Search Results

Search found 2838 results on 114 pages for 'graphic effects'.

Page 72/114 | < Previous Page | 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79  | Next Page >

• Video freezes when larger than a certain size

  - by Poyan

  I have a weird problem playing video files. I have a fairly new (a few years old) graphic card that should and has played up to 1080p video files without much a lot of trouble. I seem to be having a weird issue where the video plays back fine if the window is below a certain size, but as soon as the windowsize increases, the picture freezes. The audio still plays. Usually this is mitigated by killing som applications. Especially GTK (?) apps seem to cause this lag, like having a Nautilus window open usually triggers this error for me. With hardware rendering I get the error regardless of application. I have tried enabling software rendering in VLC and that eliminates the problem (but I get other problems using software rendering, so I've avoided it). I know this is pretty fuzzy, but I'm not sure how to approach this problem. Do you have any idea? EDIT: Some more information. I have the correct and latest drivers installed. My graphics card is a Nvidia 7600 GT.

  Read the article

• What is the best type of c# timer to use with a Unity game that uses many timers simultaneously?

  - by Kyle Seidlitz

  I am developing a stand-alone 3d game in Unity that will have anywhere from 1 to 200 timers running simultaneously. There will be a GameObject containing 1 timer. For this game timer durations will range from 5 minutes to 4 days. There will not be any countdown displays or any UI for the timers. Each object is a prefab, with all the necessary materials included. An attached script will handle the timer and all the necessary code to change the materials and make any sound effects. Once the timer is expired, the user will then click on the object again, and the object will be destroyed, and the user's inventory will be adjusted. If the user wants to save or end the game before all the timers are done, the start value of the still running timers is to be saved to an XML file such that when the game is started again, any still running timers will be checked to see if they have expired, where the object's materials will be changed appropriately. I am still trying to figure out what type of timer to use, and see also if there are any suggestions for saving and calculating times over several days. What class(es) of timers should I use? Are there any special issues I should look out for in terms of performance?

  Read the article

• Weekend Project: Build a Fireball Launcher

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  What’s more fun than playing with fire? Shooting it from your hands. Put on your robe and wizard hat, make a stop at the hardware store, and spend the weekend trying to convince your friends you’ve acquired supernatural powers. Over at MAKE Magazine, Joel Johnson explains the impetus for his project: A stalwart of close-quarter magicians for years, the electronic flash gun is a simple device: a battery-powered, hand-held ignitor that uses a “glo-plug” to light a bit of flash paper and cotton, shooting a fireball a few feet into the air. You can buy one from most magic shops for around $50, but if you build one on your own, you’ll not only save a few bucks, you’ll also learn how easy it is to add fire effects to almost any electronics project. (And what gadget couldn’t stand a little more spurting flame?) The parts list is minimal but the end effect is pretty fantastic. Hit up the link below for the full build guide, plenty of warnings, and a weekend project that’s sure to impress. How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 3 How to Sync Your Media Across Your Entire House with XBMC How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2

  Read the article

• SEO questions about PR, Page Structure, and Other

  - by jasondavis

  A couple of basic questions related to SEO. 1) If I have a site that has several different niches that I am trying to promote from. Example Web Developer broke down into section of Web Design, Graphic Design, Programming, Software for SEO purposes, would it be better to use subdomains for these main sections or use the main domain with a folder like structure? 2) Is PR different for each page of a domain or ever page has a PR of the same on that domain? Also do sub-domains have a different PR? 3) When entering a hugely over saturated niche such as web-design, is it even possible to compete with the big sites that have been ranked on google #1 page for years? 4) Lastly, I have read about how important titles, link anchors, and headings are for SEO and how content is the most important. So left's say we are building a standard header, body, sidebar, footer page. In the the actual markup, would it be better to make sure the main content comes before the sidebar on the page or does this probably not make a difference? 5) I seen mentioned in another answer here that microformats can help with SEO, is there any fact behind this? Thank you for any info on this

  Read the article

• Dualboot (Win 8 / Ubuntu 13) is stuck at 'switching to clocksource'

  - by Daniel Puscht

  for days I have been crawling the web for solutions to my problem, but couln't find any. Here it is: I got a new Laptop (ASUS Vivobook S200E) with Win 8 OEM preinstalled. I wanted to create a dual-boot system with Ubuntu 13 next to it. I read about UEFI and that I have to turn of Secure Boot and use the existing EFI partition as bootloader for Ubuntu. So I did. I also ran boot-repair reinstalling the GRUB. The result is when I start the computer I get into the boot menu. So far, so good. When I pick Win everthing is fine. But when I choose Ubuntu (recovery) the system starts, but gets stuck at the line '[1.806366] Switching to clocksource tsc'. I already tried other versions of Ubuntu (12.04.2, 12.10). I played with boot-repair (using the recommended fix, setting everything manually). But nothing works. It's always the same issue. I read that it could be a problem concerning graphic drivers, but this I can hardly believe. If this is any help, boot-repair gave me this link to post in fora. http://paste.ubuntu.com/5810391/ Thanks for any help in advance

  Read the article

• How do I draw a 2d plane and rotate camara (To be a board) in a 3d XNA game?

  - by Mech0z

  I am trying to create a simple board game, but the 3d part of this is really killing me. From what I can gather I have created a plane, but it never moves even though I turn the camara, but that partially makes sense as I only turn the camara with a 3d model, but in my head that makes 0 sense, in my head if I turn the camara it should affect ALL my models? But with this code the camara only "cares" about the 3d cylinder, the plane is just completely still private void OnDraw(object sender, GameTimerEventArgs e) { SharedGraphicsDeviceManager.Current.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); foreach (ModelMesh mesh in cylinderModel.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { //effect.World = Matrix.CreateRotationX((float)e.TotalTime.TotalSeconds * 2); effect.View = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, Vector3.Zero, Vector3.Up); effect.Projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f), aspectRatio, 1.0f, 10000.0f); effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); } mesh.Draw(); } //cameraPosition.Z -= 5.0f; _effect.World = Matrix.CreateRotationZ((MathHelper.ToRadians(((float)e.TotalTime.Milliseconds / 2) % 360))); foreach (EffectPass pass in _effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); SharedGraphicsDeviceManager.Current.GraphicsDevice.DrawUserPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleStrip, _vertices, 0, 1, VertexPositionColor.VertexDeclaration); } } Is there a way to get the camara to affect all models?

  Read the article

• 3 column layout with css display table, with first row having multiple rows?

  - by Damainman

  I am working on a new website which: Has 3 columns - Each Column being a cell First column has 3 rows (Logo, Nav, icons) - Has a Div with display: table which wraps arround 3 divs with display:table-row. Other two columns only have 1 row. With the middle column being the content area. However since this is my first time using display:table, I am running into some things that aren't so clear to me. I was trying to avoid floating divs. If I need multiple rows with one cell in each row per column, do I embed each cell in a row or just create each row and not declare cells. I understand that browsers automatically create the missing elements but I want to make sure I do this properly to avoid any side effects that might occur due to the browser automatically creating the missing elements. Edit: I think my brain is just over worked, I guess I can accomplish this by just using 3 divs in the first column instead of using a nested table div with the rows. This just popped into my head.

  Read the article

• AI agents with FSM: a question regarding this

  - by Prog

  Finite State Machines implemented with the State design pattern are a common way to design AI agents. I am familiar with the State design pattern and know how to implement it. However I have a question regarding how this is used in games to design AI agents. Please consider a class Monster that represents an AI agent. Simplified it looks like this: class Monster{ State state; // other fields omitted public void update(){ // called every game-loop cycle state.execute(this); } public void setState(State state){ this.state = state; } // irrelevant stuff omitted } There are several State subclasses that implement execute() differently. So far classic State pattern. Here's my question: AI agents are subject to environmental effects and other objects communicating with them. For example an AI agent might tell another AI agent to attack (i.e. agent.attack()). Or a fireball might tell an AI agent to fall down. This means that the agent must have methods such as attack() and fallDown(), or commonly some message receiving mechanism to understand such messages. My question is divided to two parts: 1- Please say if this is correct: With an FSM, the current State of the agent should be the one taking care of such method calls - i.e. the agent delegates to the current state upon every event. Correct? Or wrong? 2- If correct, than how is this done? Are all states obligated by their superclass) to implement methods such as attack(), fallDown() etc., so the agent can always delegate to them on almost every event? Or is it done in some other way?

  Read the article

• What is the breakdown of jobs in game development?

  - by Destry Ullrich

  There's a project I'm trying to start for Indie Game Development; specifically, it's going to be a social networking website that lets developers meet through (It's a secret). One of the key components is showing what skills members have. Question: I need to know what MAJOR game development roles are not represented in the following list, keeping in mind that many specialist roles are being condensed into more broad, generalist roles: Art Animator (Characters, creatures, props, etc.) Concept Artist (2D scenes, environments, props, silhouettes, etc.) Technical Artist (UI artists, typefaces, graphic designers, etc.) 3D Artist (Modeling, rigging, texture, lighting, etc.) Audio Composer (Scores, music, etc.) Sound Engineer (SFX, mood setting, audio implementation, etc.) Voice (Dialog, acting, etc.) Design Creative Director (Initial direction, team management, communications, etc.) Gameplay Designer (Systems, mechanics, control mapping, etc.) World Designer (Level design, aesthetics, game progression, events, etc.) Writer (Story, mythos, dialog, flavor text, etc.) Programming Engine Programming (Engine creation, scripting, physics, etc.) Graphics Engineer (Sprites, lighting, GUI, etc.) Network Engineer (LAN, multiplayer, server support, etc.) Technical Director (I don't know what a technical director would even do.) Post Script: I have an art background, so i'm not familiar with what the others behind game creation actually do. What's missing from this list, and if you feel some things should be changed around how so?

  Read the article

• Why have we got so many Linux distributions? [closed]

  - by nebukadnezzar

  Pointed to from an answer to another question, I came across this graphic, and I'm shocked how many linux distributions currently exist. However, it seems that most of these distributions are forks of already popular distributions with minimal changes, usually limited to themes, wallpapers and buttons. It would still seem easier to create a sub-distribution with the required changes, such as XUbuntu with XFCE4, KUbuntu with KDE4, Fluxbuntu with Fluxbox, etc. In my mind there are a number of problems with having so many distributions - perhaps less security/stability due to smaller group of developers, and also the confusingly vast range of choice for newcomers to Linux. Some reasons that developers might decide to fork are: Specializing on a particular topic (work-related topic - i.e. for a Hospital, etc) An exceptional architecture, that requires a special set of software Use of non-FOSS, proprietary technology, and such So what other reasons are there that have caused so many people decided to create their own distributions? What are the thought processes that have led to this? And are these "valid" reasons - do we need so many distributions? If you can back your experiences up with references that would be great.

  Read the article

• Is there a schematic overview of Ubuntu's architecture?

  - by joebuntu

  Hi there, as enthusiastic, advanced Linux learner, I'd love to get an overview about Linux' architecure/structure in general. You know, like "the big picture". I'm thinking of a large schematic graphic showing what is what, who is who, what system (e.g. X) comprises which subsystems (GDM/Gnome/Compiz) on the way from a to z, from boot to interactive desktop, including the most important background services (auth, network, cron, ...). Maybe a bit like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pgc/140859386/ but way more detailed. There's bootchart, which produces very comprehensive charts, but they again are too detailed and difficult to get the "big picture" from. Is there such a thing? Possibly not for the whole System, but maybe for single subsystems? I had trouble searching for this, because using search terms like "scheme" or "architecture" pointed to the wrong direction (a tool called "scheme" or CAD software for linux). I appreciate any links. If there's interest in those schematic overviews and links, maybe someone could turn this post into a wiki post? Cheers, joebuntu

  Read the article

• Is it possible to hide Launcher for certain apps?

  - by Przemek

  As 14.04LTS has been released I thought I'd try to make larger switch to Ubuntu - especially considering most of the apps I use at work are at last available in Linux versions (with the major exception being Rhino3d v5 - hope that it will be possible to launch it with Wine somehow). But as I use my PC for 3D design I need every damn inch of screen space. And this is where Launcher becomes a pain. While in general I like it (as well as the rest of Unity) when I do office work (emails, docs etc) it has turned out to be a major pain with 3D apps and tablet. I'd like to set launcher to hide when certain apps are maximized. Is it possible? If not is it possible to set it as intellihide/stay in the background globally, so it won't be visible when any app is maximized? Autohide is (sadly) not a good solution - the way Ubuntu handles revealing the hidden bar is tricky to work with when you use a graphic tablet (but to be honest I have gripes with it even when using a mouse). I need the bar to disappear or stay in the background so it won't take screen space - 3D apps have way too much menus that eat valuable screen space already.

  Read the article

• I can't get grub menu to show up during boot

  - by wim

  After trying (and failing) to install better ATI drivers in 11.10, I've somehow lost my grub menu at boot time. The screen does change to the familiar purple colour, but instead of a list of boot options it's just blank solid colour, and then disappears quickly and boots into the default entry normally. How can I get the bootloader back? I've tried sudo update-grub and also various different combinations of resolutions and colour depths in startupmanager application with no success (640x480, 1024x768, 1600x1200, 16 bits, 8 bits, 10 second delay, 7 second delay, 2 second delay...) edit: I have already tried holding down Shift during bootup and it does not seem to change the behaviour. I get the message "GRUB Loading" in the terminal, but then the place where the grub menu normally appears I get a solid blank magenta screen for a while. Here are the contents of /etc/default/grub # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update # /boot/grub/grub.cfg. # For full documentation of the options in this file, see: # info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration' GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=" vga=798 splash" # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...) #GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef" # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console # The resolution used on graphical terminal # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo' #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries #GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

  Read the article

• Ubuntu won't log in after update

  - by Dave M G

  I just updated Ubuntu about 15 minutes ago on my desktop which is running 12.04. Within the set of updates, there were some kernel upgrades. It didn't say I needed to reboot after the update was finished, but I thought I would anyway. The computer successfully rebooted up to the login screen. However, after entering my password, the screen goes black for a moment, then it comes back to the login screen. I tried the suggestions in this question, but unfortunately they didn't help. In the accepted answer, the questioner vaguely says it was a "Unity problem". I'm using Gnome-classic with full Compiz effects. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Compiz, but that didn't fix anything. So... I can't use my desktop computer until this is fixed. I hope there is some help soon. I've uploaded the output of cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log to Pastebin. A temporary solution of changing to gdm instead of lightdm was found with help in the chat room.

  Read the article

• Proper XAML for Windows 8 Applications [closed]

  - by Jaapjan

  Traditionally, my programs do their work in the background and when I do have to make an interface for some reason, they often do not need to be complex which means I can use a simple Windows Forms or console application. But lets be honest-- Windows Forms? That is so ... ancient! Instead I have been looking at Windows 8. A new interface, different, maybe better-- but fun to give a try. Which means XAML. Now, XAML isn't all that hard in concept. Panel here, button there-- A smattering of XML. My question in short: Where can I find resources that teach me how to write good XAML code for Windows 8 applications? The long version: How do I combine XAML constructs to achieve effects? Horizontal panels with multiple sections you can scroll through with your finger, the proper way? How should you use default style resources Windows 8 might give you by default? How do I properly create a panel with user info on the right? Left aligned stackpanels with embedded dockpanels? Yes? No? Why?

  Read the article

• Is using a dedicated thread just for sending gpu commands a good idea?

  - by tigrou

  The most basic game loop is like this : while(1) { update(); draw(); swapbuffers(); } This is very simple but have a problem : some drawing commands can be blocking and cpu will wait while he could do other things (like processing next update() call). Another possible solution i have in mind would be to use two threads : one for updating and preparing commands to be sent to gpu, and one for sending these commands to the gpu : //first thread while(1) { update(); render(); // use gamestate to generate all needed triangles and commands for gpu // put them in a buffer, no command is send to gpu // two buffers will be used, see below pulse(); //signal the other thread data is ready } //second thread while(1) { wait(); // wait for second thread for data to come send_data_togpu(); // send prepared commands from buffer to graphic card swapbuffers(); } also : two buffers would be used, so one buffer could be filled with gpu commands while the other would be processed by gpu. Do you thing such a solution would be effective ? What would be advantages and disadvantages of such a solution (especially against a simpler solution (eg : single threaded with triple buffering enabled) ?

  Read the article

• Multi-screen and Nvidia GT220

  - by Bohors

  Excuse me first for my broken English I have 3 monitors on two Nvidia GT220. Unity 2D works fine after using the proprietary drivers. But no way to use compiz effects. I'm on Ubuntu 11.10 (I also tested for curiosity 12.04 for the same result) I noticed in the "System Settings" / "details" that my graphics card is not recognized (graphics card "unknown") and "View" only returns me my first screen (with the correct resolution) also in unknown. $ lspci | grep VGA 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2) 05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2) xorg.conf : Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 Screen 1 "Screen1" Below "Screen0" Screen 2 "Screen2" RightOf "Screen0" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" Option "Xinerama" "1" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Acer V243HL" HorizSync 30.0 - 80.0 VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "LG Electronics L1920P" HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor2" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Acer V243HL" HorizSync 30.0 - 80.0 VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 220" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device1" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 220" BusID "PCI:5:0:0" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device2" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 220" BusID "PCI:5:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Device0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0" Option "metamodes" "1920x1080_60_0 +0+0; nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Device1" Monitor "Monitor1" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen2" Device "Device2" Monitor "Monitor2" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "Disable" EndSection Have you any idea? thanks

  Read the article

• Dealing with numerous, simultaneous sounds in unity

  - by luxchar

  I've written a custom class that creates a fixed number of audio sources. When a new sound is played, it goes through the class, which creates a queue of sounds that will be played during that frame. The sounds that are closer to the camera are given preference. If new sounds arrive in the next frame, I have a complex set of rules that determines how to replace the old ones. Ideally, "big" or "important" sounds should not be replaced by small ones. Sound replacement is necessary since the game can be fast-paced at times, and should try to play new sounds by replacing old ones. Otherwise, there can be "silent" moments when an old sound is about to stop playing and isn't replaced right away by a new sound. The drawback of replacing old sounds right away is that there is a harsh transition from the old sound clip to the new one. But I wonder if I could just remove that management logic altogether, and create audio sources on the fly for new sounds. I could give "important" sounds more priority (closer to 0 in the corresponding property) as opposed to less important ones, and let Unity take care of culling out sound effects that exceed the channel limit. The only drawback is that it requires many heap allocations. I wonder what strategy people use here?

  Read the article

• How to get Nvidia 555M working on Ubuntu 12.10 (drivers, optimus, cuda)?

  - by bluudz

  I'm trying for few days to get my GPU working properly on Alienware M14x with GPU NVidia 555M, but I have no luck at all. After fresh ubuntu install I did follow the guide here NVIDIA Optimus and Ubuntu 12.10 and istalled Bumblebee without problems. Tested glxspheres/optirun glxspheres both working fine. Now I was continuing to install CUDA as is said here How can I get nVidia CUDA or OpenCL working on a laptop with nVidia discrete card/Intel Integrated Graphics? but I'm getting: Driver: Not Selected Toolkit: Installation Failed. Using unsupported Compiler. Samples: Installation Failed. Missing required libraries. I did not select the driver as I though Bumblebee installed driver already. How should I proceed? And also at what point is the NVidia driver being installed and how can I try its working? Bumblebee seems to be installing the driver, CUDA wants to do the same, its all a bit confusing really. Sorry if its lame question, but I would really want to at least get graphic card and second screen working.. Thank you for any help.

  Read the article

• Information about rendering, batches, the graphical card, performance etc. + XNA?

  - by Aidiakapi

  I know the title is a bit vague but it's hard to describe what I'm really looking for, but here goes. When it comes to CPU rendering, performance is mostly easy to estimate and straightforward, but when it comes to the GPU due to my lack of technical background information, I'm clueless. I'm using XNA so it'd be nice if theory could be related to that. So what I actually wanna know is, what happens when and where (CPU/GPU) when you do specific draw actions? What is a batch? What influence do effects, projections etc have? Is data persisted on the graphics card or is it transferred over every step? When there's talk about bandwidth, are you talking about a graphics card internal bandwidth, or the pipeline from CPU to GPU? Note: I'm not actually looking for information on how the drawing process happens, that's the GPU's business, I'm interested on all the overhead that precedes that. I'd like to understand what's going on when I do action X, to adapt my architectures and practices to that. Any articles (possibly with code examples), information, links, tutorials that give more insight in how to write better games are very much appreciated. Thanks :)

  Read the article

• What technologies are needed to be a freelance web developer / designer targeting small businesses?

  - by Jason Wirth

  First off, I'm not looking for this answer: "learn PHP/MySQL, JQuery, HTML/CSS...." My background, I wear many hats, and do many things. Currently I manage investment accounts with a business partner who is also a friend. He happens to be attending business / law school perusing a joint JD and MBA. As a result, we're putting our into "coast", maintaining our current clients, but not acquiring more. Recently I've picked up some freelance graphic design / web development / online marketing side work (Photoshop, HTML/CSS, WordPress) through some personal networks. The work is enjoyable; now I'm thinking about expanding it into a larger business with these primary goals: augment my finances (I'm shooting for about $1,000-2,000 per mo.), learn new technologies, involve myself with meaningful work. As an entrepreneur I don't mind the aspects of running a business that hassle other freelancers... -- the marketing -- the billing -- etc. I'm considering targeting the small to middle market businesses and organizations where I can contribute in marketing, design, and development building projects from the ground up. Thus I'll have freedom to decide the specific technology (I won't have to work with an existing code base). What kinds of projects should I focus on? What technologies are a good fit for this style of work? For example: It might be fun to develop with Ruby on Rails. However, maybe a lot of projects would be rolling out e-commerce solutions. Thus, I should focus on PHP due to more shopping cart options, skipping ROR entirely.

  Read the article

• 'Buy the app' landing page implementations

  - by benwad

  My site (using Django) has an app that I'm trying to push - I currently have a piece of middleware that redirects the user to a page advertising the app if they're accessing the page on the iPhone, then setting a cookie so that the user isn't bugged by the message every time they visit the site. This works fine, however checking the page with the mobile Googlebot checker shows that the Googlebot gets stuck in the redirect (since it doesn't store cookies) and therefore won't index the proper content. So, I'm trying to think of an alternative implementation that won't hurt the site's Google ranking and won't have any other adverse effects. I've considered a couple of options: Redirect (the current solution), but don't redirect if the user agent matches the Googlebot's UA string. This would be ideal, however I'm not sure if Google like their bot being treated differently from other users, and I'm afraid the site's ranking may be somehow penalised if I go ahead with this. Use a Javascript popup instead of a redirect. This would make sure the Googlebot finds the content it needs, however I envision this approach causing compatibility issues with the myriad mobile devices/browsers out there, and may affect the page load time. How valid are these options? And is there a better option for implementing this feature out there? I've tried researching this topic but surprisingly can't find any reputable-looking blog posts that explore this topic. EDIT: I posted this on SF because it seemed unsuitable for SO, but if there's another site that would be better for this issue then I'd be happy to move the question elsewhere.

  Read the article

• Must all AI states be able to react to any event?

  - by Prog

  FSMs implemented with the State design pattern are a common way to design AI agents. I am familiar with the State design pattern and know how to implement it. How is this used in games to design AI agents? Consider a simplified class Monster, representing an AI agent: class Monster { State state; // other fields omitted public void update(){ // called every game-loop cycle state.execute(this); } public void setState(State state){ this.state = state; } // irrelevant stuff omitted } There are several State subclasses implementing execute() differently. So far, classic State pattern. AI agents are subject to environmental effects and other objects communicating with them. For example, an AI agent might tell another AI agent to attack (i.e. agent.attack()). Or a fireball might tell an AI agent to fall down. This means that the agent must have methods such as attack() and fallDown(), or commonly some message receiving mechanism to understand such messages. With an FSM, the current State of the agent should be the one taking care of such method calls - i.e. the agent delegates to the current state upon every event. Is this correct? If correct, how is this done? Are all states obligated by their superclass to implement methods such as attack(), fallDown() etc., so the agent can always delegate to them on almost every event? Or is it done in some other way?

  Read the article

• Should I build a multi-threaded system that handles events from a game and sorts them, independently, into different threads based on priority?

  - by JonathonG

  Can I build a multi-threaded system that handles events from a game and sorts them, independently, into different threads based on priority, and is it a good idea? Here's more info: I am about to begin work on porting a mid-sized game from Flash/AS3 to Java so that I can continue development with multi-threading capabilities. Here's a small bit of background about the game: The game contains numerous asynchronous activities, such as "world updating" (the game environment is constantly changing based on a set of natural laws and forces), procedural generation of terrain, NPCs, quests, items, etc., and on top of that, the effects of all of the player's interactions with his environment are programmatically calculated in real time, based on a set of constantly changing "stats" and once again, natural laws and forces. All of these things going on at once, in an asynchronous manner, seem to lend themselves to multi-threading very well. My question is: Can I build some kind of central engine that handles the "stacking" of all of these events as they are triggered, and dynamically sorts them out amongst the available threads, and would it be a good idea? As an example: Essentially, every time something happens (IE, a magic missile being generated by a spell, or a bunch of plants need to grow to their next stage), instead of just processing that task right then and adding the new object(s) to a list of managed objects, send a reference to that event to a core "event handler" that throws it into a stack of all other currently queued events, which then sorts them out and orders them according to urgency, splits them between a number of available threads for as-fast-as-possible multithreaded execution.

  Read the article

• XNA- Transforming children

  - by user1806687

  So, I have a Model stored in MyModel, that is made from three meshes. If you loop thrue MyModel.Meshes the first two are children of the third one. And was just wondering, if anyone could tell me where is the problem with my code. This method is called whenever I want to programmaticly change the position of a whole model: public void ChangePosition(Vector3 newPos) { Position = newPos; MyModel.Root.Transform = Matrix.CreateScale(VectorMathHelper.VectorMath(CurrentSize, DefaultSize, '/')) * Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle(MyModel.Root.Transform.Up, MathHelper.ToRadians(Rotation.Y)) * Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle(MyModel.Root.Transform.Right, MathHelper.ToRadians(Rotation.X)) * Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle(MyModel.Root.Transform.Forward, MathHelper.ToRadians(Rotation.Z)) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(Position); Matrix[] transforms = new Matrix[MyModel.Bones.Count]; MyModel.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo(transforms); int count = transforms.Length - 1; foreach (ModelMesh mesh in MyModel.Meshes) { mesh.ParentBone.Transform = transforms[count]; count--; } } This is the draw method: foreach (ModelMesh mesh in MyModel.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { effect.View = camera.view; effect.Projection = camera.projection; effect.World = mesh.ParentBone.Transform; effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); } mesh.Draw(); } The thing is when I call ChangePosition() the first time everything works perfectlly, but as soon as I call it again and again. The first two meshes(children meshes) start to move away from the parent mesh. Another thing I wanted to ask, if I change the scale/rotation/position of a children mesh, and then do CopyAbsoluteBoneTransforms() will children meshes be positioned properlly(at the proper distance) or would achieving that require more math/methods? Thanks in advance

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79  | Next Page >