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  • Where can I train my game AI skills? (any upgoing competition?) [on hold]

    - by user1671710
    There are 2 main options - building AI plugin for existing game or entering to some competition. Do you have some concrete tips? Is there any competition which will be soon open? From my research, competitions: http://aichallenge.org (last 2011) http://www.battlecode.org (January 2014) http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~cdavid/starcraftaicomp/index.shtml (August 2014) http://aibirds.org (maybe summer 2014) http://www.marioai.org (last 2012) http://www.ice.ci.ritsumei.ac.jp/~ftgaic/index.htm (last 2013) http://www.pacman-vs-ghosts.net (last 2012) http://ai-contest2013.gameloft.com/index/contest (last 2013) http://www.botprize.org/ (last 2012) And maybe more. These are from quick research. Obviously there were many competitions this year but it is difficult to catch it. Main question is: Do you have any information of any currently running AI competition?

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  • Do you think that in the future it'll be possible to develop games on OS X by using Python and the latest library "Sprite kit" made by Apple? [on hold]

    - by Cesco
    I don't understand a lot about game engines and modules for Python, even though I'm aware of the existance of PyGame and Pyglets, so please don't bash me too hard if I'll wrote something wrong in this question :-) When I upgraded my Mac to the latest version of OS X, I noticed for the first time that Apple is providing a library named Sprite kit for developing games on both iOS and OS X. It looks to me fairly complete, and the fact is managed by a big company gives me the impression of being well-supported for the time being; in summary, it looks... cool. Actually in order to take advantage of "Sprite kit" you need to code in Obj-C. Since I don't know Obj-C but only a little bit of Python, do you think that there's a chance that sooner or later someone will make a wrapper for Python ? Thank you very much and best regards

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  • Methods for getting static data from obj-c to Parse (database)

    - by Phil
    I'm starting out thinking out how best to code my latest game on iOS, and I want to use parse.com to store pretty much everything, so I can easily change things. What I'm not sure about is how to get static data into parse, or at least the best method. I've read about using NSMutableDictionary, pLists, JSON, XML files etc. Let's say for example in AS3 I could create a simple data object like so... static var playerData:Object = {position:{startX:200, startY:200}}; Stick it in a static class, and bingo I've got my static data to use how I see fit. Basically I'm looking for the best method to do the same thing in Obj-c, but the data is not to be stored directly in the iOS game, but to be sent to parse.com to be stored on their database there. The game (at least the distribution version) will only load data from the parse database, so however I'm getting the static data into parse I want to be able to remove it from being included in the eventual iOS file. So any ideas on the best methods to sort that? If I had longer on this project, it might be nice to use storyboards and create a simple game editor to send data to parse....actually maybe that's a good idea, it's just I'm new to obj-c and I'm looking for the most straightforward (see quickest) way to achieve things. Thanks for any advice.

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  • Understanding implementation of glu.PickMatrix()

    - by stoney78us
    I am working on an OpenGL project which requires object selection feature. I use OpenTK framework to do this; however OpenTK doesn't support glu.PickMatrix() method to define the picking region. I ended up googling its implementation and here is what i got: void GluPickMatrix(double x, double y, double deltax, double deltay, int[] viewport) { if (deltax <= 0 || deltay <= 0) { return; } GL.Translate((viewport[2] - 2 * (x - viewport[0])) / deltax, (viewport[3] - 2 * (y - viewport[1])) / deltay, 0); GL.Scale(viewport[2] / deltax, viewport[3] / deltay, 1.0); } I totally fail to understand this piece of code. Moreover, this doesn't work with my following code sample: //selectbuffer private int[] _selectBuffer = new int[512]; private void Init() { float[] triangleVertices = new float[] { 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, 0.0f }; float[] _triangleColors = new float[] { 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f }; GL.GenBuffers(2, _vBO); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, _vBO[0]); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, new IntPtr(sizeof(float) * _triangleVertices.Length), _triangleVertices, BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.VertexPointer(3, VertexPointerType.Float, 0, 0); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, _vBO[1]); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, new IntPtr(sizeof(float) * _triangleColors.Length), _triangleColors, BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.ColorPointer(3, ColorPointerType.Float, 0, 0); GL.EnableClientState(ArrayCap.VertexArray); GL.EnableClientState(ArrayCap.ColorArray); //Selectbuffer set up GL.SelectBuffer(512, _selectBuffer); } private void glControlWindow_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e) { GL.Clear(ClearBufferMask.ColorBufferBit); GL.Clear(ClearBufferMask.DepthBufferBit); float[] eyes = { 0.0f, 0.0f, -10.0f }; float[] target = { 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f }; Matrix4 projection = Matrix4.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(0.785398163f, 4.0f / 3.0f, 0.1f, 100f); //45 degree = 0.785398163 rads Matrix4 view = Matrix4.LookAt(eyes[0], eyes[1], eyes[2], target[0], target[1], target[2], 0, 1, 0); Matrix4 model = Matrix4.Identity; Matrix4 MV = view * model; //First Clear Buffers GL.Clear(ClearBufferMask.ColorBufferBit); GL.Clear(ClearBufferMask.DepthBufferBit); GL.MatrixMode(MatrixMode.Projection); GL.LoadIdentity(); GL.LoadMatrix(ref projection); GL.MatrixMode(MatrixMode.Modelview); GL.LoadIdentity(); GL.LoadMatrix(ref MV); GL.Viewport(0, 0, glControlWindow.Width, glControlWindow.Height); GL.Enable(EnableCap.DepthTest); //Enable correct Z Drawings GL.DepthFunc(DepthFunction.Less); //Enable correct Z Drawings GL.MatrixMode(MatrixMode.Modelview); GL.PushMatrix(); GL.Translate(3.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); DrawTriangle(); GL.PopMatrix(); GL.PushMatrix(); GL.Translate(-3.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); DrawTriangle(); GL.PopMatrix(); //Finally... GraphicsContext.CurrentContext.VSync = true; //Caps frame rate as to not over run GPU glControlWindow.SwapBuffers(); //Takes from the 'GL' and puts into control } private void DrawTriangle() { GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, _vBO[0]); GL.VertexPointer(3, VertexPointerType.Float, 0, 0); GL.EnableClientState(ArrayCap.VertexArray); GL.DrawArrays(BeginMode.Triangles, 0, 3); GL.DisableClientState(ArrayCap.VertexArray); } //mouse click event implementation private void glControlWindow_MouseClick(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs e) { //Enter Select mode. Pretend drawing. GL.RenderMode(RenderingMode.Select); int[] viewport = new int[4]; GL.GetInteger(GetPName.Viewport, viewport); GL.PushMatrix(); GL.MatrixMode(MatrixMode.Projection); GL.LoadIdentity(); GluPickMatrix(e.X, e.Y, 5, 5, viewport); Matrix4 projection = Matrix4.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(0.785398163f, 4.0f / 3.0f, 0.1f, 100f); // this projection matrix is the same as one in glControlWindow_Paint method. GL.LoadMatrix(ref projection); GL.MatrixMode(MatrixMode.Modelview); int i = 0; int hits; GL.PushMatrix(); GL.Translate(3.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); GL.PushName(i); DrawTriangle(); GL.PopName(); GL.PopMatrix(); i++; GL.PushMatrix(); GL.Translate(-3.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); GL.PushName(i); DrawTriangle(); GL.PopName(); GL.PopMatrix(); hits = GL.RenderMode(RenderingMode.Render); .....hits processing code goes here... GL.PopMatrix(); glControlWindow.Invalidate(); } I expect to get only one hit everytime i click inside a triangle, but i always get 2 no matter where i click. I suspect there is something wrong with the implementation of the GluPickMatrix, I haven't figured out yet.

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  • How do I draw a texture to a MSTerrain object?

    - by Brad
    I'm using Farseer to make a game in XNA and I can't seem to figure this out. I've decided to use MSTerrain for making my game's terrain because I wanted destructible terrain and MSTerrain seemed like the best bet. Unfortunately, I'm stumped on how to actually show the terrain. When I generate the terrain it's visible in debug view, but MSTerrain does not have a Draw method, so I'm wondering how it is supposed to be drawn to the screen? Is it worth pursuing? I'm starting to think that MSTerrain is more trouble than it's worth, is there another better way to do this with bodies?

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  • Should iOS games use a Timer?

    - by ????
    No matter what frameworks we use -- Core Graphics, Cocos2D, OpenGL ES -- to write games, should a timer be used (for games that has animation even when a user doesn't do any input, such as after firing a missile and waiting to see if the UFO is hit)? I read that NSTimer might not get fired until after scheduled time (interval), and CADisplayLink can delay and get fired at a later time as well, only that it tells you how late it is so you can move the object more, so it can make the object look like it skipped frame. Must we use a Timer? And if so, what is the best one to use?

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  • How to decompose a rectangular shape in a Voronoi diagram, only generating convex shapes?

    - by DevilWithin
    I think this is a very straighforward question, lets say i have a building in 2D, a rectangle shape. Now i want to decompose that area in a lot of convex shapes, as seen in a voronoi diagram, or closely like it, just so I can add those shapes to the physics engine, and have a realistic destruction. Bonus: Possible suggestions on how to make the effect more dynamic and interesting. Please keep in mind we re talking about realtime calculations..

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  • How to pause and resume a game in XNA using the same key?

    - by user13095
    I'm attempting to implement a really simple game state system, this is my first game - trying to make a Tetris clone. I'd consider myself a novice programmer at best. I've been testing it out by drawing different textures to the screen depending on the current state. The 'Not Playing' state seems to work fine, I press Space and it changes to 'Playing', but when I press 'P' to pause or resume the game nothing happens. I tried checking current and previous keyboard states thinking it was happening to fast for me to see, but again nothing seemed to happen. If I change either the pause or resume, so they're both different, it works as intended. I'm clearly missing something obvious, or completely lacking some know-how in regards to how update and/or the keyboard states work. Here's what I have in my Update method at the moment: protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { KeyboardState CurrentKeyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); // Allows the game to exit if (CurrentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape)) this.Exit(); // TODO: Add your update logic here if (CurrentGameState == GameStates.NotPlaying) { if (CurrentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Space)) CurrentGameState = GameStates.Playing; } if (CurrentGameState == GameStates.Playing) { if (CurrentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.P)) CurrentGameState = GameStates.Paused; } if (CurrentGameState == GameStates.Paused) { if (CurrentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.P)) CurrentGameState = GameStates.Playing; } base.Update(gameTime); }

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  • How often should multiplayer games communicate with the server?

    - by Bane
    I once heard that Runescape "ticks" every 0.3s, and that seemed like a very long period of time, although Runescape is kind of a slow game. I'm building a more dynamic top-down shooter game, and I'm wandering, how often should I communicate with the server? ASAP, or every 0.1s? How do shooter games usually do it? Both the server and the client are written in Javascript, node.js and socket.io are being used.

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  • What data-structure/algorithm will allow me to send a list of key/value dictionaries using the least amount of bits?

    - by user12365
    I have server objects that have corresponding client objects. The data to be kept in sync is inside the server object's key/value dictionary. To keep the client objects in sync with the sever objects, I want the server to send the key/value dictionary every frame for each object. What data-structure/algorithm will allow me to send a list of key/value dictionaries using the least amount of bits? Bonus constraint 1: For each type of object, the values of some keys change more often than others. Bonus constraint 2: Memory usage on the server side is relatively expensive.

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  • How to calculate continuous motion with angular velocity in 2d

    - by Rulk
    I'm really new with physics. Maybe someone would be able to help me to solve the next problem: I need to calculate position of an agent on the plane(2D) in next time step where time step is large(20+ seconds) What I know about agent's motion: Initial Position Direction(normalised vector) Velocity(linear function from time ) - object always moves along it's direction Angular Velocity(linear function from time) Optional: External force direction External force (linear function from time) Running discreet simulation with t-0 is not an option.

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  • Is it a good idea to make a game for one aspect ratio and arbitrary screen resolution?

    - by Mimars
    After several very small games I have decided to make something more standalone (2D) and playable. However, I have met the problem of every game that is going to be played in more screen resolutions. Basically, after some research I see that there are several solutions. This seems to be the simplest one: Let's say I define a constant aspect ratio for the game (16:9) and the whole game will be created for a resolution 1680 x 1050. The game will be rendered in this resolution and then I will be able to scale the render to match the player's display resolution. Therefore the game might be playable on almost any resolution, while it would keep the aspect ratio. So, if the game was run on 4:3 display, the top and the bottom of the display would be filled with black color. It seems easy, but my question is - Is this a good approach for a simple game? The game will be simple, but I want to maintain high quality.

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  • How to determine collision direction between two rectangles?

    - by Jon
    I am trying to figure out how to determine the direction a collision occurs between two rectangles. One rectangle does not move. The other rectangle has a velocity in any direction. When a collision occurs, I want to be able to set the position of the moving rectangle to the point of impact. I seem to be stuck in determining from what direction the impact occurs. If I am moving strictly vertically or horizontally I manage great detection. But when moving in both directions at the same time, strange things happen. What is the best way to determine what direction a collision occurs between two rectangles?

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  • C# XNA 2D Multiple boxes collision detection and movement

    - by zini
    Hi, I've been making simple game where you shoot boxes that are coming towards you. All game objects are simple rectangles. Now I have problem with collision detection; how to check where the collision comes so I can change the coordinates right? I have this kind of situation: http://imgur.com/8yjfW Imagine that all of those blocks are moving towards you (green box). If those orange boxes collide with each other, they should "avoid" themselves and not go through each other. I have class Enemy which has properties x, y and such. Now I'm doing the collision like this: // os.Count is an amount of other enemies colliding with this enemy if (os.Count == 0) { // If enemy doesn't collide with other enemy lasty = y; lastx = x; slope = (x - player.x) / (y - player.y); x += slope * l; // l is "movement speed" of enemy (float) if (y > player.y) { y = lasty; } else if (y < player.y) { y += l; } } else { foreach(Enemy b in os) { if (b.y > this.y) { // If some colliding enemy is closer player than this enemy, that closer one will be moved towards the player b.lasty = b.y; if (!BiggestY(os)) { // BiggestY returns true if this enemy has the biggest Y b.y += b.l; } b.x = b.lastx; } } } But this is very, very bad way to do this. I know it, but I just can't figure out other way. And as a matter in fact, this method doesn't even work pretty good; if multiple enemies are colliding same enemy they go through each other. I explained this pretty badly, but I hope that you understand this. And to sum up, as I said: How to check where the collision comes so I can change the coordinates right?

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  • Use a SQL Database for a Desktop Game

    - by sharethis
    Developing a Game Engine I am planning a computer game and its engine. There will be a 3 dimensional world with first person view and it will be single player for now. The programming language is C++ and it uses OpenGL. Data Centered Design Decision My design decision is to use a data centered architecture where there is a global event manager and a global data manager. There are many components like physics, input, sound, renderer, ai, ... Each component can trigger and listen to events. Moreover, each component can read, edit, create and remove data. The question is about the data manager. Whether to Use a Relational Database Should I use a SQL Database, e.g. SQLite or MySQL, to store the game data? This contains virtually all game content like items, characters, inventories, ... Except of meshes and textures which are even more performance related, so I will keep them in memory. Is a SQL database fast enough to use it for realtime reading and writing game informations, like the position of a moving character? I also need to care about cross-platform compatibility. Aside from keeping everything in memory, what alternatives do I have? Advantages Would Be The advantages of using a relational database like MySQL would be the data orientated structure which allows fast computation. I would not need objects for representing entities. I could easily query data of objects near the player needed for rendering. And I don't have to take care about data of objects far away. Moreover there would be no need for savegames since the hole game state is saved in the database. Last but not least, expanding the game to an online game would be relative easy because there already is a place where the hole game state is stored.

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  • OpenGL ES 2.0. Sprite Sheet Animation

    - by Project Dumbo Dev
    I've found a bunch of tutorials on how to make this work on Open GL 1 & 1.1 but I can't find it for 2.0. I would work it out by loading the texture and use a matrix on the vertex shader to move through the sprite sheet. I'm looking for the most efficient way to do it. I've read that when you do the thing I'm proposing you are constantly changing the VBO's and that that is not good. Edit: Been doing some research myself. Came upon this two Updating Texture and referring to the one before PBO's. I can't use PBO's since i'm using ES version of OpenGL so I suppose the best way is to make FBO's but, what I still don't get, is if I should create a Sprite atlas/batch and make a FBO/loadtexture for each frame of if I should load every frame into the buffer and change just de texture directions.

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  • How do I implement a "sliding out of / into" effect on a settings menu similar to that in Angry Birds?

    - by VictorB
    I'm trying to implement a settings menu component similar to that in Angry Birds - a button control that makes an options menu slide out of it and back into it when clicked on. I use scene2d.ui to build the UI components: a Button in a Table to implement the button control, a Table to implement the options menu, and a Stack to lay these out one on top of the other and at this moment I have the following behavior: When the user hits the button control for the first time, then the alpha of the table component is set to 1; When the user hits the button control the second time, then the alpha of the table component is set to 0; And so on. Any ideas how I can get the sliding out of and into effect on user clicks with libgdx? Similar to what Angry Birds provides. Maybe using the TweenEngine, actions, interpolations, combinations of these? Thanks in advance.

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  • XNA move from start position to target position exactly in 3D

    - by robasaurus
    If I have a list of positions that map out a path a character should follow. What would be the best way to move at a constant speed to each position making sure the character lands exactly at each position before moving onto the next? For example the character is at position A, we then queue up position B and position C. The character cannot move towards position C until it reaches position B exactly. It would be great if the solution worked at slower frame rates/update speeds as well.

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  • Using OpenCl to jiggle the Pipe

    - by TOAOGG
    I've got the Idea to use OpenCL to program a simple Renderer. A clear contra is, that this approach won't benefit from the hardware as the functions on the device (I think). Would it be useful to do this in OpenCL..lets say we want to Cull as early as possible so we won't have many per vertex operations. Is it correct, that Culling is done after the Vertex-Shader? For static-vertecies who won't get effected by the shader it could be interesting to cull them before. Another idea would be an deferred renderer. So the main question is: Would it make sense to program a renderer in OpenCL (aside the effort)? The resulting picture would be drawn in OpenGL.

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  • Drawing a line using openGL does not work

    - by vikasm
    I am a beginner in OpenGL and tried to write my first program to draw some points and a line. I can see that the window opens with white background but no line is drawn. I was expecting to see red colored (because glColor3f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);) dots (pixels) and line. But nothing is seen. Here is my code. void init2D(float r, float g, float b) { glClearColor(r,g,b,0.0); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); gluOrtho2D(0.0, 200.0, 0.0, 150.0); } void display() { glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); glColor3f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0); glBegin(GL_POINTS); for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { glVertex2i(10+5*i, 110); } glEnd(); //draw a line glBegin(GL_LINES); glVertex2i(10,10); glVertex2i(100,100); glEnd(); glFlush(); } int main(int argc, char** argv) { //Initialize Glut glutInit(&argc, argv); //setup some memory buffers for our display glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGB); //set the window size glutInitWindowSize(500, 500); //create the window with the title 'points and lines' glutCreateWindow("Points and Lines"); init2D(0.0, 0.0, 0.0); glutDisplayFunc(display); glutMainLoop(); } I wanted to verify that the glcontext was opening properly and used this code: int main(int argc, char **argv) { glutInit(&argc, argv); //setup some memory buffers for our display glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGB); //set the window size glutInitWindowSize(500, 500); //create the window with the title 'points and lines' glutCreateWindow("Points and Lines"); char *GL_version=(char *)glGetString(GL_VERSION); puts(GL_version); char *GL_vendor=(char *)glGetString(GL_VENDOR); puts(GL_vendor); char *GL_renderer=(char *)glGetString(GL_RENDERER); puts(GL_renderer); getchar(); return 0; } And the ouput I got was: 3.1.0 - Build 8.15.10.2345 Intel Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Can someone point out what I am doing wrong ? Thanks.

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  • Polygon is rotating too fast

    - by Manderin87
    I am going to be using a polygon collision detection method to test when objects collide. I am attempting to rotate a polygon to match the sprites rotation. However, the polygon is rotating too fast, much faster than the sprite is. I feel its a timing issue, but the sprite rotates like it is supposed to. Can anyone look at my code and tell me what could be causing this issue? public void rotate(float x0, float y0, double angle) { for(Point point : mPoints) { float x = (float) (x0 + (point.x - x0) * Math.cos(Utilities.toRadians(angle)) - (point.y - y0) * Math.sin(Utilities.toRadians(angle))); float y = (float) (y0 + (point.x - x0) * Math.sin(Utilities.toRadians(angle)) + (point.y - y0) * Math.cos(Utilities.toRadians(angle))); point.x = x; point.y = y; } } This algorithm works when done singly, but once I plug it into the update method the rotation is too fast. The Points used are: P1 608, 368 P2 640, 464 P3 672, 400 Origin x0 is: 640 400 The angle goes from 0 to 360 as the sprite rotates. When the codes executes the triangle looks like a star because its moving so fast. The rotation is done in the sprites update method. The rotation method just increases the sprites degree by .5 when it executes. public void update() { if(isActive()) { rotate(); mBounding.rotate(mPosition.x, mPosition.y, mDegree); } }

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  • Proper way to encapsulate a Shader into different modules

    - by y7haar
    I am planning to build a Shader system which can be accessed through different components/modules in C++. Each component has its own functionality like transform-relevated stuff (handle the MVP matrix, ...), texture handler, light calculation, etc... So here's an example: I would like to display an object which has a texture and a toon shading material applied and it should be moveable. So I could write ONE shading program that handles all 3 functionalities and they are accessed through 3 different components (texture-handler, toon-shading, transform). This means I have to take care of feeding a GLSL shader with different uniforms/attributes. This implies to know all necessary uniform locations and attribute locations, that the GLSL shader owns. And it would also necessary to provide different algorithms to calculate the value for each input variable. Similar functions would be grouped together in one component. A possible way would be, to wrap all shaders in a own definition file written in JSON/XML and parse that file in C++ to get all input members and create and compile the resulting GLSL. But maybe there is another way that is not so complex? So I'm searching for a way to build a system like that, but I'm not sure yet which is the best approach.

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  • Swapping axis labels between 2D and 3D coordinates

    - by Will
    My game world is 3D. The map is only 2D, however. It is natural to think of the map as having an X and Y axis. And it is natural to think of the world has having an X, Y and Z axis, where Y is upwards. That is to say, X Y in 2D map coordinates is X Z in 3D coordinates. What conventions and approaches do you have to keeping things straight at a code level to make mapping between them natural? (Is Y usually upwards in 3D? Or do you have X and Z in map coordinates, or?)

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  • Entity System with C++ templates

    - by tommaisey
    I've been getting interested in the Entity/Component style of game programming, and I've come up with a design in C++ which I'd like a critique of. I decided to go with a fairly pure Entity system, where entities are simply an ID number. Components are stored in a series of vectors - one for each Component type. However, I didn't want to have to add boilerplate code for every new Component type I added to the game. Nor did I want to use macros to do this, which frankly scare me. So I've come up with a system based on templates and type hinting. But there are some potential issues I'd like to check before I spend ages writing this (I'm a slow coder!) All Components derive from a Component base class. This base class has a protected constructor, that takes a string parameter. When you write a new derived Component class, you must initialise the base with the name of your new class in a string. When you first instantiate a new DerivedComponent, it adds the string to a static hashmap inside Component mapped to a unique integer id. When you subsequently instantiate more Components of the same type, no action is taken. The result (I think) should be a static hashmap with the name of each class derived from Component that you instantiate at least once, mapped to a unique id, which can by obtained with the static method Component::getTypeId ("DerivedComponent"). Phew. The next important part is TypedComponentList<typename PropertyType>. This is basically just a wrapper to an std::vector<typename PropertyType> with some useful methods. It also contains a hashmap of entity ID numbers to slots in the array so we can find Components by their entity owner. Crucially TypedComponentList<> is derived from the non-template class ComponentList. This allows me to maintain a list of pointers to ComponentList in my main ComponentManager, which actually point to TypedComponentLists with different template parameters (sneaky). The Component manager has template functions such as: template <typename ComponentType> void addProperty (ComponentType& component, int componentTypeId, int entityId) and: template <typename ComponentType> TypedComponentList<ComponentType>* getComponentList (int componentTypeId) which deal with casting from ComponentList to the correct TypedComponentList for you. So to get a list of a particular type of Component you call: TypedComponentList<MyComponent>* list = componentManager.getComponentList<MyComponent> (Component::getTypeId("MyComponent")); Which I'll admit looks pretty ugly. Bad points of the design: If a user of the code writes a new Component class but supplies the wrong string to the base constructor, the whole system will fail. Each time a new Component is instantiated, we must check a hashed string to see if that component type has bee instantiated before. Will probably generate a lot of assembly because of the extensive use of templates. I don't know how well the compiler will be able to minimise this. You could consider the whole system a bit complex - perhaps premature optimisation? But I want to use this code again and again, so I want it to be performant. Good points of the design: Components are stored in typed vectors but they can also be found by using their entity owner id as a hash. This means we can iterate them fast, and minimise cache misses, but also skip straight to the component we need if necessary. We can freely add Components of different types to the system without having to add and manage new Component vectors by hand. What do you think? Do the good points outweigh the bad?

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  • Multiplayer approach for tablets on wi-fi (FPS/TPS)? Server authority, etc

    - by Fraggle
    Looking for some guidance or what has worked well for others in implementing a multiplayer FPS/TPS type game on tablets (probably just 2-6 players at a time). The main issue being that tablets/phones are typically "less" connected than say a console or pc might be. And therefore, my thought is that to have complete Server authority of everything is not going to work. But maybe I'm off base on that. So I guess I'm struggling with what (if anything) should happen on a central server and what should happen locally. Or is centralized approach even needed? Some approaches I might do: Player movement : my thought is to control this locally (player-owner) and update server with positon (which then sends out to other clients). Use client side prediction for opponent players so that connection loss will not show a plane for example stop in mid air. Server will send update and try to smoothly correct an opponent player position to server updated one.But don't update owners position on owners device from server. Powerups (health kit/ammo/coins/etc) : need to see them disappear immediately, so do it locally. Add the health locally, but perhaps allow for server correction. If server doesn't see player near that powerup, reject the powerup and adjust server health for player. Fire weapons: Have to see it happen right away, so fire locally, create local bullet and send on its way. Send rpc to server so that this player on other clients also fires. Hit detection: Get's trickier. Make bullet/projectile disappear locally, and perhaps perform local hit animations (shaking, whatever). non-authoritative approach= take the damage locally and send rpc to server or others to update health and inform of hit. Authoritative approach-Don't take the damage, or adjust health. Server will do that if it detects a hit. Anyway that's my current thought stream. Let me know what you think of the above or what has worked for you.

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