Game Development

12:15 AM

@IcyDefiance I managed to make my own grass sprite in photoshop by experimenting with a couple of filters and some blurring :P

imgur.com/cjIptmQ

Amazing how that started out as a plain green colour.

Kala J

Guys I have a question on how to update my label per frame?

Right now when I drag my line or move the endpoint of the line, the label attached to the line does not get updated.

the thing is my function that should change the label is being set in another class than the class with the update function.

TheMuffinCoder

12:37 AM

HEY EVERYONE

QUICK QUESTION : can thermal cameras actually see through walls

Like is there a sensor I can buy and attach to my raspberryPi/Arduino?

Chris

@KalaJ label? what do you mean? what engine?

Pip

@TheMuffinCoder no

Chris

@Hjorthenify get some shadows on that bad boy

TheMuffinCoder

:( what about infrared?

Pip

same thing, different name

TheMuffinCoder

12:41 AM

:( i wonder how the police one works then

HEY whats the name for the one that works in the dark?

Pip

all of them?

TheMuffinCoder

lol I always write my questions incorrectly

Pip

lol

Kala J

@Chris, I am using Unity3D

Chris

Label - like, tag, or sorting order for a sprite?

Kala J

12:52 AM

label text

for an object

Chris

ah, like a UI.Text component?

if it's not getting updated

change the code so it does?

do you have a screenshot?
how are your code's classes laid out?
could you reference another class and call its method to update the text as you desire?
or what are you having trouble with

Kala J

Sure one sec I'll post some code snippet (tried to reduce it) to paste bin

pastebin.com/MxWaBzXu

So basically the way I have it set up now is if I call a method to draw the lines, the label gets updated only once and that's it. When I draw my line again, the label on the line does not get updated

I want to try and call the event that would update the label but where to call the event?

Chris

so Class1

its Update method looks like it calls UpdateLabel within the switch a lot

then in Class2

does that need an Update method as well with calling UpdateAllLabels?

I mean it looks like your code is set to update the labels

is it just because the method is on a different class from what you want?

Kala J

1:07 AM

yes I think do. I did a bit of debugging and it seems like because the event is not raised again when dragging the line a second time or more, that the label does not get updated

*think so

the UpdateLabel gets called a lot but the event in my second class only gets called once

so that info never gets passed again to updatelabel

Chris

do something in an Update method then

forcibly find the info you require and use it as needed

if relying on a non-existent event is not happening

Kala J

in the update in class 1 right?

Chris

or, figure out why it's only getting called once if you think it should be getting called more often

I don't know what class1 is

being very vague here :P

screenshots, full class names help give me a picture

atm I imagine you're clicking and dragging a handle to create a line, and some text appears somewhere

but that's just a guess

Kala J

ohh the first class in the code snippet above, it's called DrawLines

so basically what I have right now is I have the user draw one line, then another line and when the lines intersect, show the angle of intersection

that part works fine right now

Chris

right

Kala J

1:13 AM

The problem is the lines are not fixed and they are draggable, so if the user drags a line from those two lines

the angel should update because it'll no longer be correct if it's the old angle

*angle

right now, the angle does not update

Chris

when is OnDrawingSecondIntersectingLine called?

Kala J

it gets calculated once and then the event never gets called again

Chris

then you need to calculate it more

lol

Kala J

calculate it more where? lol

Chris

well it's your code! anywhere!

Kala J

1:15 AM

I mean I imagine it has to be in update?

or passed to update?

so that it updates per frame?

Chris

Update is called once per frame, so anything in there is more or less always polled per se

negatives would be that it's inefficient since it'd always be checking code every frame

or, the alternative is to manually call UpdateLabel or something whenever a line is moved

Kala J

yup! exactly

Chris

but again would probably have to be polled within an Update to check to see if it gets moved, maybe

Kala J

the weird thing is I am doing that

Chris

as a test, within an Update somewhere, force the label to be updated

regardless if it was moved or not

Kala J

1:18 AM

so updatelabel gets called on update when the user drags the lines.

the dragging check and the update label is in the DrawLines class

The problem is where I want to set the label to something is in another class

Chris

and you're having trouble accessing the other class it belongs to?

Kala J

and I think that's why it's being left behind.... the event isn't called more than once. I tried calling the event after dragging

Chris

then check to see why the event is only getting called once

Kala J

but I have issues with raising an event

Chris

is the event relying on a Unity MonoBehaviour action?

Kala J

1:20 AM

the event is relying on a function call

pastebin.com/DnACuMZf

this function only gets called once

after I call this function, I still want to check if the lines are dragged and update the label

even if the function is no longer called

Chris

ah, custom event handlers -- I am not experienced with those

Kala J

not sure if it's an issue with custom event handler though. how to call the event?

In any event, thanks a lot for your help!

Chris

that's alright, apologies for not understanding the terminology at first, sounds like you're on the track now to try and see why the event isn't firing as much as you'd like

Kala J

1:35 AM

yeah, that's fine. Thank you.

Tallowmere looks awesome btw

Pip

It's well worth the $5

Chris

ah, thank you. takes up all of my time lol :|

Kala J

how long did it take you?

I will definitely consider purchase, looks like fun. Is it multiplayer? I see different characters?

(btw, after you told me it was because I am using custom event, I figured out how to call it after drag in update and it works lol. Thanks XD)

Pip

There's local multiplayer

Chris

@KalaJ ah nice, yay!

all up probably almost a year

a few breaks here and there but yeah

Kala J

1:41 AM

wow cool

Chris

long days

Kala J

when you say local multiplayer, what do you mean by that? local multi to me means console remotes but this is on steam? lol

Veritas

downloading Tallowmere in a few minutes

guys quick question. would something like:

union { uint8_t u8[2]; uint16_t u16; } t;
t.u16 = 1;
return t.u8[0];

suffice for an endianess check?

Kala J

endianess check?

Chris

@KalaJ local co-op, like no network multiplayer, just couch gaming with controllers in the same room with a friend or three, yeah

Kala J

1:44 AM

cool awesome

Veritas

@KalaJ whether the platform is little-endian or big-endian.

Kala J

The sadly reality is there are very few good co-op games to play with friends when they're over

this is worthy to check out

@Veritas, I'm still a newbie because I've never heard that term before... endian

Veritas

it sure is especially for the price

Icy Defiance

@Veritas that seems to me like it would work...unless array order also gets reversed with endianness, but that's unlikely

should work with signed ints too, since positive numbers set the first bit to zero

Veritas

good to hear

thanks Icy

Icy Defiance

1:50 AM

@KalaJ endianness is basically the order of bytes. some cpus like the most significant byte first, some like the most significant last.

Pip

Welp, here's what I've been working on for the last hour or so

github.com/WardBenjamin/CellularAutomata

Github needs to be oneboxed :(

Icy Defiance

just hope your programs never break because of a file format storing numbers with a different endian than what the cpu wants

that was one of the most confusing problems I've ever had to solve

not because it's all that complicated. it's just impossible to keep straight in my head. XD

Veritas

endianess bugs suck

Pip

@IcyDefiance @Jon @Chris @Almo check it out

whoops, sorry Icy

Chris

bunch of characters in a file
what does it all mean
what does it do

Kala J

1:53 AM

@IcyDefiance, thanks Icy. That sounds interesting to look into. What kind of situations would I have to consider endian?

*I mean when to check for it/use it?

Icy Defiance

very, very few. if you never write a file parser for something complicated like png files, then you'll probably never have to think about it.

Veritas

hopefully in very few. The less you write code dependent on endianess the better.

Pip

@Chris My implementation of cellular automata. Thank @Jon for the idea.

Almo

@Pip check what out

Chris

I have no idea what that is lol

Kala J

1:55 AM

@IcyDefiance, ah I see. Great to know lol

Pip

4 mins ago, by Pip

https://github.com/WardBenjamin/CellularAutomata

Something like this @Chris jeremykun.com/2012/07/29/…

Veritas

looking at it now Pip

Chris

ahhh okay, cool

Pip

:D

Compatible with Unity and vanilla C#

Icy Defiance

"cellular automata" is basically just cells reacting to the states of neighboring cells. it's a blanket term for a technique, and that technique has countless possible uses.

Pip

1:57 AM

yep

Kala J

it's almost like game of life

Icy Defiance

yep

Chris

@Pip if you named it "cave generator" I probably would have understood it sooner lol

Pip

@KalaJ Game of Life is based on cellular automata

But it's not a cave generator. Just can be used for that

going to use if for resource placement

Kala J

ah cool

Makes me want to try it to replicate Conway's Game of Life from scratch to see how it works

Pip

1:59 AM

:D

Sparky

Hey guys, I just wanted to pick your brains. I'm about to make a terrain generator that outputs something like this: i.ytimg.com/vi/9Me-_MpxJlc/hqdefault.jpg I was wondering what you guys thing the best approach is.

Veritas

I am thinking of making game of life using microcontrollers and leds.

Sparky

Do I generate one large mesh for the whole map? Or can I generate the tiles individually and render only what's on screen.

Kala J

@Veritas, that sounds like a plan :) You would probably need a ton of leds depending on how big you want it

Sparky

Will generating a lot of small objects have a large impact on OpenGL performance?

Icy Defiance

2:02 AM

@Sparky look up heightmaps, and generating heightmaps. you'll get a lot of tutorials.

Veritas

@KalaJ yes thankfully I already have quite a few leds from previous projects.

Icy Defiance

I think perlin noise is typical for generating heightmaps? Don't really remember though.

as long as you don't need caves, heightmaps are a real easy solution

Sparky

The levels are already defined, everything needs to be done per tile.

Icy Defiance

ahh okay, in that case, one large mesh is probably preferable. fewer draw calls.

if the map is huge, you might split it into sections and draw whatever sections are on the screen

if tiles change often, that complicates things

Pip

night all, done with work for tonight

my CA script is kind of buggy, fixes in the morning

Sparky

2:07 AM

Tiles do change quite often. It's a mining game.

Veritas

Who was it that worked on that shaders ms-paint-like project?

Sparky

I'm thinking I'll have to generate one large mesh and then update it only when it changes.

Icy Defiance

depending on the framework you're using, it may be possible to only push subsections of the mesh to the gpu, instead of pushing the whole thing every time a tile changes

it's just a little complicated and annoying to get working properly

but still, if you want the most optimized solution, that's probably it

Sparky

I'm working with C++ and OpenGL.

Icy Defiance

oh yeah, definitely possible then

Sparky

2:11 AM

I think I've come up with a solution, Thanks for your suggestions.

Veritas

found it i.imgur.com/N5t6Hqy.gif

was it Pip ?

Joe

LOL

Almo

@PiP

hey man

one minor nitpick on legibility on your code

for (int i = -1; i < 2; i++)
{
    for (int j = -1; j < 2; j++)
    {

I would write these as (int i = -1; i <= 1; i++)

it's clearer

usually, you go (int i = 0; i < 2; i++) which means you're doing it 2 times, so it makes sense there.

but when you start at -1, we see you're doing all permutations of coordinates with 1, 0, and -1 in them.

other than that, (barring invisible bugs only seen when running), looks pretty clean :)

Chris

2:35 AM

@Joe works for some... maybe.. hah

agile, waterfall, scrum I think?

Icy Defiance

2:53 AM

pfft @Almo that's not minor. legibility is basically the most important thing about writing code.

don't give a shit if it works, as long as I can read it

right?

Chris

both are good
but yes, if you can't debug your problem because your code's not readable, not good

Almo

Well, I guess that's true

Veritas

I just wrote the ugliest c code in my life to see the binary representation of anything

Joe

3:12 AM

time and a place for each situation i think

you could spend 5x the amount of time trying to come up with the sexiest class names / formatting refactor the class a few times to get it just right... sometimes that is what you should do if you going to be investing work on top of it. there are also other times when you just need something up and running yesterday

Veritas

sure thing, I just found it fitting that we were talking about code readability.

Chris

:) comes with practice too

Veritas

sometimes however, if you care about portability and efficiency the code just can't be as readable as you want.

Chris

I look at some of my old code sometimes and cringe a little

Joe

im pretty slow and indecisive at "getting it perfect"

Chris

3:18 AM

perfect sounds nice but is never there

things change, you adapt

dorfy

first pass at some nation generation i.imgur.com/C97IsKZ.png

Chris

cool

Icy Defiance

I look at my current code and I cringe a lot XD

last month I wrote a single statement (one semicolon) that spanned almost 50 lines

given, that was almost as much for the fun of it as it was out of necessity...I simplified it a lot once it worked properly, lol

Chris

was it a condition check?

Icy Defiance

nah I was converting json into something the database could use and then inserting it

I had object initializers (msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/…) nested 4 deep along with chained linq queries and all that good stuff

Chris

3:26 AM

chaining is fun

Dave

4:15 AM

any one made isometric path tiles that don't follow a grid

kinda confused how to design them when not following the 4 basic directions

Icy Defiance

4:27 AM

for isometric tiles, try using diamonds

not entirely sure of the reason, but it seems pretty standard for isometric games

Dave

yeh if they fit the grid sure

but when the path is not following a compass direction fully it will overlap

dorfy

4:42 AM

not sure what you mean, as arbitrary paths can be projected into isometric projection

Mutch95

5:29 AM

woo 3 days of rendering almost done

Aidan Mueller

@Mutch95 LOL you're still rendering that thing?

Mutch95

yep

at 108 frames

i think my computer is finally running low on memory

i had the best day today................

iphone 6 decided to bend today

and math decided to give me an E

fuck you math

I'm going to math A

i don't need this shit

Aidan Mueller

@Mutch95 Your iPhone 6 bent? LOL Didn't apple try to make it sound like "it doesn't happen often"?

Mutch95

well it bent

Aidan Mueller

That sucks.

My 3GS doesn't bend.

It's also like a cm thick but yeah it doesn't bend :D

@Mutch95 I'm going to bed now so see you.

Thankfully Apple didn't make my bed :)

Might bend.

</apple-hate>

Mutch95

5:46 AM

seeya :)

did he just end a html tag with </apple-hate> to signify he was leaving lol

Aidan Mueller

@Mutch95 No, he did that to show that he was done ranting about apple.

</third-person>

Mutch95

yeah i meant that opps

Aidan Mueller

Hey

Do you listen to audiomachine?

Mutch95

no what is it

Aidan Mueller

audiomachine - Equinox

►

Good starting point ^

@Mutch95 What is it? Totally awesome.

Mutch95

5:56 AM

why am i being sent music haha?

Aidan Mueller

Because it's awesome and I want to spread the awesome.

Mutch95

hahaha quite uplifting

Aidan Mueller

They have quite a large range.

@Mutch95 If earl grey isn't your cup of tea (:P), they also have things like:

audiomachine - Thermopylae

►

user92578

6:29 AM

Math exam in few minutes... so nervous

Chris

you can do it!

user92578

Thanks. Gtg

Chris

5 different iPhone/iPad screen sizes I have to take screenshots of
and when you only have 2 of those devices
just bullshot the other resolutions? take a Unity screenshot? :/

MLM

@Chris Unity with photshopped auxiliary iOS UI if necessary

Chris

aye

user92578

8:28 AM

It went okay, I think

user92578

now: "STOP, - DEVTIME"

Chris

dance!

,o'

'o,

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

No.

Chris

,o'

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Nooo @Tyyppi_77!

You silly man!

user92578

8:38 AM

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I'm out of cells :(

Kevin van der Velden

9:29 AM

You're made out of cells

joapet99

9:56 AM

Meheh

So.. we gain cells even when we're dead in lifecompetes

Yeah, I know how to destry those small tubs with just two cells

Soapy

10:27 AM

anyone seen stackegg?

Chris

legler-online.com/gb/stack-egg.html ? lol

nah, what is it?

Soapy

"Welcome to StackEgg, a completely realistic simulation of the growth of a Stack Exchange site!"

user92578

I think I want to redo my particle system

Soapy

gamedev.stackexchange.com/stackegg/leaderboard

Chris

what in the

Hjorthenify

10:33 AM

@Chris Will do!

Ali.S

@Soapy don't know, it's new (I think)

Soapy

I think I'm the only one on the GDSE StackEgg. There is quite a few people on the SO one

Chris

new thing to help make the site a proper site I guess?

user92578

I wonder what kind of an interface I'd like for my particle system

Hjorthenify

@Tyyppi_77 One that can make explosions so that you can blow up towers!

user92578

10:39 AM

Yeah

Jon

an interface that turns into particles

Chris

@Tyyppi_77 you seen Unity's? heaps and heaps of variables you can edit

user92578

Currently adding particle effects is so much work that I'd rather not do it

Hjorthenify

Heaps? Are you from Australia, Chris?

joapet99

Seems like I'm owning everybody on lifecompetes

user92578

10:40 AM

Unity stuff is cool but I don't have an editor

Chris

@Hjorthenify I'm in New Zealand

Hjorthenify

I knew it! My sister went to Australia and she said heaps a lot when she came home, but I had never heard it being used a year in america or three months in britain

Jon

Yep, we only use heap here for programming related stuff

Chris

lol

Hjorthenify

Yep. That's why I was confused when she said it :P

Jon

10:42 AM

Netflix Global.. Yay

Hjorthenify

"I had heaps of fun"

... Stored in your laptops memory or..?

3

Jon

Finally I can watch american content without illegally downloading it

Hjorthenify

@Jon What?

Jon

overclock3d.net/articles/misc_hardware/…

Hjorthenify

Yes!

user92578

10:43 AM

Does anyone know how they blocked VPNs?

Jon

it hasn't happened, but they are trying to do this

Chris

I hope they do, here in NZ most people just pay for VPN and sign up to the US offering

Jon

they didn't block vpns

Hjorthenify

@Tyyppi_77 I can still get past them, but ssshhh..

user92578

It blocks my VPN

Hjorthenify

10:43 AM

And no they are just more on the hunt for them

Jon

There are apparently some clients, for example, the android one, that blocks the vpn

but netflix itself doesn't

Chris

one ISP here even touts a "global mode" service to their customers so they don't have to use a VPN lol

Hjorthenify

Lol

user92578

Well I can't VPN into the american Netflix anymore

Jon

stupid that they even lock stuff down

what are we, in the middle ages?

Hjorthenify

10:44 AM

The Danish netflix is alright, but the American is still better.

Chris

corporations be like, "no content for you!"

Jon

But seriously... If I can't get the content, I just download it

until they get their shit together, I am not paying 100$+ for cable tv with shit commercials

Chris

"we don't want you to see what we own"

lol yea

Hjorthenify

Me too. It is not like it will take longer since my download averages around 15mbps..

Speaking of cable TV.. Wanna know what we have here in Denmark?

Jon

rape tv

tired of boring old cable? switch to rapeTV, where its commercials all the time at twice the price!

Hjorthenify

10:46 AM

And twice the volume!

Jon

Seriously though, its like the content owners have no idea how to monetize it anymore

the netflix model works

Hjorthenify

Oh american commercials.. They are sure to make you jump out of your chair.

Jon

stop being greedy sons of bitches

Chris

too old and stubborn to try a change

user92578

am I playing the egg thing alone?

Jon

10:47 AM

its the entire model of how a corporation works that is broken

based on profit, instead of actually giving a fuck about the people that give them money

Chris

@Tyyppi_77 I'm not sure if it's a game or something actually useful and productive

Jon

Crushing out anyone that tries to stop them

user92578

well it aint making me productive

2

Chris

@Jon rather than making people happy, it's all about attempting to keep their wallets fat

Jon

correct.

Hjorthenify

10:48 AM

In Denmark we have the channel called "Denmarks Radio" which has existed since there was no TV and hence the name.
It is an independent station as there must be no commercials and they may not support any political parties. They show mostly children's shows and stupid music events such as x-factor

Chris

lol

Jon

people need to look at each dollar they have, like an upvote

the things you spend dollars are, are the things you want to upvote

Soapy

Wow gdse is 20 on the stackegg leaderboards

user92578

yeah I've dropped it down quite a bit

Kevin van der Velden

Stack... egg?

Chris

10:49 AM

gamedev.stackexchange.com banner ad

brings up a thing

Hjorthenify

That would be great if you were allowed NOT to pay for it, but for some reason ANYONE with either a TV, laptop, tablet, cellphone or just an internet connection must pay 500$ a year even if you don't watch it or don't want to watch it. This is done by law.

Jon

i don't get it

there are leaders that are in #1, and #7

then the next one is 20

but yeah, I don't understand this at all

is this suppose to be a game?

Chris

I don't get it either

it's like simulating the site out of area51 beta?

Jon

Welcome to StackEgg, a completely realistic simulation of the growth of a Stack Exchange site! Start from your pet Site's birth on Area 51, witness it grow through private beta and public beta, until that special day when your once-little Site finally graduates as a fully-featured Q&A site, ready to take on the task of becoming the best site on the internet.

Hatch your Site, help it grow, get it through tough times, and tame a gotcha or two that inevitably appear when a site grows.

user92578

"tame a gotcha"

Chris

10:52 AM

the whole "days elapsed"

user92578

genious

Jon

it is pretty lame.

Chris

I remember my first tamagotchi

Jon