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  • Android - Rendering HUD View to SurfaceView

    - by Jon
    I have developed a relatively simple game in android, to get my head around it all, and on the back of it developed a crude game engine (in the loosest sense!). I use a SurfaceView and canvas (no OpenGL) - I'll cross that bridge another time! I have implemented a game HUD, title screens etc. by overlaying standard Android view widgets over my SurfaceView. This all works reasonably well maintaining an acceptable frame-rate, but it is a simple game with not a lot happening on or off screen. What I am wondering now is whether one could (and whether one would get any advantage by) drawing all my views to the one SurfaceView, all controlled by the main game thread. At the moment I have handlers flinging messages around and runOnUiThreads here, there and everywhere. Quite cumbersome. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated (before I perhaps waste time trying to do it!)

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  • Why can we recognize game engines?

    - by Bart van Heukelom
    About many games you can say "oh that's the Unreal engine for sure", "this was made by upgrading GTA 4", etc. We can often recognize the engine used for a game just by looking at its graphics (disregarding menus and such). I'm wondering, why is this? All game engines use the same 3D rendering technology that we all use, and the different games usually have a distinct art style, so what's left to recognize?

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  • How can I make an MMORPG appeal to casual players?

    - by Philipp
    I believe that there is a significant market of players who would enjoy the exploration and interaction aspects of MMORPGs, but simply don't have the time for the endless grinding marathons which are part of the average MMORPG. MMORPGs are all about interaction between players. But when different players have different amounts of time to invest into a game, those with less time to spend will soon lack behind their power-leveling friends and won't be able to interact with them anymore. One way to solve this would be to limit the progress a player can achieve per day, so that it simply doesn't make sense to play more than one or two hours a day. But even the busiest casual players sometimes like to spend a whole sunday afternoon playing a video game. Just stopping them after two hours would be really frustrating. It also creates a pressure to use the daily progress limit every day, because otherwise the player would feel like wasting something. This pressure would be detrimental for casual gamers. What else could be done to level the playing field between those players who play 40+ hours a week and those who can't play more than 10?

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  • Should I always be checking every neighbor when building voxel meshes?

    - by Raven Dreamer
    I've been playing around with Unity3d, seeing if I can make a voxel-based engine out of it (a la Castle Story, or Minecraft). I've dynamically built a mesh from a volume of cubes, and now I'm looking into reducing the number of vertices built into each mesh, as right now, I'm "rendering" vertices and triangles for cubes that are fully hidden within the larger voxel volume. The simple solution is to check each of the 6 directions for each cube, and only add the face to the mesh if the neighboring voxel in that direction is "empty". Parsing a voxel volume is BigO(N^3), and checking the 6 neighbors keeps it BigO(7*N^3)-BigO(N^3). The one thing this results in is a lot of redundant calls, as the same voxel will be polled up to 7 times, just to build the mesh. My question, then, is: Is there a way to parse a cubic volume (and find which faces have neighbors) with fewer redundant calls? And perhaps more importantly, does it matter (as BigO complexity is the same in both cases)?

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  • Incomplete mesh using DrawIndexedPrimitives after rotating mesh

    - by user1278255
    Through help on this site I was able to draw the triangles of an unrotated, nonscaled nontransformed mesh created in Blender and exported to OBJ, accurately imported through Assimp and rendered in XNA Graphics. However after applying rotation on a single axis in Blender(Z) and adding materials(I wanted to test loading of materials through Assimp) the same mesh appears incomplete. Is something wrong with my view matrix or is it something else? This is what the unrotated mesh looks like: http://www.4shared.com/photo/qXNUSvxtba/okcube.html Here is the rotated mesh: http://www.4shared.com/photo/HAys2rWvba/badcube.html Camera, View and Projection are defined as follows: cameraPos = new Vector3(0, 5, 9); viewMatrix = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPos, new Vector3(0, 0, 1), new Vector3(0, 1, 0)); projectionMatrix = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(MathHelper.PiOver4, device.Viewport.AspectRatio, 1.0f, 200.0f); Rendering is done through this code: device.Clear(ClearOptions.Target | ClearOptions.DepthBuffer, Color.DarkSlateBlue, 1.0f, 0); effect = new BasicEffect(GraphicsDevice); effect.VertexColorEnabled = true; effect.View = viewMatrix; effect.Projection = projectionMatrix; effect.World = Matrix.Identity; foreach (EffectPass pass in effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); device.SetVertexBuffer(vertexBuffer); device.Indices = indexBuffer; device.DrawIndexedPrimitives(Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, oScene.Meshes[0].VertexCount, 0, mMesh.FaceCount); } base.Draw(gameTime);

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  • Is there a simpler way to create a borderless window with XNA 4.0?

    - by Cypher
    When looking into making my XNA game's window border-less, I found no properties or methods under Game.Window that would provide this, but I did find a window handle to the form. I was able to accomplish what I wanted by doing this: IntPtr hWnd = this.Window.Handle; var control = System.Windows.Forms.Control.FromHandle( hWnd ); var form = control.FindForm(); form.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None; I don't know why but this feels like a dirty hack. Is there a built-in way to do this in XNA that I'm missing?

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  • Strange rendering in XNA/Monogame

    - by Gerhman
    I am trying to render G-Code generated for a 3d-printer as the printed product by reading the file as line segments and the drawing cylinders with the diameter of the filament around the segment. I think I have managed to do this part right because the vertex I am sending to the graphics device appear to have been processed correctly. My problem I think lies somewhere in the rendering. What basically happens is that when I start rotating my model in the X or Y axis then it renders perfectly for half of the rotation but then for the other half it has this weird effect where you start seeing through the outer filament into some of the shapes inside. This effect is the strongest with X rotations though. Here is a picture of the part of the rotation that looks correct: And here is one that looks horrible: I am still quite new to XNA and/Monogame and 3d programming as a whole. I have no idea what could possibly be causing this and even less of an idea of what this type of behavior is called. I am guessing this has something to do with rendering so have added the code for that part: protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Black); basicEffect.World = world; basicEffect.View = view; basicEffect.Projection = projection; basicEffect.VertexColorEnabled = true; basicEffect.EnableDefaultLighting(); GraphicsDevice.SetVertexBuffer(vertexBuffer); RasterizerState rasterizerState = new RasterizerState(); rasterizerState.CullMode = CullMode.CullClockwiseFace; rasterizerState.ScissorTestEnable = true; GraphicsDevice.RasterizerState = rasterizerState; foreach (EffectPass pass in basicEffect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); GraphicsDevice.DrawPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, vertexBuffer.VertexCount); } base.Draw(gameTime); } I don't know if it could be because I am shading something that does not really have a texture. I am using this custom vertex declaration I found on some tutorial that allows me to store a vertex with a position, color and normal: public struct VertexPositionColorNormal { public Vector3 Position; public Color Color; public Vector3 Normal; public readonly static VertexDeclaration VertexDeclaration = new VertexDeclaration ( new VertexElement(0, VertexElementFormat.Vector3, VertexElementUsage.Position, 0), new VertexElement(sizeof(float) * 3, VertexElementFormat.Color, VertexElementUsage.Color, 0), new VertexElement(sizeof(float) * 3 + 4, VertexElementFormat.Vector3, VertexElementUsage.Normal, 0) ); } If any of you have ever seen this type of thing please help. Also, if you think that the problem might lay somewhere else in my code then please just request what part you would like to see in the comments section.

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  • Multi Pass Blend

    - by Kirk Patrick
    I am seeking the simplest working example of a two pass HLSL pixel shader. It can do anything really, but the main idea is to perform "ping ponging" to take the output of the first pass and then send it for the second pass. In my example I want to draw to the R channel and then draw to the G channel and produce a simple Venn Diagram in the shader, but need to detect overlap. I can currently detect one or the other but not overlap. There are a red and green circle overlapping, and I want to put a dynamic texture map in the overlap region. I can currently put it in either or. Below is how it looks in the shader. -------------------------------- Texture2D shaderTexture; SamplerState SampleType; ////////////// // TYPEDEFS // ////////////// struct PixelInputType { float4 position : SV_POSITION; float2 tex0 : TEXCOORD0; float2 tex1 : TEXCOORD1; float4 color : COLOR; }; //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Pixel Shader //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// float4 main(PixelInputType input) : SV_TARGET { float4 textureColor0; float4 textureColor1; // Sample the pixel color from the texture using the sampler at this texture coordinate location. textureColor0 = shaderTexture.Sample(SampleType, input.tex0); textureColor1 = shaderTexture.Sample(SampleType, input.tex1); if (input.color[0]==1.0f && input.color[1]==1.0f) // Requires multi-pass textureColor0 = textureColor1; return textureColor0; } Here is the calling code (that needs to be modified) m_d3dContext->IASetVertexBuffers(0, 2, vbs, strides, offsets); m_d3dContext->IASetIndexBuffer(m_indexBuffer.Get(), DXGI_FORMAT_R32_UINT,0); m_d3dContext->IASetPrimitiveTopology(D3D11_PRIMITIVE_TOPOLOGY_TRIANGLELIST); m_d3dContext->IASetInputLayout(m_inputLayout.Get()); m_d3dContext->VSSetShader(m_vertexShader.Get(), nullptr, 0); m_d3dContext->VSSetConstantBuffers(0, 1, m_constantBuffer.GetAddressOf()); m_d3dContext->PSSetShader(m_pixelShader.Get(), nullptr, 0); m_d3dContext->PSSetShaderResources(0, 1, m_SRV.GetAddressOf()); m_d3dContext->PSSetSamplers(0, 1, m_QuadsTexSamplerState.GetAddressOf());

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  • UV Atlas Generation and Seam Removal

    - by P. Avery
    I'm generating light maps for scene mesh objects using DirectX's UV Atlas Tool( D3DXUVAtlasCreate() ). I've succeeded in generating an atlas, however, when I try to render the mesh object using the atlas the seams are visible on the mesh. Below are images of a lightmap generated for a cube. Here is the code I use to generate a uv atlas for a cube: struct sVertexPosNormTex { D3DXVECTOR3 vPos, vNorm; D3DXVECTOR2 vUV; sVertexPosNormTex(){} sVertexPosNormTex( D3DXVECTOR3 v, D3DXVECTOR3 n, D3DXVECTOR2 uv ) { vPos = v; vNorm = n; vUV = uv; } ~sVertexPosNormTex() { } }; // create a light map texture to fill programatically hr = D3DXCreateTexture( pd3dDevice, 128, 128, 1, 0, D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8, D3DPOOL_MANAGED, &pLightmap ); if( FAILED( hr ) ) { DebugStringDX( "Main", "Failed to D3DXCreateTexture( lightmap )", __LINE__, hr ); return hr; } // get the zero level surface from the texture IDirect3DSurface9 *pS = NULL; pLightmap->GetSurfaceLevel( 0, &pS ); // clear surface pd3dDevice->ColorFill( pS, NULL, D3DCOLOR_XRGB( 0, 0, 0 ) ); // load a sample mesh DWORD dwcMaterials = 0; LPD3DXBUFFER pMaterialBuffer = NULL; V_RETURN( D3DXLoadMeshFromX( L"cube3.x", D3DXMESH_MANAGED, pd3dDevice, &pAdjacency, &pMaterialBuffer, NULL, &dwcMaterials, &g_pMesh ) ); // generate adjacency DWORD *pdwAdjacency = new DWORD[ 3 * g_pMesh->GetNumFaces() ]; g_pMesh->GenerateAdjacency( 1e-6f, pdwAdjacency ); // create light map coordinates LPD3DXMESH pMesh = NULL; LPD3DXBUFFER pFacePartitioning = NULL, pVertexRemapArray = NULL; FLOAT resultStretch = 0; UINT numCharts = 0; hr = D3DXUVAtlasCreate( g_pMesh, 0, 0, 128, 128, 3.5f, 0, pdwAdjacency, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, 0, &pMesh, &pFacePartitioning, &pVertexRemapArray, &resultStretch, &numCharts ); if( SUCCEEDED( hr ) ) { // release and set mesh SAFE_RELEASE( g_pMesh ); g_pMesh = pMesh; // write mesh to file hr = D3DXSaveMeshToX( L"cube4.x", g_pMesh, 0, ( const D3DXMATERIAL* )pMaterialBuffer->GetBufferPointer(), NULL, dwcMaterials, D3DXF_FILEFORMAT_TEXT ); if( FAILED( hr ) ) { DebugStringDX( "Main", "Failed to D3DXSaveMeshToX() at OnD3D9CreateDevice()", __LINE__, hr ); } // fill the the light map hr = BuildLightmap( pS, g_pMesh ); if( FAILED( hr ) ) { DebugStringDX( "Main", "Failed to BuildLightmap()", __LINE__, hr ); } } else { DebugStringDX( "Main", "Failed to D3DXUVAtlasCreate() at OnD3D9CreateDevice()", __LINE__, hr ); } SAFE_RELEASE( pS ); SAFE_DELETE_ARRAY( pdwAdjacency ); SAFE_RELEASE( pFacePartitioning ); SAFE_RELEASE( pVertexRemapArray ); SAFE_RELEASE( pMaterialBuffer ); Here is code to fill lightmap texture: HRESULT BuildLightmap( IDirect3DSurface9 *pS, LPD3DXMESH pMesh ) { HRESULT hr = S_OK; // validate lightmap texture surface and mesh if( !pS || !pMesh ) return E_POINTER; // lock the mesh vertex buffer sVertexPosNormTex *pV = NULL; pMesh->LockVertexBuffer( D3DLOCK_READONLY, ( void** )&pV ); // lock the mesh index buffer WORD *pI = NULL; pMesh->LockIndexBuffer( D3DLOCK_READONLY, ( void** )&pI ); // get the lightmap texture surface description D3DSURFACE_DESC desc; pS->GetDesc( &desc ); // lock the surface rect to fill with color data D3DLOCKED_RECT rct; hr = pS->LockRect( &rct, NULL, 0 ); if( FAILED( hr ) ) { DebugStringDX( "main.cpp:", "Failed to IDirect3DTexture9::LockRect()", __LINE__, hr ); return hr; } // iterate the pixels of the lightmap texture // check each pixel to see if it lies between the uv coordinates of a cube face BYTE *pBuffer = ( BYTE* )rct.pBits; for( UINT y = 0; y < desc.Height; ++y ) { BYTE* pBufferRow = ( BYTE* )pBuffer; for( UINT x = 0; x < desc.Width * 4; x+=4 ) { // determine the pixel's uv coordinate D3DXVECTOR2 p( ( ( float )x / 4.0f ) / ( float )desc.Width + 0.5f / 128.0f, y / ( float )desc.Height + 0.5f / 128.0f ); // for each face of the mesh // check to see if the pixel lies within the face's uv coordinates for( UINT i = 0; i < 3 * pMesh->GetNumFaces(); i +=3 ) { sVertexPosNormTex v[ 3 ]; v[ 0 ] = pV[ pI[ i + 0 ] ]; v[ 1 ] = pV[ pI[ i + 1 ] ]; v[ 2 ] = pV[ pI[ i + 2 ] ]; if( TexcoordIsWithinBounds( v[ 0 ].vUV, v[ 1 ].vUV, v[ 2 ].vUV, p ) ) { // the pixel lies b/t the uv coordinates of a cube face // light contribution functions aren't needed yet //D3DXVECTOR3 vPos = TexcoordToPos( v[ 0 ].vPos, v[ 1 ].vPos, v[ 2 ].vPos, v[ 0 ].vUV, v[ 1 ].vUV, v[ 2 ].vUV, p ); //D3DXVECTOR3 vNormal = v[ 0 ].vNorm; // set the color of this pixel red( for demo ) BYTE ba[] = { 0, 0, 255, 255, }; //ComputeContribution( vPos, vNormal, g_sLight, ba ); // copy the byte array into the light map texture memcpy( ( void* )&pBufferRow[ x ], ( void* )ba, 4 * sizeof( BYTE ) ); } } } // go to next line of the texture pBuffer += rct.Pitch; } // unlock the surface rect pS->UnlockRect(); // unlock mesh vertex and index buffers pMesh->UnlockIndexBuffer(); pMesh->UnlockVertexBuffer(); // write the surface to file hr = D3DXSaveSurfaceToFile( L"LightMap.jpg", D3DXIFF_JPG, pS, NULL, NULL ); if( FAILED( hr ) ) DebugStringDX( "Main.cpp", "Failed to D3DXSaveSurfaceToFile()", __LINE__, hr ); return hr; } bool TexcoordIsWithinBounds( const D3DXVECTOR2 &t0, const D3DXVECTOR2 &t1, const D3DXVECTOR2 &t2, const D3DXVECTOR2 &p ) { // compute vectors D3DXVECTOR2 v0 = t1 - t0, v1 = t2 - t0, v2 = p - t0; float f00 = D3DXVec2Dot( &v0, &v0 ); float f01 = D3DXVec2Dot( &v0, &v1 ); float f02 = D3DXVec2Dot( &v0, &v2 ); float f11 = D3DXVec2Dot( &v1, &v1 ); float f12 = D3DXVec2Dot( &v1, &v2 ); // Compute barycentric coordinates float invDenom = 1 / ( f00 * f11 - f01 * f01 ); float fU = ( f11 * f02 - f01 * f12 ) * invDenom; float fV = ( f00 * f12 - f01 * f02 ) * invDenom; // Check if point is in triangle if( ( fU >= 0 ) && ( fV >= 0 ) && ( fU + fV < 1 ) ) return true; return false; } Screenshot Lightmap I believe the problem comes from the difference between the lightmap uv coordinates and the pixel center coordinates...for example, here are the lightmap uv coordinates( generated by D3DXUVAtlasCreate() ) for a specific face( tri ) within the mesh, keep in mind that I'm using the mesh uv coordinates to write the pixels for the texture: v[ 0 ].uv = D3DXVECTOR2( 0.003581, 0.295631 ); v[ 1 ].uv = D3DXVECTOR2( 0.003581, 0.003581 ); v[ 2 ].uv = D3DXVECTOR2( 0.295631, 0.003581 ); the lightmap texture size is 128 x 128 pixels. The upper-left pixel center coordinates are: float halfPixel = 0.5 / 128 = 0.00390625; D3DXVECTOR2 pixelCenter = D3DXVECTOR2( halfPixel, halfPixel ); will the mapping and sampling of the lightmap texture will require that an offset be taken into account or that the uv coordinates are snapped to the pixel centers..? ...Any ideas on the best way to approach this situation would be appreciated...What are the common practices?

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  • Animation file format

    - by Paul
    I'm trying to make a simple 2D animation file format. It'll be very rudimentary: only an XML file containing some parameters (such as frame duration) and metadata, and some images, each representing a frame. I'd like to have the whole animation (frames and XML document) packed in a single file. How do you suggest I do that? What libraries are there that would allow easy access to the files inside the animation file itself? The language I'm using is C++ and the platform is Windows, but I'd rather not use a platform dependent library, if possible.

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  • Doubling the DPI with a shader?

    - by Mathias Lykkegaard Lorenzen
    I'm developing a game where the map is generated with Perlin Noise, but on the CPU. I am generating some perlin noise onto a texture with a small size, and then I stretch it out to the whole screen to simulate a map. The reason for the CPU generating the noise is that I want it to look the same on all devices. Now, here's the end-result. Please ignore the bullets and the explosion on the picture. What matters is the background (the black/gray pixels) and the ground (the brown-ish pixels). They are rendered to the same texture through perlin noise. However, this doesn't look very pretty. So I was wondering if it would be possible to double the amount of pixels using a shader, and rounding edges at the same time? In other words, improve the DPI. I'm using SharpDX with DirectX 11, through its toolkit feature. But any help that'll lead me in the right direction (for instance through HLSL) would be a great help. Thanks in advance.

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  • how can I specify interleaved vertex attributes and vertex indices

    - by freefallr
    I'm writing a generic ShaderProgram class that compiles a set of Shader objects, passes args to the shader (like vertex position, vertex normal, tex coords etc), then links the shader components into a shader program, for use with glDrawArrays. My vertex data already exists in a VertexBufferObject that uses the following data structure to create a vertex buffer: class CustomVertex { public: float m_Position[3]; // x, y, z // offset 0, size = 3*sizeof(float) float m_TexCoords[2]; // u, v // offset 3*sizeof(float), size = 2*sizeof(float) float m_Normal[3]; // nx, ny, nz; float colour[4]; // r, g, b, a float padding[20]; // padded for performance }; I've already written a working VertexBufferObject class that creates a vertex buffer object from an array of CustomVertex objects. This array is said to be interleaved. It renders successfully with the following code: void VertexBufferObject::Draw() { if( ! m_bInitialized ) return; glBindBuffer( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, m_nVboId ); glBindBuffer( GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, m_nVboIdIndex ); glEnableClientState( GL_VERTEX_ARRAY ); glEnableClientState( GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY ); glEnableClientState( GL_NORMAL_ARRAY ); glEnableClientState( GL_COLOR_ARRAY ); glVertexPointer( 3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(CustomVertex), ((char*)NULL + 0) ); glTexCoordPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(CustomVertex), ((char*)NULL + 12)); glNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, sizeof(CustomVertex), ((char*)NULL + 20)); glColorPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(CustomVertex), ((char*)NULL + 32)); glDrawElements( GL_TRIANGLES, m_nNumIndices, GL_UNSIGNED_INT, ((char*)NULL + 0) ); glDisableClientState( GL_VERTEX_ARRAY ); glDisableClientState( GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY ); glDisableClientState( GL_NORMAL_ARRAY ); glDisableClientState( GL_COLOR_ARRAY ); glBindBuffer( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0 ); glBindBuffer( GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0 ); } Back to the Vertex Array Object though. My code for creating the Vertex Array object is as follows. This is performed before the ShaderProgram runtime linking stage, and no glErrors are reported after its steps. // Specify the shader arg locations (e.g. their order in the shader code) for( int n = 0; n < vShaderArgs.size(); n ++) glBindAttribLocation( m_nProgramId, n, vShaderArgs[n].sFieldName.c_str() ); // Create and bind to a vertex array object, which stores the relationship between // the buffer and the input attributes glGenVertexArrays( 1, &m_nVaoHandle ); glBindVertexArray( m_nVaoHandle ); // Enable the vertex attribute array (we're using interleaved array, since its faster) glBindBuffer( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vShaderArgs[0].nVboId ); glBindBuffer( GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, vShaderArgs[0].nVboIndexId ); // vertex data for( int n = 0; n < vShaderArgs.size(); n ++ ) { glEnableVertexAttribArray(n); glVertexAttribPointer( n, vShaderArgs[n].nFieldSize, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, vShaderArgs[n].nStride, (GLubyte *) NULL + vShaderArgs[n].nFieldOffset ); AppLog::Ref().OutputGlErrors(); } This doesn't render correctly at all. I get a pattern of white specks onscreen, in the shape of the terrain rectangle, but there are no regular lines etc. Here's the code I use for rendering: void ShaderProgram::Draw() { using namespace AntiMatter; if( ! m_nShaderProgramId || ! m_nVaoHandle ) { AppLog::Ref().LogMsg("ShaderProgram::Draw() Couldn't draw object, as initialization of ShaderProgram is incomplete"); return; } glUseProgram( m_nShaderProgramId ); glBindVertexArray( m_nVaoHandle ); glDrawArrays( GL_TRIANGLES, 0, m_nNumTris ); glBindVertexArray(0); glUseProgram(0); } Can anyone see errors or omissions in either the VAO creation code or rendering code? thanks!

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  • A*, Tile costs and heuristic; How to approach

    - by Kevin Toet
    I'm doing exercises in tile games and AI to improve my programming. I've written a highly unoptimised pathfinder that does the trick and a simple tile class. The first problem i ran into was that the heuristic was rounded to int's which resulted in very straight paths. Resorting a Euclidian Heuristic seemed to fixed it as opposed to use the Manhattan approach. The 2nd problem I ran into was when i tried added tile costs. I was hoping to use the value's of the flags that i set on the tiles but the value's were too small to make the pathfinder consider them a huge obstacle so i increased their value's but that breaks the flags a certain way and no paths were found anymore. So my questions, before posting the code, are: What am I doing wrong that the Manhatten heuristic isnt working? What ways can I store the tile costs? I was hoping to (ab)use the enum flags for this The path finder isnt considering the chance that no path is available, how do i check this? Any code optimisations are welcome as I'd love to improve my coding. public static List<Tile> FindPath( Tile startTile, Tile endTile, Tile[,] map ) { return FindPath( startTile, endTile, map, TileFlags.WALKABLE ); } public static List<Tile> FindPath( Tile startTile, Tile endTile, Tile[,] map, TileFlags acceptedFlags ) { List<Tile> open = new List<Tile>(); List<Tile> closed = new List<Tile>(); open.Add( startTile ); Tile tileToCheck; do { tileToCheck = open[0]; closed.Add( tileToCheck ); open.Remove( tileToCheck ); for( int i = 0; i < tileToCheck.neighbors.Count; i++ ) { Tile tile = tileToCheck.neighbors[ i ]; //has the node been processed if( !closed.Contains( tile ) && ( tile.flags & acceptedFlags ) != 0 ) { //Not in the open list? if( !open.Contains( tile ) ) { //Set G int G = 10; G += tileToCheck.G; //Set Parent tile.parentX = tileToCheck.x; tile.parentY = tileToCheck.y; tile.G = G; //tile.H = Math.Abs(endTile.x - tile.x ) + Math.Abs( endTile.y - tile.y ) * 10; //TODO omg wtf and other incredible stories tile.H = Vector2.Distance( new Vector2( tile.x, tile.y ), new Vector2(endTile.x, endTile.y) ); tile.Cost = tile.G + tile.H + (int)tile.flags; //Calculate H; Manhattan style open.Add( tile ); } //Update the cost if it is else { int G = 10;//cost of going to non-diagonal tiles G += map[ tile.parentX, tile.parentY ].G; //If this path is shorter (G cost is lower) then change //the parent cell, G cost and F cost. if ( G < tile.G ) //if G cost is less, { tile.parentX = tileToCheck.x; //change the square's parent tile.parentY = tileToCheck.y; tile.G = G;//change the G cost tile.Cost = tile.G + tile.H + (int)tile.flags; // add terrain cost } } } } //Sort costs open = open.OrderBy( o => o.Cost).ToList(); } while( tileToCheck != endTile ); closed.Reverse(); List<Tile> validRoute = new List<Tile>(); Tile currentTile = closed[ 0 ]; validRoute.Add( currentTile ); do { //Look up the parent of the current cell. currentTile = map[ currentTile.parentX, currentTile.parentY ]; currentTile.renderer.material.color = Color.green; //Add tile to list validRoute.Add( currentTile ); } while ( currentTile != startTile ); validRoute.Reverse(); return validRoute; } And my Tile class: [Flags] public enum TileFlags: int { NONE = 0, DIRT = 1, STONE = 2, WATER = 4, BUILDING = 8, //handy WALKABLE = DIRT | STONE | NONE, endofenum } public class Tile : MonoBehaviour { //Tile Properties public int x, y; public TileFlags flags = TileFlags.DIRT; public Transform cachedTransform; //A* properties public int parentX, parentY; public int G; public float Cost; public float H; public List<Tile> neighbors = new List<Tile>(); void Awake() { cachedTransform = transform; } }

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  • Push or Pull Input Data In the Game Logic?

    - by Qua
    In the process of preparing my game for networking I'm adding a layer of seperation between the physical input (mouse/keyboard) and the actual game "engine"/logic. All input that has any relation to the game logic is wrapped inside action objects such as BuildBuildingAction. I was thinking of having an action processing layer that would determine what to do with the input. This layer could then be set up to either just pass the actions locally to the game engine or send it via sockets to the network server depending on whether the game was single- or multiplayer. In network games it would make sense that the player's actions should be sent to the server, but should the game logic be pulling (polling?) the data through some sort of interface or should the action processing layer be adding the actions to an input queue in the game logic code?

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  • Board Game Design in Cocos2d

    - by object2.0
    Hi folks i am going to start a chess like board game. and for that i have reviewed a number to things available. one is http://www.mapeditor.org/ , using which you can create a grid base games. another option is geekgameboard for iphone available at http://mooseyard.lighthouseapp.com/projects/23201-geekgameboard now i want your expert opinion that would it be better to make a game in cocos2d using the first option or the second option? both looks promising to me and give good control over board design. ps: sorry for duplicates, i found about the http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/ lately after posting it on stackexchange. so i am just posting it here again as i feel its more relevant board.

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  • Updating scene graph in multithreaded game

    - by user782220
    In a game with a render thread and a game logic thread the game logic thread needs to update the scene graph used by the render thread. I've read about ideas such as a queue of updates. Can someone describe to a newbie at scene graphs what kind of interface the scene graph exports. Presumably it would be rather complicated. So then how does a queue of updates get implemented in C++ in a way that can handle the complexity of the interface of the scene graph while also being type safe and efficient. Again I'm a newbie at scene graphs and C++.

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  • Moving camera, or camera with discrete "screens"?

    - by Jacob Millward
    I'm making a game with a friend, but having trouble deciding on a camera style. The basic idea for the game, is having a randomly generated 2-dimensional world, with settlements in it. These settlements would have access to different resources, and it would be the job of the player to create bridges and ladders and links between these villages so they can trade. The player would advance personally by getting better gear, fighting monsters and looking for materials in the world, in order to craft and trade them at the settlements. My friend wants to use an old-style camera, where the world is split into a discrete number of screens that the player moves between. Similar to early Zelda dungeons, or Knytt Stories. This is opposite to me, as I want a standard camera that follows the player around as I feel the split-screen style camera limits the game. Can anyone argue the case either way? We've hit a massive roadblock here and can't seem to get past it.

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  • How to expose game data in the game without a singelton?

    - by zardon
    I'm quite new to cocos2d and games programming, and am currently I am writing a game that is currently in Prototype stage. Everything is going okay, but I've realized a potentially big problem and I am not sure how to solve it. I am using a singelton to store a bunch of arrays for everything, a global list of planets, a global list of troops, a global list of products, etc. And only now I'm realizing that all of this will be in memory and this is the wrong way to do it. I am not storing files or anything on the disk just yet, with exception to a save/load state, which is a capture of everything. My game makes use of a map which allows you to select a planet, then it will give you a breakdown of that planets troops and resources, Lets use this scenario: My game has 20 planets. On which you can have 20 troops. Straight away that's an array of 400! This does not add the NPC, which is another 10. So, 20x10 = 200 So, now we have 600 all in arrays inside a Singelton. This is obviously very bad, and very wrong. Especially as the game scales in the amount of data. But I need to expose pretty much everything, especially on the map page, and I am not sure how else to do it. I've been told that I can use a controller for the map page which has the information I need for each planet, and other controllers for other items I require global display for. I've also thought about storing each planet's data in a save file, using initWithCoder however there could be a boatload of files on the user's device? I really don't want to use a database, mainly because I would need to translate NSObjects and non-NSObjects like CGRects and CGPoints and Colors into/from SQL. I am open to other ideas on how to store and read game data to prevent using a singelton to store everything, everywhere. Thanks for your time.

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  • How do I implement collision detection with a sprite walking up a rocky-terrain hill?

    - by detectivecalcite
    I'm working in SDL and have bounding rectangles for collisions set up for each frame of the sprite's animation. However, I recently stumbled upon the issue of putting together collisions for characters walking up and down hills/slopes with irregularly curved or rocky terrain - what's a good way to do collisions for that type of situation? Per-pixel? Loading up the points of the incline and doing player-line collision checking? Should I use bounding rectangles in general or circle collision detection?

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

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

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  • XNA - Moving Background Calculations

    - by Jesse Emond
    Hi, My question is relatively hard to explain(for me, at least), so I'll go one step at a time and just tell me in the comments if it's not clear enough. So I'm making a "Defend Your Castle" type 2D game, where two players own a castle and create units that will move horizontally to try to destroy the opponent's base. Here's a screenshot of the game: The distance between both castles is much bigger in a real game though, bigger than the screen's width actually. Because the distance is bigger than the screen's width, I had to implement a simple 2D camera: Camera2D, which only holds a Location Vector2 (and I always make sure this camera is within the field area). Then, I just move all the game elements(castles, units, health bars) by that location, so that if a unit is at (5, 0), and the camera's location is (5, 0), then the unit's position will be moved by 5 units to the left, making it (0, 0) on the screen. At first, I simply used a static background with mountains and clouds(yeah, those are supposed to be mountains and clouds). Obviously, this looked awful: when you moved the camera, the background would stay immobile. Instead, I'd like to make a moving background, kind of a "scrolling" one. But rather than making a background with the same width as the distance between the castles, I'd like to make one that is a little bit smaller(but still bigger than the screen's width). I thought this would create an effect of "distance" with the background(but it might just look awful, too). Here's the background I'm testing with: I tried different ways, but none of them seems to work. I tried this: float backgroundFieldRatio = BackgroundTexture.Width / fieldWidth;//find the ratio between the background and the field. float backgroundPositionX = -cam.Location.X * backgroundFieldRatio;//move the background to the left When I run this with fieldWith = 1600, BackgroundTexture.Width = 1500 and while looking at the rightmost area, the background is offset to the left by a too big amount, and we can see the black clear color in the back, as you can see here: I hope I explained properly what I'm trying to achieve. Thank you for your time. Note: I didn't know what to look for on Google, so I thought I'd ask here.

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  • Seek Steering Behavior with Target Direction for Group of Fighters

    - by SebastianStehle
    I am implementing steering algorithms with group management for spaceships (fighters). I select a leader and assign the target positions for the other spaceships based on the target position of the leader and an offset. This works well. But when my spaceships arrive they all have a different direction. I want them to keep to look in the same direction (target - start). I also want to combine this behavior with a minimum turning radius that is based on the speed. The only idea I have is to calculate a path for each spaceship with an point before the target position, so the ships have some time left to turn into the right position. But I dont know if this is a good idea. I guess there will be a lot of rare cases where this can cause a problem. So the question is, if anybody knows how to solve this problem and has some (simple code) or pseudocode for me or at least some good explanation.

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  • Events Driven Library XNA C#

    - by SchautDollar
    Language: C# w/ XNA Framework Relevant and Hopefully Helpful Background Info: I am making a library using the XNA framework for games I make with XNA. The Library has a folder(Namespace) dedication to the GUI. The GUI Controls inherit a base class hooked with the appropriate Interfaces. After a control is made, the programmer can hook the control with a "Frame" or "Module" that will tell the controls when to update and draw with an event. To make a "Frame" or "Module", you would inherit a class with the details coded in. (Kind of how win forms does it.) My reason for doing this is to simplify the process of creating menus with intractable controls. The only way I could think of for making the events for all the controls to function without being class specific would be to typecast a control to an object and typecast it back. (As I have read, this can be terribly inefficient.) Problem: Unfortunately, after I have implemented interfaces into the base classes and changed public delegate void ClickedHandler(BaseControl cntrl); to public delegate void ClickedHandler(Object cntrl, EventArgs e); my game has decreased in performance. This performance could be how I am firing the events, as what happens is the one menu will start fine, but then slowly but surely will freeze up. Every other frame works just fine, I just think it has something to do with the events and... that is why I am asking about them. Question: Is there a better more industry way of dealing with GUI Libraries other then using and implementing Events? Goal: To create a reusable feature rich XNA Control Library implementing performance enhancing standards and so on. Thank-you very much for taking your time to read this. I also hope this will help others possibly facing what I am facing right now.

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  • Game editor integration with the engine?

    - by Daniel
    What I am trying to figure out is what is the best way to integrate the editor(level, effects, model, etc...) in the most effective way? Now the first thing I thought would be to create the game engine(*) extremely modular. For example I took the example of game states. You could have multiple game states that all have their own update() and draw() methods among others. Each game state class would inherit from a base GameState class. This allows for a more modular approach and a useful one at that. Now would the most efficient approach be to implement the editor along with the modular engine, or create two different designs for both the game, and editor? I thought to take the game state example and extend it to window states, and well could be used for a lot more systems. Is there a better implementation of this design(game state) for use in other systems used in the engine? *: Now I know the term game engine is sorta irrelevant, and misused in many situations. What I am referring to as the "game engine" is the combination of the systems that the game must interact with for short. Also this is more of a theory / design question than an implementation. Even though both mix, i'd rather like to have a more general idea on how the editor is built in an efficient way and still using the same engine code as what the game uses. Thanks, Daniel P.S If you need more clarification or extra bits just leave a comment.

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  • Multiple volumetric lights

    - by notabene
    I recently read this GPU GEMS 3 article Volumetric Light Scattering as a Post-Process. I like the idea to add volumetric light property to realtime render i'm working on. Question is will it work for multiple lights? Our renderer uses one render pass per light and uses additive blending to sum incoming light. I'm mostly convinced that it have to work nice. Do you agree? Maybe there can be problem where light rays crosses each other.

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