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  • Is knowledge of hacking mechanisms required for an MMO?

    - by Gabe
    Say I was planning on, in the future (not now! There is alot I need to learn first) looking to participating in a group project that was going to make a massively multiplayer online game (mmo), and my job would be the networking portion. I'm not that familiar with network programming (I've read a very basic book on PHP, MYSQL and I messed around a bit with WAMP). In the course of my studying of PHP and MYSQL, should I look into hacking? Hacking as in port scanning, router hacking, etc. In MMOs people are always trying to cheat, bots and such, but the worst scenario would be having someone hack the databases. This is just my conception of this, I really don't know. I do however understand networking fairly well, like subnetting/ports/IP's (local/global)/etc. In your professional opinion, (If you understand the topic, enlighten me) Should I learn about these things in order to counter the possibility of this happening? Also, out of the things I mentioned (port scanning, router hacking) Is there anything else that pertains to hacking that I should look into? I'm not too familiar with the malicious/Security aspects of Networking. And a note: I'm not some kid trying to learn how to hack. I just want to learn as much as possible before I go to college, and I really need to know if I need to study this or not.

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  • How to deal with large open worlds?

    - by Mr. Beast
    In most games the whole world is small enough to fit into memory, however there are games where this is not the case, how is this archived, how can the game still run fluid even though the world is so big and maybe even dynamic? How does the world change in memory while the player moves? Examples for this include the TES games (Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind), MMORPGs (World of Warcraft), Diablo, Titan Quest, Dwarf Fortress, Far Cry.

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  • openfeint or gamecenter?

    - by Gajet
    which one has more potential customers, easier API, and wider feature list? i'm going to develop implement one of those two for highscore recording in my game which ones gives more advantages? and by the way I might be going to port my game to android, so if you know any thing that can help me not to rewrite my code (for example a C++ wrapper for both of them) that would mean a greate plus for openfeint in my point of veiw.

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  • Best depth sorting method for a Top Down 2D game using a 3D physics engine

    - by Alic44
    I've spent many days googling this and still have issues with my game engine I'd like to ask about, which I haven't seen addressed before. I think the problem is that my game is an unusual combination of a completely 2D graphical approach using XNA's SpriteBatch, and a completely 3D engine (the amazing BEPU physics engine) with rotation mostly disabled. In essence, my question is similar to this one (the part about "faux 3D"), but the difference is that in my game, the player as well as every other creature is represented by 3D objects, and they can all jump, pick up other objects, and throw them around. What this means is that sorting by one value, such as a Z position (how far north/south a character is on the screen) won't work, because as soon as a smaller creature jumps on top of a larger creature, or a box, and walks backwards, the moment its z value is less than that other creature, it will appear to be behind the object it is actually standing on. I actually originally solved this problem by splitting every object in the game into physics boxes which MUST have a Y height equal to their Z depth. I then based the depth sorting value on the object's y position (how high it is off the ground) PLUS its z position (how far north or south it is on the screen). The problem with this approach is that it requires all moving objects in the game to be split graphically into chunks which match up with a physical box which has its y dimension equal to its z dimension. Which is stupid. So, I got inspired last night to rewrite with a fresh approach. My new method is a little more complex, but I think a little more sane: every object which needs to be sorted by depth in the game exposes the interface IDepthDrawable and is added to a list owned by the DepthDrawer object. IDepthDrawable contains: public interface IDepthDrawable { Rectangle Bounds { get; } //possibly change this to a class if struct copying of the xna Rectangle type becomes an issue DepthDrawShape DepthShape { get; } void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch); } The Bounds Rectangle of each IDepthDrawable object represents the 2D Axis-Aligned Bounding Box it will take up when drawn to the screen. Anything that doesn't intersect the screen will be culled at this stage and the remaining on-screen IDepthDrawables will be Bounds tested for intersections with each other. This is where I get a little less sure of what I'm doing. Each group of collisions will be added to a list or other collection, and each list will sort itself based on its DepthShape property, which will have access to the object-to-be-drawn's physics information. For starting out, lets assume everything in the game is an axis aligned 3D Box shape. Boxes are pretty easy to sort. Something like: if (depthShape1.Back > depthShape2.Front) //if depthShape1 is in front of depthShape2. //depthShape1 goes on top. else if (depthShape1.Bottom > depthShape2.Top) //if depthShape1 is above depthShape2. //depthShape1 goes on top. //if neither of these are true, depthShape2 must be in front or above. So, by sorting draw order by several different factors from the physics engine, I believe I can get a really correct draw order. My question is, is this a good way of going about this, or is there some tried and true, tested way which is completely different and has somehow completely eluded me on the internets? And, if this does seem like a good way to remake my draw order sorting, what's the right sorting algorithm for reordering the Bounds Rectangle collision lists, and how do you deal with a Bounds Rectangle colliding with two different object which don't collide with eachother. I know these are solved problems, but I've only been programming for a year so any specific input here will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this far, ye who made it -- sorry it was so long!

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  • PPTP VPN + Ubuntu

    - by StalkerNOVA
    I have problems with connection to DD-WRT router with PPTP server installed. Win7 has no problems with connection to it. But in Ubuntu I'm getting all the time: Dec 28 21:52:14 IT-nb pppd[4209]: Plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.5//nm-pptp-pppd-plugin.so loaded. Dec 28 21:52:14 IT-nb pppd[4209]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0 Dec 28 21:52:14 IT-nb pppd[4209]: Using interface ppp0 Dec 28 21:52:14 IT-nb pppd[4209]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/2 Dec 28 21:52:18 IT-nb pppd[4209]: Connection terminated. Dec 28 21:52:18 IT-nb pppd[4209]: Exit.

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  • Trying to implement fling events on an object

    - by Adam Short
    I have a game object, well a bitmap, which I'd like to "fling". I'm struggling to get it to fling ontouchlistener due to it being a bitmap and not sure how to proceed and I'm struggling to find the resources to help. Here's my code so far: https://github.com/addrum/Shapes GameActivity class: package com.main.shapes; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.Context; import android.graphics.Bitmap; import android.graphics.BitmapFactory; import android.graphics.Canvas; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.GestureDetector; import android.view.MotionEvent; import android.view.SurfaceHolder; import android.view.SurfaceView; import android.view.View.OnTouchListener; import android.view.Window; public class GameActivity extends Activity { private GestureDetector gestureDetector; View view; Bitmap ball; float x, y; @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); //Remove title bar this.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE); view = new View(this); ball = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.ball); gestureDetector = new GestureDetector(this, new GestureListener()); x = 0; y = 0; setContentView(view); ball.setOnTouchListener(new OnTouchListener() { @Override public boolean onTouch(android.view.View v, MotionEvent event) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub return false; } }); } @Override protected void onPause() { super.onPause(); view.pause(); } @Override protected void onResume() { super.onResume(); view.resume(); } public class View extends SurfaceView implements Runnable { Thread thread = null; SurfaceHolder holder; boolean canRun = false; public View(Context context) { super(context); holder = getHolder(); } public void run() { while (canRun) { if (!holder.getSurface().isValid()) { continue; } Canvas c = holder.lockCanvas(); c.drawARGB(255, 255, 255, 255); c.drawBitmap(ball, x - (ball.getWidth() / 2), y - (ball.getHeight() / 2), null); holder.unlockCanvasAndPost(c); } } public void pause() { canRun = false; while (true) { try { thread.join(); } catch (InterruptedException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } break; } thread = null; } public void resume() { canRun = true; thread = new Thread(this); thread.start(); } } } GestureListener class: package com.main.shapes; import android.view.GestureDetector.SimpleOnGestureListener; import android.view.MotionEvent; public class GestureListener extends SimpleOnGestureListener { private static final int SWIPE_MIN_DISTANCE = 120; private static final int SWIPE_THRESHOLD_VELOCITY = 200; @Override public boolean onFling(MotionEvent e1, MotionEvent e2, float velocityX, float velocityY) { if (e1.getX() - e2.getX() > SWIPE_MIN_DISTANCE && Math.abs(velocityX) > SWIPE_THRESHOLD_VELOCITY) { //From Right to Left return true; } else if (e2.getX() - e1.getX() > SWIPE_MIN_DISTANCE && Math.abs(velocityX) > SWIPE_THRESHOLD_VELOCITY) { //From Left to Right return true; } if (e1.getY() - e2.getY() > SWIPE_MIN_DISTANCE && Math.abs(velocityY) > SWIPE_THRESHOLD_VELOCITY) { //From Bottom to Top return true; } else if (e2.getY() - e1.getY() > SWIPE_MIN_DISTANCE && Math.abs(velocityY) > SWIPE_THRESHOLD_VELOCITY) { //From Top to Bottom return true; } return false; } @Override public boolean onDown(MotionEvent e) { //always return true since all gestures always begin with onDown and<br> //if this returns false, the framework won't try to pick up onFling for example. return true; } }

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  • JMonkey Engine (JME) load Blender scene with textures?

    - by leigero
    I am having the hardest time trying to accomplish the simplest task. I have created a floor and 4 walls (not that complicated) in Blender. I added a basic material and cloud texture so they have something to look at other than gray. When I import them into JMonkey they show up as solid white objects with no shading or depth. White silhouettes. I thought this may be a lighting issue, but I have ambient light added to the scene. I can remove that light or adjust its intensity and it has no affect on the scene. I exported all Blender files into OgreXML format, then converted them to .j3o format in JMonkey. I renamed the textures to match their corresponding mesh and this didn't do anything. Does anybody know how to create a flat object and put it into JMonkey with a texture? This sounds simple and there is absolutely no information on this. This should be step 1!

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  • IrrKlang with Ogre

    - by Vinnie
    I'm trying to set up sound in my Ogre3D project. I have installed irrKlang 1.4.0 and added it's include and lib directories to my projects VC++ Include and Library directories, but I'm still getting a Linker error when I attempt to build. Any suggestions? (Error 4007 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "__declspec(dllimport) class irrklang::ISoundEngine * __cdecl irrklang::createIrrKlangDevice(enum irrklang::E_SOUND_OUTPUT_DRIVER,int,char const *,char const *)" (_imp?createIrrKlangDevice@irrklang@@YAPAVISoundEngine@1@W4E_SOUND_OUTPUT_DRIVER@1@HPBD1@Z) referenced in function "public: __thiscall SoundManager::SoundManager(void)" (??0SoundManager@@QAE@XZ)

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  • Examples of 2D side-scrollers that achieve open non-linear feel?

    - by Milosz Falinski
    I'm working on a 2.5D platformer prototype that aims for an open feel while maintaining familiar core mechanics. Now, there's some obvious challenges with creating a non constricted feel in a spatially constricted environment. What I'm interested in, is examples of how game designers deal with the "here's a level, beat the bad guys/puzzles to get to the next level" design that seems so natural to most platformers (eg. Mario/Braid/Pid/Meat Boy to name a few). Some ideas for achieving openness I've come across include: One obvious successful example is Terraria, which achieves openness simply through complexity and flexibility of the game-system Another example that comes to mind is Cave Story. Game is non-linear, offers multiple choices and side-stories Mario, Rayman and some other 'classics' with a top-down level selection. I actually really dislike this as it never did anything for me emotionally and just seems like a bit of a lazy way to do things. Note: I've not actually had much experience with most of the 'classical' console platformers, apart from the obvious Marios/Zeldas/Metroids, since I've grown up on adventure games. By that I mean, it's entirely possible that I simply missed some games that solve the problem really well and are by some considered obvious 'classics'.

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  • Rendering Unity across multiple monitors

    - by N0xus
    At the moment I am trying to get unity to run across 2 monitors. I've done some research and know that this is, strictly, possible. There is a workaround where you basically have to fluff your window size in order to get unity to render across both monitors. What I've done is create a new custom screen resolution that takes in the width of both of my monitors, as seen in the following image, its the 3840 x 1080: How ever, when I go to run my unity game exe that size isn't available. All I get is the following: My custom size should be at the very bottom, but isn't. Is there something I haven't done, or missed, that will get unity to take in my custom screen size when it comes to running my game through its exe? Oddly enough, inside the unity editor, my custom screen size is picked up and I can have it set to that in my game window: Is there something that I have forgotten to do when I build and run the game from the file menu? Has someone ever beaten this issue before?

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  • Game Sound Effects Availability

    - by Ben
    Is there a need in the community for affordable game-focused sound effect packs? I am considering putting together some effects specifically geared toward games and indie developers that desire to get a working prototype quickly off the ground. Is there a need for this, or is there another standard "go-to" spot for this kind of thing? I want to offer value to the community but wanted to assess the need first. If anyone has thoughts, insight, or personal opinions on this I would love to hear it!

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  • Using gluLookAt to move camera in 2D iPhone game ?

    - by Mr.Gando
    Hey guys, I'm trying to use gluLookAt to move the camera in my iPhone game, but every time I've tried to use gluLookAt my screen just goes "blank" ( grey in this case ) I'm trying to render a simple triangle and to move the camera, this is my code: to setup my scene I do: glViewport(0, 0, backingWidth, backingHeight); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); glRotatef(-90.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0); //using iPhone in horizontal mode glOrthof(-240, 240, -160, 160, -1, 1); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); then my "triangle rendering" code looks like: GLfloat triangle[] = {0, 100, 100, 0, -100, 0,}; glClearColor(0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 1.0); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glColor4f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0); glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, &triangle); glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 6); glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); This draws a red triangle in the middle of the screen, when I try to apply gluLookAt ( I got the implementation of the function from Cocos2D so I asume it's correct ), i do: glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,1); // try to move the camera a bit ? GLfloat triangle[] = {0, 100, 100, 0, -100, 0,}; glClearColor(0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 1.0); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glColor4f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0); glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, &triangle); glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 6); glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); This leads me to grey screen (glClearColor is grey), I've tried all sort of things and read what I've found about gluLookAt on the net, but no luck :(, if someone could explain me or show me how to move to move the camera in a top-down fashion ( zelda, etc ), I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

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  • Skanska Builds Global Workforce Insight with Cloud-Based HCM System

    - by HCM-Oracle
    By David Baum - Originally posted on Profit Peter Bjork grew up building things. He started his work life learning all sorts of trades at his father’s construction company in the northern part of Sweden. So in college, it was natural for him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering—but he broke new ground when he added a master’s degree in finance to his curriculum vitae. Written on a traditional résumé, Bjork’s current title (vice president of information systems strategies) doesn’t reveal the diversity of his experience—that he’s adept with hammer and nails as well as rows and columns. But a big part of his current job is to work with his counterparts in human resources (HR) designing, building, and deploying the systems needed to get a complete view of the skills and potential of Skanska’s 22,000-strong white-collar workforce. And Bjork believes that complete view is essential to Skanska’s success. “Our business is really all about people,” says Bjork, who has worked with Skanska for 16 years. “You can have equipment and financial resources, but to truly succeed in a business like ours you need to have the right people in the right places. That’s what this system is helping us accomplish.” In a global HR environment that suffers from a paradox of high unemployment and a scarcity of skilled labor, managers need to have a complete understanding of workforce capabilities to develop management skills, recruit for open positions, ensure that staff is getting the training they need, and reduce attrition. Skanska’s human capital management (HCM) systems, based on Oracle Talent Management Cloud, play a critical role delivering that understanding. “Skanska’s philosophy of having great people, encouraging their development, and giving them the chance to move across business units has nurtured a culture of collaboration, but managing a diverse workforce spread across the globe is a monumental challenge,” says Annika Lindholm, global human resources system owner in the HR department at Skanska’s headquarters just outside of Stockholm, Sweden. “We depend heavily on Oracle’s cloud technology to support our HCM function.” Construction, Workers For Skanska’s more than 60,000 employees and contractors, managing huge construction projects is an everyday job. Beyond erecting signature buildings, management’s goal is to build a corporate culture where valuable talent can be sought out and developed, bringing in the right mix of people to support and grow the business. “Of all the companies in our space, Skanska is probably one of the strongest ones, with a laser focus on people and people development,” notes Tom Crane, chief HR and communications officer for Skanska in the United States. “Our business looks like equipment and material, but all we really have at the end of the day are people and their intellectual capital. Without them, second only to clients, of course, you really can’t achieve great things in the high-profile environment in which we work.” During the 1990s, Skanska entered an expansive growth phase. A string of successful acquisitions paved the way for the company’s transformation into a global enterprise. “Today the company’s focus is on profitable growth,” continues Crane. “But you can’t really achieve growth unless you are doing a very good job of developing your people and having the right people in the right places and driving a culture of growth.” In the United States alone, Skanska has more than 8,000 employees in four distinct business units: Skanska USA Building, also known as the Construction Manager, builds everything at ground level and above—hospitals, educational facilities, stadiums, airport terminals, and other massive projects. Skanska USA Civil does everything at ground level and below, such as light rail, water treatment facilities, power plants or power industry facilities, highways, and bridges. Skanska Infrastructure Development develops public-private partnerships—projects in which Skanska adds equity and also arranges for outside financing. Skanska Commercial Development acts like a commercial real estate developer, acquiring land and building offices on spec or build-to-suit for its clients. Skanska's international portfolio includes construction of the new Meadowlands Stadium. Getting the various units to operate collaboratatively helps Skanska deliver high value to clients and shareholders. “When we have this collaboration among units, it allows us to enrich each of the business units and, at the same time, develop our future leaders to be more facile in operating across business units—more accepting of a ‘one Skanska’ approach,” explains Crane. Workforce Worldwide But HR needs processes and tools to support managers who face such business dynamics. Oracle Talent Management Cloud is helping Skanska implement world-class recruiting strategies and generate the insights needed to drive quality hiring practices, internal mobility, and a proactive approach to building talent pipelines. With their new cloud system in place, Skanska HR leaders can manage everything from recruiting, compensation, and goal and performance management to employee learning and talent review—all as part of a single, cohesive software-as-a-service (SaaS) environment. Skanska has successfully implemented two modules from Oracle Talent Management Cloud—the recruiting and performance management modules—and is in the process of implementing the learn module. Internally, they call the systems Skanska Recruit, Skanska Talent, and Skanska Learn. The timing is apropos. With high rates of unemployment in recent years, there have been many job candidates on the market. However, talent scarcity continues to frustrate recruiters. Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service, one of the applications in the Oracle Talent Management cloud portfolio, enables Skanska managers to create more-intelligent recruiting strategies, pulling high-performer profile statistics to create new candidate profiles and using multitiered screening and assessments to ensure that only the best-suited candidate applications make it to the recruiter’s desk. Tools such as applicant tracking, interview management, and requisition management help recruiters and hiring managers streamline the hiring process. Oracle’s cloud-based software system automates and streamlines many other HR processes for Skanska’s multinational organization and delivers insight into the success of recruiting and talent-management efforts. “The Oracle system is definitely helping us to construct global HR processes,” adds Bjork. “It is really important that we have a business model that is decentralized, so we can effectively serve our local markets, and interact with our global ERP [enterprise resource planning] systems as well. We would not be able to do this without a really good, well-integrated HCM system that could support these efforts.” A key piece of this effort is something Skanska has developed internally called the Skanska Leadership Profile. Core competencies, on which all employees are measured, are used in performance reviews to determine weak areas but also to discover talent, such as those who will be promoted or need succession plans. This global profiling system brings consistency to the way HR professionals evaluate and review talent across the company, with a consistent set of ratings and a consistent definition of competencies. All salaried employees in Skanska are tied to a talent management process that gives opportunity for midyear and year-end reviews. Using the performance management module, managers can align individual goals with corporate goals; provide clear visibility into how each employee contributes to the success of the organization; and drive a strategic, end-to-end talent management strategy with a single, integrated system for all talent-related activities. This is critical to a company that is highly focused on ensuring that every employee has a development plan linked to his or her succession potential. “Our approach all along has been to deploy software applications that are seamless to end users,” says Crane. “The beauty of a cloud-based system is that much of the functionality takes place behind the scenes so we can focus on making sure users can access the data when they need it. This model greatly improves their efficiency.” The employee profile not only sets a competency baseline for new employees but is also integrated with Skanska’s other back-office Oracle systems to ensure consistency in the way information is used to support other business functions. “Since we have about a dozen different HR systems that are providing us with information, we built a master database that collects all the information,” explains Lindholm. “That data is sent not only to Oracle Talent Management Cloud, but also to other systems that are dependent on this information.” Collaboration to Scale Skanska is poised to launch a new Oracle module to link employee learning plans to the review process and recruitment assessments. According to Crane, connecting these processes allows Skanska managers to see employees’ progress and produce an updated learning program. For example, as employees take classes, supervisors can consult the Oracle Talent Management Cloud portal to monitor progress and align it to each individual’s training and development plan. “That’s a pretty compelling solution for an organization that wants to manage its talent on a real-time basis and see how the training is working,” Crane says. Rolling out Oracle Talent Management Cloud was a joint effort among HR, IT, and a global group that oversaw the worldwide implementation. Skanska deployed the solution quickly across all markets at once. In the United States, for example, more than 35 offices quickly got up to speed on the new system via webinars for employees and face-to-face training for the HR group. “With any migration, there are moments when you hold your breath, but in this case, we had very few problems getting the system up and running,” says Crane. Lindholm adds, “There has been very little resistance to the system as users recognize its potential. Customizations are easy, and a lasting partnership has developed between Skanska and Oracle when help is needed. They listen to us.” Bjork elaborates on the implementation process from an IT perspective. “Deploying a SaaS system removes a lot of the complexity,” he says. “You can downsize the IT part and focus on the business part, which increases the probability of a successful implementation. If you want to scale the system, you make a quick phone call. That’s all it took recently when we added 4,000 users. We didn’t have to think about resizing the servers or hiring more IT people. Oracle does that for us, and they have provided very good support.” As a result, Skanska has been able to implement a single, cost-effective talent management solution across the organization to support its strategy to recruit and develop a world-class staff. Stakeholders are confident that they are providing the most efficient recruitment system possible for competent personnel at all levels within the company—from skilled workers at construction sites to top management at headquarters. And Skanska can retain skilled employees and ensure that they receive the development opportunities they need to grow and advance.

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  • What's a good way to programmatically manage a cloneable entity?

    - by bobobobo
    Say you have missiles or rockets that a player can fire. What's a good way to programmatically manage the cloning of a base rocket, for example? I can think of 2 ways to do it: Player has a currently selected weapon (which is an int) When player shoots, the selectedWeapon member is looked at, and the correct instance of rocket is created (with some base parameters) Or Player has a currently selected weapon (which is a pointer, to a "base instance" of the rocket object) When player shoots, the base instance rocket is cloned, transformed, and shot into the game world

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  • Z Order in 2D with orthographic projection and texture atlas

    - by Carbon Crystal
    I am working with a 2D game in OpenGL ES and have a question about z-order together with a texture atlas. I am using an orthographic projection because I want pixel-perfect rendering of 2D sprites, however from what I can determine the draw order is really the only thing that will determine which textures (sprites) appear above or below their neighbors. That is, the "z-index" is a function of the order in which the textures are drawn as opposed to the z coordinate on the vertex array being drawn. So.. I have a texture atlas to save binding multiple textures for each draw call but this immediately creates a problem if there is more than one atlas in play. If I need to draw textures from more than one atlas (typically the case if I have too many sprites to fit in a single atlas of a reasonable size), then I can't maintain a "draw order" across atlases unless I want to bind/unbind the atlas textures more than once.. which kinda defeats the purpose. Does anyone have any clues as to what the best approach is here? Currently I'm running under an assumption that I will have to declare different fixed "depths" (e.g foreground, background etc) in my 2D scene and assume that the z-order for sprites at a given depth is the same. Then I can have as many atlases as I need at each depth and simply draw the depths in order (along with their associated atlases) I'd love to hear what other people are doing.

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  • What are some good examples of exuberant in-game instructions for telling the player to repeatedly smash a button?

    - by Michael
    What are some good examples of exuberant in-game instructions for telling the player to repeatedly and quickly press a button or perform an action? I'm especially interested in examples in retro games (e.g., from the NES, SNES, and 1980-90s arcade eras), and I would love to see examples with text, graphics, or both. To illustrate, here are a few examples of the type of instructions that I'm thinking of: Smash the A button to lift something heavy! Toggle the joystick back and forth to break free! Quickly press the button to build power in a meter! I'm working on a 2D iOS game with retro-style pixel art, and there's a point where I want the player to quickly tap on a sprite to complete an action. I have a serviceable starting point -- the word "TAP" flashing with an arrow repeatedly moving downward beneath it: But it still doesn't feel quite right. I would love to see some actual examples from the golden days of 2D gaming to use as reference material. I know examples abound, but I'm just struggling to think of any concrete ones at the moment. Can you think of any examples of this type of thing in old games?

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  • Tessellation Texture Coordinates

    - by Stuart Martin
    Firstly some info - I'm using DirectX 11 , C++ and I'm a fairly good programmer but new to tessellation and not a master graphics programmer. I'm currently implementing a tessellation system for a terrain model, but i have reached a snag. My current system produces a terrain model from a height map complete with multiple texture coordinates, normals, binormals and tangents for rendering. Now when i was using a simple vertex and pixel shader combination everything worked perfectly but since moving to include a hull and domain shader I'm slightly confused and getting strange results. My terrain is a high detail model but the textured results are very large patches of solid colour. My current setup passes the model data into the vertex shader then through the hull into the domain and then finally into the pixel shader for use in rendering. My only thought is that in my hull shader i pass the information into the domain shader per patch and this is producing the large areas of solid colour because each patch has identical information. Lighting and normal data are also slightly off but not as visibly as texturing. Below is a copy of my hull shader that does not work correctly because i think the way that i am passing the data through is incorrect. If anyone can help me out but suggesting an alternative way to get the required data into the pixel shader? or by showing me the correct way to handle the data in the hull shader id be very thankful! cbuffer TessellationBuffer { float tessellationAmount; float3 padding; }; struct HullInputType { float3 position : POSITION; float2 tex : TEXCOORD0; float3 normal : NORMAL; float3 tangent : TANGENT; float3 binormal : BINORMAL; float2 tex2 : TEXCOORD1; }; struct ConstantOutputType { float edges[3] : SV_TessFactor; float inside : SV_InsideTessFactor; }; struct HullOutputType { float3 position : POSITION; float2 tex : TEXCOORD0; float3 normal : NORMAL; float3 tangent : TANGENT; float3 binormal : BINORMAL; float2 tex2 : TEXCOORD1; float4 depthPosition : TEXCOORD2; }; ConstantOutputType ColorPatchConstantFunction(InputPatch<HullInputType, 3> inputPatch, uint patchId : SV_PrimitiveID) { ConstantOutputType output; output.edges[0] = tessellationAmount; output.edges[1] = tessellationAmount; output.edges[2] = tessellationAmount; output.inside = tessellationAmount; return output; } [domain("tri")] [partitioning("integer")] [outputtopology("triangle_cw")] [outputcontrolpoints(3)] [patchconstantfunc("ColorPatchConstantFunction")] HullOutputType ColorHullShader(InputPatch<HullInputType, 3> patch, uint pointId : SV_OutputControlPointID, uint patchId : SV_PrimitiveID) { HullOutputType output; output.position = patch[pointId].position; output.tex = patch[pointId].tex; output.tex2 = patch[pointId].tex2; output.normal = patch[pointId].normal; output.tangent = patch[pointId].tangent; output.binormal = patch[pointId].binormal; return output; } Edited to include the domain shader:- [domain("tri")] PixelInputType ColorDomainShader(ConstantOutputType input, float3 uvwCoord : SV_DomainLocation, const OutputPatch<HullOutputType, 3> patch) { float3 vertexPosition; PixelInputType output; // Determine the position of the new vertex. vertexPosition = uvwCoord.x * patch[0].position + uvwCoord.y * patch[1].position + uvwCoord.z * patch[2].position; output.position = mul(float4(vertexPosition, 1.0f), worldMatrix); output.position = mul(output.position, viewMatrix); output.position = mul(output.position, projectionMatrix); output.depthPosition = output.position; output.tex = patch[0].tex; output.tex2 = patch[0].tex2; output.normal = patch[0].normal; output.tangent = patch[0].tangent; output.binormal = patch[0].binormal; return output; }

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  • Basic tutorial/introduction for 3d matrices, idealy in c++, without openGl or directX

    - by René Nyffenegger
    I am wondering if there is a simple tutorial that covers the basics of how to initialize rotation, translation and projection matrices, and how to multiply them, and how to get the screen coordinates afterwards for a 3d point. Idealy, the tutorial comes with compilable code and is not dependent on any 3rd party library. Searching the internet, I found lots of tutorials, so this is not the problem. Yet, it seemed all of these either covered openGl or directX, or they were theoretical in nature.

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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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  • 2D Planet Gravity

    - by baked
    I'm trying to make a simple game where a spaceship is launched and then its path is effected by the gravity of planets. Similar to this game: http://sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/gravity.html I wish to know how to replicate the effect the planets have on the spaceship in this game so a spaceship can 'loop' around a planet to change direction. I have managed to achieve some bogus results where the spaceship loops in a huge ellipse around the planet or is only slightly affected by the gravity of a planet using Vectors. Thanks in advance. p.s I have plenty of coding experience just none to do with game dev.

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  • Has anyone else read "Programming video games for the Evil Genius"

    - by Martin
    I bought this book called "Programming Video Games for the Evil Genius" by Ian Cinnamon. If there is anyone who has read or is familiar with this book I am wondering if they think it is worth reading. I am interested in making video games. I have already taken intro courses in C++, Java and Python and got through okay. I've been going through this book for about a month now(SLOWLY). All I have to do is type the code exactly in the book, BUT a lot of the code is not clearly explained. I do some research online but I usually still have some trouble answering my questions. Then I found stack overflow. It's been a ton of help. Right now I am trying to make a racing game right out of this book and I got to a point where the author left a bunch of errors in his code. One of the members of this website fixed it up for me, but added some stuff that I'm having trouble understanding. I spend more time trying to figure out the authors errors and fix them or get someone to help me fix them than I actually do learning code. I REALLY want to learn how to do this and I am ready and willing to put in the time, but I'm not sure if my time would be better spent learning from a different source. Are there any veterans out there that are familiar with this book and think it's worth it/not worth it? Should I try to move onto another book? Any advice for a fresh start for someone who wants to learn some video game programming?

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  • Best practices for implementing collectible virtual item "packs"?

    - by Glenn Barnett
    I'm in the process of building a game in which virtual items can be obtained either by in-game play (defeating enemies, gaining levels), or by purchasing "packs" via microtransactions. Looking at an existing example like Duels.com's item packs, it looks like a lot of thought went into their implementation, including: Setting clear player expectations as to what can be obtained in the pack Limiting pack supply to increase demand and control inflation Are there other considerations that should be taken into account? For example, should the contents of the packs be pre-generated to guarantee the advertised drop rates, or is each drop rate just a random chance, and you could end up with higher or lower supply?

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  • Lighting get darker when texture is aplied

    - by noah
    Im using OpenGL ES 1.1 for iPhone. I'm attempting to implement a skybox in my 3d world and started out by following one of Jeff Lamarches tutorials on creating textures. Heres the tutorial: iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/05/opengl-es-from-ground-up-part-6_25.html Ive successfully added the image to my 3d world but am not sure why the lighting on the other shapes has changed so much. I want the shapes to be the original color and have the image in the background. Before: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ojmb8793vj514h0/Screen%20Shot%202012-10-01%20at%205.34.44%20PM.png After: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8v6yvur8amgudia/Screen%20Shot%202012-10-01%20at%205.35.31%20PM.png Heres the init OpenGL: - (void)initOpenGLES1 { glShadeModel(GL_SMOOTH); // Enable lighting glEnable(GL_LIGHTING); // Turn the first light on glEnable(GL_LIGHT0); const GLfloat lightAmbient[] = {0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 1.0}; const GLfloat lightDiffuse[] = {0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 1.0}; const GLfloat matAmbient[] = {0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.5}; const GLfloat matDiffuse[] = {1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0}; const GLfloat matSpecular[] = {1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0}; const GLfloat lightPosition[] = {0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0}; const GLfloat lightShininess = 100.0; //Configure OpenGL lighting glEnable(GL_LIGHTING); glEnable(GL_LIGHT0); glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_AMBIENT, matAmbient); glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_DIFFUSE, matDiffuse); glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_SPECULAR, matSpecular); glMaterialf(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_SHININESS, lightShininess); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_AMBIENT, lightAmbient); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_DIFFUSE, lightDiffuse); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_POSITION, lightPosition); // Define a cutoff angle glLightf(GL_LIGHT0, GL_SPOT_CUTOFF, 40.0); // Set the clear color glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1.0f); // Projection Matrix config glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); CGSize layerSize = self.view.layer.frame.size; // Swapped height and width for landscape mode gluPerspective(45.0f, (GLfloat)layerSize.height / (GLfloat)layerSize.width, 0.1f, 750.0f); [self initSkyBox]; // Modelview Matrix config glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); // This next line is not really needed as it is the default for OpenGL ES glTexEnvi(GL_TEXTURE_ENV, GL_TEXTURE_ENV_MODE, GL_MODULATE); glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); glDisable(GL_BLEND); // Enable depth testing glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); glDepthFunc(GL_LESS); glDepthMask(GL_TRUE); } Heres the drawSkybox that gets called in the drawFrame method: -(void)drawSkyBox { glDisable(GL_LIGHTING); glDisable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY); glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY); static const SSVertex3D vertices[] = { {-1.0, 1.0, -0.0}, { 1.0, 1.0, -0.0}, {-1.0, -1.0, -0.0}, { 1.0, -1.0, -0.0} }; static const SSVertex3D normals[] = { {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0} }; static const GLfloat texCoords[] = { 0.0, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.0, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0 }; glLoadIdentity(); glTranslatef(0.0, 0.0, -3.0); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture[0]); glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, vertices); glNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, 0, normals); glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, texCoords); glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP, 0, 4); glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY); glDisableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY); glEnable(GL_LIGHTING); glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); } Heres the init Skybox: -(void)initSkyBox { // Turn necessary features on glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D); glEnable(GL_BLEND); glBlendFunc(GL_ONE, GL_SRC_COLOR); // Bind the number of textures we need, in this case one. glGenTextures(1, &texture[0]); // create a texture obj, give unique ID glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture[0]); // load our new texture name into the current texture glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER,GL_LINEAR); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER,GL_LINEAR); NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"space" ofType:@"jpg"]; NSData *texData = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path]; UIImage *image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:texData]; GLuint width = CGImageGetWidth(image.CGImage); GLuint height = CGImageGetHeight(image.CGImage); CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB(); void *imageData = malloc( height * width * 4 ); // times 4 because will write one byte for rgb and alpha CGContextRef cgContext = CGBitmapContextCreate( imageData, width, height, 8, 4 * width, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big ); // Flip the Y-axis CGContextTranslateCTM (cgContext, 0, height); CGContextScaleCTM (cgContext, 1.0, -1.0); CGColorSpaceRelease( colorSpace ); CGContextClearRect( cgContext, CGRectMake( 0, 0, width, height ) ); CGContextDrawImage( cgContext, CGRectMake( 0, 0, width, height ), image.CGImage ); glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, width, height, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, imageData); CGContextRelease(cgContext); free(imageData); [image release]; [texData release]; } Any help is greatly appreciated.

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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 display path ball will bounce?

    - by boolean
    I'm trying to figure out a way to show the path a ball will travel, so that the player can line up a shot before they fire the ball. I can't think of a way to calculate this path in advance and show it to the player, especially if it involves collision detection. At first I thought I would run the game at a super high speed for one update, plot the path with some dotted lines where the ball bounced, and then in the next frame hide the 'tracer' ball. This seems to have two issues - Calculating collision detection without actually updating the frames and collision detection getting less reliable at high speeds. If they were straight lines I think I could figure this out in a while loop, but trying to take into account the speed of the ball, the curve of the path, the reflecting from other objects..it all seems a bit much. I'm not looking for any code and this isn't a platform specific question, more just help trying to figure out conceptually how this would work. Can this be done? Are there techniques to achieve this?

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