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  • Windows 7 x64. Some 32 bit applications refuse to install.

    - by user250712
    I have been having problems lately when trying to install older games onto my PC. It is only with 32 bit applications. A few games that will not install are: Drakan: Order Of The Flame TA Kingdoms (Total Annihilation installed fine) Baldur's Gate. In Baldur's Gate, when I use autorun.exe and choose install, the autorun closes and the computer loads for a second (as it should) then nothing pops up. Ten minutes later still nothing, so I try again, still nothing. So next I use Setup.exe. Still nothing. I run it in every compatibility mode, and as Administrator in every mode, still nothing. Then I open Task Manager, and there are about 80 setup.exe processes running, all of them doing nothing and taking up next to no resources.

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  • Computer randomly reboots during "intensive activity".

    - by Reznor
    My friend has been playing games on his new build for some time now. However, lately, his computer will randomly reboot out of nowhere, so far only happening in game, and presumably only to happen in game as it happens nowhere else. This can happen in game during play or even in the options. Note, it isn't a crash or blue screen. It's just a normal reboot. This started today, I believe, and has only occured in two games: Dead Space and Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. He has played a handful of games before these, for about a week or so, without this problem. We theorized on two possibilities: Maybe something is overheating? Maybe the power supply is inadequate? These two were quickly dismissed, as all his components were operating at normal temperatures when he got back to his desktop from the reboot, and we all know these parts don't exactly cool down quickly, especially if they get hot enough to trigger a reboot. Besides, I know at-least my motherboard reports processor overheating at start-up, and requests I press f1 to continue into boot. The PSU one was dismissed too. He has an 850w power supply on a rig that was estimated to take only 720 some watts, that's with some overcompensating to be safe. He opened up his case to make sure nothing was seated wrong or in the way. All was fine, but he did notice a sticker on his video card. It had a giant barcode on it and some numbers. Now, I'm used to seeing these stickers, they're the warranty stickers, right, and removal voids the warranty? Yeah, well, we find it odd because this sticker is slapped right over the circuits of the video card, not on a block or anything. Is this normal? Should he remove it? Right now, I am concerned with the memory. Could that be at fault? Here are his specs: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-Bit Intel i7 950 EVGA GeForce 570 GTX 4 GB DDR3 PC10666 dual-channel Corsair RAM Corsair 850w PSU Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Western Digital 1 TB WD1001FALS

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  • Is there a way to customize items on the right side of start menu in Windows 7?

    - by Basara
    OK I know I can right click on it and select properties... But it only allows me to decide whether an item is shown or hidden. What I want is, adjust item position on the start menu right side. More specifically, I want to put the item "games" in the same group where personal folders are. It makes perfectly no sense to put "games" with "computer" and "network" in same group. Or is there a registry tweak can make this possible? Thanks.

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  • How do I switch between Java 7 and Java 6 on mac OS X 10.8.2?

    - by Nikita Jerschow
    I am using Java SE 7 to program simple games for windows and mac, but I have to switch to java 6 to run games such as Minecraft on my computer. This used to work just fine before I updated to Mac OS X 10.8.2 Build 12C60. Before this update I used to be able to open java preferences and check off java 6 or java 7. But now I don't seem to be able to find java preferences. I am running mac OS X 10.8.2 (latest version) Thanks.

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  • Computers with Small Capacity SSD - For caching?

    - by RXC
    Recently, in newsletters from websites, I have been seeing computers for sale from manufacturers that include an HDD and an SSD but the SSD has a small capacity like 24 GBs. I don't know if this still holds true, but I learned that when building a computer, you would want to install your OS on your fastest hard drive. I do a lot of PC gaming, so I install my OS and games on my SSD, because I learned that games and many applications make lots of system calls to the OS and performance can only be as fast as the slowest piece. Why these computers come with small capacity SSDs? Most OS's take up around 20 to 30 GBs of space, so what are the benefits of such a small SSD? Are these small size SSDs for caching? and what exactly does caching mean (what does it do and how does it help)?

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  • In ASP.NET MVC, How do I make a partial view available to all controllers?

    - by Quakkels
    In ASP.NET MVC, How do I make a partial view available to all controllers? I want to create navigation that is common across the entire site, but when I place the Html.Action into my master page, it only works on views associated with 1 controller. Right now, I have a controller action defined like this: // GET: GetCategoriesPartial [ChildActionOnly] public ActionResult GetCategoriesPartial() { var category = CategoriesDataContext.GetCategories(); return PartialView(category); } And I've created my partial view like this: <%@ Import Namespace="wopr.Models" %> <%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl" %> <ul> <% foreach (var cat in Model as IEnumerable<Category>) { %> <li><a href="/categories/Details/<%=cat.catID%>"><%=cat.catName%></a></li> <% } %> </ul> My Master Page looks like this: <%@ Import Namespace="wopr.Models" %> <%@ Master Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewMasterPage" %> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" > <head runat="server"> <title><asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="TitleContent" runat="server" /></title> <link type="text/css" rel="Stylesheet" href="/Content/Site.css" /> </head> <body> <div class="wrap-all"> <div style="text-align:right;"> <a href="/">Home</a> | <a href="/games/">Games</a> | <a href="/games/Index2/1">Games <em>(paginated)</em></a> | <a href="/categories/">Categories</a> | <a href="/upload/">Upload</a> </div> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="MainContent" runat="server"> </asp:ContentPlaceHolder> <!--This errors on any non-CategoryController page.--> <%= Html.Action("GetCategoriesPartial")%> <!----> </div> </body> </html> This code works as long as I'm viewing something handled by the CategoriesController. If I go to any view handled by a different controller, I get the exception: System.Web.HttpException: A public action method 'GetCategoriesPartial' was not found on controller 'wopr.Controllers.GamesController'. How do I make this partial view available to all the site's controllers? Thanks for any help. Quakkels

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  • iPhone App Crashes when merging managed object contexts

    - by DVG
    Short Version: Using two managed object contexts, and while the context is saving to the store the application bombs when I attempt to merge the two contexts and reload the table view. Long Version: Okay, so my application is set up as thus. 3 view controllers, all table views. Platforms View Controller - Games View Controller (Predicated upon platform selection) - Add Game View Controller I ran into a problem when Games View Controller was bombing when adding a new entry to the context, because the fetched results contorller wanted to update the view for something that didn't match the predicate. As a solution, I rebuilt the Add Controller to use a second NSManagedObject Context, called adding context, following the design pattern in the Core Data Books example. My Games List View Controller is a delegate for the add controller, to handle all the saving, so my addButtonPressed method looks like this - (IBAction) addButtonPressed: (id) sender { AddGameTableViewController *addGameVC = [[AddGameTableViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"AddGameTableViewController" bundle:nil]; NSManagedObjectContext *aAddingContext = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] init]; self.addingContext = aAddingContext; [aAddingContext release]; [addingContext setPersistentStoreCoordinator:[[gameResultsController managedObjectContext] persistentStoreCoordinator]]; addGameVC.context = addingContext; addGameVC.delegate = self; addGameVC.newGame = (Game *)[NSEntityDescription insertNewObjectForEntityForName:@"Game" inManagedObjectContext:addingContext]; UINavigationController *addNavCon = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:addGameVC]; [self presentModalViewController:addNavCon animated:YES]; [addGameVC release]; [addNavCon release]; } There is also a delegate method which handles the saving. This all works swimmingly. The issue is getting the table view controller in the GameListViewController to update itself. Per the example, an observer is added to watch for the second context to be saved, and then to merge the addingContext with the primary one. So I have: - (void)addViewController:(AddGameTableViewController *)controller didFinishWithSave:(BOOL)save { if (save) { NSNotificationCenter *dnc = [NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]; [dnc addObserver:self selector:@selector(addControllerContextDidSave:) name:NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification object:addingContext]; //snip! Context Save Code [dnc removeObserver:self name:NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification object:addingContext]; } self.addingContext = nil; [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES]; } - (void)addControllerContextDidSave:(NSNotification*)saveNotification { NSManagedObjectContext *myContext = [gameResultsController managedObjectContext]; [myContext mergeChangesFromContextDidSaveNotification:saveNotification]; } So now, what happens is after save is pressed, the application hangs for a moment and then crashes. The save is processed, as the new game is present when I relaunch the application, and the application seems to be flowing as appropriate, but it bombs out for reasons that are beyond my understanding. NSLog of the saveNotification spits out this: NSConcreteNotification 0x3b557f0 {name = NSManagingContextDidSaveChangesNotification; object = <NSManagedObjectContext: 0x3b4bb90>; userInfo = { inserted = {( <Game: 0x3b4f510> (entity: Game; id: 0x3b614e0 <x-coredata://13168366-B8E7-41C8-B384-BAF14A5E08D9/Game/p2> ; data: { name = "Final Fantasy XIII"; platform = 0x3b66910 <x-coredata://13168366-B8E7-41C8-B384-BAF14A5E08D9/Platform/p20>; }) )}; updated = {( <Platform: 0x3b67650> (entity: Platform; id: 0x3b66910 <x-coredata://13168366-B8E7-41C8-B384-BAF14A5E08D9/Platform/p20> ; data: { games = ( 0x3b614e0 <x-coredata://13168366-B8E7-41C8-B384-BAF14A5E08D9/Game/p2>, 0x603a530 <x-coredata://13168366-B8E7-41C8-B384-BAF14A5E08D9/Game/p1> ); name = "Xbox 360"; }) )}; }} I've tried both a simple [self.tableView reloadData]; and the more complicated multi-method table updating structure in the Core Data Books example. Both produce the same result.

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  • MVP Summit 2011 summary and thoughts: The &ldquo;I hope I don&rsquo;t cross a line and lose my MVP status&rdquo; post

    - by George Clingerman
    I've been wanting to write this post summarizing my thoughts about the MVP summit but have been dragging my feet since it's a very difficult one to write. However seeing Andy (http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/77625.aspx) and Catalin (http://www.catalinzima.com/2011/03/mvp-summit-2011/) and Chris (http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/03/07/144229.aspx) post about it has encouraged me to finally take the plunge. I'm going to have to write carefully though because I'm going to be dancing around a ton of NDA mine fields as well as having to walk the tight-rope of not sending the wrong message or having people read too much into what I'm saying. I want to note that most of what I'm about to say is just based on my observations, they're not thoughts that Microsoft has asked me to pass along and they're not things I heard Microsoft say. It's just me sharing what I think after going to the MVP summit. Let's start off with a short imaginary question and answer session.     Has the App Hub forums and XBLIG management been rather poor by Microsoft? Yes.     Do I think we're going to see changes to that overnight? No.     Will it continue to look bad from the outside? Somewhat. Confusing right? Well that's kind of how things are right now. Lots of confusion. XNA is doing AWESOME. Like, really, really awesome. As a result of that awesomeness, XNA is on three major platforms: Xbox 360, WP7 and PC. This means that internally Microsoft is really excited and invested in the technology. That's fantastic for XNA and really should show you the future the framework has. It's here to stay. So why are Xbox LIVE Indie Game developers feeling so much pain? The ironic thing is that pain is being caused by the success of XNA. When XNA was just a small thing, there was more freedom and more focus. It was just us and them. We were an only child. Now our family has grown and everyone has and wants some time with XNA. This gets XNA pulled in all directions and as it moves onto new platforms, it plays catch up trying to get those platforms up to speed to where Xbox LIVE Indie Games has grown. Forums, documentation, educational content. They all need to be there because Xbox LIVE Indie Games has all of that and more. Along with the catch up in features/documentation/awesomeness there's the catch up that the people on the team have to play. New platforms and new areas of development mean new players and those new guys don't have the history of being around from the beginning. This leads to a lack of understanding at times just how important some things are because they seem so small and insignificant (Rich Text defaulting for new forum profiles would be one things that jumps to mind). If you're not aware that the forums have become more than just a basic Q&A, if you're not aware that they're a central hub to a very active community, then you don't understand why that small change should be prioritized over something else. New people have to get caught up and figure out how to make a framework and central forum site work for everyone it's now serving. So yeah, a lot of our pain this last year has been simply that XNA is doing well and XBLIG is doing well so the focus was shifted to catch other things up. It hurts when a parent seems to not have any time for you and they're spending some much time with your new baby brother. Growing pains. All families and in our case our product family experience it to some degree. I think as WP7 matures we'll see the team figuring out how to give everyone the right amount of attention. While we're talking about some of our growing pains, it is also important to note (although not really an excuse) that the Xbox LIVE Arcade developers complain about many of the same things that we do. If you paid attention to talks and information coming out of GDC 2011, most of the the XBLA guys were saying things that sounded eerily similar to what the XBLIG developers are saying (Scott Nichols from GayGamer.net noticed http://twitter.com/#!/NaviFairyGG/status/43540379206811650). Does this mean we should just accept the status quo since we're being treated exactly the same? No way. However it DOES show that the way we're being treated is no indication of the stability and future of the platform, it's just Microsoft dropping the communication ball on two playing fields. We're not alone and we're not even being treated worse. Not great, but also in a weird way a very good sign. Now on to a few tidbits I think I CAN share from the summit (I'm really crossing my fingers I'm not stepping over some NDA line I shouldn't be). First, I discovered that the XBLIG user base is bigger than I personally had originally estimated. I won't give the exact numbers (although we did beg Microsoft to release some of these numbers so maybe someday?) but it was much larger than my original guestimates and I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe some of you guys had the right number when you were guessing, but I know that mine was much too low. And even MORE importantly the number of users/shoppers is growing at a steady pace as well. Our market is growing! That was fantastic news and really something that I had to share. On to the community manager discussion. It was mentioned. I was mentioned. I blushed. Nothing more to report there than the blush in my cheeks was a light crimson color. If I ever see a job description posted for that position I have a resume waiting in the wings. I can't deny that I think that would be my dream job... ...so after I finished blushing, the MVPs did make it very, very clear that the communication has to improve. Community manager or not the single biggest pain point with the Xbox LIVE Indie Game community has been a lack of communication. I have seen dramatic improvement in the team responding to MVPs and I'm even seeing more communication from them on the forums so I'm hoping that's a long term change. I really think they understood the issue, the problem remains how to open that communication channel in a way that was sustainable. I think they'll get it figured out and hopefully that's sooner rather than later. During the summit, you may have seen me tweeting about how I was "that guy" (http://twitter.com/#!/clingermangw/status/42740432471470081). You also may have noticed that Andy and Catalin both mentioned me in their summit write ups. I may have come on a bit strong while I was there...went a little out of character for myself. I've been agitated for a while with the way things have been and I've been listening to you guys and hearing you guys be agitated. I'm also watching some really awesome indie game developers looking elsewhere and leaving the platform. Some of them we might not have been able to keep even with changes, but others are only leaving because of perceptions and lack of communication from Microsoft. And that pisses me off. And I let Microsoft know that I was pissed off. You made your list and I took that list and verbalized it. I verbalized the hell out of it. [It was actually mentioned that I'm a lot nicer on the forums and in email than I am in person...I felt bad about that, but I couldn't stay silent]. Hopefully it did something guys, I really did try hard to get the message across. Along with my agitation, I also brought some pride. I mentioned several things in person to the team that I was particularly proud of. From people in the community that are doing an awesome job, to the re-launch of XboxIndies that was going on that week and even gamers like Steven Hurdle (http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/) who have purchased one XBLIG every day for over 100 days now. The community is freaking rocking it and I made sure to highlight that. So in conclusion, I'd just like to say hang in there (you know, like that picture of the cat). If you've been worried about investing in Xbox LIVE Indie Games because you think it's on shaky ground. It's not. Dream Build Play being about the Xbox 360 should have helped a little to point that out. The team is really scrambling around trying to figure things out and make improvements all around. There’s quite a few new gals and guys and it's going to take them time to catch up and there are a lot of constantly shifting priorities. We all have one toy, one team and we're fighting for time with it. It's also time for the community to continue spreading our wings and going out on our own more often. The Indie Game Winter Uprising was a fantastic example of that. We took things into our own hands and it got noticed and Microsoft got behind it. They do every time we stand up and do something (look at how many Microsoft employees tweeted, wrote about the re-launch of XboxIndies.com or the support I've gotten from them for my weekly XNA Notes). XNA is here to stay, it's time for us to stop being scared of that and figure out how to make our own games the successes they should be. There's definitely a list of things that need to be fixed, things that should be improved and I think we should definitely keep vocal about that with Microsoft. Keep it short, focused and prioritized. There's also a lot of things we can do ourselves while we're waiting on them to fix and change things. Lots of ways we can compensate for particular weaknesses in the channel. The kind of stuff that we can step up and do ourselves. Do it on our own, you know, the way Indies always do. And I'm really looking forward to watching us do just that.

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  • Wpf vs WinForms for a vb programmer? [closed]

    - by Jeroen
    I am asked by a client to develop an application that is basically a screen on which the user can choose several items to pass the time (used in holding cells in mental hospitals for example). The baisc idea is as follows: TV (choosing this will provide the user with a number of TV streams from the interweb) Radio (...) Games (serveral flash games, also from the interweb) Music (play local music or streams) Draw something (not the game) Create an email Choose lighting settings for the room etc. etc. I am torn between WinForms and WPF for this project. It seems that WPF is the way to go since there is quite a bit of rich media involved but I have a 15 year VB background. The project obviously has a dead line and certain budget that I cannot cross and if I can avoid starting from scratch with some thing that will be nice. Is WPF worth it in this particular case or can I use WinForms with the incorperation of WPF controls? I would very much like to hear your thoughts/comments/suggestions!

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  • Game Development World Championship 2013 for all game developers

    - by Hanhviope
    Interested in games and programming? Want to be visible in global game industry? Missing Viope Game Programming Contest 2012? Want to win a trip to Finland, visit top game studio and other attractive rewards? This is your CHANCE! Viope Solutions proudly announces Game Development World Championship 2013, as a sequel of successful Viope Game Programming Contest 2012 WHAT? The contest is organized by Viope Solutions. Students and freelancers are invited to compete in different categories. Participants can compete for Computer/Console game or Mobile Phone game. The competition involves partners and judges from Rovio, Microsoft, Unity, ArtiGames, Housemarque, Redlynx, Remedy, GrandCru, GameReactor and IGDA WHO? The contest is open to everyone around the world. WHERE? The submission of your game will be done via Viope World e-learning platform. WHEN? The contest is open from 08th October 2013 till 26th January 2014. HOW? Individuals and team of up to 4 members can register through our website. For information, please visit website www.viope.com/contest WE CHALLENGE YOU TO CREATE THE BEST GAMES EVER! Share this to all your friends who would be interested in this contest!

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  • Salary and profit distribution in game industry?

    - by drowneath
    A couple years ago, I started a group/team of passionate people in game development. I was the one who had the idea to form a group that will (hopefully) later be a company/real studio. I was the one who gathered the people too. We are consisting of only a few people (< 10 people) and everyone has their own specialties in game development. For some reason, everyone agreed to make me the executive director of the group. We are currently focused in creating flash games and mobile games. Until now, we have created a few free game titles and gained profit from some freelancing projects. Since I have no prior experience in running a "company", I decided to split the profit we gained from projects equally regardless of the member's role in the company, as long as he/she is involved in and have contributed a decent amount of work to the development of the project. My questions are: What is the correct way to split profit that is gained from freelance projects that are developed together? Once we've released enough products and ready to register our company legally, what about the salary? What benefits do I have from being the founder and the director? I'm not a control-freak, but I want everything to be clear.

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  • Top Down RPG Movement w/ Correction?

    - by Corey Ogburn
    I would hope that we have all played Zelda: A Link to the Past, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I want to emulate that kind of 2D, top-down character movement with a touch of correction. It has been done in other games, but I feel this reference would be the easiest to relate to. More specifically the kind of movement and correction I'm talking about is: Floating movement not restricted to tile based movement like Pokemon and other games where one tap of the movement pad moves you one square in that cardinal direction. This floating movement should be able to achieve diagonal motion. If you're walking West and you come to a wall that is diagonal in a North East/South West fashion, you are corrected into a South West movement even if you continue holding left (West) on the controller. This should work for both diagonals correcting in both directions. If you're a few pixels off from walking squarely into a door or hallway, you are corrected into walking through the hall or down the hallway, i.e. bumping into the corner causes you to be pushed into the hall/door. I've hunted for efficient ways to achieve this and have had no luck. To be clear I'm talking about the human character's movement, not an NPC's movement. Are their resources available on this kind of movement? Equations or algorithms explained on a wiki or something? I'm using the XNA Framework, is there anything in it to help with this?

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  • WPF or WinForms for Game Development and learning resources?

    - by Stephen Lee Parker
    I'm looking to create a game framework for my own personal use... I want to use WPF, but I'm unsure if that is a wise choice... The games I will be writing should not require high performance graphics, so I am hoping to build on native classes... I do not want to rely on external DLL's unless I generate them myself. The games will be for young children, say 4 to 8. Most will be learning puzzles or simple shooters. The most advanced will be a platform game (non-scrolling screen like the old Atari Miner 2049er game). I think I know how to write something like the old Atari Chopper Command (partially written and my 4 year old loves it, but I used WinForms and GDI), Pac-Man, Tetris, Astroids, Space Invaders, Slider Puzzle, but I do not really know how to write the platform game... In my mind, I'm getting caught in collision detection and how to make a character jump and how to make a character walk up a slope or steps... Can anyone point me to information on developing a platform game in C#? Would you suggest WinForms or WPF for game development? I'm not looking for great graphics and speed, just entertaining game play...

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  • Mirror using apt-mirror and exclud certain sections/categories

    - by Onitlikesonic
    I'm currently using apt-mirror to create a local mirror of the debian repositories. As the mirrored repositories will be used only by machines destined to be headless servers and as an effort to reduce the current mirroring size (around 75GB), categories like games and possibly others will never be needed. How can I go about specifying (on the mirror.list perhaps?) what sections/categories I want to be excluded from the mirroring? Maybe a bit subjective, but apart from games what other sections/categories could be "safely" ignored from the mirroring for my environment purposes? My mirror.list looks as below since all the machines are using precise. # MAIN deb-amd64 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted universe multiverse deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted universe multiverse # SECURITY deb-amd64 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted universe multiverse deb-i386 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted universe multiverse Also, what others would you recommend adding to the list to be mirrored for a relatively stable environment? Again I understand this is subjective, just looking for some pointers. Much appreciated in advance

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  • Open source vs commercial game engines

    - by Vanangamudi
    How commercial game accomplsih stunnning graphics with smooth game play? I am a huge die hard fan and follower of GNU Stallman and his philosophies and other Libre people Cmon how wud I miss Linus. but I got to admit commercial games does excellent jobs. One such good example is Assasin's Creed from Ubisoft. It has good quality graphcis and plays smoothly in my Dual core CPU with Nvidia Geforce 8400ES. Rockstar GTA4 has awesome graphcis but it's slower than AC considering the graphics quality tradeoff. Age of Empires from Ensemble studios, does include Massive crowd AI simulation, yet it plays so smoothly with eyecandy graphics and very large weapon sets and different techtree elements on the other hand. Open source games like Glest, 0A.D(still in alpha :) are not so smooth even though they have very restricted abilities? Coming to question: how do game companies achieve such optmizations, or the open source community is not doing optimizations, or there are any propriarity technological elements that benefits only the companies exists huh?? e.g the OpenSubDiv from Pixar just released open to community?? something like that. and why it is hard to implement optimizations? are there any legal restrictions???

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  • MMO Data Persistence Question

    - by JasonG
    I wanted to ask a question regarding data persistence strategies for an MMO. I have some experience in the games industry with social synchronous games. At Zynga, we stored static proto data in XML on both the client and the server and stored instance/runtime data in membase. For clarity sake, proto data for a Potion would be PotionName or MaxCharges, while runtime/instance data would be something like ChargesRemaining. So basically, if a player picks up a potion the instance is (via prediction) created from XML data on the client, the request gets sent to the server where the instance is created from XML and then added to membase. Is the same strategy that would be used for soemthing like an MMO? Would it be feasible to have static proto data in some kind of in-memory no-sql database on both client and server with instance data being stored on the server in a more enterprise level database? Or should all data (proto/instance) be stored on the server and the client gets everything from server? I know a lot of this might on certain game requirements, however, i'm basically looking for some general opinion/best practices here if there are any.

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  • Friday Fun: Play Air Hockey in Google Chrome

    - by Asian Angel
    Do you like the challenge of fast-paced games? Then get ready to put yourself to the test with the Air Hockey extension for Google Chrome during company time. Air Hockey in Action There are two ways that you can play Air Hockey…either using the drop-down window or opening the game in a new tab. For our example we chose to play in a new tab. Before starting the game you can choose the difficulty level, to enable/disable the sound, and/or to go to full screen if desired. Note: Screenshot of “Full Screen” version shown below. While playing you really have to stay on top of things…the computer player will beat you rather quickly if you do not. Hustle hustle hustle! With a little bit of practice it does become easier but even the “Easy Level” on this game will keep you busy. If the normal size game screen seems just a bit small you can easily get a larger version using the “Full Screen Link” below the game window. Whether your browser is non-maximized as shown here or totally maximized it will fill the entire browser window area. Conclusion If you like fast paced games then the Air Hockey extension certainly fits that criteria and will keep you on your toes. Make sure and keep the sound off while playing during Friday afternoon though! Links Download the Air Hockey extension (Google Chrome Extensions) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Play Tetris in Google ChromeFriday Fun: Play MineSweeper in Google ChromeFriday Fun: Play 3D Rally Racing in Google ChromeHow to Make Google Chrome Your Default BrowserPlay a Webpage Display Prank in Google Chrome TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 LocPDF is a Visual PDF Search Tool Download Free iPad Wallpapers at iPad Decor Get Your Delicious Bookmarks In Firefox’s Awesome Bar Manage Photos Across Different Social Sites With Dropico Test Drive Windows 7 Online Download Wallpapers From National Geographic Site

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  • Clientside anticheating in multiplayer game 1vs1

    - by garnav
    I'm developing a simple card game, where there will be a matchmaking system that will put you against another human player. This will be the only game mode available, a 1vs1 against another human, no AI. I want to prevent cheating as much as possible. I have already read a lot of similar questions here and I already know that I cannot trust the client and I have to make all verifications server side. I intend to have a server (need one for the matchmaking anyway) and I intend to make some verifications server side but if I want to check everything server side this makes my server to be able to keep track of the state of all current games and check every action, and I don't have the money/infrastructure to support that server. My idea is to make clients check and verify some of the actions made by their opponent* and if they find some illegal action notify the possible cheating to the server and make the server verify it. This will still require my server to keep track of all current games, but it will save resources only checking some things that cannot be checked at client side(like card order in the deck) and only checking other things when they are actually wrong. *(only those they can check with out allowing themselves cheating! for example:they can't check if the played card was in hand cos that will need them to know all cards in hand) Summing up, my questions are: is this a viable approach? will I actually save resources doing this or the extra complexity in the server and client for exchanging this messages is not worth it? do you know any game that has successfully or unsuccessfully tried a similar approach? Thanks all for reading and answering

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  • The Raspberry Pi Now Has Its Own App Store

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized computer with an ARM processor, now has its own appstore where Raspberry Pi hobbyists and developers can share their creations in a one-stop location accessible to all Raspberry Pi users. In today’s press release about the store, the Raspberry Pi Foundation writes: We’ve been amazed by the variety of software that people have written for, or ported to, the Raspberry Pi. Today, together with our friends at IndieCity and Velocix, we’re launching the Pi Store to make it easier for developers of all ages to share their games, applications, tools and tutorials with the rest of the community. The Pi Store will, we hope, become a one-stop shop for all your Raspberry Pi needs; it’s also an easier way into the Raspberry Pi experience for total beginners, who will find everything they need to get going in one place, for free. The store runs as an X application under Raspbian, and allows users to download content, and to upload their own content for moderation and release. At launch, we have 23 free titles in the store, ranging from utilities like LibreOffice and Asterisk to classic games like Freeciv and OpenTTD and Raspberry Pi exclusive Iridium Rising. We also have one piece of commercial content: the excellent Storm in a Teacup from Cobra Mobile. For more information about the store, including how to install the app store on your Pi, check out the full press release here. To get started browsing the store, hit up the link below. Secure Yourself by Using Two-Step Verification on These 16 Web Services How to Fix a Stuck Pixel on an LCD Monitor How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot

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  • Amazon Upgrades FreeTime; More Content for the Kid-Friendly Walled Garden

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Earlier this year Amazon introduced FreeTime, a walled garden area intended to provide a kids-only app gallery on the Kindle Fire. It was up to parents to populate the content but now, with the recent update, Amazon brings together unlimited books, movies, games, and apps. Intended for children ages 3-8 the upgraded service eschews the you-pick-it-all approach and goes with a hand-curated collection of games, educational apps, books and more. In addition to the pile of hand-curated content, FreeTime also has built in time limits and individual profiles for different children. Every Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ user can try out the service for thirty days without charge. After the thirty day trial the subscription price is $4.99 per month ($2.99 for Prime members). Hit up the link below to check out the full description of the service. Amazon FreeTime [Amazon] Our Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 is Now Available Everywhere How To Boot Your Android Phone or Tablet Into Safe Mode HTG Explains: Does Your Android Phone Need an Antivirus?

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  • Suitability of ground fog using layered alpha quads?

    - by Nick Wiggill
    A layered approach would use a series of massive alpha-textured quads arranged parallel to the ground, intersecting all intervening terrain geometry, to provide the illusion of ground fog quite effectively from high up, looking down, and somewhat less effectively when inside the fog and looking toward the horizon (see image below). Alternatively, a shader-heavy approach would instead calculate density as function of view distance into the ground fog substrate, and output the fragment value based on that. Without having to performance-test each approach myself, I would like first to hear others' experiences (not speculation!) on what sort of performance impact the layered alpha texture approach is likely to have. I ask specifically due to the oft-cited impacts of overdraw (not sure how fill-rate bound your average desktop system is). A list of games using this approach, particularly older games, would be immensely useful: if this was viable on pre DX9/OpenGL2 hardware, it is likely to work fine for me. One big question is in regards to this sort of effect: (Image credit goes to Lume of lume.com) Notice how the vertical fog gradation is continuous / smooth. OTOH, using textured quad layers, I can only assume that layers would be mighty obvious when walking through them -- the more sparse they were, the more obvious this would be. This is in contrast to where fog planes are aligned to face the player every frame, where this coarseness would be much less obvious.

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  • 2D graphics - why use spritesheets?

    - by Columbo
    I have seen many examples of how to render sprites from a spritesheet but I havent grasped why it is the most common way of dealing with sprites in 2d games. I have started out with 2d sprite rendering in the few demo applications I've made by dealing with each animation frame for any given sprite type as its own texture - and this collection of textures is stored in a dictionary. This seems to work for me, and suits my workflow pretty well, as I tend to make my animations as gif/mng files and then extract the frames to individual pngs. Is there a noticeable performance advantage to rendering from a single sheet rather than from individual textures? With modern hardware that is capable of drawing millions of polygons to the screen a hundred times a second, does it even matter for my 2d games which just deal with a few dozen 50x100px rectangles? The implementation details of loading a texture into graphics memory and displaying it in XNA seems pretty abstracted. All I know is that textures are bound to the graphics device when they are loaded, then during the game loop, the textures get rendered in batches. So it's not clear to me whether my choice affects performance. I suspect that there are some very good reasons most 2d game developers seem to be using them, I just don't understand why.

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  • How to Use and Customize Google Chrome Web Apps

    - by The Geek
    Google announced their new Chrome Web Store today, with loads of web sites and games that can be installed as applications in your browser, synced across every PC, and customized to launch the way you want them to. Here’s how it all works. Note: this guide really isn’t aimed at expert geeks, though you’re more than welcome to leave your thoughts in the comments. What Are Chrome Web Apps Again? The new Chrome Web Apps are really nothing more than regular web sites, optimized for Chrome and then wrapped up with a pretty icon and installed in your browser. Some of these sites, especially web-based games, can also be purchased through the Chrome Web Store for a small fee, though the majority of services are free Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Our Favorite Tech: What We’re Thankful For at How-To Geek The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 7: Design and Typography Fun and Colorful Firefox Theme for Windows 7 Happy Snow Bears Theme for Chrome and Iron [Holiday] Download Full Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun Game for Free Scorched Cometary Planet Wallpaper Quick Fix: Add the RSS Button Back to the Firefox Awesome Bar Dropbox Desktop Client 1.0.0 RC for Windows, Linux, and Mac Released

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