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12:02 AM
@MindWorX, I'm still not entirely convinced it will work in my situation, but it could, I don't know
 
What special stuff do you need?
 
Do you have a sample of an XML file instead?
I never worked with XML manually before.
 
yes
XML: http://asteroidoutpost.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/asteroidoutpost/trunk/WorkingDirectory/sprites/Spaceship128.sprx?revision=130&view=markup
Matching PNG: http://asteroidoutpost.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/asteroidoutpost/trunk/WorkingDirectory/sprites/Spaceship128.png?revision=130
 
@EthanSteinberg: also, there's an article in GPU Gems about smaller-scale terrains
 
12:07 AM
@MindWorX The Sets, Animations, and Orientations are defined up-front, then the sequences are defined below
 
@Jimmy A little too complicated for what I need. I think I will just use that voroni method or the diamond square method.
 
Well, I'm outta here, ttyl
 
12:22 AM
@JohnMcDonald, Check this: pastebin.com/TZ5PN1TU
The only node it doesn't read is "<nextAnimations />" inside the animation node with the name "Idle".
Which I don't see the point of, so I'd love it if you could explain it. :)
 
@MindWorX I'd assume "Idle" is the state
like, you could have a walk animation for the sprite in the same image
 
Yeah, but it's the empty node inside it that confuses me. :)
 
so you have "IDLE", "Step1"->nextanimations = "step2" etc.
 
	<animation name="Idle">
		<nextAnimations />
	</animation>
 
          public void AdvanceFrame()
            {
                    m_curFrameIndex++;
                    if (m_curFrameIndex >= m_sprite.Frame[m_curSet, m_curAnimation, m_curOrientation].Length)
                    {
                            // We have reached the end, start the "next animation".
                            // Note: The frame index will automatically be reset
                            CurrentAnimation = m_sprite.Animation[m_curAnimation].NextAnimationName;
                    }
eww that turned out poorly
 
12:36 AM
is there any website for little game projects
woops, sorry, pressed enter by mistake: is there any website for little game projects showoff? I don't want to show off my project, just take a look at people's work
 
Pygame.org shows off other people's projects.
Oop, its .org
 
@kaoD there's not really one single site for all the projects, but indiedb.com has a ton of projects
 
thanks :)
 
TIG forums
 
and any for visual programmed art? be it interactive or not. I mean something like pouet.net or scene.org but not that much linked with the demoscene
 
12:52 AM
hmmm, define "visual programmed art". cause if you're talking about demoscene stuff, that stuff is mostly just demoscene stuff
 
yup, probably demoscene stuff only, though I remember I once visited a webpage of a guy who did something very demoscene-y (fractal art and the like) though he didn't call it demoscene
that's essentially whan I'm looking for
or generative art, artistic shaders, etc.
actually I'm just looking for inspiration
or procastination if you like (I have an exam tomorrow, I need new ways to stop doing what I should do hehe)
 
i guess you could look for fractal art, that might work
haha
 
1:42 AM
@MindWorX, yeah, In the current XML, it is sort of just a placeholder, but there should always be at least 1 "nextAnimation", each with a percentage, and the sum of which adds to 100%
So... an idle animation could do something like lead back to the idle animation 90% of the time, and the other 10% of the time, he'll pick his nose then go back to the idle animation
 
Ah, like variation in the stand animation.
 
Or from StartStanding -> Standing
 
Neato
 
or... whatever. And if the programmer wants to do something special when an animation finishes, I've wanted to either add a flag or an event to let them know
 
However, I see what your xml thingy does, and it constructs a more structured usable class, where the serializer just reads the data.
A combination of the two would save a bunch of work, and make adding new elements and attributes easier.
 
1:47 AM
yeah, ok, so maybe there's a bit of post-processing required?
 
Yeah
 
It does look way cleaner though
And as you can see, it's tiny
 
The serializer is very very clean to use. The only annoyance is, you can't have any members you need serialized/deserialized be private. So if you want postprocessing you'll have double variables.
Or maybe I'm just missing something, but if I make members private in the serializer, they wont show up in the generated xml.
 
No, it's because it's using reflection I'm sure
 
I can see private members with Reflection.
 
1:51 AM
I can't remember exactly what the limitations are there, but I do remember having to make some of my methods public when I didn't really want them to be
 
It's a design decision of some kind.
This is interesting:
11
Q: Can an internal setter of a property be serialized?

PatrikIs there any way to serialize a property with an internal setter in C#? I understand that this might be problematic - but if there is a way - I would like to know. Example: [Serializable] public class Person { public int ID { get; internal set; } public string Name { get; set; } pub...

You change it to a DataContractSerializer instead, and the use an XmlWriter.
However, that's only for writing, then the reading is still annoying.
 
Cool
and yeah... that library is only for reading, the writing happens either by hand if you really want, or through that sprite maker
@MindWorX So yeah... if you're on the same page with the sprite library, do you want to be added as a collaborator?
 
Sure thing. :)
 
cool, :)
Umm, one last thing, some people get confused about the "Sets", and how each Set has to have the same set of Animations and Orientations
 
You just need my google account right?
 
2:04 AM
Yeah, I think so
copied (so you can delete that if it matters at all)
 
Have you considered making it work with a content loader thing?
You know, like those precompiled XML to object things.
 
I haven't yet, no. What's this?
 
Well, it basically allows you to use Content<Sprite>.Load("path to some xml content");
So Sprite would be just like other kinds of content and work just the same way.
 
Hah, cool
No, I haven't looked into that
 
It actually is. It's also precompiled IIRC, so you have the option of not letting users mess with the files.
 
2:07 AM
now that you mention it, I have heard about it, but it just didn't cross my mind
I may as well give you access to the sprite maker too. I have some more code somewhere on my machine that tries to handle some 2D image loading, but I don't think I've put it into the maker yet
So... to briefly continue about Sets: they are designed to be a completely new Set of animations for the current game element. They are designed to be used for things like Bloodlust from Warcraft II, or Swords vs Spears in Mushroom Wars, where each Set will contain exactly the same Animations/Orientations, where each Sequence with the same Animation/Orientation pair will always have the same number of frames. This allows you to swap Sets mid-animation smoothly
That wasn't a run-on sentence
 
Sounds interesting.
 
Does it kinda make sense?
 
Yeah.
 
So... Ogres in WC2 could... Stand, Walk, or Punch. And when you gave them bloodlust, they could also Stand, Walk, or Punch, but the frames that were used were glowing red or something. You could also make the "Smart Ogres" be an other Set, and "Smart Ogres on Bloodlust" be yet an other, because they can all do the same things, and you don't really want Animations to jerk when they change Sets
So yeah, :D Welcome to the team!
 
Heh, thanks. :P
One thing. Why are you using m_ for private members?
Why not just _ or lowercase first?
 
2:22 AM
hah, yeah, just toast the m_
lowercase is preferred
 
Awesome, same as me.
I like to keep a common coding style.
 
Sounds good, I keep changing my style, that m_ was recent, and now I have quickly changed away from that
 
It seems that the XML content importer doesn't support attributes, only elements.
Here's how you do a Point: <Origin>0 0</Origin>
 
Interesting, ok
that works
 
It does compile it which is nice. I'll see about the custom importer/exporter, see if it's possible to post-process it during .Load
Would be great if it was, make it completely transparent with all other content resources.
 
2:26 AM
yeah, that would be sweet
 
2:48 AM
This is interesting.
You can create a whole custom importer, not just a custom post-processor.
Seems pretty nice.
using System;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline;

namespace XNASpriteLib
{
    [ContentImporter(".xnbs", DisplayName = "Sprite - XNASpriteLib Framework", DefaultProcessor = "XNASpriteLibImporter")]
    public class XNASpriteLibImporter : ContentImporter<Sprite>
    {
        public override Sprite Import(String filename, ContentImporterContext context)
        {
            return new Sprite();
        }
    }
}
And that's all the code I made.
 
hunh, cool
 
 
12 hours later…
3:09 PM
Hey guys, question
I just downloaded WAMP and wordpress, and I'm going to start experitenting with a server/database and all that good stuff. Is there anything else I might need?
 
eh, WAMP pretty much gives you everything you need. I'm wondering why you downloaded wordpress, actually.
 
Some tutorial said I needed it...
Shouldn't you be able to work with WAMP without a network connection? I tried installing it on a school computer off the network, and there are errors...
 
3:24 PM
and now I wonder what tutorial you were looking at...
also WAMP does work without a network connection, so I'm guessing the problem with the school computer is that WAMP needs full admin rights to properly install/run
 
The computer has no restrictions on it though. I'm getting an "aestan tray menu has encountered a problem"
Ah I found out It may have a problem to do with port 80 on the pc, I will tinker and see if this fixes it.
 
some people mention skype causing a problem, some people seem to say.. well, this: stackoverflow.com/questions/5631571/not-able-to-launch-wamp
 
Well there is no skype on the computer... port 80 might be closed
 
4:12 PM
Has anyone here experimented with development using the PS3's SPEs?
 
SPEs?
 
I have not.
 
I'm assuming you're talking about the Cell microprocessor, because I don't think the PS3 has any roman goddesses of hope in it.
 
Yes, cell is broken into the PPE and the SPEs.
Separate address space, etc
Cell is a microprocessor architecture jointly developed by Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Toshiba, and IBM, an alliance known as "STI". The architectural design and first implementation were carried out at the STI Design Center in Austin, Texas over a four-year period beginning March 2001 on a budget reported by Sony as approaching US$400 million. Cell is shorthand for Cell Broadband Engine Architecture, commonly abbreviated CBEA in full or Cell BE in part. Cell combines a general-purpose Power Architecture core of modest performance with streamlined coprocessing elements which great...
 
@thedaian It did, but Kratos took care of that.
 
4:17 PM
Of course it would just preview the main bit (the link is directly to the SPE section of the wiki.)
 
@Jimmy good point
 
I understand there's a separate toolchain for the SPEs, and that compiler support under Linux only allows programming the PPE. Was hoping to find someone who's used said toolchain. :)
 
there's a few people here who have done console development along those lines, but i'm willing to bet they're under NDA, and might not be able to say much about it
 
That's unfortunate
I'll have to just experiment I spose
 
user4704
@thedaian Yea that's pretty much how it goes.
 
4:47 PM
@thedaian, Android Market sales updated (and for everyone else, there are 10 apps each day this week, on sale for $0.10 each)
 
oooh, it's a weeklong thing? wow
 
:D Awsome, right?
 
I don't have an android though. :(
 
I've already spent $1
 
haha
 
4:49 PM
They're tricking me into spending money
 
Steam does the exact same thing
 
lol, yeah
All these app stores make it too easy to spend money, click, click, there goes $60 on Skyrim
 
"But I need this money to eat!" "NO! You buy cheap games now!"
 
I gave a homeless guy a sandwich the other day. He looked kind of pissed I wasn't giving him money. But maybe he was just trying to save up for Skyrim.
 
Probably. Now how is he going to fosrohdah those pigeons for food?
 
user4704
4:57 PM
I think that would obliterate the pigeon.
 
user4704
Probably only need the first word on something that small
 
Maybe he's only going after giant pigeons?
 
Real Life: Infinite Pidgeons
 
I'm reminded of the chickens in Zelda games
 
I'm reminded to never, ever mess with the chickens in Zelda games.
 
5:05 PM
That's kinda what I meant...
 
this is me pissing off audio guys: gamedev.stackexchange.com/a/20702/51
 
@Tetrad I can totally understand that argument for mobile-space
 
I kind of think it depends on the platform. as TreDubZedd says, it makes sense for mobile to go with low quality audio, but on a console, high-ish quality audio can be very useful (since a decent amount of people have "good audio" setups hooked up to their TV
 
Eh still having problems with wamp, same error message "aestan tray menu has encountered a problem"
Could the default TCP/IP configuration cause errors? I mean changing the local ip address I don't think would really be detrimental to this program, am I wrong?
 
5:29 PM
i don't think the ip address of the computer should matter.
i still think it's probably a permissions issue, or somehow related to having the wrong type of installer
 
5:52 PM
heh, anyone else have a nemesis on SE?
 
only sometimes
 
Ever since Sam insulted me, he's been my nemesis
 
I'm kinda my own nemesis.
 
what is an SE nemesis?
 
@thedaian you don't know how to make games!
@ohio oh yeah? NEMESIS!
 
5:55 PM
like, someone who goes around downvoting your posts?
I think SE is my nemesis
 
heh, just someone that you have a fun rivalry with, someone you want to do better than, answer questions before he gets to them, etc.
 
I need to be getting stuff done
 
everyone else is my nemesis, then
 
Errr, Saaaamm
 
5:58 PM
i.....kind of like his answer better on that one, though :(
sorry
 
hah, but would you really have said "This is really too complicated. I don't mind the rep points, but if that is the accepted answer, maybe you could simplify it a bit by picking from my answer?"
 
yeah, that part is kind of mean
 
Like I mentioned right after that, I happen to think my (longer) solution is clearer
I don't have to think quite as hard
So anyway, he's my nemesis
and we like to answer the same kinds of questions: gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/20703/…
 
Ah-HA! I found it: abstrusegoose.com/409
 
@TreDubZedd sounds about right
 
6:06 PM
heh, yeah
 
I prefer Sam's solution as well
 
:O Because it's shorter?
 
sorry John :P
because it's clearer imho
 
:/ I can't even visualize his answer, maybe that's my problem
 
"An object is facing another object" if "the difference between its heading and the direction of the two objects" is "less than a given angle"
it's the direct translation of how you'd explain to someone what "facing another object" is
 
6:08 PM
his is just "the absolute value of the difference of two angles"
 
"(difference <= area || difference >= 360 - area)" != "less than a given angle" in your sentence
that's my problem
 
that's because our coordinate system sucks
 
So, his fix in english is: or if the absolute angle difference is greater than 360 minus the given angle?? What?
that's where my brain dies
maybe I need an other coffee
 
maths: really weird sometimes (especially when it works)
 
.. yeah... So that's why I prefer my solution
 
yup, drawings help
 
"direction < area" covers the top half , "direction > 360 - angle" covers the bottom half
 
Also, not to beat a dead horse, but I like solutions that use local frames of reference.
 
ah yeah, I can see that
 
6:24 PM
your solution calculates everything in world-space, whereas Sam's solution is simpler because it occurs on obj1's reference space.
 
it does
 
it's like the old puzzle about if you drop ball off the leaning tower of pisa while someone throws another ball into the air from the ground with sufficient force, then when do the balls collide (ignoring air resistance)
 
hah, yeah. Good ol' Calculus
 
the world-space calculation involves some horrible integration type thing, but the local-space calculation just says that in the balls' frame of reference (free-fall), you can ignore the force of gravity because it's pretty much the same for the two balls.
so D / (v1 + V2) gives you the time.
 
on the other hand, calculus! who doesn't love a good calculus problem?
(as it turns out, a lot of people)
 
6:28 PM
<.<
 
 
2 hours later…
8:35 PM
Hah, I thought of yet an other fatal flaw with the Click/Not Click android game idea: It's not a good shitter game because most people don't have a good internet connection in the bathroom
 
9:10 PM
How did this get 1k views that quickly? I wish I had per answer analytics.
20
Q: Do 2D games have a future?

GriffinI'm currently working on a 2D soft-body physics engine (since none exist right now -_-), but I'm worried that there's no point to spending what will most likely be years on it. Although I love working on it, I doubt such an engine would get any income considering anyone willing to pay money for...

 
it might have shown up on the "What's Hot" section?
 
:/ yeah. I guess everyone has something to say about their love for 2D games?
 
one of these days I'm going to make a 1D game
 
@Jimmy It's been done...lemme see if I can find a link.
 
9:13 PM
I want to make an alternate dimension multiverse theory game. Where other decisions you could have made are made on parallel planes of existence that you have to traverse to solve puzzles.
 
I feel like that's been done too
although it's an underexplored area.
 
Seems like it would be a headache
 
less of a headache than time travel
also, didn't Braid have the multiverse thing with the "do something at the same time as you doing something else" mechanism?
 
yes
That didn't screw me up as much as the key that would go back in time as you moved left, but would move at normal time under all other conditions
Fickle Companion
 
that one "left goes back in time" is also on the 300 Game design ideas site
 
9:22 PM
yeah, that was interesting
 
@JohnMcDonald I actually have a lot of faith in the player's ability to handle complex tasks such as navigating in 4 dimensions.
especially 12-year-olds.
 
heh
I... have yet to try
Like that 4D snake
 
if you provide a game that has a 4th dimension, there's going to be a bunch of kids who get really good at manipulating it
 
I guess you can get better with practice eh? Like portal, you start thinking with portals
 
@John, Using a custom content thingy to load textures is a bit... Odd. I don't understand the logic, but I got it working now. So now I can take a path from an xml file, and load it as a texture.
 
9:33 PM
Ahh, cool
 
public class Sprite
{
	public String Name;

	public Texture2D Texture;
}

[ContentSerializerRuntimeType("TinkerWorX.Graphics.Sprite, TinkerWorX.Graphics")]
public class SpriteContent
{
	public String Name;

	public Object Texture;
}
That's what I have to do.
In the processor I can only access something called Texture2DContent. I can't convert it to a Texture2D cause it already automagically is a Texture2D once the game starts.
I never even return a Sprite, I just return a SpriteContent, which is also automagically a Sprite in the game.
This is just a test setup btw. Going to start using XML definitions next.
 
Weird
 
What's stupid is, Texture in SpriteContent needs to be an Object type to work, since I can't reference the pipeline assemblies to get access to Texture2DContent.
It's really really weird to say the least.
 
yeah... sounds it
 
However, an interesting thought occurred to me. Could I create a content loader/processor that would take data from a network stream, and turn into game content?
 
9:36 PM
Skyward Sword looks so much better emulated...
 
@Noctrine Yeah, it got on the "What's Hot" section, and it's one of those questions where everyone finds it interesting (because saying "does X have a future?" or "is X dead" is a good way to provoke discussion)
 
@MindWorX I think the answer is "Yes", because in XNA4.0 you can load a Texture2D from a stream
 
Imagine requesting new maps in whatever you're doing by doing content.Load<Map>("map12"); and the content loader would request it from the server and return it as a fully functional map.
 
yeah, or custom character skins/avatars
 
Yes, but Texture2D.FromStream is a runtime method, not a processor/importer method. Which incidentally is why we have to manually premultiply the Texture2D.
 
9:39 PM
yeah, ok
 
also i'd like to say that wolfenstein 1D is an awesome game.
 
@thedaian Hah, interesting, I just googled it. Funny idea.
 
Lol, that's cool
 
Hah
"Please specify 3.5 or 5.25 disk when ordering"
I wonder how many actually mailed him/her/them $35. :P
 
if that answer is greater than or equal to 1, then he wins
 
9:49 PM
@John, Do you have some inconsistencies between the XML you linked me and the current version of XNASpriteLib? I see nodes in the XML that aren't matched by classes.
 
Well... it's generated by the Sprite Maker, and then consumed by the Sprite Lib
The Sprite Lib is currently being used to consume that XML I linked you to for AO
And the XML isn't set in stone, so if there's stuff we'd like to change, we can do that
 
I'd like to add an abstract SpriteSource type. Which has an index and a draw function. Inheriting that would be SpriteSourceSheet and TileSourceSequence. Sheet would be drawing a part of one texture depending on the index and a Sequence is just a queue of Textures. This will make spritesheets a lot easier to use, so you don't have to type in coordinates manually and write the same origin/anchor point for each subimage you want.
 
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