Search Results

Search found 138 results on 6 pages for 'particles'.

Page 5/6 | < Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6  | Next Page >

  • How can I keep my keyboard clean?

    - by Billy ONeal
    I know there are lots of articles out there on getting a keyboard clean, but I'd like to prevent my keyboard from getting nasty in the first place. The biggest problem isn't anything like food particles or liquids -- my keyboards almost instantly get a coating of finger oils and dead skin cells around the edges of the keys where my fingers rest, and the result is quite nasty. I have to clean my keyboards constantly to keep the problem in check. I'm wondering if there are any good ways to reduce this kind of buildup on my keyboard.

    Read the article

  • Dust prevention for home servers [closed]

    - by Payson Welch
    I found some posts on here about dealing with dust relating to servers but nothing that specifically addressed my question. I have several servers at home for research and as you can probably guess they are not cheap. It is impossible for me to remove 100% of the dust from my home as much as I may try. Does anyone know of any practical solutions to filtering the air that will go into the servers? For instance maybe place some sort of material over the bezel to catch dust particles before they enter? I realize the ideal home solution would be to have a small room with environmental controls but I'm not there yet. Thanks!

    Read the article

  • What is the cause of a vertical white line on an LCD monitor?

    - by Deviruchi D Devourer
    This just happened yesterday when I was browsing the internet. My AOC N941Sw monitor is suddenly showing a thin horizontal white line near the center of the screen. The white line distorts the images. I tried checking the cables for loose connection and dust particles but the white line is still here. There are times the entire image below the horizontal white line flickers and move up and down. When this happens, I just turn off the monitor then the flicker goes away but the white horizontal line is still there. After a few minutes, the same thing happen all over again. Is there a way to fix this?

    Read the article

  • Comparison between Cocos2d and Corona

    - by dontangg
    I'm having a really hard time deciding which way to go on this. I'm about to start developing a game and I haven't been able to find many good comparisons between these approaches. I don't have many requirements for the game yet, but here is what I do know. needs to work on iPhone I don't have much money ($400 for Unity for iPhone is probably too much. I can probably afford $99 for Corona.) Graphics will be 2D Physics support is not needed Ability to use particles would be nice Game Center support would be nice (Corona is planning to support it soon) It would be nice to be able to support Android as well if it isn't much effort. I have done my own research, so I know basic things about them. I know Corona uses Lua and Cocos2D uses Objective C. I know that Corona allows deployment to iPhone and Android, but how easy is it? Cocos2D is free, but so many people talk about how easy it is to use Corona, but I don't like being restricted to features Corona supports or the price tag. I feel so torn here.

    Read the article

  • CERN Announces the Discovery of a Higgs-Boson-like Particle

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    CERN scientists dropped a press release today indicating they’ve found a particle consistent with the long sought after Higgs Boson particle–the “God” particle, that could help radically refine our understanding of Standard Model of Particle Physics. For years scientists at CERN have been harnessing the power of the Large Hadron Collider to answer fundamental questions about the nature of particles and the universe around us. In the above video John Ellis, a theoretical physicist, answers the question “What is the Higgs Boson?” The video pairs nicely with the CERN press release: “We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage,” said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, “but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication.” “The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks.” “It’s hard not to get excited by these results,” said CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci. “ We stated last year that in 2012 we would either find a new Higgs-like particle or exclude the existence of the Standard Model Higgs. With all the necessary caution, it looks to me that we are at a branching point: the observation of this new particle indicates the path for the future towards a more detailed understanding of what we’re seeing in the data.” How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller On Your Windows PC Download the Official How-To Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic

    Read the article

  • How to set TextureFilter to Point to make example Bloom filter work?

    - by Mr Bell
    I have simple app that renders some particles and now I am trying to apply the bloom shader from the xna samplers ( http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/bloom ) to it, but I am running into this exception: "XNA Framework HiDef profile requires TextureFilter to be Point when using texture format Vector4." When the BloomComponent tries to end the sprite batch in the DrawFullscreenQuad method: spriteBatch.Begin(0, BlendState.Opaque, SamplerState.PointWrap, null, null, effect); spriteBatch.Draw(texture, new Rectangle(0, 0, width, height), Color.White); spriteBatch.End(); //<------- Exception thrown here It seems to be related to the pixel shaders that I am using to animate the particle. In a nutshell, I have a texture2d in vector4 format that holds particle positions, and another one for velocities. Here is a snippet from that area: GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(tempRenderTarget); animationEffect.CurrentTechnique = animationEffect.Techniques[technique]; spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Immediate, BlendState.Opaque, SamplerState.PointWrap, DepthStencilState.DepthRead, RasterizerState.CullNone, animationEffect); spriteBatch.Draw(randomValues, new Rectangle(0, 0, width, height), Color.White); spriteBatch.End(); What I comment out the code that calls the particle animation pixel shaders the bloom component runs fine. Is there some state that I need to reset to make the bloom work?

    Read the article

  • Why does apt-get install Skype easily while aptitude complains about MAJOR dependency errors?

    - by Prateek
    I was trying to install Skype on Ubuntu 13.04, from the Canonical repositories. With apt-get it worked easily, while aptitude had a huge problem with dependencies and proposed a complicated solution. Why is this so? Why doesn't aptitude offer whatever apt-get does as a potential solution? Here is the output of both: apt-get install skype: Reading package lists... Building dependency tree... Reading state information... The following extra packages will be installed: gcc-4.7-base:i386 libasound2 libasound2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libasyncns0:i386 libaudio2:i386 libavahi-client3:i386 libavahi-common-data:i386 libavahi-common3:i386 libc6:i386 libcomerr2:i386 libcups2:i386 libdbus-1-3 libdbus-1-3:i386 libdbusmenu-qt2:i386 libdrm-intel1 libdrm-intel1:i386 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-nouveau2:i386 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm-radeon1:i386 libdrm2 libdrm2:i386 libexpat1:i386 libffi6:i386 libflac8:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libgcrypt11 libgcrypt11:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglapi-mesa:i386 libglib2.0-0:i386 libgnutls26 libgnutls26:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libgssapi-krb5-2:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 libgstreamer0.10-0:i386 libice6:i386 libjack-jackd2-0:i386 libjbig0:i386 libjpeg-turbo8:i386 libjpeg8:i386 libjson0:i386 libk5crypto3:i386 libkeyutils1:i386 libkrb5-3:i386 libkrb5support0:i386 liblcms1:i386 libllvm3.2:i386 liblzma5:i386 libmng1:i386 libmysqlclient18:i386 libogg0:i386 liborc-0.4-0:i386 libp11-kit0:i386 libpciaccess0:i386 libpcre3:i386 libpng12-0:i386 libpulse0:i386 libqt4-dbus libqt4-dbus:i386 libqt4-declarative libqt4-declarative:i386 libqt4-designer libqt4-help libqt4-network libqt4-network:i386 libqt4-opengl libqt4-opengl:i386 libqt4-script libqt4-script:i386 libqt4-scripttools libqt4-sql libqt4-sql:i386 libqt4-sql-mysql:i386 libqt4-sql-sqlite libqt4-svg libqt4-test libqt4-xml libqt4-xml:i386 libqt4-xmlpatterns libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386 libqtcore4 libqtcore4:i386 libqtgui4 libqtgui4:i386 libqtwebkit4:i386 libsamplerate0:i386 libselinux1:i386 libsm6:i386 libsndfile1:i386 libspeexdsp1:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386 libssl1.0.0 libssl1.0.0:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libtasn1-3:i386 libtiff5 libtiff5:i386 libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386 libuuid1:i386 libvorbis0a:i386 libvorbisenc2:i386 libwrap0:i386 libx11-6 libx11-6:i386 libx11-xcb1 libx11-xcb1:i386 libxau6:i386 libxcb-dri2-0 libxcb-dri2-0:i386 libxcb-glx0 libxcb-glx0:i386 libxcb1 libxcb1:i386 libxdamage1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6 libxext6:i386 libxfixes3 libxfixes3:i386 libxi6 libxi6:i386 libxml2 libxml2:i386 libxrender1 libxrender1:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libxss1:i386 libxt6 libxt6:i386 libxv1 libxv1:i386 libxxf86vm1 libxxf86vm1:i386 mysql-common qdbus skype-bin:i386 sni-qt:i386 zlib1g:i386 Suggested packages: nas:i386 glibc-doc:i386 locales:i386 rng-tools rng-tools:i386 libglide3 libglide3:i386 gnutls-bin gnutls-bin:i386 krb5-doc:i386 krb5-user:i386 libvisual-0.4-plugins:i386 gstreamer-codec-install:i386 gnome-codec-install:i386 gstreamer0.10-tools:i386 gstreamer0.10-plugins-base:i386 jackd2:i386 liblcms-utils:i386 pulseaudio:i386 libqt4-declarative-folderlistmodel libqt4-declarative-gestures libqt4-declarative-particles libqt4-declarative-shaders qt4-qmlviewer libqt4-declarative-folderlistmodel:i386 libqt4-declarative-gestures:i386 libqt4-declarative-particles:i386 libqt4-declarative-shaders:i386 qt4-qmlviewer:i386 libqt4-dev libqt4-dev:i386 libthai0:i386 libicu48:i386 qt4-qtconfig qt4-qtconfig:i386 Recommended packages: libtxc-dxtn0:i386 xml-core:i386 The following NEW packages will be installed gcc-4.7-base:i386 libasound2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libasyncns0:i386 libaudio2:i386 libavahi-client3:i386 libavahi-common-data:i386 libavahi-common3:i386 libc6:i386 libcomerr2:i386 libcups2:i386 libdbus-1-3:i386 libdbusmenu-qt2:i386 libdrm-intel1:i386 libdrm-nouveau2:i386 libdrm-radeon1:i386 libdrm2:i386 libexpat1:i386 libffi6:i386 libflac8:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libgcrypt11:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglapi-mesa:i386 libglib2.0-0:i386 libgnutls26:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libgssapi-krb5-2:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 libgstreamer0.10-0:i386 libice6:i386 libjack-jackd2-0:i386 libjbig0:i386 libjpeg-turbo8:i386 libjpeg8:i386 libjson0:i386 libk5crypto3:i386 libkeyutils1:i386 libkrb5-3:i386 libkrb5support0:i386 liblcms1:i386 libllvm3.2:i386 liblzma5:i386 libmng1:i386 libmysqlclient18:i386 libogg0:i386 liborc-0.4-0:i386 libp11-kit0:i386 libpciaccess0:i386 libpcre3:i386 libpng12-0:i386 libpulse0:i386 libqt4-dbus:i386 libqt4-declarative:i386 libqt4-network:i386 libqt4-opengl:i386 libqt4-script:i386 libqt4-sql:i386 libqt4-sql-mysql:i386 libqt4-xml:i386 libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386 libqtcore4:i386 libqtgui4:i386 libqtwebkit4:i386 libsamplerate0:i386 libselinux1:i386 libsm6:i386 libsndfile1:i386 libspeexdsp1:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386 libssl1.0.0:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libtasn1-3:i386 libtiff5:i386 libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386 libuuid1:i386 libvorbis0a:i386 libvorbisenc2:i386 libwrap0:i386 libx11-6:i386 libx11-xcb1:i386 libxau6:i386 libxcb-dri2-0:i386 libxcb-glx0:i386 libxcb1:i386 libxdamage1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxfixes3:i386 libxi6:i386 libxml2:i386 libxrender1:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libxss1:i386 libxt6:i386 libxv1:i386 libxxf86vm1:i386 mysql-common skype skype-bin:i386 sni-qt:i386 zlib1g:i386 The following packages will be upgraded: libasound2 libdbus-1-3 libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 libgcrypt11 libgl1-mesa-dri libgnutls26 libqt4-dbus libqt4-declarative libqt4-designer libqt4-help libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqt4-script libqt4-scripttools libqt4-sql libqt4-sql-sqlite libqt4-svg libqt4-test libqt4-xml libqt4-xmlpatterns libqtcore4 libqtgui4 libssl1.0.0 libtiff5 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb-dri2-0 libxcb-glx0 libxcb1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxml2 libxrender1 libxt6 libxv1 libxxf86vm1 qdbus 41 upgraded, 105 newly installed, 0 to remove and 138 not upgraded. Need to get 85.9 MB/89.2 MB of archives. After this operation, 204 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? aptitude install skype: Reading package lists... Building dependency tree... Reading state information... Reading extended state information... Initialising package states... The following NEW packages will be installed: gcc-4.7-base:i386{a} libasound2:i386{a} libasound2-plugins:i386{a} libasyncns0:i386{a} libaudio2:i386{a} libavahi-client3:i386{a} libavahi-common-data:i386{a} libavahi-common3:i386{a} libc6:i386{a} libcomerr2:i386{a} libcups2:i386{a} libdbus-1-3:i386{a} libdbusmenu-qt2:i386{a} libdrm-intel1:i386{a} libdrm-nouveau2:i386{a} libdrm-radeon1:i386{a} libdrm2:i386{a} libexpat1:i386{a} libffi6:i386{a} libflac8:i386{a} libfontconfig1:i386{a} libfreetype6:i386{a} libgcc1:i386{a} libgcrypt11:i386{a} libgl1-mesa-dri:i386{a} libgl1-mesa-glx:i386{a} libglapi-mesa:i386{a} libglib2.0-0:i386{a} libgnutls26:i386{a} libgpg-error0:i386{a} libgssapi-krb5-2:i386{a} libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386{a} libgstreamer0.10-0:i386{a} libice6:i386{a} libjack-jackd2-0:i386{a} libjbig0:i386{a} libjpeg-turbo8:i386{a} libjpeg8:i386{a} libjson0:i386{a} libk5crypto3:i386{a} libkeyutils1:i386{a} libkrb5-3:i386{a} libkrb5support0:i386{a} liblcms1:i386{a} libllvm3.2:i386{a} liblzma5:i386{a} libmng1:i386{a} libmysqlclient18:i386{a} libogg0:i386{a} liborc-0.4-0:i386{a} libp11-kit0:i386{a} libpciaccess0:i386{a} libpcre3:i386{a} libpng12-0:i386{a} libpulse0:i386{a} libqt4-dbus:i386{a} libqt4-declarative:i386{a} libqt4-network:i386{a} libqt4-opengl:i386{a} libqt4-script:i386{a} libqt4-sql:i386{a} libqt4-sql-mysql:i386{a} libqt4-xml:i386{a} libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386{a} libqtcore4:i386{a} libqtgui4:i386{a} libqtwebkit4:i386{a} libsamplerate0:i386{a} libselinux1:i386{a} libsm6:i386{a} libsndfile1:i386{a} libspeexdsp1:i386{a} libsqlite3-0:i386{a} libssl1.0.0:i386{a} libstdc++6:i386{a} libtasn1-3:i386{a} libtiff5:i386{a} libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386{a} libuuid1:i386{a} libvorbis0a:i386{a} libvorbisenc2:i386{a} libwrap0:i386{a} libx11-6:i386{a} libx11-xcb1:i386{a} libxau6:i386{a} libxcb-dri2-0:i386{a} libxcb-glx0:i386{a} libxcb1:i386{a} libxdamage1:i386{a} libxdmcp6:i386{a} libxext6:i386{a} libxfixes3:i386{a} libxi6:i386{a} libxml2:i386{a} libxrender1:i386{a} libxslt1.1:i386{a} libxss1:i386{a} libxt6:i386{a} libxv1:i386{a} libxxf86vm1:i386{a} mysql-common{a} skype skype-bin:i386{a} sni-qt:i386{a} zlib1g:i386{a} The following packages will be upgraded: libasound2 libdbus-1-3 libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 libgcrypt11 libgl1-mesa-dri libgnutls26 libqt4-dbus libqt4-declarative libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqt4-script libqt4-sql libqt4-xml libqt4-xmlpatterns libqtcore4 libqtgui4 libssl1.0.0 libtiff5 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb-dri2-0 libxcb-glx0 libxcb1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxml2 libxrender1 libxt6 libxv1 libxxf86vm1 qdbus 35 packages upgraded, 105 newly installed, 0 to remove and 144 not upgraded. Need to get 81.7 MB/85.0 MB of archives. After unpacking 204 MB will be used. The following packages have unmet dependencies: libqt4-test : Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-designer : Depends: libqt4-script (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqt4-xml (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtgui4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-sql-sqlite : Depends: libqt4-sql (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-help : Depends: libqt4-network (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqt4-sql (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtgui4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-svg : Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtgui4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-scripttools : Depends: libqt4-script (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtgui4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. The following actions will resolve these dependencies: Remove the following packages: 1) account-plugin-aim 2) account-plugin-facebook 3) account-plugin-flickr 4) account-plugin-generic-oauth 5) account-plugin-google 6) account-plugin-jabber 7) account-plugin-salut 8) account-plugin-twitter 9) account-plugin-windows-live 10) account-plugin-yahoo 11) empathy 12) friends 13) friends-dispatcher 14) friends-facebook 15) friends-twitter 16) gir1.2-signon-1.0 17) gnome-control-center-signon 18) libaccount-plugin-1.0-0 19) libfriends0 20) libqt4-designer 21) libqt4-help 22) libqt4-scripttools 23) libqt4-sql-sqlite 24) libqt4-svg 25) libqt4-test 26) libsignon-glib1 27) mcp-account-manager-uoa 28) nautilus-sendto-empathy 29) python-qt4 30) shotwell 31) signon-plugin-oauth2 32) signon-plugin-password 33) signon-ui 34) signond 35) ubuntu-sso-client-qt 36) ubuntuone-control-panel-qt 37) unity-lens-friends 38) unity-lens-photos 39) unity-scope-gdrive 40) webaccounts-extension-common 41) xul-ext-webaccounts Leave the following dependencies unresolved: 42) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends gnome-control-center-signon 43) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-aim 44) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-jabber 45) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-google 46) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-facebook 47) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-windows-live 48) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-yahoo 49) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-salut 50) ubuntu-desktop recommends empathy 51) ubuntu-desktop recommends libqt4-sql-sqlite 52) ubuntu-desktop recommends shotwell 53) ubuntu-desktop recommends ubuntuone-control-panel-qt 54) ubuntu-desktop recommends xul-ext-webaccounts 55) unity recommends unity-lens-photos 56) unity recommends unity-lens-friends 57) unity-lens-files recommends unity-scope-gdrive 58) libqt4-sql recommends libqt4-sql-mysql | libqt4-sql-odbc | libqt4-sql-ps Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] And in case this helps, aptitude show skype: Package: skype State: not installed Version: 4.2.0.11-0ubuntu0.12.04.2 Priority: extra Section: net Maintainer: Steve Langasek <[email protected]> Architecture: amd64 Uncompressed Size: 62.5 k Depends: skype-bin Conflicts: skype Description: client for Skype VOIP and instant messaging service Skype is software that enables the world's conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Every day, people also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. * Make free Skype-to-Skype calls to anyone else, anywhere in the world. * Call to landlines and mobiles at great rates. * Group chat with up to 200 people or conference call with up to 25 others. * Free to download.

    Read the article

  • Broad topics needed for teaching game development

    - by livingtech
    I am going to be doing a presentation on game development to an iPhone user group in the near(ish) future. My audience are iPhone developers, but not necessarily very experienced ones, and this is meant to be an introduction. My question is, what broad topics are needed to understand game development? I acknowledge that this is fairly subjective, but I really am hoping for a comprehensive list of high-level topics that apply to a broad enough swath of games that anyone interested in the topic SHOULD know about them. I would be ecstatic with some pointers to any resources that attempt to make a list such as this this. (I have looked, but my google-fu is failing me tonight.) Here's what I have so far: The Game Loop a sub-note about event driven games 2D Animation sprites/texture maps 3D Animation importance of frameworks modeling software Particles and particle effects hit detection AI Obviously I will not be covering all these topics with any depth, more like simply defining them so that after my talk, the audience will (hopefully) be able to wrap their heads around how any given game might be developed. What am I missing?

    Read the article

  • How to Detect Sprites in a SpriteSheet?

    - by IAE
    I'm currently writing a Sprite Sheet Unpacker such as Alferds Spritesheet Unpacker. Now, before this is sent to gamedev, this isn't necessarily about games. I would like to know how to detect a sprite within a spriitesheet, or more abstactly, a shape inside of an image. Given this sprite sheet: I want to detect and extract all individual sprites. I've followed the algorithm detailed in Alferd's Blog Post which goes like: Determine predominant color and dub it the BackgroundColor Iterate over each pixel and check ColorAtXY == BackgroundColor If false, we've found a sprite. Keep going right until we find a BackgroundColor again, backtrack one, go down and repeat until a BackgroundColor is reached. Create a box from location to ending location. Repeat this until all sprites are boxed up. Combined overlapping boxes (or within a very short distance) The resulting non-overlapping boxes should contain the sprite. This implementation is fine, especially for small sprite sheets. However, I find the performance too poor for larger sprite sheets and I would like to know what algorithms or techniques can be leveraged to increase the finding of sprites. A second implementation I considered, but have not tested yet, is to find the first pixel, then use a backtracking algorithm to find every connected pixel. This should find a contiguous sprite (breaks down if the sprite is something like an explosion where particles are no longer part of the main sprite). The cool thing is that I can immediately remove a detected sprite from the sprite sheet. Any other suggestions?

    Read the article

  • What is a technique for 2D ray-box intersection that is suitable for old console hardware?

    - by DJCouchyCouch
    I'm working on a Sega Genesis homebrew game (it has a 7mhz 68000 CPU). I'm looking for a way to find the intersection between a particle sprite and a background tile. Particles are represented as a point with a movement vector. Background tiles are 8 x 8 pixels, with an (X,Y) position that is always located at a multiple of 8. So, really, I need to find the intersection point for a ray-box collision; I need to find out where along the edge of the tile the ray/particle hits. I have these two hard constraints: I'm working with pixel locations (integers). Floating point is too expensive. It doesn't have to be super exact, just close enough. Multiplications, divisions, dot products, et cetera, are incredibly expensive and are to be avoided. So I'm looking for an efficient algorithm that would fit those constraints. Any ideas? I'm writing it in C, so that would work, but assembly should be good as well.

    Read the article

  • How to use Pixel Bender (pbj) in ActionScript3 on large Vectors to make fast calculations?

    - by Arthur Wulf White
    Remember my old question: 2d game view camera zoom, rotation & offset using 'Filter' / 'Shader' processing? I figured I could use a Pixel Bender Shader to do the computation for any large group of elements in a game to save on processing time. At least it's a theory worth checking. I also read this question: Pass large array to pixel shader Which I'm guessing is about accomplishing the same thing in a different language. I read this tutorial: http://unitzeroone.com/blog/2009/03/18/flash-10-massive-amounts-of-3d-particles-with-alchemy-source-included/ I am attempting to do some tests. Here is some of the code: private const SIZE : int = Math.pow(10, 5); private var testVectorNum : Vector.<Number>; private function testShader():void { shader.data.ab.value = [1.0, 8.0]; shader.data.src.input = testVectorNum; shader.data.src.width = SIZE/400; shader.data.src.height = 100; shaderJob = new ShaderJob(shader, testVectorNum, SIZE / 4, 1); var time : int = getTimer(), i : int = 0; shaderJob.start(true); trace("TEST1 : ", getTimer() - time); } The problem is that I keep getting a error saying: [Fault] exception, information=Error: Error #1000: The system is out of memory. Update: I managed to partially workaround the problem by converting the vector into bitmapData: (Using this technique I still get a speed boost of 3x using Pixel Bender) private function testShader():void { shader.data.ab.value = [1.0, 8.0]; var time : int = getTimer(), i : int = 0; testBitmapData.setVector(testBitmapData.rect, testVectorInt); shader.data.src.input = testBitmapData; shaderJob = new ShaderJob(shader, testBitmapData); shaderJob.start(true); testVectorInt = testBitmapData.getVector(testBitmapData.rect); trace("TEST1 : ", getTimer() - time); }

    Read the article

  • Sprite sorting issues

    - by TheBroodian
    I apologize for the vague title, I'm not sure how else to phrase this problem. I am using tIDE to assist me in my game's world development. To give a dynamic effect to map layers within tIDE, it has events that can be wired up to draw sprites before or after the draw of layers, to create foreground or background effects during runtime. This all works fine and well, however, the only way that I understand that this works, is by calling tIDE's internal spritebatch to create this effect. This creates a problem for me, because within tIDE's source code, its spritebatch's call block is set to SpriteSortMode.Deferred, and my characters have particle elements that I would like to draw in front of and behind themselves, via a drawdepth value. I can use a separate instance of spritebatch and call my character's draw method, and set sprite sorting there, but then my character is drawn ontop of all layers in my tIDE map. Which is even worse to me than my particles not being drawn as I want them to be. So, in summary, I want all of my crap to work, but at the moment the only way I can figure to do that is to ghetto rig the spritebatch within my characters' draw methods by calling a spritebatch.End();, then starting a new call to Begin() with SpriteSortMode.BackToFront, doing all of my characters' draw logic, and then calling another spritebatch.End(); followed once again by a new spritebatch.Begin(). Obviously that is pretty undesirable, but I don't know any other feasible alternatives. Anybody got any wisdom they could impart unto me as to how I could handle this?

    Read the article

  • Are there design patterns or generalised approaches for particle simulations?

    - by romeovs
    I'm working on a project (for college) in C++. The goal is to write a program that can more or less simulate a beam of particles flying trough the LHC synchrotron. Not wanting to rush into things, me and my team are thinking about how to implement this and I was wondering if there are general design patterns that are used to solve this kind of problem. The general approach we came up with so far is the following: there is a World that holds all objects you can add objects to this world such as Particle, Dipole and Quadrupole time is cut up into discrete steps, and at each point in time, for each Particle the magnetic and electric forces that each object in the World generates are calculated and summed up (luckily electro-magnetism is linear). each Particle moves accordingly (using a simple estimation approach to solve the differential movement equations) save the Particle positions repeat This seems a good approach but, for instance, it is hard to take into account symmetries that might be present (such as the magnetic field of each Quadrupole) and is this thus suboptimal. To take into account such symmetries as that of the Quadrupole field, it would be much easier to (also) make space discrete and somehow store form of the Quadrupole field somewhere. (Since 2532 or so Quadrupoles are stored this should lead to a massive gain of performance, not having to recalculate each Quadrupole field) So, are there any design patterns? Is the World-approach feasible or is it old-fashioned, bad programming? What about symmetry, how is that generally taken into acount?

    Read the article

  • Creating a new instance, C#

    - by Dave Voyles
    This sounds like a very n00b question, but bear with me here: I'm trying to access the position of my bat (paddle) in my pong game and use it in my ball class. I'm doing this because I want a particle effect to go off at the point of contact where the ball hits the bat. Each time the ball hits the bat, I receive an error stating that I haven't created an instance of the bat. I understand that I have to (or can use a static class), but I'm not sure of how to do so in this example. I've included both my Bat and Ball classes. namespace Pong { #region Using Statements using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input; #endregion public class Ball { #region Fields private readonly Random rand; private readonly Texture2D texture; private readonly SoundEffect warp; private double direction; private bool isVisible; private float moveSpeed; private Vector2 position; private Vector2 resetPos; private Rectangle size; private float speed; private bool isResetting; private bool collided; private Vector2 oldPos; private ParticleEngine particleEngine; private ContentManager contentManager; private SpriteBatch spriteBatch; private bool hasHitBat; private AIBat aiBat; private Bat bat; #endregion #region Constructors and Destructors /// <summary> /// Constructor for the ball /// </summary> public Ball(ContentManager contentManager, Vector2 ScreenSize) { moveSpeed = 15f; speed = 0; texture = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/balls/redBall"); direction = 0; size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width, texture.Height); resetPos = new Vector2(ScreenSize.X / 2, ScreenSize.Y / 2); position = resetPos; rand = new Random(); isVisible = true; hasHitBat = false; // Everything to do with particles List<Texture2D> textures = new List<Texture2D>(); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/circle")); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/star")); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/diamond")); particleEngine = new ParticleEngine(textures, new Vector2()); } #endregion #region Public Methods and Operators /// <summary> /// Checks for the collision between the bat and the ball. Sends ball in the appropriate /// direction /// </summary> public void BatHit(int block) { if (direction > Math.PI * 1.5f || direction < Math.PI * 0.5f) { hasHitBat = true; particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(aiBat.Position.X, aiBat.Position.Y); switch (block) { case 1: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(200); break; case 2: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(195); break; case 3: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(180); break; case 4: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(180); break; case 5: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(165); break; } } else { hasHitBat = true; particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(bat.Position.X, bat.Position.Y); switch (block) { case 1: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(310); break; case 2: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(345); break; case 3: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(0); break; case 4: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(15); break; case 5: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(50); break; } } if (rand.Next(2) == 0) { direction += MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(3)); } else { direction -= MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(3)); } AudioManager.Instance.PlaySoundEffect("hit"); } /// <summary> /// JEP - added method to slow down ball after powerup deactivates /// </summary> public void DecreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed -= 0.6f; } /// <summary> /// Draws the ball on the screen /// </summary> public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { if (isVisible) { spriteBatch.Begin(); spriteBatch.Draw(texture, size, Color.White); spriteBatch.End(); // Draws sprites for particles when contact is made particleEngine.Draw(spriteBatch); } } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current direction of the ball /// </summary> public double GetDirection() { return direction; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current position of the ball /// </summary> public Vector2 GetPosition() { return position; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current size of the ball (for the powerups) /// </summary> public Rectangle GetSize() { return size; } /// <summary> /// Grows the size of the ball when the GrowBall powerup is used. /// </summary> public void GrowBall() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width * 2, texture.Height * 2); } /// <summary> /// Was used to increased the speed of the ball after each point is scored. /// No longer used, but am considering implementing again. /// </summary> public void IncreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed += 0.6f; } /// <summary> /// Check for the ball to return normal size after the Powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalBallSize() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width, texture.Height); } /// <summary> /// Check for the ball to return normal speed after the Powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalSpeed() { moveSpeed += 15f; } /// <summary> /// Checks to see if ball went out of bounds, and triggers warp sfx /// </summary> public void OutOfBounds() { // Checks if the player is still alive or not if (isResetting) { AudioManager.Instance.PlaySoundEffect("warp"); { // Used to stop the the issue where the ball hit sfx kept going off when detecting collison isResetting = false; AudioManager.Instance.Dispose(); } } } /// <summary> /// Speed for the ball when Speedball powerup is activated /// </summary> public void PowerupSpeed() { moveSpeed += 20.0f; } /// <summary> /// Check for where to reset the ball after each point is scored /// </summary> public void Reset(bool left) { if (left) { direction = 0; } else { direction = Math.PI; } // Used to stop the the issue where the ball hit sfx kept going off when detecting collison isResetting = true; position = resetPos; // Resets the ball to the center of the screen isVisible = true; speed = 15f; // Returns the ball back to the default speed, in case the speedBall was active if (rand.Next(2) == 0) { direction += MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(30)); } else { direction -= MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(30)); } } /// <summary> /// Shrinks the ball when the ShrinkBall powerup is activated /// </summary> public void ShrinkBall() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width / 2, texture.Height / 2); } /// <summary> /// Stops the ball each time it is reset. Ex: Between points / rounds /// </summary> public void Stop() { isVisible = true; speed = 0; } /// <summary> /// Updates position of the ball /// </summary> public void UpdatePosition() { size.X = (int)position.X; size.Y = (int)position.Y; oldPos.X = position.X; oldPos.Y = position.Y; position.X += speed * (float)Math.Cos(direction); position.Y += speed * (float)Math.Sin(direction); bool collided = CheckWallHit(); particleEngine.Update(); // Stops the issue where ball was oscillating on the ceiling or floor if (collided) { position.X = oldPos.X + speed * (float)Math.Cos(direction); position.Y = oldPos.Y + speed * (float)Math.Sin(direction); } } #endregion #region Methods /// <summary> /// Checks for collision with the ceiling or floor. 2*Math.pi = 360 degrees /// </summary> private bool CheckWallHit() { while (direction > 2 * Math.PI) { direction -= 2 * Math.PI; return true; } while (direction < 0) { direction += 2 * Math.PI; return true; } if (position.Y <= 0 || (position.Y > resetPos.Y * 2 - size.Height)) { direction = 2 * Math.PI - direction; return true; } return true; } #endregion } } namespace Pong { using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using System; public class Bat { public Vector2 Position; public float moveSpeed; public Rectangle size; private int points; private int yHeight; private Texture2D leftBat; public float turbo; public float recharge; public float interval; public bool isTurbo; /// <summary> /// Constructor for the bat /// </summary> public Bat(ContentManager contentManager, Vector2 screenSize, bool side) { moveSpeed = 7f; turbo = 15f; recharge = 100f; points = 0; interval = 5f; leftBat = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/bats/batGrey"); size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width, leftBat.Height); // True means left bat, false means right bat. if (side) Position = new Vector2(30, screenSize.Y / 2 - size.Height / 2); else Position = new Vector2(screenSize.X - 30, screenSize.Y / 2 - size.Height / 2); yHeight = (int)screenSize.Y; } public void IncreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed += .5f; } /// <summary> /// The speed of the bat when Turbo is activated /// </summary> public void Turbo() { moveSpeed += 8.0f; } /// <summary> /// Returns the speed of the bat back to normal after Turbo is deactivated /// </summary> public void DisableTurbo() { moveSpeed = 7.0f; isTurbo = false; } /// <summary> /// Returns the bat to the nrmal size after the Grow/Shrink powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalSize() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width, leftBat.Height); } /// <summary> /// Checks for the size of the bat /// </summary> public Rectangle GetSize() { return size; } /// <summary> /// Adds point to the player or the AI after scoring. Currently Disabled. /// </summary> public void IncrementPoints() { points++; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the number of points at the moment /// </summary> public int GetPoints() { return points; } /// <summary> /// Sets thedefault starting position for the bats /// </summary> /// <param name="position"></param> public void SetPosition(Vector2 position) { if (position.Y < 0) { position.Y = 0; } if (position.Y > yHeight - size.Height) { position.Y = yHeight - size.Height; } this.Position = position; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current position of the bat /// </summary> public Vector2 GetPosition() { return Position; } /// <summary> /// Controls the bat moving up the screen /// </summary> public void MoveUp() { SetPosition(Position + new Vector2(0, -moveSpeed)); } /// <summary> /// Controls the bat moving down the screen /// </summary> public void MoveDown() { SetPosition(Position + new Vector2(0, moveSpeed)); } /// <summary> /// Updates the position of the AI bat, in order to track the ball /// </summary> /// <param name="ball"></param> public virtual void UpdatePosition(Ball ball) { size.X = (int)Position.X; size.Y = (int)Position.Y; } /// <summary> /// Resets the bat to the center location after a new game starts /// </summary> public void ResetPosition() { SetPosition(new Vector2(GetPosition().X, yHeight / 2 - size.Height)); } /// <summary> /// Used for the Growbat powerup /// </summary> public void GrowBat() { // Doubles the size of the bat collision size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width * 2, leftBat.Height * 2); } /// <summary> /// Used for the Shrinkbat powerup /// </summary> public void ShrinkBat() { // 1/2 the size of the bat collision size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width / 2, leftBat.Height / 2); } /// <summary> /// Draws the bats /// </summary> public virtual void Draw(SpriteBatch batch) { batch.Draw(leftBat, size, Color.White); } } }

    Read the article

  • Best approach for GPGPU/CUDA/OpenCL in Java?

    - by Frederik
    General-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is a very attractive concept to harness the power of the GPU for any kind of computing. I'd love to use GPGPU for image processing, particles, and fast geometric operations. Right now, it seems the two contenders in this space are CUDA and OpenCL. I'd like to know: Is OpenCL usable yet from Java on Windows/Mac? What are the libraries ways to interface to OpenCL/CUDA? Is using JNA directly an option? Am I forgetting something? Any real-world experience/examples/war stories are appreciated.

    Read the article

  • Android: 2D. OpenGl or android.graphics?

    - by DroidIn.net
    I'm working with my friend on our first Android game. Basic idea is that every frame the whole surface is redrawn (1 large bitmap) which then sprinkled all over with large number of particles which produces effect of soapy bubbles where there's a pool of about 20 bitmaps which randomly gets picked to produce illusion that all bubbles (between 200 - 300) are all different. The math engine is in C (JNI) and currently all drawing is done using android.graphics package very similar (since that was the example I was using) to Lunar Lander. It works but animation is somewhat jerky and I can feel by temperature of my phone that it is very busy. Will we benefit from switching to OpenGL? And as a bonus question: what would be a good way to optimize the drawing mechanism (Lunar Lander like) we have now?

    Read the article

  • Android: 2D. OpenGl or android.graphics.drawable?

    - by DroidIn.net
    I'm working with my friend on our first Android game. Basic idea is that every frame the whole surface is redrawn (1 large bitmap) which then sprinkled all over with large number of particles which produces effect of soapy bubbles where there's a pool of about 20 bitmaps which randomly gets picked to produce illusion that all bubbles (between 200 - 300) are all different. The math engine is in C (JNI) and currently all drawing is done using android.graphics package very similar (since that was the example I was using) to Lunar Lander. It works but animation is somewhat jerky and I can feel by temperature of my phone that it is very busy. Will we benefit from switching to OpenGL? And as a bonus question: what would be a good way to optimize the drawing mechanism (Lunar Lander like) we have now?

    Read the article

  • How do i tint an image with HTML5 Canvas ?

    - by djdolber
    My question is, what is the best way to tint an image that is drawn using the drawImage method. The target useage for this is advanced 2d particle-effects (game development) where particles change colors over time etc. I am not asking how to tint the whole canvas, only the current image i am about to draw. I have concluded that the globalAlpha parameter affects the current image that is drawn. //works with drawImage() canvas2d.globalAlpha = 0.5; But how do i tint each image with an arbitrary color value ? It would be awesome if there was some kind of globalFillStyle or globalColor or that kind of thing...

    Read the article

  • Random walk- Brownian Motion

    - by Sam
    I've been assigned the project of creating a simple console app. that models brownian motion in a 2D plane. I wasn't given much information on how to do so (and I'm hoping that it's a pretty popular assignment so that I could get some insight) just that it relies on random number generation. I researched brownian motion for a little bit and saw some formulas that looked complicated, but by the description is just seems to have to move randomly within a certain number interval. Can anyone clarify? Am I to create a program that continually creates a random number in an interval and then modify the particles "x" and "y" coordinate or is there more to it? Thanks for any help.

    Read the article

  • The right way to start out in game development/design [closed]

    - by Marco Sacristão
    Greetings everyone I'm a 19 year old student looking for some help in the field of game development. This question may or may not seem a bit overused, but the fact is that game development has been my life long dream, and after several hours of search I've realized that I've been going in circles for the past three or four months whilst doing such research on how to really get down and dirty with game development, therefor I decided to ask you guys if you could help me out at all. Let me start off with some information about me and things i've already learned about GameDev which might help you out on helping me out (wordplay!): I'm not an expert programmer, but I do have knowledge on how to program in several languages including C and Java (Currently learning Java in my degree in Computer Engineering), but my methodology might not be most correct in terms of syntax (hence my difficulty in starting out, i'm afraid that the starting point might not be the most correct, and it would deploy a wrongful development methodology that would be to corrected later on, in terms of game development or other projects). I have yet to work in a project as large as a game, never in my learning curve of programming I've done a project to the scale of a video game, only very small software (PHP Front-ends and Back-ends, with some basic JQuery and CSS knowledge). I'm not the biggest mathematician or physicist, but I already know that is not a problem, because there are several game engines already available for use and integration with home-made projects (Box2D, etc). I've also learned about some libraries that could be included in said projects, to ease out some process in game development, like SDL for example. I do not know how sprites, states, particles or any specific game-related techniques work. With that being said, you can see that I have some ideas on game development, but I have absolutely no clue on how to design and produce a game, or even how game-like mechanics work. It does not have to be a complex game just to start out, I'd rather learn the basic of game design (Like 2D drawing, tiling, object collision) and test that out in a language that I feel comfortable in which could be later on migrated to other platforms, as long that what I've learned is the correct way to do things, and not just something that I've learned from some guy on Youtube by replicating that code on the video. I'm sorry if my question is not in the best format possible, but I've got so many questions on my mind that are still un-answered that I don't know were to start! Thank you for reading.

    Read the article

  • OpenGL flickerinng near the edges

    - by Daniel
    I am trying to simulate particles moving around the scene with OpenCL for computation and OpenGL for rendering with GLUT. There is no OpenCL-OpenGL interop yet, so the drawing is done in the older fixed pipeline way. Whenever circles get close to the edges, they start to flicker. The drawing should draw a part of the circle on the top of the scene and a part on the bottom. The effect is the following: The balls you see on the bottom should be one part on the bottom and one part on the top. Wrapping around the scene, so to say, but they constantly flicker. The code for drawing them is: void Scene::drawCircle(GLuint index){ glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); glTranslatef(pos.at(2*index),pos.at(2*index+1), 0.0f); glBegin(GL_TRIANGLE_FAN); GLfloat incr = (2.0 * M_PI) / (GLfloat) slices; glColor3f(0.8f, 0.255f, 0.26f); glVertex2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glColor3f(1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); for(GLint i = 0; i <=slices; ++i){ GLfloat x = radius * sin((GLfloat) i * incr); GLfloat y = radius * cos((GLfloat) i * incr); glVertex2f(x, y); } glEnd(); } If it helps, this is the reshape method: void Scene::reshape(GLint width, GLint height){ if(0 == height) height = 1; //Prevent division by zero glViewport(0, 0, width, height); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluOrtho2D(xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax); std::cout << xmin << " " << xmax << " " << ymin << " " << ymax << std::endl; }

    Read the article

  • Particle System in XNA - cannot draw particle

    - by Dave Voyles
    I'm trying to implement a simple particle system in my XNA project. I'm going by RB Whitaker's tutorial, and it seems simple enough. I'm trying to draw particles within my menu screen. Below I've included the code which I think is applicable. I'm coming up with one error in my build, and it is stating that I need to create a new instance of the EmitterLocation from the particleEngine. When I hover over particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(Mouse.GetState().X, Mouse.GetState().Y); it states that particleEngine is returning a null value. What could be causing this? /// <summary> /// Base class for screens that contain a menu of options. The user can /// move up and down to select an entry, or cancel to back out of the screen. /// </summary> abstract class MenuScreen : GameScreen ParticleEngine particleEngine; public void LoadContent(ContentManager content) { if (content == null) { content = new ContentManager(ScreenManager.Game.Services, "Content"); } base.LoadContent(); List<Texture2D> textures = new List<Texture2D>(); textures.Add(content.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/circle")); textures.Add(content.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/star")); textures.Add(content.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/diamond")); particleEngine = new ParticleEngine(textures, new Vector2(400, 240)); } public override void Update(GameTime gameTime, bool otherScreenHasFocus, bool coveredByOtherScreen) { base.Update(gameTime, otherScreenHasFocus, coveredByOtherScreen); // Update each nested MenuEntry object. for (int i = 0; i < menuEntries.Count; i++) { bool isSelected = IsActive && (i == selectedEntry); menuEntries[i].Update(this, isSelected, gameTime); } particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(Mouse.GetState().X, Mouse.GetState().Y); particleEngine.Update(); } public override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { // make sure our entries are in the right place before we draw them UpdateMenuEntryLocations(); GraphicsDevice graphics = ScreenManager.GraphicsDevice; SpriteBatch spriteBatch = ScreenManager.SpriteBatch; SpriteFont font = ScreenManager.Font; spriteBatch.Begin(); // Draw stuff logic spriteBatch.End(); particleEngine.Draw(spriteBatch); }

    Read the article

  • Why does Mass Effect 1 run so slow on my machine if I have an XFX NVidia 9400GT video card? [closed]

    - by Papuccino1
    I so sick and tired of having my components pass the minimum requirements of a game and then I get 15 FPS on the game on everything low. Should't PC developers say 'use at least this video card for a smooth 30 FPS'? Here are my specs: Windows 7 2GB DDR2 RAM XFX Nvidia 9400gt Intel Pentium D Dual Core 2.8ghz I should be at LEAST getting 30 FPS on everything low right? Please tell me what I can do to make games run as they should, or is my video card not good for these games? Here are the recommended requirements from the official site: Recommended System Requirements for Mass Effect on the PC Operating System: Windows XP or Vista Processor: 2.6+GHZ Intel or 2.4+GHZ AMD Memory: 2 Gigabyte Ram Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or higher. ATI X1800 XL series or higher Hard Drive Space: 12 Gigabytes Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers – 5.1 sound card recommended My videocard is 9400GT, how is that worse than a 7900GTX? :S Edit 2: I should note, that I get poor frames when running the game in absolute BOTTOM specs. lowest resolution, no particles, etc. etc. Absolute ZERO and getting poor framerates.

    Read the article

  • Implementing features in an Entity System

    - by Bane
    After asking two questions on Entity Systems (1, 2), and reading some articles on them, I think that I understand them much better than before. But, I still have some uncertainties, and mainly they are about building a Particle Emitter, an Input system, and a Camera. I obviously still have some problems understanding Entity Systems, and they might apply to a whole other range of objects, but I chose these three because they are very different concepts and should cover a pretty big ground, and help me understand Entity Systems and how to handle problems like these myself, as they come along. I am building an engine in Javascript, and I've implemented most of the core features, which include: input handling, flexible animation system, particle emitter, math classes and functions, scene handling, a camera and a render, and a whole bunch of other things that engines usually support. Then, I read Byte56's answer that got me interested into making the engine into an Entity System one. It would still remain an HTML5 game engine with the basic Scene philosophy, but it should support dynamic creation of entities from components. These are some of the definitions from the previous questions, updated: An Entity is an identifier. It doesn't have any data, it's not an object, it's a simple id that represents an index in the Scene's list of all entities (which I actually plan to implement as a component matrix). A Component is a data holder, but with methods that can operate on that data. The best example is a Vector2D, or a "Position" component. It has data: x and y, but also some methods that make operating on the data a bit easier: add(), normalize(), and so on. A System is something that can operate on a set of entities that meet the certain requirements, usually they (the entities) need to have a specified (by the system itself) set of components to be operated upon. The system is the "logic" part, the "algorithm" part, all the functionality supplied by components is purely for easier data management. The problem that I have now is fitting my old engine concept into this new programming paradigm. Lets start with the simplest one, a Camera. The camera has a position property (Vector2D), a rotation property and some methods for centering it around a point. Each frame, it is fed to a renderer, along with a scene, and all the objects are translated according to it's position. Then the scene is rendered. How could I represent this kind of an object in an Entity System? Would the camera be an entity or simply a component? A combination (see my answer)? Another issues that is bothering me is implementing a Particle Emitter. For what exactly I mean by that, you can check out my video of it: http://youtu.be/BObargIMQsE. The problem I have with this is, again, what should be what. I'm pretty sure that particles themselves shouldn't be entities, as I want to support 10k+ of them, and creating that much entities would be a heavy blow on my performance, I believe. Or maybe not? Depends on the implementation, but anyone with experience: please, do answer. The last bit I wan't to talk about, which is also bugging me the most, is how input should be handled. In my current version of the engine, there is a class called Input. It's a handler that subscribes to browser's events, such as keypresses, and mouse position changes, and also it maintains an internal state. Then, the player class has a react() method, which accepts an input object as an argument. The advantage of this is that the input object could be serialized into JSON and then shared over the network, allowing for smooth multiplayer simulations. But how does this translate into an Entity System?

    Read the article

  • Framework for Everything - Where to begin? [Longer post]

    - by SquaredSoft
    Back story of this question, feel free to skip down for the specific question Hello, I've been very interested in the idea of abstract programming the last few years. I've made about 30 attempts at creating a piece of software that is capable of almost anything you throw at it. I've undertook some attempts at this that have taken upwards of a year, while getting close, never releasing it beyond my compiler. This has been something I've always tried wrapping my head around, and something is always missing. With the title, I'm sure you're assuming, "Yes of course you noob! You can't account for everything!" To which I have to reply, "Why not?" To give you some background into what I'm talking about, this all started with doing maybe a shade of gray hat SEO software. I found myself constantly having to create similar, but slightly different sets of code. I've gone through as many iterations of way to communicate on http as the universe has particles. "How many times am I going to have to write this multi-threaded class?" is something I found myself asking a lot. Sure, I could create a class library, and just work with that, but I always felt I could optimize what I had, which often was a large undertaking and typically involved frequent use of the CRTL+A keyboard shortcut, mixed with the delete button. It dawned on me that it was time to invest in a plugin system. This would allow me to simply add snippets of code. as time went on, and I could subversion stuff out, and distribute small chunks of code, rather than something that encompasses only a specific function or design. This comes with its own complexity, of course, and by the time I had finished the software scope for this addition, it hit me that I would want to add to everything in the software, not just a new http method, or automation code for a specific website. Great, we're getting more abstract. However, the software that I have in my mind comes down to a quite a few questions regarding its execution. I have to have some parameters to what I am going to do. After writing what the perfect software would do in my mind, I came up with this as a list of requirements: Should be able to use networking A "Macro" or "Expression system" which would allow people to do something like : =First(=ParseToList(=GetUrl("http://www.google.com?q=helloworld!"), Template.Google)) Multithreaded Able to add UI elements through some type of XML -- People can make their own addons etc. Can use third party API through the plugins, such as Microsoft CRM, Exchange, etc. This would allow the software to essentially be used for everything. Really, any task you wish to automate, in a simple way. Making the UI was as also extremely hard. How do you do all of this? Its very difficult. So my question: With so many attempts at this, I'm out of ideas how to successfully complete this. I have a very specific idea in my mind, but I keep failing to execute it. I'm a self taught programmer. I've been doing it for years, and work professionally in it, but I've never encountered something that would be as complex and in-depth as a system which essentially does everything. Where would you start? What are the best practices for design? How can I avoid constantly having to go back and optimize my software. What can I do to generalize this and draw everything out to completion. These are things I struggle with. P.s., I'm using c# as my main language. I feel like in this example, I might be hitting the outer limit of the language, although, I don't know if that is the case, or if I'm just a bad programmer. Thanks for your time.

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6  | Next Page >