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• Tips for building an AI for a 2D racing game

  - by declique

  I have a school project to build an AI for a 2D racing game in which it will compete with several other AIs (no collision). We are given a black and white bitmap image of the racing track, we are allowed to choose basic stats for our car (handling, acceleration, max speed and brakes) after we receive the map. The AI connects to the game's server and gives to it several times a second numbers for the current acceleration and steering. The language I chose is C++, by the way. The questions are: What is the best strategy or algorithm (since I want to try and win)? I currently have in mind some ideas found on the net and one or two of my own, but I would like before I start to code that my perspective is one of the best. What good books are there on that matter? What sites should I refer to?

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• Rendering scaled-down card images

  - by user1065145

  I have high-quality SVG card images, but they drastically lose their quality when I downsize them. I have tried two ways of rendering cards (using Inkscape and Imagemagics): 1) Render SVG to high-res PNG and resize it then: inkscape -D --export-png=QS1024.png --export-width=1024 QS.svg convert QS1024.png -filter Lanczos -sampling-factor 1x1 -resize 71x QS71.png 2) Render SVG to image of proper size at once: inkscape -D --export-png=QS71.png --export-width=71 QS.svg Both approaches generate blurry card images, which looks even worse than old Windows cards. What are the best way to generate smaller card images from SVG sources and not to loose their quality a lot? UPDATE: I am using Inkscape to render SVG - PNG and ImageMagick then to downsize PNG. I've tried using convert -resize with couple of filters (Lanczos/Mitchell/etc), but result was pretty much the same. Original: 71x raster:

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• OpenGL ES 2 jittery camera movement

  - by user16547

  First of all, I am aware that there's no camera in OpenGL (ES 2), but from my understanding proper manipulation of the projection matrix can simulate the concept of a camera. What I'm trying to do is make my camera follow my character. My game is 2D, btw. I think the principle is the following (take Super Mario Bros or Doodle Jump as reference - actually I'm trying to replicate the mechanics of the latter): when the caracter goes beyond the center of the screen (in the positive axis/direction), update the camera to be centred on the character. Else keep the camera still. I did accomplish that, however the camera movement is noticeably jittery and I ran out of ideas how to make it smoother. First of all, my game loop (following this article): private int TICKS_PER_SECOND = 30; private int SKIP_TICKS = 1000 / TICKS_PER_SECOND; private int MAX_FRAMESKIP = 5; @Override public void run() { loops = 0; if(firstLoop) { nextGameTick = SystemClock.elapsedRealtime(); firstLoop = false; } while(SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() > nextGameTick && loops < MAX_FRAMESKIP) { step(); nextGameTick += SKIP_TICKS; loops++; } interpolation = ( SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() + SKIP_TICKS - nextGameTick ) / (float)SKIP_TICKS; draw(); } And the following code deals with moving the camera. I was unsure whether to place it in step() or draw(), but it doesn't make a difference to my problem at the moment, as I tried both and neither seemed to fix it. center just represents the y coordinate of the centre of the screen at any time. Initially it is 0. The camera object is my own custom "camera" which basically is a class that just manipulates the view and projection matrices. if(character.getVerticalSpeed() >= 0) { //only update camera if going up float[] projectionMatrix = camera.getProjectionMatrix(); if( character.getY() > center) { center += character.getVerticalSpeed(); cameraBottom = center + camera.getBottom(); cameraTop = center + camera.getTop(); Matrix.orthoM(projectionMatrix, 0, camera.getLeft(), camera.getRight(), center + camera.getBottom(), center + camera.getTop(), camera.getNear(), camera.getFar()); } } Any thought about what I should try or what I am doing wrong? Update 1: I think I updated every value you can see on screen to check whether the jittery movement is affected by that, but nothing changed, so something must be fundamentally flawed with my approach/calculations.

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• Libgdx 2D Game, Random generated World of random size, how to get mouse coordinates?

  - by Solom

  I'm a noob and English is not my mothertongue, so please bear with me! I'm generating a map for a Sidescroller out of a 2D-array. That is, the array holds different values and I create blocks based on that value. Now, my problem is to match mouse coordinates on screen with the actual block the mouse is pointing at. public class GameScreen implements Screen { private static final int WIDTH = 100; private static final int HEIGHT = 70; private OrthographicCamera camera; private Rectangle glViewport; private Spritebatch spriteBatch; private Map map; private Block block; ... @Override public void show() { camera = new OrthographicCamera(WIDTH, HEIGHT); camera.position.set(WIDTH/2, HEIGHT/2, 0); glViewport = new Rectangle(0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT); map = new Map(16384, 256); map.printTileMap(); // Debugging only spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(); } @Override public void render(float delta) { // Clear previous frame Gdx.gl.glClearColor(1, 1, 1, 1 ); Gdx.gl.glClear(GL20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); GL30 gl = Gdx.graphics.getGL30(); // gl.glViewport((int) glViewport.x, (int) glViewport.y, (int) glViewport.width, (int) glViewport.height); spriteBatch.setProjectionMatrix(camera.combined); camera.update(); spriteBatch.begin(); // Draw Map this.drawMap(); // spriteBatch.flush(); spriteBatch.end(); } private void drawMap() { for(int a = 0; a < map.getHeight(); a++) { // Bounds check (y) if(camera.position.y + camera.viewportHeight < a)// || camera.position.y - camera.viewportHeight > a) break; for(int b = 0; b < map.getWidth(); b++) { // Bounds check (x) if(camera.position.x + camera.viewportWidth < b)// || camera.position.x > b) break; // Dynamic rendering via BlockManager int id = map.getTileMap()[a][b]; Block block = BlockManager.map.get(id); if(block != null) // Check if Air { block.setPosition(b, a); spriteBatch.draw(block.getTexture(), b, a, 1 ,1); } } } } As you can see, I don't use the viewport anywhere. Not sure if I need it somewhere down the road. So, the map is 16384 blocks wide. One block is 16 pixels in size. One of my naive approaches was this: if(Gdx.input.isButtonPressed(Input.Buttons.LEFT)) { Vector3 mousePos = new Vector3(); mousePos.set(Gdx.input.getX(), Gdx.input.getY(), 0); camera.unproject(mousePos); System.out.println(Math.round(mousePos.x)); // *16); // Debugging // TODO: round // map.getTileMap()[mousePos.x][mousePos.y] = 2; // Draw at mouse position } I confused myself somewhere down the road I fear. What I want to do is, update the "block" (or rather the information in the Map/2D-Array) so that in the next render() there is another block. Basically drawing on the spriteBatch g So if anyone could point me in the right direction this would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

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• Arcball Problems with UDK

  - by opdude

  I'm trying to re-create an arcball example from a Nehe, where an object can be rotated in a more realistic way while floating in the air (in my game the object is attached to the player at a distance like for example the Physics Gun) however I'm having trouble getting this to work with UDK. I have created an LGArcBall which follows the example from Nehe and I've compared outputs from this with the example code. I think where my problem lies is what I do to the Quaternion that is returned from the LGArcBall. Currently I am taking the returned Quaternion converting it to a rotation matrix. Getting the product of the last rotation (set when the object is first clicked) and then returning that into a Rotator and setting that to the objects rotation. If you could point me in the right direction that would be great, my code can be found below. class LGArcBall extends Object; var Quat StartRotation; var Vector StartVector; var float AdjustWidth, AdjustHeight, Epsilon; function SetBounds(float NewWidth, float NewHeight) { AdjustWidth = 1.0f / ((NewWidth - 1.0f) * 0.5f); AdjustHeight = 1.0f / ((NewHeight - 1.0f) * 0.5f); } function StartDrag(Vector2D startPoint, Quat rotation) { StartVector = MapToSphere(startPoint); } function Quat Update(Vector2D currentPoint) { local Vector currentVector, perp; local Quat newRot; //Map the new point to the sphere currentVector = MapToSphere(currentPoint); //Compute the vector perpendicular to the start and current perp = startVector cross currentVector; //Make sure our length is larger than Epsilon if (VSize(perp) > Epsilon) { //Return the perpendicular vector as the transform newRot.X = perp.X; newRot.Y = perp.Y; newRot.Z = perp.Z; //In the quaternion values, w is cosine (theta / 2), where //theta is the rotation angle newRot.W = startVector dot currentVector; } else { //The two vectors coincide, so return an identity transform newRot.X = 0.0f; newRot.Y = 0.0f; newRot.Z = 0.0f; newRot.W = 0.0f; } return newRot; } function Vector MapToSphere(Vector2D point) { local float x, y, length, norm; local Vector result; //Transform the mouse coords to [-1..1] //and inverse the Y coord x = (point.X * AdjustWidth) - 1.0f; y = 1.0f - (point.Y * AdjustHeight); length = (x * x) + (y * y); //If the point is mapped outside of the sphere //( length > radius squared) if (length > 1.0f) { norm = 1.0f / Sqrt(length); //Return the "normalized" vector, a point on the sphere result.X = x * norm; result.Y = y * norm; result.Z = 0.0f; } else //It's inside of the sphere { //Return a vector to the point mapped inside the sphere //sqrt(radius squared - length) result.X = x; result.Y = y; result.Z = Sqrt(1.0f - length); } return result; } DefaultProperties { Epsilon = 0.000001f } I'm then attempting to rotate that object when the mouse is dragged, with the following update code in my PlayerController. //Get Mouse Position MousePosition.X = LGMouseInterfacePlayerInput(PlayerInput).MousePosition.X; MousePosition.Y = LGMouseInterfacePlayerInput(PlayerInput).MousePosition.Y; newQuat = ArcBall.Update(MousePosition); rotMatrix = MakeRotationMatrix(QuatToRotator(newQuat)); rotMatrix = rotMatrix * LastRot; LGMoveableActor(movingPawn.CurrentUseableObject).SetPhysics(EPhysics.PHYS_Rotating); LGMoveableActor(movingPawn.CurrentUseableObject).SetRotation(MatrixGetRotator(rotMatrix));

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• How can I design good continuous (seamless) tiles?

  - by Mikalichov

  I have trouble designing tiles so that when assembled, they don't look like tiles, but look like a homogeneous thing. For example, see the image below: Even though the main part of the grass is only one tile, you don't "see" the grid; you know where it is if you look a bit carefully, but it is not obvious. Whereas when I design tiles, you can only see "oh, jeez, 64 times the same tile," like in this image: (I took this from another GDSE question, sorry; not be critical of the game, but it proves my point. And actually has better tile design that what I manage, anyway.) I think the main problem is that I design them so they are independent, there is no junction between two tiles if put closed to each other. I think having the tiles more "continuous" would have a smoother effect, but can't manage to do it, it seems overly complex to me. I think it is probably simpler than I think once you know how to do it, but couldn't find a tutorial on that specific point. Is there a known method to design continuous / homogeneous tiles? (My terminology might be totally wrong, don't hesitate to correct me.)

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• XNA 4.0 Point Vertex Rendering

  - by luis

  I have a buffer of about 134 million particles and a very powerful computer to render them smoothly but I am getting an error when trying to render them as primitive lines it says I cannot render more than around 1 million. I wonder how can I do this, also if is there a better way to render this other than with lines, I'm comfortable with having 1 pixel points or anything as long as the vertices are shown all the time. I'm basically just plotting the points. thanks.

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• How to handle loading and keeping many bitmaps in an Android 2D game

  - by Lumis

  In an Android 2D game which is using SurfaceView where its onDraw is driven by a loop from a Thread, I use many bitmap sprites (sprite sheets) and two background size bitmaps, which are all loaded into memory at the start. It all works fine, however, when the activity is onPause or after reloading it few times, Android shows a tendency to wipe out the big bitmaps only, probably to free memory. Sometimes this happens even in the middle of loading this very activity. In order to counter this, I made a check in the onDraw method to test if the big bitmaps are still there and reload them if they are forcefully recycled by Android, before drawing them on Canvas. This solution may not be the most stable, and since I know that there are much more accomplished android game programmers here than myself, I hope you can reveal some tricks or secrets or at least provide some good hints, how to overcome this.

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• Is it a good idea to use a formula to balance a game's complexity, in order to keep players in constant flow?

  - by user1107412

  I read a lot about Flow theory and its applications to video games, and I got an idea sticking in my mind. If a number of weight values are applied to different parameters of a certain game level (i.e. the size of the level, the number of enemies, their overal strength, the variance in their behavior, etc), then it should be technically possible to find an overal score mechanism for each level in the game. If a constant ratio of complexity increase were empirically defined, for instance 1,3333, or say, the Golden Ratio, would it be a good idea to arrange the levels in such an order that the increase of overal complexity tends to increase that much? Has somebody tried it?

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• Are there any Java based libraries that provide game mapping features?

  - by James.Elsey

  Hi All, I'm working on a Java web based game in my spare time (springMVC / JSPs etc), and I'm wondering what are my options for dealing with the "game world" or mapping element. My game will be 2d / text based, so I have no need for any OpenGL / Flash etc. My initial idea was to use Google maps and provide a custom overlay, but I want to know if there are any alternatives? For example, if I create a 2d map with all my zones, are there any libraries that will help me plot players, work out distances and so forth? Regards

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• Jitter during wall collisions with Bullet Physics: contact/penetration tolerance?

  - by Niriel

  I use the bullet physics engine through Panda3d. My scene is still very simple, think 'Wolfenstein3d': tile-based, walls are solid cubes. I expect walls to block the player, and I expect the player to slide along the walls in case of non-normal incidence. What I get is what I expect, with one difference: there is some jitter. If I try to force myself into the wall, then I see the frames blinking quickly between two positions. These differ by about 0.04 units of distance, which corresponds to 4 cm in my game. I noticed a 4 cm elsewhere: the bottom of my player capsule is 4 cm below ground, when at rest. Does that mean that there is somewhere in the Bullet engine a default 0.04-units-long tolerance to differentiate contact from collision? If so, what should I do ? Should I change the scale of my game so that these 0.04 units correspond to 0.4 cm, making the jitter ten times smaller? Or can I ask bullet to change its tolerance to a smaller value? Edit This is the jitter I get: 6.155 - 6.118 = 0.036 LPoint3f(0, 6.11694, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.15499, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.11802, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.15545, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.11817, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.15726, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.11876, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.15911, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.11937, 0.835) I found a setMargin method. I set it to 5 mm both on the BoxShape for the walls and on the Capsule shape for the player. It still jitters by about 35 mm as illustrated by this log (11.117 - 11.082 = 0.035): LPoint3f(0, 11.0821, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.1169, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.082, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.117, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.082, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.117, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.0821, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.1175, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.0822, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.1178, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.0823, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.1183, 0.905) The margin on the capsule did change my penetration with the floor though, I'm a bit higher (0.905 instead of 0.835). However, it did not change anything when colliding with the walls. How can I make the collisions against the walls less jittery? Edit, the day after: After more investigation, it appears that dynamic objects behave well. My problem comes from the btKinematicCharacterController that I use for moving my character; that stuff is totally bugged, according to the whole Internet :/.

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• PNG file loading error in ImageMagick

  - by khanhhh89

  I'm trying to understand the tutorial 16 at http://ogldev.atspace.co.uk, which requires the image processing library ImageMagick. But when I run the tutorial, I encountered an following error: freeglut: failed to change scree settings Error loading textures 'test.png': no decode delegates for this image format 'C:/../appdata/magick-6024a_cIJcw90t-j'@error/constitute.c/ReadImage/552 I searched for google and found that my ImageMagick library do not have PNG Delegaes, but when I checked for the information of ImageMagick, it sees PNG in its delegate lists. Command line: convert -configure Result: LIB_VERSION 0x687 DELEGATES: bzlib, freetype, jpeg, jp2, lcms, png, tiff, x11, xml, wmf, zlib Could you explain to me this error, thanks so much!

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• XNA hlsl tex2D() only reads 3 channels from normal maps and specular maps

  - by cubrman

  Our engine uses deferred rendering and at the main draw phase gathers plenty of data from the objects it draws. In order to save on tex2D calls, we packed our objects' specular maps with all sorts of data, so three out of four channels are already taken. To make it clear: I am talking about the assets that come with the models and are stored in their material's Specular Level channel, not about the RenderTarget. So now I need another information to be stored in the alpha channel, but I cannot make the shader to read it properly! Nomatter what I write into alpha it ends up being 1 (255)! I tried: saving the textures in PNG/TGA formats. turning off pre-computed alpha in model's properties. Out of every texture available to me (we use Diffuse map, Normal Map and Specular Map) I was only able to read alpha successfully from the Diffuse Map! Here is how I add specular and normal maps to my model's material in the content processor: if (geometry.Material.Textures.ContainsKey(normalMapKey)) { ExternalReference<TextureContent> texRef = geometry.Material.Textures[normalMapKey]; geometry.Material.Textures.Remove("NormalMap"); geometry.Material.Textures.Add("NormalMap", texRef); } ... foreach (KeyValuePair<String, ExternalReference<TextureContent>> texture in material.Textures) { if ((texture.Key == "Texture") || (texture.Key == "NormalMap") || (texture.Key == "SpecularMap")) mat.Textures.Add(texture.Key, texture.Value); } In the shader I obviously use: float4 data = tex2D(specularMapSampler, TexCoords); so data.a is always 1 in my case, could you suggest a reason?

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• HLSL: An array of textures and sampler states

  - by nate142

  The shader must switch between multiple textures depending on the Alpha value of the original texture for each pixel. Now this would word fine if I didn't have to worry about SamplerStates. I have created my array of textures and can select a texture based on the Alpha value of the pixel. But how do I create an Array of SamplerStates and link it to my array of textures? I attempted to treat the SamplerState as a function by adding the (int i) but that didn't work. Also I can't use Texture.Sample since this is shader model 2.0. //shader model 2.0 (DX9) texture subTextures[255]; SamplerState MeshTextureSampler(int i) { Texture = (subTextures[i]); }; float4 SampleCompoundTexture(float2 texCoord, float4 diffuse) { float4 SelectedColor = SAMPLE_TEXTURE(Texture, texCoord); int i = SelectedColor.a; texture SelectedTx = subTextures[i]; return tex2D(MeshTextureSampler(i), texCoord) * diffuse; }

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• Using a Vertex Buffer and DrawUserIndexedPrimitives?

  - by MattMcg

  Let's say I have a large but static world and only a single moving object on said world. To increase performance I wish to use a vertex and index buffer for the static part of the world. I set them up and they work fine however if I throw in another draw call to DrawUserIndexedPrimitives (to draw my one single moving object) after the call to DrawIndexedPrimitives, it will error out saying a valid vertex buffer must be set. I can only assume the DrawUserIndexedPrimitive call destroyed/replaced the vertex buffer I set. In order to get around this I must call device.SetVertexBuffer(vertexBuffer) every frame. Something tells me that isn't correct as that kind of defeats the point of a buffer? To shed some light, the large vertex buffer is the final merged mesh of many repeated cubes (think Minecraft) which I manually create to reduce the amount of vertices/indexes needed (for example two connected cubes become one cuboid, the connecting faces are cut out), and also the amount of matrix translations (as it would suck to do one per cube). The moving objects would be other items in the world which are dynamic and not fixed to the block grid, so things like the NPCs who move constantly. How do I go about handling the large static world but also allowing objects to freely move about?

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• What is the best type of c# timer to use with a Unity game that uses many timers simultaneously?

  - by Kyle Seidlitz

  I am developing a stand-alone 3d game in Unity that will have anywhere from 1 to 200 timers running simultaneously. There will be a GameObject containing 1 timer. For this game timer durations will range from 5 minutes to 4 days. There will not be any countdown displays or any UI for the timers. Each object is a prefab, with all the necessary materials included. An attached script will handle the timer and all the necessary code to change the materials and make any sound effects. Once the timer is expired, the user will then click on the object again, and the object will be destroyed, and the user's inventory will be adjusted. If the user wants to save or end the game before all the timers are done, the start value of the still running timers is to be saved to an XML file such that when the game is started again, any still running timers will be checked to see if they have expired, where the object's materials will be changed appropriately. I am still trying to figure out what type of timer to use, and see also if there are any suggestions for saving and calculating times over several days. What class(es) of timers should I use? Are there any special issues I should look out for in terms of performance?

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• Problem when scaling game screen in Libgdx

  - by Nicolas Martel

  Currently, I'm able to scale the screen by applying this bit of code onto an OrthographicCamera Camera.setToOrtho(true, Gdx.graphics.getWidth() / 2, Gdx.graphics.getHeight() / 2); But something quite strange is happening with this solution, take a look at this picture of my game below Seems fine right? But upon further investigation, many components are rendered off by one pixels, and the tiles all are. Take a closer look I circled a couple of the errors. Note that the shadow of the warrior I circled appears fine for the other warriors. Also keep in mind that everything is rendered at pixel-perfect precision when I disable the scaling. I actually thought of a possible source for the problem as I'm writing this but I decided to still post this because I would assume somebody else might run into the same issue.

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• Triple buffering causes input lag?

  - by user782220

  Consider some time in between two vsyncs. Suppose the first display buffer is being used to display the current image, and suppose the game was really fast and computed and rendered the next image to the second display buffer and the next one after that to the third display buffer. That is the rendering to the second and third display buffer happens so fast that it occurs before the next vsync. Suppose input from the user comes in now. What you would like is for the results of the input to show up on the next vsync or (probably more typical) the vsync after that. However, with the third display buffer already rendered the input can only effect the image after that. Meaning the input will only take effect at best 3 vsyncs later. I wish i had an image to show the exact timings of what I mean.

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• View Frustum Alternative

  - by Kuros

  I am working on a simulation project that requires me to have entities walking around in a 3D world. I have all that working, matrix transformations, etc. I'm at the point where I need what is essentially a view frustum, so I can give each entity a visible area. However, when looking over the calculations required to do it, it seems like a perspective frustum is only required to be able to project it onto a 2D screen. Is there another, easier to code solution, that would function better, such as an orthogonal perspective? Could I just define a shape mathematically and test wether the coordinates of the objects are inside or out? I am not really a 3D coder (and I am doing this all from scratch, not using an engine or anything), so I would like the simplest solution possible for my needs. Thank you!

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• Best Frameworks/libraries/engines for 2D multiplayer C# Webbased RPG

  - by Thirlan

  Title is a mouthful but important because I'm looking to meet a specific criteria and it's complex enough that I need a lot of help in finding what I'm looking for. I really want people's suggestions because I trust it a lot more than anything else, so I just need to clearly define what it is I want heh : P Game is a 2D RPG. Think of Secret of Mana. Game is online multiplayer, but not MMO sized. Game must be webbased! I'm looking to the future and want to hit as many platforms as possible. I'm leaning to Webgl because of this, but still looking around. Since the users are seeing the game through the webbrowser the front-end should be mainly responsible for drawing, taking input and some basic checking such as preliminary collision detection. This is important because it means the game engine is NOT on the client's machine. The server should be responsible for the game engine and all the calculations. This means the server is doing all the work and the client is mostly a dumb terminal. Server language is c# I'm looking for fast project execution so I want to use as many pre-existing tools as possible. This would make sense because I'm making a game here, not an engine. I'm not creating some new revolutionary graphics or pushing the physics engines to the next level. Preference for commercially supported tools. For game mechanics reasons and for reasons 4 and 5, don't think I can use existing 2D rpg engines. I've seen them out there and I fear that if I try and use them they will have too many restrictions, but will be happy to hear out suggestions. So all this means I need a game engine on the server, or maybe just a physics engine, and then I need another engine/library to draw everything that the server is sending to the client on the webbrowser. Maybe this is how 50% of games work on the web and there are plenty of frameworks that support this! I wouldn't actually don't know : ( but my gut is telling me that most webgames are single player and 90% of the game is running on the client. So... any suggestions?

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• Point Light Soft Shadows

  - by notabene

  How to implement soft shadows for omni directional (point) light. We use typical shadow mapping technique. Depth is rendered to texture cube and addresing is pretty simple then. Just using vector from light to fragments world position. It works perfectly. Until you want soft shadows. In our engine we use PCSS technique for spot lights. But for point light there begins troubles. How to sample in 3D? I developed technique when orthonormal basis is created from a direction and upvector (0,1,0). And then multiply sampling vector (something like this (1.0,i/depthMapSize,j/depthMapSize) with this basis. But this (of course :)) looks pretty bad for vectors near (0,1,0) and (0,-1,0). I will appreciate any help on this.

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• Help with Strategy-game AI

  - by f20k

  Hi, I am developing a strategy-game AI (think: Final Fantasy Tactics), and I am having trouble coming up for the design of the AI. My main problem is determining which is the optimal thing for it to do. First let me describe the priority of what action I would like the AI to take: Kill nearest player unit Fulfill primary directive (kill all player units, kill target unit, survive for x turns) Heal ally unit / cast buffer Now the AI can do the following in its turn: Move - {Attack / Ability / Item} (either attack or ability or item) {Attack / Ability / Item} - Move Move closer (if targets not in range) {Attack / Ability / Item} (if move not available) Notes Abilities have various ranges / effects / costs / effects. Each ai unit has maybe 5-10 abilities to choose from. The AI will prioritize killing over safety unless its directive is to survive for x turns. It also doesn't care about ability cost much. While a player may want to save a big spell for later, the AI will most likely use it asap. Movement is on a (hex) grid num of player units: 3-6 num of ai units: 3-7 or more. Probably max 10. AI and player take turns controlling ONE unit, instead of all at the same time. Platform is Android (if program doesnt respond after some time, there will be a popup saying to Force Quit or Wait - which looks really bad!). Now comes the questions: The best ability to use would obviously be the one that hits the most targets for the most damage. But since each ability has different ranges, I won't know if they are in range without exploring each possible place I can move to. One solution would be to go through each possible places to move to, determine the optimal attack at that location - which gives me a list of optimal moves for each location. Then choose the optimal out of the list and execute it. But this will take a lot of CPU time. Is there a better solution? My current idea is to move as close as possible towards the closest, largest group of people, and determine the optimal attack/ability from there. I think this would be a lot less work for the CPU and still allow for wide-range attacks. Its sub-optimal but the AI will still seem 'smart'. Other notes/questions: Am I over-thinking/over-complicating it? Better solution? I am open to all sorts of suggestions I have taken a look at the spell-casting question, but it doesn't take into account the movement - so perhaps use that algo for each possible move location? The top answer mentioned it wasn't great for area-of-effect and group fights - so maybe requires more tweaking? Please, if you mention a graph/tree, let me know basically how to use it. E.g. Node means ability, level corresponds to damage, then search for the deepest node.

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• How does this snippet of code create a ray direction vector?

  - by Isaac Waller

  In the Minecraft source code, this code is used to create a direction vector for a ray from pitch and yaw:' float f1 = MathHelper.cos(-rotationYaw * 0.01745329F - 3.141593F); float f3 = MathHelper.sin(-rotationYaw * 0.01745329F - 3.141593F); float f5 = -MathHelper.cos(-rotationPitch * 0.01745329F); float f7 = MathHelper.sin(-rotationPitch * 0.01745329F); return Vec3D.createVector(f3 * f5, f7, f1 * f5); I was wondering how it worked, and what is the constant 0.01745329F?

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• What algorithms can I use for bullet movement toward the enemy?

  - by theateist

  I develop 2D strategy game(probably for Android). There are weapons that shooting on enemies. From what I've read in this, this, this and this post I think that I need Linear algebra, but I don't really understand what algorithm I should use so the bullet will go to the target? Do I nee pathfinder, why? Can you please suggest what algorithms and/or books I can use for bullet movement toward the enemy?

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• Efficiently rendering to 3D texture

  - by TravisG

  I have an existing depth texture and some other color textures, and want to process the information in them by rendering to a 3D texture (based on the depth contained in the depth texture, i.e. a point at (x/y) in the depth texture will be rendered to (x/y/texture(depth,uv)) in the 3D texture). Simply doing one manual draw call for each slice of the 3D texture (via glFramebufferTextureLayer) is terribly slow, since I don't know beforehand to what slice of the 3D texture a given texel from one of the color textures or the depth texture belongs. This means the entire process is effectively for each slice for each texel in depth texture process color textures and render to slice So I have to sample the depth texture completely per each slice, and I also have to go through the processing (at least until to discard;) for all texels in it. It would be much faster if I could rearrange the process to for each texel in depth texture figure out what slice it should end up in process color textures and render to slice Is this possible? If so, how? What I'm actually trying to do: the color textures contain lighting information (as seen from light view, it's a reflective shadow map). I want to accumulate that information in the 3D texture and then later use it to light the scene. More specifically I'm trying to implement Cryteks Light Propagation Volumes algorithm.

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