Game Development

Almo

1:00 PM

but they're not

;)

Alex M.

►

larian's humor is always good

@Almo of course they're not, they're people after all

I hate overly nice people

niceness is such a good cloak for dishonesty

not to mention

it's such a good way to achieve anything you want by fooling people

nice people integrate in different places better and can do whatever they want

good for them

I think it's disgusting

MickLH

1:17 PM

lol @AlexM.

Disgusting nice-ers

Alex M.

well

MickLH

I totally know what you mean and agree at a deep level

But I also am guilty of being nice to people on occasion :/

SpartanDonut

I totally don't understand so I'm pretty sure I can't agree

Blue

Afternoon tips hat

SpartanDonut

Hey Blue

MickLH

1:18 PM

hey blue

Blue

Sup

Alex M.

let's start an honest answer spree

MickLH

@SpartanDonut jacker

Alex M.

> Why does my code dividing a 2D array into chunks fail?

Blue

0

A: Why does my code dividing a 2D array into chunks fail?

Here is my two cents: All the work can be found on here too so you can run it and see how it works http://ideone.com/xKWAip Separate it into pieces and you can see how it'll work with a wee access expression after flattening the initial map array. Here is what I used to generate your map (at t...

Alex M.

1:19 PM

because it's badly written

> Should I use SDL_Surface or SDL_Window?

dunno

MickLH

Lol they should use a hammer?

Alex M.

> Why is mesh baking causing huge performance spikes?

because it affects performance

Blue

Oh the timing on that question @AlexM.

Alex M.

> How do I deal with timeout detection and recovery in D3D?

MickLH

@AlexM. They should probably also use a hammer.

Alex M.

1:20 PM

by handling timeouts and recovering

MickLH

ok that one I think you spilled a little trollsauce on

BlueBug

#Blue Hey Blue (evening)

Blue

Hey buggy.

SpartanDonut

@BlueBug how long til you leave?

MickLH

D3D reeks of microsoft, I'd trust people on the internet before I trusted microsoft's documentation

Blue

1:21 PM

BlueBug

#SpartanDonut prob a few hours, I gotta sleep early tonight; planed something like semi-lunch with my uncle

SpartanDonut

I don't know about D3D docs but MSDN for what I use has been pretty solid from a documentation perspective. Blogs tend to be more "real world" than MS's example snippets though

@BlueBug I meant for the military

Alex M.

@Blue or if they're your boss

MickLH

Too many times have I written code to spec from MSDN or any other microsoft source, and it's having strange errors.... Then I find out that the MS docs omitted some small details

BlueBug

oh... haha, well.... I have about 3 month and two weeks left... OTL

MickLH

1:22 PM

Like one of the manual pages of the last WinAPI thing I did, said one of the parameters was optional, and gave no more information. I took this to mean it was optional.

Alex M.

pizza hut doesn't accept unshaven employees

MickLH

But it turns out, that the option of not passing that parameter (which was an output reference parameter that gives me irrelevant data), was also an option where that function crashes and burns

Blue

Used to work at PH during Uni, beard net of win. Non discrimination act of awesome.

Christoph

@AlexM. Then bro logic demands someone put their mouth somewhere.

SpartanDonut

@MickLH WinAPI I would believe that for yeah. :(

BlueBug

1:23 PM

SpartanDonut

@Blue you always seem to answer big debug questions with lovely code samples but due to the nature of them I struggle to care enough to read all of it :(

Icy Defiance

I just flag them ._.

Blue

I added the IDEOne.com link so you can actually see it working

Alex M.

@SpartanDonut #quality

OBTW

remember that artist guy who makes the same shit over and over again but with different colors

kenney

yeah him

guess what kind of crowdfunding campaign he started

Blue

A colouring book?

Alex M.

1:29 PM

he wants to start a website/platform/forum/whorehouse about gamedev

called KENNEYLAND

Icy Defiance

you need money for that?

Alex M.

"I study gamedev on KENNEYLAND"

jesus fucking christ

I'd kill myself

MickLH

lol I thought kenny's art looked bland

Alex M.

it does

MickLH

not to be a dick, just seemed 120% generic

Alex M.

1:30 PM

it's so average it hurts

and it's literally the same shit remixed all the time

MickLH

Like: Well I could make that on Illustrator, or Inkscape

and I suck at vector art

Blue

Ehhh, I keep trying to reveal your posts again @MickLH but everytime I log in I have to unblock you, not sure what that's all about

SpartanDonut

Honestly I think the question could be simplified to "How do I divide my 2D map array into chunks?" -> Edit Thomas' answer to only the last bit -> Keep Blue's answer.

Blue

Then I wonder why @AlexM. is talking to him self.

MickLH

lol @Blue

Pip

1:32 PM

@Blue tips hat

Blue

Hey @Pip.

Pip

sup, hatman?

Blue

Not much, just making god like Java chunk maps

user92578

IT'S WENDSDSDSADYSAY!

user92578

Hi!

user92578

1:35 PM

Any suggestions for a fileformat to use for my settings file in C++?

MickLH

hey @Tyyppi_77

@Tyyppi_77 human readable or no?

Alex M.

> settings file in C++

wat

user92578

@MickLH doesn't matter

MickLH

Then just dump binary into the file

user92578

How does that work? How do I know what setting is where?

Christoph

1:38 PM

Let the compiler figure that out

MickLH

typedef struct {
    int WindowX, WindowY;
    float Volume, Sensitivity;
    int RunMode, CrouchMode;
    char Name[256];
    // ..... stuff here
} SettingsData_t;

Christoph

when you write binary data from a struct and read into the same struct again on the same system, things will be fine. If there's a chance that the format or machine will change, you'll need something different

MickLH

sorry I'm old school, I can't stop typedef'ing my structs

user92578

eating, brb

MickLH

Also you can set the alignment of the struct to 1, or disable padding, and then use a preprocessor macro to switch an endian swap routine in and out at compile time

That can give you a reasonably portable binary format, except the floats

Alex M.

1:43 PM

just use a library that supports serialization LOL

and use a proper format

MickLH

For the floats, the portable way is to store them as text, and parse again when you load

Alex M.

you want to use a human readable format because you'll want to quickly change things in your settings file while developing

because you fuck up

MickLH

If you are gonna do that though, you probably should just go human reasable

Alex M.

boost.propertytree is header only

and supports parsing from json and xml too

MickLH

Oh god he said C++ not Boost lol

Boost is a different language

Christoph

1:44 PM

I also like boost.propertyTree

Alex M.

no

boost is a library

MickLH

Our statements are not mutually exclusive

Christoph

I remember earlier someone said something about this kind of discussions...

Alex M.

@MickLH yours is invalid

boost is a library

a library is not a language

despite adding its own particular crap

MickLH

That not only did not prove your point, but biased me further against you as well as dwindling away my respect.

Alex M.

1:46 PM

weren't you against emotional stuff in development?

hyperboles are pretty emotion related

MickLH

I already stepped back from the discussion, I was just telling you why

Alex M.

why what?

MickLH

If, in the future, you want to communicate: The only way I truly enjoy is when both parties are extending their own minds into each other's theoretical realities

Alex M.

tbh

I try to communicate as little as possible with you

I can't avoid it when you reply to me

like you did now

MickLH

Lol alex, can't you see outside your own ego?

I mean do you see yourself falling into your patterns?

Alex M.

1:50 PM

whatever you say mick

it's not like it's anything of substance

MickLH

So you just enjoy attacking people emotionally for no real benefit?

Good to know.

Christoph

So do you have any statistics about how long @Tyyppi_77 usually needs for eating?

MickLH

Lol, yes, just I think nobody data mined it yet. Check the logs here.

@AlexM. Ah, well that's called projecting. It's when you try to understand other people through your own qualities.

user92578

@Christoph Back.

Alex M.

@MickLH thanks for the vocabulary lesson

it was not exactly needed

user92578

1:54 PM

There's a rule in my house that we need to wait that everyone has eaten and then we get to leave the table

Blue

Can we stop this bickering please, it's just getting childish on both sides.

Alex M.

didn't you ignore mick or something?

Christoph

@Tyyppi_77 we had that rule too, I think it's a good one. Can you use boost libraries? @AlexM. suggested boost.propertyTree and I like it as well

Icy Defiance

definitely childish. Alex, I'm not sure you even know what you're arguing about. It looks like you're just trying to lash out at someone because he made a semi-joke about your attempt to help Tyyppi. In response, Mick is just toying with you. And I'm just sitting here being amused by watching.

user92578

@Christoph It's a great rule. I'd prefer staying out of boost.

BlueBug

1:57 PM

@Mr.Alien Hey handsome ;)

Alex M.

@IcyDefiance of course I know

Christoph

Then look for a library that allows reading and writing XML files

Alex M.

it's those semi-jokes that are the issues

user92578

@Christoph So you suggest XML?

Alex M.

notice that I mentioned mick's full of shit

BlueBug

1:58 PM

wait ... r u a modder... mr..alien? freezes

Mr. Alien

@BlueBug ssup///

BlueBug

Just letting u know, that I thought ur profile pic was quite charming.

Blue

WB alien.

Christoph

@Tyyppi_77 I suggest a human readable format, and XML comes to mind

MickLH

@Mr.Alien what kind?

user92578

1:59 PM

That sounds actually like a good option.

Icy Defiance

Alex M.

imgur is blocked at work

what is it?

user92578

And I in fact have already included TinyXML in my project

Icy Defiance

oh come on really? your workplace is silly.

Joe

~~good~~ morning gdse

Alex M.

2:00 PM

no idea why it's blocked

Christoph

@Tyyppi_77 you can also try json for a change

Alex M.

in bucharest it's not

BlueBug

evening.

MickLH

lol I personally think XML is overkill, something like an INI or INF file is plenty for settings, but if it's already included then you might as well @Tyyppi_77

Alex M.

I doubt any other studio has imgur blocked

hardware said they'd unblock it soon

Icy Defiance

2:00 PM

it's an image showing an angry cat with the superimposed text "i r srs cat, this is srs face"

Joe

@BlueBug total-knowledge.com/~ilya/mips/ugt.html UGT revolution!

Alex M.

I'm not srs

Blue

Both XML and JSON can be useful, if it's only a few settings then it's up to you to decide what you want.

Alex M.

I just don't like stupid semi-jokes

and mick throws those all the time

MickLH

cool story get over it

Icy Defiance

2:01 PM

so you don't share his sense of humor. that's no reason to start insulting him.

MickLH

nobody likes bad vibes either

BlueBug

xD hurhurhurhur @Joe

Alex M.

@IcyDefiance of course it is when he aims them at me specifically

I'd rather he used </retardedjoke> tags tbh

MickLH

@AlexM. That's where you're wrong, and that's why you get banned over and over

Joe

@BlueBug i must be old school lol but yea UGT was a real thing once

Blue

2:02 PM

If he's that much of a bother then block him.

I did for a while then decided to unblock him as he was behaving well.

Alex M.

then I'd see people talking to themselves which is a bigger issue

I kinda wish chat showed something like

Blue

Not really, you get used to it.

Alex M.

instead of hiding them completely

MickLH

Then stop being lazy

Alex M.

it makes things confusing

MickLH

2:03 PM

Write a browser plugin to replace it with "Herp derp derp"

Joe

< this message has been hidden, because you have flaged this user as a dick >

Blue

@AlexM. , you got Stylish?

Christoph

-.- @Joe how did you hide yourself from my chat?

Alex M.

@Blue nope, what's that

MickLH

lmgtfy.com/?q=stylish

Blue

2:04 PM

userstyles.org

Alex M.

what should I be searching for there?

Joe

mostly through magic and ritualistic floppy disk sacrifice

Blue

Just make the css class .user-87783 into whatever you want.

makes any of MickLH's messages follow a css style you want.

Christoph

i see...that's the indiana jones way

Blue

Make it hide text and reveal something else for example.

MickLH

2:06 PM

you can use a content rule in CSS

Christoph

or harry potter, not sure

MickLH

I seriously love my life so much :D I can understand why people get so jealous, and I wish I could help them.

Joe

i accept help in all forms of monetary donations

ill pm you my paypal

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I just burn messages I don't like

It's very satisfying.

Joe

like you print them out and light them on fire?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

2:10 PM

No, I have a GreaseMonkey script :P

Joe

sounds like a better way

AJ Henderson

@AlexM. you can use the ignore user feature if you don't want to communicate with someone, then you don't even know they exist

Icy Defiance

well, you do, because other people talk to them

Pip

@William'MindWorX'Mariager pass a link?

Icy Defiance

I've tried ignoring people a couple times, but it only lasts for a couple days at most, because I always get curious again

did alex get autosuspended again or something?

SpartanDonut

2:14 PM

Mick's sense of humor honestly doesn't come across well via text

user92578

@IcyDefiance I did that too with @AlexM.

SpartanDonut

Especially since he apparently starts to joke with you in the middle of a debate

MickLH

"Ignore" is like putting a band-aid on a deep wound, when the real problem is that there's a sharp piece of metal sticking out in your path and you don't notice it when you walk by.

Blue

Okay, so I've made a script for it.

.user-87783 .messages .message .content{
visibility: hidden;
}
.user-87783 .messages .message .content:after {
content: 'Blocked Message';
visibility: visible;
display: block;
position: absolute;
color: grey;
top: 0px;
}

replace the 87783 with any user and their messages get replaced with "Block Message"

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

19

Q: Set fire to people in chat

How many times have you been overwhelmed by your desire to set fire to people in Stack Exchange chat? Well now you can! Arqade Fire Get Chrome Extension Get Grease Monkey User Script Arqade Fire is a chat message immolation tool that will burn away messages. It adds a small extra button nex...

3

@Blue Isn't it easier to just ignore users?

Blue

2:17 PM

Tell that to @AlexM.

user1306322

guys, if you keep ignoring a certain user, and other don't, it's gonna be somewhat harder to figure out who is talking to whom for the rest, unless you always use @replies

better get rid of the problematic content

Blue

SpartanDonut

I actually like Blue's solution

MickLH

That's very nice of you to make someones wish come true, @Blue

Noctrine

This is why we can't have nice things

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

2:18 PM

@Blue Haahaa, you use Twitter,you tweep :D

user92578

@Blue OMGOMGOMGOMG IM IN BLUES SCREENSHOT! OMGOMG

lol

You're famous :O

@TPiddock, Edinburgh, Scotland

Frame Trapped Developer, Software Engineer by day, Gamer and Hobbyist by night. #FrameTrapped

212 tweets, 146 followers, following 113 users

Follow the hat.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

That's not a hat. That's two letters that are behaving inappropriate online. This will sure come back to haunt them later on in their life.

SpartanDonut

2:22 PM

Should "debug my code" questions be simplified to "How to X" questions and remove the offending code?

Blue

lmao

SpartanDonut

When possible I suppose

Blue

No one upvoting my answer? Oh the shame.

MickLH

@Blue lol post it again, I'll try harder to read it

Blue

0

A: Why does my code dividing a 2D array into chunks fail?

Here is my two cents: All the work can be found on here too so you can run it and see how it works http://ideone.com/xKWAip Separate it into pieces and you can see how it'll work with a wee access expression after flattening the initial map array. Here is what I used to generate your map (at t...

user92578

2:23 PM

How do I write the definition for this template declaration when the type is an int? I couldn't get it right. template <typename T> T GameSettings::GetValue(std::string settinsName);

AJ Henderson

also, I think I should post this obligatory commentary

What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!

3

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Blue Couldn't just have told him simple not to do it? :P

Blue

@William'MindWorX'Mariager what you mean?

People ask, we answer :P

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

The data is already in a structured 2D state. It's O(1) to look up tiles. Chunks are just for memory management.

Blue

I like a java challenge every now and then. Makes me realise I'm happy never to use it in my own projects.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

2:25 PM

I admit I only read the first line.

> I have a 2D-Array representing my world. I want to divide this huge thing into smaller chunks to make collision detection easier.

Chunks aren't going to improve collision detection in any way.

MickLH

I upvoted your answer @Blue, because it does answer the question well

But I totally agree with @William'MindWorX'Mariager, that this guy is asking for something when only thinks it's what he wants

SpartanDonut

This question has an XY problem. I think we could edit it to ask "How do I do X" (with your solution as an answer) instead of "What is the bug in my implementation of X". That would yield a more generally useful question and be a lot clearer to read. Do you think that would work? — Anko yesterday

Blue

True.

MickLH

I think his question would be more accurately an "optimize my code" question, but I think he's out of his league at that point anyways and needs to learn to use a profiler. But I'm just not gonna touch it because he can't even figure out how to cut a 2D array into chunks yet

user92578

Can I do if (T == int) when T = <typename T>?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

2:30 PM

I feel like I need to add shadows to my game. But I'm unsure how I want them.

MickLH

@Tyyppi_77 are you trying to specialize a template?

Christoph

@William'MindWorX'Mariager I'm curious - what is there one can want from a shadow?

user92578

@MickLH Yeah! That's the word

MickLH

@Christoph beauty?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

From that image, it's hard to immediately discern that the rock is higher than the sand/dirt/gravel.

A shadow cast by the rock would give a sense of height/depth.

SpartanDonut

2:32 PM

Is this top down as opposed to side scrolling?

I'm confused otherwise

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@SpartanDonut Yes

Joe

or if you put a player object somewhere on the map and shrouded his vision lines?

SpartanDonut

I take it you aren't interested in the perspective along the lines of 2D Zelda games?

Perfectly top down would certainly provide some depth perception challenges...

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I considered it, but it's more work graphics wise. If I do straight top-down it's easier for me.

But straight top-down isn't as nice to look at

Christoph

Would the sun's (or whatever is lighting your scene) position be fixed?

Alex M.

2:36 PM

@IcyDefiance yeah lol

MickLH

wb

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Christoph It's supposed to cycle the days, so that wouldn't be the case.

SpartanDonut

@William'MindWorX'Mariager what significance does height have? How does one "get higher" and how will that look?

MickLH

I liked the idea of using shadows to obstruct the player's view around corners, but I don't know if that would work for your game, and even if it would, maybe it's better as it's own thing, like have it go black and white around corners and remove all interesting units like the fog of war in an RTS

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@SpartanDonut You wouldn't get higher or lower in a single layer. But you'd be able to switch to a lower layer, but with no visibility of the layers above of below you.

So you'd be able to dig out rocks, but not walk around on top of them.

Alex M.

2:38 PM

I have no idea who thought I was offending them, other than mick

but I got used to it anyway

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

And you'd be able to make a well/hole that'd allow you to switch to the next layer down.

SpartanDonut

Ok I think I get it.

hmm

PsychO PhobiA

@BlueBug Hi

BlueBug

@PsychOPhobiA HI

PsychO PhobiA

@BlueBug Do you appear in the chat randomly every day

SpartanDonut

2:41 PM

What kind of question is that?

BlueBug

xD

Christoph

Shameless plug: I got lots of help here for my hardware project and finally came up with a video

►

MickLH

oh nice! I remember this thing

Christoph

do you also remember Alf?

SpartanDonut

Oh ya! What connectivity did you add?

Joe

2:44 PM

@Christoph super badass

very cool man

Christoph

I added a WiFi module, but the driver is fighting with the SD card and the display. So no wireless stuff yet, but having an external device with buttons might count as "connected"

A suggestion from here that I also haven't done yet is the force directed graph for the object labels, but I totally want to try that

MickLH

the cool thing about a force directed graph in that situation, is you can let people watch it converge, and it will have a "smooth" behavior while moving

Christoph

Yeah when panning for example the labels would appear to stick in their position, and then be pulled towards their object again

My first goal for wireless is getting up to date positions for planets, because I don't want to calculate that myself. As seen from earth, they're kinda fast compared to nebulae and other galaxies

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Christoph How much range do you need? I've found that even the cheap Bluetooth modules have a decent range and are easy to use, since they just emulate a serial port.

Almo

"Folder" won't go away.

and it is floating on top of everything

Windows. :/

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

2:52 PM

Reboot

Blue

Kill Explorer.

user92578

	std::stringstream strValue;
	strValue << valueElement->GetText();
	int intValue; strValue >> intValue;
	return intValue;

user92578

3

Almo

ooh good idea blue

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Both things!

Icy Defiance

2:52 PM

yeah restart explorer.exe

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Do all the things!

Icy Defiance

that's a bug with Windows that happens very rarely, but it does happen

Almo

uh oh

i killed explorer, and now it hasn't restarted

how do restart it?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

New Task -> explorer

Icy Defiance

still have task manager open?

MickLH

2:53 PM

@Tyyppi_77 return atoi(valueElement->GetText());

Almo

ok

MickLH

@Tyyppi_77 or maybe return atoi(valueElement->GetText().c_str()); if it's a C++ string

Almo

Folder is still there

Blue

Well, that folder is officially annoying then, reboot.

Christoph

@William'MindWorX'Mariager I don't need high range I think. The problem with taking this device to the internet is that whatever I do, astronomy is usually done in places (far out of town) where there's no network coverage anyway

user92578

2:55 PM

@MickLH I read somewhere that atoi is not a good solution for C++

Almo

i shouldn't have to start the fucking computer for this. but i guess there's no choice :(

Blue

The other thing you can try killing is DWM

MickLH

@Tyyppi_77 Why?

Blue

(desktop window manager or something alike)

user92578

Just note that atoi() is probably the worst choice from all the options available. — Let_Me_Be Oct 26 '10 at 14:47

MickLH

2:56 PM

Fallacy

Appeal to authority.

Christoph

@William'MindWorX'Mariager but having WLAN allows me to create a connection between the device and a cell phone, which can grant access to the net if a network is available

MickLH

I was asking: "Why is it bad?"

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Ah

Noctrine

@Almo You have to reset the desktop window manager

MickLH

And the truth is, you can't answer, because it's not bad. @Tyyppi_77

Noctrine

2:56 PM

Run tskill dwm

user92578

@MickLH Don't use fancy words like that with me

Almo

how do I do thsat?

Noctrine

If the problem persists you likely have other issues

MickLH

@Tyyppi_77 You had a shitty piece of code, I wrote you a better one. Let go of your wrong assumptions and let yourself learn, damn.

Almo

i already killed it in the task manager

Noctrine

2:57 PM

Are you running a SSD for your boot drive

Almo

no

MickLH

So @Tyyppi_77, what again was the reason why atoi is bad?

Noctrine

The text sticking is related to the fade out clicked menus display property

user92578

@MickLH Sorry, but you shouldn't be so hostile, because I'm a noob in C++ and I read something from SO

MickLH

Hint: The only acceptable answer is Unicode.

Almo

2:57 PM

atoi i thought was prone to buffer problems and unicode issues

Noctrine

Should be in Control Panel > Performance Options

Almo

everything is slow too

i better just restart

something is wrong

Alex M.

restart yes

windows is optimized for periodic restarts

Noctrine

Yeah, it becomes a problem when your machine slows down. Turning it on an off again is a great fix for computer problems.

MickLH

@Almo Every single function working on C strings is venerable to buffer issues, if you forget the NULL terminator it will continue until it finds one in the RAM or segfaults

Alex M.

2:58 PM

and periodic reinstallations

Almo

i was restarted on monday

Noctrine

When I started getting that, it was because I had too much junk on my primary ssd

Almo

drivers are interfering with windows resuming from sleep mode

AMD multi-vendor miniport driver

Transcript for