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  • Isometric screen to 3D world coordinates efficiently

    - by Justin
    Been having a difficult time transforming 2D screen coordinates to 3D isometric space. This is the situation where I am working in 3D but I have an orthographic camera. Then my camera is positioned at (100, 200, 100), Where the xz plane is flat and y is up and down. I've been able to get a sort of working solution, but I feel like there must be a better way. Here's what I'm doing: With my camera at (0, 1, 0) I can translate my screen coordinates directly to 3D coordinates by doing: mouse2D.z = (( event.clientX / window.innerWidth ) * 2 - 1) * -(window.innerWidth /2); mouse2D.x = (( event.clientY / window.innerHeight) * 2 + 1) * -(window.innerHeight); mouse2D.y = 0; Everything okay so far. Now when I change my camera back to (100, 200, 100) my 3D space has been rotated 45 degrees around the y axis and then rotated about 54 degrees around a vector Q that runs along the xz plane at a 45 degree angle between the positive z axis and the negative x axis. So what I do to find the point is first rotate my point by 45 degrees using a matrix around the y axis. Now I'm close. So then I rotate my point around the vector Q. But my point is closer to the origin than it should be, since the Y value is not 0 anymore. What I want is that after the rotation my Y value is 0. So now I exchange my X and Z coordinates of my rotated vector with the X and Z coordinates of my non-rotated vector. So basically I have my old vector but it's y value is at an appropriate rotated amount. Now I use another matrix to rotate my point around the vector Q in the opposite direction, and I end up with the point where I clicked. Is there a better way? I feel like I must be missing something. Also my method isn't completely accurate. I feel like it's within 5-10 coordinates of where I click, maybe because of rounding from many calculations. Sorry for such a long question.

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  • Screen space to world space

    - by user13414
    I am writing a 2D game where my game world has x axis running left to right, y axis running top to bottom, and z axis out of the screen: Whilst my game world is top-down, the game is rendered on a slight tilt: I'm working on projecting from world space to screen space, and vice-versa. I have the former working as follows: var viewport = new Viewport(0, 0, this.ScreenWidth, this.ScreenHeight); var screenPoint = viewport.Project(worldPoint.NegateY(), this.ProjectionMatrix, this.ViewMatrix, this.WorldMatrix); The NegateY() extension method does exactly what it sounds like, since XNA's y axis runs bottom to top instead of top to bottom. The screenshot above shows this all working. Basically, I have a bunch of points in 3D space that I then render in screen space. I can modify camera properties in real time and see it animate to the new position. Obviously my actual game will use sprites rather than points and the camera position will be fixed, but I'm just trying to get all the math in place before getting to that. Now, I am trying to convert back the other way. That is, given an x and y point in screen space above, determine the corresponding point in world space. So if I point the cursor at, say, the bottom-left of the green trapezoid, I want to get a world space reading of (0, 480). The z coordinate is irrelevant. Or, rather, the z coordinate will always be zero when mapping back to world space. Essentially, I want to implement this method signature: public Vector2 ScreenPointToWorld(Vector2 point) I've tried several things to get this working but am just having no luck. My latest thinking is that I need to call Viewport.Unproject twice with differing near/far z values, calculate the resultant Ray, normalize it, then calculate the intersection of the Ray with a Plane that basically represents ground-level of my world. However, I got stuck on the last step and wasn't sure whether I was over-complicating things. Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to achieve this?

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  • What is the best practice with KML files when adding geositemap?

    - by Floran
    Im not sure how to deal with kml files. Now important particularly in reference to the Google Venice update. My site basically is a guide of many company listings (sort of Yellow Pages). I want each company listing to have a geolocation associated with it. Which of the options I present below is the way to go? OPTION 1: all locations in a single KML file with a reference to that KML file from a geositemap.xml MYGEOSITEMAP.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:geo="http://www.google.com/geo/schemas/sitemap/1.0"> <url><loc>http://www.mysite.com/locations.kml</loc> <geo:geo> <geo:format>kml</geo:format></geo:geo></url> </urlset> ALLLOCATIONS.kml <kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> <Document> <name>MyCompany</name> <atom:author> <atom:name>MyCompany</atom:name> </atom:author> <atom:link href="http://www.mysite.com/locations/3454/MyCompany" rel="related" /> <Placemark> <name>MyCompany, Kalverstraat 26 Amsterdam 1000AG</name> <description><![CDATA[<address><a href="http://www.mysite.com/locations/3454/MyCompany">MyCompany</a><br />Address: Kalverstraat 26, Amsterdam 1000AG <br />Phone: 0646598787</address><p>hello there, im MyCompany</p>]]> </description><Point><coordinates>5.420686499999965,51.6298808,0</coordinates> </Point> </Placemark> </Document> </kml> <kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> <Document> <name>MyCompany</name><atom:author><atom:name>MyCompany</atom:name></atom:author><atom:link href="http://www.mysite.com/locations/22/companyX" rel="related" /><Placemark><name>MyCompany, Rosestreet 45 Amsterdam 1001XF </name><description><![CDATA[<address><a href="http://www.mysite.com/locations/22/companyX">companyX</a><br />Address: Rosestreet 45, Amsterdam 1001XF <br />Phone: 0642195493</address><p>some text about companyX</p>]]></description><Point><coordinates>5.520686499889632,51.6197705,0</coordinates></Point></Placemark> </Document> </kml> OPTION 2: a separate KML file for each location and a reference to each KML file from a geositemap.xml (kml files placed in a \kmlfiles folder) MYGEOSITEMAP.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:geo="http://www.google.com/geo/schemas/sitemap/1.0"> <url><loc>http://www.mysite.com/kmlfiles/3454_MyCompany.kml</loc> <geo:geo> <geo:format>kml</geo:format></geo:geo></url> <url><loc>http://www.mysite.com/kmlfiles/22_companyX.kml</loc> <geo:geo> <geo:format>kml</geo:format></geo:geo></url> </urlset> *3454_MyCompany.kml* <kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> <Document><name>MyCompany</name><atom:author><atom:name>MyCompany</atom:name></atom:author><atom:link href="http://www.mysite.com/locations/3454/MyCompany" rel="related" /><Placemark><name>MyCompany, Kalverstraat 26 Amsterdam 1000AG</name><description><![CDATA[<address><a href="http://www.mysite.com/locations/3454/MyCompany">MyCompany</a><br />Address: Kalverstraat 26, Amsterdam 1000AG <br />Phone: 0646598787</address><p>hello there, im MyCompany</p>]]></description><Point><coordinates>5.420686499999965,51.6298808,0</coordinates></Point></Placemark> </Document> </kml> *22_companyX.kml* <kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> <Document><name>companyX</name><atom:author><atom:name>companyX</atom:name></atom:author><atom:link href="http://www.mysite.com/locations/22/companyX" rel="related" /><Placemark><name>companyX, Rosestreet 45 Amsterdam 1001XF </name><description><![CDATA[<address><a href="http://www.mysite.com/locations/22/companyX">companyX</a><br />Address: Rosestreet 45, Amsterdam 1001XF <br />Phone: 0642195493</address><p>some text about companyX</p>]]></description><Point><coordinates>5.520686499889632,51.6197705,0</coordinates></Point></Placemark> </Document> </kml> OPTION 3?

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  • Rate limit a wireless interface

    - by Jamie Hankins
    I have access to my routers SSH and IPTables. I want to rate limit my guest network to 1Mb/s so they can't guzzle my bandwidth. rai1 RTWIFI SoftAP ESSID:"GuestNetwork" Nickname:"" Mode:Managed Channel=6 Access Point: :F9 Bit Rate=300 Mb/s wdsi0 RTWIFI SoftAP ESSID:"YouCan'tTouchThis" Nickname:"" Mode:Managed Channel=6 Access Point: :F8 Bit Rate=300 Mb/s wdsi1 RTWIFI SoftAP ESSID:"YouCan'tTouchThis" Nickname:"" Mode:Managed Channel=6 Access Point: :F9 Bit Rate=300 Mb/s wdsi2 RTWIFI SoftAP ESSID:"YouCan'tTouchThis" Nickname:"" Mode:Managed Channel=6 Access Point: Not-Associated Bit Rate:300 Mb/s wdsi3 RTWIFI SoftAP ESSID:"YouCan'tTouchThis" Nickname:"" Mode:Managed Channel=6 Access Point: Not-Associated Bit Rate:300 Mb/s I'm just wondering the command I need to limit it. I tried the iwconfig limit command but it failed. Thanks

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  • Movement and Collision with AABB

    - by Jeremy Giberson
    I'm having a little difficulty figuring out the following scenarios. http://i.stack.imgur.com/8lM6i.png In scenario A, the moving entity has fallen to (and slightly into the floor). The current position represents the projected position that will occur if I apply the acceleration & velocity as usual without worrying about collision. The Next position, represents the corrected projection position after collision check. The resulting end position is the falling entity now rests ON the floor--that is, in a consistent state of collision by sharing it's bottom X axis with the floor's top X axis. My current update loop looks like the following: // figure out forces & accelerations and project an objects next position // check collision occurrence from current position -> projected position // if a collision occurs, adjust projection position Which seems to be working for the scenario of my object falling to the floor. However, the situation becomes sticky when trying to figure out scenario's B & C. In scenario B, I'm attempt to move along the floor on the X axis (player is pressing right direction button) additionally, gravity is pulling the object into the floor. The problem is, when the object attempts to move the collision detection code is going to recognize that the object is already colliding with the floor to begin with, and auto correct any movement back to where it was before. In scenario C, I'm attempting to jump off the floor. Again, because the object is already in a constant collision with the floor, when the collision routine checks to make sure moving from current position to projected position doesn't result in a collision, it will fail because at the beginning of the motion, the object is already colliding. How do you allow movement along the edge of an object? How do you allow movement away from an object you are already colliding with. Extra Info My collision routine is based on AABB sweeping test from an old gamasutra article, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3383/simple_intersection_tests_for_games.php?page=3 My bounding box implementation is based on top left/bottom right instead of midpoint/extents, so my min/max functions are adjusted. Otherwise, here is my bounding box class with collision routines: public class BoundingBox { public XYZ topLeft; public XYZ bottomRight; public BoundingBox(float x, float y, float z, float w, float h, float d) { topLeft = new XYZ(); bottomRight = new XYZ(); topLeft.x = x; topLeft.y = y; topLeft.z = z; bottomRight.x = x+w; bottomRight.y = y+h; bottomRight.z = z+d; } public BoundingBox(XYZ position, XYZ dimensions, boolean centered) { topLeft = new XYZ(); bottomRight = new XYZ(); topLeft.x = position.x; topLeft.y = position.y; topLeft.z = position.z; bottomRight.x = position.x + (centered ? dimensions.x/2 : dimensions.x); bottomRight.y = position.y + (centered ? dimensions.y/2 : dimensions.y); bottomRight.z = position.z + (centered ? dimensions.z/2 : dimensions.z); } /** * Check if a point lies inside a bounding box * @param box * @param point * @return */ public static boolean isPointInside(BoundingBox box, XYZ point) { if(box.topLeft.x <= point.x && point.x <= box.bottomRight.x && box.topLeft.y <= point.y && point.y <= box.bottomRight.y && box.topLeft.z <= point.z && point.z <= box.bottomRight.z) return true; return false; } /** * Check for overlap between two bounding boxes using separating axis theorem * if two boxes are separated on any axis, they cannot be overlapping * @param a * @param b * @return */ public static boolean isOverlapping(BoundingBox a, BoundingBox b) { XYZ dxyz = new XYZ(b.topLeft.x - a.topLeft.x, b.topLeft.y - a.topLeft.y, b.topLeft.z - a.topLeft.z); // if b - a is positive, a is first on the axis and we should use its extent // if b -a is negative, b is first on the axis and we should use its extent // check for x axis separation if ((dxyz.x >= 0 && a.bottomRight.x-a.topLeft.x < dxyz.x) // negative scale, reverse extent sum, flip equality ||(dxyz.x < 0 && b.topLeft.x-b.bottomRight.x > dxyz.x)) return false; // check for y axis separation if ((dxyz.y >= 0 && a.bottomRight.y-a.topLeft.y < dxyz.y) // negative scale, reverse extent sum, flip equality ||(dxyz.y < 0 && b.topLeft.y-b.bottomRight.y > dxyz.y)) return false; // check for z axis separation if ((dxyz.z >= 0 && a.bottomRight.z-a.topLeft.z < dxyz.z) // negative scale, reverse extent sum, flip equality ||(dxyz.z < 0 && b.topLeft.z-b.bottomRight.z > dxyz.z)) return false; // not separated on any axis, overlapping return true; } public static boolean isContactEdge(int xyzAxis, BoundingBox a, BoundingBox b) { switch(xyzAxis) { case XYZ.XCOORD: if(a.topLeft.x == b.bottomRight.x || a.bottomRight.x == b.topLeft.x) return true; return false; case XYZ.YCOORD: if(a.topLeft.y == b.bottomRight.y || a.bottomRight.y == b.topLeft.y) return true; return false; case XYZ.ZCOORD: if(a.topLeft.z == b.bottomRight.z || a.bottomRight.z == b.topLeft.z) return true; return false; } return false; } /** * Sweep test min extent value * @param box * @param xyzCoord * @return */ public static float min(BoundingBox box, int xyzCoord) { switch(xyzCoord) { case XYZ.XCOORD: return box.topLeft.x; case XYZ.YCOORD: return box.topLeft.y; case XYZ.ZCOORD: return box.topLeft.z; default: return 0f; } } /** * Sweep test max extent value * @param box * @param xyzCoord * @return */ public static float max(BoundingBox box, int xyzCoord) { switch(xyzCoord) { case XYZ.XCOORD: return box.bottomRight.x; case XYZ.YCOORD: return box.bottomRight.y; case XYZ.ZCOORD: return box.bottomRight.z; default: return 0f; } } /** * Test if bounding box A will overlap bounding box B at any point * when box A moves from position 0 to position 1 and box B moves from position 0 to position 1 * Note, sweep test assumes bounding boxes A and B's dimensions do not change * * @param a0 box a starting position * @param a1 box a ending position * @param b0 box b starting position * @param b1 box b ending position * @param aCollisionOut xyz of box a's position when/if a collision occurs * @param bCollisionOut xyz of box b's position when/if a collision occurs * @return */ public static boolean sweepTest(BoundingBox a0, BoundingBox a1, BoundingBox b0, BoundingBox b1, XYZ aCollisionOut, XYZ bCollisionOut) { // solve in reference to A XYZ va = new XYZ(a1.topLeft.x-a0.topLeft.x, a1.topLeft.y-a0.topLeft.y, a1.topLeft.z-a0.topLeft.z); XYZ vb = new XYZ(b1.topLeft.x-b0.topLeft.x, b1.topLeft.y-b0.topLeft.y, b1.topLeft.z-b0.topLeft.z); XYZ v = new XYZ(vb.x-va.x, vb.y-va.y, vb.z-va.z); // check for initial overlap if(BoundingBox.isOverlapping(a0, b0)) { // java pass by ref/value gotcha, have to modify value can't reassign it aCollisionOut.x = a0.topLeft.x; aCollisionOut.y = a0.topLeft.y; aCollisionOut.z = a0.topLeft.z; bCollisionOut.x = b0.topLeft.x; bCollisionOut.y = b0.topLeft.y; bCollisionOut.z = b0.topLeft.z; return true; } // overlap min/maxs XYZ u0 = new XYZ(); XYZ u1 = new XYZ(1,1,1); float t0, t1; // iterate axis and find overlaps times (x=0, y=1, z=2) for(int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { float aMax = max(a0, i); float aMin = min(a0, i); float bMax = max(b0, i); float bMin = min(b0, i); float vi = XYZ.getCoord(v, i); if(aMax < bMax && vi < 0) XYZ.setCoord(u0, i, (aMax-bMin)/vi); else if(bMax < aMin && vi > 0) XYZ.setCoord(u0, i, (aMin-bMax)/vi); if(bMax > aMin && vi < 0) XYZ.setCoord(u1, i, (aMin-bMax)/vi); else if(aMax > bMin && vi > 0) XYZ.setCoord(u1, i, (aMax-bMin)/vi); } // get times of collision t0 = Math.max(u0.x, Math.max(u0.y, u0.z)); t1 = Math.min(u1.x, Math.min(u1.y, u1.z)); // collision only occurs if t0 < t1 if(t0 <= t1 && t0 != 0) // not t0 because we already tested it! { // t0 is the normalized time of the collision // then the position of the bounding boxes would // be their original position + velocity*time aCollisionOut.x = a0.topLeft.x + va.x*t0; aCollisionOut.y = a0.topLeft.y + va.y*t0; aCollisionOut.z = a0.topLeft.z + va.z*t0; bCollisionOut.x = b0.topLeft.x + vb.x*t0; bCollisionOut.y = b0.topLeft.y + vb.y*t0; bCollisionOut.z = b0.topLeft.z + vb.z*t0; return true; } else return false; } }

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  • Save Points

    - by raghu.yadav
    Explicit save point : Requires an end user action before a bounded or unbounded task flow creates a save point. For example, an end user clicks a button that invokes a method call activity that, in turn, creates a save point Implicit save point : can only originate from a bounded task flow if 1) A session times out due to end user inactivity 2) An end user logs out without saving the data 3) An end user closes the only browser window, thus logging out of the application 4) An end user navigates away from the current application using control flow rules (for example, uses a goLink component to go to an external URL) and having unsaved data. good usecases and examples given by frank/biemond and on implicit save points http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/tips/fnimphius/cancelForm/cancelForm_wsp.html?_template=/ocom/print http://biemond.blogspot.com/2008/04/automatically-save-transactions-with.html

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  • Visual Studio Little Wonders: Quick Launch / Quick Access

    - by James Michael Hare
    Once again, in this series of posts I look at features of Visual Studio that may seem trivial, but can help improve your efficiency as a developer. The index of all my past little wonders posts can be found here. Well, my friends, this post will be a bit short because I’m in the middle of a bit of a move at the moment.  But, that said, I didn’t want to let the blog go completely silent this week, so I decided to add another Little Wonder to the list for the Visual Studio IDE. How often have you wanted to change an option or execute a command in Visual Studio, but can’t remember where the darn thing is in the menu, settings, etc.?  If so, Quick Launch in VS2012 (or Quick Access in VS2010 with the Productivity Power Tools extension) is just for you! Quick Launch / Quick Access – find a command or option quickly For those of you using Visual Studio 2012, Quick Launch is built right into the IDE at the top of the title bar, near the minimize, maximize, and close buttons: But do not despair if you are using Visual Studio 2010, you can get Quick Access from the Productivity Power Tools extension.  To do this, you can go to the extension manager: And then go to the gallery and search for Productivity Power Tools and install it.  If you don’t have VS2012 yet, then the Productivity Power Tools is the next best thing.  This extension updates VS2010 with features such as Quick Access, the Solution Navigator, searchable Add Reference Dialog, better tab wells, etc.  I highly recommend it! But back to the topic at hand!  In VS2012 Quick Launch is built into the IDE and can be accessed by clicking in the Quick Launch area of the title bar, or by pressing CTRL+Q.  If you have VS2010 with the PPT installed, though, it is called Quick Access and is accessible through View –> Quick Access: Regardless of which IDE you are using, the feature behaves mostly the same.  It allows you to search all of Visual Studio’s commands and options for a particular topic.  For example, let’s say you want to change from tabs to tabs expanded to spaces, but don’t remember where that option is buried.  You can bring up Quick Launch / Quick Access and type in “tabs”: And it brings up a list of all options on tabs, you can then choose the one appropriate to you and click on it and it will take you right there! A lot easier than diving through the options tree to find what you are looking for!  It also works on menu commands, for example if you can’t remember how to open the Output window: It shows you the menu items that will get you to the Output window, and (if applicable) the keyboard shortcuts.  Again, clicking on one of these will perform the action for you as well. There are also some tasks you can perform directly from Quick Launch / Quick Access.  For example, perhaps you are one of those people who like to have the line numbers in your editor (I do), so let’s bring up Quick Launch / Quick Access and type “line numbers”: And let’s select Turn Line Numbers On, and now our editor looks like: And Voila!  We have line numbers in VS2010.  You can do this in VS2012 too, but it takes you to the option settings instead of directly turning them off and on.  There are bound to be differences between the way the two editors organize settings and commands, but you get the point. So, as you can see, the Quick Launch / Quick Access feature in Visual Studio makes it easy to jump right to the options, commands, or tasks you are interested in without all the digging. Summary An IDE as powerful as Visual Studio has so many options and commands that it can be confusing to remember how to find and invoke them.  Quick Launch (Quick Access in VS2010 with Productivity Power Tools extension) is a quick and handy way to jump to any of these options, commands, or tasks quickly without having to remember in what menu or screen they are buried!  Technorati Tags: C#,CSharp,.NET,Little Wonders,Visual Studio,Quick Access,Quick Launch

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  • Calculating angle a segment forms with a ray

    - by kr1zz
    I am given a point C and a ray r starting there. I know the coordinates (xc, yc) of the point C and the angle theta the ray r forms with the horizontal, theta in (-pi, pi]. I am also given another point P of which I know the coordinates (xp, yp): how do I calculate the angle alpha that the segment CP forms with the ray r, alpha in (-pi, pi]? Some examples follow: I can use the the atan2 function.

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  • 2D XNA Tile Based Lighting. Ideas and Methods

    - by Twitchy
    I am currently working on developing a 2D tile based game, similar to the game 'Terraria'. We have the base tile and chunk engine working and are now looking to implement lighting. Instead of the tile based lighting that terraria uses, I want to implement point lights for torches, etc. I have seen Catalin Zima’s shader based shadows, and this would be perfect for the torches (point lights). My problem here is that the tiles on the surface of the world need to be illuminated, doing this by a big point light is firstly extremely expensive, but also doesn't look right. What I need help with (overall) is... To have a surface that is illuminated regardless of torches, etc. To also have point lights, or smooth tile lighting similar to Catalin Zima’s shader based shadows. Looking forward to your replies. Any ideas are appreciated.

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  • Performance issues with visibility detection and object transparency

    - by maul
    I'm working on a 3d game that has a view similar to classic isometric games (diablo, etc.). One of the things I'm trying to implement is the effect of turning walls transparent when the player walks behind them. By itself this is not a huge issue, but I'm having trouble determining which walls should be transparent exactly. I can't use a circle or square mask. There are a lot of cases where the wall piece at the same (relative) position has different visibility depending on the surrounding area. With the help of a friend I came up with this algorithm: Create a grid around the player that contains a lot of "visibility points" (my game is semi tile-based so I create one point for every tile on the grid) - the size of the square's side is close to the radius where I make objects transparent. I found 6x6 to be a good value, so that's 36 visibility points total. For every visibility point on the grid, check if that point is in the player's line of sight. For every visibility point that is in the LOS, cast a ray from the camera to that point and mark all objects the ray hits as transparent. This algorithm works - not perfectly, but only requires some tuning - however this is very slow. As you can see, it requries 36 ray casts minimum, but most of the time 60-70 depending on the position. That's simply too much for the CPU. Is there a better way to do this? I'm using Unity 3D but I'm not looking for an engine-specific solution.

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  • Heightmap in Shader not working

    - by CSharkVisibleBasix
    I'm trying to implement GPU based geometry clipmapping and have problems to apply a simple heightmap to my terrain. For the heightmap I use a simple texture with the surface format "single". I've taken the texture from here. To apply it to my terrain, I use the following shader code: texture Heightmap; sampler2D HeightmapSampler = sampler_state { Texture = <Heightmap>; MinFilter = Point; MagFilter = Point; MipFilter = Point; AddressU = Mirror; AddressV = Mirror; }; Vertex Shader: float4 worldPos = mul(float4(pos.x,0.0f,pos.y, 1.0f), worldMatrix); float elevation = tex2Dlod(HeightmapSampler, float4(worldPos.x, worldPos.z,0,0)); worldPos.y = elevation * 128; The complete vertex shader (also containig clipmapping transforms) looks like this: float4x4 View : View; float4x4 Projection : Projection; float3 CameraPos : CameraPosition; float LODscale; //The LOD ring index 0:highest x:lowest float2 Position; //The position of the part in the world texture Heightmap; sampler2D HeightmapSampler = sampler_state { Texture = <Heightmap>; MinFilter = Point; MagFilter = Point; MipFilter = Point; AddressU = Mirror; AddressV = Mirror; }; //Accept only float2 because we extract 3rd dim out of Heightmap float4 wireframe_VS(float2 pos : POSITION) : POSITION{ float4x4 worldMatrix = float4x4( LODscale, 0, 0, 0, 0, LODscale, 0, 0, 0, 0, LODscale, 0, - Position.x * 64 * LODscale + CameraPos.x, 0, Position.y * 64 * LODscale + CameraPos.z, 1); float4 worldPos = mul(float4(pos.x,0.0f,pos.y, 1.0f), worldMatrix); float elevation = tex2Dlod(HeightmapSampler, float4(worldPos.x, worldPos.z,0,0)); worldPos.y = elevation * 128; float4 viewPos = mul(worldPos, View); float4 projPos = mul(viewPos, Projection); return projPos; }

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  • Shadow mapping: what is the light looking at?

    - by PgrAm
    I'm all set to set up shadow mapping in my 3d engine but there is one thing I am struggling to understand. The scene needs to be rendered from the light's point of view so I simply first move my camera to the light's position but then I need to find out which direction the light is looking. Since its a point light its not shining in any particular direction. How do I figure out what the orientation for the light point of view is?

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  • Why do my gvfs mounts not show up under ~/.gvfs?

    - by kynan
    From what I read, when mounting a network share via nautilus or gvfs-mount the mount point should be in ~/.gvfs. This seems not to be the case for me: I tried mounting both an FTP and SMB share via both nautilus and gvfs-mount under both Ubuntu Maverick and Natty and in none of the cases did I see any mount point under ~/.gvfs. I can access the shares just find in nautilus, but I want to have access via the command line, which is why I need a mount point in the file system. Edit: Debugging following James Henstridge's answer and enzotib's comment revealed that on my laptop gvfs-fuse-daemon is running and consequently gvfs mounts show up in ~/.gvfs, whereas on the 2 workstations where ~/.gvfs remained empty gvfs-fuse-daemon was not running. On all 3 machines there are other gvfs processes running: gvfsd, gvfs-afc-volume-monitor, ... On the laptop, mount | fgrep gvfs yields gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/xxx/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx) That raises the questions: How are shares mounted without gvfs-fuse-daemon running? Is there no mount point created in that case and is every access to the share a gvfs library call? Which daemon is responsible? gvfsd? What's the role of gvfs-fuse-daemon? Does it only create a fuse mount point in ~/.gvfs?

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  • Creating SparseImages for Pivot

    - by John Conwell
    Learning how to programmatically make collections for Microsoft Live Labs Pivot has been a pretty interesting ride. There are very few examples out there, and the folks at MS Live Labs are often slow on any feedback.  But that is what Reflector is for, right? Well, I was creating these InfoCard images (similar to the Car images in the "New Cars" sample collection that that MS created for Pivot), and wanted to put a Tag Cloud into the info card.  The problem was the size of the tag cloud might vary in order for all the tags to fit into the tag cloud (often times being bigger than the info card itself).  This was because the varying word lengths and calculated font sizes. So, to fix this, I made the tag cloud its own separate image from the info card.  Then, I would create a sparse image out of the two images, where the tag cloud fit into a small section of the info card.  This would allow the user to see the info card, but then zoom into the tag cloud and see all the tags at a normal resolution.  Kind'a cool. But...I couldn't find one code example (not one!) of how to create a sparse image.  There is one page on the SeaDragon site (http://www.seadragon.com/developer/creating-content/deep-zoom-tools/) that gives over the API for creating images and collections, and it sparsely goes over how to create a sparse image, but unless you are familiar with the API already, the documentation doesn't help very much. The key is the Image.ViewportWidth and Image.ViewportOrigin properties of the image that is getting super imposed on the main image.  I'll walk through the code below.  I've setup a couple Point structs to represent the parent and sub image sizes, as well as where on the parent I want to position the sub image.  Next, create the parent image.  This is pretty straight forward.  Then I create the sub image.  Then I calculate several ratios; the height to width ratio of the sub image, the width ratio of the sub image to the parent image, the height ratio of the sub image to the parent image, then the X and Y coordinates on the parent image where I want the sub image to be placed represented as a ratio of the position to the parent image size. After all these ratios have been calculated, I use them to calculate the Image.ViewportWidth and Image.ViewportOrigin values, then pass the image objects into the SparseImageCreator and call Create. The key thing that was really missing from the API documentation page is that when setting up your sub images, everything is expressed in a ratio in relation to the main parent image.  If I had known this, it would have saved me a lot of trial and error time.  And how did I figure this out?  Reflector of course!  There is a tool called Deep Zoom Composer that came from MS Live Labs which can create a sparse image.  I just dug around the tool's code until I found the method that create sparse images.  But seriously...look at the API documentation from the SeaDragon size and look at the code below and tell me if the documentation would have helped you at all.  I don't think so!   public static void WriteDeepZoomSparseImage(string mainImagePath, string subImagePath, string destination) {     Point parentImageSize = new Point(720, 420);     Point subImageSize = new Point(490, 310);     Point subImageLocation = new Point(196, 17);     List<Image> images = new List<Image>();     //create main image     Image mainImage = new Image(mainImagePath);     mainImage.Size = parentImageSize;     images.Add(mainImage);     //create sub image     Image subImage = new Image(subImagePath);     double hwRatio = subImageSize.X/subImageSize.Y;            // height width ratio of the tag cloud     double nodeWidth = subImageSize.X/parentImageSize.X;        // sub image width to parent image width ratio     double nodeHeight = subImageSize.Y / parentImageSize.Y;    // sub image height to parent image height ratio     double nodeX = subImageLocation.X/parentImageSize.X;       //x cordinate position on parent / width of parent     double nodeY = subImageLocation.Y / parentImageSize.Y;     //y cordinate position on parent / height of parent     subImage.ViewportWidth = (nodeWidth < double.Epsilon) ? 1.0 : (1.0 / nodeWidth);     subImage.ViewportOrigin = new Point(         (nodeWidth < double.Epsilon) ? -1.0 : (-nodeX / nodeWidth),         (nodeHeight < double.Epsilon) ? -1.0 : ((-nodeY / nodeHeight) / hwRatio));     images.Add(subImage);     //create sparse image     SparseImageCreator creator = new SparseImageCreator();     creator.Create(images, destination); }

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  • Cannot Mount USB 3.0 Hard Disk ?!!

    - by Tenken
    Hi, I have a USB 3.0 external hard disk which I am unable to mount. The entry appears in the "lsusb" command, but I do not exactly understand how to mount it. This is the output for my lsusb command. "ASMedia Technology Inc." is the USB 3.0 device. I would appreciate some help in mounting and accessing the hard disk. This the relevant output of my "lsusb -v" : Bus 009 Device 002: ID 174c:5106 ASMedia Technology Inc. Device Descriptor: bLength 18 bDescriptorType 1 bcdUSB 2.10 bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level) bDeviceSubClass 0 bDeviceProtocol 0 bMaxPacketSize0 64 idVendor 0x174c ASMedia Technology Inc. idProduct 0x5106 bcdDevice 0.01 iManufacturer 2 ASMedia iProduct 3 AS2105 iSerial 1 00000000000000000000 bNumConfigurations 1 Configuration Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 2 wTotalLength 32 bNumInterfaces 1 bConfigurationValue 1 iConfiguration 0 bmAttributes 0xc0 Self Powered MaxPower 0mA Interface Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 4 bInterfaceNumber 0 bAlternateSetting 0 bNumEndpoints 2 bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage bInterfaceSubClass 6 SCSI bInterfaceProtocol 80 Bulk (Zip) iInterface 0 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN bmAttributes 2 Transfer Type Bulk Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes bInterval 0 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x02 EP 2 OUT bmAttributes 2 Transfer Type Bulk Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes bInterval 0 Device Qualifier (for other device speed): bLength 10 bDescriptorType 6 bcdUSB 2.10 bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level) bDeviceSubClass 0 bDeviceProtocol 0 bMaxPacketSize0 64 bNumConfigurations 1 Device Status: 0x0001 Self Powered Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub Device Descriptor: bLength 18 bDescriptorType 1 bcdUSB 3.00 bDeviceClass 9 Hub bDeviceSubClass 0 Unused bDeviceProtocol 3 bMaxPacketSize0 9 idVendor 0x1d6b Linux Foundation idProduct 0x0003 3.0 root hub bcdDevice 2.06 iManufacturer 3 Linux 2.6.35-28-generic xhci_hcd iProduct 2 xHCI Host Controller iSerial 1 0000:04:00.0 bNumConfigurations 1 Configuration Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 2 wTotalLength 25 bNumInterfaces 1 bConfigurationValue 1 iConfiguration 0 bmAttributes 0xe0 Self Powered Remote Wakeup MaxPower 0mA Interface Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 4 bInterfaceNumber 0 bAlternateSetting 0 bNumEndpoints 1 bInterfaceClass 9 Hub bInterfaceSubClass 0 Unused bInterfaceProtocol 0 Full speed (or root) hub iInterface 0 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN bmAttributes 3 Transfer Type Interrupt Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0004 1x 4 bytes bInterval 12 Hub Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 41 nNbrPorts 4 wHubCharacteristic 0x0009 Per-port power switching Per-port overcurrent protection TT think time 8 FS bits bPwrOn2PwrGood 10 * 2 milli seconds bHubContrCurrent 0 milli Ampere DeviceRemovable 0x00 PortPwrCtrlMask 0xff Hub Port Status: Port 1: 0000.0100 power Port 2: 0000.0100 power Port 3: 0000.0503 highspeed power enable connect Port 4: 0000.0503 highspeed power enable connect Device Status: 0x0003 Self Powered Remote Wakeup Enabled This is the error given when I try to mount the hard drive: shinso@shinso-IdeaPad:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt [sudo] password for shinso: mount: /dev/sdb: unknown device This the output of "dmesg|tail": [30062.774178] Either the lower file is not in a valid eCryptfs format, or the key could not be retrieved. Plaintext passthrough mode is not enabled; returning -EIO [30535.800977] usb 9-4: USB disconnect, address 3 [30659.237342] Valid eCryptfs headers not found in file header region or xattr region [30659.237351] Either the lower file is not in a valid eCryptfs format, or the key could not be retrieved. Plaintext passthrough mode is not enabled; returning -EIO [31259.268310] Valid eCryptfs headers not found in file header region or xattr region [31259.268313] Either the lower file is not in a valid eCryptfs format, or the key could not be retrieved. Plaintext passthrough mode is not enabled; returning -EIO [31860.059058] Valid eCryptfs headers not found in file header region or xattr region [31860.059062] Either the lower file is not in a valid eCryptfs format, or the key could not be retrieved. Plaintext passthrough mode is not enabled; returning -EIO [32465.220590] Valid eCryptfs headers not found in file header region or xattr region [32465.220593] Either the lower file is not in a valid eCryptfs format, or the key could not be retrieved. Plaintext passthrough mode is not enabled; returning -EIO I am using Ubuntu 10.10 (64 bit). Any help is appreciated.

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  • I want to host clients' websites, but not their email. What's the easiest way to handle this?

    - by Phil
    My company lets non-technical users build their own niche industry websites on our server, which we host. they can currently point their nameservers at their registrar to us, which ends up with them no longer having access to their email if they've already set it up through said registrar. We don't want to interfere with their existing email, nor do we want to get into the business of setting up email for them through our service. Thus, having them point A records/cname to us would work, but is this too complex for a non-technie user? We thought of having them point nameservers to us but pointing the MX records back to them, but this is also beyond their scope. Is there an easy way to 'point records' at their initial state? Any other ideas/feedback?

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  • The Best Data Integration for Exadata Comes from Oracle

    - by maria costanzo
    Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle GoldenGate offer unique and optimized data integration solutions for Oracle Exadata. For example, customers that choose to feed their data warehouse or reporting database with near real-time throughout the day, can do so without decreasing  performance or availability of source and target systems. And if you ask why real-time, the short answer is: in today’s fast-paced, always-on world, business decisions need to use more relevant, timely data to be able to act fast and seize opportunities. A longer response to "why real-time" question can be found in a related blog post. If we look at the solution architecture, as shown on the diagram below,  Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle GoldenGate are both uniquely designed to take full advantage of the power of the database and to eliminate unnecessary middle-tier components. Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) is the best bulk data loading solution for Exadata. ODI is the only ETL platform that can leverage the full power of Exadata, integrate directly on the Exadata machine without any additional hardware, and by far provides the simplest setup and fastest overall performance on an Exadata system. We regularly see customers achieving a 5-10 times boost when they move their ETL to ODI on Exadata. For  some companies the performance gain is even much higher. For example a large insurance company did a proof of concept comparing ODI vs a traditional ETL tool (one of the market leaders) on Exadata. The same process that was taking 5hrs and 11 minutes to complete using the competing ETL product took 7 minutes and 20 seconds with ODI. Oracle Data Integrator was 42 times faster than the conventional ETL when running on Exadata.This shows that Oracle's own data integration offering helps you to gain the most out of your Exadata investment with a truly optimized solution. GoldenGate is the best solution for streaming data from heterogeneous sources into Exadata in real time. Oracle GoldenGate can also be used together with Data Integrator for hybrid use cases that also demand non-invasive capture, high-speed real time replication. Oracle GoldenGate enables real-time data feeds from heterogeneous sources non-invasively, and delivers to the staging area on the target Exadata system. ODI runs directly on Exadata to use the database engine power to perform in-database transformations. Enterprise Data Quality is integrated with Oracle Data integrator and enables ODI to load trusted data into the data warehouse tables. Only Oracle can offer all these technical benefits wrapped into a single intelligence data warehouse solution that runs on Exadata. Compared to traditional ETL with add-on CDC this solution offers: §  Non-invasive data capture from heterogeneous sources and avoids any performance impact on source §  No mid-tier; set based transformations use database power §  Mini-batches throughout the day –or- bulk processing nightly which means maximum availability for the DW §  Integrated solution with Enterprise Data Quality enables leveraging trusted data in the data warehouse In addition to Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Morrison Supermarkets, United Kingdom’s fourth-largest food retailer, has seen the power of this solution for their new BI platform and shared their story with us. Morrisons needed to analyze data across a large number of manufacturing, warehousing, retail, and financial applications with the goal to achieve single view into operations for improved customer service. The retailer deployed Oracle GoldenGate and Oracle Data Integrator to bring new data into Oracle Exadata in near real-time and replicate the data into reporting structures within the data warehouse—extending visibility into operations. Using Oracle's data integration offering for Exadata, Morrisons produced financial reports in seconds, rather than minutes, and improved staff productivity and agility. You can read more about Morrison’s success story here and hear from Starwood here. From an Irem Radzik article.

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  • Should I use an interface when methods are only similar?

    - by Joshua Harris
    I was posed with the idea of creating an object that checks if a point will collide with a line: public class PointAndLineSegmentCollisionDetector { public void Collides(Point p, LineSegment s) { // ... } } This made me think that if I decided to create a Box object, then I would need a PointAndBoxCollisionDetector and a LineSegmentAndBoxCollisionDetector. I might even realize that I should have a BoxAndBoxCollisionDetector and a LineSegmentAndLineSegmentCollisionDetector. And, when I add new objects that can collide I would need to add even more of these. But, they all have a Collides method, so everything I learned about abstraction is telling me, "Make an interface." public interface CollisionDetector { public void Collides(Spatial s1, Spatial s2); } But now I have a function that only detects some abstract class or interface that is used by Point, LineSegment, Box, etc.. So if I did this then each implementation would have to to a type check to make sure that the types are the appropriate type because the collision algorithm is different for each different type match up. Another solution could be this: public class CollisionDetector { public void Collides(Point p, LineSegment s) { ... } public void Collides(LineSegment s, Box b) { ... } public void Collides(Point p, Box b) { ... } // ... } But, this could end up being a huge class that seems unwieldy, although it would have simplicity in that it is only a bunch of Collide methods. This is similar to C#'s Convert class. Which is nice because it is large, but it is simple to understand how it works. This seems to be the better solution, but I thought I should open it for discussion as a wiki to get other opinions.

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  • Applications: The Mathematics of Movement, Part 3

    - by TechTwaddle
    Previously: Part 1, Part 2 As promised in the previous post, this post will cover two variations of the marble move program. The first one, Infinite Move, keeps the marble moving towards the click point, rebounding it off the screen edges and changing its direction when the user clicks again. The second version, Finite Move, is the same as first except that the marble does not move forever. It moves towards the click point, rebounds off the screen edges and slowly comes to rest. The amount of time that it moves depends on the distance between the click point and marble. Infinite Move This case is simple (actually both cases are simple). In this case all we need is the direction information which is exactly what the unit vector stores. So when the user clicks, you calculate the unit vector towards the click point and then keep updating the marbles position like crazy. And, of course, there is no stop condition. There’s a little more additional code in the bounds checking conditions. Whenever the marble goes off the screen boundaries, we need to reverse its direction.  Here is the code for mouse up event and UpdatePosition() method, //stores the unit vector double unitX = 0, unitY = 0; double speed = 6; //speed times the unit vector double incrX = 0, incrY = 0; private void Form1_MouseUp(object sender, MouseEventArgs e) {     double x = e.X - marble1.x;     double y = e.Y - marble1.y;     //calculate distance between click point and current marble position     double lenSqrd = x * x + y * y;     double len = Math.Sqrt(lenSqrd);     //unit vector along the same direction (from marble towards click point)     unitX = x / len;     unitY = y / len;     timer1.Enabled = true; } private void UpdatePosition() {     //amount by which to increment marble position     incrX = speed * unitX;     incrY = speed * unitY;     marble1.x += incrX;     marble1.y += incrY;     //check for bounds     if ((int)marble1.x < MinX + marbleWidth / 2)     {         marble1.x = MinX + marbleWidth / 2;         unitX *= -1;     }     else if ((int)marble1.x > (MaxX - marbleWidth / 2))     {         marble1.x = MaxX - marbleWidth / 2;         unitX *= -1;     }     if ((int)marble1.y < MinY + marbleHeight / 2)     {         marble1.y = MinY + marbleHeight / 2;         unitY *= -1;     }     else if ((int)marble1.y > (MaxY - marbleHeight / 2))     {         marble1.y = MaxY - marbleHeight / 2;         unitY *= -1;     } } So whenever the user clicks we calculate the unit vector along that direction and also the amount by which the marble position needs to be incremented. The speed in this case is fixed at 6. You can experiment with different values. And under bounds checking, whenever the marble position goes out of bounds along the x or y direction we reverse the direction of the unit vector along that direction. Here’s a video of it running;   Finite Move The code for finite move is almost exactly same as that of Infinite Move, except for the difference that the speed is not fixed and there is an end condition, so the marble comes to rest after a while. Code follows, //unit vector along the direction of click point double unitX = 0, unitY = 0; //speed of the marble double speed = 0; private void Form1_MouseUp(object sender, MouseEventArgs e) {     double x = 0, y = 0;     double lengthSqrd = 0, length = 0;     x = e.X - marble1.x;     y = e.Y - marble1.y;     lengthSqrd = x * x + y * y;     //length in pixels (between click point and current marble pos)     length = Math.Sqrt(lengthSqrd);     //unit vector along the same direction as vector(x, y)     unitX = x / length;     unitY = y / length;     speed = length / 12;     timer1.Enabled = true; } private void UpdatePosition() {     marble1.x += speed * unitX;     marble1.y += speed * unitY;     //check for bounds     if ((int)marble1.x < MinX + marbleWidth / 2)     {         marble1.x = MinX + marbleWidth / 2;         unitX *= -1;     }     else if ((int)marble1.x > (MaxX - marbleWidth / 2))     {         marble1.x = MaxX - marbleWidth / 2;         unitX *= -1;     }     if ((int)marble1.y < MinY + marbleHeight / 2)     {         marble1.y = MinY + marbleHeight / 2;         unitY *= -1;     }     else if ((int)marble1.y > (MaxY - marbleHeight / 2))     {         marble1.y = MaxY - marbleHeight / 2;         unitY *= -1;     }     //reduce speed by 3% in every loop     speed = speed * 0.97f;     if ((int)speed <= 0)     {         timer1.Enabled = false;     } } So the only difference is that the speed is calculated as a function of length when the mouse up event occurs. Again, this can be experimented with. Bounds checking is same as before. In the update and draw cycle, we reduce the speed by 3% in every cycle. Since speed is calculated as a function of length, speed = length/12, the amount of time it takes speed to reach zero is directly proportional to length. Note that the speed is in ‘pixels per 40ms’ because the timeout value of the timer is 40ms.  The readability can be improved by representing speed in ‘pixels per second’. This would require you to add some more calculations to the code, which I leave out as an exercise. Here’s a video of this second version,

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  • The Oracle Platform

    - by Naresh Persaud
    Today’s enterprises typically create identity management infrastructures using ad-hoc, multiple point solutions. Relying on point solutions introduces complexity and high cost of ownership leading many organizations to rethink this approach. In a recent worldwide study of 160 companies conducted by Aberdeen Research, there was a discernible shift in this trend as businesses are now looking to move away from the point solution approach from multiple vendors and adopt an integrated platform approach. By deploying a comprehensive identity and access management strategy using a single platform, companies are saving as much as 48% in IT costs, while reducing audit deficiencies by nearly 35%. According to Aberdeen's research, choosing an integrated suite or “platform” of solutions for Identity Management from a single vendor can have many advantages over choosing “point solutions” from multiple vendors. The Oracle Identity Management Platform is uniquely designed to offer several compelling benefits to our customers.  Shared Services: Instead of separate solutions for - Administration, Authentication, Authorization, Audit and so on–  Oracle Identity Management offers a set of share services that allows these services to be consumed by each component in the stack and by developers of new applications  Actionable Intelligence: The most compelling benefit of the Oracle platform is ” Actionable intelligence” which means if there is a compliance violation, the same platform can fix it. And If a user is logging in from an un-trusted device or we detect an attack and act proactively on that information. Suite Interoperability: With the oracle platform the components all connect and integrated with each other. So if an organization purchase the platform for provisioning and wants to manage access, then the same platform can offer access management which leads to cost savings. Extensible and Configurable: With point solutions – you typically get limited ability to extend the tool to address custom requirements. But with the Oracle platform all of the components have a common way to extend the UI and behavior Find out more about the Oracle Platform approach in this presentation. Platform approach-series-the oracleplatform-final View more PowerPoint from OracleIDM

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  • AI to move custom-shaped spaceships (shape affecting movement behaviour)

    - by kaoD
    I'm designing a networked turn based 3D-6DOF space fleet combat strategy game which relies heavily on ship customization. Let me explain the game a bit, since you need to know a bit about it to set the question. What I aim for is the ability to create your own fleet of ships with custom shapes and attached modules (propellers, tractor beams...) which would give advantages and disadvantages to each ship, so you have lots of different fleet distributions. E.g., long ship with two propellers at the side would let the ship spin around that plane easily, bigger ships would move slowly unless you place lots of propellers at the back (therefore spending more "construction" points and energy when moving, and it will only move fast towards that direction.) I plan to balance all the game around this feature. The game would revolve around two phases: orders and combat phase. During the orders phase, you command the different ships. When all players finish the order phase, the combat phase begins and the ship orders get resolved in real-time for some time, then the action pauses and there's a new orders phase. The problem comes when I think about player input. To move a ship, you need to turn on or off different propellers if you want to steer, travel forward, brake, rotate in place... These propellers don't have to work at their whole power, so you can achieve more movement combinations with less propellers. I think this approach is a bit boring. The player doesn't want to fiddle with motors or anything, you just want to MOVE and KILL. The way I intend the player to give orders to these ships is by a destination and a rotation, and then the AI would calculate the correct propeller power to achive that movement and rotation. Propulsion doesn't have to be the same throught the entire turn calculation (after the orders have been given) so it would be cool if the ships reacted as they move, adjusting the power of the propellers for their needs dynamically, but it may be too hard to implement and it's not really needed for the game to work. In both cases, how would that AI decide which propellers to activate for the best (or at least not worst) trajectory to be achieved? I though about some approaches: Learning AI: The ship types would learn about their movement by trial and error, adjusting their behaviour with more uses, and finally becoming "smart". I don't want to get involved THAT far in AI coding, and I think it can be frustrating for the player (even if you can let it learn without playing.) Pre-calculated timestep movement: Upon ship creation, ALL possible movements are calculated for each propeller configuration and power for a given delta-time. Memory intensive, ugly, bad. Pre-calculated trajectories: The same as above but not for each delta-time but the whole trajectory, which would then be fitted as much as possible. Requires a fixed propeller configuration for the whole combat phase and is still memory intensive, ugly and bad. Continuous brute forcing: The AI continously checks ALL possible propeller configurations throughout the entire combat phase, precalculates a few time steps and decides which is the best one based on that. Con: what's good now might not be that good later, and it's too CPU intensive, ugly, and bad too. Single brute forcing: Same as above, but only brute forcing at the beginning of the simulation, so it needs constant propeller configuration throughout the entire combat phase. Coninuous angle check: This is not a full movement method, but maybe a way to discard "stupid" propeller configurations. Given the current propeller's normal vector and the final one, you can approximate the power needed for the propeller based on the angle. You must do this continuously throughout the whole combat phase. I figured this one out recently so I didn't put in too much thought. A priori, it has the "what's good now might not be that good later" drawback too, and it doesn't care about the other propellers which may act together to make a better propelling configuration. I'm really stuck here. Any ideas?

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  • Circle-Rectangle collision in a tile map game

    - by furiousd
    I am making a 2D tile map based putt-putt game. I have collision detection working between the ball and the walls of the map, although when the ball collides at the meeting point between 2 tiles I offset it by 0.5 so that it doesn't get stuck in the wall. This aint a huge issue though. if(y % 20 == 0) { y+=0.5; } if(x % 20 == 0) { x+=0.5; } Collisions work as follows Find the closest point between each tile and the center of the ball If distance(ball_x, ball_y, close_x, close_y) <= ball_radius and the closest point belongs to a solid object, collision has occured Invert X/Y speed according to side of object collided with The next thing I tried to do was implement floating blocks in the middle of the map for the ball to bounce off of. When a ball collides with a corner of the block, it gets stuck in it. So I changed my determineRebound() function to treat corners as if they were circles. Here's that functon: `i and j are indexes of the solid object in the 2d map array. x & y are centre point of ball.` void determineRebound(int _i, int _j) { if(y > _i*tile_w && y < _i*tile_w + tile_w) { //Not a corner xs*=-1; } else if(x > _j*tile_w && x < _j*tile_w + tile_w) { //Not a corner ys*=-1; } else { //Corner float nx = x - close_x; float ny = y - close_y; float len = sqrt(nx * nx + ny * ny); nx /= len; ny /= len; float projection = xs * nx + ys * ny; xs -= 2 * projection * nx; ys -= 2 * projection * ny; } } This is where things have gotten messy. Collisions with 'floating' corners work fine, but now when the ball collides near the meeting point of 2 tiles, it detects a corner collision and does not rebound as expected. I'm a bit in over my head at this point. I guess I'm wondering if I'm going about making this sort of game in the right way. Is a 2d tile map the way to go? If so, is there a problem with my collision logic and where am I going wrong? Any advice/feedback would be great.

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  • Help identify the pattern for reacting on updates

    - by Mike
    There's an entity that gets updated from external sources. Update events are at random intervals. And the entity has to be processed once updated. Multiple updates may be multiplexed. In other words there's a need for the most current state of entity to be processed. There's a point of no-return during processing where the current state (and the state is consistent i.e. no partial update is made) of entity is saved somewhere else and processing goes on independently of any arriving updates. Every consequent set of updates has to trigger processing i.e. system should not forget about updates. And for each entity there should be no more than one running processing (before the point of no-return) i.e. the entity state should not be processed more than once. So what I'm looking for is a pattern to cancel current processing before the point of no return or abandon processing results if an update arrives. The main challenge is to minimize race conditions and maintain integrity. The entity sits mainly in database with some files on disk. And the system is in .NET with web-services and message queues. What comes to my mind is a database queue-like table. An arriving update inserts row in that table and the processing is launched. The processing gathers necessary data before the point of no-return and once it reaches this barrier it looks into the queue table and checks whether there're more recent updates for the entity. If there are new updates the processing simply shuts down and its data is discarded. Otherwise the processing data is persisted and it goes beyond the point of no-return. Though it looks like a solution to me it is not quite elegant and I believe this scenario may be supported by some sort of middleware. If I would use message queues for this then there's a need to access the queue API in the point of no-return to check for the existence of new messages. And this approach also lacks elegance. Is there a name for this pattern and an existing solution?

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  • How do I keep a 3D model on the screen in OpenGL?

    - by NoobScratcher
    I'm trying to keep a 3D model on the screen by placing my glDrawElement functions inside the draw function with the declarations at the top of .cpp. When I render the model, the model attaches it self to the current vertex buffer object. This is because my whole graphical user interface is in 2D quads except the window frame. Is there a way to avoid this from happening? or any common causes of this? Creating the file object: int index = IndexAssigner(1, 1); //make a fileobject and store list and the index of that list in a c string ifstream file (list[index].c_str() ); //Make another string //string line; points.push_back(Point()); Point p; int face[4]; Model rendering code: int numfloats = 4; float* point=reinterpret_cast<float*>(&points[0]); int num_bytes=numfloats*sizeof(float); cout << "Size Of Point" << sizeof(Point) << endl; GLuint vertexbuffer; glGenVertexArrays(1, &vao[3]); glGenBuffers(1, &vertexbuffer); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vertexbuffer); glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, points.size()*sizeof(points), points.data(), GL_STATIC_DRAW); glVertexAttribPointer(0, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, num_bytes, &points[0]); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, points.size(), &points[0]); glEnableClientState(GL_INDEX_ARRAY); glIndexPointer(GL_FLOAT, faces.size(), faces.data()); glEnableVertexAttribArray(0); glDrawElements(GL_QUADS, points.size(), GL_UNSIGNED_INT, points.data()); glDrawElements(GL_QUADS, faces.size(), GL_UNSIGNED_INT, faces.data());

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