Tiled Map Editor. Though in my game I want nice twisting and turning caverns to traverse ... I was wondering some ideas on such a process... is it in the art style? The type of tile engine? both? So what are some common techniques?

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• Unity Particle System collision detection problem

  - by Krav

  I'm using Unity 3.5.5f3 wich has the Shuriken particle system. I've made a blood particle system based on Unity's demos. (Exploding paint [Blood]) The blood is flowing and when it collides with a Plane Transform wich I've created a small pool of blood spawns as a Collision Sub Emitter. My main problem is that when I want to add another object to collide it just doesn't want to work. When I create a cube, and set it as a collision plane the collision will only occur at the half of the cube. I want this to happen: When it reaches the cube's surface the sub emmiter activates, and when the surface is horizontal it appears horizontally, and if it's vertical then vertically. Now it just appears horizontally everytime like in the picture. How could I solve it?

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• Calculating instantaneous speed and acceleration for a simple Car software model

  - by Dylan

  I am trying to model a speedometer and tachometer for a simple software model of a car dashboard. I want this to be relatively simple, so for my purposes I won't likely simulate variables such as drag (or, assume that drag is a constant). But I would like to know the general formulas for: 1) Calculating the RPM, depending on a position of a graphical slider representing the accelerator. 2) Using this information to find the instantaneous speed (or, magnitude of instantaneous velocity?). I am not sure, in the case of 2), what other independent variables I need to consider. Do I need to consider the frequency of rotation of the wheels (assuming a fixed radius), in addition to the RPM? If anyone can give me a rough explanation plus relevant formulas, or alternatively direct me to other trusted resources online (I have had a hard time sifting through info and determining the accuracy), it would be much appreciated.

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• add collision detection to sprite?

  - by xBroak

  bassically im trying to add collision detection to the sprite below, using the following: self.rect = bounds_rect collide = pygame.sprite.spritecollide(self, wall_list, False) if collide: # yes print("collide") However it seems that when the collide is triggered it continuously prints 'collide' over and over when instead i want them to simply not be able to walk through the object, any help? def update(self, time_passed): """ Update the creep. time_passed: The time passed (in ms) since the previous update. """ if self.state == Creep.ALIVE: # Maybe it's time to change the direction ? # self._change_direction(time_passed) # Make the creep point in the correct direction. # Since our direction vector is in screen coordinates # (i.e. right bottom is 1, 1), and rotate() rotates # counter-clockwise, the angle must be inverted to # work correctly. # self.image = pygame.transform.rotate( self.base_image, -self.direction.angle) # Compute and apply the displacement to the position # vector. The displacement is a vector, having the angle # of self.direction (which is normalized to not affect # the magnitude of the displacement) # displacement = vec2d( self.direction.x * self.speed * time_passed, self.direction.y * self.speed * time_passed) self.pos += displacement # When the image is rotated, its size is changed. # We must take the size into account for detecting # collisions with the walls. # self.image_w, self.image_h = self.image.get_size() global bounds_rect bounds_rect = self.field.inflate( -self.image_w, -self.image_h) if self.pos.x < bounds_rect.left: self.pos.x = bounds_rect.left self.direction.x *= -1 elif self.pos.x > bounds_rect.right: self.pos.x = bounds_rect.right self.direction.x *= -1 elif self.pos.y < bounds_rect.top: self.pos.y = bounds_rect.top self.direction.y *= -1 elif self.pos.y > bounds_rect.bottom: self.pos.y = bounds_rect.bottom self.direction.y *= -1 self.rect = bounds_rect collide = pygame.sprite.spritecollide(self, wall_list, False) if collide: # yes print("collide") elif self.state == Creep.EXPLODING: if self.explode_animation.active: self.explode_animation.update(time_passed) else: self.state = Creep.DEAD self.kill() elif self.state == Creep.DEAD: pass #------------------ PRIVATE PARTS ------------------# # States the creep can be in. # # ALIVE: The creep is roaming around the screen # EXPLODING: # The creep is now exploding, just a moment before dying. # DEAD: The creep is dead and inactive # (ALIVE, EXPLODING, DEAD) = range(3) _counter = 0 def _change_direction(self, time_passed): """ Turn by 45 degrees in a random direction once per 0.4 to 0.5 seconds. """ self._counter += time_passed if self._counter > randint(400, 500): self.direction.rotate(45 * randint(-1, 1)) self._counter = 0 def _point_is_inside(self, point): """ Is the point (given as a vec2d) inside our creep's body? """ img_point = point - vec2d( int(self.pos.x - self.image_w / 2), int(self.pos.y - self.image_h / 2)) try: pix = self.image.get_at(img_point) return pix[3] > 0 except IndexError: return False def _decrease_health(self, n): """ Decrease my health by n (or to 0, if it's currently less than n) """ self.health = max(0, self.health - n) if self.health == 0: self._explode() def _explode(self): """ Starts the explosion animation that ends the Creep's life. """ self.state = Creep.EXPLODING pos = ( self.pos.x - self.explosion_images[0].get_width() / 2, self.pos.y - self.explosion_images[0].get_height() / 2) self.explode_animation = SimpleAnimation( self.screen, pos, self.explosion_images, 100, 300) global remainingCreeps remainingCreeps-=1 if remainingCreeps == 0: print("all dead")

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• Ouya build experiencing odd graphical artifacts, screen half black

  - by Neeko

  I'm witnessing very odd graphical artifacts when I run my Unity game on Ouya. After the Unity splash screen, the game loads with the screen half black. This seemingly has started occurring out of the blue. It also doesn't occur in the editor or the standalone build, only on Ouya. I can't think of a single reason why this would be happening. If I open the Ouya menu screen and close it, the game returns to normal; somewhat, as there may be some artifacts lingering but the screen isn't half black like in the screen shot above. I know there's not much to go off of, but any insight into why this may be happening is greatly appreciated.

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• How to fix bad Collada produced by FBX?

  - by David

  I tried to use the FBX SDK (2011.3.1) to load FBX files and save them as Collada files in order to be able to import FBX files in Panda3D. Unfortunately the resulting Collada files are not usable for several reasons, among them: There's a Maya specific extra technique diffuse <diffuse> <texture texture="Map__2-image" texcoord="CHANNEL0"> <extra> <technique profile="MAYA"> <wrapU sid="wrapU0">TRUE</wrapU> <wrapV sid="wrapV0">TRUE</wrapV> <blend_mode>ADD</blend_mode> </technique> </extra> </texture> </diffuse> It assigns a texcoord channel name that isn't referenced anywhere else in the file (in the previous code sample, no geometry uses "CHANNEL0"...) Every polygon is exported twice, a first time with a basic material (only diffuse color, specular color, etc.) and a second time with a textured material -- this doubles the number of polygons of each model without any valuable reason Anyway, the resulting Collada file cannot be opened correctly either with OpenCOLLADA or Panda3D's "dae2egg". Anyone has any experience on how to "fix" it and make it understandable by common and well-reputed Collada importers such as OpenCOLLADA?

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• What are the cons of using DrawableGameComponent for every instance of a game object?

  - by Kensai

  I've read in many places that DrawableGameComponents should be saved for things like "levels" or some kind of managers instead of using them, for example, for characters or tiles (Like this guy says here). But I don't understand why this is so. I read this post and it made a lot of sense to me, but these are the minority. I usually wouldn't pay too much attention to things like these, but in this case I would like to know why the apparent majority believes this is not the way to go. Maybe I'm missing something.

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• Which are the cons of using only non-member functions and POD?

  - by Miro

  I'm creating my own game engine. I've read these articles and this question about DOD and it was written to not use member functions and classes. I also heard some criticism to this idea. I can write it using member functions or non-member functions it would be similar. So what are the benefits/cons of that approach or when the project grows, does any of these approaches give clearer and better manageable code? With POD & non-member functions I don't have to make struct members public I can still use object id outside of engine like OpenGL does with all it's stuff, so It's not about encapsulation. POD - plain old data DOD - data oriented design

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• checking for collision detection

  - by bill

  I am trying to create a game where you have a player and you can move right,left, and jump. kind of like mario but its not a side scroller. also i want to use 2d array to make a tile map. my big problem is that i dont understand how to check for collision. i spend about 2 week thinking about this and i came up with 2 solution but they both have problems. let say my map is: 0 = sky 1 = player 2 = ground 00000 10002 22022 Solution 1: move the '1'(player) and update the map less say player wants to move right, then x+=grid[x+1][y] this make the collision easy bc you can just check if if(grid[x][y+1] == 2){ //player is standing on top of ground } problem with this when u hit right key player will move (x*Titlewidth) to right. and as you can see the animation wont look smooth. Solution 2: move player and dont update map player_x += 2 this will make the animation more smoother bc i am just moving 2 pixels. problem1: i cant update map bc if player some times will be middle of int(2d array). but thats ok sinces its not a side scroller so updating the map is not a big deal. problem2: only way to check for collision is to use java intersection method. but then player have to be atleast 1 or 2 pixel in ground in order to check for collision. and as you can see that wont look good too. plz note this is my first collision game in java. so plz try to explain alot otherwise i wont understand it.

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• Effective way to check if an Entity/Player enters a region/trigger

  - by Chris

  I was wondering how multiplayer games detect if you enter a special region. Let's assume there is a huge map that is so big that simply checking it would become a huge performance issue. I've seen bukkit (a modding API for Minecraft servers) firing an Event on every single move. I don't think that larger games do the same because even if you have only a few coordinates you are interested in, you have to loop through a few trigger zone to see if the player is inside your region - for every player. This seems like an extremely CPU-intense operation to me even though I've never developed something like that. Is there a special algorithm that is used by larger games to accomplish this? The only thing I could imagine is to split up the world into multiple parts and to register the event not on the movement itself but on all the parts that are covered by your area and only check for areas that are registered in the current part. And another thing I would like to know: How could you detect when someone must have entered a trigger but you never saw him directly in it since his client only sent you an move packet shortly before entering and after leaving the trigger area. Drawing a line and calculate all colliding parts seems rather CPU intensive if you have to perform it every time.

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• Making a game "resize-safe"

  - by CPP_Person

  It's one thing to get the graphics aligned perfectly, it's another to do this for every single resolution and not take too much time and/or make the code unreadable due to size. Games like Battlefield 3 and Minecraft seem to manage this. But what do they do to keep things from stretching or going off the screen? I don't know any algorithms to do this. I'd like some help on this topic. I've always programmed games that only handle a single resolution, so help would be appreciate.

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• First Minecraft mod not working: make a new sword

  - by yamikoWebs

  I am making my first mod and cannot see what is wrong with it. I am using MCP and Modloader. For my first mod I was going to make swords. I started with making a new EnumToolMaterials WOOD(0, 59, 2.0F, 0, 15), STONE(1, 131, 4.0F, 1, 5), IRON(2, 250, 6.0F, 2, 14), LAPIS(3, 750, 7.0F, 2, 14), OBSIDIAN(3, 1000, 7.5F, 3, 12), EMERALD(3, 1561, 8.0F, 3, 10),//diamond GREEN(3, 2000, 9.0F, 4, 10),//emerald GOLD(0, 200, 12.0F, 0, 22); then here is the mod class public class _Mod_Yamiko extends BaseMod{ /* mod itemts */ public static final Item swordLapis = (new ItemSword(600, EnumToolMaterial.LAPIS)).setItemName("swordLapis"); public static final Item swordObsidian = (new ItemSword(601, EnumToolMaterial.OBSIDIAN)).setItemName("swordObsidian"); public static final Item swordGreen = (new ItemSword(602, EnumToolMaterial.GREEN)).setItemName("swordGreen"); public void load(){ //set images swordLapis.iconIndex = ModLoader.addOverride("/gui/items.png","/gui/swordLapis.png"); ModLoader.addName(swordLapis, "Lapis Sword"); //craft ModLoader.addRecipe(new ItemStack(_Mod_Yamiko.swordLapis, 1), new Object[]{ " X ", " X ", " Y ", 'X', Block.dirt, 'Y', Item.stick }); } public String getVersion(){ return "0.1"; } } Then I made a 16×16 .png image. I am not sure where to save it so I recompiled and reobfuscated, took the mod files and put it in my local Minecraft install, added the image where it be should be. No problems when playing but I cannot make the new sword.

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• Artifacts when using SamplerState.LinearClamp in SpriteBatch

  - by Raymond Holmboe

  I'm using XNA 4.0 and VS2010 Express for Windows Phone and Windows Phone SDK 7.1. This is a platform game and I have a map made up of 16x16 textures that is drawn dynamically, tile by tile. When using SpriteBatch to draw my map with LinearClamp, I get artifacts that looks like blurry thin lines. They become visible when the camera moves from one pixel to another and when the camera is still, the artifacts disappear. Here's a small sample of what I mean: Here's how I draw with the spritebatch: SBWorld.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Deferred, BlendState.NonPremultiplied, SamplerState.LinearClamp, DepthStencilState.Default, RasterizerState.CullNone, null, camera.View); When using SamplerState.PointClamp the game just plays horribly (IMHO), so I cannot use that. Why do these lines appear and how do I get rid of those?

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• Dealing with 2D pixel shaders and SpriteBatches in XNA 4.0 component-object game engine?

  - by DaveStance

  I've got a bit of experience with shaders in general, having implemented a couple, very simple, 3D fragment and vertex shaders in OpenGL/WebGL in the past. Currently, I'm working on a 2D game engine in XNA 4.0 and I'm struggling with the process of integrating per-object and full-scene shaders in my current architecture. I'm using a component-entity design, wherein my "Entities" are merely collections of components that are acted upon by discreet system managers (SpatialProvider, SceneProvider, etc). In the context of this question, my draw call looks something like this: SceneProvider::Draw(GameTime) calls... ComponentManager::Draw(GameTime, SpriteBatch) which calls (on each drawable component) DrawnComponent::Draw(GameTime, SpriteBatch) The SpriteBatch is set up, with the default SpriteBatch shader, in the SceneProvider class just before it tells the ComponentManager to start rendering the scene. From my understanding, if a component needs to use a special shader to draw itself, it must do the following when it's Draw(GameTime, SpriteBatch) method is invoked: public void Draw(GameTime gameTime, SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { spriteBatch.End(); spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Immediate, BlendState.AlphaBlend, null, null, null, EffectShader, ViewMatrix); // Draw things here that are shaded by the "EffectShader." spriteBatch.End(); spriteBatch.Begin(/* same settings that were set by SceneProvider to ensure the rest of the scene is rendered normally */); } My question is, having been told that numerous calls to SpriteBatch.Begin() and SpriteBatch.End() within a single frame was terrible for performance, is there a better way to do this? Is there a way to instruct the currently running SpriteBatch to simply change the Effect shader it is using for this particular draw call and then switch it back before the function ends?

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• How do I do JavaScript Array Animation

  - by Henry

  I'm making a game but don't know how to do Array Animation with the png Array and game Surface that I made below. I'm trying to make it so that when the Right arrow key is pressed, the character animates as if it is walking to the right and when the Left arrow key is pressed it animates as if it is walking to the left (kind of like Mario). I put everything on a surface instead of the canvas. Everything is explained in the code below. I couldn't find help on this anywhere. I hope what I got below makes sense. I'm basically a beginner with JavaScript. I'll be back if more is needed: <!doctype html5> <html> <head></head> <script src="graphics.js"></script> <script src="object.js"></script> <body onkeydown ="keyDown(event)" onkeyup ="keyUp(event)" ></body> <script> //"Surface" is where I want to display my animation. It's like the HTML // canvas but it's not that. It's just the surface to where everything in the //game and the game itself will be displayed. var Surface = new Graphics(600, 400, "skyblue"); //here's the array that I want to use for animation var player = new Array("StandsRight.png", "WalksRight.png", "StandsLeft.png","WalksLeft.png" ); //Here is the X coordinate, Y coordinate, the beginning png for the animation, //and the object's name "player." I also turned the array into an object (but //I don't know if I was supposed to do that or not). var player = new Object(50, 100, 40, 115, "StandsRight.png","player"); //When doing animation I know that it requires a "loop", but I don't // know how to connect it so that it works with the arrays so that //it could animate. var loop = 0; //this actually puts "player" on screen. It makes player visible and //it is where I would like the animation to occur. Surface.drawObject(player); //this would be the key that makes "player" animation in the righward direction function keyDown(e) { if (e.keyCode == 39); } //this would be the key that makes "player" animation in the leftward direction function keyUp(e){ if (e.keyCode == 39); } //this is the Mainloop where the game will function MainLoop(); //the mainloop functionized function MainLoop(){ //this is how fast or slow I could want the entire game to go setTimeout(MainLoop, 10); } </script> </html> From here, are the "graphic.js" and the "object.js" files below. In this section is the graphics.js file. This graphics.js part below is linked to the: script src="graphics.js" html script section that I wrote above. Basically, below is a seperate file that I used for Graphics, and to run the code above, make this graphics.js code that I post below here, a separate filed called: graphics.js function Graphics(w,h,c) { document.body.innerHTML += "<table style='position:absolute;font- size:0;top:0;left:0;border-spacing:0;border- width:0;width:"+w+";height:"+h+";background-color:"+c+";' border=1><tr><td> </table>\n"; this.drawRectangle = function(x,y,w,h,c,n) { document.body.innerHTML += "<div style='position:absolute;font-size:0;left:" + x + ";top:" + y + ";width:" + w + ";height:" + h + ";background-color:" + c + ";' id='" + n + "'></div>\n"; } this.drawTexture = function(x,y,w,h,t,n) { document.body.innerHTML += "<img style='position:absolute;font-size:0;left:" + x + ";top:" + y + ";width:" + w + ";height:" + h + ";' id='" + n + "' src='" + t + "'> </img>\n"; } this.drawObject = function(o) { document.body.innerHTML += "<img style='position:absolute;font-size:0;left:" + o.X + ";top:" + o.Y + ";width:" + o.Width + ";height:" + o.Height + ";' id='" + o.Name + "' src='" + o.Sprite + "'></img>\n"; } this.moveGraphic = function(x,y,n) { document.getElementById(n).style.left = x; document.getElementById(n).style.top = y; } this.removeGraphic = function(n){ document.getElementById(n).parentNode.removeChild(document.getElementById(n)); } } Finally, is the object.js file linked to the script src="object.js"" in the html game file above the graphics.js part I just wrote. Basically, this is a separate file too, so thus, in order to run or test the html game code in the very first section I wrote, a person has to also make this code below a separate file called: object.js I hope this helps: function Object(x,y,w,h,t,n) { this.X = x; this.Y = y; this.Velocity_X = 0; this.Velocity_Y = 0; this.Previous_X = 0; this.Previous_Y = 0; this.Width = w; this.Height = h; this.Sprite = t; this.Name = n; this.Exists = true; } In all, this game is made based on a tutorial on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2kUzgFM4lY&feature=relmfu I'm just trying to learn how to add animations with it now. I hope the above helps. If not, let me know. Thanks

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• MiniMax function throws null pointer exception

  - by Sven

  I'm working on a school project, I have to build a tic tac toe game with the AI based on the MiniMax algorithm. The two player mode works like it should. I followed the code example on http://ethangunderson.com/blog/minimax-algorithm-in-c/. The only thing is that I get a NullPointer Exception when I run the code. And I can't wrap my finger around it. I placed a comment in the code where the exception is thrown. The recursive call is returning a null pointer, what is very strange because it can't.. When I place a breakpoint on the null return with the help of a if statement, then I see that there ARE still 2 to 3 empty places.. I probably overlooking something. Hope someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Here is the MiniMax code (the tic tac toe code is not important): /* * To change this template, choose Tools | Templates * and open the template in the editor. */ package MiniMax; import Game.Block; import Game.Board; import java.util.ArrayList; public class MiniMax { public static Place getBestMove(Board gameBoard, Block.TYPE player) { Place bestPlace = null; ArrayList<Place> emptyPlaces = gameBoard.getEmptyPlaces(); Board newBoard; //loop trough all the empty places for(Place emptyPlace : emptyPlaces) { newBoard = gameBoard.clone(); newBoard.setBlock(emptyPlace.getRow(), emptyPlace.getCell(), player); //no game won and still room to move if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.NONE && newBoard.getEmptyPlaces().size() > 0) { //is an node (has children) Place tempPlace = getBestMove(newBoard, invertPlayer(player)); //ERROR is thrown here! tempPlace is null. emptyPlace.setScore(tempPlace.getScore()); } else { //is an leaf if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.NONE) { emptyPlace.setScore(0); } else if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.X) { emptyPlace.setScore(-1); } else if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.O) { emptyPlace.setScore(1); } //if this move is better then our prev move, take it! if((bestPlace == null) || (player == Block.TYPE.X && emptyPlace.getScore() < bestPlace.getScore()) || (player == Block.TYPE.O && emptyPlace.getScore() > bestPlace.getScore())) { bestPlace = emptyPlace; } } } //This should never be null, but it does.. return bestPlace; } private static Block.TYPE invertPlayer(Block.TYPE player) { if(player == Block.TYPE.X) { return Block.TYPE.O; } return Block.TYPE.X; } }

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