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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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  • LWJGL glRotatef() without rotating axes?

    - by Brandon oubiub
    Okay so, I noticed when you rotate around an axis, say you do this: glRotatef(90.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); That will rotate things 90 degrees around the x-axis. However, it also sort of rotates the y and z axes as well. So now the y-axis is pointing in and out of the screen, instead of up and down. So when I try to do stuff like this: glRotatef(90.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); glRotatef(whatever, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); glRotatef(whatever2, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f); The rotations around the y and z-axes end up not how I want them. I was wondering if there is any way I can sort of rotate just the axes back to their initial position after using glRotatef(), without rotating the object back. Or something like that, just so that when I rotate around the y-axis, it rotates around a vertical axis.

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  • Using Event Driven Programming in games, when is it beneficial?

    - by Arthur Wulf White
    I am learning ActionScript 3 and I see the Event flow adheres to the W3C recommendations. From what I learned events can only be captured by the dispatcher unless, the listener capturing the event is a DisplayObject on stage and a parent of the object firing the event. You can capture the events in the capture(before) or bubbling(after) phase depending on Listner and Event setup you use. Does this system lend itself well for game programming? When is this system useful? Could you give an example of a case where using events is a lot better than going without them? Are they somehow better for performance in games? Please do not mention events you must use to get a game running, like Event.ENTER_FRAME Or events that are required to get input from the user like, KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN and MouseEvent.CLICK. I am asking if there is any use in firing events that have nothing to do with user input, frame rendering and the likes(that are necessary). I am referring to cases where objects are communicating. Is this used to avoid storing a collection of objects that are on the stage? Thanks Here is some code I wrote as an example of event behavior in ActionScript 3, enjoy. package regression { import flash.display.Shape; import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.Event; import flash.events.EventDispatcher; import flash.events.KeyboardEvent; import flash.events.MouseEvent; import flash.events.EventPhase; /** * ... * @author ... */ public class Check_event_listening_1 extends Sprite { public const EVENT_DANCE : String = "dance"; public const EVENT_PLAY : String = "play"; public const EVENT_YELL : String = "yell"; private var baby : Shape = new Shape(); private var mom : Sprite = new Sprite(); private var stranger : EventDispatcher = new EventDispatcher(); public function Check_event_listening_1() { if (stage) init(); else addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init); } private function init(e:Event = null):void { trace("test begun"); addChild(mom); mom.addChild(baby); stage.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); this.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); mom.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); baby.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); stranger.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); trace("\nTest1 - Stranger yells with no bubbling"); stranger.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_YELL, false)); trace("\nTest2 - Stranger yells with bubbling"); stranger.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_YELL, true)); stage.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); this.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); mom.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); baby.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); stranger.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); trace("\nTest3 - baby plays with no bubbling"); baby.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_PLAY, false)); trace("\nTest4 - baby plays with bubbling"); baby.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_PLAY, true)); trace("\nTest5 - baby plays with bubbling but is not a child of mom"); mom.removeChild(baby); baby.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_PLAY, true)); mom.addChild(baby); stage.addEventListener(EVENT_DANCE, onEvent, true); this.addEventListener(EVENT_DANCE, onEvent, true); mom.addEventListener(EVENT_DANCE, onEvent, true); baby.addEventListener(EVENT_DANCE, onEvent); trace("\nTest6 - Mom dances without bubbling - everyone is listening during capture phase(not target and bubble phase)"); mom.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_DANCE, false)); trace("\nTest7 - Mom dances with bubbling - everyone is listening during capture phase(not target and bubble phase)"); mom.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_DANCE, true)); } private function onEvent(e : Event):void { trace("Event was captured"); trace("\nTYPE : ", e.type, "\nTARGET : ", objToName(e.target), "\nCURRENT TARGET : ", objToName(e.currentTarget), "\nPHASE : ", phaseToString(e.eventPhase)); } private function phaseToString(phase : int):String { switch(phase) { case EventPhase.AT_TARGET : return "TARGET"; case EventPhase.BUBBLING_PHASE : return "BUBBLING"; case EventPhase.CAPTURING_PHASE : return "CAPTURE"; default: return "UNKNOWN"; } } private function objToName(obj : Object):String { if (obj == stage) return "STAGE"; else if (obj == this) return "MAIN"; else if (obj == mom) return "Mom"; else if (obj == baby) return "Baby"; else if (obj == stranger) return "Stranger"; else return "Unknown" } } } /*result : test begun Test1 - Stranger yells with no bubbling Event was captured TYPE : yell TARGET : Stranger CURRENT TARGET : Stranger PHASE : TARGET Test2 - Stranger yells with bubbling Event was captured TYPE : yell TARGET : Stranger CURRENT TARGET : Stranger PHASE : TARGET Test3 - baby plays with no bubbling Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : Baby PHASE : TARGET Test4 - baby plays with bubbling Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : Baby PHASE : TARGET Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : Mom PHASE : BUBBLING Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : MAIN PHASE : BUBBLING Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : STAGE PHASE : BUBBLING Test5 - baby plays with bubbling but is not a child of mom Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : Baby PHASE : TARGET Test6 - Mom dances without bubbling - everyone is listening during capture phase(not target and bubble phase) Event was captured TYPE : dance TARGET : Mom CURRENT TARGET : STAGE PHASE : CAPTURE Event was captured TYPE : dance TARGET : Mom CURRENT TARGET : MAIN PHASE : CAPTURE Test7 - Mom dances with bubbling - everyone is listening during capture phase(not target and bubble phase) Event was captured TYPE : dance TARGET : Mom CURRENT TARGET : STAGE PHASE : CAPTURE Event was captured TYPE : dance TARGET : Mom CURRENT TARGET : MAIN PHASE : CAPTURE */

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  • 3D Ball Physics Theory: collision response on ground and against walls?

    - by David
    I'm really struggling to get a strong grasp on how I should be handling collision response in a game engine I'm building around a 3D ball physics concept. Think Monkey Ball as an example of the type of gameplay. I am currently using sphere-to-sphere broad phase, then AABB to OBB testing (the final test I am using right now is one that checks if one of the 8 OBB points crosses the planes of the object it is testing against). This seems to work pretty well, and I am getting back: Plane that object is colliding against (with a point on the plane, the plane's normal, and the exact point of intersection. I've tried what feels like dozens of different high-level strategies for handling these collisions, without any real success. I think my biggest problem is understanding how to handle collisions against walls in the x-y axes (left/right, front/back), which I want to have elasticity, and the ground (z-axis) where I want an elastic reaction if the ball drops down, but then for it to eventually normalize and be kept "on the ground" (not go into the ground, but also not continue bouncing). Without kluging something together, I'm positive there is a good way to handle this, my theories just aren't getting me all the way there. For physics modeling and movement, I am trying to use a Euler based setup with each object maintaining a position (and destination position prior to collision detection), a velocity (which is added onto the position to determine the destination position), and an acceleration (which I use to store any player input being put on the ball, as well as gravity in the z coord). Starting from when I detect a collision, what is a good way to approach the response to get the expected behavior in all cases? Thanks in advance to anyone taking the time to assist... I am grateful for any pointers, and happy to post any additional info or code if it is useful. UPDATE Based on Steve H's and eBusiness' responses below, I have adapted my collision response to what makes a lot more sense now. It was close to right before, but I didn't have all the right pieces together at the right time! I have one problem left to solve, and that is what is causing the floor collision to hit every frame. Here's the collision response code I have now for the ball, then I'll describe the last bit I'm still struggling to understand. // if we are moving in the direction of the plane (against the normal)... if (m_velocity.dot(intersection.plane.normal) <= 0.0f) { float dampeningForce = 1.8f; // eventually create this value based on mass and acceleration // Calculate the projection velocity PVRTVec3 actingVelocity = m_velocity.project(intersection.plane.normal); m_velocity -= actingVelocity * dampeningForce; } // Clamp z-velocity to zero if we are within a certain threshold // -- NOTE: this was an experimental idea I had to solve the "jitter" bug I'll describe below float diff = 0.2f - abs(m_velocity.z); if (diff > 0.0f && diff <= 0.2f) { m_velocity.z = 0.0f; } // Take this object to its new destination position based on... // -- our pre-collision position + vector to the collision point + our new velocity after collision * time // -- remaining after the collision to finish the movement m_destPosition = m_position + intersection.diff + (m_velocity * intersection.tRemaining * GAMESTATE->dt); The above snippet is run after a collision is detected on the ball (collider) with a collidee (floor in this case). With a dampening force of 1.8f, the ball's reflected "upward" velocity will eventually be overcome by gravity, so the ball will essentially be stuck on the floor. THIS is the problem I have now... the collision code is running every frame (since the ball's z-velocity is constantly pushing it a collision with the floor below it). The ball is not technically stuck, I can move it around still, but the movement is really goofy because the velocity and position keep getting affected adversely by the above snippet. I was experimenting with an idea to clamp the z-velocity to zero if it was "close to zero", but this didn't do what I think... probably because the very next frame the ball gets a new gravity acceleration applied to its velocity regardless (which I think is good, right?). Collisions with walls are as they used to be and work very well. It's just this last bit of "stickiness" to deal with. The camera is constantly jittering up and down by extremely small fractions too when the ball is "at rest". I'll keep playing with it... I like puzzles like this, especially when I think I'm close. Any final ideas on what I could be doing wrong here? UPDATE 2 Good news - I discovered I should be subtracting the intersection.diff from the m_position (position prior to collision). The intersection.diff is my calculation of the difference in the vector of position to destPosition from the intersection point to the position. In this case, adding it was causing my ball to always go "up" just a little bit, causing the jitter. By subtracting it, and moving that clamper for the velocity.z when close to zero to being above the dot product (and changing the test from <= 0 to < 0), I now have the following: // Clamp z-velocity to zero if we are within a certain threshold float diff = 0.2f - abs(m_velocity.z); if (diff > 0.0f && diff <= 0.2f) { m_velocity.z = 0.0f; } // if we are moving in the direction of the plane (against the normal)... float dotprod = m_velocity.dot(intersection.plane.normal); if (dotprod < 0.0f) { float dampeningForce = 1.8f; // eventually create this value based on mass and acceleration? // Calculate the projection velocity PVRTVec3 actingVelocity = m_velocity.project(intersection.plane.normal); m_velocity -= actingVelocity * dampeningForce; } // Take this object to its new destination position based on... // -- our pre-collision position + vector to the collision point + our new velocity after collision * time // -- remaining after the collision to finish the movement m_destPosition = m_position - intersection.diff + (m_velocity * intersection.tRemaining * GAMESTATE->dt); UpdateWorldMatrix(m_destWorldMatrix, m_destOBB, m_destPosition, false); This is MUCH better. No jitter, and the ball now "rests" at the floor, while still bouncing off the floor and walls. The ONLY thing left is that the ball is now virtually "stuck". He can move but at a much slower rate, likely because the else of my dot product test is only letting the ball move at a rate multiplied against the tRemaining... I think this is a better solution than I had previously, but still somehow not the right idea. BTW, I'm trying to journal my progress through this problem for anyone else with a similar situation - hopefully it will serve as some help, as many similar posts have for me over the years.

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  • accessing c++ class members with luaplus

    - by cppanda
    i've implemented LuaPlus in my engine eventmanager successfully and really like the flexibility i gained. but i'm still not exactly where i want to by, because i can't link my c++ classes to a lua class. for example i have a Actor class in c++, and i want to be able to create the same class in lua and gain access to members with luaplus, but i can't figure how i can achieve that. Is this actually luaplus built in functionality, or do i have to write my own interface that exchanges data tables between c++ and lua? my current approach would be to fire an event in luascript that creates an new actor class in c++ code, and transfer its id and the data i need to back to lua. when i modify the data i send the modifications back to c++ code again, but i actually thought there's something in luaplus that exposes this functionality already.

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  • Dynamic character animation - Using the physics engine or not

    - by Lex Webb
    I'm planning on building a dynamic reactant animation engine for the characters in my 2D Game. I have already built templates for a skeleton based animation system using key frames and interpolation to specify a limbs position at any given moment in time. I am using Farseer physics (an extension of Box2D) in Monogame/XNA in C# My real question lies in how i go about tying this character animation into the physics engine. I have two options: Moving limbs using physics engine - applying a interpolated force to each limb (dynamic body) in order to attempt to get it to its position as donated by the skeleton animation. Moving limbs by simply changing the position of a fixed body - Updating the new position of each limb manually, attempting to take into account physics collisions. Then stepping the physics after the animation to allow for environment interaction. Each of these methods have their distinct advantages and disadvantages. Physics based movement Advantages: Possibly more natural/realistic movement Better interaction with game objects as force applying to objects colliding with characters would be calculated for me. No need to convert to dynamic bodies when reacting to projectiles/death/fighting. Disadvantages: Possible difficulty in calculating correct amount of force to move a limb a certain distance at a constant rate. Underlying character balance system would need to be created that would need to be robust enough to prevent characters falling over at the touch of a feather. Added code complexity and processing time for the above. Static Object movement Advantages: Easy to interpolate movement of limbs between game steps Moving limbs is as simple as applying a rotation to the skeleton bone. Greater control over limbs, wont need to worry about characters falling over as all animation would be pre-defined. Disadvantages: Possible unnatural movement (Depends entirely on my animation skills!) Bad physics collision reactions with physics engine (Dynamic bodies simply slide out of the way of static objects) Need to calculate collisions with physics objects and my limbs myself and apply directional forces to them. Hard to account for slopes/stairs/non standard planes when animating walking/running animations. Need to convert objects to dynamic when reacting to projectile/fighting/death physics objects. The Question! As you can see, i have thought about this extensively, i have also had Google into physics based animation and have found mostly dissertation papers! Which is filling me with sense that it may a lot more advanced than my mathematics skills. My question is mostly subjective based on my findings above/any experience you may have: Which of the above methods should i use when creating my game? I am willing to spend the time to get a physics solution working if you think it would be possible. In the end i want to provide the most satisfying experience for the gamer, as well as a robust and dynamic system i can use to animate pretty much anything i need.

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  • Raycasting mouse coordinates to rotated object?

    - by SPL
    I am trying to cast a ray from my mouse to a plane at a specified position with a known width and length and height. I know that you can use the NDC (Normalized Device Coordinates) to cast ray but I don't know how can I detect if the ray actually hit the plane and when it did. The plane is translated -100 on the Y and rotated 60 on the X then translated again -100. Can anyone please give me a good tutorial on this? For a complete noob! I am almost new to matrix and vector transformations.

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  • Problems implementing a screen space shadow ray tracing shader

    - by Grieverheart
    Here I previously asked for the possibility of ray tracing shadows in screen space in a deferred shader. Several problems were pointed out. One of the most important problem is that only visible objects can cast shadows and objects between the camera and the shadow caster can interfere. Still I thought it'd be a fun experiment. The idea is to calculate the view coordinates of pixels and cast a ray to the light. The ray is then traced pixel by pixel to the light and its depth is compared with the depth at the pixel. If a pixel is in front of the ray, a shadow is casted at the original pixel. At first I thought that I could use the DDA algorithm in 2D to calculate the distance 't' (in p = o + t d, where o origin, d direction) to the next pixel and use it in the 3D ray equation to find the ray's z coordinate at that pixel's position. For the 2D ray, I would use the projected and biased 3D ray direction and origin. The idea was that 't' would be the same in both 2D and 3D equations. Unfortunately, this is not the case since the projection matrix is 4D. Thus, some tweak needs to be done to make this work this way. I would like to ask if someone knows of a way to do what I described above, i.e. from a 2D ray in texture coordinate space to get the 3D ray in screen space. I did implement a simple version of the idea which you can see in the following video: video here Shadows may seem a bit pixelated, but that's mostly because of the size of the step in 't' I chose. And here is the shader: #version 330 core uniform sampler2D DepthMap; uniform vec2 projAB; uniform mat4 projectionMatrix; const vec3 light_p = vec3(-30.0, 30.0, -10.0); noperspective in vec2 pass_TexCoord; smooth in vec3 viewRay; layout(location = 0) out float out_AO; vec3 CalcPosition(void){ float depth = texture(DepthMap, pass_TexCoord).r; float linearDepth = projAB.y / (depth - projAB.x); vec3 ray = normalize(viewRay); ray = ray / ray.z; return linearDepth * ray; } void main(void){ vec3 origin = CalcPosition(); if(origin.z < -60) discard; vec2 pixOrigin = pass_TexCoord; //tex coords vec3 dir = normalize(light_p - origin); vec2 texel_size = vec2(1.0 / 600.0); float t = 0.1; ivec2 pixIndex = ivec2(pixOrigin / texel_size); out_AO = 1.0; while(true){ vec3 ray = origin + t * dir; vec4 temp = projectionMatrix * vec4(ray, 1.0); vec2 texCoord = (temp.xy / temp.w) * 0.5 + 0.5; ivec2 newIndex = ivec2(texCoord / texel_size); if(newIndex != pixIndex){ float depth = texture(DepthMap, texCoord).r; float linearDepth = projAB.y / (depth - projAB.x); if(linearDepth > ray.z + 0.1){ out_AO = 0.2; break; } pixIndex = newIndex; } t += 0.5; if(texCoord.x < 0 || texCoord.x > 1.0 || texCoord.y < 0 || texCoord.y > 1.0) break; } } As you can see, here I just increment 't' by some arbitrary factor, calculate the 3D ray and project it to get the pixel coordinates, which is not really optimal. Hopefully, I would like to optimize the code as much as possible and compare it with shadow mapping and how it scales with the number of lights. PS: Keep in mind that I reconstruct position from depth by interpolating rays through a full screen quad.

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  • How to account for speed of the vehicle when shooting shells from it?

    - by John Murdoch
    I'm developing a simple 3D ship game using libgdx and bullet. When a user taps the mouse I create a new shell object and send it in the direction of the mouse click. However, if the user has tapped the mouse in the direction where the ship is currently moving, the ship catches up to the shells very quickly and can sometimes even get hit by them - simply because the speed of shells and the ship are quite comparable. I think I need to account for ship speed when generating the initial impulse for the shells, and I tried doing that (see "new line added"), but I cannot figure out if what I'm doing is the proper way and if yes, how to calculate the correct coefficient. public void createShell(Vector3 origin, Vector3 direction, Vector3 platformVelocity, float velocity) { long shellId = System.currentTimeMillis(); // hack ShellState state = getState().createShellState(shellId, origin.x, origin.y, origin.z); ShellEntity entity = EntityFactory.getInstance().createShellEntity(shellId, state); add(entity); entity.getBody().applyCentralImpulse(platformVelocity.mul(velocity * 0.02f)); // new line added, to compensate for the moving platform, no idea how to calculate proper coefficient entity.getBody().applyCentralImpulse(direction.nor().mul(velocity)); } private final Vector3 v3 = new Vector3(); public void shootGun(Vector3 direction) { Vector3 shipVelocity = world.getShipEntities().get(id).getBody().getLinearVelocity(); world.getState().getShipStates().get(id).transform.getTranslation(v3); // current location of our ship v3.add(direction.nor().mul(10.0f)); // hack; this is to avoid shell immediately impacting the ship that it got shot out from world.createShell(v3, direction, shipVelocity, 500); }

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  • Cropping a line (laser beam) in XNA

    - by electroflame
    I have a laser sprite that I wish to crop. I want to crop it so when it collides with an item, I can calculate the distance between the starting point, and the ending point, and only draw that. This eliminates the "overdraw" of a laser drawing past an item. Essentially, I'm trying to crop a line, but also keep that line "attached" to the nose of my ship. The line should not be drawn past the nose of my ship, that should be the starting point. There is no rotation to worry about. Currently, I thought that doing this through SpriteBatch would be best. This is my current Spritebatch code: spriteBatch.Draw(Laser.sprite, new Rectangle((int)Laser.position.X, (int)Laser.position.Y, Laser.sprite.Width, LaserHeight), new Rectangle(0, 0, (int)(Laser.sprite.Width), LaserHeight), new Color(255, 255, 255, (byte)MathHelper.Clamp(Laser.Alpha, 0, 255)), Laser.rotation, new Vector2(Laser.sprite.Width/2, LaserHeight/2), SpriteEffects.None, 0); But this doesn't quite work. It does only draw part of the sprite, but when LaserHeight is incremented, it lengthens the line in both ways! I believe this is due to some stupid error on my part with the Origin of the draw. Quick recap: I need to have my laser sprite drawn with the bottom of it at the nose of my ship, and then use LaserHeight to crop the image so only part of it is drawn. I have a feeling my explanation is a bit...lacking. So if you require more information, please say so and I will try to provide more information. Thanks in advance!

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  • Board Game Design in Cocos2d

    - by object2.0
    Hi folks i am going to start a chess like board game. and for that i have reviewed a number to things available. one is http://www.mapeditor.org/ , using which you can create a grid base games. another option is geekgameboard for iphone available at http://mooseyard.lighthouseapp.com/projects/23201-geekgameboard now i want your expert opinion that would it be better to make a game in cocos2d using the first option or the second option? both looks promising to me and give good control over board design. ps: sorry for duplicates, i found about the http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/ lately after posting it on stackexchange. so i am just posting it here again as i feel its more relevant board.

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  • Looking for literature about graphics pipeline optimization

    - by zacharmarz
    I am looking for some books, articles or tutorials about graphics architecture and graphics pipeline optimizations. It shouldn't be too old (2008 or newer) - the newer, the better. I have found something in [Optimising the Graphics Pipeline, NVIDIA, Koji Ashida] - too old, [Real-time rendering, Akenine Moller], [OpenGL Bindless Extensions, NVIDIA, Jeff Bolz], [Efficient multifragment effects on graphics processing units, Louis Frederic Bavoil] and some internet discussions. But there is not too much information and I want to read more. It should contain something about application, driver, memory and shader units communication and data transfers. About vertices and attributes. Also pre and post T&L cache (if they still exist in nowadays architectures) etc. I don't need anything about textures, frame buffers and rasterization. It can also be about OpenGL (not about DirecX) and optimizing extensions (not old extensions like VBOs, but newer like vertex_buffer_unified_memory).

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  • As an indie game dev, what processes are the best for soliciting feedback on my design/spec/idea? [closed]

    - by Jess Telford
    Background I have worked in a professional environment where the process usually goes like the following: Brain storm idea Solidify the game mechanics / design Iterate on design/idea to create a more solid experience Spec out the details of the design/idea Build it Step 3. is generally done with the stakeholders of the game (developers, designers, investors, publishers, etc) to reach an 'agreement' which meets the goals of all involved. Due to this process involving a series of often opposing and unique view points, creative solutions can surface through discussion / iteration. This is backed up by a process for collating the changes / new ideas, as well as structured time for discussion. As a (now) indie developer, I have to play the role of all the stakeholders (developers, designers, investors, publishers, etc), and often find myself too close to the idea / design to do more than minor changes, which I feel to be local maxima when it comes to the best result (I'm looking for the global maxima, of course). I have read that ideas / game designs / unique mechanics are merely multipliers of execution, and that keeping them secret is just silly. In sharing the idea with others outside the realm of my own thinking, I hope to replicate the influence other stakeholders have. I am struggling with the collation of changes / new ideas, and any kind of structured method of receiving feedback. My question: As an indie game developer, how and where can I share my ideas/designs to receive meaningful / constructive feedback? How can I successfully collate the feedback into a new iteration of the design? Are there any specialized websites, etc?

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  • Networking Client Server Packet logic (How they communicate)

    - by Trixmix
    I want to know what is the logic behind server client communication through packets for a real time game. for example the server sends x packets then the client receives x packets and processes them.. Basically what is the process to keep the client and server in sync and able to receive and send packets. more in depth example of what I want to know: client step 1 wait for a packet step 2 read x packets step 3 process x packets step 4 send x packets and so on... I need to know the very basic outline of the communication. Big questions are: 1) do I send and read packets all at one time? i.e for loop though the incoming packets array list and read them all or one every server loop or what... 2) what order should I do things i.e first receive then read then process then send etc.. 3) what I asked above a step by step of what the server / client should do.. Thanks!

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  • Hero/Character sprite size in comparison to tile size?

    - by Kid
    So I'm making this simple platformer where the Hero is 16x16 in size, but also, the tile size is 16x16. Which sounds fine right? But my game window/world is 800x416, which makes the Hero is really really tiny in comparison. This really surprised me, but given Ive never made a platformer before it is also a new discovery. Is there a rule set for scale in platformer games? I'd like to have my game window remain the size it is (800x416), cause the game involves large levels. But how big should my hero be? I hope I was clear with the question, and I appreciate any insight. Thanks

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  • Implementing a multilanguage AI contest platform

    - by Alejandro Piad
    This is a followup to this question. To sum: I'm implementing an AI contest site, where each user may submit several AI implementations for different games. Think about Google AI Challenge but instead of just having a big event once a year, I would like it more on a league fashion, with all virtual players playing with each other every some close period of time. I want to support as many programming languages as possible. I've seen that contest sites (like codeforces) ask you to submit a source code and interact through stdin and stdout. The first question is: what is the best way of supporting multiple languages? As I see it, I can either ask people to upload some binary/script, and interact either through stdin/*stdout*, or sockets, or the file system; or ask people to submit source code, and wrap it with whatever is necessary for the interaction. I would like to skip the need to compile the code by myself (in the server, I mean), but I am willing to do it if its the "best" choice. I need to comunicate virtual players with each other, or even better, with some intermediary arbiter. The second question is regarding security. If I'm going to be running user code in my server, I want to ensure strict security conditions, like no file system access, no networking, etc. Otherwise it would be a safe heaven for hackers. I will be implementing the engine/arbiter in .NET. I would like to support at least C#, C++, Java and Python for the user's implementations. I'm willing to write interfaces for each of these languages to simplify the user interaction with the system. Thanks in advance.

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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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  • Loading Wavefront Data into VAO and Render It

    - by Jordan LaPrise
    I have successfully loaded a triangulated wavefront(.obj) into 6 vectors, the first 3 vectors contain the locations for vertices, uv coords, and normals. The last three have the indices stored for each of the faces. I have been looking into using VAO's and VBO's to render, and I'm not quite sure how to load and render the data. One of my biggest concerns is the fact that indexed rendering only allows you to have one array of indices, meaning I somehow have to make all of the first three vectors the same size, the only way I thought of doing this, is to make 3 new vertex's of equal size, and load in the data for each face, but that would completely defeat the purpose of indexing. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Jordan

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  • XNA 4: GetData from Texture2D and Set it into Texture3D with specific order

    - by cubrman
    I am trying to convert my color grading 2d lookup texture into 3d LUT. When I simply use: ColorAtlas.GetData(data); ColorAtlas3D.SetData(data); I get this: I tried building my 2d atlass horizontally but it did not helped - the data was messed up in a different way. So my question is how can I influence the order of the data I get from the 2d atlas and how can I properly pass it into my 3d atlas? Update: I know that I can GetData from a specific Rectangular area and put it into several arrays, but the result is still the same. This is what I tried: Color[] data2D = new Color[0]; for (int i = 0; i < 32; i++) { Color[] data = new Color[32 * 32]; GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(null); ColorAtlas.GetData(0, new Rectangle(0, i*32, 32, 32), data, 0, data.Length); int oldLength = data2D.Length; Array.Resize<Color>(ref data2D, oldLength + data.Length); Array.Copy(data, 0, data2D, oldLength, data.Length); } ColorAtlas3D.SetData(data2D);

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  • Move model forward base on model orientation

    - by ChocoMan
    My model rotates on it's own Y-axis regardless of where it is in the world. Here are the controls for the left ThumbStick: UP (move model forward on Z-Axis) DOWN (move model backward on Z-Axis) LEFT & RIGHT (strafe to either side) The problem is adjusting the direction the model's orientation UP and DOWN if the player should also rotate the player while moving forward or backwards. An example what Im trying to achieve would be a car doing donuts. The car is always facing the current direction that it interprets as forward (or rear as backwards) in relation to it's local rotation. Here is how Im calling the movement: // Rotate model with Right Thumbstick along X-Axis modelRotation -= pController.ThumbSticks.Right.X * mRotSpeed; // Move Forward if (pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickUp)) { modelPosition.Z -= -pController.ThumbSticks.Left.Y * speed; } // Move Backward if (pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickDown)) { modelPosition.Z += pController.ThumbSticks.Left.Y * speed; } // Strafe Left if (pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickLeft)) { modelPosition.X += -pController.ThumbSticks.Left.X * speed; } // Strafe Right if (pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickRight)) { modelPosition.X -= pController.ThumbSticks.Left.X * speed; } // DeadZone if (!pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickUp) && !pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickDown) && !pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickLeft) && !pController.IsButtonDown(Buttons.LeftThumbstickRight)) { }

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  • How to move an UIView along a curved CGPath according to user dragging the view

    - by Felipe Cypriano
    I'm trying to build a interface that the user can move his finger around the screen an a list of images moves along a path. The idea is that the images center nevers leaves de path. Most of the things I found was about how to animate using CGPath and not about actually using the path as the track to a user movement. I need to objects to be tracked on the path even if the user isn't moving his fingers over the path. For example (image bellow), if the object is at the beginning of the path and the user touches anywhere on the screen and moves his fingers from left to right I need that the object moves from left to right but following the path, that is, going up as it goes to the right towards the path's end. This is the path I've draw, imagine that I'll have a view (any image) that the user can touch and drag it along the path, there's no need to move the finger exactly over the path. If the user move from left to right the image should move from left to right but going up if need following the path. This is how I'm creating the path: CGPoint endPointUp = CGPointMake(315, 124); CGPoint endPointDown = CGPointMake(0, 403); CGPoint controlPoint1 = CGPointMake(133, 187); CGPoint controlPoint2 = CGPointMake(174, 318); CGMutablePathRef path = CGPathCreateMutable(); CGPathMoveToPoint(path, NULL, endPointUp.x, endPointUp.y); CGPathAddCurveToPoint(path, NULL, controlPoint1.x, controlPoint1.y, controlPoint2.x, controlPoint2.y, endPointDown.x, endPointDown.y); Any idead how can I achieve this?

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  • Coarse Collision Detection in highly dynamic environment

    - by Millianz
    I'm currently working a 3D space game with A LOT of dynamic objects that are all moving (there is pretty much no static environment). I have the collision detection and resolution working just fine, but I am now trying to optimize the collision detection (which is currently O(N^2) -- linear search). I thought about multiple options, a bounding volume hierarchy, a Binary Spatial Partitioning tree, an Octree or a Grid. I however need some help with deciding what's best for my situation. A grid seems unfeasible simply due to the space requirements and cache coherence problems. Since everything is so dynamic however, it seems to be that trees aren't ideal either, since they would have to be completely rebuilt every frame. I must admit I never implemented a physics engine that required spatial partitioning, do I indeed need to rebuild the tree every frame (assuming that everything is constantly moving) or can I update the trees after integrating? Advice is much appreciated - to give some more background: You're flying a space ship in an asteroid field, and there are lots and lots of asteroids and some enemy ships, all of which shoot bullets. EDIT: I came across the "Sweep an Prune" algorithm, which seems like the right thing for my purposes. It appears like the right mixture of fast building of the data structures involved and detailed enough partitioning. This is the best resource I can find: http://www.codercorner.com/SAP.pdf If anyone has any suggestions whether or not I'm going in the right direction, please let me know.

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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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  • how to do event checks for loops?

    - by yao jiang
    I am having some trouble getting the logic down for this. Currently, I have an app that animates the astar pathfinding algorithm. On start of the app, the ui will show the following: User can press "space" to randomly choose start/end coords, then the app will animate it. Or, user can choose the start/end by left-click/right-click. During the animation, the user can also left-click to generate blocks, or right-click to choose a new destiantion. Where I am stuck at is how to handle the events while the app is animating. Right now, I am checking events in the main loop, then when the app is animating, I do event checks again. While it works fine, I feel that I am probably doing it wrong. What is the proper way of setting up the main loop that will handle the events while the app is animating? In main loop, the app start animating once user choose start/end. In my draw function, I am putting another event checker in there. def clear(rows): for r in range(rows): for c in range(rows): if r%3 == 1 and c%3 == 1: color = brown; grid[r][c] = 1; buildCoor.append(r); buildCoor.append(c); else: color = white; grid[r][c] = 0; pick_image(screen, color, width*c, height*r); pygame.display.flip(); os.system('cls'); # draw out the grid def draw(start, end, grid, route_coord): # draw the end coords color = red; pick_image(screen, color, width*end[1],height*end[0]); pygame.display.flip(); # then draw the rest of the route for i in range(len(route_coord)): # pausing because we want animation time.sleep(speed); # get the x/y coords x,y = route_coord[i]; event_on = False; if grid[x][y] == 2: color = green; elif grid[x][y] == 3: color = blue; for event in pygame.event.get(): if event.type == pygame.MOUSEBUTTONDOWN: if event.button == 3: print "destination change detected, rerouting"; # get mouse position, px coords pos = pygame.mouse.get_pos(); # get grid coord c = pos[0] // width; r = pos[1] // height; grid[r][c] = 4; end = [r, c]; elif event.button == 1: print "user generated event"; pos = pygame.mouse.get_pos(); # get grid coord c = pos[0] // width; r = pos[1] // height; # mark it as a block for now grid[r][c] = 1; event_on = True; if check_events([x,y]) or event_on: # there is an event # mark it as a block for now grid[y][x] = 1; pick_image(screen, event_x, width*y, height*x); pygame.display.flip(); # then find a new route new_start = route_coord[i-1]; marked_grid, route_coord = find_route(new_start, end, grid); draw(new_start, end, grid, route_coord); return; # just end draw here so it wont throw the "index out of range" error elif grid[x][y] == 4: color = red; pick_image(screen, color, width*y, height*x); pygame.display.flip(); # clear route coord list, otherwise itll just add more unwanted coords route_coord_list[:] = []; clear(rows); # main loop while not done: # check the events for event in pygame.event.get(): # mouse events if event.type == pygame.MOUSEBUTTONDOWN: # get mouse position, px coords pos = pygame.mouse.get_pos(); # get grid coord c = pos[0] // width; r = pos[1] // height; # find which button pressed, highlight grid accordingly if event.button == 1: # left click, start coords if grid[r][c] == 2: grid[r][c] = 0; color = white; elif grid[r][c] == 0 or grid[r][c] == 4: grid[r][c] = 2; start = [r,c]; color = green; else: grid[r][c] = 1; color = brown; elif event.button == 3: # right click, end coords if grid[r][c] == 4: grid[r][c] = 0; color = white; elif grid[r][c] == 0 or grid[r][c] == 2: grid[r][c] = 4; end = [r,c]; color = red; else: grid[r][c] = 1; color = brown; pick_image(screen, color, width*c, height*r); # keyboard events elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN: clear(rows); # one way to quit program if event.key == pygame.K_ESCAPE: print "program will now exit."; done = True; # space key for random start/end elif event.key == pygame.K_SPACE: # first clear the ui clear(rows); # now choose random start/end coords buildLoc = zip(buildCoor,buildCoor[1:])[::2]; #print buildLoc; (start_x, start_y, end_x, end_y) = pick_point(); while (start_x, start_y) in buildLoc or (end_x, end_y) in buildLoc: (start_x, start_y, end_x, end_y) = pick_point(); clear(rows); print "chosen random start/end coords: ", (start_x, start_y, end_x, end_y); if (start_x, start_y) in buildLoc or (end_x, end_y) in buildLoc: print "error"; # draw the route marked_grid, route_coord = find_route([start_x,start_y],[end_x,end_y], grid); draw([start_x, start_y], [end_x, end_y], marked_grid, route_coord); # return key for user defined start/end elif event.key == pygame.K_RETURN: # first clear the ui clear(rows); # get the user defined start/end print "user defined start/end are: ", (start[0], start[1], end[0], end[1]); grid[start[0]][start[1]] = 1; grid[end[0]][end[1]] = 2; # draw the route marked_grid, route_coord = find_route(start, end, grid); draw(start, end, marked_grid, route_coord); # c to clear the screen elif event.key == pygame.K_c: print "clearing screen."; clear(rows); # go fullscreen elif event.key == pygame.K_f: if not full_sc: pygame.display.set_mode([1366, 768], pygame.FULLSCREEN); full_sc = True; rows = 15; clear(rows); else: pygame.display.set_mode(size); full_sc = False; # +/- key to change speed of animation elif event.key == pygame.K_LEFTBRACKET: if speed >= 0.1: print SPEED_UP; speed = speed_up(speed); print speed; else: print FASTEST; print speed; elif event.key == pygame.K_RIGHTBRACKET: if speed < 1.0: print SPEED_DOWN; speed = slow_down(speed); print speed; else: print SLOWEST print speed; # second method to quit program elif event.type == pygame.QUIT: print "program will now exit."; done = True; # limit to 20 fps clock.tick(20); # update the screen pygame.display.flip();

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  • Examples of interesting implementations of character stats?

    - by Tchalvak
    I've got this BBG going ( http://ninjawars.net ), and the character stats currently are simplistic. I'm looking to add a few stats to the current 1/2 (strength and maximum hitpoints, essentially). I've come up with: (strength (unchanged), speed, stamina, and some others that are somewhat interesting wildcard stats). However, I'm not satisfied with how boring the effects of some of these stats are, because they're very linear. Better stat, better effects of the stat, but the stats don't interact with each-other, there's no Rock-Paper-Scissors interaction, having more is always better all the time. So what I'd really like is to see examples of interesting character stats or effects of stats? Examples that I can think of off hand: Call of Cthulu's Insanity stat (things get really weird/chaotic if you start losing sanity) White Wolf stats, to a certain extent (the stats themselves have some basic effects, and all skills effectiveness base themselves off of stats as well) What are some other ways people have used stats to check out?

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