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  • Changing direction after collision

    - by Balint
    In the first tutorial for GameMaker (catch the clown), I want to set the direction of the clown after the collision with the wall. I want to do it by pressing the wall object with the mouse (before the collision, to set the angle parameter). For example by pressing only once the wall object it would change the clown's direction after collision by 45 degrees, twice by 90 degrees, and so on. How can I do that?

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  • How can I achieve a 3D-like effect with spritebatch's rotation and scale parameters

    - by Alic44
    I'm working on a 2d game with a top-down perspective similar to Secret of Mana and the 2D Final Fantasy games, with one big difference being that it's an action rpg using a 3-dimensional physics engine. I'm trying to draw an aimer graphic (basically an arrow) at my characters' feet when they're aiming a ranged weapon. At first I just converted the character's aim vector to radians and passed that into spritebatch, but there was a problem. The position of every object in my world is scaled for perspective when it's drawn to the screen. So if the physics engine coordinates are (1, 0, 1), the screen coords are actually (1, .707) -- the Y and Z axis are scaled by a perspective factor of .707 and then added together to get the screen coordinates. This meant that the direction the aimer graphic pointed (thanks to its rotation value passed into spritebatch) didn't match up with the direction the projectile actually traveled over time. Things looked fine when the characters fired left, right, up, or down, but if you fired on a diagonal the perspective of the physics engine didn't match with the simplistic way I was converting the character's aim direction to a screen rotation. Ok, fast forward to now: I've got the aimer's rotation matched up with the path the projectile will actually take, which I'm doing by decomposing a transform matrix which I build from two rotation matrices (one to represent the aimer's rotation, and one to represent the camera's 45 degree rotation on the x axis). My question is, is there a way to get not just rotation from a series of matrix transformations, but to also get a Vector2 scale which would give the aimer the appearance of being a 3d object, being warped by perspective? Orthographic perspective is what I'm going for, I think. So, the aimer arrow would get longer when facing sideways, and shorter when facing north and south because of the perspective. At the same time, it would get wider when facing north and south, and less wide when facing right or left. I'd like to avoid actually drawing the aimer texture in 3d because I'm still using spritebatch's layerdepth parameter at this point in my project, and I don't want to have to figure out how to draw a 3d object within the depth sorting system I already have. I can provide code and more details if this is too vague as a question... This is my first post on stack exchange. Thanks a lot for reading! Note: (I think) I realize it can't be a technically correct 3D perspective, because the spritebatch's vector2 scaling argument doesn't allow for an object to be skewed the way it actually should be. What I'm really interested in is, is there a good way to fake the effect, or should I just drop it and not scale at all? Edit to clarify without the help of a picture (apparently I can't post them yet): I want the aimer arrow to look like it has been painted on the ground at the character's feet, so it should appear to be drawn on the ground plane (in my case the XZ plane) which should be tilted at a 45 degree angle (around the X axis) from the viewing perspective. Alex

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  • "static" as a semantic clue about statelessness?

    - by leoger
    this might be a little philosophical but I hope someone can help me find a good way to think about this. I've recently undertaken a refactoring of a medium sized project in Java to go back and add unit tests. When I realized what a pain it was to mock singletons and statics, I finally "got" what I've been reading about them all this time. (I'm one of those people that needs to learn from experience. Oh well.) So, now that I'm using Spring to create the objects and wire them around, I'm getting rid of static keywords left and right. (If I could potentially want to mock it, it's not really static in the same sense that Math.abs() is, right?) The thing is, I had gotten into the habit of using static to denote that a method didn't rely on any object state. For example: //Before import com.thirdparty.ThirdPartyLibrary.Thingy; public class ThirdPartyLibraryWrapper { public static Thingy newThingy(InputType input) { new Thingy.Builder().withInput(input).alwaysFrobnicate().build(); } } //called as... ThirdPartyLibraryWrapper.newThingy(input); //After public class ThirdPartyFactory { public Thingy newThingy(InputType input) { new Thingy.Builder().withInput(input).alwaysFrobnicate().build(); } } //called as... thirdPartyFactoryInstance.newThingy(input); So, here's where it gets touchy-feely. I liked the old way because the capital letter told me that, just like Math.sin(x), ThirdPartyLibraryWrapper.newThingy(x) did the same thing the same way every time. There's no object state to change how the object does what I'm asking it to do. Here are some possible answers I'm considering. Nobody else feels this way so there's something wrong with me. Maybe I just haven't really internalized the OO way of doing things! Maybe I'm writing in Java but thinking in FORTRAN or somesuch. (Which would be impressive since I've never written FORTRAN.) Maybe I'm using staticness as a sort of proxy for immutability for the purposes of reasoning about code. That being said, what clues should I have in my code for someone coming along to maintain it to know what's stateful and what's not? Perhaps this should just come for free if I choose good object metaphors? e.g. thingyWrapper doesn't sound like it has state indepdent of the wrapped Thingy which may itself be mutable. Similarly, a thingyFactory sounds like it should be immutable but could have different strategies that are chosen among at creation. I hope I've been clear and thanks in advance for your advice!

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  • Is this paragraph in Code Complete 2 backwards, or am I misunderstanding it?

    - by user828584
    In chapter 13, when talking about pointers, there is a paragraph: Sometimes, however, you would like to have the semantics of pass by reference—that is, that the passed object should not be altered—with the implementation of pass by value—that is, passing the actual object rather than a copy. It seems like the author made a mistake and mixed the two up. Is this true, or am I not understanding what he's saying correctly?

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  • Rotate camera around player and set new forward directions

    - by Samurai Fox
    I have a 3rd person camera which can rotate around the player. When I look at the back of the player and press forward, player goes forward. Then I rotate 360 around the player and "forward direction" is tilted for 90 degrees. So every 360 turn there is 90 degrees of direction change. For example when camera is facing the right side of the player, when I press button to move forward, I want player to turn to the left and make that the "new forward". I have Player object with Camera as child object. Camera object has Camera script. Inside Camera script there are Player and Camera classes. Player object itself, has Input Controller. Also I'm making this script for joystick/ controller primarily. My camera script so far: using UnityEngine; using System.Collections; public class CameraScript : MonoBehaviour { public GameObject Target; public float RotateSpeed = 10, FollowDistance = 20, FollowHeight = 10; float RotateSpeedPerTime, DesiredRotationAngle, DesiredHeight, CurrentRotationAngle, CurrentHeight, Yaw, Pitch; Quaternion CurrentRotation; void LateUpdate() { RotateSpeedPerTime = RotateSpeed * Time.deltaTime; DesiredRotationAngle = Target.transform.eulerAngles.y; DesiredHeight = Target.transform.position.y + FollowHeight; CurrentRotationAngle = transform.eulerAngles.y; CurrentHeight = transform.position.y; CurrentRotationAngle = Mathf.LerpAngle(CurrentRotationAngle, DesiredRotationAngle, 0); CurrentHeight = Mathf.Lerp(CurrentHeight, DesiredHeight, 0); CurrentRotation = Quaternion.Euler(0, CurrentRotationAngle, 0); transform.position = Target.transform.position; transform.position -= CurrentRotation * Vector3.forward * FollowDistance; transform.position = new Vector3(transform.position.x, CurrentHeight, transform.position.z); Yaw = Input.GetAxis("Right Horizontal") * RotateSpeedPerTime; Pitch = Input.GetAxis("Right Vertical") * RotateSpeedPerTime; transform.Translate(new Vector3(Yaw, -Pitch, 0)); transform.position = new Vector3(transform.position.x, transform.position.y, transform.position.z); transform.LookAt(Target.transform); } }

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  • Different bounding volumes for culling and collision detection

    - by Serthy
    Should an object in a 3D-engine use different bounding volumes for collision-detection (broad-phase) and culling? Basically class renderBounds and class physBounds versus class boundingVolume? Each of this classes then could either contain the same type of volumes (AABB's, kDOP's, sphere's etc.) or a special fitting one for the particular object. (note: without considering of using an external physics engine)

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  • What are atan and atan2 used for in games?

    - by kyrogue
    I am having some trouble understanding Math.tan() and Math.atan() and Math.atan2(). I have basic knowledge of trigonmetry but the usage of SIN, COS, and TAN etc for game development is very new to me. I am reading on some tutorials and I see that by using tangent we can get the angle in which one object needs to be rotated by how much to face another object for example my mouse. So why do we still need to use atan or atan2?

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  • How to detect collisions between sprite and a user generated shape of some sort?

    - by Huwell
    How to detect a collision between a sprite and a user generated shape of some sort. For example. There are some objects on the screen. The user takes their finger and draws an circle shape around a object (The selection rule is painting circle around the sprite, but the painting shapes may be various). I need to detect which object selected, which just like: (demo images) http://i52.tinypic.com/28h0t1g.png

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  • How can I model a pendulum blade?

    - by Micah Delane Bolen
    Like this one from Saw V: What primitive shape/s would you start out with? How would you transform the primitive shape/s to give it a nice, smooth, sharp blade on one side without distorting the entire object in a weird way? I tried starting out with a cylinder and then subtracting the top half using a duplicate cylinder and a difference modifier, but I ended up distorting the entire object when I tried to pull the "blade" edges together. I think I need to add lattices to smoothly "sharpen" the edge of the blade.

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  • I need beginner help on loading an image (2D). I have an error

    - by Seth Taddiken
    I keep getting a "NullReferenceExeption was unhandled" with "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." written under it. I have all of the images (png) correct with names and added to references. protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); backGround = Content.Load("Cracked"); player1.playerBlock = Content.Load("square"); player2.playerBlock = Content.Load("square2"); }

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  • rotating spheres

    - by Dave
    I want to continuously rotate 2 spheres, however the rotation does not seem to work. Here is my code: float angle = 0.0f; void light(){ glEnable(GL_LIGHTING); glEnable(GL_LIGHT0); glEnable(GL_LIGHT1); // Create light components GLfloat positionlight1[] = { 9.0, 5.0, 1.0, 0.0 }; GLfloat positionlight2[] = {0.2,2.5,1.3,0.0}; GLfloat light_ambient1[] = { 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0}; GLfloat light_diffuse[] = { 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 }; glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_AMBIENT, light_ambient1); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT1, GL_DIFFUSE, light_diffuse); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_POSITION, positionlight1); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT1, GL_POSITION, positionlight2); } void changeSize(int w, int h) { if (h==0) // Prevent A Divide By Zero By { h=1; // Making Height Equal One } glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); // Select The Projection Matrix glLoadIdentity(); // Reset The Projection Matrix glViewport(0,0,w,h);// Reset The Current Viewport // Calculate The Aspect Ratio Of The Window gluPerspective(45.0f,(GLfloat)w/(GLfloat)h,0.1f,100.0f); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); // Select The Modelview Matrix // Reset The Modelview Matrix } void renderScene(void) { glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); glPushMatrix(); //set where to start the current object glTranslatef(0.0,1.2,-6); glRotatef(angle,0,1.2,-6); glutSolidSphere(1,50,50); glPopMatrix(); //end the current object transformations glPushMatrix(); //set where to start the current object glTranslatef(0.0,-2,-6); glRotatef(angle,0,-2,-6); glutSolidSphere(0.5,50,50); glPopMatrix(); //end the current object transformations angle=+0.1; glutSwapBuffers(); } int main(int argc, char **argv) { // init GLUT and create window glutInit(&argc, argv); glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DEPTH | GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGBA); glutInitWindowPosition(100,100); glutInitWindowSize(500,500); glutCreateWindow("Hello World"); // register callbacks light(); glutDisplayFunc(renderScene); glutReshapeFunc(changeSize); glutIdleFunc(renderScene); // enter GLUT event processing loop glutMainLoop(); return 1; } Graphicstest::Graphicstest(void) { } In the renderscene where i draw,translate and rotate my 2 spheres. It does not seem to rotate the spheres continuously. What am i doing wrong?

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  • Why has the accessor methods from the JavaBean specification become the standard for Java development?

    - by Dakotah North
    The JavaBeans Specification describes a JavaBean as A Java Bean is a reusable software component that can be manipulated visually in a builder tool Since the majority of the lines of code that are written seem to have nothing to do with being manipulated visually in a builder tool, why has the JavaBean specification been the "way" to write object oriented code? I would like to forgo the traditional getter/setter in favor of Fluent Interfaces all throughout the code, not just in builders but fear doing so since this is traditionally not the way way object oriented code is written in Java.

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  • Quickly Warning

    - by bradjones
    Every time I run my application I receive these warning errors can anyone tell me what is causing them? $ quickly run /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gtk.py:391: Warning: g_object_set_property: construct property "type" for object `Window' can't be set after construction Gtk.Window.__init__(self, type=type, **kwds) /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gtk.py:391: Warning: g_object_set_property: construct property "type" for object `AppWindow' can't be set after construction Gtk.Window.__init__(self, type=type, **kwds)

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  • How to get a Read-Write Reference to Parent GameObject from a script component attached to it?

    - by onguarde
    I have a game object(object) with a script component(myscript) attached. I have a reference to myscript component through getComponent, and I want to change the transform of the gameObject the script is attached to. myscript.gameObject.transform = (new value); The above code gives me error, Property 'UnityEngine.GameObject.transform' is read only. Is there a way to get a read-write version?

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  • Do first-class methods exist?

    - by gdhoward
    Okay, I know first-class functions are cool, closures even better, etc. But is there any language with first-class methods? In my mind, I see a first-class method as an "object" that has both a function pointer and a pointer to a specific instance of the class/object, but the implementation doesn't matter. I just want to know if there is any language that uses them. And as a bonus, how were they implemented?

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  • How would I detect if two 2D arrays of any shape collided?

    - by user2104648
    Say there's two or more moveable objects of any shape in 2D plane, each object has its own 2D boolean array to act as a bounds box which can range from 10 to 100 pixels, the program then reads each pixel from a image that represents it, and appropriatly changes the array to true(pixel has a alpha more then 1) or false(pixel has a alpha less than one). Each time one of these objects moves, what would be the best accurate way to test if they hit another object in Java using as few APIs/libraries as possible?

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  • BinarySerialization size not consist?! (2 replies)

    Hello all, I have met something pretty odd. I am running a serialization on an object and not always the size of the output stream is the same. I even created a test that I am running the serialization in a loop, and each time I am running I have different results sizes in some point in the loop. This happens when I am using a object that was filled in the server side, and I get them thru WCF work...

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  • Game programming and quantity of timers

    - by andresjb
    I've made a simple 2D game engine using C# and DirectX and it's fully functional for the demo I made to test it. I have a Timer object that uses QueryPerformanceCounter and I don't know what's the better choice: use only one timer in the game loop to update everything in the game, or an independent timer in every object that needs one. My worry is that when I try to implement threads, what will happen with timers? What happens with the sync?

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  • Converting a PowerShell Script into a Module Part 2

    In this article the author explains how PSModuleInfo object for a module can be retrieved. Further, he shows how code can be injected into the module to manipulate the state of a module without having to reload it. He also explains how to directly set some metadata elements, like the module description, and some other PSModuleInfo object features.

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  • BinarySerialization size not consist?! (2 replies)

    Hello all, I have met something pretty odd. I am running a serialization on an object and not always the size of the output stream is the same. I even created a test that I am running the serialization in a loop, and each time I am running I have different results sizes in some point in the loop. This happens when I am using a object that was filled in the server side, and I get them thru WCF work...

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  • Silverlight Cream for January 30, 2011 -- #1037

    - by Dave Campbell
    In this Issue: Ollie Riches, Colin Eberhardt, Andrej Tozon, Arik Poznanski, Deborah Kurata(-2-), Jay Kimble, Yochay Kiriaty, Peter Kuhn, Mike Ormond, WindowsPhoneGeek(-2-), and Matthias Shapiro. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Missing Chart Legend" Deborah Kurata WP7: "XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 2 - Text rendering" Peter Kuhn Shoutouts: Timmy Kokke has a post up discussing What’s new in the Expression Design January 2011 preview? From SilverlightCream.com: WP7Contrib: Thread safe ObservableCollection<T> Ollie Riches, one of the two originators of WP7Contrib, has a post up on the WP7C ObservableCollection... what and why. Windows Phone 7 DeferredLoadContentControl Colin Eberhardt's latest is one we should all take notice of... a content control that defers rendering to provide a better user experience... source code is available as are some good external links Andrej Tozon on Hey weigh! WP7 application SilverlightShow interviews WP7 Dev Andrej Tozon and gets his take on his app, challenges, tips, and the future of WP7. A ProgressBar With Text For Windows Phone 7 Arik Poznanski demonstrates putting text up on the progress bar to let your users know what you're up to... and it looks great in the screenshots. Charting in a Silverlight Application using MVVM Deborah Kurata is checking out the Charting control this time around... using the charting control from the toolbox in the MVVM app she built in the last post... C# and VB code as always. Missing Chart Legend Deborah Kurata's latest in the world of Charting and MVVM involves using a custom theme and having your chart legend disappear... never fear, she's gonna tell you how to fix that! Silverlight/WP7 tip: Detecting when in VS Design Mode Jay Kimble has a post up that not only resolves a question you may need answered during development (are you in VS design Mode), but it also helps resolve a class of problem that Jay explains. Windows Phone GPS Emulator Yochay Kiriaty points out that while part of the issues of building a GPS-driven app for WP7 is getting your head around the tools, the next hurdle is testing... and that's what he's really discussing... "Windows Phone GPS Emulator" ... if you're playing with the GPS, you'll want this. XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 2 - Text rendering Peter Kuhn's latest tutorial in his XNA series for Silverlight developers is up at SilverlightShow... in this tutorial, Peter discusses text... it's a vastly different game displaying text in XNA as compared to Silverlight ... check it out and see. OData and Windows Phone 7 Mike Ormond starts you off using OData on your WP7 by showing where to download the libraries, and not stopping until he has an app running that reads an OData feed, plus he plans on continuing the quest in future posts. WP7 ProgressOverlay control in depth: features and customization WindowsPhoneGeek has a couple new posts up. The first one is an in-depth look at the ProgressOverlay control in the Codeing4fun Toolkit... pretty cool to be able to put your logo or app logo up. On Testing Windows Phone 7 Applications – Part II: Dealing with the WP7 Application Model WindowsPhoneGeek also has 5 more WP7 testing tips... and these are a little more technical than the first set, and includes some good external links. Topics include: Tombstoning, Usability, Navigation, Capabilities, and Memory consumption. Fun Theme-Friendly Windows Phone Icon Matthias Shapiro explains how to have your WP7 icon change based on the theme your user has chosen... great examples, and XAML included Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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  • What is Agile Modeling and why do I need it?

    What is Agile Modeling and why do I need it? Agile Modeling is an add-on to existing agile methodologies like Extreme programming (XP) and Rational Unified Process (RUP). Agile Modeling enables developers to develop a customized software development process that actually meets their current development needs and is flexible enough to adjust in the future. According to Scott Ambler, Agile Modeling consists of five core values that enable this methodology to be effective and light weight Agile Modeling Core Values: Communication Simplicity Feedback Courage Humility Communication is a key component to any successful project. Open communication between stakeholder and the development team is essential when developing new applications or maintaining legacy systems. Agile models promote communication amongst software development teams and stakeholders. Furthermore, Agile Models provide a common understanding of an application for members of a software development team allowing them to have a universal common point of reference. The use of simplicity in Agile Models enables the exploration of new ideas and concepts through the use of basic diagrams instead of investing the time in writing tens or hundreds of lines of code. Feedback in regards to application development is essential. Feedback allows a development team to confirm that the development path is on track. Agile Models allow for quick feedback from shareholders because minimal to no technical expertise is required to understand basic models. Courage is important because you need to make important decisions and be able to change direction by either discarding or refactoring your work when some of your decisions prove inadequate, according to Scott Ambler. As a member of a development team, we must admit that we do not know everything even though some of us think we do. This is where humility comes in to play. Everyone is a knowledge expert in their own specific domain. If you need help with your finances then you would consult an accountant. If you have a problem or are in need of help with a topic why would someone not consult with a subject expert? An effective approach is to assume that everyone involved with your project has equal value and therefore should be treated with respect. Agile Model Characteristics: Purposeful Understandable Sufficiently Accurate Sufficiently Consistent Sufficiently Detailed Provide Positive Value Simple as Possible Just Fulfill Basic Requirements According to Scott Ambler, Agile models are the most effective possible because the time that is invested in the model is just enough effort to complete the job. Furthermore, if a model isn’t good enough yet then additional effort can be invested to get more value out of the model. However if a model is good enough, for the current needs, or surpass the current needs, then any additional work done on the model would be a waste. It is important to remember that good enough is in the eye of the beholder, so this can be tough. In order for Agile Models to work effectively Active Stakeholder need to participation in the modeling process. Finally it is also very important to model with others, this allows for additionally input ensuring that all the shareholders needs are reflected in the models. How can Agile Models be incorporated in to our projects? Agile Models can be incorporated in to our project during the requirement gathering and design phases. As requirements are gathered the models should be updated to incorporate the new project details as they are defined and updated. Additionally, the Agile Models created during the requirement phase can be the bases for the models created during the design phase.  It is important to only add to the model when the changes fit within the agile model characteristics and they do not over complicate the design.

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  • Expression Studio 4 - without SketchFlow&hellip;

    - by mbcrump
    is kinda like an explosion with no “Ka-Boom”… I was excited to hear the news yesterday at Microsoft Teched that Expression Studio 4 had officially launched. MSDN subscribers could log in and download the full release. So, I logged into my MSDN account and started downloading Expression Studio 4 Premium thinking that I was only minutes away from trying out SketchFlow 4. To my dismay, I launched Blend 4 and noticed it did not say SketchFlow on the splash screen. So, I went to New Project and the template was not available. After some digging around on the net, I learned my premium MSDN subscription did not include SketchFlow and I would need to purchase the Ultimate Edition. Below is a excerpt directly from Microsoft: Q: What products are included in the Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Ultimate? A: Expression Studio 4 Ultimate is comprised of 4 products, Expression Web 4, Microsoft Expression Blend® 4 + SketchFlow, Expression Encoder 4 Pro and Expression Design 4. Expression Blend 4 includes SketchFlow in Expression Studio 4 Ultimate product only. Q: What products are included in the Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Premium? A: Expression Studio 4 Premium is comprised of 4 products, Expression Web 4, Microsoft Expression Blend 4, Expression Encoder 4 and Expression Design 4. Expression Studio 4 Premium is not available for retail purchase. Q: What products are included in the Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Web Professional? A: Expression Studio 4 Web Professional is comprised of 3 products, Expression Web 4, Expression Encoder 4 and Expression Design 4. As you can see, we got screwed on this deal and plenty of people are complaining: Kiran Says: 6.07.2010 at 5:07 PM No SketchFlow for Expression Studio 4 Premium? What a bumper for Microsoft Partners!! Martin Says: 6.07.2010 at 6:18 PM Why does Expression Professional Subscription not include upgrades and new releases of Expression Studio. Good question hey. I bought my subscription 5 days ago thinking I would get what i purchased but no Expression upgrades or new releases for me, what a waste of money. I think I am not the only long term user of this software that feels disgruntled. Sorry john just had to tell someone. shaggygi Says: 6.07.2010 at 7:31 PM SketchFlow NOT included in Studio 4? WTF! I repeat.... WT...Freaking.... F! This is totally unacceptable. My development team purchased VS 2010 Premium w/ MSDN with the impression by Adam Kinney, Scott Guthrie, etc. that this would be included in the Premium package or some sort of free upgrade. I understand this is a Marketing thing, but come on! I believe, at very least, this should have been explained in detail before this release. John Papa... as a rep to give feedback to the team... Please please and please.... tell powers-at-be to fix this problem. Sorry for the rant. Besides this issue, I believe it is a very good product:) Thanks Vaclav Elias Says: 6.08.2010 at 4:30 AM Well, I am also not happy that SketchFlow is only for the chosen ones :-) It is very nice product. Actually, kind of foundation for web development so they could really support any MSDN subscribers.. :-( I am hoping that Microsoft will make this right for all of us with MSDN premier subscriptions. In the meantime,  you can check out the 5 day training series available here.

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  • Home Energy Management & Automation with Windows Phone 7

    A number of people at Clarity are personally interested in home energy conservation and home automation. We feel that a mobile device is a great fit for bringing this idea to fruition. While this project is merely a concept and not directly associated with Microsofts Hohm web service, it provides a great model for communicating the concept. I wanted to take the idea a step further and combine saving energy in your home with the ability to track water usage and control your home devices. I designed an application that focuses on total home control and not just energy usage. Application Overview By monitoring home consumption in real time and with yearly projections users can pinpoint vampire devices, times of high or low consumption, and wasteful patterns of energy use. Energy usage meters indicate total current consumption as well as individual device consumption. Users can then use the information to take action, make adjustments, and change their consumption behaviors. The app can be used to automate certain systems like lighting, temperature, or alarms. Other features can be turned on an off at the touch of a toggle switch on your phone, away from home. Forget to turn off the TV or shut the garage door? No problem, you can do it from your phone. Through settings you can enable and disable features of the phone that apply to your home making it a completely customized and convenient experience. To be clear, this equates to more security, big environmental impact, and even bigger savings.   Design and User Interface  Since this panorama application is designed for win phone 7 devices, it complies with the UI Design and Interaction Guide for wp7. I developed the frame and page hierarchy from existing examples. The interface takes advantage of the interactive nature of touch screens with slider controls, pivot control views, and toggle switches to turn on and off devices (not shown in mockup). I followed recommendations for text based elements and adapted the tile notifications to display the most recent user activity. For example, the mockup indicates upon launching the app that the last thing you did was program the thermostat. This model is great for quick launching common user actions. One last design feature to point out is the technical reasons for supplying both light and dark themes for the app. Since this application is targeting energy consumption it only makes sense to consider the effect of the apps background color or image on the phones energy use. When displaying darker colors like black the OLED display may use less power, extending battery life. Other Considerations For now I left out options of wind and solar powered energy options because they are not available to everyone. Renewable energy sources and new technologies associated with them are definitely ideas to keep in mind for a next iteration. Another idea to explore for such an application would be to include a savings model similar to mint.com. In addition to general energy-saving recommendations the application could recommend customized ways to save based on your current utility providers and available options in your area. If your television or refrigerator is guilty of sucking a lot of energy then you may see recommendations for energy star products that could save you even more money! Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • Book Reviews: Art of Community and Eyetracking Web Usability

    - by ultan o'broin
    Holidays time offers a chance to catch up on some user experience and user assistance related material. So, two short book reviews (which I considered using my new Tumblr blog for. More about that another time) coming up. The Art of Community by Jono Bacon Excellent starting point for anyone wanting to get going in the community software (FLOSS, for example) space or understand how to set up, manage, and leverage the collective intelligence of communities for whatever ends. The book is a little too long in my opinion, and of course, usage of what Jono is recommending needs to be nuanced and adapted for enterprise applications space (hardly surprising there is a lot about Ubuntu, Lug Radio, and so on given Jono's interests). Shame there wasn't more information on international, non-English community considerations too. Still, some great ideas and insight into setting up and managing communities that I will leverage (watch out for the results on this blog, later in 2011). One section, on collaborative writing really jumped out. It reinforced the whole idea that to successful community initiatives are based on instigators knowing what makes the community tick in the first place. How about this for insight into user profiles for people who write community user assistance (OK then, "doc") and what tools they might use (in this case, we're talking about Jokosher): "Most people who write documentation for open source software projects would fall into the category of power user. They are technology enthusiasts who are not interested in the super-technical avenues of programming, but want to help out. Many of these people have good writing skills and a good knowledge of using the software, so the documentation fit is natural. With Jokosher we wanted to acknowledge this profile of user. As such, instead of focussing on complex text processing tools, we encouraged our documentation contributors to use a wiki." The book is available for free here, and well as being available from usual sources. Eyetracking Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Kara Prentice Another fine book by established experts. I have some field experience of eyetracking studies myself --in the user assistance for enterprise applications space--though Jakob and Kara concentrate on websites for their research here. I would caution how much about websites transfers easily to the applications space, especially enterprise applications, as claimed in the book too. However, Jakob and Kara do make the case very well that understanding design goals (for example, productivity improvement in the case of applications) and the context of the software use is critical. Executing a study using eyetracking technology requires that you know what you want to test, can set up realistic tasks for testing by representative testers, and then analyze the results. Be precise, as lots of data will be generated (I think the authors underplay the effort in analyzing data too). What I found disappointing was the lack of emphasis on eyetracking as only part of the usability solution. It's really for fine-tuning designs in my opinion, and should be used after other design reviews. I also wasn't that crazy about the level of disengagement between the qualitative and quantitative side of this kind of testing that the book indicated. I think it is useful to have testers verbalize their thoughts and for test engineers to prompt, intervene, or guide as necessary. More on cultural or international aspects to usability testing might have been included too (websites are available to everyone). To conclude, I enjoyed the book, took on board some key takeaways about methodologies and found the recommendations sensible and easy to follow (for example about Forms layouts). Applying enterprise applications requirements such as those relating to user profiles, design goals, and overall context of use in conjunction with what's in this book would be the way to go here. It also made me think of how interesting it would be to compare eyetracking findings between website and enterprise applications usage.

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