Search Results

Search found 31839 results on 1274 pages for 'plugin development'.

Page 512/1274 | < Previous Page | 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519  | Next Page >

• Will polishing my current project be a better learning experience than starting a new one?

  - by Alejandro Cámara

  I started programming many years ago. Now I'm trying to make games. I have read many recommendations to start cloning some well known games like galaga, tetris, arkanoid, etc. I have also read that I should go for the whole game (including menus, sound, score, etc.). Yesterday I finished the first complete version of my arkanoid clone. But it is far from over. I can still work on it for months (I program as a hobby in my free time) implementing a screen resolution switcher, remap of the control keys, power-ups falling from broken bricks, and a huge etc. But I do not want to be forever learning how to clone ONE game. I have the urge to get to the next clone in order to apply some design ideas I have come upon while developing this arkanoid clone (at the same time I am reading the GoF book and much source code from Ludum Dare 21 game contest). So the question is: Should I keep improving the arkanoid clone until it has all the features the original game had? or should I move to the next clone (there are almost infinite games to clone) and start mending the things I did wrong with the previous clone? This can be a very subjective question, so please restrain the answers to the most effective way to learn how to make my own games (not cloning someone ideas). Thank you! CLARIFICATION In order to clarify what I have implemented I make this list: Features implemented: Bouncing capabilities (the ball bounces on walls, on bricks, and on the bar). Sounds when bouncing on bricks and the bar, and when the player wins or loses. Basic title menu (new game and exit only). Also in-game menu and win/lose menus. Only three levels, but the map system is so easy I do not think it will teach me much (am I wrong?). Features not-implemented: Power-ups when breaking the bricks. Complex bricks (with more than one "hit point" and invincible). Better graphics (I am not really good at it). Programming polishing (use more intensively the design patterns). Here's a link to its (minimal) webpage: http://blog.acamara.es/piperine/ I kind of feel ashamed to show it, so please do not hit me too hard :-) My question was related to the not-implemented features. I wondered what was the fastest (optimal) path to learn. 1) implement the not-implemented features in this project which is getting big, or 2) make a new game which probably will teach me those lessons and new ones. ANSWER I choose @ashes999 answer because, in my case, I think I should polish more and try to "ship" the game. I think all the other answers are also important to bear in mind, so if you came here having the same question, before taking a rush decision read all the discussion. Thank you all!

  Read the article

• Appropriate level of granularity for component-based architecture

  - by Jon Purdy

  I'm working on a game with a component-based architecture. An Entity owns a set of Component instances, each of which has a set of Slot instances with which to store, send, and receive values. Factory functions such as Player produce entities with the required components and slot connections. I'm trying to determine the best level of granularity for components. For example, right now Position, Velocity, and Acceleration are all separate components, connected in series. Velocity and Acceleration could easily be rewritten into a uniform Delta component, or Position, Velocity, and Acceleration could be combined alongside such components as Friction and Gravity into a monolithic Physics component. Should a component have the smallest responsibility possible (at the cost of lots of interconnectivity) or should related components be combined into monolithic ones (at the cost of flexibility)? I'm leaning toward the former, but I could use a second opinion.

  Read the article

• C# creating a simple snake game

  - by Guy David

  I was thinking about creating a snake game with C#, so I ran ideas in my head, and some problems came up. How can I track and output in the correct location the blocks that run after the snake's head? If the snake is built of five blocks, and the user starts going in a circle, how can I print the snake body in the right location? Also, how can I create an action that will run on the background, which will move the snake forward, no matter what the user does? What structure should my code have? (code design structure) This should be a console application, since it's the only framework I am familiar with. I am not looking for finished code, since I want to really understand how it should work.

  Read the article

• Transform coordinates from 3d to 2d without matrix or built in methods

  - by Thomas

  Not to long ago i started to create a small 3D engine in javascript to combine this with an html5 canvas. One of the issues I run into is how can you transform 3d to 2d coords. Since I cannot use matrices or built in transformation methods I need another way. I've tried implementing the next explanation + pseudo code: http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/routines/3d_to_2d.htm Unfortunately no luck there. I've replace all the input variables with data from my own camera and object classes. I have the following data: An object with a rotation, position vector and an array of 4 3d coords (its just a plane) a camera with a position and rotation vector the viewport - a square 600 x 600 surface. The example uses a zoom factor which I've set as 1 Most hits on google use either matrix calculations or don't implement camera rotation. Basic transformation should be like this: screen.x = x / z * zoom screen.y = y / z * zoom Can anyone point me in the right direction or explain to me howto achieve this? edit: Thanks for all your posts, I haven't been able to apply all this to my project yet but I hope to do this soon.

  Read the article

• State / Screen management in Entity Component Systems

  - by David Lively

  My entity/component system is happily humming along and, despite some performance concerns I initially had, everything is working fine. However, I've realized that I missed a crucial point when starting this thing: how do you handle different screens? At the moment, I have a GameManager class which owns a component manager and entity manager. When I create an entity, the entity manager assigns it an ID and makes sure it's tracked. When I modify the components that are assigned to an entity. an UpdateEntity method is called, which alerts each of the systems that they may need to add or remove the entity from their respective entity lists. A problem with this is that the collection of entities operated on by each system is determined solely by the individual Systems, typically based on a "required component" filter. (An entity has to have a Renderable component to be rendered, for instance.) In this situation, I can't just keep collections of entities per screen and only Update/Draw those collections. They'd have to either be added and removed depending on their applicability to the current screen, which would cause their associated components to be removed, or enable/disable entities in a group per screen to hide what's not supposed to be visible. These approaches seem like really, really crappy kludges. What's a good way to handle this? A pretty straightforward way that comes to mind is to create a separate GameManager (which in my implementation owns all of the systems, entities, etc.) per screen, which means that everything outside of the device context would be duplicated. That's bothersome because some things are always visible, or I might want to continue to display the game under a translucent menu window. Another option would be to add a "layer" key to the GameManager class, which could be checked against a displayable layer stack held by the game manager. *System.Draw() would be called for each active layer, in the required order as determined by the stack. When the systems request an iterator for their respective entity collections, it would be pre-filtered to a (cached) set of those entities that participate in the active layer. Those collections could be updated from the same UpdateEntity event that's already used to maintain each system's entity collections. Still, kinda feels like a hack. If I've coded myself into a corner, feel free to throw tomatoes as long as they're labeled with a helpful suggestion. Hooray for learning curves.

  Read the article

• How do I apply skeletal animation from a .x (Direct X) file?

  - by Byte56

  Using the .x format to export a model from Blender, I can load a mesh, armature and animation. I have no problems generating the mesh and viewing models in game. Additionally, I have animations and the armature properly loaded into appropriate data structures. My problem is properly applying the animation to the models. I have the framework for applying the models and the code for selecting animations and stepping through frames. From what I understand, the AnimationKeys inside the AnimationSet supplies the transformations to transform the bind pose to the pose in the animated frame. As small example: Animation { {Armature_001_Bone} AnimationKey { 2; //Position 121; //number of frames 0;3; 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000;;, 1;3; 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.005524;;, 2;3; 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.022217;;, ... } AnimationKey { 0; //Quaternion Rotation 121; 0;4; -0.707107, 0.707107, 0.000000, 0.000000;;, 1;4; -0.697332, 0.697332, 0.015710, 0.015710;;, 2;4; -0.684805, 0.684805, 0.035442, 0.035442;;, ... } AnimationKey { 1; //Scale 121; 0;3; 1.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000;;, 1;3; 1.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000;;, 2;3; 1.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000;;, ... } } So, to apply frame 2, I would take the position, rotation and scale from frame 2, create a transformation matrix (call it Transform_A) from them and apply that matrix the vertices controlled by Armature_001_Bone at their weights. So I'd stuff TransformA into my shader and transform the vertex. Something like: vertexPos = vertexPos * bones[ int(bfs_BoneIndices.x) ] * bfs_BoneWeights.x; Where bfs_BoneIndices and bfs_BoneWeights are values specific to the current vertex. When loading in the mesh vertices, I transform them by the rootTransform and the meshTransform. This ensures they're oriented and scaled correctly for viewing the bind pose. The problem is when I create that transformation matrix (using the position, rotation and scale from the animation), it doesn't properly transform the vertex. There's likely more to it than just using the animation data. I also tried applying the bone transform hierarchies, still no dice. Basically I end up with some twisted models. It should also be noted that I'm working in openGL, so any matrix transposes that might need to be applied should be considered. What data do I need and how do I combine it for applying .x animations to models?

  Read the article

• (LWJGL) Pixel Unpack Buffer Object is Disabled? (glTextImage2D)

  - by OstlerDev

  I am trying to create a render target for my game so that I can re-render at a different screen size. But I am receiving the following error: Exception in thread "main" org.lwjgl.opengl.OpenGLException: Cannot use offsets when Pixel Unpack Buffer Object is disabled Here is the source code for my Render method: // clear screen GL11.glClear(GL11.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL11.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); // Start FBO Rendering Code // The framebuffer, which regroups 0, 1, or more textures, and 0 or 1 depth buffer. int FramebufferName = GL30.glGenFramebuffers(); GL30.glBindFramebuffer(GL30.GL_FRAMEBUFFER, FramebufferName); // The texture we're going to render to int renderedTexture = glGenTextures(); // "Bind" the newly created texture : all future texture functions will modify this texture glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, renderedTexture); // Give an empty image to OpenGL ( the last "0" ) glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0,GL_RGB, 1024, 768, 0,GL_RGB, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0); // Poor filtering. Needed ! glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_NEAREST); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_NEAREST); // Set "renderedTexture" as our colour attachement #0 GL32.glFramebufferTexture(GL30.GL_FRAMEBUFFER, GL30.GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT0, renderedTexture, 0); // Set the list of draw buffers. IntBuffer drawBuffer = BufferUtils.createIntBuffer(20 * 20); GL20.glDrawBuffers(drawBuffer); // Always check that our framebuffer is ok if(GL30.glCheckFramebufferStatus(GL30.GL_FRAMEBUFFER) != GL30.GL_FRAMEBUFFER_COMPLETE){ System.out.println("Framebuffer was not created successfully! Exiting!"); return; } // Resets the current viewport GL11.glViewport(0, 0, scaleWidth*scale, scaleHeight*scale); GL11.glMatrixMode(GL11.GL_MODELVIEW); GL11.glLoadIdentity(); // let subsystem paint if (callback != null) { callback.frameRendering(); } // update window contents Display.update(); It is crashing on this line: glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0,GL_RGB, 1024, 768, 0,GL_RGB, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0); I am not really sure why it is crashing and looking around I have not been able to find out why. Any help or insight would be greatly welcome.

  Read the article

• Why did the old 3D games have "jittery" graphics?

  - by dreta

  I've been playing MediEvil lately and it got me wondering, what causes some of the old 3D games have "flowing" graphics when moving? It's present in games like Final Fantasy VII, MediEvil, i remember Dungeon Keeper 2 having the same thing in zoom mode, however f.e. Quake 2 didn't have this "issue" and it's just as old. The resolution doesn't seem to be the problem, everything is rendered perfectly fine when you stand still. So is the game refreshing slowly or it's something to do with buffering?

  Read the article

• Javascript A* path finding ENEMY MOVEMENT in 3D environment

  - by faiz

  iam trying to implement pathfinding algorithm using PATHFINDING.JS in 3D world using webgl. iam have made a matrix of 200x200. and placed my enemy(swat) in it .iam confused in implmenting the path. i have tried implementing the path by compparing the value of each array value with swat's position . it works ! but ** THE ENEMY KEEPS GOING FROM THE UNWALKABLE AREA OF MY MATRIX....like the enemy should not move from 119,100(x=119,z=100) but its moving from that co-ordinate too ..... can any one help me out in this regard .. *prob facing :* enemy (swat character keeps moving from the wall /unwalkable area) wanted solution : enemy does not move from the unwalkable path.. ** function draw() { grid = new PF.Grid(200, 200); grid.setWalkableAt( 119,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 107,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,104, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 135,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,120, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,112, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 127,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 123,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 139,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,124, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,128, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 115,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 131,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,116, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,108, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 111,100, false); grid.setWalkableAt( 103,132, false); finder = new PF.AStarFinder(); f1=Math.abs(first_person_controller.position.x); f2=Math.abs(first_person_controller.position.z); ff1=Math.round(f1); ff2=Math.round(f2); s1=Math.abs(swat.position.x); s2=Math.abs(swat.position.z); ss1=Math.round(s1); ss2=Math.round(s1); path = finder.findPath(ss1,ss2,ff1,ff2, grid); size=path.length-1; Ai(); } function Ai(){ if (i<size) { if (swat.position.x >= path[i][0]) { swat.position.x -= 0.3; if(Math.floor(swat.position.x) == path[i][0]) { i=i+1; } } else if(swat.position.x <= path[i][0]) { swat.position.x += 0.3; if(Math.floor(swat.position.x) == path[i][0]) { i=i+1; } } } if (j<size) { if((Math.abs(swat.position.z)) >= path[j][1]) { swat.position.z -= 0.3; if(Math.floor(Math.abs(swat.position.z)) == path[j][1]) { j=j+1; } } else if((Math.abs(swat.position.z)) <= path[j][1]) { swat.position.z += 0.3; if(Math.floor(Math.abs(swat.position.z)) == path[j][1]) { j=j+1; } } } }

  Read the article

• Tweaking AStar to find closest location to unreachable destination

  - by Shivan Dragon

  I've implemented AStar in Java and it works ok for an area with obstacles where the chosen destination is reachable. However, when the destination is unreachable, the calculated "path" is in no way to the closest location (to the unreachable location) but is instead some random path. Is there a feasible way to tweak AStar into finding the path to the closest location to an unreachable destination?

  Read the article

• 2D metaball liquid effect - how to feed output of one rendering pass as input to another shader

  - by Guye Incognito

  I'm attempting to make a shader for unity3d web project. I want to implement something like in the great answer by DMGregory in this question. in order to achieve a final look something like this.. Its metaballs with specular and shading. The steps to make this shader are. 1. Convert the feathered blobs into a heightmap. 2. Generate a normalmap from the heightmap 3. Feed the normal map and height map into a standard unity shader, for instance transparent parallax specular. I pretty much have all the pieces I need assembled but I am new to shaders and need help putting them together I can generate a heightmap from the blobs using some fragment shader code I wrote (I'm just using the red channel here cus i dont know if you can access the brightness) half4 frag (v2f i) : COLOR{ half4 texcol,finalColor; texcol = tex2D (_MainTex, i.uv); finalColor=_MyColor; if(texcol.r<_botmcut) { finalColor.r= 0; } else if((texcol.r>_topcut)) { finalColor.r= 0; } else { float r = _topcut-_botmcut; float xpos = _topcut - texcol.r; finalColor.r= (_botmcut + sqrt((xpos*xpos)-(r*r)))/_constant; } return finalColor; } turns these blobs.. into this heightmap Also I've found some CG code that generates a normal map from a height map. The bit of code that makes the normal map from finite differences is here void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) { o.Albedo = fixed3(0.5); float3 normal = UnpackNormal(tex2D(_BumpMap, IN.uv_MainTex)); float me = tex2D(_HeightMap,IN.uv_MainTex).x; float n = tex2D(_HeightMap,float2(IN.uv_MainTex.x,IN.uv_MainTex.y+1.0/_HeightmapDimY)).x; float s = tex2D(_HeightMap,float2(IN.uv_MainTex.x,IN.uv_MainTex.y-1.0/_HeightmapDimY)).x; float e = tex2D(_HeightMap,float2(IN.uv_MainTex.x-1.0/_HeightmapDimX,IN.uv_MainTex.y)).x; float w = tex2D(_HeightMap,float2(IN.uv_MainTex.x+1.0/_HeightmapDimX,IN.uv_MainTex.y)).x; float3 norm = normal; float3 temp = norm; //a temporary vector that is not parallel to norm if(norm.x==1) temp.y+=0.5; else temp.x+=0.5; //form a basis with norm being one of the axes: float3 perp1 = normalize(cross(norm,temp)); float3 perp2 = normalize(cross(norm,perp1)); //use the basis to move the normal in its own space by the offset float3 normalOffset = -_HeightmapStrength * ( ( (n-me) - (s-me) ) * perp1 + ( ( e - me ) - ( w - me ) ) * perp2 ); norm += normalOffset; norm = normalize(norm); o.Normal = norm; } Also here is the built-in transparent parallax specular shader for unity. Shader "Transparent/Parallax Specular" { Properties { _Color ("Main Color", Color) = (1,1,1,1) _SpecColor ("Specular Color", Color) = (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0) _Shininess ("Shininess", Range (0.01, 1)) = 0.078125 _Parallax ("Height", Range (0.005, 0.08)) = 0.02 _MainTex ("Base (RGB) TransGloss (A)", 2D) = "white" {} _BumpMap ("Normalmap", 2D) = "bump" {} _ParallaxMap ("Heightmap (A)", 2D) = "black" {} } SubShader { Tags {"Queue"="Transparent" "IgnoreProjector"="True" "RenderType"="Transparent"} LOD 600 CGPROGRAM #pragma surface surf BlinnPhong alpha #pragma exclude_renderers flash sampler2D _MainTex; sampler2D _BumpMap; sampler2D _ParallaxMap; fixed4 _Color; half _Shininess; float _Parallax; struct Input { float2 uv_MainTex; float2 uv_BumpMap; float3 viewDir; }; void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) { half h = tex2D (_ParallaxMap, IN.uv_BumpMap).w; float2 offset = ParallaxOffset (h, _Parallax, IN.viewDir); IN.uv_MainTex += offset; IN.uv_BumpMap += offset; fixed4 tex = tex2D(_MainTex, IN.uv_MainTex); o.Albedo = tex.rgb * _Color.rgb; o.Gloss = tex.a; o.Alpha = tex.a * _Color.a; o.Specular = _Shininess; o.Normal = UnpackNormal(tex2D(_BumpMap, IN.uv_BumpMap)); } ENDCG } FallBack "Transparent/Bumped Specular" }

  Read the article

• What is wrong with my specular phong shading

  - by Thijser

  I'm sorry if this should be placed on stackoverflow instead however seeing as this is graphics related I was hoping you guys could help me: I'm attempting to write a phong shader and currently working on the specular. I came acros the following formula: base*pow(dot(V,R),shininess) and attempted to implement it (V is the posion of the viewer and R the reflective vector). This gave the following result and code: Vec3Df phongSpecular(const Vec3Df & vertexPos, Vec3Df & normal, const Vec3Df & lightPos, const Vec3Df & cameraPos, unsigned int index) { Vec3Df relativeLightPos=(lightPos-vertexPos); relativeLightPos.normalize(); Vec3Df relativeCameraPos= (cameraPos-vertexPos); relativeCameraPos.normalize(); int DotOfNormalAndLight = Vec3Df::dotProduct(normal,relativeLightPos); Vec3Df reflective =(relativeLightPos-(2*DotOfNormalAndLight*normal))*-1; reflective.normalize(); float phongyness= Vec3Df::dotProduct(reflective,relativeCameraPos); if (phongyness<0){ phongyness=0; } float shininess= Shininess[index]; float speculair = powf(phongyness,shininess); return Ks[index]*speculair; } I'm looking for something more like this:

  Read the article

• Sound not playing on Windows XP - SoundEffect or Song: Monogame

  - by ashes999

  I'm trying to integrate sound into my Monogame game. I don't have the content pipeline hack -- just straight Monogame (Beta 3) at this point. (I tried adding the content pipeline, but ran into some issues.) I added a .wav file to my /Content directory, and I can create and instantiate both SoundEffect and Song classes. However, both show durations of 00:00:00 (on a ten-second long file), and neither plays. I can call LoadContent without any issue. But when I call Play, nothing plays. I've tried a couple of different sounds, and different formats (MP3 and WAV) to rule that out. Only WAV seems to even load without crashing out, but it doesn't play. There seems to be a GitHub issue that fixes this problem in 2.5.1. Downgrading to 2.5.1 doesn't fix this problem; it seems like it's fixed in 3.0 (_data is set in the SoundEffect instance). This issue only occurs on Windows XP. I tested it on a Windows 7 laptop, and the sound plays fine.

  Read the article

• Is there a maximum delay an UDP packet can have?

  - by Jens Nolte

  I am currently implementing a real-time network protocol for a multiplayer game using UDP. I am not having any technical difficulties, but as I always have to care about late UDP packets I am wondering just how late they can arrive. I have researched the topic and have not found any mention of it, so I assume there is no technical limitation, but I wonder if common network/internet architecture (or hardware) gives an effective limitation of how late a UDP packet can be delivered.

  Read the article

• How can I cull non-visible isometric tiles?

  - by james

  I have a problem which I am struggling to solve. I have a large map of around 100x100 tiles which form an isometric map. The user is able to move the map around by dragging the mouse. I am trying to optimize my game only to draw the visible tiles. So far my code is like this. It appears to be ok in the x direction, but as soon as one tile goes completely above the top of the screen, the entire column disappears. I am not sure how to detect that all of the tiles in a particular column are outside the visible region. double maxTilesX = widthOfScreen/ halfTileWidth + 4; double maxTilesY = heightOfScreen/ halfTileHeight + 4; int rowStart = Math.max(0,( -xOffset / halfTileWidth)) ; int colStart = Math.max(0,( -yOffset / halfTileHeight)); rowEnd = (int) Math.min(mapSize, rowStart + maxTilesX); colEnd = (int) Math.min(mapSize, colStart + maxTilesY); EDIT - I think I have solved my problem, but perhaps not in a very efficient way. I have taken the center of the screen coordinates, determined which tile this corresponds to by converting the coordinates into cartesian format. I then update the entire box around the screen.

  Read the article

• How attach a model with another model on a specific bone?

  - by Mehdi Bugnard

  I meet a difficulty attached to a model to another model on a "bone" accurate. I searched several forums but no result. I saw that many people have asked the same question but no real result see no response. Thread found : How to attach two XNA models together? How can I attach a model to the bone of another model? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11391852/attach-model-xna But I think it is possible. Here is my code example attached a "cube" of the hand of my player private void draw_itemActionAttached(Model modelInUse) { Matrix[] Model1TransfoMatrix = new Matrix[this.player.Model.Bones.Count]; this.player.Model.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo(Model1TransfoMatrix); foreach (ModelMesh mesh in modelInUse.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { Matrix model2Transform = Matrix.CreateScale(1f) * Matrix.CreateFromYawPitchRoll(0, 0, 0); effect.World = model2Transform * Model1TransfoMatrix[0]; //root bone index effect.View = arcadia.camera.View; effect.Projection = arcadia.camera.Projection; } mesh.Draw(); } }

  Read the article

• Protection against CheatEngine and other injectors [duplicate]

  - by Lucas

  This question already has an answer here: Strategies to Defeat Memory Editors for Cheating - Desktop Games 10 answers Is protection against CheatEngine and other inject tools are possible to do? I was thinking a day and the only one idea I've got is about writting some small application which will scan the processes running every second, and in case if any injector will be found the game client will exit immadiately. I'm writing here to see your opinions on this case as some of you may have some expierence against protecting the game clients against DLL or PYC injection or something.

  Read the article

• Align tetrahedrons

  - by thedeadlybutter

  I'm currently generating tetrahedron meshes in Unity When a player clicks the side of a mesh, a new one spawns aligned with it, like this. I'm not sure how nor can I find any information on implementing a tetra hedron grid. I tried playing around with the vertices until I realized I need to adjust position & rotation. Any ideas? EDIT: To be clear, the second image was manually placed objects in the Unity Editor. I'm looking to make an algorithm that places the meshes correctly.

  Read the article

• Marketing: Angry Birds - How it's done

  - by John

  Why do some apps, like Angry Birds, dominate the market while other cool/fun/addicting apps are never heard of? I'm trying to figure out the best marketing strategy, or best way to sell an app to mass market. Does anybody have any ideas or things they noticed about the marketing of major blockbuster apps, like Angry Birds, why they get so popular and stay at the top of charts. Thanks for any ideas, comments ...

  Read the article

• Determinism in multiplayer simulation with Box2D, and single computer

  - by Jake

  I wrote a small test car driving multiplayer game with Box2D using TCP server-client communcations. I ran 1 instance of server.exe and 2 instance of client.exe on the same machine that I code and compile the executables. I type inputs (WASD for a simple car movement) into one of the 2 clients and I can get both clients to update the simulation. There are 2 cars in the simulation. As long as the cars do not collide, I get the same identical output on both client.exe. I can run the car(s) around for as long as I could they still update the same. However, if I start to collide the cars, very quickly they go out of sync. My tools: Windows 7, C++, MSVS 2010, Box2D, freeGlut. My Psuedocode: // client.exe void timer(int value) { tcpServer.send(my_inputs); foreach(i = player including myself) inputs[i] = tcpServer.receive(); foreach(i = player including myself) players[i].process(inputs[i]); myb2World.step(33, 8, 6); // Box2D world step simulation foreach(i = player including myself) renderer.render(player[i]); glutTimerFunc(33, timer, 0); } // server.exe void serviceloop { while(all clients alive) { foreach(c = clients) tcpClients[c].receive(&inputs[c]); // send input of each client to all clients foreach(source = clients) { foreach(dest = clients) { tcpClients[dest].send(inputs[source]); } } } } I have read all over the internet and SE the following claims (paraphrased): Box2D is deterministic as long as floating point architecture/implementation is the same. (For any deterministic engine) Determinism is gauranteed if playback of recorded inputs is on the same machine with exe compiled using same compiler and machine. Additionally my server.exe and client.exe gameloop is single thread with blocking socket calls and fixed time step. Question: Can anyone explain what I did wrong to get different Box2D output?

  Read the article

• Narrow-phase collision detection algorithms

  - by Marian Ivanov

  There are three phases of collision detection. Broadphase: It loops between all objecs that can interact, false positives are allowed, if it would speed up the loop. Narrowphase: Determines whether they collide, and sometimes, how, no false positives Resolution: Resolves the collision. The question I'm asking is about the narrowphase. There are multiple algorithms, differing in complexity and accuracy. Hitbox intersection: This is an a-posteriori algorithm, that has the lowest complexity, but also isn't too accurate, Color intersection: Hitbox intersection for each pixel, a-posteriori, pixel-perfect, not accuratee in regards to time, higher complexity Separating axis theorem: This is used more often, accurate for triangles, however, a-posteriori, as it can't find the edge, when taking last frame in account, it's more stable Linear raycasting: A-priori algorithm, useful for semi-realistic-looking physics, finds the intersection point, even more accurate than SAT, but with more complexity Spline interpolation: A-priori, even more accurate than linear rays, even more coplexity. There are probably many more that I've forgot about. The question is, in when is it better to use SAT, when rays, when splines, and whether there is anything better.

  Read the article

• Pre game loading time vs. in game loading time

  - by Keeper

  I'm developing a game in which a random maze is included. There are some AI creatures, lurking the maze. And I want them to go in some path according to the mazes shape. Now there are two possibilities for me to implement that, the first way (which I used) is by calculating several wanted lurking paths once the maze is created. The second, is by calculating a path once needed to be calculated, when a creature starts lurking it. My main concern is loading times. If I calculate many paths at the creating of the maze, the pre loading time is a bit long, so I thought about calculating them when needed. At the moment the game is not 'heavy' so calculating paths in mid game is not noticeable, but I'm afraid it will once it will get more complicated. Any suggestions, comments, opinions, will be of help. Edit: As for now, let p be the number of pre-calculated paths, a creatures has the probability of 1/p to take a new path (which means a path calculation) instead of an existing one. A creature does not start its patrol until the path is fully calculated of course, so no need to worry about him getting killed in the process.

  Read the article

• Trying to detect collision between two polygons using Separating Axis Theorem

  - by Holly

  The only collision experience i've had was with simple rectangles, i wanted to find something that would allow me to define polygonal areas for collision and have been trying to make sense of SAT using these two links Though i'm a bit iffy with the math for the most part i feel like i understand the theory! Except my implementation somewhere down the line must be off as: (excuse the hideous font) As mentioned above i have defined a CollisionPolygon class where most of my theory is implemented and then have a helper class called Vect which was meant to be for Vectors but has also been used to contain a vertex given that both just have two float values. I've tried stepping through the function and inspecting the values to solve things but given so many axes and vectors and new math to work out as i go i'm struggling to find the erroneous calculation(s) and would really appreciate any help. Apologies if this is not suitable as a question! CollisionPolygon.java: package biz.hireholly.gameplay; import android.graphics.Canvas; import android.graphics.Color; import android.graphics.Paint; import biz.hireholly.gameplay.Types.Vect; public class CollisionPolygon { Paint paint; private Vect[] vertices; private Vect[] separationAxes; CollisionPolygon(Vect[] vertices){ this.vertices = vertices; //compute edges and separations axes separationAxes = new Vect[vertices.length]; for (int i = 0; i < vertices.length; i++) { // get the current vertex Vect p1 = vertices[i]; // get the next vertex Vect p2 = vertices[i + 1 == vertices.length ? 0 : i + 1]; // subtract the two to get the edge vector Vect edge = p1.subtract(p2); // get either perpendicular vector Vect normal = edge.perp(); // the perp method is just (x, y) => (-y, x) or (y, -x) separationAxes[i] = normal; } paint = new Paint(); paint.setColor(Color.RED); } public void draw(Canvas c, int xPos, int yPos){ for (int i = 0; i < vertices.length; i++) { Vect v1 = vertices[i]; Vect v2 = vertices[i + 1 == vertices.length ? 0 : i + 1]; c.drawLine( xPos + v1.x, yPos + v1.y, xPos + v2.x, yPos + v2.y, paint); } } /* consider changing to a static function */ public boolean intersects(CollisionPolygon p){ // loop over this polygons separation exes for (Vect axis : separationAxes) { // project both shapes onto the axis Vect p1 = this.minMaxProjection(axis); Vect p2 = p.minMaxProjection(axis); // do the projections overlap? if (!p1.overlap(p2)) { // then we can guarantee that the shapes do not overlap return false; } } // loop over the other polygons separation axes Vect[] sepAxesOther = p.getSeparationAxes(); for (Vect axis : sepAxesOther) { // project both shapes onto the axis Vect p1 = this.minMaxProjection(axis); Vect p2 = p.minMaxProjection(axis); // do the projections overlap? if (!p1.overlap(p2)) { // then we can guarantee that the shapes do not overlap return false; } } // if we get here then we know that every axis had overlap on it // so we can guarantee an intersection return true; } /* Note projections wont actually be acurate if the axes aren't normalised * but that's not necessary since we just need a boolean return from our * intersects not a Minimum Translation Vector. */ private Vect minMaxProjection(Vect axis) { float min = axis.dot(vertices[0]); float max = min; for (int i = 1; i < vertices.length; i++) { float p = axis.dot(vertices[i]); if (p < min) { min = p; } else if (p > max) { max = p; } } Vect minMaxProj = new Vect(min, max); return minMaxProj; } public Vect[] getSeparationAxes() { return separationAxes; } public Vect[] getVertices() { return vertices; } } Vect.java: package biz.hireholly.gameplay.Types; /* NOTE: Can also be used to hold vertices! Projections, coordinates ect */ public class Vect{ public float x; public float y; public Vect(float x, float y){ this.x = x; this.y = y; } public Vect perp() { return new Vect(-y, x); } public Vect subtract(Vect other) { return new Vect(x - other.x, y - other.y); } public boolean overlap(Vect other) { if( other.x <= y || other.y >= x){ return true; } return false; } /* used specifically for my SAT implementation which i'm figuring out as i go, * references for later.. * http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/game-programming/2d-rotated-rectangle-collision-r2604 * http://www.codezealot.org/archives/55 */ public float scalarDotProjection(Vect other) { //multiplier = dot product / length^2 float multiplier = dot(other) / (x*x + y*y); //to get the x/y of the projection vector multiply by x/y of axis float projX = multiplier * x; float projY = multiplier * y; //we want to return the dot product of the projection, it's meaningless but useful in our SAT case return dot(new Vect(projX,projY)); } public float dot(Vect other){ return (other.x*x + other.y*y); } }

  Read the article

• Learning to optimize with Assembly

  - by niktehpui

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

  Read the article

• Are there any alternative JS ports of Box2D?

  - by Petteri Hietavirta

  I have been thinking about creating a top down 2D car game for HTML5. For my first game I wrote the physics and collisions my self but for this one I would like to use some ready made library. I found out Box2D and its JS port. http://box2d-js.sourceforge.net It seems to be quite old port, made in 2008. Is it lacking many features of current Box2D or does it have major issues with it? And are there any alternatives for it?

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519  | Next Page >