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• Updating physics for animated models

  - by Mathias Hölzl

  For a new game we have do set up a scene with a minimum of 30 bone animated models.(shooter) The problem is that the update process for the animated models takes too long. Thats what I do: Each character has ~30 bones and for every update tick the animation gets calculated and every bone fires a event with the new matrix. The physics receives the event with the new matrix and updates the collision shape for that bone. The time that it takes to build the animation isn't that bad (0.2ms for 30 Bones - 6ms for 30 models). But the main problem is that the physic engine (Bullet) uses a diffrent matrix for transformation and so its necessary to convert it. Code for matrix conversion: (~0.005ms) btTransform CLEAR_PHYSICS_API Mat_to_btTransform( Mat mat ) { btMatrix3x3 bulletRotation; btVector3 bulletPosition; XMFLOAT4X4 matData = mat.GetStorage(); // copy rotation matrix for ( int row=0; row<3; ++row ) for ( int column=0; column<3; ++column ) bulletRotation[row][column] = matData.m[column][row]; for ( int column=0; column<3; ++column ) bulletPosition[column] = matData.m[3][column]; return btTransform( bulletRotation, bulletPosition ); } The function for updating the transform(Physic): void CLEAR_PHYSICS_API BulletPhysics::VKinematicMove(Mat mat, ActorId aid) { if ( btRigidBody * const body = FindActorBody( aid ) ) { btTransform tmp = Mat_to_btTransform( mat ); body->setWorldTransform( tmp ); } } The real problem is the function FindActorBody(id): ActorIDToBulletActorMap::const_iterator found = m_actorBodies.find( id ); if ( found != m_actorBodies.end() ) return found->second; All physic actors are stored in m_actorBodies and thats why the updating process takes to long. But I have no idea how I could avoid this. Friendly greedings, Mathias

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• Map building - Tower Defense

  - by Dan K

  Before diving too deep into my question, let it be known that I am learning as far as java script goes and figured a simple Tower Defense game would be an excellent way to learn things. So I have found a simple background image with a path drawn on it and my question is how would I go about building a path so that I can animate my objects. Would I have to take the image and overlay a grid system, or can I store the path in some sort of array and have my objects move across it? Here is the background image:

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• Secure login for a game that is open source

  - by David Park

  I am making a game which i will be open sourcing. Its a simple arcade like game but requires a network connection because it is meant to be played with other people. The thing i am worrying about is how would i be sure that the client is the one that i put out for the end user to play with? Kind of a like of sv_pure for Team Fortress 2. I was thinking of different ways to combat this such as the server requesting the client's version or even it's md5 hash but people with simple java knowledge could just force a method to always return what the server wants.

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• Best way to store a large amount of game objects and update the ones onscreen

  - by user3002473

  Good afternoon guys! I'm a young beginner game developer working on my first large scale game project and I've run into a situation where I'm not quite sure what the best solution may be (if there is a lone solution). The question may be vague (if anyone can think of a better title after having read the question, please edit it) or broad but I'm not quite sure what to do and I thought it would help just to discuss the problem with people more educated in the field. Before we get started, here are some of the questions I've looked at for help in the past: Best way to keep track of game objects Elegant way to simulate large amounts of entities within a game world What is the most efficient container to store dynamic game objects in? I've also read articles about different data structures commonly used in games to store game objects such as this one about slot maps, but none of them are really what I'm looking for. Also, if it helps at all I'm using Python 3 to design the game. It has to be Python 3, if I could I would use C++ or Unityscript or something else, but I'm restricted to having to use Python 3. My game will be a form of side scroller shooter game. In said game the player will traverse large rooms with large amounts of enemies and other game objects to update (think some of the larger areas in Cave Story or Iji). The player obviously can't see the entire room all at once, so there is a viewport that follows the player around and renders only a selection of the room and the game objects that it contains. This is not a foreign concept. The part that's getting me confused has to do with how certain game objects are updated. Some of them are to be updated constantly, regardless of whether or not they can be seen. Other objects however are only to be updated when they are onscreen (for example, an enemy would only be updated to react to the player when it is onscreen or when it is in a certain range of the screen). Another problem is that game objects have to be easily referable by other game objects; something that happens in the player's update() method may affect another object in the world. Collision detection in games is always a serious problem. I need a way of containing the game objects such that it minimizes the number of cases when testing for collisions against one another. The final problem is that of creating and destroying game objects. I think this problem is pretty self explanatory. To store the game objects then I've considered a number of different methods. The original method I had was to simply store all the objects in a hash table by an id. This method was simple, and decently fast as it allows all the objects to be looked up in O(1) complexity, and also allows them to be deleted fairly easily. Hash collisions would not be a major problem; I wasn't originally planning on using computer generated ids to store the game objects I was going to rely on them all using ids given to them by the game designer (such names would be strings like 'Player' or 'EnemyWeapon4'), and even if I did use computer generated ids, if I used a decent hashing algorithm then the chances of collisions would be around 1 in 4 billion. The problem with using a hash table however is that it is inefficient in checking to see what objects are in range of the viewport. Considering the fact that certain game objects move (as well as the viewport itself), the only solution I could think of in order to only update objects that are in the viewport would be to iterate through every object in the hash table and check if it is in the viewport or not, updating only the ones that are in the valid area. This would be incredibly slow in scenarios where the amount of game objects exceeds 500, or even 200. The second solution was to store everything in a 2-d list. The world is partitioned up into cells (a tilemap essentially), where each cell or tile is the same size and is square. Each cell would contain a list of the game objects that are currently occupying it (each game object would be inserted into a cell depending on the center of the object's collision mask). A 2-d list would allow me to take the top-left and bottom-right corners of the viewport and easily grab a rectangular area of the grid containing only the cells containing entities that are in valid range to be updated. This method also solves the problem of collision detection; when I take an entity I can find the cell that it is currently in, then check only against entities in it's cell and the 8 cells around it. One problem with this system however is that it prohibits easy lookup of game objects. One solution I had would be to simultaneously keep a hash table that would contain all the positions of the objects in the 2-d list indexed by the id of said object. The major problem with a 2-d list is that it would need to be rebuilt every single game frame (along with the hash table of object positions), which may be a serious detriment to game speed. Both systems have ups and downs and seem to solve some of each other's problems, however using them both together doesn't seem like the best solution either. If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, comments, opinions or solutions on new data structures or better implementations of the existing data structures I have in mind, please post, any and all criticism and help is welcome. Thanks in advance! EDIT: Please don't close the question because it has a bad title, I'm just bad with names!

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• Difference between the terms Material & Effect

  - by codey

  I'm making an effect system right now (I think, because it may be a material system... or both!). The effects system follows the common (e.g. COLLADA, DirectX) effect framework abstraction of Effects have Techniques, Techniques have Passes, Passes have States & Shader Programs. An effect, according to COLLADA, defines the equations necessary for the visual appearance of geometry and screen-space image processing. Keeping with the abstraction, effects contain techniques. Each effect can contain one or many techniques (i.e. ways to generate the effect), each of which describes a different method for rendering that effect. The technique could be relate to quality (e.g. high precision, high LOD, etc.), or in-game-situation (e.g. night/day, power-up-mode, etc.). Techniques hold a description of the textures, samplers, shaders, parameters, & passes necessary for rendering this effect using one method. Some algorithms require several passes to render the effect. Pipeline descriptions are broken into an ordered collection of Pass objects. A pass provides a static declaration of all the render states, shaders, & settings for "one rendering pipeline" (i.e. one pass). Meshes usually contain a series of materials that define the model. According to the COLLADA spec (again), a material instantiates an effect, fills its parameters with values, & selects a technique. But I see material defined differently in other places, such as just the Lambert, Blinn, Phong "material types/shaded surfaces", or as Metal, Plastic, Wood, etc. In game dev forums, people often talk about implementing a "material/effect system". Is the material not an instance of an effect? Ergo, if I had effect objects, stored in a collection, & each effect instance object with there own parameter setting, then there is no need for the concept of a material... Or am I interpreting it wrong? Please help by contributing your interpretations as I want to be clear on a distinction (if any), & don't want to miss out on the concept of a material if it should be implemented to follow the abstraction of the DirectX FX framework & COLLADA definitions closely.

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• Loading Wavefront Data into VAO and Render It

  - by Jordan LaPrise

  I have successfully loaded a triangulated wavefront(.obj) into 6 vectors, the first 3 vectors contain the locations for vertices, uv coords, and normals. The last three have the indices stored for each of the faces. I have been looking into using VAO's and VBO's to render, and I'm not quite sure how to load and render the data. One of my biggest concerns is the fact that indexed rendering only allows you to have one array of indices, meaning I somehow have to make all of the first three vectors the same size, the only way I thought of doing this, is to make 3 new vertex's of equal size, and load in the data for each face, but that would completely defeat the purpose of indexing. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Jordan

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• 2D Planet Gravity

  - by baked

  I'm trying to make a simple game where a spaceship is launched and then its path is effected by the gravity of planets. Similar to this game: http://sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/gravity.html I wish to know how to replicate the effect the planets have on the spaceship in this game so a spaceship can 'loop' around a planet to change direction. I have managed to achieve some bogus results where the spaceship loops in a huge ellipse around the planet or is only slightly affected by the gravity of a planet using Vectors. Thanks in advance. p.s I have plenty of coding experience just none to do with game dev.

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• Tessellation Texture Coordinates

  - by Stuart Martin

  Firstly some info - I'm using DirectX 11 , C++ and I'm a fairly good programmer but new to tessellation and not a master graphics programmer. I'm currently implementing a tessellation system for a terrain model, but i have reached a snag. My current system produces a terrain model from a height map complete with multiple texture coordinates, normals, binormals and tangents for rendering. Now when i was using a simple vertex and pixel shader combination everything worked perfectly but since moving to include a hull and domain shader I'm slightly confused and getting strange results. My terrain is a high detail model but the textured results are very large patches of solid colour. My current setup passes the model data into the vertex shader then through the hull into the domain and then finally into the pixel shader for use in rendering. My only thought is that in my hull shader i pass the information into the domain shader per patch and this is producing the large areas of solid colour because each patch has identical information. Lighting and normal data are also slightly off but not as visibly as texturing. Below is a copy of my hull shader that does not work correctly because i think the way that i am passing the data through is incorrect. If anyone can help me out but suggesting an alternative way to get the required data into the pixel shader? or by showing me the correct way to handle the data in the hull shader id be very thankful! cbuffer TessellationBuffer { float tessellationAmount; float3 padding; }; struct HullInputType { float3 position : POSITION; float2 tex : TEXCOORD0; float3 normal : NORMAL; float3 tangent : TANGENT; float3 binormal : BINORMAL; float2 tex2 : TEXCOORD1; }; struct ConstantOutputType { float edges[3] : SV_TessFactor; float inside : SV_InsideTessFactor; }; struct HullOutputType { float3 position : POSITION; float2 tex : TEXCOORD0; float3 normal : NORMAL; float3 tangent : TANGENT; float3 binormal : BINORMAL; float2 tex2 : TEXCOORD1; float4 depthPosition : TEXCOORD2; }; ConstantOutputType ColorPatchConstantFunction(InputPatch<HullInputType, 3> inputPatch, uint patchId : SV_PrimitiveID) { ConstantOutputType output; output.edges[0] = tessellationAmount; output.edges[1] = tessellationAmount; output.edges[2] = tessellationAmount; output.inside = tessellationAmount; return output; } [domain("tri")] [partitioning("integer")] [outputtopology("triangle_cw")] [outputcontrolpoints(3)] [patchconstantfunc("ColorPatchConstantFunction")] HullOutputType ColorHullShader(InputPatch<HullInputType, 3> patch, uint pointId : SV_OutputControlPointID, uint patchId : SV_PrimitiveID) { HullOutputType output; output.position = patch[pointId].position; output.tex = patch[pointId].tex; output.tex2 = patch[pointId].tex2; output.normal = patch[pointId].normal; output.tangent = patch[pointId].tangent; output.binormal = patch[pointId].binormal; return output; } Edited to include the domain shader:- [domain("tri")] PixelInputType ColorDomainShader(ConstantOutputType input, float3 uvwCoord : SV_DomainLocation, const OutputPatch<HullOutputType, 3> patch) { float3 vertexPosition; PixelInputType output; // Determine the position of the new vertex. vertexPosition = uvwCoord.x * patch[0].position + uvwCoord.y * patch[1].position + uvwCoord.z * patch[2].position; output.position = mul(float4(vertexPosition, 1.0f), worldMatrix); output.position = mul(output.position, viewMatrix); output.position = mul(output.position, projectionMatrix); output.depthPosition = output.position; output.tex = patch[0].tex; output.tex2 = patch[0].tex2; output.normal = patch[0].normal; output.tangent = patch[0].tangent; output.binormal = patch[0].binormal; return output; }

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• Serverside memory efficiency and threading for a turn based game

  - by SkeletorFromEterenia

  Im programming on a turn based war-game for some years now (along with the engine) and Im having quite a hard time at figuring out what the games server architecture should look like, since most game server architecture articles I found focus either on FPS oder MMOGs, which doesn't really fit since I want many matches with 1- 16 players on my server, with each match being played in turn based mode. My chief concern is memory usage, since the most basic approach of loading every game that is being played completely into RAM should be quite inefficient, so is there a suitable strategy for selecting only the needed bits and loading them? Another question I got is how to design the threading on the server, since I think using only a single thread could be a problem due to the fact that the game or part of it might have to be loaded from the database. I would be very happy if you could share your knowledge or point me to material on this topic.

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• Shader optimization - cg/hlsl pseudo and via multiplication

  - by teodron

  Since HLSL/Cg do not allow texture fetching inside conditional blocks, I am first checking a variable and performing some computations, afterwards setting a float flag to 0.0 or 1.0, depending on the computations. I'd like to trigger a texture fetch only if the flag is 1.0 or not null, for that matter of fact. I kind of hoped this would do the trick: float4 TU0_atlas_colour = pseudoBool * tex2Dlod(TU0_texture, float4(tileCoord, 0, mipLevel)); That is, if pseudoBool is 0, will the texture fetch function still be called and produce overhead? I was hoping to prevent it from getting executed via this trick that usually works in plain C/C++.

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• I'm looking for a better solution on importing catalog data into Adobe InDesign

  - by John Thompson

  The last time I produced a catalog I used a software called EasyCatalog that worked with Adobe InDesign to merge data from a spreadsheet with graphics. I wouldn’t say it was completely successful. I know of one other catalog building software called Catalog Builder by Computer Pundits. I'm just looking for any suggestions from someone who might have gone through this process on what software I should use.

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• What's New in Database Lifecycle Management in Enterprise Manager 12c Release 3

  - by HariSrinivasan

  Enterprise Manager 12c Release 3 includes improvements and enhancements across every area of the product. This blog provides an overview of the new and enhanced features in the Database Lifecycle Management area. I will deep dive into specific features more in depth in subsequent posts. "What's New?"  In this release, we focused on four things: 1. Lifecycle Management Support for new Database12c - Pluggable Databases 2. Management of long running processes, such as a security patch cycle (Change Activity Planner) 3. Management of large number of systems by · Leveraging new framework capabilities for lifecycle operations, such as the new advanced ‘emcli’ script option · Refining features such as configuration search and compliance 4. Minor improvements and quality fixes to existing features · Rollback support for Single instance databases · Improved "OFFLINE" Patching experience · Faster collection of ORACLE_HOME configurations Lifecycle Management Support for new Database 12c - Pluggable Databases Database 12c introduces Pluggable Databases (PDBs), the brand new addition to help you achieve your consolidation goals. Pluggable databases offer unprecedented consolidation at database level and native lifecycle verbs for creating, plugging and unplugging the databases on a container database (CDB). Enterprise Manager can supplement the capabilities of pluggable databases by offering workflows for migrating, provisioning and cloning them using the software library and the deployment procedures. For example, Enterprise Manager can migrate an existing database to a PDB or clone a PDB by storing a versioned copy in the software library. One can also manage the planned downtime related to patching by  migrating the PDBs to a new CDB. While pluggable databases offer these exciting features, it can also pose configuration management and compliance challenges if not managed properly. Enterprise Manager features like inventory management, topology associations and configuration search can mitigate the sprawl of PDBs and also lock them to predefined golden standards using configuration comparison and compliance rules. Learn More ... Management of Long Running datacenter processes - Change Activity Planner (CAP) Currently, customers resort to cumbersome methods to create, execute, track and monitor change activities within their data center. Some customers use traditional tools such as spreadsheets, project planners and in-house custom built solutions. Customers often have weekly sync up meetings across stake holders to collect status and updates. Some of the change activities, for example the quarterly patch set update (PSU) patch rollouts are not single tasks but processes with multiple tasks. Some of those tasks are performed within Enterprise Manager Cloud Control (for example Patch) and some are performed outside of Enterprise Manager Cloud Control. These tasks often run for a longer period of time and involve multiple people or teams. Enterprise Manger Cloud Control supports core data center operations such as configuration management, compliance management, and automation. Enterprise Manager Cloud Control release 12.1.0.3 leverages these capabilities and introduces the Change Activity Planner (CAP). CAP provides the ability to plan, execute, and track change activities in real time. It covers the typical datacenter activities that are spread over a long period of time, across multiple people and multiple targets (even target types). Here are some examples of Change Activity Process in a datacenter: · Patching large environments (PSU/CPU Patching cycles) · Upgrading large number of database environments · Rolling out Compliance Rules · Database Consolidation to Exadata environments CAP provides user flows for Compliance Officers/Managers (incl. lead administrators) and Operators (DBAs and admins). Managers can create change activity plans for various projects, allocate resources, targets, and groups affected. Upon activation of the plan, tasks are created and automatically assigned to individual administrators based on target ownership. Administrators (DBAs) can identify their tasks and understand the context, schedules, and priorities. They can complete tasks using Enterprise Manager Cloud Control automation features such as patch plans (or in some cases outside Enterprise Manager). Upon completion, compliance is evaluated for validations and updates the status of the tasks and the plans. Learn More about CAP ...  Improved Configuration & Compliance Management of a large number of systems Improved Configuration Comparison:  Get to the configuration comparison results faster for simple ad-hoc comparisons. When performing a 1 to 1 comparison, Enterprise Manager will perform the comparison immediately and take the user directly to the results without having to wait for a job to be submitted and executed. Flattened system comparisons reduce comparison setup time and reduce complexity. In addition to the previously existing topological comparison, users now have an option to compare using a “flattened” methodology. Flattening means to remove duplicate target instances within the systems and remove the hierarchy of member targets. The result are much easier to spot differences particularly for specific use cases like comparing patch levels between complex systems like RAC and Fusion Apps. Improved Configuration Search & Advanced EMCLI Script option for Mass Automation Enterprise manager 12c introduces a new framework level capability to be able to script and stitch together multiple tasks using EMCLI. This powerful capability can be leveraged for lifecycle operations, especially when executing a task over a large number of targets. Specific usages of this include, retrieving a qualified list of targets using Configuration Search and then using the resultset for automation. Another example would be executing a patching operation and then re-executing on targets where it may have failed. This is complemented by other enhancements, such as a better usability for designing reusable configuration searches. IN EM 12c Rel 3, a simplified UI makes building adhoc searches even easier. Searching for missing patches is a common use of configuration search. This required the use of the advanced options which are now clearly defined and easy to use. Perform “Configuration Search” using the EMCLI. Users can find and execute Configuration Searches from the EMCLI which can be extremely useful for building sophisticated automation scripts. For an example, Run the Search named “Oracle Databases on Exadata” which finds all Database targets running on top of Exadata. Further filter the results by refining by options like name, host, etc.. emcli get_targets -config_search="Databases on Exadata" –target_name="exa%“ Use this in powerful mass automation operations using the new emcli script option. For example, to solve the use case of – Finding all DBs running on Exadata and housing E-Biz and Patch them. Create a Python script with emcli functions and invoke it in the new EMCLI script option shell. Invoke the script in the new EMCLI with script option directly: $<path to emcli>/emcli @myPSU_Patch.py Richer compliance content:  Now over 50 Oracle Provided Compliance Standards including new standards for Pluggable Database, Fusion Applications, Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle VM and Internet Directory. 9 Oracle provided Real Time Monitoring Standards containing over 900 Compliance Rules across 500 Facets. These new Real time Compliance Standards covers both Exadata Compute nodes and Linux servers. The result is increased Oracle software coverage and faster time to compliance monitoring on Exadata. Enhancements to Patch Management: Overhauled "OFFLINE" Patching experience: Simplified Patch uploads UI to improve the offline experience of patching. There is now a single step process to get the patches into software library. Customers often maintain local repositories of patches, sometimes called software depots, where they host the patches downloaded from My Oracle Support. In the past, you had to move these patches to your desktop then upload them to the Enterprise Manager's Software library through the Enterprise Manager Cloud Control user interface. You can now use the following EMCLI command to upload multiple patches directly from a remote location within the data center: $emcli upload_patches -location <Path to Patch directory> -from_host <HOSTNAME> The upload process filters all of the new patches, automatically selects the relevant metadata files from the location, and uploads the patches to software library. Other Improvements:  Patch rollback for single instance databases, new option in the Patch Plan to rollback the patches added to the patch plans. Upon execution, the procedure would rollback the patch and the SQL applied to the single instance Databases. Improved and faster configuration collection of Oracle Home targets can enable more reliable automation at higher level functions like Provisioning, Patching or Database as a Service. Just to recap, here is a list of database lifecycle management features:  * Red highlights mark – New or Enhanced in the Release 3. • Discovery, inventory tracking and reporting • Database provisioning including o Migration to Pluggable databases o Plugging and unplugging of pluggable databases o Gold image based cloning o Scaling of RAC nodes •Schema and data change management •End-to-end patch management in online and offline modes, including o Patch advisories in online (connected with My Oracle Support) and offline mode o Patch pre-deployment analysis, deployment and rollback (currently only for single instance databases) o Reporting • Upgrade planning and execution of the upgrade process • Configuration management including • Compliance management with out-of-box content • Change Activity Planner for planning, designing and tracking long running processes For more information on Enterprise Manager’s database lifecycle management capabilities, visit http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/lifecycle-mgmt/index.html

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• Changing the material on an object on click in unity

  - by user1509674

  Iam working on unity2d.I have six game object Object1,Object1,Object1,(these are images) ObjectImage1,ObjectImage2,ObjectImage3(these are images). I have arranged the object in the scene as a list one below another Object1 Object2 Object3 When I click the Object1 --- should change to ObjectImage1 Object2 ----should change to ObjectImage2, but the above image of object1(objectImage1) at present should change to Object1 Object3 ----? should change to ObjectImage3,but the above image on object2(objectImage2) should change to Object2 These is similar to selection.I have coded Like when I click of Object2 its changing to ObjectIamge2 but the first object is not changing to object1 from objectImage1.Can anybody help me coding it out. Edit: public GameObject newSprite; private Vector3 currentSpritePosition; void Start() { newSprite.renderer.enabled = false; currentSpritePosition = transform.position; //then make it invisible renderer.enabled = false; //give the new sprite the position of the latter newSprite.transform.position = currentSpritePosition; //then make it visible newSprite.renderer.enabled = true; } void OnMouseExit(){ //just the reverse process renderer.enabled = true; newSprite.renderer.enabled = false; } This is the code used to change the material: public GameObject newSprite; private Vector3 currentSpritePosition; void Start(){ newSprite.renderer.enabled = false; } void OnMouseEnter(){ //getting the current position of the current sprite if ever it can move; currentSpritePosition = transform.position; //then make it invisible renderer.enabled = false; //give the new sprite the position of the latter newSprite.transform.position = currentSpritePosition; //then make it visible newSprite.renderer.enabled = true; } void OnMouseExit(){ //just the reverse process renderer.enabled = true; newSprite.renderer.enabled = false; }

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• Examples of 2D side-scrollers that achieve open non-linear feel?

  - by Milosz Falinski

  I'm working on a 2.5D platformer prototype that aims for an open feel while maintaining familiar core mechanics. Now, there's some obvious challenges with creating a non constricted feel in a spatially constricted environment. What I'm interested in, is examples of how game designers deal with the "here's a level, beat the bad guys/puzzles to get to the next level" design that seems so natural to most platformers (eg. Mario/Braid/Pid/Meat Boy to name a few). Some ideas for achieving openness I've come across include: One obvious successful example is Terraria, which achieves openness simply through complexity and flexibility of the game-system Another example that comes to mind is Cave Story. Game is non-linear, offers multiple choices and side-stories Mario, Rayman and some other 'classics' with a top-down level selection. I actually really dislike this as it never did anything for me emotionally and just seems like a bit of a lazy way to do things. Note: I've not actually had much experience with most of the 'classical' console platformers, apart from the obvious Marios/Zeldas/Metroids, since I've grown up on adventure games. By that I mean, it's entirely possible that I simply missed some games that solve the problem really well and are by some considered obvious 'classics'.

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• Has anyone else read "Programming video games for the Evil Genius"

  - by Martin

  I bought this book called "Programming Video Games for the Evil Genius" by Ian Cinnamon. If there is anyone who has read or is familiar with this book I am wondering if they think it is worth reading. I am interested in making video games. I have already taken intro courses in C++, Java and Python and got through okay. I've been going through this book for about a month now(SLOWLY). All I have to do is type the code exactly in the book, BUT a lot of the code is not clearly explained. I do some research online but I usually still have some trouble answering my questions. Then I found stack overflow. It's been a ton of help. Right now I am trying to make a racing game right out of this book and I got to a point where the author left a bunch of errors in his code. One of the members of this website fixed it up for me, but added some stuff that I'm having trouble understanding. I spend more time trying to figure out the authors errors and fix them or get someone to help me fix them than I actually do learning code. I REALLY want to learn how to do this and I am ready and willing to put in the time, but I'm not sure if my time would be better spent learning from a different source. Are there any veterans out there that are familiar with this book and think it's worth it/not worth it? Should I try to move onto another book? Any advice for a fresh start for someone who wants to learn some video game programming?

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• Make Pong on android using OpenGL-ES

  - by brainydexter

  I am trying to make a simple pong game using opengl-es. I have checked out some of the tutorials/samples, but most of them are pre-dated to 2009. I am familiar with game programming, and consider pong to be the hello-world! Right now, I intend to make it using their supplied SDK (2.3), but eventually I want to make it in NDK, so I can port my other work to android. Would anyone have a good reference for a starting point ? Thanks

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• Keeping game model and graphics/animation separate but in sync

  - by AJM

  Suppose I'm building a chess game where I want to have animations. Pieces glide to their new squares when moved. Pieces perform attack animations when capturing other pieces. I'm not sure how to effectively separate the data and logic needed for these animations and the actual game model (in the MVC sense). The pieces themselves should ideally not have to worry about their pixel coordinates or current animation frame. At the same time, many changes to the model are effectively driven by animations. A moved piece changes its position after (before?) its sprite is done gliding. A piece is removed from the board after the capturing piece is finished its attack animation. How would you suggest I manage the game model, the graphics and animations, and their relationships? For example, where would the animations "live"? How would animations be created and managed in response to player moves? How would animations drive updates to the game model, or how would the game model drive animations?

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• Using gluLookAt to move camera in 2D iPhone game ?

  - by Mr.Gando

  Hey guys, I'm trying to use gluLookAt to move the camera in my iPhone game, but every time I've tried to use gluLookAt my screen just goes "blank" ( grey in this case ) I'm trying to render a simple triangle and to move the camera, this is my code: to setup my scene I do: glViewport(0, 0, backingWidth, backingHeight); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); glRotatef(-90.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0); //using iPhone in horizontal mode glOrthof(-240, 240, -160, 160, -1, 1); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); then my "triangle rendering" code looks like: GLfloat triangle[] = {0, 100, 100, 0, -100, 0,}; glClearColor(0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 1.0); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glColor4f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0); glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, &triangle); glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 6); glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); This draws a red triangle in the middle of the screen, when I try to apply gluLookAt ( I got the implementation of the function from Cocos2D so I asume it's correct ), i do: glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,1); // try to move the camera a bit ? GLfloat triangle[] = {0, 100, 100, 0, -100, 0,}; glClearColor(0.7, 0.7, 0.7, 1.0); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glColor4f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0); glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, &triangle); glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 6); glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); This leads me to grey screen (glClearColor is grey), I've tried all sort of things and read what I've found about gluLookAt on the net, but no luck :(, if someone could explain me or show me how to move to move the camera in a top-down fashion ( zelda, etc ), I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

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• How to make an arc'd, but not mario-like jump in python, pygame [duplicate]

  - by PythonInProgress

  This question already has an answer here: Arc'd jumping method? 2 answers Analysis of Mario game Physics [closed] 6 answers I have looked at many, many questions similar to this, and cannot find a simple answer that includes the needed code. What i am trying to do is raise the y value of a square for a certain amount of time, then raise it a bit more, then a bit more, then lower it twice. I cant figure out how to use acceleration/friction, and might want to do that too. P.S. - can someone tell me if i should post this on stackoverflow or not? Thanks all! Edit: What i am looking for is not mario-like physics, but a simple equation that can be used to increase then decrease height over the time over a few seconds.

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• GLM Velocity Vectors - Basic Maths to Simulate Steering

  - by Reanimation

  UPDATE - Code updated below but still need help adjusting my math. I have a cube rendered on the screen which represents a car (or similar). Using Projection/Model matrices and Glm I am able to move it back and fourth along the axes and rotate it left or right. I'm having trouble with the vector mathematics to make the cube move forwards no matter which direction it's current orientation is. (ie. if I would like, if it's rotated right 30degrees, when it's move forwards, it travels along the 30degree angle on a new axes). I hope I've explained that correctly. This is what I've managed to do so far in terms of using glm to move the cube: glm::vec3 vel; //velocity vector void renderMovingCube(){ glUseProgram(movingCubeShader.handle()); GLuint matrixLoc4MovingCube = glGetUniformLocation(movingCubeShader.handle(), "ProjectionMatrix"); glUniformMatrix4fv(matrixLoc4MovingCube, 1, GL_FALSE, &ProjectionMatrix[0][0]); glm::mat4 viewMatrixMovingCube; viewMatrixMovingCube = glm::lookAt(camOrigin, camLookingAt, camNormalXYZ); vel.x = cos(rotX); vel.y=sin(rotX); vel*=moveCube; //move cube ModelViewMatrix = glm::translate(viewMatrixMovingCube,globalPos*vel); //bring ground and cube to bottom of screen ModelViewMatrix = glm::translate(ModelViewMatrix, glm::vec3(0,-48,0)); ModelViewMatrix = glm::rotate(ModelViewMatrix, rotX, glm::vec3(0,1,0)); //manually turn glUniformMatrix4fv(glGetUniformLocation(movingCubeShader.handle(), "ModelViewMatrix"), 1, GL_FALSE, &ModelViewMatrix[0][0]); //pass matrix to shader movingCube.render(); //draw glUseProgram(0); } keyboard input: void keyboard() { char BACKWARD = keys['S']; char FORWARD = keys['W']; char ROT_LEFT = keys['A']; char ROT_RIGHT = keys['D']; if (FORWARD) //W - move forwards { globalPos += vel; //globalPos.z -= moveCube; BACKWARD = false; } if (BACKWARD)//S - move backwards { globalPos.z += moveCube; FORWARD = false; } if (ROT_LEFT)//A - turn left { rotX +=0.01f; ROT_LEFT = false; } if (ROT_RIGHT)//D - turn right { rotX -=0.01f; ROT_RIGHT = false; } Where am I going wrong with my vectors? I would like change the direction of the cube (which it does) but then move forwards in that direction.

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• What are some good examples of exuberant in-game instructions for telling the player to repeatedly smash a button?

  - by Michael

  What are some good examples of exuberant in-game instructions for telling the player to repeatedly and quickly press a button or perform an action? I'm especially interested in examples in retro games (e.g., from the NES, SNES, and 1980-90s arcade eras), and I would love to see examples with text, graphics, or both. To illustrate, here are a few examples of the type of instructions that I'm thinking of: Smash the A button to lift something heavy! Toggle the joystick back and forth to break free! Quickly press the button to build power in a meter! I'm working on a 2D iOS game with retro-style pixel art, and there's a point where I want the player to quickly tap on a sprite to complete an action. I have a serviceable starting point -- the word "TAP" flashing with an arrow repeatedly moving downward beneath it: But it still doesn't feel quite right. I would love to see some actual examples from the golden days of 2D gaming to use as reference material. I know examples abound, but I'm just struggling to think of any concrete ones at the moment. Can you think of any examples of this type of thing in old games?

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• LibGdx efficient data saving/loading?

  - by grimrader22

  Currently, my LibGDX game consists of a 512 x 512 map of Tiles and entities such as players and monsters. I am wondering how to efficiently save and load the data of my levels. At the moment I am using JSON serialization for each class I want to save. I implement the Json.Serializable interface for all of these classes and write only the variables that are necessary. So my map consists of 512 x 512 tiles, that's 260,000 tiles. Each tile on the map consists of a Tile object, which points to some final Tile object like a GRASS_TILE or a STONE_TILE. When I serialize each level tile, the final Tile that it points to is re-serialized over and over again, so if I have 100 Tiles all pointing to GRASS_TILE, the data of GRASS_TILE is written 100 times over. When I go to load/deserialize my objects, 100 GrassTile objects are created, but they are each their own object. They no longer point to the final tile object. I feel like this reading/writing files very slow. If I were to abandon JSON serialization, to my knowledge my next best option would be saving the level data to a sql database. Unless there is a way to speed up serializing/deserializing 260,000 tiles I may have to do this. Is this a good idea? Could I really write that many tiles to the database efficiently? To sum all this up, I am trying to save my levels using JSON serialization, but it is VERY slow. What other options do I have for saving the data of so many tiles. I also must note that the JSON serialization is not slow on a PC, it is only VERY slow on a mobile device. Since file writing/reading is so slow on mobile devices, what can I do?

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• Why am I not getting an sRGB default framebuffer?

  - by Aaron Rotenberg

  I'm trying to make my OpenGL Haskell program gamma correct by making appropriate use of sRGB framebuffers and textures, but I'm running into issues making the default framebuffer sRGB. Consider the following Haskell program, compiled for 32-bit Windows using GHC and linked against 32-bit freeglut: import Foreign.Marshal.Alloc(alloca) import Foreign.Ptr(Ptr) import Foreign.Storable(Storable, peek) import Graphics.Rendering.OpenGL.Raw import qualified Graphics.UI.GLUT as GLUT import Graphics.UI.GLUT(($=)) main :: IO () main = do (_progName, _args) <- GLUT.getArgsAndInitialize GLUT.initialDisplayMode $= [GLUT.SRGBMode] _window <- GLUT.createWindow "sRGB Test" -- To prove that I actually have freeglut working correctly. -- This will fail at runtime under classic GLUT. GLUT.closeCallback $= Just (return ()) glEnable gl_FRAMEBUFFER_SRGB colorEncoding <- allocaOut $ glGetFramebufferAttachmentParameteriv gl_FRAMEBUFFER gl_FRONT_LEFT gl_FRAMEBUFFER_ATTACHMENT_COLOR_ENCODING print colorEncoding allocaOut :: Storable a => (Ptr a -> IO b) -> IO a allocaOut f = alloca $ \ptr -> do f ptr peek ptr On my desktop (Windows 8 64-bit with a GeForce GTX 760 graphics card) this program outputs 9729, a.k.a. gl_LINEAR, indicating that the default framebuffer is using linear color space, even though I explicitly requested an sRGB window. This is reflected in the rendering results of the actual program I'm trying to write - everything looks washed out because my linear color values aren't being converted to sRGB before being written to the framebuffer. On the other hand, on my laptop (Windows 7 64-bit with an Intel graphics chip), the program prints 0 (huh?) and I get an sRGB default framebuffer by default whether I request one or not! And on both machines, if I manually create a non-default framebuffer bound to an sRGB texture, the program correctly prints 35904, a.k.a. gl_SRGB. Why am I getting different results on different hardware? Am I doing something wrong? How can I get an sRGB framebuffer consistently on all hardware and target OSes?

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• Basic tutorial/introduction for 3d matrices, idealy in c++, without openGl or directX

  - by René Nyffenegger

  I am wondering if there is a simple tutorial that covers the basics of how to initialize rotation, translation and projection matrices, and how to multiply them, and how to get the screen coordinates afterwards for a 3d point. Idealy, the tutorial comes with compilable code and is not dependent on any 3rd party library. Searching the internet, I found lots of tutorials, so this is not the problem. Yet, it seemed all of these either covered openGl or directX, or they were theoretical in nature.

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• Unity Particle System collision detection problem

  - by Krav

  I'm using Unity 3.5.5f3 wich has the Shuriken particle system. I've made a blood particle system based on Unity's demos. (Exploding paint [Blood]) The blood is flowing and when it collides with a Plane Transform wich I've created a small pool of blood spawns as a Collision Sub Emitter. My main problem is that when I want to add another object to collide it just doesn't want to work. When I create a cube, and set it as a collision plane the collision will only occur at the half of the cube. I want this to happen: When it reaches the cube's surface the sub emmiter activates, and when the surface is horizontal it appears horizontally, and if it's vertical then vertically. Now it just appears horizontally everytime like in the picture. How could I solve it?

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