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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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  • Custom Music in Skyrim's Creation Kit?

    - by CptSupermrkt
    Can you bring in external music such as mp3s? If so, how? I didn't see anything about this in the wiki Bethesda released. Also how does this work with regards to the Steam Workshop? Don't imagine they would appreciate uploading copyrighted content. I don't particularly care about making a public mod, I just want to screw around privately and create dungeons/towns using music from some of my favorite games. Thanks.

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  • IrrKlang with Ogre

    - by Vinnie
    I'm trying to set up sound in my Ogre3D project. I have installed irrKlang 1.4.0 and added it's include and lib directories to my projects VC++ Include and Library directories, but I'm still getting a Linker error when I attempt to build. Any suggestions? (Error 4007 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "__declspec(dllimport) class irrklang::ISoundEngine * __cdecl irrklang::createIrrKlangDevice(enum irrklang::E_SOUND_OUTPUT_DRIVER,int,char const *,char const *)" (_imp?createIrrKlangDevice@irrklang@@YAPAVISoundEngine@1@W4E_SOUND_OUTPUT_DRIVER@1@HPBD1@Z) referenced in function "public: __thiscall SoundManager::SoundManager(void)" (??0SoundManager@@QAE@XZ)

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  • How to fix bad Collada produced by FBX?

    - by David
    I tried to use the FBX SDK (2011.3.1) to load FBX files and save them as Collada files in order to be able to import FBX files in Panda3D. Unfortunately the resulting Collada files are not usable for several reasons, among them: There's a Maya specific extra technique diffuse <diffuse> <texture texture="Map__2-image" texcoord="CHANNEL0"> <extra> <technique profile="MAYA"> <wrapU sid="wrapU0">TRUE</wrapU> <wrapV sid="wrapV0">TRUE</wrapV> <blend_mode>ADD</blend_mode> </technique> </extra> </texture> </diffuse> It assigns a texcoord channel name that isn't referenced anywhere else in the file (in the previous code sample, no geometry uses "CHANNEL0"...) Every polygon is exported twice, a first time with a basic material (only diffuse color, specular color, etc.) and a second time with a textured material -- this doubles the number of polygons of each model without any valuable reason Anyway, the resulting Collada file cannot be opened correctly either with OpenCOLLADA or Panda3D's "dae2egg". Anyone has any experience on how to "fix" it and make it understandable by common and well-reputed Collada importers such as OpenCOLLADA?

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  • Making organic 2D tilemaps for tile based games...

    - by Codejoy
    So I have always wondered how one makes a nice (not so squarish) 2d tile map, is it possible? all games now days I think use textured polygons...but my game engine (and engine) doesn't support that to my knowledge. But it does support nice TMX files generated by mapeditor.org's Tiled Map Editor. Though in my game I want nice twisting and turning caverns to traverse ... I was wondering some ideas on such a process... is it in the art style? The type of tile engine? both? So what are some common techniques?

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  • Best practices for implementing collectible virtual item "packs"?

    - by Glenn Barnett
    I'm in the process of building a game in which virtual items can be obtained either by in-game play (defeating enemies, gaining levels), or by purchasing "packs" via microtransactions. Looking at an existing example like Duels.com's item packs, it looks like a lot of thought went into their implementation, including: Setting clear player expectations as to what can be obtained in the pack Limiting pack supply to increase demand and control inflation Are there other considerations that should be taken into account? For example, should the contents of the packs be pre-generated to guarantee the advertised drop rates, or is each drop rate just a random chance, and you could end up with higher or lower supply?

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  • GUI device for throwing a ball

    - by Fredrik Johansson
    The hero has a ball, which shall be thrown with accuracy in a court on iPhone/iPad. The player is seen from above, in a 2D view. In game play, the player reach is between 1/15 and 1/6 of the height of the iPhone screen. The player will run, and try to outmaneuver his opponent, and then throw the ball at a specific location, which is guarded by the opponent (which is also shown on the screen). The player is controlled by a joystick, and that works ok, but how shall I control the stick? Maybe someone can propose a third control method? I've tried the following two approaches: Joystick: Hero has a reach of 1 meter, and this reach is marked with a semi-opaque circle around the player. The ball can be moved by a joystick. When the joystick is moved south, the ball is moved south within the reach circle. There is a direct coupling with the joystick and the position of the ball. I.e. when the joystick is moved max south, the ball is max south within the player reach. At each touch update the speed is calculated, and the Box2d ball position and ball speed are updated. NB, the ball will never be moved outside the reach as long as the player push the joystick. The ball is thrown by swiping the joystick to make the ball move, and then releasing the joystick. At release, the ball will get a smoothed speed of the joystick. Joystick Problem: The throwing accuracy gets bad, because the joystick can not be that big, and a small movement results in quite a large movement of the ball. If the user does not release before the end of the joystick maximum end point, the ball will stop, and when the user releases the joystick the speed of the ball will be zero. Bad... Touch pad A force is applied to the ball by a sweep on a touchpad. The ball is released when the sweep is ended, or when the ball is moved outside the player reach. As there is no one to one mapping between the swipe and the ball position, the precision can be improved. A large swipe can result in a small ball movement. Touch Pad Problem A touchpad is less intuitive. Users do not seem to know what to do with the touch pad. Some tap the touchpad, and then the ball just falls to the ground. As there is no one-to-one mapping, the ball can be moved outside the reach, and then it will just fall to the ground. It's a bit hard to control the ball, especially if the player also moves.

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  • First Minecraft mod not working: make a new sword

    - by yamikoWebs
    I am making my first mod and cannot see what is wrong with it. I am using MCP and Modloader. For my first mod I was going to make swords. I started with making a new EnumToolMaterials WOOD(0, 59, 2.0F, 0, 15), STONE(1, 131, 4.0F, 1, 5), IRON(2, 250, 6.0F, 2, 14), LAPIS(3, 750, 7.0F, 2, 14), OBSIDIAN(3, 1000, 7.5F, 3, 12), EMERALD(3, 1561, 8.0F, 3, 10),//diamond GREEN(3, 2000, 9.0F, 4, 10),//emerald GOLD(0, 200, 12.0F, 0, 22); then here is the mod class public class _Mod_Yamiko extends BaseMod{ /* mod itemts */ public static final Item swordLapis = (new ItemSword(600, EnumToolMaterial.LAPIS)).setItemName("swordLapis"); public static final Item swordObsidian = (new ItemSword(601, EnumToolMaterial.OBSIDIAN)).setItemName("swordObsidian"); public static final Item swordGreen = (new ItemSword(602, EnumToolMaterial.GREEN)).setItemName("swordGreen"); public void load(){ //set images swordLapis.iconIndex = ModLoader.addOverride("/gui/items.png","/gui/swordLapis.png"); ModLoader.addName(swordLapis, "Lapis Sword"); //craft ModLoader.addRecipe(new ItemStack(_Mod_Yamiko.swordLapis, 1), new Object[]{ " X ", " X ", " Y ", 'X', Block.dirt, 'Y', Item.stick }); } public String getVersion(){ return "0.1"; } } Then I made a 16×16 .png image. I am not sure where to save it so I recompiled and reobfuscated, took the mod files and put it in my local Minecraft install, added the image where it be should be. No problems when playing but I cannot make the new sword.

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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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  • Skanska Builds Global Workforce Insight with Cloud-Based HCM System

    - by HCM-Oracle
    By David Baum - Originally posted on Profit Peter Bjork grew up building things. He started his work life learning all sorts of trades at his father’s construction company in the northern part of Sweden. So in college, it was natural for him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering—but he broke new ground when he added a master’s degree in finance to his curriculum vitae. Written on a traditional résumé, Bjork’s current title (vice president of information systems strategies) doesn’t reveal the diversity of his experience—that he’s adept with hammer and nails as well as rows and columns. But a big part of his current job is to work with his counterparts in human resources (HR) designing, building, and deploying the systems needed to get a complete view of the skills and potential of Skanska’s 22,000-strong white-collar workforce. And Bjork believes that complete view is essential to Skanska’s success. “Our business is really all about people,” says Bjork, who has worked with Skanska for 16 years. “You can have equipment and financial resources, but to truly succeed in a business like ours you need to have the right people in the right places. That’s what this system is helping us accomplish.” In a global HR environment that suffers from a paradox of high unemployment and a scarcity of skilled labor, managers need to have a complete understanding of workforce capabilities to develop management skills, recruit for open positions, ensure that staff is getting the training they need, and reduce attrition. Skanska’s human capital management (HCM) systems, based on Oracle Talent Management Cloud, play a critical role delivering that understanding. “Skanska’s philosophy of having great people, encouraging their development, and giving them the chance to move across business units has nurtured a culture of collaboration, but managing a diverse workforce spread across the globe is a monumental challenge,” says Annika Lindholm, global human resources system owner in the HR department at Skanska’s headquarters just outside of Stockholm, Sweden. “We depend heavily on Oracle’s cloud technology to support our HCM function.” Construction, Workers For Skanska’s more than 60,000 employees and contractors, managing huge construction projects is an everyday job. Beyond erecting signature buildings, management’s goal is to build a corporate culture where valuable talent can be sought out and developed, bringing in the right mix of people to support and grow the business. “Of all the companies in our space, Skanska is probably one of the strongest ones, with a laser focus on people and people development,” notes Tom Crane, chief HR and communications officer for Skanska in the United States. “Our business looks like equipment and material, but all we really have at the end of the day are people and their intellectual capital. Without them, second only to clients, of course, you really can’t achieve great things in the high-profile environment in which we work.” During the 1990s, Skanska entered an expansive growth phase. A string of successful acquisitions paved the way for the company’s transformation into a global enterprise. “Today the company’s focus is on profitable growth,” continues Crane. “But you can’t really achieve growth unless you are doing a very good job of developing your people and having the right people in the right places and driving a culture of growth.” In the United States alone, Skanska has more than 8,000 employees in four distinct business units: Skanska USA Building, also known as the Construction Manager, builds everything at ground level and above—hospitals, educational facilities, stadiums, airport terminals, and other massive projects. Skanska USA Civil does everything at ground level and below, such as light rail, water treatment facilities, power plants or power industry facilities, highways, and bridges. Skanska Infrastructure Development develops public-private partnerships—projects in which Skanska adds equity and also arranges for outside financing. Skanska Commercial Development acts like a commercial real estate developer, acquiring land and building offices on spec or build-to-suit for its clients. Skanska's international portfolio includes construction of the new Meadowlands Stadium. Getting the various units to operate collaboratatively helps Skanska deliver high value to clients and shareholders. “When we have this collaboration among units, it allows us to enrich each of the business units and, at the same time, develop our future leaders to be more facile in operating across business units—more accepting of a ‘one Skanska’ approach,” explains Crane. Workforce Worldwide But HR needs processes and tools to support managers who face such business dynamics. Oracle Talent Management Cloud is helping Skanska implement world-class recruiting strategies and generate the insights needed to drive quality hiring practices, internal mobility, and a proactive approach to building talent pipelines. With their new cloud system in place, Skanska HR leaders can manage everything from recruiting, compensation, and goal and performance management to employee learning and talent review—all as part of a single, cohesive software-as-a-service (SaaS) environment. Skanska has successfully implemented two modules from Oracle Talent Management Cloud—the recruiting and performance management modules—and is in the process of implementing the learn module. Internally, they call the systems Skanska Recruit, Skanska Talent, and Skanska Learn. The timing is apropos. With high rates of unemployment in recent years, there have been many job candidates on the market. However, talent scarcity continues to frustrate recruiters. Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service, one of the applications in the Oracle Talent Management cloud portfolio, enables Skanska managers to create more-intelligent recruiting strategies, pulling high-performer profile statistics to create new candidate profiles and using multitiered screening and assessments to ensure that only the best-suited candidate applications make it to the recruiter’s desk. Tools such as applicant tracking, interview management, and requisition management help recruiters and hiring managers streamline the hiring process. Oracle’s cloud-based software system automates and streamlines many other HR processes for Skanska’s multinational organization and delivers insight into the success of recruiting and talent-management efforts. “The Oracle system is definitely helping us to construct global HR processes,” adds Bjork. “It is really important that we have a business model that is decentralized, so we can effectively serve our local markets, and interact with our global ERP [enterprise resource planning] systems as well. We would not be able to do this without a really good, well-integrated HCM system that could support these efforts.” A key piece of this effort is something Skanska has developed internally called the Skanska Leadership Profile. Core competencies, on which all employees are measured, are used in performance reviews to determine weak areas but also to discover talent, such as those who will be promoted or need succession plans. This global profiling system brings consistency to the way HR professionals evaluate and review talent across the company, with a consistent set of ratings and a consistent definition of competencies. All salaried employees in Skanska are tied to a talent management process that gives opportunity for midyear and year-end reviews. Using the performance management module, managers can align individual goals with corporate goals; provide clear visibility into how each employee contributes to the success of the organization; and drive a strategic, end-to-end talent management strategy with a single, integrated system for all talent-related activities. This is critical to a company that is highly focused on ensuring that every employee has a development plan linked to his or her succession potential. “Our approach all along has been to deploy software applications that are seamless to end users,” says Crane. “The beauty of a cloud-based system is that much of the functionality takes place behind the scenes so we can focus on making sure users can access the data when they need it. This model greatly improves their efficiency.” The employee profile not only sets a competency baseline for new employees but is also integrated with Skanska’s other back-office Oracle systems to ensure consistency in the way information is used to support other business functions. “Since we have about a dozen different HR systems that are providing us with information, we built a master database that collects all the information,” explains Lindholm. “That data is sent not only to Oracle Talent Management Cloud, but also to other systems that are dependent on this information.” Collaboration to Scale Skanska is poised to launch a new Oracle module to link employee learning plans to the review process and recruitment assessments. According to Crane, connecting these processes allows Skanska managers to see employees’ progress and produce an updated learning program. For example, as employees take classes, supervisors can consult the Oracle Talent Management Cloud portal to monitor progress and align it to each individual’s training and development plan. “That’s a pretty compelling solution for an organization that wants to manage its talent on a real-time basis and see how the training is working,” Crane says. Rolling out Oracle Talent Management Cloud was a joint effort among HR, IT, and a global group that oversaw the worldwide implementation. Skanska deployed the solution quickly across all markets at once. In the United States, for example, more than 35 offices quickly got up to speed on the new system via webinars for employees and face-to-face training for the HR group. “With any migration, there are moments when you hold your breath, but in this case, we had very few problems getting the system up and running,” says Crane. Lindholm adds, “There has been very little resistance to the system as users recognize its potential. Customizations are easy, and a lasting partnership has developed between Skanska and Oracle when help is needed. They listen to us.” Bjork elaborates on the implementation process from an IT perspective. “Deploying a SaaS system removes a lot of the complexity,” he says. “You can downsize the IT part and focus on the business part, which increases the probability of a successful implementation. If you want to scale the system, you make a quick phone call. That’s all it took recently when we added 4,000 users. We didn’t have to think about resizing the servers or hiring more IT people. Oracle does that for us, and they have provided very good support.” As a result, Skanska has been able to implement a single, cost-effective talent management solution across the organization to support its strategy to recruit and develop a world-class staff. Stakeholders are confident that they are providing the most efficient recruitment system possible for competent personnel at all levels within the company—from skilled workers at construction sites to top management at headquarters. And Skanska can retain skilled employees and ensure that they receive the development opportunities they need to grow and advance.

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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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  • How do I simplify terrain with tunnels or overhangs?

    - by KKlouzal
    I'm attempting to store vertex data in a quadtree with C++, such that far-away vertices can be combined to simplify the object and speed up rendering. This works well with a reasonably flat mesh, but what about terrain with overhangs or tunnels? How should I represent such a mesh in a quadtree? After the initial generation, each mesh is roughly 130,000 polygons and about 300 of these meshes are lined up to create the surface of a planetary body. A fully generated planet is upwards of 10,000,000 polygons before applying any culling to the individual meshes. Therefore, this second optimization is vital for the project. The rest of my confusion focuses around my inexperience with vertex data: How do I properly loop through the vertex data to group them into specific quads? How do I conclude from vertex data what a quad's maximum size should be? How many quads should the quadtree include?

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  • libgdx ActorGestureListener.pan() parameters not moving actor in smooth line

    - by Roar Skullestad
    I override the pan method in ActorGestureListener to implement dragging actors in libgdx (scene2d). When I move individual pieces on a board they move smoothly, but when moving the whole board, the x and y coordinates that is sent to pan is "jumping", and in an increasingly amount the longer it is dragged. These are an example of the deltaY coordinates sent to pan when dragging smoothly downwards: 1.1156368 -0.13125038 -1.0500145 0.98439217 -1.0500202 0.91877174 -0.984396 0.9187679 -0.98439026 0.9187641 -0.13125038 This is how I move the camera: public void pan (InputEvent event, float x, float y, float deltaX, float deltaY) { cam.translate(-deltaX, -deltaY); I have been using both the delta values sent to pan and the real position values, but similar results. And since it is the coordinates that are wrong, it doesn't matter whether I move the board itself or the camera. What could the cause be for this and what is the solution? When I move camera only half the delta-values, it moves smoothly but only at half the speed of the mouse pointer: cam.translate(-deltaX / 2, -deltaY / 2); It seems like the moving of camera or board affects the mouse input coordinates. How can I drag at "mouse speed" and still get smooth movements? (This question was also posted on stackoverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20693020/libgdx-actorgesturelistener-pan-parameters-not-moving-actor-in-smooth-line)

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  • Read only array, deep copy or retrieve copies one by one? (Performance and Memory)

    - by Arthur Wulf White
    In a garbage collection based system, what is the most effective way to handle a read only array if such a structure does not exist natively in the language. Is it better to return a copy of an array or allow other classes to retrieve copies of the objects stored in the array one by one? @JustinSkiles: It is not very broad. It is performance related and can actually be answered specifically for two general cases. You only need very few items: in this situation it's more effective to retrieve copies of the objects one by one. You wish to iterate over 30% or more objects. In this cases it is superior to retrieve all the array at once. This saves on functions calls. Function calls are very expansive when compared to reading directly from an array. A good specific answer could include performance, reading from an array and reading indirectly through a function. It is a simple performance related question.

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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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  • 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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  • How to port animation from one skeleton to another?

    - by shawn
    While I need to do this in a Blender3D modeler script, the math should be similar for other modelers or realtime engines. Blender3D specific terminology: Armature = skeleton EditBone = rest pose bone (stores the rest pose matrix) PoseBone = can store a different pose (animation matrix) for each frame of your animation I need to share animations (Blender Actions) between Armatures which have EditBones with same names and which have the same positions, but can have different (rest pose) angles and scales. Plus the Armatures might have different bone hierarchy (bone parenting/ no bone parenting). Why I need this: I've made an importer/exporter for a 3d format for a game. The format doesn't store enough info to connect/parent the bones, which makes posing/animating character models in a 3d modeller nearly impossible (original model files for the 3d modeler don't exist, this is for modding). As there are only 2 character skeleton types in the game, I decided to optionally allow to generate the bone from a hardcoded data in the model importer and undo that in the exporter. This allows to easily pose the model for checking weights, easily create weights, makes it easier for Blender to generate automatic weights and of course makes animating possible. This worked perfectly: the importer optionally generated the Armature itself and the exporter removed those changes, so the exported model works with existing animations in the game. But now I'm writing an importer and exporter for the game's animation format and here come the problems of: Trying to make original animations work in Blender with my "custom" (modified) Armature Trying to make animations created by using the "custom" (modified) Armature work with the original models in the game (and Blender). Constraints or bone snapping inside Blender won't work as they don't care that the bones have different angles in the rest pose, they will still face the same direction. It seems I just need to get the "difference" between the EditBone matrices of all EditBones for the two Armatures somehow and apply that difference to PoseBone matrices of all PoseBones, for all frames of my animation. I need to know how to get that difference and how to apply it. BTW, PoseBone matrices are relative to rest pose, they are by default [1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000](matrix [row 0]) [0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000](matrix [row 1]) [0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000](matrix [row 2]) [0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000](matrix [row 3]) So the question is: How to get the difference between two bone (EditBone) matrices to apply that difference to the animation matrices (PoseBone matrices)? Please be easy on the matrix math.

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  • Artifacts when using SamplerState.LinearClamp in SpriteBatch

    - by Raymond Holmboe
    I'm using XNA 4.0 and VS2010 Express for Windows Phone and Windows Phone SDK 7.1. This is a platform game and I have a map made up of 16x16 textures that is drawn dynamically, tile by tile. When using SpriteBatch to draw my map with LinearClamp, I get artifacts that looks like blurry thin lines. They become visible when the camera moves from one pixel to another and when the camera is still, the artifacts disappear. Here's a small sample of what I mean: Here's how I draw with the spritebatch: SBWorld.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Deferred, BlendState.NonPremultiplied, SamplerState.LinearClamp, DepthStencilState.Default, RasterizerState.CullNone, null, camera.View); When using SamplerState.PointClamp the game just plays horribly (IMHO), so I cannot use that. Why do these lines appear and how do I get rid of those?

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  • How can I view an R32G32B32 texture?

    - by bobobobo
    I have a texture with R32G32B32 floats. I create this texture in-program on D3D11, using DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32_FLOAT. Now I need to see the texture data for debug purposes, but it will not save to anything but dds, showing the error in debug output, "Can't find matching WIC format, please save this file to a DDS". So, I write it to DDS but I can't open it now! The DirectX texture tool says "An error occurred trying to open that file". I know the texture is working because I can read it in the GPU and the colors seem correct. How can I view an R32G32B32 texture in an image viewer?

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  • XNA 4: GetData from Texture2D and Set it into Texture3D with specific order

    - by cubrman
    I am trying to convert my color grading 2d lookup texture into 3d LUT. When I simply use: ColorAtlas.GetData(data); ColorAtlas3D.SetData(data); I get this: I tried building my 2d atlass horizontally but it did not helped - the data was messed up in a different way. So my question is how can I influence the order of the data I get from the 2d atlas and how can I properly pass it into my 3d atlas? Update: I know that I can GetData from a specific Rectangular area and put it into several arrays, but the result is still the same. This is what I tried: Color[] data2D = new Color[0]; for (int i = 0; i < 32; i++) { Color[] data = new Color[32 * 32]; GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(null); ColorAtlas.GetData(0, new Rectangle(0, i*32, 32, 32), data, 0, data.Length); int oldLength = data2D.Length; Array.Resize<Color>(ref data2D, oldLength + data.Length); Array.Copy(data, 0, data2D, oldLength, data.Length); } ColorAtlas3D.SetData(data2D);

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  • Which are the cons of using only non-member functions and POD?

    - by Miro
    I'm creating my own game engine. I've read these articles and this question about DOD and it was written to not use member functions and classes. I also heard some criticism to this idea. I can write it using member functions or non-member functions it would be similar. So what are the benefits/cons of that approach or when the project grows, does any of these approaches give clearer and better manageable code? With POD & non-member functions I don't have to make struct members public I can still use object id outside of engine like OpenGL does with all it's stuff, so It's not about encapsulation. POD - plain old data DOD - data oriented design

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  • How to store character moves (sprite animations)?

    - by Saad
    So I'm thinking about making a small rpg, mainly to test out different design patterns I've been learning about. But the one question that I'm not too sure on how to approach is how to store an array of character moves in the best way possible. So let's say I have arrays of different sprites. This is how I'm thinking about implementing it: array attack = new array (10); array attack2 = new array(5); (loop) //blit some image attack.push(imageInstance); (end loop) Now every time I want the animation I call on attack or attack2; is there a better structure? The problem with this is let's say there are 100 different attacks, and a player can have up to 10 attacks equipped. So how do I tell which attack the user has; should I use a hash map?

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  • MiniMax function throws null pointer exception

    - by Sven
    I'm working on a school project, I have to build a tic tac toe game with the AI based on the MiniMax algorithm. The two player mode works like it should. I followed the code example on http://ethangunderson.com/blog/minimax-algorithm-in-c/. The only thing is that I get a NullPointer Exception when I run the code. And I can't wrap my finger around it. I placed a comment in the code where the exception is thrown. The recursive call is returning a null pointer, what is very strange because it can't.. When I place a breakpoint on the null return with the help of a if statement, then I see that there ARE still 2 to 3 empty places.. I probably overlooking something. Hope someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Here is the MiniMax code (the tic tac toe code is not important): /* * To change this template, choose Tools | Templates * and open the template in the editor. */ package MiniMax; import Game.Block; import Game.Board; import java.util.ArrayList; public class MiniMax { public static Place getBestMove(Board gameBoard, Block.TYPE player) { Place bestPlace = null; ArrayList<Place> emptyPlaces = gameBoard.getEmptyPlaces(); Board newBoard; //loop trough all the empty places for(Place emptyPlace : emptyPlaces) { newBoard = gameBoard.clone(); newBoard.setBlock(emptyPlace.getRow(), emptyPlace.getCell(), player); //no game won and still room to move if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.NONE && newBoard.getEmptyPlaces().size() > 0) { //is an node (has children) Place tempPlace = getBestMove(newBoard, invertPlayer(player)); //ERROR is thrown here! tempPlace is null. emptyPlace.setScore(tempPlace.getScore()); } else { //is an leaf if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.NONE) { emptyPlace.setScore(0); } else if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.X) { emptyPlace.setScore(-1); } else if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.O) { emptyPlace.setScore(1); } //if this move is better then our prev move, take it! if((bestPlace == null) || (player == Block.TYPE.X && emptyPlace.getScore() < bestPlace.getScore()) || (player == Block.TYPE.O && emptyPlace.getScore() > bestPlace.getScore())) { bestPlace = emptyPlace; } } } //This should never be null, but it does.. return bestPlace; } private static Block.TYPE invertPlayer(Block.TYPE player) { if(player == Block.TYPE.X) { return Block.TYPE.O; } return Block.TYPE.X; } }

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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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  • Reasoner Conversion Problems:

    - by Annalyne
    I have this code right here in Java and I wanted to translate it in C++, but I had some problems going: this is the java code: import java.io.*; import java.util.*; public class ClueReasoner { private int numPlayers; private int playerNum; private int numCards; private SATSolver solver; private String caseFile = "cf"; private String[] players = {"sc", "mu", "wh", "gr", "pe", "pl"}; private String[] suspects = {"mu", "pl", "gr", "pe", "sc", "wh"}; private String[] weapons = {"kn", "ca", "re", "ro", "pi", "wr"}; private String[] rooms = {"ha", "lo", "di", "ki", "ba", "co", "bi", "li", "st"}; private String[] cards; public ClueReasoner() { numPlayers = players.length; // Initialize card info cards = new String[suspects.length + weapons.length + rooms.length]; int i = 0; for (String card : suspects) cards[i++] = card; for (String card : weapons) cards[i++] = card; for (String card : rooms) cards[i++] = card; numCards = i; // Initialize solver solver = new SATSolver(); addInitialClauses(); } private int getPlayerNum(String player) { if (player.equals(caseFile)) return numPlayers; for (int i = 0; i < numPlayers; i++) if (player.equals(players[i])) return i; System.out.println("Illegal player: " + player); return -1; } private int getCardNum(String card) { for (int i = 0; i < numCards; i++) if (card.equals(cards[i])) return i; System.out.println("Illegal card: " + card); return -1; } private int getPairNum(String player, String card) { return getPairNum(getPlayerNum(player), getCardNum(card)); } private int getPairNum(int playerNum, int cardNum) { return playerNum * numCards + cardNum + 1; } public void addInitialClauses() { // TO BE IMPLEMENTED AS AN EXERCISE // Each card is in at least one place (including case file). for (int c = 0; c < numCards; c++) { int[] clause = new int[numPlayers + 1]; for (int p = 0; p <= numPlayers; p++) clause[p] = getPairNum(p, c); solver.addClause(clause); } // If a card is one place, it cannot be in another place. // At least one card of each category is in the case file. // No two cards in each category can both be in the case file. } public void hand(String player, String[] cards) { playerNum = getPlayerNum(player); // TO BE IMPLEMENTED AS AN EXERCISE } public void suggest(String suggester, String card1, String card2, String card3, String refuter, String cardShown) { // TO BE IMPLEMENTED AS AN EXERCISE } public void accuse(String accuser, String card1, String card2, String card3, boolean isCorrect) { // TO BE IMPLEMENTED AS AN EXERCISE } public int query(String player, String card) { return solver.testLiteral(getPairNum(player, card)); } public String queryString(int returnCode) { if (returnCode == SATSolver.TRUE) return "Y"; else if (returnCode == SATSolver.FALSE) return "n"; else return "-"; } public void printNotepad() { PrintStream out = System.out; for (String player : players) out.print("\t" + player); out.println("\t" + caseFile); for (String card : cards) { out.print(card + "\t"); for (String player : players) out.print(queryString(query(player, card)) + "\t"); out.println(queryString(query(caseFile, card))); } } public static void main(String[] args) { ClueReasoner cr = new ClueReasoner(); String[] myCards = {"wh", "li", "st"}; cr.hand("sc", myCards); cr.suggest("sc", "sc", "ro", "lo", "mu", "sc"); cr.suggest("mu", "pe", "pi", "di", "pe", null); cr.suggest("wh", "mu", "re", "ba", "pe", null); cr.suggest("gr", "wh", "kn", "ba", "pl", null); cr.suggest("pe", "gr", "ca", "di", "wh", null); cr.suggest("pl", "wh", "wr", "st", "sc", "wh"); cr.suggest("sc", "pl", "ro", "co", "mu", "pl"); cr.suggest("mu", "pe", "ro", "ba", "wh", null); cr.suggest("wh", "mu", "ca", "st", "gr", null); cr.suggest("gr", "pe", "kn", "di", "pe", null); cr.suggest("pe", "mu", "pi", "di", "pl", null); cr.suggest("pl", "gr", "kn", "co", "wh", null); cr.suggest("sc", "pe", "kn", "lo", "mu", "lo"); cr.suggest("mu", "pe", "kn", "di", "wh", null); cr.suggest("wh", "pe", "wr", "ha", "gr", null); cr.suggest("gr", "wh", "pi", "co", "pl", null); cr.suggest("pe", "sc", "pi", "ha", "mu", null); cr.suggest("pl", "pe", "pi", "ba", null, null); cr.suggest("sc", "wh", "pi", "ha", "pe", "ha"); cr.suggest("wh", "pe", "pi", "ha", "pe", null); cr.suggest("pe", "pe", "pi", "ha", null, null); cr.suggest("sc", "gr", "pi", "st", "wh", "gr"); cr.suggest("mu", "pe", "pi", "ba", "pl", null); cr.suggest("wh", "pe", "pi", "st", "sc", "st"); cr.suggest("gr", "wh", "pi", "st", "sc", "wh"); cr.suggest("pe", "wh", "pi", "st", "sc", "wh"); cr.suggest("pl", "pe", "pi", "ki", "gr", null); cr.printNotepad(); cr.accuse("sc", "pe", "pi", "bi", true); } } how can I convert this? there are too many errors I get. for my C++ code (as a commentor asked for) #include <iostream> #include <cstdlib> #include <string> using namespace std; void Scene_Reasoner() { int numPlayer; int playerNum; int cardNum; string filecase = "Case: "; string players [] = {"sc", "mu", "wh", "gr", "pe", "pl"}; string suspects [] = {"mu", "pl", "gr", "pe", "sc", "wh"}; string weapons [] = {"kn", "ca", "re", "ro", "pi", "wr"}; string rooms[] = {"ha", "lo", "di", "ki", "ba", "co", "bi", "li", "st"}; string cards [0]; }; void Scene_Reason_Base () { numPlayer = players.length; // Initialize card info cards = new String[suspects.length + weapons.length + rooms.length]; int i = 0; for (String card : suspects) cards[i++] = card; for (String card : weapons) cards[i++] = card; for (String card : rooms) cards[i++] = card; cardNum = i; }; private int getCardNum (string card) { for (int i = 0; i < numCards; i++) if (card.equals(cards[i])) return i; cout << "Illegal card: " + card <<endl; return -1; }; private int getPairNum(String player, String card) { return getPairNum(getPlayerNum(player), getCardNum(card)); }; private int getPairNum(int playerNum, int cardNum) { return playerNum * numCards + cardNum + 1; }; int main () { return 0; }

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