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Pip
12:16 AM
ey
“It’s entirely possible that we wake up one day and the Russians say, ‘We’re not taking your astronauts up anymore,’” said Marco Caceres, director of space studies at Fairfax, Virginia-based consultant Teal Group. “NASA’s anticipating this possibility. That’s why they want to move as quickly as possible with this program.”
OMFG I live in Fairfax
cool
If anyone is interested in my improvement in LoL, see here: lolking.net/summoner/na/46161891#matches
improved a lot singe the 2/8/4 irelia and the freaking 0/7/0 zed
 
Hey guys
 
Pip
god I sucked
hey
 
?
Could i ask u guys a quick question
 
Pip
uh... sure
 
Would it be a good idea to use URL data images in JavaScript?
Or just load the image normally
 
Pip
12:23 AM
I can't answer that, sorry
try google, or stackoverflow or something
 
:( i did try google
i dont think i have the proper term
What do u call it when u store an image in a URL string that can be loaded with Javascript for the canvas....
For example i have a image object potato, and i do
potato.src = "data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADwAAAAeCAYAAABwmH1PAAAAAXNSR0IAr‌​s4c6QAAAARnQU1BAACxjwv8YQUAAADxSURBVFhHY0ybOXMzwwgCYA/PSk8fEZ4G+tUX7uGjR49GQsVxgu‌​aVK6/umDTpEpQ75ADIw0xQ9ogBox4GAVDStba2Xo6Oa8PDtUFJH4Q98vL0oMqHFBiN4eEORj083MGI8/B‌​ow2O4g2HjYVj7gFAbAauHcTU8hnJyhoERl6RZoDTJgNRCDlk9MeIggMsOmDp8ZoKawejiIDBaaA13QFKS‌​xpf8YABXMqQU4LIPBkBJGFcyRgajSXq4g0HtYeQ2AKHBB1AyJqa9MBrDwx2QVEqDkguUiVK5EwPI0Uuox‌​CfGzNGGB5QeMWBkTrVA+SMAMDAAALZ8yhdZHikuAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC",
Would it be a good idea to use this method or just load the image
potato.src = "res/potato.png"
also i got that string after doing drawing the images once and then doing canvas.toDataURL() and copied that string
Ah i found the term base64 strings
Now time to check if they are more efficient or not
 
Just load the image
Base64 encoding just fucks up how you can cache efficiently
A base 64 stream is also something like 30% heavier
 
Pip
12:51 AM
@IcyDefiance you guys still playing?
 
yeah, doing some ranked games
might be able to pull you in
 
Pip
can't, it's ranked :/
no probs, no probs
 
well yeah, we'd switch to normals
 
Pip
Nah, working on MT at the moment
definitely will have to play... uh.... friday though
 
okay
I'll be here all day friday, so that should work
 
Pip
12:52 AM
got robotics stuff to do tomorrow, then working again Thursday
awesome
I love the new Unity GUI system, in other news
 
about fucking time Unity got a GUI tool
it's frankly embarassing we had to use third-party tools to build GUIs with an engine that's 10 years old
 
Pip
mhm
What do I do after adding the script I want to use to a button's onClick()?
actually, nvm
stupid question
 
Pip
1:19 AM
Woot! It works!
I actually went and watched some of the videos that were made about the new UI system.
 
Pip
1:35 AM
I have a constant ratio UI, complete with one whole button and a text header, using the anchor and rect transform stuff.
progress!
 
 
1 hour later…
2:41 AM
Why is this room always dead at this time?
 
because everyone is sleeping. shh.
 
hehehe
@IcyDefiance what's going on?
 
playing LoL with Almo.
I'm wrecking every game, as usual, but Almo... :/
nah I'm kidding
 
I built a computer today for a company, and it POST first try
dat feel
 
impossible
don't believe you
 
2:43 AM
ya, and all the front panel and audio is connnected too
Its a really really really nice rig
wish it was mine
Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5GHz LGA 2011-v3
two intel 730 series ssds
16 gigs quad core memory at 2600mhz
 
3:10 AM
I think computers only work when you believe in them
 
3:42 AM
@MickLH ha
Sure feels that way sometimes
 
 
4 hours later…
7:56 AM
good morning
 
Morning
 
8:27 AM
Morning
 
8:45 AM
@KevinvanderVelden morning
 
I've always wondered
all those game developers who keep development blogs
maintaining a blog takes a lot of time, and writing good entries takes a lot of time
shouldn't they be working on their game in that time instead?
 
Well sure, if you can use that time to work on your game
 
well I don't develop games, but writing about what I have done or plan to do is a reflective process that can reveal problems with your existing code or plans
 
However people aren't machines, they can't do the same thing 24:7 for weeks and months
 
sure, you have time to sleep, time to play and time to work
and our hypothetical blogger-gamedev uses a considerable part of that work time to blog?
I just find it strange
I often find that I have a whole lot of stuff to do
and definitely not enough time to do it
as much as I would like to blog about it, blogging is not directly related to bringing the game closer to a finished product
so I wouldn't consider it a priority
just a thought
 
8:57 AM
@PandaPajama you're still assuming it takes time they could use to program
 
hardly
there's project management time
communication time with the rest of the team
marketing time
 
And blogging isn't that last one?
 
planning time
 
@PandaPajama I find blogging my thought process helps me "document my journey"
that way I don't repeat mistakes
 
You're making the assumption that blogging is time taken from work
 
8:59 AM
well, blogging as a marketing tool could definitely be a valid point
 
While it can be work
It can also be time they couldn't work because their brain is tired from working.
 
I see blogging as both a marketing tool but also a very good way to explain a project when people ask what it is
saves me time actually :)
@KevinvanderVelden +1 to that
 
I was under the assumption that writing blog entries used a similar part of the brain as doing actual work (especially programming). That is thinking creatively, organizing thoughts and writing them down
 
Meh, writing blog entries is far less on the problem solving and analytical bits
And programming isn't all the fun bits, there's debugging and boiler plate which tend to fry your mind and sap your will to live.
 
so to cope with it, you go and do even more creative/analytical stuff and write a blog?
I thought people in that situation preferred to go outside, sleep, get something to eat, talk with somebody else
not stay even longer in front of the computer typing more and using more of the same part of the brain as game making
 
9:05 AM
How is writing a blog post the same as debugging? O.o
Cause that is essentially what you are saying
 
game making, in general
not just debugging
I don't keep a blog, but what I understand is that in order to create a good blog entry you need images, videos, proofreading, layouting
 
Okay, here's the situation: I have a bug I have to fix before I can continue doing other things, but my brain is fried, writes a blog post about cool stuff I want to do
@PandaPajama you're writing a devblog, not a ginourmous website
 
so, twitter
 
a blog post doesn't need images, videos and layouting. maybe it does need proofreading, but the other thigns are optional. layouting is usually done by the blogging software
 
I don't know about you guys but I often find that simply talking about what i'm doing actually helps me solve some issues ... a blog post is a great way to explain the current thing I'm working on allowing my brain to sort of "automatically" find the solution without me having to sit and smash my face on the desk.
 
9:09 AM
well, I guess it boils down to preference and getting used to it
 
Blog == great way to make progress without actually writing any code
just my 2p
 
I think that if I were to keep a blog, I would like to make sure everything I say is accurate and useful to readers. Creating such content would take me a considerable amount of effort.
 
@PandaPajama it depends ... msot of programming is subjective and open to interpretation
 
Wardy: Sure, everybody has different ways of doing that. I personally do that whenever I'm not in front of my computer, like eating or commuting or whatever
 
writing a good blog is the same ... it's only considered good to the viewer if they want that sort of content
I have often been known to write blog posts that are like "I tried this idea out and here's what i learnt ... don't do it!"
 
9:11 AM
and I find my brain to be much faster at this kind of things than my hands
is your blog public?
 
I find that I can write a lot more than i can solve in a given time period
yeh it is
 
may I see it?
 
but im a bad example of a typical blogger
feel free
I don't blog regular enough
 
I just need an example of a blogger whom I have in hand to explain things about blogging to me
 
and there's about 5 posts missing ... like there's nothing about my restart on SharpDX in there
and any of the lessons I have learnt along the way
 
9:13 AM
for example
the entry you have on the entry page
is quite long
 
or my current problem ... taking voxels to a whole new level :)
 
it would take me several days to write something like that
 
technical blogs generally are
that took me about half an hour
if that
 
30 minutes?
 
it doesn't have to be the perfect example literary awesomeness
 
9:14 AM
it would take me at least 2 hours just to type that text
 
;)
 
i'm appealing to geeks got english professors
 
that's like 3 pages of text
well, not 2 hours
but certainly not 30 minutes
 
geeks want the tech side not perfect english
but generally my english writing isn't too bad
 
wardy the language was pretty good
 
9:16 AM
I tend to slap a load of crap on the page then before i save I reread it
proof read
 
more than the language, it's the content
 
to be sure it makes sense
 
haha
 
make sure that what you say is self contained, accurate, easy to understand
 
the content is more important than the language IMO
 
9:16 AM
that takes time
 
nope
 
as for the language, that's what spelling correctors are for
 
takes ... like i said about half anhour to write then maybe 10 mins to check it over
yeh my blogging software catch most obvious typos
 
Man I feel so indescribably awesome reading your blog dude
thanks :)
 
hard with code though because code wont be correct english
@MickLH It's a process Mick don't shoot me for it
 
9:18 AM
flagged
 
yes i have a lot to learn about game dev ... and no i'm not up to your level
 
I have blogging capabilities in my site, and I was thinking about writing more day-to-day stuff in there, not just news
 
but there are some good lessons in there for people starting out in game dev
 
maybe to keep more people coming to my site
 
come on dude I'm trying to hard to be a good guy
 
9:19 AM
but I just find it very difficult to dedicate the time it takes to write good content
 
@MickLH appreciated
 
you can meet me half way and just choose to interpret it as a compliment
 
It was taken that way ... i was getting ready for you to behead me with some sarcasm
 
<drop bass="dubstep" />
 
I consider my blog a positive thing .. those that don't like it don't have to read it
I get that it won't appeal to everyone
but tbh .. right now its more for me than anyone else ... to dump notes on lol
although i'm slacking on it ...
this may be the kick i need to get on it later and update it
 
9:21 AM
Wardy I'm really sorry it's so awkward for me to push things back into friendly zone
 
@MickLH huh ? no hard feelings man ... people in our line of work are 1 of 2 things ... smart or polite
generally speaking
I get you are on the smart side ... so I accept I might sometimes not like what you say
its cool
@MickLH i have a question for you
technical
an idea really
just want your thoughts on if you think it would work
Wanna hear it ?
 
I'm not really great at patching things up, but I'm not emotionally stupid, I know that what I said had some "evil" to it, it's just that all my life I've gotten used to having an almost captive audience with a nearly desperate respect, where I can just throw away anyone who doesn't please me 100% on the first try
Yes, I always enjoy ideas
 
@MickLH I wish i was in that position :)
Ok so here it goes ...
I'm toying with the concept of a Virtual Volume of voxels within which I can request a view of a portion at a given lod where the lod is essentially a float value at which the sample points i take are distanced from each other
this way I can declare say ... a volume to represent a planet
then say "give me a view of that with an lod of 10,000" to view each 1/10,000th point on the surface of that object from my position
 
Is it a sparse sampling?
 
essentially yes
 
9:26 AM
It sounds like an F-Rep scheme
Function Representation (FRep or F-Rep) is used in solid modeling, volume modeling and computer graphics. FRep was introduced in "Function representation in geometric modeling: concepts, implementation and applications" as a uniform representation of multidimensional geometric objects (shapes). An object as a point set in multidimensional space is defined by a single continuous real-valued function of point coordinates which is evaluated at the given point by a procedure traversing a tree structure with primitives in the leaves and operations in the nodes of the tree. The points with belong...
 
i can use caching and stuff under the bonnet to save on generation calls
 
F-Rep is sortof the "holy grail" of 3D
 
hmmm ... that's pretty much the idea :)
awesome
sounds like im on the right track
my idea was that i could essentially represent a view of any volume at any distance on demand
 
I think in order to implement it feasibly, you'll have to come up with building block equation that lends itself well to your LOD scheme
 
Yeh i'm toying with using the Diamond Square algo
here's the idea ...
Lets take a planet for example ... Given camera pos and volume center I can draw a line in 3d space between the 2 points and use my noise function to get the spherical position and then resolve the cartesian position for the surface on that line
from there i move round the volume 90 degrees in 4 directions ... up down left right
that's my base diamond
I then use recursion to add my detail
to the required lod
not sure if you're familiar with diamond square ...
The diamond-square algorithm is a method for generating heightmaps for computer graphics. It is a slightly better algorithm than the three-dimensional implementation of the midpoint displacement algorithm which produces two-dimensional landscapes. It is also known as the random midpoint displacement fractal, the cloud fractal or the plasma fractal, because of the plasma effect produced when applied. The idea was first introduced by Fournier, Fussell and Carpenter at SIGGRAPH 1982. It was later analyzed by Gavin S. P. Miller in SIGGRAPH 1986 who described it as flawed — the algorithm produce...
 
9:42 AM
I know it :P
 
cool
the beauty of this solution is that the portion of the planet i care about is all I grab from the volume
so i only ever generate half a sphere
no wasted verts that basically just need culling on the get go
the only thing I would do that doesn't really follow the diamond square quite right is rather than just place a point I would generate a chunk
then as the camera moves closer i regen the chunks for that higher lod
progressively adding detail :)
this would hang off that "view of the virtual volume" as a data source
thoughts ?
 
sorry I had to get up for a moment
I need a couple minutes, I do find this interesting though I've even thought about it a bit before
 
sure ... take your time :) im in no rush ... trying to think this stuff through whilst at work so i can hit it head on when i get home later.
 
10:08 AM
@Wardy I think you could do some fun tricks with that approach, like starting from a lowest LOD, and generating more verts dynamically during the frame
 
yeh that was my thought
I am also toying with the minecraft style approach
always gen cubes
then have a geometry shader handle say ... dual contouring
 
If you used a random number seeded by the grid ID, then you could generate many detail levels in the shader
 
or something similar ... but just a random thought on that one
@MickLH that's the idea
just not sure i have the skills to pull it off yet
 
That's the coolest place I see it going, just use the vertex processor for a silhouette, and then in the fragment processor, iterate every detail level until you're at per-pixel accuracy
 
want to get the theoretical model in place so i know what i need to learn to deliver it :)
 
10:11 AM
I think all you'll need is some basic linear vector arithmetic
 
i thought I would start with a dynamic lod surface that represents the visible portion of the planet in cpu code then awesome it up later in shader
@MickLH hopefully ... doubt i'm smart enough handle a lot more than that
geometry confuses quickly lol ...
My thinking is that at the lowest lod I would still gen thousands of verts
want it to look cool or not bother using this code
if you just want a blue green circle use some other code lol
my thinking is that this would kick in when at a reasonable mid level orbit level from the planet
 
dude aw man gotta show the pixel shader some love
Actually, the idea I'd put my money on, is the billboard thing
 
billboard?
 
That's how I handle large draw distance in my engine, I render a dynamic skybox and then skew it with parallax mapping
 
hmmm ... so you billboard distant objects
makes sense
i'd like to go for a sort of sureal look ...
maybe something like
see the detail on the surface
but then i wonder if that wont fly for larger planets
it sort of only works because that planet is small
 
10:17 AM
That's sorta how I imagined it when I found your blog a long ass time ago
 
haha
 
I also remember being frustrated because no download
 
no download?
you want to play with what i had in unity ?
 
Lol well I was just hoping to play the finished game itself
 
there was a basic start point i had up and running
 
10:19 AM
that looks like the screencap I remember
 
it didn't do a lot and the controls were just plain wrong in places
but it works
it is only a windows build though
you use linux dont you
 
yeah
 
I can prob dig that code out and put together a linux build
its not that impressive though
lol
@MickLH got threaded rendering working yesterday
the DX code now dynamically builds command lists on threads
core engine running a small block of terrain and a basic ui runs at stupid high FPS ... but that's not saying much
 
I sadly don't have 64-bit wine set up right now I guess
so I can't run the exe
 
it should run on a 32 bit machine
or was it a 64bit build .... hmmm
 
10:26 AM
$ file Game.exe
Game.exe: PE32+ executable (GUI) x86-64, for MS Windows
 
x86-64
not helpful
 
I tried to run it anyways, but it wasn't lying :P
 
i thought unity only did 32 bit builds
lol
 
Jon
that made me think.
Could you create a bin that would run in 64 and 32 bit at the same time?
#if 64bit
 
processes are either 1 or the other
 
10:28 AM
Back in the DOS days you could
lol I think now though, you need 2 EXEs, and the 32-bit one can just launch the 64-bit one if it detects a 64-bit machine
 
Jon
precompiler statements wouldn't be helpful i guess
 
I had to look this up because of the awesomium code ... its 32bit forcing my entire game engine to 32bit
gonna have to find a workaround for that at some point
 
@Wardy "thunking"
 
Jon
well. does your game really need 64 bits?
 
perf gains would be useful
and the extra ram space
 
10:30 AM
Phew, nothing like a tidbit of reviewing in the morning tips hat
 
@Jon or to put it differently: does your game need to reliably access more than 2 gigabytes of memory?
 
i think rendering a voxel planet might
just ;)
 
Hey guys
 
Jon
hey mang
 
He's not even a man, just a mang.
 
10:48 AM
I wanted to ask - which site do you think has the best forum(s) for game dev
 
Hahaha
You're on GDSE man
The chat is best for forum like things
the main site is for more serious QA
 
really, haven't noticed :D
 
@NDraskovic try this ...

 Game Development

Game development and other polite discussion. Game development...
 
Badum chhhh
 
hahahah yeah, been there, but it's often empty :D
nobody around and stuff
 
10:50 AM
yeh ... not a lot goes on
need to kick some people on the odd occasion
 
GDSE is good as QA, but sometimes it takes too long to get an answer
I also visit GameDev.net site quite often, but it has the same problem
 
You get answers very fast on SE, if that's not good enough for you you're out of luck
 
yup, but every SE QA site is best used when you have a specific technical question
You can't post questions like "I did this now what" here
 
But you can totally ask that here....
In chat. Where it actually is populated. Like it is right now.
 
It is most of the time
 
10:56 AM
^
 
Plus, if your question isn't suited for SE then you probably haven't done enough research yourself. Unless it's just opinion based or something like that.
 
Jon
 
Well let's take a question that I have at the moment (but in this case you are right, I haven't done enough research because I've just started with this part) - How to save/clear memory when transitioning between levels (C#/XNA)
 

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