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  • What should be contained in a game scene graph?

    - by Bunkai.Satori
    Would you help me to clarify, please, what what exactly should be contained within a game scene graph? See the following list, please: Game Actors? (obviously yes, all the objects changing state should be the major prart of the Scene Graph) Simple static game ojbects? (I mean ojects places in the background that do not get animated, neither do they collide) Game Triggers? Game Lights? Game Cameras? Weapon Bullets? Game Explosions and Special Effects? The above considered object types. Now to the coverage of the scene graph: Should a scene graph contain the whole game level map since the level start, or should it contain only the visible portion of the map? If the second is true, it would mean that scene graph would be continuously updated, by adding/removing game objects, as the player moves. However, containing only the visible are of the map obviously would be much faster to traverse and update.

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  • Why is TDD not working here?

    - by TobiMcNamobi
    I want to write a class A that has a method calculate(<params>). That method should calculate a value using database data. So I wrote a class Test_A for unit testing (TDD). The database access is done using another class which I have mocked with a class, let's call it Accessor_Mockup. Now, the TDD cycle requires me to add a test that fails and make the simplest changes to A so that the test passes. So I add data to Accessor_Mockup and call A.calculate with appropriate parameters. But why should A use the accessor class at all? It would be simpler (!) if the class just "knows" the values it could retrieve from the database. For every test I write I could introduce such a new value (or an if-branch or whatever). But wait ... TDD is more. There is the refactoring part. But that sounds to me like "OK, I can do this all with a big if-elseif construct. I could refactor it using a new class ... but instead I make use of the DB accessor and do this in a totally different way. The code will not necessarily look better afterwards but I know I WANT to use the database".

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  • Kickstarter "last minute cold feet"

    - by mm24
    today I scheduled the publication of a video on kickstarter requesting approximately 5.000 $ in order to complete the iPhone shooter game I started 1 year ago after quitting my job. I invested more than 20.000$ in the game so far (for artwork, music, legal and accountant expenses) and I am now getting cold feet about my decision of publishing the video. The game is "nearly finished", in other words: the game mechanics are working but I still have some bugs to fix. Once I will have finished this (I hope will take me 1 or 2 weeks) I plan to start working on the actual level balancing (e.g. deciding the order of appearence of enemies for each level and balancing the number of hitpoints and strenght of bullets that the enemies have). Reasons for not publishing the video are: fear that the concept can be copied easily: the game is a shooter game set in a different environment (its a pretty cool one, believe me :)) and I am worried that someone might copy* the idea (I know, its the usual "I am worried story.."). A shooter game is one of the easiest game to implement and hence there will be hundreds game developer able to copy it by just adapting their existing code and changing graphics (not as straightforward). It took me one year to develop this because I was inexperienced plus there are approximately 6/7 months of work from the illustrator and there are 8 unique music tracks composed. The soundtrack of the video is the soundtrack of the game wich is not yet published and has not been deposited to a music society. I did create legally valid timestamps for the tracks and I am considering uploading the album on iTunes before publishing the video so I can have a certain publication date. But overall I am a bit scared and worried because I have never done this before and even the simple act of publishing an album requires me to read a long contract from the "aggregator company") which, even if I do have contracts with the musicians do worry me as I am not a U.S. resident and I am not familiar with the U.S. law system Reasons for publishing the video are: I almost run out of money (but this is not a real reason as I should have enough for one more month of development time) ...I kind of need extra money as, even if I do have money for 1 month of development I do not have money for marketing and for other expenses (e.g. accountant) It will create a fan base I could get some useful feedback from a wider range of beta testers It might create some pre-release buzz in case some blogger or game magazine likes the concept Anyone has had similar experiences? Is there a real risk that someone will copy the concept and implement it in a couple of months? Will the Kickstarter campaing be a good pre-release exposure for the gmae? Any refrences of similar projects/situations? Is it realistic that someone like ROVIO will copy the idea straight away?

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  • Is data integrity possible without normalization?

    - by shuniar
    I am working on an application that requires the storage of location information such as city, state, zip code, latitude, and longitude. I would like to ensure: Location data is accurate Detroit, CA Detroit IS NOT in California Detroit, MI Detroit IS in Michigan Cities and states are spelled correctly California not Calefornia Detroit not Detriot Cities and states are named consistently Valid: CA Detroit Invalid: Cali california DET d-town The D Also, since city/zip data is not guaranteed to be static, updating this data in a normalized fashion could be difficult, whereas it could be implemented as a de facto location if it is denormalized. A couple thoughts that come to mind: A collection of reference tables that store a list of all states and the most common cities and zip codes that can grow over time. It would search the database for an exact or similar match and recommend corrections. Use some sort of service to validate the location data before it is stored in the database. Is it possible to fulfill these requirements without normalization, and if so, should I denormalize this data?

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  • What is the best practice to move sprites using mouse order in Tile games?

    - by Robin-Hood
    I am trying to make my first Tile-game using XNA. I have no problem drawing the map layers using TiledLib from codeplex, but, now I want to give sprite an (order) to move to a specific position on map, by selecting the sprite (left mouse click) and then right mouse click somewhere on the map to specify the target position. I don’t know what is the best practice to move sprite this way, considering that there may be collision objects in the direct path. what is the best practice to do this? Is there any demo covering this issue? thanks. BTW: I couldn’t upload snapshot because of my low score :(

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  • What's the term for re-implementing an old API in terms of a newer API

    - by dodgy_coder
    The reason for doing it is to solve the case when a newer API is no longer backwards compatible with an older API. To explain, just say that there is an old API v1.0. The maker of this API decides it is broken and works on a new API v1.1 that intentionally breaks compatibility with the old API v1.0. Now, any programs written against the old API cannot be recompiled as-is with the new API. Then lets say there is a large app written against the old API and the developer doesn't have access to the source code. A solution would be to re-implement a "custom" old API v1.0 in terms of the new API v1.1 calls. So the "custom" v1.0 API is actually keeping the same interface/methods as the v1.0 API but inside its implementation it is actually making calls to the new API v1.1 methods. So the large app can be then compiled and linked against the "custom" v1.0 API and the new v1.1 API without any major source code changes. Is there a term for this practice? There's a recent example of this happening in Jamie Zawinski's port of XScreenSaver to the iPhone - he re-implemented the OpenGL 1.3 API in terms of the OpenGL ES 1.1 API. In this case, OpenGL 1.3 represents the "old" API and OpenGL ES 1.1 represents the "new" API.

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  • SQL Saturday is Coming to Nashville! Won't You?

    - by KKline
    How 'Bout a Little Context? Let me be direct with you. I love SQL Saturday . If it were a woman , I'd marry it. (Avoiding all extraneous thoughts of what my real wife would say, etc etc). Check out this fun Flickr Feed from the recent SQL Saturday in Chicago or these picks by Jorge Segara ( blog | twitter ) to see the sort of fun that's in store. But who can argue with a day of free SQL Server training and a chance to network with great presenters and a wide swath of your peers? Keynotes are more...(read more)

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  • Expando Object and dynamic property pattern

    - by Al.Net
    I have read about 'dynamic property pattern' of Martin Fowler in his site under the tag 1997 in which he used dictionary kind of stuff to achieve this pattern. And I have come across about Expando object in c# very recently. When I see its implementation, I am able to see IDictionary implemented. So Expando object uses dictionary to store dynamic properties and is it what, Martin Fowler already defined 15 years ago?

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  • How to name an subclass that add a minor, detailed thing?

    - by Louis Rhys
    What is the most concise (yet descriptive) way of naming a subclass that only add a specific minor thing to the parent? I encountered this case a lot in WPF, where sometime I have to add a small functionality to an out-of-the-box control for specific cases. Example: TreeView doesn't change the SelectedItem on right-click, but I have to make one that does in my application. Some possible names are TreeViewThatChangesSelectedItemOnRightClick (way too wordy and maybe difficult to read because there is so many words concantenated together) TreeView_SelectedItemChangesOnRightClick (slightly more readable, but still too wordy and the underscore also breaks the normal convention for class names) TreeViewThatChangesSIOnRC (non-obvious acronym), ExtendedTreeView (more concise, but doesn't describe what it is doing. Besides, I already found a class called this in the library, that I don't want to use/modify in my application). LouisTreeView, MyTreeView, etc. (doesn't describe what it is doing). It seems that I can't find a name which sounds right. What do you do in situation like this?

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  • Alternative to Game State System?

    - by Ricket
    As far as I can tell, most games have some sort of "game state system" which switches between the different game states; these might be things like "Intro", "MainMenu", "CharacterSelect", "Loading", and "Game". On the one hand, it totally makes sense to separate these into a state system. After all, they are disparate and would otherwise need to be in a large switch statement, which is obviously messy; and they certainly are well represented by a state system. But at the same time, I look at the "Game" state and wonder if there's something wrong about this state system approach. Because it's like the elephant in the room; it's HUGE and obvious but nobody questions the game state system approach. It seems silly to me that "Game" is put on the same level as "Main Menu". Yet there isn't a way to break up the "Game" state. Is a game state system the best way to go? Is there some different, better technique to managing, well, the "game state"? Is it okay to have an intro state which draws a movie and listens for enter, and then a loading state which loops on the resource manager, and then the game state which does practically everything? Doesn't this seem sort of unbalanced to you, too? Am I missing something?

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  • S#arp Architecture 1.5.2 released

    - by AlecWhittington
    It has been a few weeks since S#arp Architecture 1.5 RTM has been released. While it was a major success a few issues were found that needed to be addressed. These mostly involved the Visual Studio templates. What's new in S#arp Architecture 1.5.2? Merged the SharpArch.* assemblies into a single assembly (SharpArch.dll) Updated both VS 2008 and 2010 templates to reflect the use of the merged assembly Updated SharpArch.build with custom script that allows the merging of the assemblies. Copys new merged...(read more)

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  • Android in-game pause screen

    - by Max
    Right now Im calling a new activity with an xml-view when I pause my game, but Since I do this I need to use context in my real-time code, and this is causing a memory leak. Is there any preffered way to pause the game? By pause I mean if game is over, if I die, or if I press pause-button. Would a custom dialog work just aswell? this would mean I wont have to leave my main-activity while im in-game.

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  • Is it reasonable to expect knowing the whole stack bottom up?

    - by Vaibhav Garg
    I am an Sr. developer/architect/Product Manager for embedded systems. The systems that I have had experience with have typically been small to medium size codebases - typically close to 25-30K LOC in C, using 8-16 and 32 bit low end microcontrollers. The systems have been entirely bootstrapped by our team - meaning right from the start-up code to the end application code has either been written by the team, or at the very least, is thoroughly understood and maintained by us. Now, if we were to start developing more complex systems with complex peripherals, such as USB OTG et al. (think, low end cell phones), there are libraries and stacks available commercially and from chip vendors that reduce the task to just calling the right APIs and being able to use those peripherals. Now, from a habit point of view, this does not give me and the team a comfortable feeling, not being able to comprehend the entire code tree, with virtual black boxes at the lower layers. Is it reasonable to devote, and reserve, time getting into the details of how the APIs are implemented, assuming that the same would also entail getting into details of relevant standards (again, for USB as an example)? Or, alternatively, should a thorough understanding of the top level usage of the APIs be sufficient? This of course assumes that the source codes to all libraries are available, which they are, in almost all cases. Edit: In partial response to @Abhi Beckert, the documentation is refreshingly very comprehensive and meticulously maintained, AFAIK and been able to judge. I have not had a long experience with the same.

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  • What are the best resources for learning about concurrency and multi-threaded applications?

    - by Zepee
    I realised I have a massive knowledge gap when it comes to multi-threaded applications and concurrent programming. I've covered some basics in the past, but most of it seems to be gone from my mind, and it is definitely a field that I want, and need, to be more knowledgeable about. What are the best resources for learning about building concurrent applications? I'm a very practical oriented person, so if said book contains concrete examples the better, but I'm open to suggestions. I personally prefer to work in pseudocode or C++, and a slant toward game development would be best, but not required.

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  • Issue with distinguishing levels in isometric game

    - by Konrad
    I'm working on an isometric game however I am having trouble visually distinguishing between levels in the game. Take the example below, the first image shows concrete blocks at ground level and the following images show an attempt to build a few blocks a level above. As you can see the level above is visually swallowed the one below. I've tried shading to make lower levels darker with respect to camera, but this doesn't work that well.. any ideas?

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  • A talk about observer pattern

    - by Martin
    As part of a university course I'm taking, I have to hold a 10 minute talk about the observer pattern. So far these are my points: What is it? (defenition) Polling is an alternative Polling VS Observer When Observer is better When Polling is better (taken from here) A statement that Mediator pattern is worth checking out. (I won't have time to cover it in 10 minutes) I would be happy to hear about: Any suggestions to add something? Another alternative (if exists)

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  • Procedural landscape generation but not just fractals

    - by Richard Fabian
    In large procedural landscape games, the land seems dull, but that's probably because the real world is largely dull, with only limited places where the scenery is dramatic or tactical. Looking at world generation from this point of view, a landscape generator for a game needs to not follow the rules of landscaping, but instead some rules married to the expectations of the gamer. For example, there could be a choke point / route generator that creates hills ravines, rivers and mountains between cities, rather than cities plotted on the land based on the resources or conditions generated by the mountains and rainfall patterns. Is there any existing work being done like this? Start with cities or population centres and then add in terrain afterwards?

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  • Dapper and object validation/business rules enforcement

    - by Eugene
    This isn't really Dapper-specific, actually, as it relates to any XML-serializeable object.. but it came up when I was storing an object using Dapper. Anyways, say I have a user class. Normally, I'd do something like this: class User { public string SIN {get; private set;} public string DisplayName {get;set;} public User(string sin) { if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(sin)) throw new ArgumentException("SIN must be specified"); this.SIN = sin; } } Since a SIN is required, I'd just create a constructor with a sin parameter, and make it read-only. However, with a Dapper (and probably any other ORM), I need to provide a parameterless constructor, and make all properties writeable. So now I have this: class User: IValidatableObject { public int Id { get; set; } public string SIN { get; set; } public string DisplayName { get; set; } public IEnumerable<ValidationResult> Validate(ValidationContext validationContext) { // implementation } } This seems.. can't really pick the word, a bad smell? A) I'm allowing to change properties that should not be changed ever after an object has been created (SIN, userid) B) Now I have to implement IValidatableObject or something like that to test those properties before updating them to db. So how do you go about it ?

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  • Best approach for a database of long strings

    - by gsingh2011
    I need to store questions and answers in a database. The questions will be one to two sentences, but the answers will be long, at least a paragraph, likely more. The only way I know about to do this right now is an SQL database. However, I don't feel like this is a good solution because as far as I've seen, these databases aren't used for data of this type or size. Is this the correct way to go or is there a better way to store this data? Is there a better way than storing raw strings?

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  • When too much encapsulation was reached

    - by Samuel
    Recently, I read a lot of gook articles about how to do a good encapsulation. And when I say "good encapsulation", I don't talk about hiding private fields with public properties; I talk about preventing users of your Api to do wrong things. Here is two good articles about this subject: http://blog.ploeh.dk/2011/05/24/PokayokeDesignFromSmellToFragrance.aspx http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2011/03/28/encapsulation-youre-doing-it-wrong/ At my job, the majority a our applications are not destined to other programmers but rather to the customers. About 80% of the application code is at the top of the structure (Not used by other code). For this reason, there is probably no chance ever that this code will be used by other application. An example of encapsulation that prevent user to do wrong thing with your Api is to return an IEnumerable instead of IList when you don't want to give the ability to the user to add or remove items in the list. My question is: When encapsulation could be considered like too much of purism object oriented programming while keeping in mind that each hour of programming is charged to the customer? I want to do good code that is maintainable, easy to read and to use but when this is not a public Api (Used by other programmer), where could we put the line between perfect code and not so perfect code? Thank you.

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  • Low coupling processing big quantities of data

    - by vitalik
    Usually I achieve low coupling by creating classes that exchange lists, sets, and maps between them. Now I am developing a batch application and I can't put all the data inside a data structure because there isn't enough memory. I have to read and process one chunk of data and then going to the next one. So having low coupling is much more difficult because I have to check somewhere if there is still data to read, etc. What I am using now is: Source - Process - Persist The classes that process have to ask to the Source classes if there are more rows to read. What are the best practices and or useful patterns in such situations? I hope I am explaining myself, if not tell me.

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  • 'Other' Features in a programming language

    - by user12960
    Online (i cant remember where) i saw someone mention he wishes programming language has more built in features for tools like documentation and source control. Now i dont understand what needs to be built in for source control since tools like git (sorry but i dont have much experience with others) has everything i need and is very easy to use. Documentation i can understand, perhaps the ability to generate remote procedures calls from source to some kind of IDL would be cool. But really i dont understand what features a programming language can/should have that isnt tied with code generation and syntax (except the two i mention when it comes to libraries). What ideas do you guys have? What is your wishlist?

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  • SharePoint 2010 Workflow for Multiple Items (Architecture)

    - by erobillard
    I had the question today of whether SharePoint 2010 supports workflow on multiple items, since Groove's workflow apparently supported multiple items and that model disappeared when Groove Workspaces were amalgamated into SharePoint Sites and SharePoint Workspace (the client utility). It's a great question, the short answer is that yes, it's possible. You could brute-force it in 2007 and that strategy should still carry over to 2010, and 3 new features (that I can think of) support multi-item scenarios...(read more)

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  • SQL in the City (Charlotte) Wrap Up

    - by drsql
    Ok, it has been quite a while since the event, two weeks and a day to be exact, but I needed a rest before hitting Windows Live Writer again. Speaking is exhausting, traveling is exhausting, and well, I replaced my laptop and had to get all of my software back together. (Between Windows 8.1 sync features, Dropbox and Skydrive, it has never been easier…but I digress.) There are plenty of great vendors out there, but one of my favorites has always been Red-Gate. I have written half of a book with them,...(read more)

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  • How could RDBMSes be considered a fad?

    - by StuperUser
    Completing my Computing A-level in 2003 and getting a degree in Computing in 2007, and learning my trade in a company with a lot of SQL usage, I was brought up on the idea of Relational Databases being used for storage. So, despite being relatively new to development, I was taken-aback to read a comment (on Is LinqPad site quote "Tired of querying in antiquated SQL?" accurate? ) that said: [Some devs] despise [SQL] and think that it and RDBMS are a fad Obviously, a competent dev will use the right tool for the right job and won't create a relational database when e.g. flat file or another solution for storage is appropriate, but RDBMs are useful in a massive number of circumstances, so how could they be considered a fad?

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