Game Development

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

01:58

@Gajet, I should tell you, I turn of my computer while I sleep, so they VPN will be unavailable at those times.

user4704

02:39

I really do not like the "(n) questions with new activity" notices :|

Stack Exchange

04:05

0

Q: Tag summaries are oblivious to tag linking syntax: [tag:this-thing]

We've recently added a summary for the time-management which includes references to [tag:timing] and [tag:time-travel], using that fancy tag markup. The syntax doesn't get parsed though and just shows up, very literally, as [tag:time-travel] or what have you. I imagine the best case scenario for...

bug

Nikhil Lamba

07:16

What we can remove from this code i.e from PhysicsMouseJointExample to remove the functionality of drag and drog of sprite but i need all functionality except this only user move the sprite with some force and velocity of fling but user can't move the ball as like drag and drop like moving a finger on screen and sprite move with finger plz plz help me

0

Q: PhysicsMouseJoint problem in andengine + Box2d

What we can remove from this code i.e from PhysicsMouseJointExample to remove the functionality of drag and drog of sprite but i need all functionality except this only user move the sprite with some force and velocity of fling but user can't move the ball as like drag and drop like moving a fing...

box2d 2d-physics andengine

Gajet

10:59

@WilliamMindWorXMariager no need to worry, I'm either sleeping or not at home when your computer is off!

Gajet

17:11

@JoshPetrie why?

user4704

I don't care. If i cared, I'd refresh.

user4704

The notification does nothing useful except tell me I can hit refresh

user4704

(clicking it is the same as clicking refresh, so what is it buying me?)

Gajet

consider it only as a notification to hit refresh button (I'm talking the title bar)

user4704

yes, but i don't want that

user4704

17:22

it's just obnoxious

user4704

it does not appear to be something i can turn off either :|

Jimmy

17:43

If you were interested in spawncamping questions to get more points, you might appreciate the notifications more

melak47

@Jimmy whenever I try that, the asker either never returns or figures it out themselves before reading my answer. :/

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I just got offered two projects. Trying to figure out how to price it. One if for the state and one is for a local business.

Both are pretty simple.

Pricing is hard. :(

Mostly because I don't like taking money from people.

melak47

I'm the same...but asking the state or a company to pay you what they think it's worth might not be the best choice :)

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager +=2

@WilliamMindWorXMariager could you explain more?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I'm thinking about doing the state one pro bono. The department I was contacted by, was granted only ~$8,000 for the whole project, including graphics, design development, testing, release, etc.

melak47

17:50

what kinda project is that

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet The local company is a bowling alley, that needs a new booking system. Their current one runs on a windows 3.11 machine. The state thing is for schools. A teaching aid game of sorts. Some people have found 120 common Danish words, that if children with reading problems are taught to recognize those quickly, they'll have a much easier time learning the rest of the words.

Note that the teaching aid one is also a good opportunity, because there's a good chance the program will be distributed to schools all over the country if they decide to use it.

melak47

free programming for a good cause, I suppose you could do worse :)

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Exactly.

Gajet

booking system seems too much easier.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Well, I'm planning on doing both. The booking system is really simple, they just need to be able to book lanes at a date and time, along with a name or phone number.

Shouldn't take too long to make.

The game is easy too, from the description I got.

John McDonald

17:55

@WilliamMindWorXMariager I wouldn't underestimate it. Cancellations, groups wanting to stick together, expanding bookings, etc

thelinuxlich

hello!

John McDonald

Especially if you lock them in to particular lanes. I can see it being tricky and rather fluid

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@JohnMcDonald Yeah, I should expect things to get complicated.

thelinuxlich

does anyone here uses GLEED2D?

John McDonald

Like, if there are 10 lanes (1-10):
group A books 5 lanes
group B books 1 lane
group A cancels
group C wants to book 6 lanes

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

17:58

You came up with that scenario fast. :P

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager what were you doing for living?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

And I see the problem.

John McDonald

:D yup

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet Cabdriver. But I'm going back to school in a couple of months.

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager take both, and ask me to complete one!

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

17:59

Hehe

Gajet

I was quite serious.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@JohnMcDonald In that scenario though, Group C could get 6 lanes, just not together. And that would be acceptable, as you can't change another groups reservations without telling them. Except maybe with a special flag akin, "don't care about which lane they get".

Gajet

my exams will be over in 5 days (not that I really study for them)

and my current project should be finished in 10 days or so.

John McDonald

@WilliamMindWorXMariager people don't know what lane they have booked, they just know that there's a lane booked, no?

Jimmy

yeah I was thinking the same thing @JohnMcDonald

TreDubZedd

18:01

So, group B doesn't know it's got lane 5

Jimmy

that the lanes are fluid up to the point when a party shows up

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@JohnMcDonald I actually didn't think about it like that.

TreDubZedd

priority queue FTW (?)

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I was designing it like they would book specific lanes, but I guess that doesn't matter.

They only thing that matters is if they want lanes with those trench guards or not.

John McDonald

@TreDubZedd My example doesn't even specify which lanes were actually assigned, so you could write an algorithm that places group B on the far side

TreDubZedd

18:03

It's the same problem as allocating memory on the heap.

Jimmy

If you don't care about contiguous lanes for grouping, then there's no big challenge.

John McDonald

@TreDubZedd Exactly

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager I go with the booking problem.

I like it more!

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet Like I've mentioned before, I dislike dragging other people into my projects when I don't really need it.

John McDonald

@TreDubZedd Except that it can change, right up until the date

Gajet

18:04

@WilliamMindWorXMariager I know, but I like solving that problem :D

if you don't mind of course.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet Hehe, you're more than welcome to give it a go.

This is what I get for presenting what I think is simple to a bunch of nerds. :P

TreDubZedd

@JohnMcDonald I don't really see how that's different

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Still, a good call. <3

Gajet

I just need to enhance my english a little more to completely understand the problem :D

John McDonald

@TreDubZedd Heaps don't move stuff around, otherwise pointers would break

So in my example, when Group A cancels, you could technically shift Group B's lane down to lane #1, Problem solved

TreDubZedd

18:06

It's still a matter of allocating "blocks" on an as-needed basis

Jimmy

@JohnMcDonald so it's more like a compacting GC?

TreDubZedd

I guess I'm looking at it as if blocks aren't allocated until the players show up to bowl

tylerrrr07

@thelinuxlich - limited experience as you already know but maybe I can help? Don't have the app on a pc nearby though - just an FYI

Gajet

if it doesn't matter who booked which lane, I can't get why you think this problem is anything near hard

Jimmy

@Gajet if you optimize for making sure gruops get contiguous lanes, you have to at least look ahead

Gajet

18:08

I mean I just have to assign a group of lanes and always check I don't over flow right?

John McDonald

Times add some more complexity if you want to keep groups together

Gajet

and I just need to generate output once?

thelinuxlich

@tylerrrr07 was trying to develop a top-down RPG with it, used the Path tool for drawing the "non-collision" area and now I have no clue how to use it

John McDonald

there has to be an algorithm for this

:) I like algorithms

Gajet

@Jimmy it depends on how often I might want to prints groups and the lanes assign to them .

@WilliamMindWorXMariager do you know anything about how many groups there will be or how many lanes you might have?

thelinuxlich

18:10

@tylerrrr07 the PathItemProperties has a WorldPoints variable, which is a List<Vector2> containing the "dots" of the path I drawn

Jimmy

@Gajet you get fragmentation from say, groups of 1-lane that want to stay along time

mixed with groups of say, 3-5 lanes that stay shorter

the main constraint is that once a group starts playing, you can't move their lanes until they finish

Gajet

@Jimmy booking problem is just what I suspected, so it really is easy!

unless you don't want some lanes to be free all the time.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet 10 lanes, 2 of them have optional trench guards.

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager would you mind C++ code?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet Would be annoying having to convert it to C#.

Gajet

18:14

then C# it is.

TreDubZedd

If you're causing too much wear-and-tear on the first few lanes, switch to use right-to-left instead of left-to-right on some days

Gajet

It'll be finished tonight (I guess)

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@TreDubZedd Interesting thought, should distribute the lanes a bit.

TreDubZedd

If you're causing too much wear-and-tear on the edges, and not any in the middle, your solution is likely bigger than your problem.

Jimmy

I don't know what algorithm my local alley uses, but if you have like 3 lanes in use, they don't assign them consecutively anyways, just to give all parties some space

Gajet

18:15

@WilliamMindWorXMariager can you also provide some sample queries?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet What do you mean?

Jimmy

historical logs of lane usage and reservation timing

Gajet

I mean what are the possible things you provide when asking something from the code.

what information do I get and what should I exactly print?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Jimmy I asked for that, but they couldn't give me.

tylerrrr07

@thelinuxlich I've only worked with the rectangles for such a purpose because XNA makes that easy. I imagine the dots in the list are in the order that you created the dots and as such you could probably programmatically determine the shape but I don't know what XNA offers for that

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

18:18

@Gajet, Well, from start to end, first they'll call and request to book x number of lanes at a date, for y hours. First we need to make sure that's possible and next we need to reserve them.

thelinuxlich

@tylerrrr07 they are and I suck for not knowing what to do :(

tylerrrr07

Yeah this is more of an XNA thing than a Gleed thing I think

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I guess when the time comes around for them to play, the system will assign lanes to the groups.

thelinuxlich

@tylerrrr07 it is not XNA related, I think it is pretty general

tylerrrr07

Yes, assuming the XNA API doesn't provide anything to make your life easier :)

Gajet

18:20

some sample of possible queries coming to my head :
"book 5 lanes for 'A' from 01:00 until 10:00"
"book 3 lanes for 'B' from 02:00 until 04:00"
"book 4 lanes for 'C' from 04:00 until 07:00"
"cancel 3 lances for 'C'"
"expand B booking for 1 lane"
"print lane status at 05:00"

thelinuxlich

@tylerrrr07 the correct question should be: I have a List of coordinates X,Y and I need to ensure the player character can't pass through the border of the irregular shape formed by this List

so how can I do it?

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager any other possible things?

tylerrrr07

Sounds like a good question to me

Jimmy

@thelinuxlich: is it always convex? does the last point connect to the first point?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Well, I guess people should also be able to request specific lanes.

Gajet

18:21

ok,

what else?

I can guess for each request I have a time when that request is being asked?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

And there's the two special lanes, with trench guards, which should be kept available, but also allowed to be filled if total reservations go above 8 lanes.

thelinuxlich

@Jimmy it is not convex and the last should connect to the first

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Yeah, an employee will use the interface, where they'll input lanes, time of start and how many hours they want the lanes.

Gajet

also should I implement a queue for bookings? I mean should people book and wait for cancellation?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Reservations are always a full hour.

Nah, don't need that, people can just call back later and ask if something has changed.

Remember, this is just a simple solution for them, doesn't have to get too fancy.

Gajet

18:24

something like:
5 for 'A' from 00:00 til 05:00
6 for 'b' from 00:00 til 05:00 -> in queue
cancel 'A' -> give 6 lanes to B

@WilliamMindWorXMariager I love fancy!

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I don't really think we need queue support. Then the staff also has to call the people, and tell them they got their reservation anyways. We don't need that.

Simple lane reservation.

Gajet

ok

and I guess I need to be able to save/load current state for later use right?

John McDonald

There's lots of fun stuff on Wikipedia that's similar, but I was unable to find a problem that was quite the same

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet Well, everything needs to go into a database.

Jimmy

@thelinuxlich en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon_triangulation

Gajet

18:27

@WilliamMindWorXMariager data base? really?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

People may want to reserve lanes weeks or even months in advance.

Gajet

can't I use a custom binary file?

John McDonald

It did boil down to being a NP-hard problem though

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@Gajet SQLite was my choice.

Gajet

I've got a very bad experience with SQL data bases.

@JohnMcDonald not when you don't want to find the perfect solution.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

18:28

Well, standards are good, and a SQLite db is easier to maintain.

user4704

@WilliamMindWorXMariager Yup.

John McDonald

@Gajet yeah, you can always say "Sorry, there aren't any lanes available today"

Gajet

@JohnMcDonald but still where did you find that?

tylerrrr07

@WilliamMindWorXMariager What about SQL Compact?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

@tylerrrr07 Never tried it. Only tried SQLite. I assume they might be kinda similar?

Gajet

18:30

I've only once tried SQL I don't know what, and it took me ages to tame it. so I don't like bothering with it again!

John McDonald

Well, it started here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_scheduling_problem, then went to here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_shop_scheduling then here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_bottleneck_heuristic

tylerrrr07

SQL Compact is basically a standalone SQL Server DB with some limitations but the advantage of no DB Engine

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

SQL is easy enough once the DB has been setup. Then it's just inserts and updates.

tylerrrr07

And if you download Microsoft Web Matrix (free) you can do all the setup and creation of the file via that tool including the insertion of data

John McDonald

yeah, I liked SQLite for it's ease of db creation. There's just a small DLL that you bring around

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

18:32

@JohnMcDonald Yeah, same for me. SQLite Admin for setup and a dll for your project.

@Gajet Well, if you just make an interface, I can do the SQLite part.

tylerrrr07

I find SQL Compact to be great for simple web sites (online or offline)

I'm going to be helping a friend create an offline Golf Cart / Boat Reservation system using SQL Compact through a web interface

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager I was going to suggest that too. I'll only write a console application which you can ask queries and things like that.

Jimmy

isn't SQL Compact just like SQLite in that a write blocks all concurrent reads?

tylerrrr07

@Jimmy its possible - never really looked into the technicalities of it

I just suggested it because I know it and like it really

thelinuxlich

@Jimmy looks like there is nothing in that article about non-convex polygons

Jimmy

18:37

both the illustrations are of non-convex polygons

thelinuxlich

@jimmy oh you are right, I was reading the monotone polygon article

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I wonder why they have the bottom "Classic Games" section.

Why don't they just include the games in the other sections?

Silly Blizzard.

Jimmy

I haven't logged in a while. I don't remember War3 being a classic game

Or D2

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager do you thing you need any other functions?

class Booker
    {
        Booker(int normalLanes,int specialLanes);
        bool queryBooking(int time, string owner, int startTime, int endTime, int normalLanes, int specialLanes);
        void queryCancellation(int time, string owner);
        void queryPrintCurrentLaneStatus(int time);
        void queryPrintPredictedLaneStatus(int time);
    }

sorry for my bad namings!

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Looks about right.

Gajet

18:43

ok, BB in 30 mins

John McDonald

Man, I am getting carried away on Wikipedia:

Scheduling

Scheduling is the process of deciding how to commit resources between a variety of possible tasks. Time can be specified (scheduling a flight to leave at 8:00) or floating as part of a sequence of events. The word may also refer to: * I/O scheduling, the order in which I/O requests are submitted to a block device in Computer Operating Systems * Broadcast programming, the minute planning of the content of a radio or television broadcast channel * Scheduling algorithm * Scheduling (computing), the way various processes are assigned in multitasking and multiprocessing operating system design...

thelinuxlich

@Jimmy so now I need to know how to use this with rendertarget to do my collision

or skip all the brainstorm and decompose the polygon into squares

TreDubZedd

19:07

@JohnMcDonald Just don't follow any links from Wikipedia to TvTropes, and you'll be alright.

John McDonald

hah, yeah

suuuure

explosm.net/comics/1128

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

'Taft in a wet t-shirt contest' is the key image here.

Are you kidding... The chat parses xkcd links and gets the image? :P

Of all the weird features...

John McDonald

@WilliamMindWorXMariager hah, I guess it's a common enough resource eh?

Unlike cyanide and happiness, :p

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

They even fetch the Alt text. :P

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariagerl I've created a repository and invited you.

stephelton

19:17

that is AWESOME

Gajet

you've got svn right?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Yup

Gajet

good!

Vodáček

Hello

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager what's the difference between string and String

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

19:26

@Gajet Nothing at all.

string is an alias for System.String

John McDonald

++

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

The System part of that is the actual only functional difference. With String you need a using System;, with string you don't.

John McDonald

I use String

Thanks to my Java upbringing

TreDubZedd

I bet you also use "Boolean". Traitor.

Gajet

and I'm using string thanks to c++ background.

John McDonald

19:37

@TreDubZedd heh, nope: bool and int, not 'Boolean' and 'Int32'

melak47

and I'm using char * because it annoys the C++ channel :)

John McDonald

heh, nice

TreDubZedd

@JohnMcDonald Java has int, so I wouldn't expect Int32...

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

I don't use any aliases in C#.

It even annoys me I can't used Void instead of void.

John McDonald

yeah, I don't know why. It's not like int isn't well-defined and immutable

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

19:43

I love when download speeds show their compressed speed. :D

Like Steam, and apparently the Diablo III launcher.

I'm downloading ~1.2Mbyte per second. which is 0.2Mbyte more than possible.

Or well, 1.28Mbyte is the upper limit of my connection, assuming no overhead. :P

Gajet

silly question, how should we implement a ranged based loop in C#?

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Huh?

Gajet

I was looking for foreach keyword!

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

Ah.

William 'MindWorX' Mariager

20:02

@QAvenDreamer, How is your Unity 2D stuff going?

I'm very interested. :)

Gajet

@WilliamMindWorXMariager so far we have both booking and cancellation methods, though they are very simple and can't solve complex things yet!

and I didn't implement time yet.

BRB going to have a late night meal!

Jimmy

Raven has time to make a game in between babysitting gaming.SE? that's impressive

Code Assasssin

20:17

How would I make a sprite move - lets say once every 5 seconds?

TreDubZedd

@CodeAssasssin Do you mean "stay in-place, but play it's 'not moving' animation for five seconds, and then have it 'walk' to a different position"?

Gajet

@CodeAssasssin long time no see!

Code Assasssin

No. Just standing on one position for 5 seconds. Then moving to another for 5 seconds and so on o:

@Gajet Vacation :3

TreDubZedd

What kind of movement? Teleportation?

Code Assasssin

TileBased Movement.

Gajet

20:21

if(time % 10 < 5)
move();
else
stop();

@code is that enough?

Code Assasssin

Lol I think so.

Gajet

assuming time is an integer

Jimmy

wouldn't that be time %5 == 0?

oh i see

Gajet

otherwise just cast the time into an integer and do the same thing

@TreDubZedd you really over think problems

Jimmy

for more complex actions you could use a state machine too

it helps if you draw it out on paper

TreDubZedd

20:23

@Gajet I'm just trying to get to the root of the question

When it's ambiguous or unclear, I ask for more information

Also, when the initial question can be answered by simple concepts like branches or loops--stuff from middle-school programming courses--I tend to believe the person asking the question means something else.

Jimmy

well, codeassassin is 12 years old

but if time is in millisecond counts, I'd rather keep track of the "lastupdatedtime"

rather than using modulus

Gajet

@TreDubZedd also I've learned not to assume that, unless I know that person knows these tihings

Jimmy

class Foo : GameObject {
    long lastMoved;
    override void Update(long gameTime) {
        if (gameTime - lastMoved > 5000) {
            lastMoved = gameTime;
            // move
        }
    }
}

TreDubZedd

Ok...I feel a little like an ass, now. But I'm not going to apologize for treating @CodeAssasssin like an adult.

I will, however, apologize for not considering his (your) background.

Paul Manta

20:44

Does anyone have any tips on how to rotate a 3D vector? (I'm working with Unity.)

Gajet

@PaulManta what exactly do you have in mind?

there is a quartenion class you can use to rotate (and it has fromEulerAngles method)

Paul Manta

@Gajet I have the transform.forward vector of an object, I want to rotate it a certain amount.

Say positive degrees are to the right, then Rotate(transform.forward, 90.0) should give me transform.right.

Gajet

then I think you need to to use rotateAround function.

Paul Manta

I tried Quaternion.AngleAxis(90.0, transform.forward) * transform.forward;, but apparently this is not how the function is used.

This just gives me back the transform.forward vector.

@Gajet I don't want to rotate the object itself. I just want to get the forward vector rotated.

Gajet

I can't remember the syntax exactly but something like `rotateAround(transform.up,90) * transform.front"

actually this will work:

transform.rotateAround(transform.up,90);
right = transform.front;
transform.rotateAround(transform.up,-90);

Wackidev

21:50

Dropbox is somehow not working....Grrrr.

Gajet

@Wackidev it's a long time it's not working for me (filtered out)

@PaulManta why did you delete your question?

did I somehow answer it correctly?

Wackidev

Dropbox decided to go offline right as I needed it, too.

@Gajet that stinks.

Gajet

lots of things stink, you just need to learn how to ignore their smell.

@Wackidev could you edit his question? so it doesn't stink that much? so other people can read it without getting these so called headaches? gamedev.stackexchange.com/q/30900/7328

Wackidev

@Gajet OK. DB is back on, BTW. :)

@Gajet done.

QAven Dreamer

22:35

@WilliamMindWorXMariager I've found two bugs in the package I'm using, was able to fix one myself, and submitted a bug report re the other, which the author then fixed. Beyond that, I've been busy with my new job and getting an apartment (finished the paperwork for that today) all of which means I've done absolutely nothing since I posted my webunity test in this room. :P

Wackidev

22:51

If there happen to be any Unity3D guys around: how do you check if two objects are colliding without using the OnCollisionEnter function and friends?

I need to loop through a bunch of GameObjects (which have SphereColliders attached) and perform further processing on any touching my trigger MeshCollider.

QAven Dreamer

I want to say there's a list of all objects in a collision state with you, somewhere, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

Wackidev

@QAven Would that list be a field of a singleton? Is there even a Physics singleton?

QAven Dreamer

I am not one of those Unity3d guys, unfortunately. :/

Wackidev

Oh OK. You did give me an idea...

QAven Dreamer

Huzzah!

Wackidev

22:59

@QAven what happened?

QAven Dreamer

I gave you an idea, lol.

Wackidev

LOL

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