Game Development

Wardy

19:00

that's what my current code achieves

since things like planets for example I can't afford to allocate a full planets worth of voxel array in to ram in 1 hit

Christoph

hi gdse!

Wardy

@Christoph hi

Noctrine

Hi

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Wardy, Are you working in C#?

Cause if you are, you should know that jagged arrays are faster than multi-dimensional arrays. No clue why that is.

Wardy

@William'MindWorX'Mariager yeh

i know

I currently have a way of saying "give me a new volume"

then something like ...

new chunk(start, end)

Christoph

19:02

what happened to Mick, btw?

Wardy

and just drop that in

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Christoph Nothing.

Wardy

so i can create a volume that contains bits here and there

without needing to declare and generate the whole volume

and chunks manage their own voxels

but that presents a caching / neighbour lookup issue under load

Jon

AttackingHobo

@Jon Damn I'm/you're good

Wardy

19:04

@Jon might be stating the obvious here but given the location of your sun shouldn't the gradient be the other way ?

Seth Battin

noooo

look at the sky

lighter at the bottom

Wardy

and I would use a radial gradient from the sun

Jon

not as per my references

Wardy

light to dark

hmmm

AttackingHobo

@Wardy owned

16 mins ago, by AttackingHobo

@Jon ooh maybe an overlay that fades the clouds out at the bottom?

Wardy

19:05

fair enough

Seth Battin

gradient from the lightsource is different, there should be a linear gradient from top to bottom regardless

Jon

The sun reflects light off the planet

and has a glare -- don't think it will do much to provide a glow it would just look weird

Seth Battin

what's up, roy?

Roy T.

Ak, I keep answering questions that I know should be closed, just because I know the answer. Anyone else does that?

Well pretty much that ^^

Seth Battin

@RoyT. can they be editted into good questions? if so, that's not only ok, there are badges for it now :)

Roy T.

19:07

Sometimes

This one was just more suited for SO

or programmers.se

(never really understood the distinction between those two

Seth Battin

migratable is salvageable, in my opinion

Jon

yeah, what the heck is the difference?

Seth Battin

the programmers faq is pretty good about that, in my opinion

it's one of the better ones, and i think gamedev would benefit from taking some info from it

Roy T.

"conceptual questions about software development."

thats not very clear imo

Seth Battin

but there's a venn diagram!

Roy T.

19:11

Where?

ffs am I this crazy? I can never find the FAQ on SE websites

Seth Battin

programmers.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic

Jon

seems pretty acceptable to me

Moving on.

Roy T.

The help menu only shows Tour, Help Centre, and Meta

Seth Battin

yeah, the name changes for the help were silly

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Lots of progress lately @Jon. It's looking good!

Jon

19:12

Thanks man.. how's your progress?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Stalled because of school and work. Sadly.

Jon

yeah, you were saying that.

Seth Battin

anyway, their help/on-topic is good, i think

Jon

Started my new project at work today, so I imagine my dev is gonna slow down a little

I really want to push for an alpha early next year...

Roy T.

@SethBattin imo the help on all SE sites is pretty bad (and I say that as a user that understands the SE concept). I still make mistakes on sites about topics I don't know enough about. The distinction between some sites is marginal and the explanation in the Quick-Tour is only three lines, which does not really help to ID the exact purpose of the wbsite

4

Almo

19:15

►

love this shit

Roy T.

(afk for a bit)

Seth Battin

@RoyT. your are completely right.

Almo

@RoyT. teaching people stuff is very hard

my game proto has a one sentence description, and my experience is that when I describe it to people, they stop reading or listening at the italic part, then hear "wins":

"You pick integers, and whoever picks the lowest number that nobody else picks wins"

they invariably ask me, "Why wouldn't I just pick '1'?"

I repeat, "the lowest number that nobody else picks"

and they say "OOOH"

It's ONE sentence!!

So, imagine how hard it is to create help text for something as complex as the SE sites.

Wardy

lol

help for SE: ASK STUFF !

maybe the average douche will get that ?

Almo

hahaha

:)

Wardy

19:26

then you can have variations like ...

help for GD:SE ... ASK GAME DEV STUFF !

peopole seem addicted to the whole SE concept I bet if they created a "Idiots.stackexchange.com" that it would be massive

Jon

Ohhhh look a place for me

Where I can ask stupid questions about common sense, since I don't have it

Wardy

lol i need a site like that on the odd occasion

to ask stuff like "why do people insist on complaining that im not signalling when i'm sat in my car on my driveway with the engine running?"

Seth Battin

it still floors me when you tell someone that they aren't asking a topical question, and they respond with "well i'm working a game".

Wardy

the short answer ... "because i aint moving until the idiot asking me why im not signalling moves out the dam way!"

@SethBattin GD:SE is a bit narrow in some places

imo its GD ... so that should mean anything GD

but it clearly doesn't

Jon

dragon age is free right now

origin.com/en-ca/store/free-games/on-the-house

AttackingHobo

19:36

@Almo I know how you can make it more clear. Make it two lines:

Pick the lowest number and win.
Pick the same number as someone else and lose.

or something along those lines.

Almo

Those seem to conflict though

Seth Battin

@Wardy well, the thing is those questions aren't off topic becuase they aren't about games, they're off topic becuase they're unanswerable, or just a design decision, or terribly formed

Almo

like, if I pick the lowest number and someone else picks it, condition 1 says I win, condition 2 says I lose

Seth Battin

but they don't say "ok, i'll try to make my question better", they say "well i think it's on topic"

or my favorite "i think othergame developers would be interested in this"

Jon

yeah... lol

Almo

19:38

ahhaha :)

Jon

If you don't want to help fine, let someone else.

Seth Battin

and it's a question about why their geometry drawing isn't working

Wardy

@SethBattin not always

Seth Battin

no, not always

Wardy

for example

Jon

19:38

Or a question on how to create a game in general

Seth Battin

just...often

Wardy

If i asked something about a unity script is that not game dev related ?

Jon

I want to create a racing game, long winded nothing here, can someone help with that thanks.

Seth Battin

maybe, it depends on the question

Wardy

but some would argue thats not relevant to GD:SE

Seth Battin

19:39

i mean, maybe, maybe not. i depends on the question

Wardy

instead some may even suggest asking the question on the unity forums

Seth Battin

but that's what i mean: you tell people why their question sucks, and they refuse to improve it

Chris

StackOverflow is like, concrete questions and answers. I swear heaps of questions get closed down for being "too broad"
Programmers:SE allows for vague concepts
and I reckon GD:SE is for more game-related stuff

Wardy

@SethBattin yeh thats just dumb IMO

user4704

SO is a dumping ground for shit.

Chris

19:40

it's changed over the past couple years yeah

Wardy

@JoshPetrie i post most questions on SO

then no one can say its not relevant

since everything i ever asked on any SE site was always programming in some form related

AttackingHobo

@almo Pick the lowest unique number to win.
e.g. Pick the same number as someone else and lose.

Wardy

it sorta fits lol

user4704

It's filled with crap questions.

Almo

@AttackingHobo that makes sense

Wardy

19:41

@almo whats the rules for that game of yours again ?

user4704

Which is a shame. I don't quite understand the purpose of programmers.* either since it feels too soft for SE, for my taste.

Almo

hahaha

Wardy

soooo hard to understand

Almo

:)

Wardy

lol

can't you make it easier sheesh !!!

alll those complicated rules ... like ... pick a number .... how is anyone supposed to keep up with that

maybe I should post a question on SE

Almo

19:45

hahah

Chris

@Almo Do you use any iOS plugins from the Unity asset store for gamecenter and stuff? or do you roll your own? cuz I am eyeing up this plugin: assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/7421

Wardy

0

Q: How do I play @Almo's Pick a number game?

The rules are sooo complex .... He says I have to pick a number that noone else picks but I don't know what numbers other people picked so it's really confusing. Any ideas?

terminology

I feel better now :)

Wait is that too vague ... should I provide a link to the game too ?

Chris

hahaha

Pip

ey

user4704

@Wardy Yes, and they'll probably close that.

Seth Battin

19:49

you should at least link to the game

sheesh

Wardy

lol

Pip

I gots de edit!

Wardy

dam maybe I should post another question asking how to post a decent question about a 1 rule game

then I will really fit in :)

Almo

@Chris I think we use a combination of Social (Unity API) and our own stuff

Chris

ohhh true, I haven't even looked at what Unity offers lol, thank you haha

Almo

19:52

:D

Pip

@Jon thanks

Got PvZ from that too

Finishing up the first season of HCF now @Jon

Twisty plot is twisty and turny :P

Jon

yeah :)

gotta go out,

Pip

20:13

@Almo you have a masters in physics? And you are a lowly programmer?

Almo

I'm not exactly a "lowly" programmer, as I have 15 years experience and a senior level job

Pip

well..... why not something in physics? Just like programming more?

Wardy

physics is evil lol

Almo

The physics job i'd want would be prof, but can't do that without phd

Pip

ah

Very cool though :)

Almo

20:17

I only missed the phd by a teeny amount, but it wasn't worth the extra hassle

Wardy

omg @Pip rofl

0

Q: How do I play @Almo's Pick a number game?

The rules are sooo complex .... He says I have to pick a number that noone else picks but I don't know what numbers other people picked so it's really confusing. Any ideas? Links: Almo's Profile The Game Prototype

terminology

Pip

It got accepted awesome :)

Wardy

I wonder how long it'll take before its closed :)

Pip

No idea :P

Wardy

I just accepted it haha

Suprised i have enough rep to do that

Pip

20:22

nice

Wardy

hilarious though each time i find a new stack site i get yet another rep boost for simply going to it lol

Pip

same, 100 rep universal

Almo

20:35

unity quesiotn:

I have sdomething that inherits from MonoBehaviour

Update does not appear to be called

how do I get it to be called?

grr

Icy Defiance

call it yourself? :D

maybe not

Chris

super?

Almo

oh

it's not on a GameObject

grr

still learning Unity sorry guys

Icy Defiance

was just gonna suggest that, lol

Almo

another thing was working, and I thought it was because of that

but it was a member of a class that was calling Update on it :)

Icy Defiance

20:39

looks like there's also a "disable" checkbox in unity that will prevent Start(), Awake(), Update(), FixedUpdate(), and OnGUI() from executing

Chris

can also do that with scripting like GetComponent<foo>().enabled = false;

Almo

0

A: How do I play @Almo's Pick a number game?

How to play: For each contest, you may enter a number (or numbers) from 1 to 100,000,000. When the contest ends, the person who entered the lowest number that nobody else entered wins.

Noctrine

@Almo's?

Almo

yeah it's my prototype

Chris

lol

Noctrine

20:44

No I mean, you can't ping people with a question.

Almo

they're joking around about my complaints about people not understanding its one-sentence rules.

oh ok :)

SpartanDonut

1 hour before close of business and VPN is finally working again! -_-

Chris

;/

Wardy

@Noctrine thats the only thing you can find wrong with that question ?

lol

Noctrine

No

But Josh already addressed that

SpartanDonut

20:53

The joys of working from home - when work has an internet outage I have a work outage

Wardy

there's sooooo much wrong with it I'm suprised its still open

@SpartanDonut joyous occasion for sure :)

I pull the latest working branch on to my home pc

for me its actually a better experience than working at the office

and its only gonna get better as I think we are moving the whole company on to github soon

SpartanDonut

The bigger issue was documentation, email, and other things

Wardy

Documentation for us is stored on jira

email is gmail

only other thing I generally need is the code

SpartanDonut

My work has its own datacenter so we basically host all our own stuff

Wardy

so basically for me to be unable to work several clouds would have to be down

SpartanDonut

20:56

I'm a little jealous

Wardy

We have our own data center too

but there's a right douche running it

so we don't use it unless we really have to

SpartanDonut

haha ok then

Wardy

I think our build servers and such use it

but I don't need to do QA builds to debug or write code

SpartanDonut

Can't RDP into my work desktop still

blregh

Wardy

the funny thing is ... that douche that runs our data center was bragging about how our office internet connection is soooo awesome now we spend thousands with BT

so I was like oh cool ... I can work remotely ... like you with RDP

login ... 10 mins later ... timeout connection dropped

off to tfs ... get current branch ... work locally

that's the end of that

ran a speed test the following day ... its BT 100mb/s so really only 60 to 70

SpartanDonut

20:59

that sucks. at least you've got all those cloud services though

Wardy

and I have to share that bandwidth with like 50 other people

so I thought sod it

tfs to my house is a pretty solid 150mb/s

current branch is about 2GB

so thats about 2mins of downloading at max speed

Chris

nice

Wardy

I got told off

for "putting company IP outside of the secure company network"

so I showed him a fat list of holes to fix and he shut up

it took him 3 months to figure out how to setup 2 factor auth for the secure vpn

which as I understand ... is a 2 min wizard

SpartanDonut

lol oh lordy

Wardy

then there was the amazon migration for our production boxes ... the MD had to micro manage that guy he failed so many times

then the email migration

that was hilarious

I just basically took to using skype and jira to pass messages around for a solid 2 week period

Chris

21:03

lol :(

Wardy

because getting mail from exchange to gmail is apparently that hard for like 50 users

everyone else had not been done ... he was using the tech teams as guinea pigs for yet another fuck up

and they still aint fired this guy ... WTF !!!

he carries the title CTO but the parent company already has a CTO so why they need him? ... jeez some days I just have to laugh at this or might cry or shoot him

ok that's my rant over

Chris

good ol workplace stories lol

Wardy

anyone going to NDC ?

ndc-london.com

user4704

21:24

" An article and chart published to the ridiculously-named PNIS (Proceedings of the Natural Institute of Science, which claims to be a "part-serious, part-satirical journal publishing science-related articles") backs up those assumptions, and even puts a dollar figure on it. According to these calculations, Calvin's destructive tendencies cost his parents approximately $15,955.50 over the course of the strip's 10 years."

user4704

theverge.com/2014/10/8/6947215/…

Wardy

I hate to say this but im half tempted to ask virgin to slow my connection down as nothing can effectively use it ... or at the very least not give me the next upgrade

what a wierd feeling

I must be ill ... im going to bed

user4704

I did that with Comcast.

Wardy

@JoshPetrie comcast are balls though from what I understand

user4704

They are.

Wardy

21:26

like the US version of BT over here

user4704

They were charging me for one level of service, but actually serving me at below the next level down.

user4704

It took hours to get them to drop me down to that level of service and refund the charges.

Wardy

my problem is actually quite the opposite

my connection is so fast I find I sit around thinking how many twitch streams can I run at once

or how many usenet connections do I really need to use this thing

so far im up to 150 and im not even close to what this line can do

streaming live tv uses about 1/10th of this line

it is handy pulling a a new branch from work though

but why have a fat pipe just for work

right im really off this time lol

later all

Pip

Ey

night Wardy

Anyone know how to graph an ellipsoid with only knowing the three radii?

Wardy

oh 1 last thing

developers.jivesoftware.com/api/v3/cloud/rest/…

if anyone wants me to pull anything interesting I have access to this for the whole of IGN

give it some thought :)

Pip

21:34

cool :)

Not useful for me at all, but cool

Wardy

its queryable so it could be useful for any of us here

Jon

whats this now?

Pip

0

Q: How to graph an ellipsoid with only the three radii

While working on a project, using a magnetometer chip, I have run into a problem where I need to graph some data, consisting of three diameters (or d/2 = radii). Is there an easy way to do this with Wolfram Alpha, or another online, free tool? In addition, when checking this out on Wolfram Alpha...

3d graphing wolframalpha

Alright, I gotta run to get to robotics

cya all

Roy T.

@pip need way more info in that question

Pip

22:04

@RoyT. such as?

Jon

22:16

so i have a zoom thing going on.. and some textures that are linearclamp across my camera viewport

the zoom works for everything, except the linearclamp stuff

Christoph

never has drawing single pixels felt so good

Jon

best for me was my first time blitting pixels in asm @320x200x256

Christoph

well, goal achieved for today. time for bed

Seth Battin

@Christoph What was the goal?

Christoph

23:04

@SethBattin the goal was to write a crude simulator for my display driver framework. What you see above is the simulated display's graphics RAM, initialized with garbage. Then the driver starts drawing on it, page-wise (2 pages in this case, the first page is finished in the first picture in the second row). Each page is sent to the display in chunks of serialized pixels, an the simulator turns it into an image

Chris

cool

Christoph

This is my simulator "frontend":

I can even draw lines now

Jon

23:33

gnite

Christoph

good night

@Jon

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