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  • Actually utilizing relational databases for entity systems

    - by Marc Müller
    Recently I was researching several entity systems and obviously I came across T=Machine's fantastic articles on the subject. In Part 5 of the series the author uses a relational schema to explain how an entity system is built and works. Since reading this, I have been wondering whether or not actually using a compact SQL library would be fast enough for real-time usage in video games. Performance seems to be the main issue with a full blown SQL database for management of all entities and components. However, as mentioned in T=Machine's post, basically all access to data inside the SQLDB is done sequentlially by each system over each component. Additionally, using a library like SQLite, one could easily improve performance by storing the entity data exclusively in RAM to increase access speeds. Disregarding possible performance issues, using a SQL database, in my opinion, would allow for a very intuitive implementation of entity systems and bring a long certain other benefits like easy de/serialization of game states and consistency checks like the uniqueness of entity IDs. Edit for clarification: The main question was whether using a SQL database for the actual entity management (not just storing the game state on the disk) in a real-time game would still yield a framerate appropriate for a game or even if someone is aware of projects that demonstrate SQL in a video game.

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  • Need help with a complex 3d scene (using Ogre and bullet)

    - by Matthias
    In my setup there is a box with a hole on one side, and a freely movable "stick" (or bar, tube). This stick can be inserted/moved through the hole into the box. This hole is exactly as wide as the diameter of the stick. In reality, when you would now hold the end of the stick in your hand and move the hand left/right or up/down, the other end of the stick, which is inside the box, would move into the opposite direction of your hand movement (because the stick is affixed at the pivot point where it is entering the box through the hole). (I hope you understand what I mean so far.) Now I need to simulate such a setup in a 3d program. I have already successfully developed an Ogre3d framework for this application, including bullet. But what I don't know is how I can implement in my program what I have described above. This application must include two more features: The scene camera is attached to the end of the stick that is inserted into the box. So when the user would move the mouse (to control "his" end of the stick outside the box), then the camera attached to the stick would move in the opposite direction, as described above. The stick has some length, and the user can push it further into the box, or pull it closer to him again. That means of course that the max. radius on which the end of the stick inside the box can move depends on how far the stick is pushed into the box. Thus, the more the stick is pushed into the box, the larger the max. radius of this end of the stick with the camera will be. I understand this is maybe quite a complex thing, so I don't expect any real source code here. I already have the Ogre and bullet part as said up and running, as well as a camera attached to the stick. This works fine. What I don't know though is how I can simulate the setup described above. Especially the requirement that the stick is affixed at the position of the hole on the box, where it is inserted into the box. Any ideas how I could approach to implement the described setup?

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  • Simple question about a cocos2d based game template

    - by Zishan
    I am learning a cocos2d based Game template tutorial from here and now I am at this point of the tutorial. My question is, how can i run 30 different scenes in 30 different levels of 5 chapter? Now I am using this switch (gameData.selectedLevel) { case 1: [SceneManager goChapter1Level1Scene]; break; (... snip a whole lot of lines...) case 30: [SceneManager goChapter5Level6Scene]; break; default: break; } in the "- (void) onPlay: (CCMenuItemImage*) sender" method. But it work only for 6 levels scene of chapter1. Other 4 chapters levels are show as same as 1st chapter levels scene. they are not show their own level scene. can any one please teach me, how can I do this stuff using this game template?

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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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  • 2D animations frames vs 3D animation for small indie project: timing considerations

    - by mm24
    pretty lame question but was wondering.. I am developing a 2D game using Cocos2D for iOS. The art work till now is all 2D (is a shooter game) but some of the characters would benefit of complex animations (eg. 20 frames). I feel a bit stupid because I came across only now that there is the chance to do 3D to 2D frames exporting and then to use them in Cocos2D. The thing that put me off on 3D gaming at first was that it takes more than one person in a team to do so properly (Illustrator, 3D modeller, 3D animator and programmer). Now I feel a bit stupid because having a 3D model I could do and modify the poses whenever I wanted (I should ask to the 3D animator which I guess would be time expensive). Instead now is me and two illustrators (as I require many frames per character). Is my impression that it would have been much longer right or not? Are there any other project management considerations that can be done on this? Sorry if for some this might be trivial but is my first "indie game developer experience".

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  • How to rotate FBX files in 90 degree while running on a path in iTween in unity 3d

    - by Jack Dsilva
    I am doing one racing game,in which I used iTween path systems to smooth camera turning in turns,iTween path systems works fine(special thanks to Bob Berkebile) Here first I used one cube to follow path and it works fine in turning But my problem is instead of using cube I used FBX(character) to follow path here when turn comes character will not move This is my problem Image: I want this type: How to Slove this problem?

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  • Toon/cel shading with variable line width?

    - by Nick Wiggill
    I see a few broad approaches out there to doing cel shading: Duplication & enlargement of model with flipped normals (not an option for me) Sobel filter / fragment shader approaches to edge detection Stencil buffer approaches to edge detection Geometry (or vertex) shader approaches that calculate face and edge normals Am I correct in assuming the geometry-centric approach gives the greatest amount of control over lighting and line thickness, as well eg. for terrain where you might see the silhouette line of a hill merging gradually into a plain? What if I didn't need pixel lighting on my terrain surfaces? (And I probably won't as I plan to use cell-based vertex- or texturemap-based lighting/shadowing.) Would I then be better off sticking with the geometry-type approach, or go for a screen space / fragment approach instead to keep things simpler? If so, how would I get the "inking" of hills within the mesh silhouette, rather than only the outline of the entire mesh (with no "ink" details inside that outline? Lastly, is it possible to cheaply emulate the flipped-normals approach, using a geometry shader? Is that exactly what the GS approaches do? What I want - varying line thickness with intrusive lines inside the silhouette... What I don't want...

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  • Convience of mySQL over xml

    - by Bonechilla
    Currently I use XML to store specific information to correctly load a few things such as a list of specfied characters, scenes and music, Once more I use JAXB in combination with standard compression/decompression(ZIP) functionality to store a list of extrenous data. This data is called to add functionality to the character, somewhat like Skills in an RPG. Each skill is seperated into its own XML file with a grandlist which contains the names of each file with their extensions omitted and zipped in folder that gets encrypted. At first using xml was working fine however as the skill list grow i worry about its stability. I was wondering if I should begin storing the data in mySQL. Originally I planned to simply convert everything to JSON over xml but i think possibly mySQL would be a better move. Can anyone inform me of the key difference and pros and cons of each I guess i'm looking for the best way to store the data more conviently and would be easier to operate on. The data is mostly primatives and strings and the only arraylist of values i have i can just concat into a single field and parse later

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  • Fitting a rectangle into screen with XNA

    - by alecnash
    I am drawing a rectangle with primitives in XNA. The width is: width = GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width and the height is height = GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height I am trying to fit this rectangle in the screen (using different screens and devices) but I am not sure where to put the camera on the Z-axis. Sometimes the camera is too close and sometimes to far. This is what I am using to get the camera distance: //Height of piramid float alpha = 0; float beta = 0; float gamma = 0; alpha = (float)Math.Sqrt((width / 2 * width/2) + (height / 2 * height / 2)); beta = height / ((float)Math.Cos(MathHelper.ToRadians(67.5f)) * 2); gamma = (float)Math.Sqrt(beta*beta - alpha*alpha); position = new Vector3(0, 0, gamma); Any idea where to put the camera on the Z-axis?

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  • Making a Background Scrolling in Stacking Game

    - by David Dimalanta
    Hmmm...Is it a good idea to use a LibGDX parallax background for making a stacking game (i.e. PAPA STACKer Lite)? For example, I'm starting to use the blocks to drag-n-drop it. Next, when the next piece reaches the top of the screen, it automatically scrolls to the next one where the available space left. Aside from that, is it also involved with the camera code (Orthographic Camera) that the screen size appeared like 720x1280 but actually it's 1440x2560 for example? And another thing, does the background scrolling have the option to scroll from start to finish and infinite?

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  • Collision with half semi-circle

    - by heitortsergent
    I am trying to port a game I made using Flash/AS3, to the Windows Phone using C#/XNA 4.0. You can see it here: http://goo.gl/gzFiE In the flash version I used a pixel-perfect collision between meteors (it's a rectangle, and usually rotated) that spawn outside the screen, and move towards the center, and a shield in the center of the screen(which is half of a semi-circle, also rotated by the player), which made the meteor bounce back in the opposite direction it came from, when they collided. My goal now is to make the meteors bounce in different angles, depending on the position it collides with the shield (much like Pong, hitting the borders causes a change in the ball's angle). So, these are the 3 options I thought of: -Pixel-perfect collision (microsoft has a sample(http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/tutorial/collision_2d_perpixel_transformed)) , but then I wouldn't know how to change the meteor angle after the collision -3 BoundingCircle's to represent the half semi-circle shield, but then I would have to somehow move them as I rotate the shield. -Farseer Physics. I could make a shape composed of 3 lines, and use that as the collision object for the shield. Is there any other way besides those? Which would be the best way to do it(it's aimed towards mobile devices, so pixel-perfect is probably not a good choice)? Most of the time there's always a easier/better way than what we think of...

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  • Scanline filling of polygons that share edges and vertices

    - by Belgin
    In this picture (a perspective projection of an icosahedron), the scanline (red) intersects that vertex at the top. In an icosahedron each edge belongs to two triangles. From edge a, only one triangle is visible, the other one is in the back. Same for edge d. Also, in order to determine what color the current pixel should be, each polygon has a flag which can either be 'in' or 'out', depending upon where on the scanline we currently are. Flags are flipped according to the intersection of the scanline with the edges. Now, as we go from a to d (because all edges are intersected with the scanline at that vertex), this happens: the triangle behind triangle 1 and triangle 1 itself are set 'in', then 2 is set in and 1 is 'out', then 3 is set 'in', 2 is 'out' and finally 3 is 'out' and the one behind it is set 'in', which is not the desired behavior because we only need the triangles which are facing us to be set 'in', the rest should be 'out'. How do process the edges in the Active Edge List (a list of edges that are currently intersected by the scanline) so the right polys are set 'in'? Also, I should mention that the edges are unique, which means there exists an array of edges in the data structure of the icosahedron which are pointed to by edge pointers in each of the triangles.

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  • Ensuring that saved data has not been edited in a game with both offline and online components

    - by Omar Kooheji
    I'm in the pre-planning phase of coming up with a game design and I was wondering if there was a sensible way to stop people from editing saves in a game with offline and online components. The offline component would allow the player to play through the game and the online component would allow them to play against other players, so I would need to make sure that people hadn't edited the source code/save files while offline to gain an advantage while online. Game likely to be developed in either .Net or Java, both of which are unfortunately easy to decompile.

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  • iOS : Creating a 3D Compass

    - by Md. Abdul Munim
    Originally posted here: iOS : Creating a 3D Compass Hi everybody, Quite new in this forum.Posted the same question in stackoverflow and there some people suggested to shift it here, so that I can get a quick help from more specialists in this regard. So what's the big matter? Actually, I want to make a 3D metal compass in iOS which will have a movable cover. That is when you touch it by 3 fingers and try to move your fingers upward the cover keeps moving with your fingers and after certain distance it gets opened.Once you pull it down using 3 fingers again, it gets closed.I can not attach an image here as I don't have that much reputation. So I request you to check the original question at stack overflow that I linked at top. Is it possible using core animations and CALayers? Or would I have to use OpenGL ES? Please someone help me out, I am badly in need of it.And I need to complete it asap!

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  • 3D/perspective Top down shooter bullet issues

    - by Tseng
    I'm developing a top-down shooter with multiple levels (ground for ground units, middle level for buildings, top level for air unity). The problem is the collision. Though I can make the collider box of a bullet be long enough to reach the ground (and collide with it), the real issue is optical. When the bullet is fired from a aircraft and collides with some object on the ground (building, ground unit) it will be optically offset due to the perspective camera, because it looks like the shot "by-passed" the target as seen below Is there any way to make the bullets collide perspectively correct? I'm using Unity3d Engine and it offers only simple colliders (box, sphere, cylinder, mesh and wheel), though I don't think a cone-formed collider would solve this issue. I'd need a (cheap) way to check if it's overlapping a destructible object? I thought of casting a ray from the camera through the bullet and if it hits something destructible, trigger an action, but that's quite punctual and maybe to performance heavy on certain number of bullets

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  • Need Guidance Making HTML5 Canvas Game Engine

    - by Scriptonaut
    So I have some free time this winter break and want to build a simple 2d HTML5 canvas game engine. Mostly a physics engine that will dictate the way objects move and interact(collisions, etc). I made a basic game here: http://caidenhome.com/HTML%205/pong.html and would like to make more, and thought that this would be a good reason to make a simple framework for this stuff. Here are some questions: Does the scripting language have to be Javascript? What about Ruby? I will probably write it with jQuery because of the selecting powers, but I'm curious either way. Are there any great guides you guys know of? I want a fast guide that will help me bust out this engine sometime in the next 2 weeks, hopefully sooner. What are some good conventions I should be aware of? What's the best way to get sound? At the moment I'm using something like this: var audioElement = document.createElement('audio'); audioElement.setAttribute('src', 'paddle_col.wav'); audioElement.load(); I'm interested in making this engine lightweight and extremely efficient, I will do whatever it takes to get great speeds and processing power. I know this question is fairly vague, but I just need a push in the right direction. Thanks :)

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  • GLSL Shader Effects: How to do motion blur, etc?

    - by DevilWithin
    I am not sure how right it is to ask this question, but still here it goes. I have a full 2D environment, with sprites going around as landscape, characters, etc And to make it more state-of-art looking, i want to implement a motion blur effect, similar to modern FPS's (i.e. crysis) blur when moving fast the camera. In a sidescroller, the desired effect is having this slight blur appearing to give the idea of fast movement, when the camera is moving. If anyone could give me some tips on doing this, im assuming in a pixel shader, i'd be grate. Also, if anyone has other good tips on cool pixel shader effects for 2D games it would be awesome, like some stylizing post fx, such as previous Prince of Persia illustrative style. Thanks

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  • C++ OpenGL wireframe cube rendering blank

    - by caleb.breckon
    I'm just trying to draw a bunch of lines that make up a "cube". I can't for the life of me figure out why this is producing a black screen. The debugger does not break at any point. I'm sure it's a problem with my pointers, as I'm only decent at them in regular c++ and in OpenGL it gets even worse. const char* vertexSource = "#version 150\n" "in vec3 position;" "void main() {" " gl_Position = vec4(position, 1.0);" "}"; const char* fragmentSource = "#version 150\n" "out vec4 outColor;" "void main() {" " outColor = vec4(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0);" "}"; int main() { initializeGLFW(); // Initialize GLEW glewExperimental = GL_TRUE; glewInit(); // Create Vertex Array Object GLuint vao; glGenVertexArrays(1, &vao); glBindVertexArray(vao); // Create a Vertex Buffer Object and copy the vertex data to it GLuint vbo; glGenBuffers( 1, &vbo ); float vertices[] = { 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, // Vertex 0 (X, Y, Z) -1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, // Vertex 1 (X, Y, Z) -1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f, // Vertex 2 (X, Y, Z) 1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f, // Vertex 3 (X, Y, Z) 1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, // Vertex 4 (X, Y, Z) -1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, // Vertex 5 (X, Y, Z) -1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f, // Vertex 6 (X, Y, Z) 1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f // Vertex 7 (X, Y, Z) }; GLuint indices[] = { 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 0, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 4, 0, 4, 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, 7 }; glBindBuffer( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo ); glBufferData( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof( vertices ), vertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW ); //glBindBuffer( GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo); //glBufferData( GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof( indices ), indices, GL_STATIC_DRAW ); // Create and compile the vertex shader GLuint vertexShader = glCreateShader( GL_VERTEX_SHADER ); glShaderSource( vertexShader, 1, &vertexSource, NULL ); glCompileShader( vertexShader ); // Create and compile the fragment shader GLuint fragmentShader = glCreateShader( GL_FRAGMENT_SHADER ); glShaderSource( fragmentShader, 1, &fragmentSource, NULL ); glCompileShader( fragmentShader ); // Link the vertex and fragment shader into a shader program GLuint shaderProgram = glCreateProgram(); glAttachShader( shaderProgram, vertexShader ); glAttachShader( shaderProgram, fragmentShader ); glBindFragDataLocation( shaderProgram, 0, "outColor" ); glLinkProgram (shaderProgram); glUseProgram( shaderProgram); // Specify the layout of the vertex data GLint posAttrib = glGetAttribLocation( shaderProgram, "position" ); glEnableVertexAttribArray( posAttrib ); glVertexAttribPointer( posAttrib, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0 ); // Main loop while(glfwGetWindowParam(GLFW_OPENED)) { // Clear the screen to black glClearColor( 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f ); glClear( GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT ); // Draw lines from 2 vertices glDrawElements(GL_LINES, sizeof(indices), GL_UNSIGNED_INT, indices ); // Swap buffers glfwSwapBuffers(); } // Clean up glDeleteProgram( shaderProgram ); glDeleteShader( fragmentShader ); glDeleteShader( vertexShader ); //glDeleteBuffers( 1, &ebo ); glDeleteBuffers( 1, &vbo ); glDeleteVertexArrays( 1, &vao ); glfwTerminate(); exit( EXIT_SUCCESS ); }

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  • Learning to optimize with Assembly

    - by niktehpui
    I am a second year student of Computer Games Technology. I recently finished my first prototype of my "kind" of own pathfinder (that doesn't use A* instead a geometrical approach/pattern recognition, the pathfinder just needs the knowledge about the terrain that is in his view to make decisions, because I wanted an AI that could actually explore, if the terrain is already known, then it will walk the shortest way easily, because the pathfinder has a memory of nodes). Anyway my question is more general: How do I start optimizing algorithms/loops/for_each/etc. using Assembly, although general tips are welcome. I am specifically looking for good books, because it is really hard to find good books on this topic. There are some small articles out there like this one, but still isn't enough knowledge to optimize an algorithm/game... I hope there is a modern good book out there, that I just couldn't find...

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  • SharpDX/D3D: How to implement and draw fonts/text

    - by Dmitrij A
    I am playing with SharpDX (Direct3D for .NET) without using "Toolkit", already finished with basic rendering 3D models. But now i am wondering how to program/create fonts for game (2D), or how to simple draw variable text to output with Direct3D? (it is not as SharpDX question as common Direct3D question, how to start with game GUIs? And what should i do to program simple GUI's like menu for a game (generally i understand that it's shaders).

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  • 2D tile-based terrain generation

    - by a240
    As a summer project I decided it would be fun to make a Flash game. Right now I'm going for something like the look of Terraria. It's been a lot of fun, but today I've hit a snag. I need a way to generate my worlds. I've read up Perlin noise as a possibility, but I my attempts have given me sporadic looking results. What are some techniques used to generate these 2D tile-based worlds? Ideally I would like to be able to generate mountains, plains, and caves.

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  • Most efficient AABB - Ray intersection algorithm for input/output distance calculation

    - by Tobbey
    Thanks to the following thread : most efficient AABB vs Ray collision algorithms I have seen very fast algorithm for ray/AABB intersection point computation. Unfortunately, most of the recent algorithm are accelerated by omitting the "output" intersection point of the box. In my application, I would interested in getting both the the distance from source ray to input: t0 and source ray to output of bounding box: t1. I have seen for instance Eisemann designed a very fast version regarding plucker, smits, ... , but it does not compare the case when both input/output distance should be computed see: http://www.cg.cs.tu-bs.de/publications/Eisemann07FRA/ Does someone know where I can find more information on algorithm performances for the specific input/output problem ? Thank you in advance

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  • Algorithm for optimal control on space ship using accelerometer input data

    - by mm24
    Does someone have a good algorithm for controlling a space ship in a vertical shooter game using acceleration data? I have done a simple algorithm, but works very badly. I save an initial acceleration value (used to calibrate the movement according to the user's initial position) and I do subtract it from the current acceleration so I get a "calibrated" value. The problem is that basing the movement solely on relative acceleration has an effect of loss of sensitivity: certain movements are independent from the initial position. Would anyone be able to share a a better solution? I am wondering if I should use/integrate also inputs from gyroscope hardware. Here is my sample of code for a Cocos2d iOS game: - (void) accelerometer:(UIAccelerometer *)accelerometer didAccelerate:(UIAcceleration *)acceleration { if (calibrationLayer.visible){ [self evaluateCalibration:acceleration]; initialAccelleration=acceleration; return; } if([self evaluatePause]){ return; } ShooterScene * shooterScene = (ShooterScene *) [self parent]; ShipEntity *playerSprite = [shooterScene playerShip]; float accellerationtSensitivity = 0.5f; UIAccelerationValue xAccelleration = acceleration.x - initialAccelleration.x; UIAccelerationValue yAccelleration = acceleration.y - initialAccelleration.y; if(xAccelleration > 0.05 || xAccelleration < -0.05) { [playerSprite setPosition:CGPointMake(playerSprite.position.x + xAccelleration * 80, playerSprite.position.y + yAccelleration * 80)]; } else if(yAccelleration > 0.05 || yAccelleration < -0.05) { [playerSprite setPosition:CGPointMake(playerSprite.position.x + xAccelleration * 80, playerSprite.position.y + yAccelleration * 80)]; } }

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  • Keep 3d model facing the camera at all angles

    - by Sparky41
    I'm trying to keep a 3d plane facing the camera at all angles but while i have some success with this: Vector3 gunToCam = cam.cameraPosition - getWorld.Translation; Vector3 beamRight = Vector3.Cross(torpDirection, gunToCam); beamRight.Normalize(); Vector3 beamUp = Vector3.Cross(beamRight, torpDirection); shipeffect.beamWorld = Matrix.Identity; shipeffect.beamWorld.Forward = (torpDirection) * 1f; shipeffect.beamWorld.Right = beamRight; shipeffect.beamWorld.Up = beamUp; shipeffect.beamWorld.Translation = shipeffect.beamPosition; *Note: Logic not wrote by me i just found this rather useful It seems to only face the camera at certain angles. For example if i place the camera behind the plane you can see it that only Roll's around the axis like this: http://i.imgur.com/FOKLx.png (imagine if you are looking from behind where you have fired from. Any idea what to what the problem is (angles are not my specialty) shipeffect is an object that holds this class variables: public Texture2D altBeam; public Model beam; public Matrix beamWorld; public Matrix[] gunTransforms; public Vector3 beamPosition;

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  • 2D platformers: why make the physics dependent on the framerate?

    - by Archagon
    "Super Meat Boy" is a difficult platformer that recently came out for PC, requiring exceptional control and pixel-perfect jumping. The physics code in the game is dependent on the framerate, which is locked to 60fps; this means that if your computer can't run the game at full speed, the physics will go insane, causing (among other things) your character to run slower and fall through the ground. Furthermore, if vsync is off, the game runs extremely fast. Could those experienced with 2D game programming help explain why the game was coded this way? Wouldn't a physics loop running at a constant rate be a better solution? (Actually, I think a physics loop is used for parts of the game, since some of the entities continue to move normally regardless of the framerate. Your character, on the other hand, runs exactly [fps/60] as fast.) What bothers me about this implementation is the loss of abstraction between the game engine and the graphics rendering, which depends on system-specific things like the monitor, graphics card, and CPU. If, for whatever reason, your computer can't handle vsync, or can't run the game at exactly 60fps, it'll break spectacularly. Why should the rendering step in any way influence the physics calculations? (Most games nowadays would either slow down the game or skip frames.) On the other hand, I understand that old-school platformers on the NES and SNES depended on a fixed framerate for much of their control and physics. Why is this, and would it be possible to create a patformer in that vein without having the framerate dependency? Is there necessarily a loss of precision if you separate the graphics rendering from the rest of the engine? Thank you, and sorry if the question was confusing.

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