Game Development

Trevor Powell

00:37

@CodeAssassin C++ to Basic to C#? That's a really weird path to have taken. xD

I went Basic -> Hypercard -> Pascal -> C -> C++ . Which is much more normal and boring. I'm intrigued about how well you did, starting out in C++, and why you then went to Basic. :)

(I suspect that for me, starting out with C++ would have been like smashing my head into a brick wall.)

Mind you, when I used Basic, it still had explicit line numbers and no loop structures beyond those you built yourself using goto/gosub. So maybe Basic was different by the time you were using it. :)

Stack Exchange

01:14

0

Q: Link clarity in code tags

Sometimes it is useful to link directly to documentation for a specific function in your questions/answers. And in many cases, one will often want to put the function name in `` tags, like this: "[`FuncName`][1]". On Stack Overflow, this looks fine; the linked text in the code tags appears blue....

Code Assassin

@TrevorPowell ;-; lol.

It was Liberty Basic was for a college course I took.

A prerequisite for other courses -_-

Trevor Powell

Ah, gotcha.

When I reached that point, I said "screw this," and went and got a psychology degree instead. <-- true story.

(And not a course of action I recommend, in retrospect!)

Code Assassin

o: wow

:D That's pretty awesome

user4704

@TrevorPowell I tried that Pragmata font for a bit but it didn't stick

Trevor Powell

@JoshPetrie I knew it was the only font for me the first time I saw it. But yeah, different people go for different things. Which font is your favourite? :)

user4704

01:27

I am using Meslo right now

user4704

I liked Pragmata mostly but couldn't get over the sense of the tall, narrow style.

user4704

Made everything feel stretched vertically for me.

Trevor Powell

Heh. I have the opposite problem now. Everything else feels horizontally bloated. xD

I hadn't heard of Meslo before. I like its changes over Menlo.

user4704

I find that most of the time, fonts don't look as good on my machines as they do in screenshots of them.

user4704

Xcode kept rendering bars of ===== unevenly with Pragmata.

user4704

01:29

Drove me crazy. Which is a shame.

Trevor Powell

Oh, yeah. Alignment of the horizontal bars in - and + was only added to Pragmata Pro about.. maybe six months back?

user4704

Oh I'm talking about antialiasing kinds of artifacts.

Trevor Powell

Oh, gotcha. Interesting. What font size do you use?

user4704

I think 11 or 14

Trevor Powell

I never go below 14. And I used to even use 18. Because amazingly smooth antialiased font edges on retina screen. ;)

user4704

01:34

Yeah, I want to get a retina screen, probably will this summer

user4704

I usually hover around 14 on the Mac and 11 on Windows.

Trevor Powell

Yeah, wait for Apple to work the bugs out of the retina display. I need to make an appointment with the local Apple store to come in and have them figure out what to do about the ghosting I get. See whether it's covered under AppleCare.

Vaughan Hilts

02:21

How does one move an object along a path in t time using lerp?

Trevor Powell

What is the path?

Vaughan Hilts

Just a horizontal or vertical line

Trevor Powell

I mean, is it a line segment? I guess it'd have to be a line segment if you're using lerp. :)

Vaughan Hilts

I noticed Lerp given a weight

Actually gets something to different positions in the same time

So it might not be what I want

Trevor Powell

Normally, you give a 'lerp' function a 't' value that varies from 0 to 1.

Vaughan Hilts

02:24

Yeah, I was trying to use Lerp for player movement.. I'm not sure why.

Trevor Powell

And then you calculate it as result = (end-start)*t + start

(Or rather, that's what 'lerp' does)

Vaughan Hilts

Yeah, I implemented lerp already.. I think I just misunderstood it's usage. Doh.

Trevor Powell

I wouldn't use lerp for player movement, unless I was making a turn-based game where the player was going to press a button once, and I was going to slide the player into the next square.

Vaughan Hilts

That's exactly what I'm doing.

You press a button - and you move until you hit a solid tile

So I was going to just find the unblocked tile to the players movement

And just 'lerp' into it

Trevor Powell

And if the player releases the button while the lerp is happening? Just keep on going? (if yes, then that sounds very reasonable)

(I've made a game which worked that way, but only once)

Vaughan Hilts

02:27

Yup.

Trevor Powell

Yeah, sounds reasonable. You just need to decide how you want to calculate the 't' value. :)

Vaughan Hilts

The main problem is of course the player moves faster over larger distances

So I take it I need to calculate t depending on distance

Presumably, I can just divide by number of tiles, I guess

Is there a way to prevent the 'slow down' effect that Lerp gives near the end of the interpolation?

Trevor Powell

Decide how long you want the transition to take, and then use "t = timePassed / totalTime". :)

There should be no slow down at the end of the interpolation if it's a real linear interpolation.

Vaughan Hilts

Well, I thinkt he way I'm doing it is wrong really =)

var y = MathHelper.Lerp(_position.Y, _newPosition.Y, 0.1f);

_position = new Vector2(x, y);

Trevor Powell

Oh! Yeah, that's wrong. :)

Vaughan Hilts

02:30

I'm not supposed to just plug y back into itself, I take it

Trevor Powell

You want to be doing: var y = MathHelper.Lerp(_originalPosition.Y, _newPosition.Y, _timer); Where '_timer' is a value which goes up over time. :)

(And _originalPosition.y is where you were when you started the lerp)

Vaughan Hilts

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Can't believe I couldn't find anything on the web about it

Trevor Powell

Right. What you're doing in your code is going 10% of the way to the destination every frame. Which means you'll start out moving fast, and then slow down, and never quite actually reach the destination because you're always only getting 10% closer. :)

Zeno's paradoxes

Zeno's paradoxes are a set of philosophical problems generally thought to have been devised by Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea (ca. 490–430 BC) to support Parmenides's doctrine that "all is one" and that, contrary to the evidence of one's senses, the belief in plurality and change is mistaken, and in particular that motion is nothing but an illusion. It is usually assumed, based on Plato's Parmenides 128c-d, that Zeno took on the project of creating these paradoxes because other philosophers had created paradoxes against Parmenides's view. Thus Zeno can be interpreted as saying that to ...

Vaughan Hilts

Yeah, I examine just that in my debugger ;)

Perfect! :D

Thanks a lot. ^^

Trevor Powell

02:53

No worries!

I just had a lengthy and interesting discussion with my housemate about whether 0.9 recurring equals 1.0, and we ended up doing arithmetic in other bases in order to resolve the matter. I suspect that I've now well and truly crossed over the boundary between 'geek' and 'nerd'. ;)

Vaughan Hilts

Oh boy.. that's an old one.

I've read a couple articles on that before where they do in fact assert 0.99999___ == 1 but I've never really understood.

Trevor Powell

We resolved the matter by doing the divisions and multiplications used to generate 0.9_ in base 3 instead of base 10. There's no ambiguity there. 0.3_ in base 3 is just 0.1, non-recurring. Multiplying that by 3-base-10 (which is 10 in base 3) is 1. No recurring decimals appearing anywhere. :)

Decided that the 0.9_ is merely an artifact of the numeric base used for the calculations. :)

Vaughan Hilts

Well, unfortunately.. the compiler would disagree with you. It did not equate 0.999999 to 1 ;p

Trevor Powell

Floats can't represent the infinite precision required for a proper 0.9 recurring. ;)

Vaughan Hilts

03:09

I suppose infinite bits aren't possible yet ;p

Trevor Powell

Moore's Law is working on it. It's only a matter of waiting an infinite number of years, and then we'll be ready. xD

Vaughan Hilts

Moore's Law is supposed to expire soon, actually.

Trevor Powell

Moore's Law has been supposed to expire soon for decades. Hasn't happened yet. :)

Vaughan Hilts

Touche. :p

Code Assassin

03:36

Off Topic: has anyone ever watched CopperCab's youtube videos?

Vaughan Hilts

Nope.

Code Assassin

I'm not sure if he's trolling or serious.

Trevor Powell

Are his youtube videos on youtube?

Probably trolling, if so. :)

Mildly relevant: userscripts.org/scripts/show/112886

Vaughan Hilts

04:14

Thanks Trevor =)

http://i.imgur.com/ffL8y4H.png

@CodeAssassin

Just looked at his videoes.. pretty sure he's trolling.

Code Assassin

xD haha okay

Vaughan Hilts

I mean, noone could have possibly lost that many screws, right??

Code Assassin

^

TemporaryNickName

12:25

Guys, when you build a server and client communication with socket

do you call it {your game name} protocol?

For examples, Diablo 3 protocol and Starcraft protocol

Steve Dunn

17:30

Hi, I've done an XNA game on XBox, Windows Phone, and Windows. I've had help with the music, but now I'm looking for someone to help out with the graphics before I release it one the Windows Store

It's currently a non-paying gig, but I plan on doing a 'non-lite' version and charging, so can offer some money in the future.

Chorche

17:55

"The war of demigods"

what do you think about this game name?

does it sound silly?

user4704

18:25

Yes.

user4704

Although to be fair most game titles sound silly.

user4704

I would suggest at least tweaking the grammar; "War of the Demigods" sounds slightly more natural.

SpicyWeenie

18:38

Hey everyone

0

Q: problem adding bumpmap to textured gluSphere in JOGL

I currently have one texture on a gluSphere that represents the Earth being displayed perfectly, but having trouble figuring out how to implement a bumpmap as well. The bumpmap resides in "res/planet/earth/earthbump1k.jpg".Here is the code I have for the regular texture: gl.glTranslatef(xPa...

java textures jogl

Chorche

@JoshPetrie thanks :D

Raven Dreamer

19:21

Woo, networking success!

Chunk-e-Yamani

@RavenDreamer GJ

Raven Dreamer

@Chunk-e-Yamani Now I don't have an excuse not to finish the rest of the game code! Haha.

Chunk-e-Yamani

@RavenDreamer I guess that's why I don't do my networking ...

VirtualWorld

21:00

hi all

Our company wants to create a 2D game for IOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux devices. We are confused about selecting a game engine, i suggested the Cocos2d-X, another agreed with MonoGame or Unity! is there anyone with the experience of using all three engines for creating and publishing a 2D game? at all what is your suggestion?

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld cocos2d-x has a poor support for audio in windows devices, so I wouldn't recommend it for a windows game.

VirtualWorld

@Chunk-e-what about for andriod and ios?

@Chunk-e-Yamani what about for andriod and ios?

Raven Dreamer

One single source can be built for windows, android, and iOS

@VirtualWorld If you are looking for Multi-platform, I think Unity would be the way to go.

If you're looking into sprite-based games (i.e., 2d graphics, instead of 2d gameplay)

I recommend Orthello to go with it.

wyrmtale.com/orthello

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld it has a great support for iOS, but I'm not so sure about android.

android version though shouldn't have any problems simply because there are many games out there using that engine

@RavenDreamer never liked using unity for any kind of 2D game

VirtualWorld

@RavenDreamer Unity is 3d engine, i think its not designed for 2d games - and whats the problem with cocos2d?

Raven Dreamer

21:10

@VirtualWorld Nothing. I've worked with cocos2d. It's fine if you know Objective-C already.

@VirtualWorld And I am not recommending unity because it's 3d, I am recommending it because it makes it easy to build for multiple platforms.

VirtualWorld

ok

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld cocos2d (if you mean cocos2d-iphone) is an iOS only engine. but there is nothing wrong with cocos2d-x.

in fact in some cases you might be able to do jobs using x version that you couldn't do with Unity.

VirtualWorld

but i mean cocos2d-x which is writen in c++ and have javascript and lua binding

Chunk-e-Yamani

@RavenDreamer very true...

Raven Dreamer

Objective C is a superset of C++, right?

VirtualWorld

21:15

@RavenDreamer i don't know - but you can use any c++ library and code in your obj-c codes

@Chunk-e-Yamani do you have published any game with cocos2d-x

?

Chunk-e-Yamani

@RavenDreamer starting from Obj-C 2 yes.

@VirtualWorld nope, but right now I'm at the end of development cycle of one.

VirtualWorld

@Chunk-e-Yamani you are using cocos2d-x?

i mean c++ version?

Chunk-e-Yamani

yep. but I won't recommend it, if you aren't already fluent with c++.

besides you should be able to understand the ideas behind Obj-C code, simply because cocos2d-x translated whatever Obj-C was there into C++.

VirtualWorld

what about cc2d js binding? did you used this?

Chunk-e-Yamani

nope, I've hard coded everything directly with c++.

VirtualWorld

21:20

i also created a simple game using cocos2d-html5 and i thinks that was easy to use - but don't about js binding and its stability

@Chunk-e-Yamani what is your suggestion?

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld as I said I didn't test any of those

VirtualWorld

@Chunk-e-Yamani thanks, where is a good place for asking my question?

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld depends on your question, if it's how to implement something or how to use certain feature, maybe the main site.

but if it's about choosing things the chatroom i guess

VirtualWorld

@Chunk-e-Yamani did you used cocosbuilder? any other tools for making world faster?

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld i tried, but it turned out it was a little bit dependent on js binding which i didn't like

VirtualWorld

21:32

@Chunk-e-Yamani why you don't like jsb?

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld the only place I might have used jsb, was in the main menu.

and I thought learning a new feature will take more time compared to hardcoding our simplistic menu

VirtualWorld

@Chunk-e-Yamani cocosbuilder only runs on os-x?

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld as far as i know

VirtualWorld

@Chunk-e-Yamani you have not any problem in creating cbprojects?

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld no matter what game engine you use you'll need an os-x device to be able to compile your games for iOS. so it's not that much of drawback.

@VirtualWorld i created cbproject, added a button, then deleted the project. that's my whole experience with ccb

VirtualWorld

21:39

@Chunk-e-Yamani very thanks for helping

bye all

Chunk-e-Yamani

@VirtualWorld anytime, that's why I'm here :D

dennmat