Search Results

Search found 1697 results on 68 pages for 'effects'.

Page 41/68 | < Previous Page | 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48  | Next Page >

• 3D space game development

  - by user1693061

  I want to develop a 3D game (sci-fi type with spaceships) which can be played on multiplayer mode and by multiplayer i mean around 10 players for start as it will be a personal testing project and mostly educational. I have been searching for some days about the available languages and engines but i am kinda confused. Since i have been learning Java for my 1st year in I.T university and i have pretty good understanding i thought i would go with the Java language and develop that game on an applet so it could be played on a browser. After going through an applet game tutorial i understood how graphics work on an applet. So.. 1st question: Could an applet carry the burden of a 3D game especially on multiplayer? My thinking: It's a space game so the graphics should not be such a big problem since it wont be that crowded with entities apart from ships, planets and some effects. If the java applet is not the way for my project i would't mind "developing it on desktop"(i mean not making it a browser game). 2nd question: Should i use Unity engine for my purpose(space game)? If not name other language/engine combo.

  Read the article

• Multiple Businesses at The Same Physical Address - SEO / Google Places

  - by Howdy_McGee

  I was wondering what kind if there would be any negative effects to have multiple businesses having the exact same physical address on their website. Currently we have five businesses at the exact same address and it shows on their website, so when people google one of the five businesses address their going to get multiple results from multiple website most of which will not be what their looking for. What is a way around this / what can I do about this? Would adding "Suite Numbers" be a solution? A thought occurred that it might be a good idea to create a landing page for users that are looking up a business by it's address via google. The page will bring up multiple businesses since we have a few at the same address but if we have a landing page at the top which then leads to multiple businesses that might solve the multiple address seo problem. Going to keep researching it though. I also know for Google Places (possible bing local and yahoo local) this could also become a problem. I've submitted an inquiry with them but I wanted to know if anybody had a ready-made solution around this so that Google doesn't bunch all these companies together into one. Thanks!

  Read the article

• What are the challenges of implementing an ERP system?

  When a company decides to rollout an ERP system as part of its core business processes they must consider and provide solutions for the following general challenges. It is important to note that this list is generic and that every ERP system that rolls out is as distinct as the companies that are trying to implement the system. Upper Management Support Reengineering Existing Business Process and Applications Integration of the ERP with other existing departmental applications Implementation Time Implementation Costs Employee Training I just recently read an article by Mano Billi called “What are the major challenges in implementing ERP? “ were he basically outlines the common challenges to implementing an ERP system within a company. He discusses items like Upper management support, altering existing systems, and how ERPs integrate with other independent systems. In addition, he also covers items on selecting a ERP vendor, ERP Consultants, and the effects of an ERP system on employees.  I personally think he did a create job of outlining common issues that can cause an ERP implementation to fail or not be as effective as it potentially could be if the challenges are not taken in to account appropriately.

  Read the article

• generating maps

  - by gardian06

  This is a conglomeration question when answering please specify which part you are addressing. I am looking at creating a maze type game that utilizes elevation. I have a few features I would like to have, but am unsure as to some of the implementation. I have done work doing fileIO maze generation (using a key to read the file, and then generate the level based on that file), but I am unsure how to think about this with elevation in the mix. I think height maps might be a good approach, but don't know how to represent them effectively. for a height map which is more beneficial XML(containing h[u,v] data and key definition), CSV (item1 is key reference, item2 is elevation), or another approach that I have not thought of yet? When it comes to placing the elevation values themselves what kind of deltah values are appropriate to have it noticeable at about a 60degree angle while not really effecting gravity driven physics (assuming some effect while moving up/down hill)? I am thinking of maybe going to procedural generation at some point, but am wondering if it is practical to have a procedurally generated grid (wall squares possibly same dimensions as the open space squares), or if designing to a thin wall open spaces is better? this decision will effect the amount of work need on the graphics end for uniform vs. irregular walls. EDIT: game will be a elevation maze shooter. levels/maps will be mazes with elevation the player has to negotiate. elevations will have effects on "combat" vision, and movement

  Read the article

• 'Buy the app' landing page implementations: redirect or javascript popup?

  - by benwad

  My site (using Django) has an app that I'm trying to push - I currently have a piece of middleware that redirects the user to a page advertising the app if they're accessing the page on the iPhone, then setting a cookie so that the user isn't bugged by the message every time they visit the site. This works fine, however checking the page with the mobile Googlebot checker shows that the Googlebot gets stuck in the redirect (since it doesn't store cookies) and therefore won't index the proper content. So, I'm trying to think of an alternative implementation that won't hurt the site's Google ranking and won't have any other adverse effects. I've considered a couple of options: Redirect (the current solution), but don't redirect if the user agent matches the Googlebot's UA string. This would be ideal, however I'm not sure if Google like their bot being treated differently from other users, and I'm afraid the site's ranking may be somehow penalised if I go ahead with this. Use a Javascript popup instead of a redirect. This would make sure the Googlebot finds the content it needs, however I envision this approach causing compatibility issues with the myriad mobile devices/browsers out there, and may affect the page load time. How valid are these options? And is there a better option for implementing this feature out there? I've tried researching this topic but surprisingly can't find any reputable-looking blog posts that explore this topic.

  Read the article

• How to plan/manage multi-platform (mobile) products?

  - by PhD

  Say I've to develop an app that runs on iOS, Android and Windows 8 Mobile. Now all three platforms are technically in different program languages. The only 'reuse' that I can see is that of the boxes-and-lines drawings (UML :) charts and nothing else. So how do companies/programmers manage the variation of the same product across different platforms especially since the implementation languages differ? It's 'easier' in the desktop world IMO given the plethora of languages and cross-platform libraries to make your life easier. Not so in the mobile world. More so, product line management principles don't seem to be all that applicable - what is same and variant doesn't really matter - the application is the same (conceptually) and the implementation is variant. Some difficulties that come to mind: Bug Fixing: Applications maybe designed in a similar manner but the bug identification and fixing would be radically different. A bug on iOS may/may-not be existent for that on Android. Or a bug fix approach on one platform may not be the same on another (unless it's a semantic bug like a!=b instead of a==b which would require the same 'approach' to fixing in essence Enhancements: Making a change on one platform would be radically different than on another Code-Design Divergence: They way the code is written/organized, the class structures etc., could be very different given the different implementation environments - leading to further reuse of the (above) UML models. There are of course many others - just keeping the development in sync and making sure all applications are up to the same version with the same set of features etc. Seems the effort is 3x that of a single application. So how exactly does one manage this nightmarish situation? Some thoughts: Split application to client/server to minimize the effect to client side only (not always doable) Use frameworks like Unity-3D that could take care of the cross-platform problem (mostly applicable to games and probably not to other applications etc.) Any other ways of managing a platform line? What are some proven approaches to managing/taming the effects?

  Read the article

• Sprite sorting issues

  - by TheBroodian

  I apologize for the vague title, I'm not sure how else to phrase this problem. I am using tIDE to assist me in my game's world development. To give a dynamic effect to map layers within tIDE, it has events that can be wired up to draw sprites before or after the draw of layers, to create foreground or background effects during runtime. This all works fine and well, however, the only way that I understand that this works, is by calling tIDE's internal spritebatch to create this effect. This creates a problem for me, because within tIDE's source code, its spritebatch's call block is set to SpriteSortMode.Deferred, and my characters have particle elements that I would like to draw in front of and behind themselves, via a drawdepth value. I can use a separate instance of spritebatch and call my character's draw method, and set sprite sorting there, but then my character is drawn ontop of all layers in my tIDE map. Which is even worse to me than my particles not being drawn as I want them to be. So, in summary, I want all of my crap to work, but at the moment the only way I can figure to do that is to ghetto rig the spritebatch within my characters' draw methods by calling a spritebatch.End();, then starting a new call to Begin() with SpriteSortMode.BackToFront, doing all of my characters' draw logic, and then calling another spritebatch.End(); followed once again by a new spritebatch.Begin(). Obviously that is pretty undesirable, but I don't know any other feasible alternatives. Anybody got any wisdom they could impart unto me as to how I could handle this?

  Read the article

• How to Effectively Create Bullet Patterns

  - by SoulBeaver

  I'm currently creating a top-down shooter like Touhou. The most important factor of the game is that there are many diverse patterns and ways at which bullets are generated and shot at the player, see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nb5Ohbt1Sg#start=0:60;end=9:53; At the moment, I'm using a class "Pattern" which has a series of steps on moving and shooting. However, I feel this method is quite laborous as I have to create a new Pattern for each attack and perhaps new Bullet classes that will implement a certain behavior. This question received a comment suggesting I should look into BulletML for easy creation and storage of bullets with a specific pattern. It looks decent, but it led me to wonder, what other solutions do you have that I should take into consideration? Update My current design is as follows: An example of an implemented pattern: My GigasPattern first executes a teleport which moves Alice to a certain point (X, Y) on the screen. After this is completed, the pattern starts using the Mover to move the sprite around (whereas teleporting has separate effects and animation). These are of no concern, really, as they are quite simple. The Shooter also creates various Attacks, which are classes again that the Shooter can use to create various patterns of bullets, much like the one in the question I posted. Once the Mover has reached it's destination, both it and the shooter stop and return to an inactive state. The pattern completes, is removed by the AI and a new one gets chosen.

  Read the article

• How do you track existing requirements over time?

  - by CaptainAwesomePants

  I'm a software engineer working on a complex, ongoing website. It has a lot of moving parts and a small team of UI designers and business folks adding new features and tweaking old ones. Over the last year or so, we've added hundreds of interesting little edge cases. Planning, implementing, and testing them is not a problem. The problem comes later, when we want to refactor or add another new feature. Nobody remembers half of the old features and edge cases from a year ago. When we want to add a new change, we notice that code does all sorts of things in there, and we're not entirely sure which things are intentional requirements and which are meaningless side effects. Did someone last year request that the login token was supposed to only be valid for 30 minutes, or did some programmers just pick a sensible default? Can we change it? Back when the product was first envisioned, we created some documentation describing how the site worked. Since then we created a few additional documents describing new features, but nobody ever goes back and updates those documents when new features are requested, so the only authoritative documentation is the code itself. But the code provides no justification, no reason for its actions: only the how, never the why. What do other long-running teams do to keep track of what the requirements were and why?

  Read the article

• What is the best type of c# timer to use with a Unity game that uses many timers simultaneously?

  - by Kyle Seidlitz

  I am developing a stand-alone 3d game in Unity that will have anywhere from 1 to 200 timers running simultaneously. There will be a GameObject containing 1 timer. For this game timer durations will range from 5 minutes to 4 days. There will not be any countdown displays or any UI for the timers. Each object is a prefab, with all the necessary materials included. An attached script will handle the timer and all the necessary code to change the materials and make any sound effects. Once the timer is expired, the user will then click on the object again, and the object will be destroyed, and the user's inventory will be adjusted. If the user wants to save or end the game before all the timers are done, the start value of the still running timers is to be saved to an XML file such that when the game is started again, any still running timers will be checked to see if they have expired, where the object's materials will be changed appropriately. I am still trying to figure out what type of timer to use, and see also if there are any suggestions for saving and calculating times over several days. What class(es) of timers should I use? Are there any special issues I should look out for in terms of performance?

  Read the article

• Weekend Project: Build a Fireball Launcher

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  What’s more fun than playing with fire? Shooting it from your hands. Put on your robe and wizard hat, make a stop at the hardware store, and spend the weekend trying to convince your friends you’ve acquired supernatural powers. Over at MAKE Magazine, Joel Johnson explains the impetus for his project: A stalwart of close-quarter magicians for years, the electronic flash gun is a simple device: a battery-powered, hand-held ignitor that uses a “glo-plug” to light a bit of flash paper and cotton, shooting a fireball a few feet into the air. You can buy one from most magic shops for around $50, but if you build one on your own, you’ll not only save a few bucks, you’ll also learn how easy it is to add fire effects to almost any electronics project. (And what gadget couldn’t stand a little more spurting flame?) The parts list is minimal but the end effect is pretty fantastic. Hit up the link below for the full build guide, plenty of warnings, and a weekend project that’s sure to impress. How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 3 How to Sync Your Media Across Your Entire House with XBMC How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2

  Read the article

• Run a VirtualBox VM in a second X-Server with Graphic support

  - by Scindix

  I'm starting a VirtualBox VM (Windows 7) in a second X-Server (Ubuntu 14.04) and i'm using the following xinit script (/path/.vboximage): optirun VBoxManage startvm <vm name> & exec tinywm I recognized that while running Virtualbox normally under Gnome (Unity to be precise ;-) ) I get full graphics support. But when I run it on a second xserver there seem to be some problems. E.g. Windows Aero doesn't seem to work and Chrome WebGL demos are running with poorer performance. I'm not a big Windows expert, so I don't know how I could check the used Graphic card (specification). But it is very obvious that something has changed when running the vm in the extra X-Server. Also when I try to replace tinywm with compiz I get the unity frame around the VM, which also seems to have no graphics acceleration (no transparency effects) So it seems that the X-Server doesn't have Graphic acceleration at all. I have a NVidia 525m and an Intel HD3000 which are both capable of advanced graphics. I'm starting the above script with startx /path/.vboximage - :1 How could I fix that?

  Read the article

• How do I draw a 2d plane and rotate camara (To be a board) in a 3d XNA game?

  - by Mech0z

  I am trying to create a simple board game, but the 3d part of this is really killing me. From what I can gather I have created a plane, but it never moves even though I turn the camara, but that partially makes sense as I only turn the camara with a 3d model, but in my head that makes 0 sense, in my head if I turn the camara it should affect ALL my models? But with this code the camara only "cares" about the 3d cylinder, the plane is just completely still private void OnDraw(object sender, GameTimerEventArgs e) { SharedGraphicsDeviceManager.Current.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); foreach (ModelMesh mesh in cylinderModel.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { //effect.World = Matrix.CreateRotationX((float)e.TotalTime.TotalSeconds * 2); effect.View = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, Vector3.Zero, Vector3.Up); effect.Projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f), aspectRatio, 1.0f, 10000.0f); effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); } mesh.Draw(); } //cameraPosition.Z -= 5.0f; _effect.World = Matrix.CreateRotationZ((MathHelper.ToRadians(((float)e.TotalTime.Milliseconds / 2) % 360))); foreach (EffectPass pass in _effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); SharedGraphicsDeviceManager.Current.GraphicsDevice.DrawUserPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleStrip, _vertices, 0, 1, VertexPositionColor.VertexDeclaration); } } Is there a way to get the camara to affect all models?

  Read the article

• AI agents with FSM: a question regarding this

  - by Prog

  Finite State Machines implemented with the State design pattern are a common way to design AI agents. I am familiar with the State design pattern and know how to implement it. However I have a question regarding how this is used in games to design AI agents. Please consider a class Monster that represents an AI agent. Simplified it looks like this: class Monster{ State state; // other fields omitted public void update(){ // called every game-loop cycle state.execute(this); } public void setState(State state){ this.state = state; } // irrelevant stuff omitted } There are several State subclasses that implement execute() differently. So far classic State pattern. Here's my question: AI agents are subject to environmental effects and other objects communicating with them. For example an AI agent might tell another AI agent to attack (i.e. agent.attack()). Or a fireball might tell an AI agent to fall down. This means that the agent must have methods such as attack() and fallDown(), or commonly some message receiving mechanism to understand such messages. My question is divided to two parts: 1- Please say if this is correct: With an FSM, the current State of the agent should be the one taking care of such method calls - i.e. the agent delegates to the current state upon every event. Correct? Or wrong? 2- If correct, than how is this done? Are all states obligated by their superclass) to implement methods such as attack(), fallDown() etc., so the agent can always delegate to them on almost every event? Or is it done in some other way?

  Read the article

• 3 column layout with css display table, with first row having multiple rows?

  - by Damainman

  I am working on a new website which: Has 3 columns - Each Column being a cell First column has 3 rows (Logo, Nav, icons) - Has a Div with display: table which wraps arround 3 divs with display:table-row. Other two columns only have 1 row. With the middle column being the content area. However since this is my first time using display:table, I am running into some things that aren't so clear to me. I was trying to avoid floating divs. If I need multiple rows with one cell in each row per column, do I embed each cell in a row or just create each row and not declare cells. I understand that browsers automatically create the missing elements but I want to make sure I do this properly to avoid any side effects that might occur due to the browser automatically creating the missing elements. Edit: I think my brain is just over worked, I guess I can accomplish this by just using 3 divs in the first column instead of using a nested table div with the rows. This just popped into my head.

  Read the article

• Ubuntu won't log in after update

  - by Dave M G

  I just updated Ubuntu about 15 minutes ago on my desktop which is running 12.04. Within the set of updates, there were some kernel upgrades. It didn't say I needed to reboot after the update was finished, but I thought I would anyway. The computer successfully rebooted up to the login screen. However, after entering my password, the screen goes black for a moment, then it comes back to the login screen. I tried the suggestions in this question, but unfortunately they didn't help. In the accepted answer, the questioner vaguely says it was a "Unity problem". I'm using Gnome-classic with full Compiz effects. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Compiz, but that didn't fix anything. So... I can't use my desktop computer until this is fixed. I hope there is some help soon. I've uploaded the output of cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log to Pastebin. A temporary solution of changing to gdm instead of lightdm was found with help in the chat room.

  Read the article

• Proper XAML for Windows 8 Applications [closed]

  - by Jaapjan

  Traditionally, my programs do their work in the background and when I do have to make an interface for some reason, they often do not need to be complex which means I can use a simple Windows Forms or console application. But lets be honest-- Windows Forms? That is so ... ancient! Instead I have been looking at Windows 8. A new interface, different, maybe better-- but fun to give a try. Which means XAML. Now, XAML isn't all that hard in concept. Panel here, button there-- A smattering of XML. My question in short: Where can I find resources that teach me how to write good XAML code for Windows 8 applications? The long version: How do I combine XAML constructs to achieve effects? Horizontal panels with multiple sections you can scroll through with your finger, the proper way? How should you use default style resources Windows 8 might give you by default? How do I properly create a panel with user info on the right? Left aligned stackpanels with embedded dockpanels? Yes? No? Why?

  Read the article

• Multi-screen and Nvidia GT220

  - by Bohors

  Excuse me first for my broken English I have 3 monitors on two Nvidia GT220. Unity 2D works fine after using the proprietary drivers. But no way to use compiz effects. I'm on Ubuntu 11.10 (I also tested for curiosity 12.04 for the same result) I noticed in the "System Settings" / "details" that my graphics card is not recognized (graphics card "unknown") and "View" only returns me my first screen (with the correct resolution) also in unknown. $ lspci | grep VGA 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2) 05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2) xorg.conf : Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 Screen 1 "Screen1" Below "Screen0" Screen 2 "Screen2" RightOf "Screen0" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" Option "Xinerama" "1" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Acer V243HL" HorizSync 30.0 - 80.0 VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "LG Electronics L1920P" HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor2" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Acer V243HL" HorizSync 30.0 - 80.0 VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 220" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device1" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 220" BusID "PCI:5:0:0" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device2" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 220" BusID "PCI:5:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Device0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0" Option "metamodes" "1920x1080_60_0 +0+0; nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Device1" Monitor "Monitor1" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen2" Device "Device2" Monitor "Monitor2" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "Disable" EndSection Have you any idea? thanks

  Read the article

• Dealing with numerous, simultaneous sounds in unity

  - by luxchar

  I've written a custom class that creates a fixed number of audio sources. When a new sound is played, it goes through the class, which creates a queue of sounds that will be played during that frame. The sounds that are closer to the camera are given preference. If new sounds arrive in the next frame, I have a complex set of rules that determines how to replace the old ones. Ideally, "big" or "important" sounds should not be replaced by small ones. Sound replacement is necessary since the game can be fast-paced at times, and should try to play new sounds by replacing old ones. Otherwise, there can be "silent" moments when an old sound is about to stop playing and isn't replaced right away by a new sound. The drawback of replacing old sounds right away is that there is a harsh transition from the old sound clip to the new one. But I wonder if I could just remove that management logic altogether, and create audio sources on the fly for new sounds. I could give "important" sounds more priority (closer to 0 in the corresponding property) as opposed to less important ones, and let Unity take care of culling out sound effects that exceed the channel limit. The only drawback is that it requires many heap allocations. I wonder what strategy people use here?

  Read the article

• Information about rendering, batches, the graphical card, performance etc. + XNA?

  - by Aidiakapi

  I know the title is a bit vague but it's hard to describe what I'm really looking for, but here goes. When it comes to CPU rendering, performance is mostly easy to estimate and straightforward, but when it comes to the GPU due to my lack of technical background information, I'm clueless. I'm using XNA so it'd be nice if theory could be related to that. So what I actually wanna know is, what happens when and where (CPU/GPU) when you do specific draw actions? What is a batch? What influence do effects, projections etc have? Is data persisted on the graphics card or is it transferred over every step? When there's talk about bandwidth, are you talking about a graphics card internal bandwidth, or the pipeline from CPU to GPU? Note: I'm not actually looking for information on how the drawing process happens, that's the GPU's business, I'm interested on all the overhead that precedes that. I'd like to understand what's going on when I do action X, to adapt my architectures and practices to that. Any articles (possibly with code examples), information, links, tutorials that give more insight in how to write better games are very much appreciated. Thanks :)

  Read the article

• 'Buy the app' landing page implementations

  - by benwad

  My site (using Django) has an app that I'm trying to push - I currently have a piece of middleware that redirects the user to a page advertising the app if they're accessing the page on the iPhone, then setting a cookie so that the user isn't bugged by the message every time they visit the site. This works fine, however checking the page with the mobile Googlebot checker shows that the Googlebot gets stuck in the redirect (since it doesn't store cookies) and therefore won't index the proper content. So, I'm trying to think of an alternative implementation that won't hurt the site's Google ranking and won't have any other adverse effects. I've considered a couple of options: Redirect (the current solution), but don't redirect if the user agent matches the Googlebot's UA string. This would be ideal, however I'm not sure if Google like their bot being treated differently from other users, and I'm afraid the site's ranking may be somehow penalised if I go ahead with this. Use a Javascript popup instead of a redirect. This would make sure the Googlebot finds the content it needs, however I envision this approach causing compatibility issues with the myriad mobile devices/browsers out there, and may affect the page load time. How valid are these options? And is there a better option for implementing this feature out there? I've tried researching this topic but surprisingly can't find any reputable-looking blog posts that explore this topic. EDIT: I posted this on SF because it seemed unsuitable for SO, but if there's another site that would be better for this issue then I'd be happy to move the question elsewhere.

  Read the article

• Must all AI states be able to react to any event?

  - by Prog

  FSMs implemented with the State design pattern are a common way to design AI agents. I am familiar with the State design pattern and know how to implement it. How is this used in games to design AI agents? Consider a simplified class Monster, representing an AI agent: class Monster { State state; // other fields omitted public void update(){ // called every game-loop cycle state.execute(this); } public void setState(State state){ this.state = state; } // irrelevant stuff omitted } There are several State subclasses implementing execute() differently. So far, classic State pattern. AI agents are subject to environmental effects and other objects communicating with them. For example, an AI agent might tell another AI agent to attack (i.e. agent.attack()). Or a fireball might tell an AI agent to fall down. This means that the agent must have methods such as attack() and fallDown(), or commonly some message receiving mechanism to understand such messages. With an FSM, the current State of the agent should be the one taking care of such method calls - i.e. the agent delegates to the current state upon every event. Is this correct? If correct, how is this done? Are all states obligated by their superclass to implement methods such as attack(), fallDown() etc., so the agent can always delegate to them on almost every event? Or is it done in some other way?

  Read the article

• Should I build a multi-threaded system that handles events from a game and sorts them, independently, into different threads based on priority?

  - by JonathonG

  Can I build a multi-threaded system that handles events from a game and sorts them, independently, into different threads based on priority, and is it a good idea? Here's more info: I am about to begin work on porting a mid-sized game from Flash/AS3 to Java so that I can continue development with multi-threading capabilities. Here's a small bit of background about the game: The game contains numerous asynchronous activities, such as "world updating" (the game environment is constantly changing based on a set of natural laws and forces), procedural generation of terrain, NPCs, quests, items, etc., and on top of that, the effects of all of the player's interactions with his environment are programmatically calculated in real time, based on a set of constantly changing "stats" and once again, natural laws and forces. All of these things going on at once, in an asynchronous manner, seem to lend themselves to multi-threading very well. My question is: Can I build some kind of central engine that handles the "stacking" of all of these events as they are triggered, and dynamically sorts them out amongst the available threads, and would it be a good idea? As an example: Essentially, every time something happens (IE, a magic missile being generated by a spell, or a bunch of plants need to grow to their next stage), instead of just processing that task right then and adding the new object(s) to a list of managed objects, send a reference to that event to a core "event handler" that throws it into a stack of all other currently queued events, which then sorts them out and orders them according to urgency, splits them between a number of available threads for as-fast-as-possible multithreaded execution.

  Read the article

• How do I stop video tearing? (Nvidia prop driver, non-compositing window manager)

  - by Chan-Ho Suh

  I have that problem which seemingly afflicts many using the proprietary Nvidia driver: Video tearing: fine horizontal lines (usually near the top of my display) when there is a lot of panning or action in the video. (Note: switching back to the default nouveau driver is not an option, as its seemingly nonexistent power-management drains my battery several times faster) I've tried Totem, Parole, and VLC, and tearing occurs with all of them. The best result has been to use X11 output in VLC, but there is still tearing with relatively moderate action. Hardware: MacBook Air 3,2 -- which has an Nvidia GeForce 320M. There are two common fixes for tearing with Nvidia prop drivers: Turn off compositing, since Nvidia proprietary drivers don't usually play nice with compositing window managers on Linux (Compiz is an exception I'm aware of). But I use an extremely lightweight window manager (Awesome window manager) which is not even capable of compositing (or any cool effects). I also have this problem in Xfce, where I have compositing disabled. Enabling sync to VBlank. To enable this, I set the option in nvidia-settings and then autostart it as nvidia-settings -l with my other autostart programs. This seems to work, because when I run glxgears, I get: $ glxgears Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate. 303 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.500 FPS 300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.992 FPS And when I check the refresh rate using nvidia-settings: $ nvidia-settings -q RefreshRate Attribute 'RefreshRate' (wampum:0.0; display device: DFP-2): 60.00 Hz. All this suggests sync to VBlank is enabled. As I understand it, this is precisely designed to stop tearing, and a lot of people's problem is even getting something like glxgears to output the correct info. I don't understand why it's not working for me. xorg.conf: http://paste.ubuntu.com/992056/ Example of observed tearing::

  Read the article

• How to rotate a group of objects around a common center?

  - by user1662292

  I've made a model in 3D Studio Max 9. It consists of a variety of cubes, clyinders etc. In XNA I've imported the model okay and it shows correctly. However, when I apply rotation, each component in the model rotates around it's own centre. I want the model to rotate as a single unit. I've linked the components in 3D Max and they rotate as I want in Max. protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); model = Content.Load<Model>("Models/Alien1"); } protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { camera.Update(1f, new Vector3(), graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.AspectRatio); rotation += 0.1f; base.Update(gameTime); } protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); Matrix[] transforms = new Matrix[model.Bones.Count]; model.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo(transforms); Matrix worldMatrix = Matrix.Identity; Matrix rotationYMatrix = Matrix.CreateRotationY(rotation); Matrix translateMatrix = Matrix.CreateTranslation(location); worldMatrix = rotationYMatrix * translateMatrix; foreach (ModelMesh mesh in model.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { effect.World = worldMatrix * transforms[mesh.ParentBone.Index]; effect.View = camera.viewMatrix; effect.Projection = camera.projectionMatrix; effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); effect.PreferPerPixelLighting = true; } mesh.Draw(); } base.Draw(gameTime); } More Info: Rotating the object via it's properties works fine so I'm guessing there's something up with the code rather than with the object itself. Translating the object also causes the objects to get moved independently of each other rather than as a single model and each piece becomes spread around the scene. The model is in .X format.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48  | Next Page >