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How can I use iteration to lead targets?

- by e100

In my 2D game, I have stationary AI turrets firing constant speed bullets at moving targets. So far I have used a quadratic solver technique to calculate where the turret should aim in advance of the target, which works well (see Algorithm to shoot at a target in a 3d game, Predicting enemy position in order to have an object lead its target). But it occurs to me that an iterative technique might be more realistic (e.g. it should fire even when there is no exact solution), efficient and tunable - for example one could change the number of iterations to improve accuracy. I thought I could calculate the current range and thus an initial (inaccurate) bullet flight time to target, then work out where the target would actually be by that time, then recalculate a more accurate range, then recalculate flight time, etc etc. I think I am missing something obvious to do with the time term, but my aimpoint calculation does not currently converge after the significant initial correction in the first iteration: import math def aimpoint(iters, target_x, target_y, target_vel_x, target_vel_y, bullet_speed): aimpoint_x = target_x aimpoint_y = target_y range = math.sqrt(aimpoint_x**2 + aimpoint_y**2) time_to_target = range / bullet_speed time_delta = time_to_target n = 0 while n <= iters: print "iteration:", n, "target:", "(", aimpoint_x, aimpoint_y, ")", "time_delta:", time_delta aimpoint_x += target_vel_x * time_delta aimpoint_y += target_vel_y * time_delta range = math.sqrt(aimpoint_x**2 + aimpoint_y**2) new_time_to_target = range / bullet_speed time_delta = new_time_to_target - time_to_target n += 1 aimpoint(iters=5, target_x=0, target_y=100, target_vel_x=1, target_vel_y=0, bullet_speed=100)

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Artifacts when using SamplerState.LinearClamp in SpriteBatch

- by Raymond Holmboe

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

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How do I do JavaScript Array Animation

- by Henry

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

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Displaying text letter by letter

- by Evi

I am planing to Write a Text adventure and I don't know how to make the text draw letter by letter in any other way than changing the variable from h to he to hel to hell to hello That would be a terrible amount of work since there are tons of dialogue. Here is the source code so far { /// <summary> /// This is the main type for your game /// </summary> public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; Texture2D sampleBG; Texture2D TextBG; SpriteFont defaultfont; KeyboardState keyboardstate; public bool spacepress = false; public bool mspress = false; public int textheight = 425; public int rowspace = 40; public string namebox = "(null)"; public string Row1 = "(null)"; public string Row2 = "(null)"; public string Row3 = "(null)"; public string Row4 = "(null)"; public int Dialogue = 0; public Game1() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = 600; graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = 800; IsMouseVisible = true; } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to perform any initialization it needs to before starting to run. /// This is where it can query for any required services and load any non-graphic /// related content. Calling base.Initialize will enumerate through any components /// and initialize them as well. /// </summary> protected override void Initialize() { // TODO: Add your initialization logic here base.Initialize(); } /// <summary> /// LoadContent will be called once per game and is the place to load /// all of your content. /// </summary> protected override void LoadContent() { // Create a new SpriteBatch, which can be used to draw textures. spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); // TODO: use this.Content to load your game content here sampleBG = Content.Load <Texture2D>("SampleBG"); defaultfont = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("SpriteFont1"); TextBG = Content.Load<Texture2D>("textbg"); } /// <summary> /// UnloadContent will be called once per game and is the place to unload /// all content. /// </summary> protected override void UnloadContent() { // TODO: Unload any non ContentManager content here } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to run logic such as updating the world, /// checking for collisions, gathering input, and playing audio. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { KeyboardState keyboardstate = Keyboard.GetState(); MouseState mousestate = Mouse.GetState(); // Changes Dialgue by pressing Left Mouse Button or Space #region Dialogue changer if (mousestate.LeftButton == ButtonState.Pressed && mspress == false) { mspress = true; Dialogue = Dialogue + 1; } if (mousestate.LeftButton == ButtonState.Released && mspress == true) { mspress = false; } if (keyboardstate.IsKeyDown(Keys.Space) && spacepress == false) { spacepress = true; Dialogue = Dialogue + 1; } if (keyboardstate.IsKeyUp(Keys.Space) && spacepress == true) { spacepress = false; } #endregion // ------------------------------------------------------ // Dialgue Content #region Dialgue if (Dialogue == 1) { Row1 = "Input Text 1 Here."; Row2 = "Input Text 2 Here."; Row3 = "Input Text 3 Here."; Row4 = "Input Text 4 Here."; } if (Dialogue == 2) { Row1 = "Text 1"; Row2 = "Text 2"; Row3 = "Text 3"; Row4 = "Text 4"; } #endregion // ------------------------------------------------------ base.Update(gameTime); } /// <summary> /// This is called when the game should draw itself. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); // TODO: Add your drawing code here spriteBatch.Begin(); spriteBatch.Draw(sampleBG, new Rectangle(0, 0, 800, 600), Color.White); spriteBatch.Draw(TextBG, new Rectangle(0, 400, 800, 200), Color.White); spriteBatch.DrawString(defaultfont, Row1, new Vector2(10, (textheight + (rowspace * 0))), Color.Black); spriteBatch.DrawString(defaultfont, Row2, new Vector2(10, (textheight + (rowspace * 1))), Color.Black); spriteBatch.DrawString(defaultfont, Row3, new Vector2(10, (textheight + (rowspace * 2))), Color.Black); spriteBatch.DrawString(defaultfont, Row4, new Vector2(10, (textheight + (rowspace * 3))), Color.Black); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } }

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how to link a c++ object to a local variable in Lua

- by MahanGM

I'm completing my scripting interface with Lua, but recently I've stuck at some point. I have several functions for my Entitiy events like Update(). I have a function called create_entitiy() which instantiate a new entity from a given entity index: function Update() local bullet = create_entity(0, 0, "obj_bullet") end create_entity returns a table which is the properties of the created entity. Now how can I make a connection between bullet variable and my newly created object? Right now for previously added objects to the scene, I simply set a global table for each of them and then after every call to Update(), I go through registered names to find object tables and perform new changes. Like the one below: function Update() if keyboard_key_press(vk_right) then obj_player.x += 3 end I can get obj_player table because I know its name from C++, plus I can get it as a global table and simply reach for the first instance named obj_player. Is there any solution for me to make bullet variable act like this? I was thinking to get all local variables in Update() function and check for every one to see if is it table and it has an unique field attached to it like id, this way I can determine that this is an object table and do the rest of the process. By the way, is this interface going to work easier with luaBind if I implement it? Bottom line: How can I make a local variable in Lua that receives a table from create_entity function and track that local variable to capture it from C++. e. g. function Update() local bullet = create_entity(0, 0, "obj_bullet") bullet.x = 10 <== Commit a change in table end Now I want to get variable bullet from C++. And it's not just this variable, there might be a ton of these local variables with different names.

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Does DirectX implement Triple Buffering?

- by Asik

As AnandTech put it best in this 2009 article: In render ahead, frames cannot be dropped. This means that when the queue is full, what is displayed can have a lot more lag. Microsoft doesn't implement triple buffering in DirectX, they implement render ahead (from 0 to 8 frames with 3 being the default). The major difference in the technique we've described here is the ability to drop frames when they are outdated. Render ahead forces older frames to be displayed. Queues can help smoothness and stuttering as a few really quick frames followed by a slow frame end up being evened out and spread over more frames. But the price you pay is in lag (the more frames in the queue, the longer it takes to empty the queue and the older the frames are that are displayed). As I understand it, DirectX "Swap Chain" is merely a render ahead queue, i.e. buffers cannot be dropped; the longer the chain, the greater the input latency. At the same time, I find it hard to believe that the most widely used graphics API would not implement such fundamental functionality correctly. Is there a way to get proper triple buffered vertical synchronisation in DirectX?

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What makes game sound effects "good"?

- by you786

I'm making a small game, and I've found some free sound effects that I'd like to use. The issue is that I can't get the sound effects to sound like they "belong" in my game. I don't know what to look for that can make sound effects match the rest of my game style. I have some ideas on what affects the meshing of audio with graphics. For example, I have a feeling that the current SFX I may be too "realistic" for my graphical style, which is pretty cartoon-like. Also, is there a golden standard for what volume various SFX should be at? (for example, I am thinking that footsteps or other common sounds should be at barely audible volumes, while enemy deaths or something that is a "big deal" should be louder). I found a similar question about graphics, I'm looking for a similar response with sound effects.

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Unity GUI not in build, but works fine in editor

- by Darren

I have: GUITexture attached to an object A script that has GUIStyles created for the Textfield and Buttons that are created in OnGUI(). This script is attached to the same object in number 1 3 GUIText objects each separate from the above. A script that enables the GUITexture and the script in number 1 and 2 respectively This is how it is supposed to work: When I cross the finish line, number 4 script enables number 1 GUITexture component and number 2 script component. The script component uses one of number 3's GUIText objects to show you your best lap time, and also makes a GUI.Textfield for name entry and 2 GUI.Buttons for "Submit" and "Skip". If you hit "Submit" the script will submit the time. No matter which button you press, The remaining 2 GUIText objects from number 3 will show you the top 10 best times. For some reason, when I run it in editor, everything works 100%, but when I'm in different kinds of builds, the results vary. When I am in a webplayer, The GUITexture and the textfield and buttons appear, but the textfield and buttons are plain and have no evidence of GUIStyles. When I click one of the buttons, the score gets submitted but I do not get the fastest times showing. When I am in a standalone build, the GUITexture shows up, but nothing else does. If I remove the GUIStyle parameter of the GUI.Textfield and GUI.Button, they show up. Why am I getting these variations and how can I fix it? Code below: void Start () { Names.text = ""; Times.text = ""; YourBestTime.text = "Your Best Lap: " + bestTime + "\nEnter your name:"; //StartCoroutine(GetTimes("Test")); } void Update() { if (!ShowButtons && !GettingTimes) { StartCoroutine(GetTimes()); GettingTimes = true; } } IEnumerator GetTimes () { Debug.Log("Getting times"); YourBestTime.text = "Loading Best Lap Times"; WWW times_get = new WWW(GetTimesUrl); yield return times_get; WWW names_get = new WWW(GetNamesUrl); yield return names_get; if(times_get.error != null || names_get.error != null) { print("There was an error retrieiving the data: " + names_get.error + times_get.error); } else { Times.text = times_get.text; Names.text = names_get.text; YourBestTime.text = "Your Best Lap: " + bestTime; } } IEnumerator PostLapTime (string Name, string LapTime) { string hash= MD5.Md5Sum(Name + LapTime + secretKey); string bestTime_url = SubmitTimeUrl + "&Name=" + WWW.EscapeURL(Name) + "&LapTime=" + LapTime + "&hash=" + hash; Debug.Log (bestTime_url); // Post the URL to the site and create a download object to get the result. WWW hs_post = new WWW(bestTime_url); //label = "Submitting..."; yield return hs_post; // Wait until the download is done if (hs_post.error != null) { print("There was an error posting the lap time: " + hs_post.error); //label = "Error: " + hs_post.error; //show = false; } else { Debug.Log("Posted: " + hs_post.text); ShowButtons = false; PostingTime = false; } } void OnGUI() { if (ShowButtons) { //makes text box nameString = GUI.TextField( new Rect((Screen.width/2)-111, (Screen.height/2)-130, 222, 25), nameString, 20, TextboxStyle); if (GUI.Button( new Rect( (Screen.width/2-74.0f), (Screen.height/2)- 90, 64, 32), "Submit", ButtonStyle)) { //SUBMIT TIME if (nameString == "") { nameString = "Player"; } if (!PostingTime) { StartCoroutine(PostLapTime(nameString, bestTime)); PostingTime = true; } } else if (GUI.Button( new Rect( (Screen.width/2+10.0f), (Screen.height/2)- 90, 64, 32), "Skip", ButtonStyle)) { ShowButtons = false; } } } }

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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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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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Secure login for a game that is open source

- by David Park

I am making a game which i will be open sourcing. Its a simple arcade like game but requires a network connection because it is meant to be played with other people. The thing i am worrying about is how would i be sure that the client is the one that i put out for the end user to play with? Kind of a like of sv_pure for Team Fortress 2. I was thinking of different ways to combat this such as the server requesting the client's version or even it's md5 hash but people with simple java knowledge could just force a method to always return what the server wants.

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Why do meshes show up as bones in the Model class?

- by Itamar Marom

Right now I'm working on a 3D game and I've come across something very weird. When I created the model in Blender, I added an armature named "MyBone" to the stage and attached a cube ("MyCube") to it, so that when I move the armature, the cube moves with it. I exported this as an FBX and loaded it as a Model object. What I expected to see was: But what I got was this: I'm really confused. Why is the mesh I created showing up in the bone list? And what's Root Node? Here are the .blend and .fbx files: here or here. Thanks.

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Struggling to get set up with JOGL2.0

- by thecoshman

I guess that Game Dev' is a more sensible place for my problem then SO. I did have JOGL1.1 set up and working, but I soon discovered that it did not support the latest OpenGL, so I started work on upgrading to JOGL2.0 it's not gone too well. Firstly, is it worth me trying to get JOGL to work, or should I just move over to LWJGL? I am fairly comfortable with OpenGL (via C++) and from what I did get working with JOGL1.1, I seem to be OK adapting to it. Assuming that I stick with JOGL, am I foolish for trying to use JOGL2.0? From what I can gather, JOGL2.0 is still in beta, but I am willing to go with it as I want to make use of the latest OpenGL I can. I have been using the Eclipse IDE and have set up a user library for JOGL, here is a screen shot of the configuration and I have added this user library to my own Eclipse project. the system variable %JOGL_HOME% points to "C:\Users\edacosh\Downloads\JOGL2.0" so that should work fine. Now, the problem I actually having, when I try to run my code, on the line GLProfile glp = GLProfile.getDefault(); The code stops with the following message... Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/jogamp/common/jvm/JVMUtil at javax.media.opengl.GLProfile.<clinit>(GLProfile.java:1145) at DiCE.DiCE.<init>(DiCE.java:33) at App.<init>(App.java:17) at App.main(App.java:12) Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.jogamp.common.jvm.JVMUtil at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) ... 4 more I have also set my project to ensure that it is using jre6 along with jdk6, as I was having some issues. I hope I have given you enough information to be able to help me. It probably doesn't help that I am rather new to Java, been developing in C++ for ages. Thanks

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How does flash store (represent) movieclips and sprites?

- by humbleBee

When we draw any object in flash and convert it into a movieclip or a sprite, how is it stored or represented in flash. I know in vector art it is stored or represented as line segments using formulae. Is there any way to get the vertices of the shape that was drawn? For example, lets say a simple rectangle is drawn and is converted to a movieclip. Is there anyway to obtain the vertices and the line segments from the sprite? So that its shape is obtained. Enough information should be obtained so that the shape can be replicated. That's the key - replication. In simple terms, where does flash store information about a shape that has been drawn so that we can obtain it and attempt to replicate the shape ourselves?

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Cool examples of procedural pixel shader effects?

- by Robert Fraser

What are some good examples of procedural/screen-space pixel shader effects? No code necessary; just looking for inspiration. In particular, I'm looking for effects that are not dependent on geometry or the rest of the scene (would look okay rendered alone on a quad) and are not image processing (don't require a "base image", though they can incorporate textures). Multi-pass or single-pass is fine. Screenshots or videos would be ideal, but ideas work too. Here are a few examples of what I'm looking for (all from the RenderMonkey samples): PS - I'm aware of this question; I'm not asking for a source of actual shader implementations but instead for some inspirational ideas -- and the ones at the NVIDIA Shader Library mostly require a scene or are image processing effects. EDIT: this is an open-ended question and I wish there was a good way to split the bounty. I'll award the rep to the best answer on the last day.

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Maya .IFF plugins for Gimp

- by Kara Marfia

Maya's preferred format for saving off a UV Snapshot is its own .IFF format, so I was hoping to find a plugin allowing Gimp 2 (Windows) to read it. I've found plenty of plugins for different linux distros, but none are win-friendly (that I can discern - admittedly I'm no whiz with Gimp). Does anyone know of one? Alternately, .tiff seems to work just fine, so if there's no good reason to bother fiddling with IFFs, I'd appreciate the input there, too. (sorry if this isn't on-topic)

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OpenGL: Want to keep gun on top of car and be able to control angle. Having difficulties.

- by Blair

So I am making a simple game. I want to put a gun on top of a car so basically like a long rod in the middle of a black is how I am modelling it right now. I want to be able to control the angle of the gun. Basically it can go forward all the way so that it is parallel to the ground facing the direction the car is moving or it can point behind the car and any of the angles in between these positions. I have something like the following right now but its not really working. Is there an better way to do this that I am not seeing? #This will place the car glPushMatrix() glTranslatef(self.position.x,1.5,self.position.z) glRotated(self.rotation, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0) glScaled(0.5, 0.5, 0.5) glCallList(self.model.gl_list) glPopMatrix() #This will place the gun on top glPushMatrix() glTranslatef(self.position.x,2.5,self.position.z) glRotated(self.tube_angle, self.direction.z, 0.0, self.direction.x) print self.direction.z glRotated(45, self.position.z, 0.0, self.position.x) glScaled(1.0, 0.5, 1.0) glCallList(self.tube.gl_list) glPopMatrix() This almost works. It moves the gun up and down. But when the car moves around the angle of the gun changes. Not what I want.

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Illumination and Shading for computer graphics class

- by Sam I Am

I am preparing for my test tomorrow and this is one of the practice questions. I solved it partially but I am confused with the rest. Here is the problem: Consider a gray world with no ambient and specular lighting ( only diffuse lighting). The screen coordinates of a triangle P1,P2,P3, are P1=(100,100), P2= (300,150), P3 = (200, 200). The gray values at P!,P2,P3 are 1/2, 3/4, and 1/4 respectively. The light is at infinity and its direction and gray color are (1,1,1) and 1.0 respectively. The coefficients of diffused reflection is 1/2. The normals of P1,P2,P3 are N1= (0,0,1), N2 = (1,0,0), and N3 = (0,1,0) respectively. Consider the coordinates of three points P1,P2,P3 to be 0. Do not normalize the normals. I have computed that the illumination at the 3 vertices P1,P2,P3 is (1/4,3/8,1/8). Also I computed that interpolation coefficients of a point P inside the triangle whose coordinates are (220, 160) are given by (1/5,2/5,2/5). Now I have 4 more questions regarding this problem. 1) The illumination at P using Gouraud Shading is: i) 1/2 The answer is 1/2, but I have no idea how to compute it.. 2) The interpolated normal at P is given by i) (2/5, 2/5,1/5) ii) (1/2, 1/4, 1/4) iii) (3/5, 1/5, 1/5) 3) The interpolated color at P is given by: i) 1/2 Again, I know the correct answer but no idea how to solve it 4) The illumination at P using Phong Shading is i) 1/4 ii) 9/40 iii) 1/2

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How many vertices are needed to draw reasonably good-looking terrain?

- by bobbaluba

I have some pretty expensive code in my terrain vertex shader, and I am trying to figure out if it will still be fast enough. I haven't yet developed a level-of-detail system for my terrain rendering, but I can easily benchmark my code by just drawing mock triangles. My problem is, how do I know how many vertices to test with? Are there for example rendering engines that will tell me how many terrain vertices are currently on-screen? Or maybe it is possible to create a formula that will give me an estimate based on screen resolution?

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How to handle wildly varying rendering hardware / getting baseline

- by edA-qa mort-ora-y

I've recently started with mobile programming (cross-platform, also with desktop) and am encountering wildly differing hardware performance, in particular with OpenGL and the GPU. I know I'll basically have to adjust my rendering code but I'm uncertain of how to detect performance and what reasonable default settings are. I notice that certain shader functions are basically free in a desktop implemenation but can be unusable in a mobile device. The problem is I have no way of knowing what features will cause what performance issues on all the devices. So my first issue is that even if I allow configuring options I'm uncertain of which options I have to make configurable. I'm wondering also wheher one just writes one very configurable pipeline, or whether I should have 2 distinct options (high/low). I'm also unsure of where to set the default. If I set to the poorest performer the graphics will be so minimal that any user with a modern device would dismiss the game. If I set them even at some moderate point, the low end devices will basically become a slide-show. I was thinking perhaps that I just run some benchmarks when the user first installs and randomly guess what works, but I've not see a game do this before.

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How do I use setFilmSize in panda3d to achieve the correct view?

- by lhk

I'm working with Panda3d and recently switched my game to isometric rendering. I moved the virtual camera accordingly and set an orthographic lens. Then I implemented the classes "Map" and "Canvas". A canvas is a dynamically generated mesh: a flat quad. I'm using it to render the ingame graphics. Since the game itself is still set in a 3d coordinate system I'm planning to rely on these canvases to draw sprites. I could have named this class "Tile" but as I'd like to use it for non-tile sketches (enemies, environment) as well I thought canvas would describe it's function better. Map does exactly what it's name suggests. Its constructor receives the number of rows and columns and then creates a standard isometric map. It uses the canvas class for tiles. I'm planning to write a map importer that reads a file to create maps on the fly. Here's the canvas implementation: class Canvas: def __init__(self, texture, vertical=False, width=1,height=1): # create the mesh format=GeomVertexFormat.getV3t2() format = GeomVertexFormat.registerFormat(format) vdata=GeomVertexData("node-vertices", format, Geom.UHStatic) vertex = GeomVertexWriter(vdata, 'vertex') texcoord = GeomVertexWriter(vdata, 'texcoord') # add the vertices for a flat quad vertex.addData3f(1, 0, 0) texcoord.addData2f(1, 0) vertex.addData3f(1, 1, 0) texcoord.addData2f(1, 1) vertex.addData3f(0, 1, 0) texcoord.addData2f(0, 1) vertex.addData3f(0, 0, 0) texcoord.addData2f(0, 0) prim = GeomTriangles(Geom.UHStatic) prim.addVertices(0, 1, 2) prim.addVertices(2, 3, 0) self.geom = Geom(vdata) self.geom.addPrimitive(prim) self.node = GeomNode('node') self.node.addGeom(self.geom) # this is the handle for the canvas self.nodePath=NodePath(self.node) self.nodePath.setSx(width) self.nodePath.setSy(height) if vertical: self.nodePath.setP(90) # the most important part: "Drawing" the image self.texture=loader.loadTexture(""+texture+".png") self.nodePath.setTexture(self.texture) Now the code for the Map class class Map: def __init__(self,rows,columns,size): self.grid=[] for i in range(rows): self.grid.append([]) for j in range(columns): # create a canvas for the tile. For testing the texture is preset tile=Canvas(texture="../assets/textures/flat_concrete",width=size,height=size) x=(i-1)*size y=(j-1)*size # set the tile up for rendering tile.nodePath.reparentTo(render) tile.nodePath.setX(x) tile.nodePath.setY(y) # and store it for later access self.grid[i].append(tile) And finally the usage def loadMap(self): self.map=Map(10, 10, 1) this function is called within the constructor of the World class. The instantiation of world is the entry point to the execution. The code is pretty straightforward and runs good. Sadly the output is not as expected: Please note: The problem is not the white rectangle, it's my player object. The problem is that although the map should have equal width and height it's stretched weirdly. With orthographic rendering I expected the map to be a perfect square. What did I do wrong ? UPDATE: I've changed the viewport. This is how I set up the orthographic camera: lens = OrthographicLens() lens.setFilmSize(40, 20) base.cam.node().setLens(lens) You can change the "aspect" by modifying the parameters of setFilmSize. I don't know exactly how they are related to window size and screen resolution but after testing a little the values above seem to work for me. Now everything is rendered correctly as long as I don't resize the window. Every change of the window's size as well as switching to fullscreen destroys the correct rendering. I know that implementing a listener for resize events is not in the scope of this question. However I wonder why I need to make the Film's height two times bigger than its width. My window is quadratic ! Can you tell me how to find out correct setting for the FilmSize ? UPDATE 2: I can imagine that it's hard to envision the behaviour of the game. At first glance the obvious solution is to pass the window's width and height in pixels to setFilmSize. There are two problems with that approach. The parameters for setFilmSize are ingame units. You'll get a way to big view if you pass the pixel size For some strange reason the image is distorted if you pass equal values for width and height. Here's the output for setFilmSize(800,800) You'll have to stress your eyes but you'll see what I mean

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3Ds Max is exporting model with more normals than vertices

- by Delta

I made a simple teapot with the "Create Standard Primitives" option and exported it as a collada file, ended up with this: < float_array id="Teapot001-POSITION-array" count="1590" < float_array id="Teapot001-Normal0-array" count="9216" For what I know there should be only one normal per vertex, am I wrong? What am I supposed to do with that much normals? Just put them on the normal buffer all at once normally?

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What are the most common AI systems implemented in Tower Defense Games

- by the_Dan

I'm currently in the middle of researching on the various types of AI techniques used in tower defense type games. If someone could be help me in understanding the different types of techniques and their associated advantages. Using Google I already found several techniques. Random Map traversal Path finding e.g. Cost based Traversing Algorithms i.e. A* I have already found a great answer to this type of question with the below link, but I feel that this answer is tailored to FPS. If anyone could add to this and make it specific to tower defense games then I would be truly great-full. How is AI most commonly implemented in popular games? Example of such games would be: Radiant Defense Plant Vs Zombies - Not truly Intelligent, but there must be an AI system used right? Field Runners Edit: After further research I found an interesting book that may be useful: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0123747317/?tag=stackoverfl08-20

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GoogleAppEngine : ClassNotFoundException : javax.jdo.metadata.ComponentMetadata

- by James.Elsey

I'm trying to deploy my application to a locally running GoogleAppEngine development server, but I'm getting the following stack trace when I start the server Apr 23, 2010 9:03:33 PM com.google.apphosting.utils.jetty.JettyLogger warn WARNING: Nested in org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'clientDao' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Cannot resolve reference to bean 'entityManagerFactory' while setting bean property 'entityManagerFactory'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'entityManagerFactory' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/jdo/metadata/ComponentMetadata: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.jdo.metadata.ComponentMetadata at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:217) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:205) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:319) at com.google.appengine.tools.development.IsolatedAppClassLoader.loadClass(IsolatedAppClassLoader.java:151) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:264) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:332) at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method) at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:264) at javax.jdo.JDOHelper$18.run(JDOHelper.java:2009) at javax.jdo.JDOHelper$18.run(JDOHelper.java:2007) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at javax.jdo.JDOHelper.forName(JDOHelper.java:2006) at javax.jdo.JDOHelper.invokeGetPersistenceManagerFactoryOnImplementation(JDOHelper.java:1155) at javax.jdo.JDOHelper.getPersistenceManagerFactory(JDOHelper.java:803) at javax.jdo.JDOHelper.getPersistenceManagerFactory(JDOHelper.java:698) at org.datanucleus.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryImpl.initialisePMF(EntityManagerFactoryImpl.java:482) at org.datanucleus.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryImpl.<init>(EntityManagerFactoryImpl.java:255) at org.datanucleus.store.appengine.jpa.DatastoreEntityManagerFactory.<init>(DatastoreEntityManagerFactory.java:68) at org.datanucleus.store.appengine.jpa.DatastorePersistenceProvider.createContainerEntityManagerFactory(DatastorePersistenceProvider.java:45) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.createNativeEntityManagerFactory(LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:224) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:291) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1369) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1335) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:473) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory$1.run(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:409) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:380) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:264) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:261) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:185) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:164) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:269) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveValueIfNecessary(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:104) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyPropertyValues(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1245) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.populateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1010) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:472) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory$1.run(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:409) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:380) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:264) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:261) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:185) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:164) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:429) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:728) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:380) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:255) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:199) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:45) at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.startContext(ContextHandler.java:530) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.Context.startContext(Context.java:135) at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.startContext(WebAppContext.java:1218) at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.doStart(ContextHandler.java:500) at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.doStart(WebAppContext.java:448) at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:40) at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.doStart(HandlerWrapper.java:117) at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:40) at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.doStart(HandlerWrapper.java:117) at org.mortbay.jetty.Server.doStart(Server.java:217) at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:40) at com.google.appengine.tools.development.JettyContainerService.startContainer(JettyContainerService.java:181) at com.google.appengine.tools.development.AbstractContainerService.startup(AbstractContainerService.java:116) at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerImpl.start(DevAppServerImpl.java:217) at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain$StartAction.apply(DevAppServerMain.java:162) at com.google.appengine.tools.util.Parser$ParseResult.applyArgs(Parser.java:48) at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain.<init>(DevAppServerMain.java:113) at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain.main(DevAppServerMain.java:89) The server is running at http://localhost:1234/ I'm a little confused over this, since I have the same application running locally on GlassFish/MySQL. All I have done is to swap in the relevant jar files, and change the persistence.xml. My applicationContext.xml looks as follows : <context:annotation-config/> <bean id="clientDao" class="com.jameselsey.salestracker.dao.jpa.JpaDaoClient"> <property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="entityManagerFactory"/> </bean> <bean id="entityManagerFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean"/> <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager"> <property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="entityManagerFactory" /> </bean> <bean id="org.springframework.context.annotation.internalPersistenceAnnotationProcessor" class="com.jameselsey.salestracker.util.GaeFixInternalPersistenceAnnotationProcessor" /> <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.support.PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor"/> <tx:annotation-driven/> <bean id="clientService" class="com.jameselsey.salestracker.service.ClientService"/> </beans> My JPA DAO looks like this public class JpaDao extends JpaDaoSupport { protected <T> List<T> findAll(Class<T> clazz) { return getJpaTemplate().find("select c from " + clazz.getName() + " c"); } protected <T> T findOne(String jpql, Map params) { List<T> results = getJpaTemplate().findByNamedParams(jpql, params); if(results.isEmpty()) { return null; } if(results.size() > 1) { throw new IncorrectResultSizeDataAccessException(1, results.size()); } return results.get(0); } } And an example implemented method looks like this : @Override public Client getClientById(Integer clientId) { String jpql = "SELECT c " + "FROM com.jameselsey.salestracker.domain.Client c " + "WHERE c.id = " + clientId; return (Client) getJpaTemplate().find(jpql).get(0); } Like I say, this works ok on Glassfish/MySQL, is it possible this error could be a red herring to something else?

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Algorithm allowing a good waypoint path following?

- by Thierry Savard Saucier

I'm more looking into how should I implement this, either a tutorial or even the name of the concept I'm missing. I'm pretty sure some basic pathfinding algorithm could help me here, but I dont know which one ... I have a worldmap, with different cities on it. The player can choose a city from a menu, or click on an available cities on the world map, and the toon should walk over there. But I want him to follow a predefine path. Lets say our hero is on the city 1. He clicks on city 4. I want him to follow the path to city 2 and from there to city 4. I was handling this easily with arrow movement (left right top bottom) since its a single check. Now I'm not sure how I should do this. Should I loop threw each possible path and check which one leads me to D the fastest ... and if I do how do I avoid running in circle forever with cities 1-5-2 ?

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