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  • Using raw vertex information for sprites rather than SpriteBatch in XNA

    - by The Communist Duck
    I have been wondering whether using SpriteBatch is the best option. Obviously for prototyping or small games it works well. However, I've been wanting to apply techniques such as shaders and lighting to my game. I know you can use shaders to some extent with SpriteSortMode.Immediate, but I'm not sure if you lose power using that. The other major thing is that you cannot store your vertex data in the graphics memory with buffers. In summary, is there an advantage of using VertexTextureNormal (or whatever they're called) structs for vertex data for 2D sprites, or should I stick with SpriteBatch, provided I wish to use shaders?

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  • Huge procedurally generated 'wilderness' worlds

    - by The Communist Duck
    I'm sure you all know of games like Dwarf Fortress - massive, procedural generated wilderness and land. Something like this, taken from this very useful article. However, I was wondering how I could apply this to a much larger scale; the scale of Minecraft comes to mind (isn't that something like 8x the size of the Earth's surface?). Pseudo-infinite, I think the best term would be. The article talks about fractal perlin noise. I am no way an expert on it, but I get the general idea (it's some kind of randomly generated noise which is semi-coherent, so not just random pixel values). I could just define regions X by X in size, add some region loading type stuff, and have one bit of noise generating a region. But this would result in just huge amounts of islands. On the other extreme, I don't think I can really generate a supermassive sheet of perlin noise. And it would just be one big island, I think. I am pretty sure Perlin noise, or some noise, would be the answer in some way. I mean, the map is really nice looking. And you could replace the ascii with tiles, and get something very nice looking. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks. :D

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  • Directory paths for resources and assets

    - by The Communist Duck
    If I have a file stucture for my final, released game something like: Main folder Media Images Other assets Sounds Executable List item And a different one for my 'in development' project, with the same Media folder but: Main Source and .obj, etc. Media with everything Bin folder with executable I obviously cannot hardcode file pathnames into this, like: "../Media/Image/evilguy.png" or "Media/Image/foo.jpg" because they wouldn't work with one of the builds and would require a lot of switching names. Instead, does it make sense for my resource manager, that loads everything, to have some kind of prefix path? Then, I can just do Get("foo.jpg") or Get("Sounds/boom.ogg") And simply switch out, for the final release, the ctr argument from the relative path for the development build to the release layout? If not, how have other people sorted these sorts of things out?

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  • Architecture a for a central renderer rather than self-rendering

    - by The Communist Duck
    For the architectural side of rendering, there's two main ways: having each object render itself, and having a single renderer which renders everything. I'm currently aiming for the second idea, for the following reasons: The list can be sorted to only use shaders once. Else each object would have to bind the shader, because it's not sure if it's active. The objects could be sorted and grouped. Easier to swap APIs. With a few macro lines, it can be easy to swap between a DirectX renderer and an OpenGL renderer (not a reason for my project, but still a good point) Easier to manage rendering code Of course, if anyone has strong recommendations for the first method, I will listen to them. But I was wondering how make this work. First idea The renderer has a list of pointers to the renderable components of each entity, which register themselves on RenderCompoent creation. However, I'm worrying that this may end up as a lot of extra pointer weight. But I can sort the list of pointers every so often. Second idea The entire list of entities is passed to the renderer each render call. The renderer then sorts the list (each call, or maybe once?) and gets what it wants. That's a lot of passing and/or sorting, however. Other ideas ??? PROFIT Anyone got ideas? Thank you.

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  • How do audio based games such as Audiosurf and Beat Hazard work?

    - by The Communist Duck
    Note: I am not asking how to make a clone of one of these. I am asking about how they work. I'm sure everyone's seen the games where you use your own music files (or provided ones) and the games produce levels based on them, such as Audiosurf and Beat Hazard. Here is a video of Audiosurf in action, to show what I mean. If you provide a heavy metal song, you would get a completely different set of obstacles, enemies, and game experience from something like Vivaldi. What does interest me is how these games work. I do not know much about audio (well, data-side), but how do they process the song to understand when it is settling down or when it's speeding up? I guess they could just feed the pitch values (assuming those sorts of things exist in audio files) to form a level, but it wouldn't fully explain it. I'm either looking for an explanation, some links to articles about this sort of thing (I'm sure there's a term or terms for it), or even an open-source implementation of this kind of thing ;-) EDIT: After some searching and a little help, I found out about FFT (Fast Fourier Transform). This maybe a step in the right direction, but it is something that does not make any sense to me..or fits with my physics knowledge of waves.

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  • Resource Managers - Are they any good?

    - by The Communist Duck
    Hey. I've seen many a time in source code, things like this [well, this is more of a pseudo C++ idea of mine] type defshared_ptr ResourcePtr;// for ease ResourcePtr sound1 = resourceManager.Get("boom.ogg"); sound1-Play(); ResourcePtr sprite = resourceManager.Get("sprite.png"); I was just wondering how useful a class like this was, something that: Loaded media files Stored them in memory Did this at the start of a level - loading screen. Cleaned up Rather than having a system of: Resources are held by entities only, or loose. Responsible for own load into memory. The first is a 'manager' as such; something I feel indicates it's wrong to use. However, it allows for something like a vector of resource names to be passed, rather than having to scramble around finding everything that needs to be loaded.

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  • Convincing Upper Management the need of larger monitors for Developers

    - by The Rubber Duck
    The company I work for has recently hired on several developers, and there are a limited number of monitors to go around. There are two types in the office - a standard 15" (thankfully flatscreen) and a widescreen 23". No developer has a machine capable of a dual monitor setup, and the largest monitors went to the people who got here first. Three or four new senior level developers only have a 15" monitor to work on. To make matters worse, there are perhaps a total of 25-30 DBAs/Testers/Admin types in the company who all have dual screen 23" setups. We have brought the issue to management, and they refuse to take away large monitors from people who have been here for years for the sake of new employees, even if they are senior level. We have pitched the idea of testers sacrificing a large monitor for one of our small ones, but they won't go for that either. What can I say to management to illustrate the need of monitors for developers?

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  • Is it a good idea to always use Google as the first step to solving a problem? [closed]

    - by The Rubber Duck
    Possible Duplicate: Importance of learning to google efficiently for a programmer? Avoiding lengthy discussions, as a senior level student in CS, how can I get away from Googling problems I run into? I find myself using it too much; I seemingly reach for the instant answer and then blindly copy and paste code, hoping it works. Anyone can do that. I've read the related threads about being a better programmer, but mostly those recommend practicing on pet projects, which I have done, but again I feel EVERY wall encountered, from design through completion, was hurdled with Google. Do professionals instantly "research" their problem? Or do you guys step back and try and figure it out yourselves? I'm talking about both 'algorithm/design' problems as well as compiler issues.

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  • Setting 'bookmarks' for command prompt on Windows XP

    - by The Communist Duck
    I know I can change the command prompt to startup on C:\ rather than F:\Documents And Settings or wherever. But I was wondering if it's possible to set bookmarks or some other command that allows me to switch to locations. For example, my Python projects have a long (about 7 subdirectories) address (think that's the word), and as such it takes a while to cd to them. What I would like to do is something like gotodirectory PythonProjects , and have it cd to where I have specified this, be it C:\WINDOWS or F:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\some game\some game data\some more game data.

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  • Why I have to redeclare a virtual function while overriding [C++]

    - by Neeraj
    #include <iostream> using namespace std; class Duck { public: virtual void quack() = 0; }; class BigDuck : public Duck { public: // void quack(); (uncommenting will make it compile) }; void BigDuck::quack(){ cout << "BigDuckDuck::Quack\n"; } int main() { BigDuck b; Duck *d = &b; d->quack(); } Consider this code, the code doesn't compiles. However when I declare the virtual function in the subclass, then it compiles fine. The compiler already has the signature of the function which the subclass will override, then why a redeclaration is required? Any insights.

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  • Changing from one file to another

    - by jbander
    I'm told to go to /home/jbander/Downloads, so how do I do that, I assume you do it in terminal but what do you do next, I can get to home but thats it. How do I go from one directory or file or whatever they are, to another and once I'm there what do I do to see what is in the download file. One more question if I want to change it from e.g. cow to e.g. duck how would I do that(they are just arbitrary names) how do I get rid of cow and how do I put duck in it's place.

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  • Ubuntu 12.10 Unity Dash transparency problem

    - by madox2
    I have just upgraded my Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10 and there is following problem. When I press super button to show Unity Dash I get wrong background image behind the dash box. Especially I can see part of the bottom of the screen. Also when I set transparency to top panel the background behind is not correct. Here is an example with Mc Duck picture: Unity Mc Duck example Do you have any ideas whats wrong? My system preferences: Ubuntu 12.10 32-bit Intel® Pentium(R) CPU G840 @ 2.80GHz × 2 GeForce GTS 450/PCIe/SSE2 Any help will be highly appreciated!

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  • One huge drive (network share) from many computers, with folder priority redundancy.

    - by Exception Duck
    Not sure if this exists, but I have a huge amount of data to store (about 5-50mb files) and as it is now, I have 5 computers, each with raid 5 providing about 6TB hard drive each. This is causing some problems with the software I am using (something home made) so I'm wondering, is there some software that I can install on all those computers that will mask it as one huge drive... Running windows on those computers, from Xp 64 bit to windows server 2008 I would also like to set a priority on each folder on the redundancy it has, some folders I can live without no online backup (I have a backup in a safe of that data) but some I need full online backup system if one hard drive fails. Something open source, as I try to use that as much as I can, but all ideas welcome.

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  • What'd be a good pattern on Doctrine to have multiple languages

    - by PERR0_HUNTER
    Hi! I have this challenge which consist in having a system that offers it's content in multiple languages, however a part of the data contained in the system is not translatable such as dates, ints and such. I mean if I have a content on the following YAML Corporativos: columns: nombre: type: string(254) notnull: true telefonos: type: string(500) email: type: string(254) webpage: type: string(254) CorporativosLang: columns: corporativo_id: type: integer(8) notnull: true lang: type: string(16) fixed: false ubicacion: type: string() fixed: false unsigned: false primary: false notnull: true autoincrement: false contacto: type: string() fixed: false unsigned: false primary: false notnull: true autoincrement: false tipo_de_hoteles: type: string(254) fixed: false unsigned: false primary: false notnull: true autoincrement: false paises: type: string() fixed: false unsigned: false primary: false notnull: true autoincrement: false relations: Corporativo: class: Corporativos local: corporativo_id foreign: id type: one foreignAlias: Data This would allow me to have different corporative offices, however the place of the corp, the contact and other things can be translate into a different language (lang) Now this code here would create me a brand new corporative office with 2 translations $corporativo = new Corporativos(); $corporativo->nombre = 'Duck Corp'; $corporativo->telefonos = '66303713333'; $corporativo->email = '[email protected]'; $corporativo->webpage = 'http://quack.com'; $corporativo->Data[0]->lang = 'en'; $corporativo->Data[0]->ubicacion = 'zomg'; $corporativo->Data[1]->lang = 'es'; $corporativo->Data[1]->ubicacion = 'zomg amigou'; the thing now is I don't know how to retrieve this data in a more friendly way, because if I'd like to access my Corporative info in english I'd had to run DQL for the corp and then another DQL for the specific translation in english, What I'd love to do is have my translatable fields available in the root so I could simply access them $corporativo = new Corporativos(); $corporativo->nombre = 'Duck Corp'; $corporativo->telefonos = '66303713333'; $corporativo->email = '[email protected]'; $corporativo->webpage = 'http://quack.com'; $corporativo->lang = 'en'; $corporativo->ubicacion = 'zomg'; this way the translatable fields would be mapped to the second table automatically. I hope I can explain my self clear :( any suggestions ?

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  • How do I make a module in PLT Scheme?

    - by kunjaan
    I tried doing this: #lang scheme (module duck scheme/base (provide num-eggs quack) (define num-eggs 2) (define (quack n) (unless (zero? n) (printf "quack\n") (quack (sub1 n))))) But I get this error: module: illegal use (not at top-level) in: (module duck scheme/base (provide num-eggs quack) (define num-eggs 2) (define (quack n) (unless (zero? n) (printf "quack\n") (quack (sub1 n))))) what is the correct way?

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  • Special 301: FOSS users. Now we're all Communists and Criminals

    <b>Free Software Magazine:</b> "There seems to be no respite from the predations of Microsoft FUD and the machinations of Big Business. Just when it seemed safe to come out of the closet and admit to being a user of free and open source software without being accused of being a Communist, it appears that we are now criminals too"

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  • Javascript - jquery ajax post error driving me mad

    - by Exception Duck
    Can't seem to figure this one out. I have a web service defined as (c#,.net) [WebMethod] public string SubmitOrder(string sessionid, string lang,int invoiceno,string email,string emailcc) { //do stuff. return stuff; } Which works fine, when I test it from the autogenerated test thingy in Vstudio. But when I call it from jquery as $j.ajax({ type: "POST", url: "/wservice/baby.asmx/SubmitOrder", data: "{'sessionid' : '"+sessionid+"',"+ "'lang': '"+usersettings.Currlang+"',"+ "'invoiceno': '"+invoicenr+"',"+ "'email':'"+$j(orderids.txtOIEMAIL).val()+"',"+ "'emailcc':'"+$j(orderids.txtOICC).val()+"'}", contenttype: "application/json; charset=utf-8", datatype: "json", success: function (msg) { submitordercallback(msg); }, error: AjaxFailed }); I get this fun error: responseText: System.InvalidOperationException: Missing parameter: sessionid. at System.Web.Services.Protocols.ValueCollectionParameterReader.Read(NameValueCollection collection) at System.Web.Services.Protocols.HtmlFormParameterReader.Read(HttpRequest request) at System.Web.Services.Protocols.HttpServerProtocol.ReadParameters() at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebServiceHandler.CoreProcessRequest() data evaluates to: {'sessionid' : 'f61f8da737c046fea5633e7ec1f706dd','lang': 'SE','invoiceno': '11867','email':'[email protected]','emailcc':''} Ok, fair enough, but this function from jquery communicates fine with another webservice. Defined: c#: [WebMethod] public string CheckoutClicked(string sessionid,string lang) { //*snip* //jquery: var divCheckoutClicked = function() { $j.ajax({ type: "POST", url: "/wservice/baby.asmx/CheckoutClicked", data: "{'sessionid': '"+sessionid+"','lang': '"+usersettings.Currlang+"'}", contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", dataType: "json", success: function (msg) { divCheckoutClickedCallback(msg); }, error: AjaxFailed }); }

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  • ERROR 2019 Linker Error Visual Studio

    - by Corrie Duck
    Hey I hope someone can tell me know to fix this issue I am having i keep getting an error 2019 from Visual studio for the following file. Now most of the functions have been removed so excuse the empty varriables etc. Error error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "void * __cdecl OpenOneDevice(void *,struct _SP_DEVICE_INTERFACE_DATA *,char *)" (?OpenOneDevice@@YAPAXPAXPAU_SP_DEVICE_INTERFACE_DATA@@PAD@Z) referenced in function _wmain c:\Users\K\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\test2\test2\test2.obj test2 #include "stdafx.h" #include <windows.h> #include <setupapi.h> SP_DEVICE_INTERFACE_DATA deviceInfoData; HDEVINFO hwDeviceInfo; HANDLE hOut; char *devName; // HANDLE OpenOneDevice(IN HDEVINFO hwDeviceInfo,IN PSP_DEVICE_INTERFACE_DATA DeviceInfoData,IN char *devName); // HANDLE OpenOneDevice(IN HDEVINFO HardwareDeviceInfo,IN PSP_DEVICE_INTERFACE_DATA DeviceInfoData,IN char *devName) { PSP_DEVICE_INTERFACE_DETAIL_DATA functionClassDeviceData = NULL; ULONG predictedLength = 0, requiredLength = 0; HANDLE hOut = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE; SetupDiGetDeviceInterfaceDetail(HardwareDeviceInfo, DeviceInfoData, NULL, 0, &requiredLength, NULL); predictedLength = requiredLength; functionClassDeviceData = (PSP_DEVICE_INTERFACE_DETAIL_DATA)malloc(predictedLength); if(NULL == functionClassDeviceData) { return hOut; } functionClassDeviceData->cbSize = sizeof (SP_DEVICE_INTERFACE_DETAIL_DATA); if (!SetupDiGetDeviceInterfaceDetail(HardwareDeviceInfo, DeviceInfoData, functionClassDeviceData, predictedLength, &requiredLength, NULL)) { free( functionClassDeviceData ); return hOut; } //strcpy(devName,functionClassDeviceData->DevicePath) ; hOut = CreateFile(functionClassDeviceData->DevicePath, GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE, FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL); free(functionClassDeviceData); return hOut; } // int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[]) { hOut = OpenOneDevice (hwDeviceInfo, &deviceInfoData, devName); if(hOut != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) { // error report } return 0; } Been driving me mad for hours. Any help appreciated. SOLVED THANKS TO CHRIS :-) Add #pragma comment (lib, "Setupapi.lib") Thanks

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  • Why does Python's 'for ... in' work differently on a list of values vs. a list of dictionaries?

    - by Code Duck
    I'm wondering about some details of how for ... in works in Python. My understanding is for var in iterable on each iteration creates a variable, var, bound to the current value of iterable. So, if you do for c in cows; c = cows[whatever], but changing c within the loop does not affect the original value. However, it seems to work differently if you're assigning a value to a dictionary key. cows=[0,1,2,3,4,5] for c in cows: c+=2 #cows is now the same - [0,1,2,3,4,5] cows=[{'cow':0},{'cow':1},{'cow':2},{'cow':3},{'cow':4},{'cow':5}] for c in cows: c['cow']+=2 # cows is now [{'cow': 2}, {'cow': 3}, {'cow': 4}, {'cow': 5}, {'cow': 6}, {'cow': 7} #so, it's changed the original, unlike the previous example I see one can use enumerate to make the first example work, too, but that's a different story, I guess. cows=[0,1,2,3,4,5] for i,c in enumerate(cows): cows[i]+=1 # cows is now [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] Why does it affect the original list values in the second example but not the first?

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  • Upgrade Talks at OpenWorld Beijing: December 13-16, 2010

    - by [email protected]
    Mike may be done traveling for a while, but I have more than a bit of travel coming up. Next week I will be delivering four talks at OpenWorld Beijing 2010. I'm looking forward to returning to Beijing. Last time Mike and I saw the usual tourist sites and plenty of interesting food. One place to which I will definitely try to return this time is Da Dong Duck, a wonderful restaurant for (what else?) Peking Duck. Oh yes, my talks, I almost forgot :-). Here are the details: Session Title: The Most Common Upgrade Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them) Session ID: 1716 Session Schedule: 12/15/10 Time: 10:45 - 11:30 Location: Room 506 AB Session Title: Get the Best out of Oracle Data Pump Functionality Session ID: 1376 Session Schedule: 12/16/10 Time: 16:30 - 17:15 Location: Room 311 A Session Title: What Do I Really Need to Know When Upgrading? Session ID: 1412 Session Schedule: 12/16/10 Time: 14:30 - 15:15 Location: Room 308 Session Title: Patching, Upgrades, and Certifications: A Guide for DBAs Session ID: 1723 Session Schedule: 12/16/10 Time: 11:45 - 12:30 Location: Room 506 AB We will also have a demo booth to talk about upgrading to Oracle Database 11g Release 2. So, if you'll be attending OpenWorld Beijing 2010, please stop by one of my talks or the demo booth!

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  • Strategies for managUse of types in Python

    - by dave
    I'm a long time programmer in C# but have been coding in Python for the past year. One of the big hurdles for me was the lack of type definitions for variables and parameters. Whereas I totally get the idea of duck typing, I do find it frustrating that I can't tell the type of a variable just by looking at it. This is an issue when you look at someone else's code where they've used ambiguous names for method parameters (see edit below). In a few cases, I've added asserts to ensure parameters comply with an expected type but this goes against the whole duck typing thing. On some methods, I'll document the expected type of parameters (eg: list of user objects), but even this seems to go against the idea of just using an object and let the runtime deal with exceptions. What strategies do you use to avoid typing problems in Python? Edit: Example of the parameter naming issues: If our code base we have a task object (ORM object) and a task_obj object (higher level object that embeds a task). Needless to say, many methods accept a parameter named 'task'. The method might expect a task or a task_obj or some other construct such as a dictionary of task properties - it is not clear. It is them up to be to look at how that parameter is used in order to work out what the method expects.

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  • Strategies for managing use of types in Python

    - by dave
    I'm a long time programmer in C# but have been coding in Python for the past year. One of the big hurdles for me was the lack of type definitions for variables and parameters. Whereas I totally get the idea of duck typing, I do find it frustrating that I can't tell the type of a variable just by looking at it. This is an issue when you look at someone else's code where they've used ambiguous names for method parameters (see edit below). In a few cases, I've added asserts to ensure parameters comply with an expected type but this goes against the whole duck typing thing. On some methods, I'll document the expected type of parameters (eg: list of user objects), but even this seems to go against the idea of just using an object and let the runtime deal with exceptions. What strategies do you use to avoid typing problems in Python? Edit: Example of the parameter naming issues: If our code base we have a task object (ORM object) and a task_obj object (higher level object that embeds a task). Needless to say, many methods accept a parameter named 'task'. The method might expect a task or a task_obj or some other construct such as a dictionary of task properties - it is not clear. It is them up to be to look at how that parameter is used in order to work out what the method expects.

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  • Using the new jQuery Position utility script at an FF extension

    - by Nimrod Yonatan Ben-Nes
    Hi all, I'm trying to use the following code at my FF extension with no success: $('#duck').position({ of: $('#zebra'), my: "left top", at: "left top" }); (the Position manual is at http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Position) I also tried: var doc = gBrowser.selectedBrowser.contentDocument; $('#duck', doc).position({ of: $('#zebra', doc), my: "left top", at: "left top" }); Both without success.... on the other hand when I try the first code example at the web page code itself it work wonderfully... Anyone got any idea what's causing the problem? Cheers and thx in advance! Nimrod Yonatan Ben-Nes

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