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00:00 - 23:0023:00 - 00:00

12:13 AM
Hi, to get user input do games use threads?
where one thread waits for input all the time?
 
12:34 AM
no, not really. threads are usually for things that are more complex, like physics, or things with lots and lots and lots of math
 
or things that are not multi-thread-safe, like the windows UI ;)
 
hmmm I'm trying to understand how user input works on a low level
I assume most games use a library for it where they do something like attach_event_handler(arg1, arg2...
but the libraries themselves use system calls for it that are similiar
or do the libraries themselves use threads or something?
cause in most example I see it seems that waiting for user input is blocking behavior
and I can't find any C/C++ code that gets mouse events
 
hmmm,ok, turns out i was wrong. SDL, at least, uses threads to catch events
@fiftyeight really, if you're interested in this stuff, download the source code for a library and look through it.
 
12:52 AM
I'll do it in case I don't find an answer soon, thanx.
I'm reading the tutorial you sent me right now, "fix your timestamp!"
 
1:20 AM
I don't get what the "hires_time_in_seconds()" function is there
I assume it just gets the current system time or something
 
1:41 AM
yeah, that would just be the system time
 
2:30 AM
K thank you
 
 
1 hour later…
3:56 AM
What the hell...
It cannot resolve the method, since IntPtr is assignable to object. How am I supposed to fix that? :s
That has got to be some sort of bug.
 
... candidates are "IntPtr, int, byte"
convert the last arguement to a byte, that might work
 
It actually did.
So it borked up with what was actually the issue?
 
you were passing in a Ststem.IntPtr, int, and int
and an int is not a byte
 
Hmm.
 
i don't think c# allows for "silent" casting. you have to explicitly tell it to cast to a certain type
 
4:10 AM
You mean implicit casting, and it does allow that.
Just not when there's a risk of losing data.
You can implicitly convert a byte to an int, but not an int to a byte.
 
ahh, ok, it'll go "up" but not "down"
 
You any good with assembly @thedaian?
 
no, all i know about assembly is that there's a lot of hex, and usually some PUSH and PULL type of commands
 
Hmhp.
I need the hex code for calling a function by absolute address instead of relative address.
E8 calls by a relative jump.
I think it's called FAR CALL in NASM, but I don't know the byte code for it.
 
E9! or E7!
(random guess)
 
4:20 AM
:P
I'm taking a break from my game, messing around with one of my older hacks.
Trying to inline some assembly into C#, so I don't need the unmanaged dll.
I know it's stupid, but I'm just messing around. :P
 
fun
 
I've always loved reversing and hacking, but industrial reversing doesn't seem like a fun occupation.
Since you'll pretty much just muck around with some viral stuff or firewalls.
Lots of crypto stuff which I suck at. :P
 
haha
 
5:08 AM
Woo!
Made an assembly function return a value with minimal effort. :D
var code = new byte[64];
var stream = new MemoryStream(code);
var writer = new BinaryWriter(stream);

var codePtr = VirtualAlloc(IntPtr.Zero, code.Length, 0x1000, 0x40);

// (B8) mov eax, <32 bit int>
writer.Write((Byte)0xB8);
writer.Write(12);

// (C3) retn
writer.Write((Byte)0xC3);

Marshal.Copy(code, 0, codePtr, code.Length);

var inlineBindNative = (InlineBindNative)Marshal.GetDelegateForFunctionPointer(codePtr, typeof(InlineBindNative));
MessageBox.Show(inlineBindNative().ToString());

VirtualFree(codePtr, code.Length, 0x8000);
The stream and writer is just candy, to make writing the code faster and easier.
I kinda like it.
 
 
1 hour later…
6:32 AM
Here's an example of calling run-time assembly using only C#.
It works perfectly.
I'm using _cdecl functions as they seem the safest since there's no cleaning or stackbalancing on my end.
 
 
7 hours later…
1:32 PM
No, I'm not crazy. That's the UML class diagram for something like 15% of Skyrim's C++ classes.
It only gets worse.
 
 
3 hours later…
user4704
4:29 PM
What's a "form?"
 
user4704
"TESTexture1024" is interesting.
 
usually "form" refers to a chunk of UI code, so I assumed it means something dealing with UI. I could be wrong through
 
user4704
Yeah, that's how I usually here it used as well, but it doesn't seem to fit with the way it appears in that diagram. Sounds like it's being used as a replacement for "component"
 
then what does BaseFormComponent mean?
 
user4704
Dunno.
 
4:43 PM
yeah, it's kind of weird that everything seems to inherit from 'Form', but a lot of the classes that result from it do look like they could be UI components....
 
@TreDubZedd I'm going to develop a team at AIChalange
 
4:58 PM
@thedaian not everything inherits TESForm, in fact there are many other base classes in that diagram like BGSCollisionLayer, anyway I think there are far too much classes in that game! it seems to be a case of inheritance overuse.
 
oh, don't worry, it's only 15% of the classes :P
 
5:18 PM
@JoshPetrie "Form" refers to any object which can be manipulated by the scripting engine; BaseFormComponent is something like a base class for all of them (it has just a constructor, destructor, Init(), Free(), Clone() and Compare() methods).
And no ... you don't see any "components" in the modern meaning here. Every single different kind of object is defined by multiple inheritance. Every. Single. One.
It's like the worst kind of 20th century game design, in a game from 2011. :D
 
What's this!
Why isn't this possible:
public static T FromString<T>(String nativeName) where T:Delegate
Apparently I can't use Delegate as constraint. :(
 
Isn't delegate lower-case?
 
Not the type.
You're thinking of delegate{} for anonymous methods.
 
Ah
That was what I was thinking of, aye
 
 
2 hours later…
7:04 PM
Want some sales stats on Frozen Synapse? 'Course you do: gamesbrief.com/2011/11/…
3
 
7:40 PM
Nice read
 
7:51 PM
Yes it was.
 
 
2 hours later…
9:37 PM
Driving a cab has taught me an interesting skill. I'm getting better and better at debugging code without sitting in front of my computer. I've solved a ton of bugs, simply by going over the code in my mind, as I drive around.
That's something I wasn't good at before.
 
I usually solve my problems in the shower
2
>.> no pun
 
Showers, long walks in the woods, and right before going to sleep in bed, the perfect places to solve coding problems.
 
Man... if I'm solving problems right before going to bed, I'll be up until 2am
doh
 
I can't allow myself to think of code problems when going to bed because I instantly wake up.
I'll do it while I ride my bike or take my dog on a run.
 
I never solve anything in the showers, but my showers are usually like 3-5 minutes tops. :P
 
9:49 PM
@MindWorX :( poor you
j/k
 
Walks in the woods is usually with the company of a girl, so I'll be talking instead of thinking. And the thinking I do manage is not about coding. :P
 
but yeah, I can't think about programming while I'm on my bike
 
*bicycle
 
yeah, bicycle
 
bike, bicycle, same thing.
 
9:51 PM
I guess the reason I do it in the cab, is probably because I have hours upon hours of complete silence, except for the radio. Gotta occupy myself somehow.
 
I bike (bicycle) to work every day, and my mind is pretty empty on the way to/from work every day
Mostly thinking about the cars in my way, and if one of them is going to run me over
 
those are really short showers, though.... mine are usually 10-15 minutes, depending on if i have to go do something or not
 
Mine are usually 10mins
 
Hehe, I have the most sucky water heater. :P Any longer, and I'm screwed.
 
oh, that sucks :(
 
9:53 PM
It's a joke though. I have a giant bathtub but only a 35liter water heater.
If I want to take a bath, I have to boil water in the kitchen to help fill it.
 
ouch :(
 
So yeah, shorts showers, no baths. :P
 
35 liter... wow
 
Other than that though, the apartment is awesome. 115m² of space, 4 rooms besides the kitchen and toilet/shower and a 15m² terrace. A bit much for a single guy, but it means I have my own electronics room, a roleplaying/computer room, a bedroom and a big living room.
 
Ok, with the liters, I was able to relate to how many 2Liter bottles of Dr. Pepper that was. Now with meters^2, I'm lost.
 
9:57 PM
xD
 
(115m^2 = 1,237ft^2 for those in North America)
 
(1 230 sq. ft
 
ahh ok
 
www.google.dk/search?q=115+squate+meter+in+square+feet
 
yeah, thats awesome for a single guy.
 
9:58 PM
Google calculator rocks. :P
 
yeah, I love google for unit conversions
 
Ah, so in Denmark?
 
that's really nice. that's about as good as the apartment i had with 2 other roommates
 
Yeah, Denmark.
 
(and yes, google for conversions is awesome)
 
9:59 PM
Thats the same size as the first house my wife and I bought when we married.
 
It's also pretty cheap, compared to the average danish prices.
~$750/month
 
the place i have right now is just one bedroom, so it's kind of small, but it's mine, all mine! evil laugh
 
WOW!
 
hmmm, note to self: move to denmark when i make it big with Isotower
 
I live in a very small municipality. :P
One of the programmer contacts lives at a campus that has more students than this place has citizens. :P
 
10:01 PM
hahaha
 
We're roughly 15.000 people in this town.
 
yeah, that's cheap. I live somewhere almost half the size, and pay about twice as much
 
wow
 
750/mo in the area I live would get you about 'decent' 700 sqft where you wouldn't worry about your safety
 
Getting something like I'm in now in a large city like Aarhus or Copenhagen would cost around 4-5 times as much, and it'd be on the outskirts.
Denmark gets expensive very very fast.
 
10:02 PM
i could probably find a place that large for that cheap, but it'd be in the middle of downtown and i would be shot whenever i looked outside my window
 
Wow.
 
which metro do you live in/near?
 
Yeah, you should move to Denmark then. We only have very few ghettos and it's mostly just gangs shooting each other, they leave other people mostly alone.
 
<Houston area
 
(that's not quite true, columbus ohio doesn't have an insanely terrible crime rate.)
 
10:04 PM
haha
 
The largest city in Denmark has ~1.2million people. :P That's a 5th of the country's total population.
 
I've been through a bit of Ohio. Stayed 6 weeks in the cornfields of Kenton.
 
@MindWorX does Denmark have a large English speaking population?
 
I live in the 4th largest city in Canada, and it's ~1.2million
 
10:05 PM
if i somehow become a successful indie gamedev, i'd probably move somewhere more in the country. mostly cause it'd be cheaper for more space, and i wouldn't have to worry about a long commute to get to work
 
Denmark is a very popular place because even in the smallest places, people can still communicate in English to some degree.
 
depending on who you ask, columbus oh either has ~800,000 people, or 1.7 million people
(there's a lot of people in the suburbs surrounding it...)
 
Oh
I was totally wrong about Copenhagen's amount of inhabitants.
Only roughly 550k
Poor small Denmark. :P
What's interesting is our salaries. As a cabdriver, I make ~$50.000 / year.
From what I can understand, that's far more than a cabdriver in the US makes.
 
"[the median wage of a] typical Taxi Driver in the United States is $31,593" yep
 
morning!!! :D
 
10:13 PM
good morning
 
Morning? Where?
 
AUSTRALIA maaaate
how is everyone
 
Oh boy.
 
what???
ok poeple i need some help with lighting
 
Nothing. :P
I'm good, how are you Australia?
 
10:17 PM
yeah ok
just really bored at work
 
That makes two
 
three
 
Still three
 
nice
hey can any of you guys help us with unity 3D
 
Never used it.
Take a look @John: pastebin.com/GqEe0unQ
Building a function from pure ASM byte code, and calling it as a delegate. :P
 
10:19 PM
ok will do
soo that coding is yours??
 
heh, wtf?
 
@Developer_Aaron Yeah. Wasn't related to Unity 3D.
 
yeah, I haven't used Unity either, :/
 
yeah nah tis all good
 
@JohnMcDonald Pretty cool eh? :P I made it as a __fastcall wrapper for one of my hacks. To avoid unmanaged dlls.
 
10:21 PM
Crazy
 
does anyone know ANYTHING about lighting??
 
Sure, just not about Unity 3D.
 
umm i got like in my game i have a building with some windows and the light doesent proceed through the windows
 
@DeveloperAaron You could try asking your question here, and someone might be able to help...
 
already have
yesterday (no answers)
 
10:25 PM
ah ha. ok
1
Q: Lighting Issues (Unity)

Developer_AaronI'm having trouble with the lighting (I have windows and the light wont go through). How do I get the light to proceed through the glass?

 
YEAP :P
 
that's.... not really much of a question. more information on what is wrong and what you've tried would help
 
would it have something to do with the density of the object??
brb ladies gonna do some work -.-
 
shadows are a Pro only feature? that sucks :(
 
Hehe
 
10:30 PM
yeah :D i have pro
back
 
it seems the "easiest" way to get light to go through windows would be to just remove those polygons. bam, windows!
 
@thedaian, Would asking for communities where you can find/request artists for your projects be a proper question for GD.SE? It's spot on as game development question, which for once isn't about programming.
 
@MindWorX possibly, there's already a few "how do i get art" questions out there, though, at least one or two with a good collection of links to art or places that aritsts hang out
 
yeah that could work brb testing your theory @t
@thedaian
 
@thedaian, I've only seen links to resources. Could you link some with communities?
 
10:34 PM
polycount.com/forum is probably the "best" artist forum.
otherwise, this question has some good links to communities and places to actually find an artist:
7
Q: Where can I go to find a game graphic artist?

David ThielenWhere's a good place to post to find a decent game artist to create a small number of 32-bit sprites? This is for an internal code war framework so it's minimal work - maybe a couple of hours. Any suggestions where I should post to find someone to do this?

 
@thedaian ITS ALIVE :P lol thanks it worked not flawlessly i might add but it worked
 
@DeveloperAaron you're welcome. there might be "better" ways to make windows (setting the object as semi-transparent, or setting it to use a certain material type), but the quick solution is just remove the 'window' part
 
yeah true >:)
geez work internet is slow i just got a new alienware laptop and im re-downloading unity -.-
 
it seems to me that if you work somewhere that does unity development, they'd have a copy of it on cd/dvd so you wouldn't have to re-download it all the time
 
yeah no i dont
i just have a personal computer at work
so im gonna burn it to a disk after its done downloading
 
10:44 PM
in which case, it's kind of rude to download unity on the work network...
 
they allow us
 
yeah, i mean, they obviously allow chatting on stackexchange at work...
 
its all good ive cleared it up with management
 
"Hey management! Get faster internet, I need to download a 800mb game development tool to my personal computer!"
 
yeah
ooooo 66% :P
started at 9:00 and is now 9:47
 
10:48 PM
if you were at home, you'd be done already
 
~1.5mbit transfer rate. :P
 
i just looked then its only adsl not adsl 2+
 
meanwhile, your coworkers are wondering why they can't download any emails....:P
 
I have a vdsl connection. It's lovely.
 
10:50 PM
@mindworks i hate you :P
@Jimmy yeah its kinda like that, i cant even get the emails my girlfriend is sending trough
 
@DeveloperAaron, When you type @ and the first letter of a username, you can hit <tab> to auto complete the name. ;)
 
ohhhk yeah cause i spelt your name wrong
 
@mindworks but it doesn't misspell the names quite as nicely as manual effort!
 
whoops
hehehe yesss
ooo 77%
 
@myndwerkzzzz yeah, it's not as fun
 
10:52 PM
But yea, I'm quite satisfied with my connection, 10/10 advertised, ~9/9 in effect, which matches the expected 10% overhead, all on copper, so no need to install fiber.
...
I hate you all.
 
@Ohio is still fun though
 
Yeah :P
 
FML
my gf just broke up wwith me over e-mail
 
ouch
 
well, now that's a waste of your work bandwidth
 
10:54 PM
she sent you two emails prior to that though, saying "respond to this email and I won't break up with you", but you were too busy hogging all the bandwidth
 
@Jimmy, Nice one. First you mistype, then you *correct it, then you edit the mistype, and delete the *correct.
 
I forget this isn't dumb chat
 
@thedaian ahaha
 
i feel like killing someone who wants to come to my work
ohh look little kiddies
WAIT why are they running away from me
 
10:56 PM
I love this chat has timestamped messages. It's one of those things I've always hated about other chat protocols.
I thought Australians were supposed to be friendly.
 
IRC has always had timestamped messages...
 
well not when your gf breaks up with you
 
well, ok, that's probably a client specific thing, really
 
@Ohio, You're timestamped, now shush.
 
1 month as of yesterday
 
10:57 PM
@DeveloperAaron your profile says you're 15. there will be many other girls
 
@JoshPetrie, I see you're a co-owner of the gamedev.net IRC channel. :P
Many many girls.
 
user4704
I am.
 
90% yay
and yeah no not anymore im 16 as of yesterday
 
I just recently added the channel to my list of auto-joins.
 
user4704
10:58 PM
It's an interesting place.
 
user4704
I'm not sure we need a running update of your.. progress bar. Or whatever. :\
 
93%
hehe
 
@MindWorX I thought you meant JoshPetrie gets many many girls due to his co-ownership of the gamedev.net IRC channel.
 
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