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  • Correct way to handle path-finding collision matrix

    - by Xander Lamkins
    Here is an example of me utilizing path finding. The red grid represents the grid utilized by my A* library to locate a distance. This picture is only an example, currently it is all calculated on the 1x1 pixel level (pretty darn laggy). I want to make it so that the farther I click, the less accurate it will be (split the map into larger grid pieces). Edit: as mentioned by Eric, this is not a required game mechanic. I am perfectly fine with any method that allows me to make this accurate while still fast. This isn't the really the topic of this question though. The problem I have is, my current library uses a two dimensional grid of integers. The higher the number in a cell, the more resistance for that grid tile. Currently I'm setting all unwalkable spots to Integer Max. Here is an example of what I want: I'm just not sure how I should set up the arrays of integers of the grid. Every time an element is added/removed to/from the game, it's collision details are updated in the table. Here is a picture of what the map looks like on my collision layer: I probably shouldn't be creating new arrays every time I have to do a path find because my game needs to support tons of PF at the same time. Should I have multiple arrays that are all updated when the dynamic elements are updated (a building is built/a building is destroyed). The problem I see with this is that it will probably make the creation and destruction of buildings a little more laggy than I would want because it would be setting the collision grid for each built in accuracy level. I would also have to add more/remove some arrays if I ever in the future changed the map size. Should I generate the new array based on an accuracy value every time I need to PF? The problem I see with this is that it will probably make any form of PF just as laggy because it will have to search through a MapWidth x MapHeight number of cells to shrink it all down. Or is there a better way? I'm certainly not the best at optimizing really anything. I've just started dealing with XNA so I'm not used to having optimization code really doing much of an affect until now... :( If you need code examples, please ask. I'll add it as an edit. EDIT: While this doesn't directly relate to the question, I figure the more information I provide, the better. To keep your units from moving as accurately to the players desired position, I've decided that once the unit PFs over to the less accurate grid piece, it will then PF on a more accurate level to the exact position requested.

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  • Having to check collisions twice per game tic

    - by user22241
    I have vertically moving elevators (3 solid tiles wide) and static solid tiles. Each are separate entities and therefore have their own respective collision routines (to check for, and resolve, collisions with the main character) I check my vertical collisions after characters vertical movements and then horizontal collisions after horizontal movements. The problem is that I want my platform to kill the player if it squashes him from the top, and also if he's on a moving platform (that is moving up) that squashes him into a solid block. Correct behaviour, player on solid blocks being squashed from above by decending elevator Here is what happens. Gravity pushes character into solid block, solid block collision routine corrects characters position and sits him on the solid block which pushes him into the moving elevator, elevator routine then checks for collision and kills player. This assumes I am checking solid blocks first, then elevator collisions. However, if it's the other way around, this happens.... Incorrect behaviour, player on accending elevator gets pushed into solid blocks above Player is on an elevator moving up, gravity pushes him into the elevator, solid block CD routine detects no collision, no action taken. Elevator CD routine detects character has been pushed into elevator by gravity, corrects this by moving character up and sitting him on the elevator and pushes him into the solid blocks above, however the solid block vertical routine has now already run for this tic, so the game continues and the next solid block collision that is encountered is the horizontal routine. This detects a collision and moves the character out of the collision to the left or right of the block which looks odd to say the least (character should get killed here). The only way I've managed to get this working correctly is by running the solid block CD, then the elevator CD, then the solid block CD again straight after. This is clearly wasteful but I can't figure out how else to do this. Any help would be appreciated.

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  • 3D Paint tool in Maya

    - by Joris
    Hey everyone, could someone help me out on this question? When I am trying to texture objects in maya (for example a barrel) I want to texture it with a brush. When I try to use the 3D painting tool it al gets black even when I have a image file selected. Also the resolution is very very low of the models and textures in maya, though the texture image is very high quality. Can someone please help me? Thanks so much for helping.

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  • Implementing a FSM with ActionScript 2 without using classes?

    - by Up2u
    I have seen several references of A.I. and FSM, but sadly I still can't understand the point of an FSM in AS2.0. Is it a must to create a class for each state? I have a game-project which also it has an A.I., the A.I. has 3 states: distanceCheck, ChaseTarget, and Hit the target. It's an FPS game and played via mouse. I have created the A.I. successfully, but I want to convert it to FSM method... My first state is CheckDistanceState() and in that function I look for the nearest target and trigger the function ChaseState(), there I insert the Hit() function to destroy the enemy, The 3 functions that I created are being called in AI_cursor.onEnterframe. Is there any chance to implement an FSM without the need to create a class? From what I've read before, you have to create a class. I prefer to write the code on frames in flash and I still don't understand how to have external classes.

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  • How do I prevent other dynamic bodies from affecting the player's velocity with Box2D?

    - by Milo
    I'm working on my player object for my game. PhysicsBodyDef def; def.fixedRotation = true; def.density = 1.0f; def.position = Vec2(200.0f, 200.0f); def.isDynamic = true; def.size = Vec2(50.0f,200.0f); m_player.init(def,&m_physicsEngine.getWorld()); This is how he moves: b2Vec2 vel = getBody()->GetLinearVelocity(); float desiredVel = 0; if (m_keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_A] || m_keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_LEFT]) { desiredVel = -5; } else if (m_keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_D] || m_keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_RIGHT]) { desiredVel = 5; } else { desiredVel = 0; } float velChange = desiredVel - vel.x; float impulse = getBody()->GetMass() * velChange; //disregard time factor getBody()->ApplyLinearImpulse( b2Vec2(impulse,0), getBody()->GetWorldCenter(),true); This creates a few problems. First, to move the player at a constant speed he must be given a high velocity. The problem with this is if he just comes in contact with a small box, he makes it move a lot. Now, I can fix this by lowering his density, but then comes my main issue: I need other objects to be able to run into him, but when they do, he should be like a static wall and not move. I'm not sure how to do that without high density. I cannot use collision groups since I still need him to be solid toward other dynamic things. How can this be done? Essentially, how do I prevent other dynamic bodies from affecting the player's velocity?

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  • How do I properly use multithreading with Nvidia PhysX?

    - by xcrypt
    I'm having a multithreading problem with Nvidia PhysX. the SDK requires that you call Simulate() (starts computing new physics positions within a new thread) and FetchResults() (waits 'till the physics computations are done). Inbetween Simulate() and FetchResults() you may not "compute new physics". It is proposed (in a sample) that we create a game loop as such: Logic (you may calculate physics here and other stuff) Render + Simulate() at start of Render call and FetchResults at end of Render() call However, this has given me various little errors that stack up: since you actually render the scene that was computed in the previous iteration in the game loop. Does anyone have a solution to this?

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  • Blender: How to "meshify" an object I made from Bezier curves

    - by capcom
    I made a star shape using Bezier curves, and extruded it (see pic below): What I want to do is give it a rounder look - not just around the edges by using beveling. I want it to kind of look like this (well, that shape anyway): How would I go about doing this? Please keep in mind that I am extremely new to Blender. I thought that I could somehow turn this star into those default shapes that have tonnes of squares which I could pull out, and apply a mirror to it so that the same thing happens on both sides. I really don't know how to do it, and would appreciate your help.

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  • XNA C# How to draw fonts in different color

    - by XNA newbie
    I'm doing a simple chat system with XNA C#. It is a chatbox that contains 5 lines of chat typed by the users. Something like a MMORPG chatting system. [User1name] says: Hi [User2name] says: Hello [User1name] says: What are you doing? [User2name] says: I'm fine [System] The time is now 1:03AM. When the user pressed 'ENTER', the text he entered will be added inside an ArrayList chatList.Add(s); For displaying the text he entered, I used for (int i = 0; i < chatList.Count(); i++) { spriteBatch.DrawString(font, chatList[i], new Vector2(40, arr1[i]), Color.Yellow); } *arr1[i] contains 5 y-axis points to print my 5 line of chats in the chatbox Question1: What if I have another type of message which will be added into ChatList (something like a system message). I need the System Message to be printed out in red color. And if the user keeps on chatting, the chat box will be updated according: (MAX 5 LINES) The newest chat will be shown below, and the oldest one will be deleted if they reached the max 5 lines. [User2name] says: Hello [User1name] says: What are you doing? [User2name] says: I'm fine [System] The time is now 1:03AM. [User1name] says: Ok, great to hear that! I'm having trouble to print each line color according to their msg type. For normal msg, it should be yellow. For system msg, it should be red. Question2: And for the next problem, I need the chat texts to be white color, while the names of the user is yellow (like warcraft3 chat system). How do I do that? I have a hard time thinking of a solution for these to work. Advise needed.

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  • Split vector vs matrix notation for transformation

    - by seahorse
    Some rendering engines like Ogre prefer to use a individual vector based notation for transformations like the following Split vector notation: Net Transformation is represented by Scale vector = sx, sy, sz Transformation vector = tx, ty, tz Rotation Quaternion Vector = w,x,y,z Matrix notation: There are other engines which simply use a net combined transformation matrix. What are the advantages of the first notation over the second? Also for animation interpolation does it work in the first notation that we interpolate across the individual components and use the interpolated parts to get the net transformation? Is this another advantage?

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  • Permanent death in a MUD (think command line MMORPG)

    - by Luke Laupheimer
    I have considered writing a MUD for years, and I have a lot of ideas my friends think are really cool (and that's how I'd hope to get anywhere -- word of mouth). Thing is, there's one thing I have always wanted, that my friends and strangers hated: permanent death. Now, the emotional response I get to this is visceral revulsion, every time. I'm pretty sure I am the only person that wants this, or if I'm not, I'm a tiny minority. Now, the reason I want it is because I want the actions of the players to matter. Unlike a lot of other MUDs, which have a set of static city-states and social institutions etc, I want the things my players do, should I get any, to actually change the situation. And that includes killing people. If you kill someone, you didn't send them to time out, you killed them. What happens when you kill people? They go away. They don't come back in half an hour to smack talk you some more. They're gone. Forever. By making death non-permanent, you make death not matter. It would be similar if a climax to a character's arc is getting a speeding ticket. It cheapens it. Non-permanent death cheapens death. How can I: 1) Convince my players (and random people!) that this is actually a good idea?, or 2) Find some other way to make death and violence matter as much as it does in real life (except within the game, of course) sans character deletion? What alternatives are there out there?

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  • DX9 Deferred Rendering, GBuffer displays as clear color only

    - by Fire31
    I'm trying to implement Catalin Zima's Deferred Renderer in a very lightweight c++ DirectX 9 app (only renders a skydome and a model), at this moment I'm trying to render the gbuffer, but I'm having a problem, the screen shows only the clear color, no matter how much I move the camera around. However, removing all the render target operations lets the app render the scene normally, even if the models are being applied the renderGBuffer effect. Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong?

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  • Typical collision detection

    - by marcg11
    I would like to know how is the typical collision detection of most games. For example, you control a character which can move in 2 dimensional directions (except up and down). Now lets asume he walks into a wall, most of the games depending on character angle and the BB normal face will only stop the player in one axis, but will continue moving in the other along the wall axis. How is that done? I've only managed to stop the character from going through the wall by seting the position to the last one in the past frame if the new position colllisions the bounding box. But this just makes the player stop sharply and unrealisticly.

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  • How exactly does XNA's SpriteBatch work?

    - by David Gouveia
    To be more precise, if I needed to recreate this functionality from scratch in another API (e.g. in OpenGL) what would it need to be capable of doing? I do have a general idea of some of the steps, such as how it prepares an orthographic projection matrix and creates a quad for each draw call. I'm not too familiar, however, with the batching process itself. Are all quads stored in the same vertex buffer? Does it need an index buffer? How are different textures handled? If possible I'd be grateful if you could guide me through the process from when SpriteBatch.Begin() is called until SpriteBatch.End(), at least when using the default Deferred mode.

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  • Can I remove the systems from a component entity system?

    - by nathan
    After reading a lot about entity/component based engines. I feel like there is no real definition for this kind of engine. Reading this thread: Implementing features in an Entity System and the linked article made me think a lot. I did not feel that comfortable using System concept so I'll write something else, inspired by this pattern. I'd like to know if you think it's a good way to organize game code and what improvements can be made. Regarding a more strict implementation of entity/component based engine, is my solution viable? Do I risk getting stuck at any point due to the lack of flexibility of this implementation (or anything else)? My engine, as for entity/component patterns has entities and components, no systems since the game logic is handled by components. Also, I think the main difference is the fact that my engine will use inherence and OOP concepts in general, I mean, I don't try to minimize them. Entity: an entity is an abstract class. It holds his position, width and height, scale and a list of linked components. The current implementation can be found here (java). Every frame, the entity will be updated (i.e all the components linked to this entity will be updated), and rendered, if a render component is specified. Component: like for entity, a component is an abstract class that must be extended to create new components. The behavior of an entity is created through his components collection. The component implementation can be found here. Components are updated when the owning entity is updated or for only one specific component (render component), rendered. Here is an example of a logic component (i.e not a renderable component, a component that's updated each frame) in charge of listening for keyboard events and a render component in charge of display a plain sprite (i.e not animated).

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  • Mapping dynamic buffers in Direct3D11 in Windows Store apps

    - by Donnie
    I'm trying to make instanced geometry in Direct3D11, and the ID3D11DeviceContext1->Map() call is failing with the very helpful error of "Invalid Parameter" when I'm attempting to update the instance buffer. The buffer is declared as a member variable: Microsoft::WRL::ComPtr<ID3D11Buffer> m_instanceBuffer; Then I create it (which succeeds): D3D11_BUFFER_DESC instanceDesc; ZeroMemory(&instanceDesc, sizeof(D3D11_BUFFER_DESC)); instanceDesc.Usage = D3D11_USAGE_DYNAMIC; instanceDesc.ByteWidth = sizeof(InstanceData) * MAX_INSTANCE_COUNT; instanceDesc.BindFlags = D3D11_BIND_VERTEX_BUFFER; instanceDesc.CPUAccessFlags = D3D11_CPU_ACCESS_WRITE; instanceDesc.MiscFlags = 0; instanceDesc.StructureByteStride = 0; DX::ThrowIfFailed(d3dDevice->CreateBuffer(&instanceDesc, NULL, &m_instanceBuffer)); However, when I try to map it: D3D11_MAPPED_SUBRESOURCE inst; DX::ThrowIfFailed(d3dContext->Map(m_instanceBuffer.Get(), 0, D3D11_MAP_WRITE, 0, &inst)); The map call fails with E_INVALIDARG. Nothing is NULL incorrectly, and this being one of my first D3D apps I'm currently stumped on what to do next to track it down. I'm thinking I must be creating the buffer incorrectly, but I can't see how. Any input would be appreciated.

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  • Game engine IDE template [on hold]

    - by Spencer Killen
    Hey so I'm working on a fairly basic javascript game, and it's beginning to get to the point where my 'engine' to which I wrote, is difficult to manage in an all text environment, Iv already thought of using a javascript IDE like jet brains, but i was wondering if I could go 1 step further and have use a piece of software to purpose as an IDE and have a customizable GUI that I could use to automate class construction and such, for example, I have it set up right now so that everytime I want to create a new block (it's a platformer) I must copy a text file and fill in all the setting such as bounding box, sprite ect, it would be a lot easier if I could press a button and have a menu apear where I would fill in these values (I have a game maker background) is there software like this? If not what are some similar solutions to my problem?

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  • Direct2D Transform

    - by James
    I have a beginner question about Direct2D transforms. I have a 20 x 10 bitmap that I would like to draw in different orientations. To start, I would like to draw it vertically with a destination rectangle of say: (left, top, right, bottom) (300, 300, 310, 320) The bitmap is wider than it is tall (20 x 10), but when I draw it vertically, it will be appear taller than it is wide (10 x 20). I know that I can use a rotation matrix like so: m_pRenderTarget->SetTransform( D2D1::Matrix3x2F::Rotation( 90.0f, D2D1::Point2F(<center of shape>)) ); But when I use this method to rotate my shape, the destination rectangle is still wider than it is tall. Maybe it would look something like this: (left, top, right, bottom) (280, 290, 300, 300) The destination rectangle is 20 x 10 but the bitmap appears on the screen as 10 x 20. I can't look at the destination rectangle in the debugger and compare it to: (left, top, right, bottom) (300, 300, 310, 320) Is there any simple way to say "I want to rotate it so that the image is rendered to exactly this destination rectangle after the rotation?" In this case, I would like to say "Please rotate the bitmap so that it appears on the screen at this location:" (left, top, right, bottom) (300, 300, 310, 320) If I can't do that, is there any way to find out the 10 x 20 destination rectangle where the bitmap is actually being rendered to the screen?

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  • Skyrim Creation Kit with Xbox 360

    - by funseiki
    I posted this on stackoverflow but was advised to post here (here is a link to the stackoverflow question). I'm hoping for constructive feedback on its plausibility. Update on progress: It looks like there are ways to stuff files back onto the console (horizon, modio, xplorer360, etc) and they do require some form of signing. As of now, though, I've had no luck. I was hoping I could get away with just placing the ".esp" into the directory containing marketplace downloads for Skyrim, along with the signed ".bsa" file (basically a zipped up file containing any extra content the .esp will need to refer that doesn't exist in the basic game). This doesn't work, at least not in the ways I've tried, so next I'm going to try install the entire game to my flash drive (if possible) and attempt to traverse through the game's directory (this is probably unlikely). If anyone else has suggestions or luck or wants more detail on my failures comment/answer away. Here is the question: I'm thinking about buying the PC version of Skyrim to get the Creation Kit (I already own a copy for the Xbox). I have read the faq and scoured plenty of forums to see if there was some way to mod Skyrim for a console (Xbox 360, in particular), but they are generally coming up negative. I realize the CreationKit is on the PC, but I was wondering if there was a way to set up the '.esp' (hopefully I'm interpreting this correctly) files to be placed on the Xbox 360 file system in a similar manner to how game add-ons are downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace. I believe it is possible to transfer saves between the console and the PC (e.g. google: 'skyrim mod xbox360'), but these are referencing items that already exist in the game (e.g. a console command for maximum carry weight does not require reference to new animations or models). It would probably be easier if one could navigate through the xbox's file system to see where the games' files are placed, but with the current setup, the file system is abstracted away. Any help or insight on the matter would be much appreciated. I would love to work on a project that would make it possible to let console gamers experience and enjoy all the great mods available to the PC community.

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  • Isometric Screen View to World View

    - by Sleepy Rhino
    I am having trouble working out the math to transform the screen coordinates to the Grid coordinates. The code below is how far I have got but it is totally wrong any help or resources to fix this issue would be great, had a complete mind block with this for some reason. private Point ScreenToIso(int mouseX, int mouseY) { int offsetX = WorldBuilder.STARTX; int offsetY = WorldBuilder.STARTY; Vector2 startV = new Vector2(offsetX, offsetY); int mapX = offsetX - mouseX; int mapY = offsetY - mouseY + (WorldBuilder.tileHeight / 2); mapY = -1 * (mapY / WorldBuilder.tileHeight); mapX = (mapX / WorldBuilder.tileHeight) + mapY; return new Point(mapX, mapY); }

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  • Unity Occlusion Portals: What and How?

    - by Nick Wiggill
    (Here I eat my words on Meta about posting Unity questions on Unity Answers... since that site is less responsive than this one.) Unity provides cell-based Occlusion Culling (via Umbra, I believe). However, a newer feature that it supports is Occlusion Portals. The question is, if BSP-based occlusion culling is already a feature of Unity, what do portals add, and how? PS. This question is not "What are portals?" -- I'm aware of the original Quake BSP-style portals -- which is partly why I find the explicit portal concept in Unity odd, since it uses BSP anyway.

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  • DrawIndexedPrimitives overdraws data in previous buffer if called in loop

    - by Daniel Excinsky
    I doubled the question from stackoverflow here, and will delete the opposite of a question that gave me the answer. I have the Draw method in one of my renderers, that loops through the dictionary and gets precollected and preinitialized buffers. When dictionary has only one element, everything is just fine. But with more elements what I get on the screen is only the data from the last buffer (I suppose, not sure) My Draw method: public void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { if (!_areStaticEffectsSet) { // blockEffect.Parameters["TextureAtlas"].SetValue(textureAtlas); blockEffect.Parameters["HorizonColor"].SetValue(World.HORIZONCOLOR); blockEffect.Parameters["NightColor"].SetValue(World.NIGHTCOLOR); blockEffect.Parameters["MorningTint"].SetValue(World.MORNINGTINT); blockEffect.Parameters["EveningTint"].SetValue(World.EVENINGTINT); blockEffect.Parameters["SunColor"].SetValue(World.SUNCOLOR); _areStaticEffectsSet = true; } blockEffect.Parameters["World"].SetValue(Matrix.Identity); blockEffect.Parameters["View"].SetValue(_player.CameraView); blockEffect.Parameters["Projection"].SetValue(_player.CameraProjection); blockEffect.Parameters["CameraPosition"].SetValue(_player.CameraPosition); blockEffect.Parameters["timeOfDay"].SetValue(_world.TimeOfDay); var viewFrustum = new BoundingFrustum(_player.CameraView * _player.CameraProjection); _graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Opaque; _graphicsDevice.DepthStencilState = DepthStencilState.Default; foreach (KeyValuePair<int, Texture2D> textureAtlas in textureAtlases) { blockEffect.Parameters["TextureAtlas"].SetValue(textureAtlas.Value); foreach (EffectPass pass in blockEffect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); //TODO: ?????????? ??????????????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? VertexBuffer ? IndexBuffer foreach (Chunk chunk in _world.Chunks.Values) { if (chunk == null || chunk.IsDisposed) { continue; } if (chunk.BoundingBox.Intersects(viewFrustum) && chunk.GetBlockIndexBuffer(textureAtlas.Key) != null) { lock (chunk) { if (chunk.GetBlockIndexBuffer(textureAtlas.Key).IndexCount > 0) { VertexBuffer vertexBuffer = chunk.GetBlockVertexBuffer(textureAtlas.Key); IndexBuffer indexBuffer = chunk.GetBlockIndexBuffer(textureAtlas.Key); //if (chunk.DrawIndex == new Vector3i(0, 0, 0)) //{ //if (textureAtlas.Key == -1) //{ //var varray = new [] //{ //new VertexPositionTextureLight(new Vector3(0,68,0), new Vector2(0,1),1,new Vector3(0,0,0), new Vector3(1,1,1)), //new VertexPositionTextureLight(new Vector3(0,68,1), new Vector2(0,1),1,new Vector3(0,0,0), new Vector3(1,1,1)), //new VertexPositionTextureLight(new Vector3(1,68,0), new Vector2(0,1),1,new Vector3(0,0,0), new Vector3(1,1,1)) //}; //var iarray = new short[] {0, 1, 2}; //vertexBuffer = new VertexBuffer(_graphicsDevice, typeof(VertexPositionTextureLight), varray.Length, BufferUsage.WriteOnly); //indexBuffer = new IndexBuffer(_graphicsDevice, IndexElementSize.SixteenBits, iarray.Length, BufferUsage.WriteOnly); //vertexBuffer.SetData(varray); //indexBuffer.SetData(iarray); } } _graphicsDevice.SetVertexBuffer(vertexBuffer); _graphicsDevice.Indices = indexBuffer; _graphicsDevice.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, vertexBuffer.VertexCount, 0, indexBuffer.IndexCount / 3); } } } } } } } Noteworthy things about the code: XNA version is 4.0. I've commented the debugging code in the loop, but left it for it may bring some insight. I try not only to change vertices/indices in the loop, but textureAtlas also. Code in the shader about textureAtlas: Texture TextureAtlas; sampler TextureAtlasSampler = sampler_state { texture = <TextureAtlas>; magfilter = POINT; minfilter = POINT; mipfilter = POINT; AddressU = WRAP; AddressV = WRAP; }; struct VSInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 TexCoords1 : TEXCOORD0; float SunLight : COLOR0; float3 LocalLight : COLOR1; float3 Normal : NORMAL0; }; VertexPositionTextureLight is my own realization of IVertexType. So, do anybody know about this problem, or see the wrongness in my code (that's far more likely)?

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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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  • XNA shield effect with a Primative sphere problem

    - by Sparky41
    I'm having issue with a shield effect i'm trying to develop. I want to do a shield effect that surrounds part of a model like this: http://i.imgur.com/jPvrf.png I currently got this: http://i.imgur.com/Jdin7.png (The red likes are a simple texture a black background with a red cross in it, for testing purposes: http://i.imgur.com/ODtzk.png where the smaller cross in the middle shows the contact point) This sphere is drawn via a primitive (DrawIndexedPrimitives) This is how i calculate the pieces of the sphere using a class i've called Sphere (this class is based off the code here: http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/primitives_3d) public class Sphere { // During the process of constructing a primitive model, vertex // and index data is stored on the CPU in these managed lists. List vertices = new List(); List indices = new List(); // Once all the geometry has been specified, the InitializePrimitive // method copies the vertex and index data into these buffers, which // store it on the GPU ready for efficient rendering. VertexBuffer vertexBuffer; IndexBuffer indexBuffer; BasicEffect basicEffect; public Vector3 position = Vector3.Zero; public Matrix RotationMatrix = Matrix.Identity; public Texture2D texture; /// <summary> /// Constructs a new sphere primitive, /// with the specified size and tessellation level. /// </summary> public Sphere(float diameter, int tessellation, Texture2D text, float up, float down, float portstar, float frontback) { texture = text; if (tessellation < 3) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("tessellation"); int verticalSegments = tessellation; int horizontalSegments = tessellation * 2; float radius = diameter / 2; // Start with a single vertex at the bottom of the sphere. AddVertex(Vector3.Down * ((radius / up) + 1), Vector3.Down, Vector2.Zero);//bottom position5 // Create rings of vertices at progressively higher latitudes. for (int i = 0; i < verticalSegments - 1; i++) { float latitude = ((i + 1) * MathHelper.Pi / verticalSegments) - MathHelper.PiOver2; float dy = (float)Math.Sin(latitude / up);//(up)5 float dxz = (float)Math.Cos(latitude); // Create a single ring of vertices at this latitude. for (int j = 0; j < horizontalSegments; j++) { float longitude = j * MathHelper.TwoPi / horizontalSegments; float dx = (float)(Math.Cos(longitude) * dxz) / portstar;//port and starboard (right)2 float dz = (float)(Math.Sin(longitude) * dxz) * frontback;//front and back1.4 Vector3 normal = new Vector3(dx, dy, dz); AddVertex(normal * radius, normal, new Vector2(j, i)); } } // Finish with a single vertex at the top of the sphere. AddVertex(Vector3.Up * ((radius / down) + 1), Vector3.Up, Vector2.One);//top position5 // Create a fan connecting the bottom vertex to the bottom latitude ring. for (int i = 0; i < horizontalSegments; i++) { AddIndex(0); AddIndex(1 + (i + 1) % horizontalSegments); AddIndex(1 + i); } // Fill the sphere body with triangles joining each pair of latitude rings. for (int i = 0; i < verticalSegments - 2; i++) { for (int j = 0; j < horizontalSegments; j++) { int nextI = i + 1; int nextJ = (j + 1) % horizontalSegments; AddIndex(1 + i * horizontalSegments + j); AddIndex(1 + i * horizontalSegments + nextJ); AddIndex(1 + nextI * horizontalSegments + j); AddIndex(1 + i * horizontalSegments + nextJ); AddIndex(1 + nextI * horizontalSegments + nextJ); AddIndex(1 + nextI * horizontalSegments + j); } } // Create a fan connecting the top vertex to the top latitude ring. for (int i = 0; i < horizontalSegments; i++) { AddIndex(CurrentVertex - 1); AddIndex(CurrentVertex - 2 - (i + 1) % horizontalSegments); AddIndex(CurrentVertex - 2 - i); } //InitializePrimitive(graphicsDevice); } /// <summary> /// Adds a new vertex to the primitive model. This should only be called /// during the initialization process, before InitializePrimitive. /// </summary> protected void AddVertex(Vector3 position, Vector3 normal, Vector2 texturecoordinate) { vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormal(position, normal, texturecoordinate)); } /// <summary> /// Adds a new index to the primitive model. This should only be called /// during the initialization process, before InitializePrimitive. /// </summary> protected void AddIndex(int index) { if (index > ushort.MaxValue) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("index"); indices.Add((ushort)index); } /// <summary> /// Queries the index of the current vertex. This starts at /// zero, and increments every time AddVertex is called. /// </summary> protected int CurrentVertex { get { return vertices.Count; } } public void InitializePrimitive(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { // Create a vertex declaration, describing the format of our vertex data. // Create a vertex buffer, and copy our vertex data into it. vertexBuffer = new VertexBuffer(graphicsDevice, typeof(VertexPositionNormal), vertices.Count, BufferUsage.None); vertexBuffer.SetData(vertices.ToArray()); // Create an index buffer, and copy our index data into it. indexBuffer = new IndexBuffer(graphicsDevice, typeof(ushort), indices.Count, BufferUsage.None); indexBuffer.SetData(indices.ToArray()); // Create a BasicEffect, which will be used to render the primitive. basicEffect = new BasicEffect(graphicsDevice); //basicEffect.EnableDefaultLighting(); } /// <summary> /// Draws the primitive model, using the specified effect. Unlike the other /// Draw overload where you just specify the world/view/projection matrices /// and color, this method does not set any renderstates, so you must make /// sure all states are set to sensible values before you call it. /// </summary> public void Draw(Effect effect) { GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice = effect.GraphicsDevice; // Set our vertex declaration, vertex buffer, and index buffer. graphicsDevice.SetVertexBuffer(vertexBuffer); graphicsDevice.Indices = indexBuffer; graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Additive; foreach (EffectPass effectPass in effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { effectPass.Apply(); int primitiveCount = indices.Count / 3; graphicsDevice.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, vertices.Count, 0, primitiveCount); } graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Opaque; } /// <summary> /// Draws the primitive model, using a BasicEffect shader with default /// lighting. Unlike the other Draw overload where you specify a custom /// effect, this method sets important renderstates to sensible values /// for 3D model rendering, so you do not need to set these states before /// you call it. /// </summary> public void Draw(Camera camera, Color color) { // Set BasicEffect parameters. basicEffect.World = GetWorld(); basicEffect.View = camera.view; basicEffect.Projection = camera.projection; basicEffect.DiffuseColor = color.ToVector3(); basicEffect.TextureEnabled = true; basicEffect.Texture = texture; GraphicsDevice device = basicEffect.GraphicsDevice; device.DepthStencilState = DepthStencilState.Default; if (color.A < 255) { // Set renderstates for alpha blended rendering. device.BlendState = BlendState.AlphaBlend; } else { // Set renderstates for opaque rendering. device.BlendState = BlendState.Opaque; } // Draw the model, using BasicEffect. Draw(basicEffect); } public virtual Matrix GetWorld() { return /*world */ Matrix.CreateScale(1f) * RotationMatrix * Matrix.CreateTranslation(position); } } public struct VertexPositionNormal : IVertexType { public Vector3 Position; public Vector3 Normal; public Vector2 TextureCoordinate; /// <summary> /// Constructor. /// </summary> public VertexPositionNormal(Vector3 position, Vector3 normal, Vector2 textCoor) { Position = position; Normal = normal; TextureCoordinate = textCoor; } /// <summary> /// A VertexDeclaration object, which contains information about the vertex /// elements contained within this struct. /// </summary> public static readonly VertexDeclaration VertexDeclaration = new VertexDeclaration ( new VertexElement(0, VertexElementFormat.Vector3, VertexElementUsage.Position, 0), new VertexElement(12, VertexElementFormat.Vector3, VertexElementUsage.Normal, 0), new VertexElement(24, VertexElementFormat.Vector2, VertexElementUsage.TextureCoordinate, 0) ); VertexDeclaration IVertexType.VertexDeclaration { get { return VertexPositionNormal.VertexDeclaration; } } } A simple call to the class to initialise it. The Draw method is called in the master draw method in the Gamecomponent. My current thoughts on this are: The direction of the weapon hitting the ship is used to get the middle position for the texture Wrap a texture around the drawn sphere based on this point of contact Problem is i'm not sure how to do this. Can anyone help or if you have a better idea please tell me i'm open for opinion? :-) Thanks.

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  • Applying Textures to Hexagonal Tiles Seamlessly

    - by PATRY
    I'm doing a tactical game (X-Com / Fallout style) for fun. I've decided to use a hexagonal map, but I'm having a graphic problem. My current map display is HUD-like, with only the border of the map cells displayed, without any texture. it's simple and allow for display of different types of informations by varying the color of the border. For exemple the "danger view mode" displays the borders with a color going from green (no damage possible) to red (prob of damage 90%). Now, It's a bit hard to differentiate the kind of tile the player is on. I could put a plain color (green is grass, pale blue is water...), but this is going to limit the possibilities. Thus, i would like to display a texture on my tiles. Since the map are generated, i can not use a picture for the whole map with the HUD over. So, my question is : does any one knows how i could generate the sealess hexagonal textures (algo or plugin), or if there is a site with some hexagonal tiles ?

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  • Overriding component behavior

    - by deft_code
    I was thinking of how to implement overriding of behaviors in a component based entity system. A concrete example, an entity has a heath component that can be damaged, healed, killed etc. The entity also has an armor component that limits the amount of damage a character receives. Has anyone implemented behaviors like this in a component based system before? How did you do it? If no one has ever done this before why do you think that is. Is there anything particularly wrong headed about overriding component behaviors? Below is rough sketch up of how I imagine it would work. Components in an entity are ordered. Those at the front get a chance to service an interface first. I don't detail how that is done, just assume it uses evil dynamic_casts (it doesn't but the end effect is the same without the need for RTTI). class IHealth { public: float get_health( void ) const = 0; void do_damage( float amount ) = 0; }; class Health : public Component, public IHealth { public: void do_damage( float amount ) { m_damage -= amount; } private: float m_health; }; class Armor : public Component, public IHealth { public: float get_health( void ) const { return next<IHealth>().get_health(); } void do_damage( float amount ) { next<IHealth>().do_damage( amount / 2 ); } }; entity.add( new Health( 100 ) ); entity.add( new Armor() ); assert( entity.get<IHealth>().get_health() == 100 ); entity.get<IHealth>().do_damage( 10 ); assert( entity.get<IHealth>().get_health() == 95 ); Is there anything particularly naive about the way I'm proposing to do this?

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