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• What is involved with writing a lobby server?

  - by Kira

  So I'm writing a Chess matchmaking system based on a Lobby view with gaming rooms, general chat etc. So far I have a working prototype but I have big doubts regarding some things I did with the server. Writing a gaming lobby server is a new programming experience to me and so I don't have a clear nor precise programming model for it. I also couldn't find a paper that describes how it should work. I ordered "Java Network Programming 3rd edition" from Amazon and still waiting for shipment, hopefully I'll find some useful examples/information in this book. Meanwhile, I'd like to gather your opinions and see how you would handle some things so I can learn how to write a server correctly. Here are a few questions off the top of my head: (may be more will come) First, let's define what a server does. It's primary functionality is to hold TCP connections with clients, listen to the events they generate and dispatch them to the other players. But is there more to it than that? Should I use one thread per client? If so, 300 clients = 300 threads. Isn't that too much? What hardware is needed to support that? And how much bandwidth does a lobby consume then approx? What kind of data structure should be used to hold the clients' sockets? How do you protect it from concurrent modification (eg. a player enters or exists the lobby) when iterating through it to dispatch an event without hurting throughput? Is ConcurrentHashMap the correct answer here, or are there some techniques I should know? When a user enters the lobby, what mechanism would you use to transfer the state of the lobby to him? And while this is happening, where do the other events bubble up? Screenshot : http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/695/sansrewyh.png/

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• Efficient skeletal animation

  - by Will

  I am looking at adopting a skeletal animation format (as prompted here) for an RTS game. The individual representation of each model on-screen will be small but there will be lots of them! In skeletal animation e.g. MD5 files, each individual vertex can be attached to an arbitrary number of joints. How can you efficiently support this whilst doing the interpolation in GLSL? Or do engines do their animation on the CPU? Or do engines set arbitrary limits on maximum joints per vertex and invoke nop multiplies for those joints that don't use the maximum number? Are there games that use skeletal animation in an RTS-like setting thus proving that on integrated graphics cards I have nothing to worry about in going the bones route?

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• How many BasicEffects do you have in a Game? What is the best way to render multiple objects/shapes at once?

  - by Deukalion

  I'm trying to understand 3D rendering and it seems that everytime you render a new object (A 3D Cube or something) you need to have a new BasicEffect for each Box you render unless you want the exact same texture? ...so if I have over a hundred boxes with each different textures, I need at least as many BasicEffects? Will that not be "too much" for the CPU/GPU in the end or result in lagging? Is there any good way to render multiple objects (cubes or other shapes) at the same time? I've tried changing the BasicEffect.Texture with each cube drawn, but it resulting in changing the first Cube's texture too. Any suggestions would be really appreciated, I'm really new to 3D in XNA so I'm trying to wrap my head around the best methods for example render a Map with objects (of shapes).

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• UDK : UTWeap_RocketLauncher gift CreateInventory: Any idea why this does not work properly?

  - by John Sloan

  I am giving the player an instanced class of UTWeap_RocketLauncher in an instance of UTGame. PlayerPawn.CreateInventory(class'FobikRocketLauncher',false); // Does not work PlayerPawn.CreateInventory(class'FobikLinkGun',false); // Works Even if I give the original class (eg. UTWeap_RocketLauncher) it does not actually show up. However if I do a "GiveWeapons" cheat, I get it just fine. It also works if I had code it into the map. - But UTWeap_LinkGun works fine either way. Any ideas? It shows the default ammo amount, and the icon on the HUD.

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• Good starting platform for a teenage games programmer

  - by gkrogers

  My son (15) has decided that he wants to pursue a career as a games programmer. I've said that he should get started now with a simple game. He has no programming experience yet, but I am a programmer (business apps, not games) so I can teach him programming, but what would be a good platform for him to start on? Initially I'm looking for something that can provide quick results, to keep his enthusiasm up. What would you suggest?

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• What is the recommended library for using Lua from C++?

  - by DevilWithin

  I am currently planning how to integrate Lua scripting in my 2D Game Engine, and i would like to go straight to the most adequate solution for having C++ classes and objects exposed. I've read this (if it helps you help): http://lua-users.org/wiki/BindingCodeToLua If you have a better scripting language to recomend, go for it ;D All help is welcome, i need to pickup the best solution to start implementing Thanks

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• Do I need the 'w' component in my Vector class?

  - by bobobobo

  Assume you're writing matrix code that handles rotation, translation etc for 3d space. Now the transformation matrices have to be 4x4 to fit the translation component in. However, you don't actually need to store a w component in the vector do you? Even in perspective division, you can simply compute and store w outside of the vector, and perspective divide before returning from the method. For example: // post multiply vec2=matrix*vector Vector operator*( const Matrix & a, const Vector& v ) { Vector r ; // do matrix mult r.x = a._11*v.x + a._12*v.y ... real w = a._41*v.x + a._42*v.y ... // perspective divide r /= w ; return r ; } Is there a point in storing w in the Vector class?

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• Climbing boxes in box2D

  - by Rothens

  I've just stepped into the world of Box2D with libgdx. I've already made a stack of boxes: They are dropped randomly ontop of each other. What I'd like to achieve is to make a character, that could freely climb on the boxes, (He can grip on the boxes anywhere, not just on the side/top of a box) but his weight affects the stack as well, so the boxes could fall down. My google-fu failed me... Is there any way to make this possible?

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• Procedural Planets, Heightmaps and Textures

  - by henryprescott

  I am currently working on an OpenGL procedural planet generator. I hope to use it for a space RPG, that will not allow players to go down to the surface of a planet so I have ignored anything ROAM related. At the momement I am drawing a cube with VBOs and mapping onto a sphere. I am familiar with most fractal heightmap generating techniques and have already implemented my own version of midpoint displacement(not that useful in this case I know). My question is, what is the best way to procedurally generate the heightmap. I have looked at libnoise which allows me to make tilable heightmaps/textures, but as far as I can see I would need to generate a net like this. Leaving the tiling obvious. Could anyone advise me on the best route to take? Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks, Henry.

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• infer half vector length in BRDF

  - by cician

  it's my first question on stack. Is it possible to infer length of the half angle vector for specular lighting from N·L and N·V without the whole view and light vectors? I may be completely off-track, but I have this gut feeling it's possible... Why? I'm working on a skin shader and I'm already doing one texture lookup with N·L+N·E and one texture lookup for specular with N·H+N·V. The latter one can be transformed into N·L+N·E lookup if only I had the half vector length. Doing so could simplify the shader a bit and move some operations into the pre-computed lookup texture. It would make a huge difference since I'm trying to squeeze as much functionality as possible to a single pass mobile version so instruction count matters. Thanks.

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• StringBuffer behavior in LWJGL

  - by Michael Oberlin

  Okay, I've been programming in Java for about ten years, but am entirely new to LWJGL. I have a specific problem whilst attempting to create a text console. I have built a class meant to abstract input polling to it, which (in theory) captures key presses from the Keyboard object and appends them to a StringBuilder/StringBuffer, then retrieves the completed string after receiving the ENTER key. The problem is, after I trigger the String return (currently with ESCAPE), and attempt to print it to System.out, I consistently get a blank line. I can get an appropriate string length, and I can even sample a single character out of it and get complete accuracy, but it never prints the actual string. I could swear that LWJGL slipped some kind of thread-safety trick in while I wasn't looking. Here's my code: static volatile StringBuffer command = new StringBuffer(); @Override public void chain(InputPoller poller) { this.chain = poller; } @Override public synchronized void poll() { //basic testing for modifier keys, to be used later on boolean shift = false, alt = false, control = false, superkey = false; if(Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_LSHIFT) || Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_RSHIFT)) shift = true; if(Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_LMENU) || Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_RMENU)) alt = true; if(Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_LCONTROL) || Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_RCONTROL)) control = true; if(Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_LMETA) || Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_RMETA)) superkey = true; while(Keyboard.next()) if(Keyboard.getEventKeyState()) { command.append(Keyboard.getEventCharacter()); } if (Framework.isConsoleEnabled() && Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_ESCAPE)) { System.out.println("Escape down"); System.out.println(command.length() + " characters polled"); //works System.out.println(command.toString().length()); //works System.out.println(command.toString().charAt(4)); //works System.out.println(command.toString().toCharArray()); //blank line! System.out.println(command.toString()); //blank line! Framework.disableConsole(); } //TODO: Add command construction and console management after that } } Maybe the answer's obvious and I'm just feeling tired, but I need to walk away from this for a while. If anyone sees the issue, please let me know. This machine is running the latest release of Java 7 on Ubuntu 12.04, Mate desktop environment. Many thanks.

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• As a indie, how to protect your game?

  - by user16829

  As a indie, you might not work in a company. And you may have a great game idea and you feel it gonna be a big success. When you released your game. How do you protect it as your own creation? So that someone also can't steal the title and publish a "sequel" e.g. Your-Game-Name 2,3,4. Or even produce by-products like Angry Birds but without your permission. So how we can prevent these from happening by legal methods. Like copyrights, trademarks? If a professional can fill us those info, it will be great.

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

  - by Huwell

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

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• Is white the best base color to start with when planning to shade sprites within Unity?

  - by SpartanDonut

  I'm looking into prototyping a game in Unity which will consist of solid square sprites / tiles. I figure I can represent different types of objects with different colors for each of the tiles in the game. I figure that I can import a single square sprite and shade it appropriately in Unity as opposed to imported squares of many different colors. My experience with adjusting the hue and saturation within Photoshop shows that white is not an easy color to change as things that are white often stay white. My testing in Unity shows that I can change the "color" of a sprite to anything other than white and the sprite is seemingly shaded appropriately, despite what I would have thought given my Photoshop experience. Since white objects do seem to take on the appropriate color shading when changed within Unity my gut tells me that this is the best base color to begin with, meaning that I can import a single white square sprite and simply adjust the color to represent different objects and object states. Is a white sprite actually the best color sprite to begin with and why does something like this work in Unity as opposed to adjusting the hue and saturation within Photoshop?

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• Possible to pass pygame data to memory map block?

  - by toozie21

  I am building a matrix out of addressable pixels and it will be run by a Pi (over the ethernet bus). The matrix will be 75 pixels wide and 20 pixels tall. As a side project, I thought it would be neat to run pong on it. I've seen some python based pong tutorials for Pi, but the problem is that they want to pass the data out to a screen via pygame.display function. I have access to pass pixel information using a memory map block, so is there anyway to do that with pygame instead of passing it out the video port? In case anyone is curious, this was the pong tutorial I was looking at: Pong Tutorial

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• When dealing with a static game board, what are some methods to make it more interesting?

  - by Ólafur Waage

  Let's say you have a game board that you look at. It does not move but there is some action going on. For example Chess, Checkers, Solitaire. The game I'm working on is not one of these but it's a good reference. What are some methods you can apply to the game or the design that increases the appeal of the game to the user? Of course you can make it prettier but what are some other methods you can use? For example: Visual cues, game design changes, user interface arrangement, etc.

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• XNA When to call LoadContent

  - by Peteyslatts

  I have an enum in my game that denotes the game state ie MainMenu, InGame, GameOver, Exit and I was wondering if it would be advisable to add a new one in for PrepGame - in which the game creates viewports for however many players there are, creates the battlefield etc. I feel like this is a good idea except for one thing: should I make a call back to LoadContent() in this state? I could just put a switch statement in the LoadContent for my currentGameState. If it equals PrepGame load things like the skybox, ship models, texures, HUD graphics etc. Or is it a good idea to create an Asset Manager class in the first call to LoadContent() and load everything then. I feel like both approaches have different benefits: faster, but more load times vs slower initial load time, but then all my objects are referencing the same variables so I only have to load each on once. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Peter

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• Client Side Prediction for a Look Vector

  - by Mike Sawayda

  So I am making a first person networked shooter. I am working on client-side prediction where I am predicting player position and look vectors client-side based on input messages received from the server. Right now I am only worried about the look vectors though. I am receiving the correct look vector from the server about 20 times per second and I am checking that against the look vector that I have client side. I want to interpolate the clients look vector towards the correct one that is server side over a period of time. Therefore no matter how far you are away from the servers look vector you will interpolate to it over the same amount of time. Ex. if you were 10 degrees off it would take the same amount of time as if you were 2 degrees off to be correctly lined up with the server copy. My code looks something like this but the problem is that the amount that you are changing the clients copy gets infinitesimally small so you will actually never reach the servers copy. This is because I am always calculating the difference and only moving by a percentage of that every frame. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to interpolate towards the servers copy correctly? if(rotationDiffY > ClientSideAttributes::minRotation) { if(serverRotY > clientRotY) { playerObjects[i]->collisionObject->rotation.y += (rotationDiffY * deltaTime); } else { playerObjects[i]->collisionObject->rotation.y -= (rotationDiffY deltaTime); } }

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• How can I protect my save data from casual hacking?

  - by Danran

  What options are there for saving game data in a secure manner? I'm interested in solutions specifically tailored for C++. I'm looking for something that is fast and easy to use. I'm only concerned about storing simple information such as Which levels are and are not unlocked The user's score for each level I'm curious again to know what's out there to use, any good libraries to use that give me nice, secure game data files that the average player can't mess with. I just found this here which looks very nice, but it would be great to get some opinions on potential other libraries/options out there.

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• Drawing Grid in 3D view - Mathematically calculate points and draw line between them (Not working)

  - by Deukalion

  I'm trying to draw a simple grid from a starting point and expand it to a size. Doing this mathematically and drawing the lines between each point, but since the "DrawPrimitives(LineList)" doesn't work the way it should work, And this method can't even draw lines between four points to create a simple Rectangle, so how does this method work exactly? Some sort of coordinate system: [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] [ ][2.2][ ][0.2][ ][2.2][ ] [ ][2.1][1.1][ ][1.1][2.1][ ] [ ][2.0][ ][0.0][ ][2.0][ ] [ ][2.1][1.1][ ][1.1][2.1][ ] [ ][2.2][ ][0.2][ ][2.2][ ] [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] I've checked with my method and it's working as it should. It calculates all the points to form a grid. This way I should be able to create Points where to draw line right? This way, if I supply the method with Size = 2 it starts at 0,0 and works it through all the corners (2,2) on each side. So, I have the positions of each point. How do I draw lines between these? VerticeCount = must be number of Points in this case, right? So, tell me, if I can't supply this method with Point A, Point B, Point C, Point D to draw a four vertice rectangle (Point A - B - C - D) - how do I do it? How do I even begin to understand it? As far as I'm concered, that's a "Line list" or a list of points where to draw lines. Can anyone explain what I'm missing? I wish to do this mathematically so I can create a a custom grid that can be altered.

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• XNA GameTime TotalGameTime slower than real time

  - by robasaurus

  I have set-up an empty test project consisting of a System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch and this in the draw method: spriteBatch.DrawString(font, gameTime.TotalGameTime.TotalSeconds.ToString(), new Vector2(100, 100), Color.White); spriteBatch.DrawString(font, stopwatch.Elapsed.TotalSeconds.ToString(), new Vector2(100, 200), Color.White); The GameTime.TotalGameTime displayed is slower than the stop watch (by about 5 seconds per minute) even though GameTime.IsRunningSlowly is always false, why is this? The reason this is an issue is because I have a server which uses stopwatch and it is faster than my client game. For instance my client notifies the server it has dropped a mine which explodes in one minute. Because the stopwatch is faster the server state explodes the mine before the client and they are out of sync. I don't want to have to notify the client when the server explodes it as this would use unnecessary bandwidth.

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• Open Source Analysis

  - by BluFire

  There are a lot of code in open source projects, looking at all of the code is time consuming and can be confusing to a novice like me. Are there any sections of open-source projects that should be focused on? What should I focus on when I look at code? I'm asking this in general because if I ask this specifically, the question will only apply in one or two projects rather than an entire group of projects ranging in different types of games and difficulty.

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• Are there any reasons to use Legacy (2.X) OpenGL?

  - by user27886

  The benefits are well documented of the Modern OpenGL 3.X & 4.X API's, but I'm wondering if there are ANY benefits to keeping with the old OpenGL, Or if learning OpenGL 2.X is a complete waste of time now no matter what? Particularly I've wondered if using the OpenGL 2.X API is appropriate if the target platform had graphics hardware capable of only up to OpenGL 2.X. Would a driver update on said target platform allow programs compiled using the Modern OpenGL API's to be released on this old platform? If they both work, which would be faster? Thanks

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• Whole continent simulation [on hold]

  - by user2309021

  Let's suppose I am planning to create a simulation of an entire continent at some point in the past (let's say, around 0 A.D). Is it feasible to spawn a hundred million actors that interact with each other and their environments? Having them reproduce, extract resources, etc? The fact is that I actually want to create a simulation that allows me to zoom in from a view of the entire continent up to a single village, and interact with it. (Think as if you could keep zooming in the campaign map of any Total War game and the transition to the battle map was seamless, not a change of the "game mode"). By the way, I have never made a game in my entire life (I have programmed normal desktop applications, though), so I am really having trouble wrapping my head around how to implement such a thing. Even while thinking about how to implement a simple population simulator, without a graphical interface, I think that the O(n) complexity of traversing an array and telling all people to get one year older each time the program ticks is kind of stupid. Any kind help would be greatly appreciated :) EDIT: After being put on hold, I shall specify a question. How would you implement a simulation of all basic human dynamics (reproduction, resource consumption) in an entire continent (with millions of people)?

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• Android loading screens blocking, good practice?

  - by Oren

  I've noticed many (if not all) android games don't support the "back" button functionality during their loading screens. Which leads to some frustrating moments when a user accidentally starts up the game and has to wait for the long loading stage to end in order to close it. So my questions are: 1) Why is that ? Is there a good reason to avoid something like asynchronous loading (or some other solution to this problem) in android games ? 2) If there is no good reason not to support this functionality, what would be the best way to accomplish it ?

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