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  • Static "LoD" hack opinions

    - by David Lively
    I've been playing with implementing dynamic level of detail for rendering a very large mesh in XNA. It occurred to me that (duh) the whole point of this is to generate small triangles close to the camera, and larger ones far away. Given that, rather than constantly modifying or swapping index buffers based on a feature's rendered size or distance from the camera, it would be a lot easier (and potentially quite a bit faster), to render a single "fan" or flat wedge/frustum-shaped planar mesh that is tessellated into small triangles close to the near or small end of the frustum and larger ones at the far end, sort of like this (overhead view) (Pardon the gap in the middle - I drew one side and mirrored it) The triangle sizes are chosen so that all are approximately the same size when projected. Then, that mesh would be transformed to track the camera so that the Z axis (center vertical in this image) is always aligned with the view direction projected into the XZ plane. The vertex shader would then read terrain heights from a height texture and adjust the Y coordinate of the mesh to match a height field that defines the terrain. This eliminates the need for culling (since the mesh is generated to match the viewport dimensions) and the need to modify the index and/or vertex buffers when drawing the terrain. Obviously this doesn't address terrain with overhangs, etc, but that could be handled to a certain extent by including a second mesh that defines a sort of "ceiling" via a different texture. The other LoD schemes I've seen aren't particularly difficult to implement and, in some cases, are a lot more flexible, but this seemed like a decent quick-and-dirty way to handle height map-based terrain without getting into geometry manipulation. Has anyone tried this? Opinions?

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  • Sprites rendering blurry with velocity

    - by ashes999
    After adding velocity to my game, I feel like my textures are twitching. I thought it was just my eyes, until I finally captured it in a screenshot: The one on the left is what renders in my game; the one on the right is the original sprite, pasted over. (This is a screenshot from Photoshop, zoomed in 6x.) Notice the edges are aliasing -- it looks almost like sub-pixel rendering. In fact, if I had not forced my sprites (which have position and velocity as ints) to draw using integer values, I would swear that MonoGame is drawing with floating point values. But it isn't. What could be the cause of these things appearing blurry? It doesn't happen without velocity applied. To be precise, my SpriteComponent class has a Vector2 Position field. When I call Draw, I essentially use new Vector2((int)Math.Round(this.Position.X), (int)Math.Round(this.Position.Y)) for the position. I had a bug before where even stationary objects would jitter -- that was due to me using the straight Position vector and not rounding the values to ints. If I use Floor/Ceiling instead of round, the sprite sinks/hovers (one pixel difference either way) but still draws blurry.

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  • Designing spawning system

    - by Vlad
    I played this game recently http://www.kongregate.com/games/JuicyBeast/knightmare-tower and I am amazed by the way how different monsters are beign spawned. I personally developed my own shooter game and I added time based but also count based spawing system. By count based I mean when there are 5 enemies on stage stop spawning. But this is one example. My question is how are these spawning mechanism built, is there some pattern or some theory how they are built? Are there some online materials/pages where I can improve my knowledge? To sumarize, let just say we have 6 types of monsters. I start the game and kill of monsters of type 1,2 and 3 all the time. Once I pass the first ceiling, like in the game above, monster type 4 appear. ANd so on. As I progress trough the game, the same system of 6 types of monsters stay, but they become more and more resilient and dangerous. So I must also improve to be able to destroy the same monsters but now stronger. My question is simple, are there some theories built or written for developing this type of inteligent systems? Note: This is a general question, not tied up with some game or how exactly should the game work. I am capable to program my own mechanisms but I think I need some help. Thanks.

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  • Almost working 2D Collisions

    - by TheGag96
    I'm terribly sorry I'm asking this question YET AGAIN, but I can almost guarantee that this will be the last time I'll have to ask. I'm currently on the verge of FINALLY getting these collisions to work for my game, made with libGDX in Java. My collisions use the same method as (and are basically copied and modified code from) the XNA Platformer example (here) where the direction of the collision is based on the rectangle where two objects are overlapping. The collisions themselves almost work perfectly, but for some reason, holding down/up and left and colliding with the floor/ceiling while doing so doesn't seem to work well. I'm not at all sure why. Instead of vaguely giving my problem and snippets of code, I've decided to instead provide a binary and the source of the game I have so far so you can see for yourself what my problem is. Link. (Note: make sure you unzip everything into a folder somewhere or it will not work) You'll find the collision code in the method workingCollisions() in Link.java. Please excuse the messy code and terrible graphics as this whole thing is in pre-pre-alpha. If anyone is kind enough and helps me out here, you are the best person ever. I'm completely desperate; I've been trying this on and off for months and I just can't get it to work. I cannot thank you enough.

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  • Creating a new instance, C#

    - by Dave Voyles
    This sounds like a very n00b question, but bear with me here: I'm trying to access the position of my bat (paddle) in my pong game and use it in my ball class. I'm doing this because I want a particle effect to go off at the point of contact where the ball hits the bat. Each time the ball hits the bat, I receive an error stating that I haven't created an instance of the bat. I understand that I have to (or can use a static class), but I'm not sure of how to do so in this example. I've included both my Bat and Ball classes. namespace Pong { #region Using Statements using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input; #endregion public class Ball { #region Fields private readonly Random rand; private readonly Texture2D texture; private readonly SoundEffect warp; private double direction; private bool isVisible; private float moveSpeed; private Vector2 position; private Vector2 resetPos; private Rectangle size; private float speed; private bool isResetting; private bool collided; private Vector2 oldPos; private ParticleEngine particleEngine; private ContentManager contentManager; private SpriteBatch spriteBatch; private bool hasHitBat; private AIBat aiBat; private Bat bat; #endregion #region Constructors and Destructors /// <summary> /// Constructor for the ball /// </summary> public Ball(ContentManager contentManager, Vector2 ScreenSize) { moveSpeed = 15f; speed = 0; texture = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/balls/redBall"); direction = 0; size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width, texture.Height); resetPos = new Vector2(ScreenSize.X / 2, ScreenSize.Y / 2); position = resetPos; rand = new Random(); isVisible = true; hasHitBat = false; // Everything to do with particles List<Texture2D> textures = new List<Texture2D>(); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/circle")); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/star")); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/diamond")); particleEngine = new ParticleEngine(textures, new Vector2()); } #endregion #region Public Methods and Operators /// <summary> /// Checks for the collision between the bat and the ball. Sends ball in the appropriate /// direction /// </summary> public void BatHit(int block) { if (direction > Math.PI * 1.5f || direction < Math.PI * 0.5f) { hasHitBat = true; particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(aiBat.Position.X, aiBat.Position.Y); switch (block) { case 1: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(200); break; case 2: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(195); break; case 3: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(180); break; case 4: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(180); break; case 5: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(165); break; } } else { hasHitBat = true; particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(bat.Position.X, bat.Position.Y); switch (block) { case 1: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(310); break; case 2: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(345); break; case 3: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(0); break; case 4: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(15); break; case 5: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(50); break; } } if (rand.Next(2) == 0) { direction += MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(3)); } else { direction -= MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(3)); } AudioManager.Instance.PlaySoundEffect("hit"); } /// <summary> /// JEP - added method to slow down ball after powerup deactivates /// </summary> public void DecreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed -= 0.6f; } /// <summary> /// Draws the ball on the screen /// </summary> public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { if (isVisible) { spriteBatch.Begin(); spriteBatch.Draw(texture, size, Color.White); spriteBatch.End(); // Draws sprites for particles when contact is made particleEngine.Draw(spriteBatch); } } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current direction of the ball /// </summary> public double GetDirection() { return direction; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current position of the ball /// </summary> public Vector2 GetPosition() { return position; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current size of the ball (for the powerups) /// </summary> public Rectangle GetSize() { return size; } /// <summary> /// Grows the size of the ball when the GrowBall powerup is used. /// </summary> public void GrowBall() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width * 2, texture.Height * 2); } /// <summary> /// Was used to increased the speed of the ball after each point is scored. /// No longer used, but am considering implementing again. /// </summary> public void IncreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed += 0.6f; } /// <summary> /// Check for the ball to return normal size after the Powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalBallSize() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width, texture.Height); } /// <summary> /// Check for the ball to return normal speed after the Powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalSpeed() { moveSpeed += 15f; } /// <summary> /// Checks to see if ball went out of bounds, and triggers warp sfx /// </summary> public void OutOfBounds() { // Checks if the player is still alive or not if (isResetting) { AudioManager.Instance.PlaySoundEffect("warp"); { // Used to stop the the issue where the ball hit sfx kept going off when detecting collison isResetting = false; AudioManager.Instance.Dispose(); } } } /// <summary> /// Speed for the ball when Speedball powerup is activated /// </summary> public void PowerupSpeed() { moveSpeed += 20.0f; } /// <summary> /// Check for where to reset the ball after each point is scored /// </summary> public void Reset(bool left) { if (left) { direction = 0; } else { direction = Math.PI; } // Used to stop the the issue where the ball hit sfx kept going off when detecting collison isResetting = true; position = resetPos; // Resets the ball to the center of the screen isVisible = true; speed = 15f; // Returns the ball back to the default speed, in case the speedBall was active if (rand.Next(2) == 0) { direction += MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(30)); } else { direction -= MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(30)); } } /// <summary> /// Shrinks the ball when the ShrinkBall powerup is activated /// </summary> public void ShrinkBall() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width / 2, texture.Height / 2); } /// <summary> /// Stops the ball each time it is reset. Ex: Between points / rounds /// </summary> public void Stop() { isVisible = true; speed = 0; } /// <summary> /// Updates position of the ball /// </summary> public void UpdatePosition() { size.X = (int)position.X; size.Y = (int)position.Y; oldPos.X = position.X; oldPos.Y = position.Y; position.X += speed * (float)Math.Cos(direction); position.Y += speed * (float)Math.Sin(direction); bool collided = CheckWallHit(); particleEngine.Update(); // Stops the issue where ball was oscillating on the ceiling or floor if (collided) { position.X = oldPos.X + speed * (float)Math.Cos(direction); position.Y = oldPos.Y + speed * (float)Math.Sin(direction); } } #endregion #region Methods /// <summary> /// Checks for collision with the ceiling or floor. 2*Math.pi = 360 degrees /// </summary> private bool CheckWallHit() { while (direction > 2 * Math.PI) { direction -= 2 * Math.PI; return true; } while (direction < 0) { direction += 2 * Math.PI; return true; } if (position.Y <= 0 || (position.Y > resetPos.Y * 2 - size.Height)) { direction = 2 * Math.PI - direction; return true; } return true; } #endregion } } namespace Pong { using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using System; public class Bat { public Vector2 Position; public float moveSpeed; public Rectangle size; private int points; private int yHeight; private Texture2D leftBat; public float turbo; public float recharge; public float interval; public bool isTurbo; /// <summary> /// Constructor for the bat /// </summary> public Bat(ContentManager contentManager, Vector2 screenSize, bool side) { moveSpeed = 7f; turbo = 15f; recharge = 100f; points = 0; interval = 5f; leftBat = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/bats/batGrey"); size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width, leftBat.Height); // True means left bat, false means right bat. if (side) Position = new Vector2(30, screenSize.Y / 2 - size.Height / 2); else Position = new Vector2(screenSize.X - 30, screenSize.Y / 2 - size.Height / 2); yHeight = (int)screenSize.Y; } public void IncreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed += .5f; } /// <summary> /// The speed of the bat when Turbo is activated /// </summary> public void Turbo() { moveSpeed += 8.0f; } /// <summary> /// Returns the speed of the bat back to normal after Turbo is deactivated /// </summary> public void DisableTurbo() { moveSpeed = 7.0f; isTurbo = false; } /// <summary> /// Returns the bat to the nrmal size after the Grow/Shrink powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalSize() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width, leftBat.Height); } /// <summary> /// Checks for the size of the bat /// </summary> public Rectangle GetSize() { return size; } /// <summary> /// Adds point to the player or the AI after scoring. Currently Disabled. /// </summary> public void IncrementPoints() { points++; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the number of points at the moment /// </summary> public int GetPoints() { return points; } /// <summary> /// Sets thedefault starting position for the bats /// </summary> /// <param name="position"></param> public void SetPosition(Vector2 position) { if (position.Y < 0) { position.Y = 0; } if (position.Y > yHeight - size.Height) { position.Y = yHeight - size.Height; } this.Position = position; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current position of the bat /// </summary> public Vector2 GetPosition() { return Position; } /// <summary> /// Controls the bat moving up the screen /// </summary> public void MoveUp() { SetPosition(Position + new Vector2(0, -moveSpeed)); } /// <summary> /// Controls the bat moving down the screen /// </summary> public void MoveDown() { SetPosition(Position + new Vector2(0, moveSpeed)); } /// <summary> /// Updates the position of the AI bat, in order to track the ball /// </summary> /// <param name="ball"></param> public virtual void UpdatePosition(Ball ball) { size.X = (int)Position.X; size.Y = (int)Position.Y; } /// <summary> /// Resets the bat to the center location after a new game starts /// </summary> public void ResetPosition() { SetPosition(new Vector2(GetPosition().X, yHeight / 2 - size.Height)); } /// <summary> /// Used for the Growbat powerup /// </summary> public void GrowBat() { // Doubles the size of the bat collision size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width * 2, leftBat.Height * 2); } /// <summary> /// Used for the Shrinkbat powerup /// </summary> public void ShrinkBat() { // 1/2 the size of the bat collision size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width / 2, leftBat.Height / 2); } /// <summary> /// Draws the bats /// </summary> public virtual void Draw(SpriteBatch batch) { batch.Draw(leftBat, size, Color.White); } } }

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  • How to write to the OpenGL Depth Buffer

    - by Mikepote
    I'm trying to implement an old-school technique where a rendered background image AND preset depth information is used to occlude other objects in the scene. So for instance if you have a picture of a room with some wires hanging from the ceiling in the foreground, these are given a shallow depth value in the depthmap, and when rendered correctly, allows the character to walk "behind" the wires but in front of other objects in the room. So far I've tried creating a depth texture using: glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT, Image.GetWidth(), Image.GetHeight(), 0, GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, pixels); Then just binding it to a quad and rendering that over the screen, but it doesnt write the depth values from the texture. I've also tried: glDrawPixels(Image.GetWidth(), Image.GetHeight(), GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, pixels); But this slows down my framerate to about 0.25 fps... I know that you can do this in a pixelshader by setting the gl_fragDepth to a value from the texture, but I wanted to know if I could achieve this with non-pixelshader enabled hardware?

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  • The width of a list that contains an embedded matrix grows unexpectedly

    - by Greg Lorenz
    I have a report in reporting services 2005 that includes a list with an embedded matrix and am attempting to put a border on the list, however, when I run the report in visual studio the matrix is growing past the end of the page and therefore the boarder is growing with it causing it to grow into the second page. It appears that there was supposedly a fix for this in reporting services 2000 service pack 1 but I am still experianceing the issue in 2005. The list has a details group that limits the records on a row to 4 using the following expression: =ceiling(rownumber("list1")/4), the matrix has a column group that should recycle those based on the rownumber determined by the list using the following expression: =rowNumber("list1_Details_Group") I have also attempted to put the list in a rectangle in hopes to stop the matrix from growing to no avail. How do I effectivly stop the matrix form growing past the space allowed by the list control?

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  • Reconstructing simple 3d enviroment(room) from photo

    - by Riz
    I have photo of a room with three walls and floor/ceiling or both. I am trying to reconstruct this room in 3d asking user for minimal input. Right now I use 8 points defined by user, angles of left and right wall(they can be quite different from 90) and one size "InLeftBottom-InRightBottom"(I need to have real size of this room for later use). I have no info about user's camera(I can read EXIF to get FOV and use constant height but this can be only used as additional info). Is this possible to ask user for less info? Maybe it's possible to get wall angles without user interaction? Or maybe I am completly wrong and should use different approach?

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  • How to create a 2D map of room by a few images/movie frames ?

    - by Nils
    I'd like to create a simple 2D map of a room by getting pictures (ceiling) of all directions (360° - e.g. movie frames), recognize the walls by edge detection, delete other unwanted objects, concat the images at the right position (cf. walls, panorama) and finally create the approximate 2D map (looking on it from above). Getting the scale would be another parameter, which might be useful. I have some own ideas at the moment, by using e.g. the Sobel algorithm, but it would be interesting if somebody out there knows some project or software (GPL,freeware prefered) doing this already, as I'm still looking for some examples, which might help me. Thanks.

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  • Reinventing the Paged IEnumerable, Weigert Style!

    - by adweigert
    I am pretty sure someone else has done this, I've seen variations as PagedList<T>, but this is my style of a paged IEnumerable collection. I just store a reference to the collection and generate the paged data when the enumerator is needed, so you could technically add to a list that I'm referencing and the properties and results would be adjusted accordingly. I don't mind reinventing the wheel when I can add some of my own personal flare ... // Extension method for easy use public static PagedEnumerable AsPaged(this IEnumerable collection, int currentPage = 1, int pageSize = 0) { Contract.Requires(collection != null); Contract.Assume(currentPage >= 1); Contract.Assume(pageSize >= 0); return new PagedEnumerable(collection, currentPage, pageSize); } public class PagedEnumerable : IEnumerable { public PagedEnumerable(IEnumerable collection, int currentPage = 1, int pageSize = 0) { Contract.Requires(collection != null); Contract.Assume(currentPage >= 1); Contract.Assume(pageSize >= 0); this.collection = collection; this.PageSize = pageSize; this.CurrentPage = currentPage; } IEnumerable collection; int currentPage; public int CurrentPage { get { if (this.currentPage > this.TotalPages) { return this.TotalPages; } return this.currentPage; } set { if (value < 1) { this.currentPage = 1; } else if (value > this.TotalPages) { this.currentPage = this.TotalPages; } else { this.currentPage = value; } } } int pageSize; public int PageSize { get { if (this.pageSize == 0) { return this.collection.Count(); } return this.pageSize; } set { this.pageSize = (value < 0) ? 0 : value; } } public int TotalPages { get { return (int)Math.Ceiling(this.collection.Count() / (double)this.PageSize); } } public IEnumerator GetEnumerator() { var pageSize = this.PageSize; var currentPage = this.CurrentPage; var startCount = (currentPage - 1) * pageSize; return this.collection.Skip(startCount).Take(pageSize).GetEnumerator(); } IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() { return this.GetEnumerator(); } }

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  • Creating a frozen bubble clone

    - by Vaughan Hilts
    This photo illustrates the environment: http://i.imgur.com/V4wbp.png I'll shoot the cannon, it'll bounce off the wall and it's SUPPOSED to stick to the bubble. It does at pretty much every other angle. The problem is always reproduced here, when hit off the wall into those bubbles. It also exists in other cases, but I'm not sure what triggers it. What actually happens: The ball will sometimes set to the wrong cell, and my "dropping" code will detect it as a loner and drop it off the stage. *There are many implementations of "Frozen Bubble" on the web, but I can't for the life of me find a good explanation as to how the algorithm for the "Bubble Sticking" works. * I see this: http://www.wikiflashed.com/wiki/BubbleBobble https://frozenbubblexna.svn.codeplex.com/svn/FrozenBubble/ But I can't figure out the algorithims... could anyone explain possibly the general idea behind getting the balls to stick? Code in question: //Counstruct our bounding rectangle for use var nX = currentBall.x + ballvX * gameTime; var nY = currentBall.y - ballvY * gameTime; var movingRect = new BoundingRectangle(nX, nY, 32, 32); var able = false; //Iterate over the cells and draw our bubbles for (var x = 0; x < 8; x++) { for (var y = 0; y < 12; y++) { //Get the bubble at this layout var bubble = bubbleLayout[x][y]; var rowHeight = 27; //If this slot isn't empty, draw if (bubble != null) { var bx = 0, by = 0; if (y % 2 == 0) { bx = x * 32 + 270; by = y * 32 + 45; } else { bx = x * 32 + 270 + 16; by = y * 32 + 45; } //Check var targetBox = new BoundingRectangle(bx, by, 32, 32); if (targetBox.intersects(movingRect)) { able = true; } } } } cellY = Math.round((currentBall.y - 45) / 32); if (cellY % 2 == 0) cellX = Math.round((currentBall.x - 270) / 32); else cellX = Math.round((currentBall.x - 270 - 16) / 32); Any ideas are very much welcome. Things I've tried: Flooring and Ceiling values Changing the wall bounce to a lower value Slowing down the ball None of these seem to affect it. Is there something in my math I'm not getting?

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  • How to resolve concurrent ramp collisions in 2d platformer?

    - by Shaun Inman
    A bit about the physics engine: Bodies are all rectangles. Bodies are sorted at the beginning of every update loop based on the body-in-motion's horizontal and vertical velocity (to avoid sticky walls/floors). Solid bodies are resolved by testing the body-in-motion's new X with the old Y and adjusting if necessary before testing the new X with the new Y, again adjusting if necessary. Works great. Ramps (rectangles with a flag set indicating bottom-left, bottom-right, etc) are resolved by calculating the ratio of penetration along the x-axis and setting a new Y accordingly (with some checks to make sure the body-in-motion isn't attacking from the tall or flat side, in which case the ramp is treated as a normal rectangle). This also works great. Side-by-side ramps, eg. \/ and /\, work fine but things get jittery and unpredictable when a top-down ramp is directly above a bottom-up ramp, eg. < or > or when a bottom-up ramp runs right up to the ceiling/top-down ramp runs right down to the floor. I've been able to lock it down somewhat by detecting whether the body-in-motion hadFloor when also colliding with a top-down ramp or hadCeiling when also colliding with a bottom-up ramp then resolving by calculating the ratio of penetration along the y-axis and setting the new X accordingly (the opposite of the normal behavior). But as soon as the body-in-motion jumps the hasFloor flag becomes false, the first ramp resolution pushes the body into collision with the second ramp and collision resolution becomes jittery again for a few frames. I'm sure I'm making this more complicated than it needs to be. Can anyone recommend a good resource that outlines the best way to address this problem? (Please don't recommend I use something like Box2d or Chipmunk. Also, "redesign your levels" isn't an answer; the body-in-motion may at times be riding another body-in-motion, eg. a platform, that pushes it into a ramp so I'd like to be able to resolve this properly.) Thanks!

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  • career planning advice [closed]

    - by JDB
    Possible Duplicate: Are certifications worth it? I am at the point in my career where people start to veer off into either management-type roles or they focus on solidifying their technical skills to stay in the development game for the long-haul. Here's my story: I've got a degree in economics, an MA in Political Science and an MBA in Finance and Management. In addition, I've done coursework in advanced math and software development (although no degree in math or software). All-in-all, I've got 13 years of post-secondary education under my belt. I, however, currently work as a software developer using C# for desktop, Silverlight, Flex and javascript for web, and objective c for mobile. I've been in software development for the past 3.3 years, and it seems like it comes pretty easy to me. I work in a field called "geospatial information systems," which just involves customization and manipulation of geospatial data. Right now I am looking at one of several certifications. Given this background, which of these certifications has the highest ceiling? CFA PMP various development/technological certifications from Microsoft, etc. Other? My academic and work experience are all heavy on the analytical/development side, esp. so given the MBA and the B.S. in Econ. The political science degree was really a lot of stats. So it seems that I would be good pursuing more of the CFA/analytical role. This is a difficult path, however, because I have no work experience in the financial sector, and the developers in finance are all "quants," which again, I am OK with, but I haven't done much statistical modeling in the past 3.3 years. The PMP would require knowledge of best practices as it pertains explicitly to software development. I also don't enjoy a lot of business travel, a common theme for most PMP jobs I've seen. If certifications is the route, which would you recommend? Anything else? I've thought about going back to try to knock out a B.S. in C.S., but I wasn't sure how long that would take, or what would be involved. Thoughts or recommendations? Thanks in advance! I turn 32 this weekend, which is what has forced me to think about these issues.

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  • Facial Recognition for Retail

    - by David Dorf
    My son decided to do his science project on how the brain recognizes faces.  Faces are so complicated and important that the brain has a dedicated area for just that purpose.  During our research, we came across some emerging uses for facial recognition in the retail industry. If you believe the movies, recognizing faces as they walk by a camera is easy for computers but that's not the reality.  Huge investments are being made by the U.S. government in this area, with a focus on airport security.  Now, companies like Eye See are leveraging that research for marketing purposes.  They do things like track eyes while viewing newspaper ads to see which ads get more "eye time."  This can help marketers make better placement and color decisions. But what caught my eye (that was too easy) was their new mannequins that watch shoppers.  These mannequins, being tested at European retailers like Benetton, watch shoppers that walk by and identify their gender, race, and age.  This helps the retailer better understand the types of customers being attracted to the outfit on the mannequin.  Of course to be most accurate, the software has pictures of the employees so they can be filtered out.  Since the mannequins are closer to the shoppers and at eye-level, they are more accurate than traditional in-ceiling LP cameras. Marketing agency RedPepper is offering retailers the ability to recognize loyalty shoppers at their doors using Facedeal.  For customers that have opted into the program, when they enter the store their face is recognized and they are checked in.  Then, as a reward, they are sent an offer on their smartphone. It won't be long before retailers begin to listen to shoppers are they walk the aisles, then keywords can be collected and aggregated to give the retailer an idea of what people are saying about their stores and products.  Sentiment analysis based on what's said or even facial expressions can't be far off. Clearly retailers need to be cautions and respect customer privacy.  That's why these technologies are emerging slowly.  But since the next generation of shoppers are less concerned about privacy, I expect these technologies to appear sporadically in the next five years then go mainstream.  Time will tell.

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  • Best way to remote restart Ubuntu from Windows machine

    - by robsoft
    Background: I'm looking to put a series of Ubuntu machines into retail locations, they're being used as dumb kiosks to show a series of slides onto large LCD panel TV screens. Once installed, they won't have a keyboard or mouse connected but will have a fixed IP on the local network. Everything is configured to auto-start, no automatic updates, no power saving etc - I think we're pretty-much good to go apart from one thing. I need the retail staff to be able to restart the boxes if a problem arises. We have VNC running (now that we've turned off desktop enhancements!) so that we can remotely get into the machines if we need to, but that's not something we would allow the retail staff to do. The machines are going to be physically 'out of the way' (probably in the ceiling space) so the power button is not easily accessible!. I'd like to have some means of allowing the retail staff to restart the Ubuntu machine, from the desktop of one of their Windows terminals. I don't really want to give them some kind of raw terminal access (the command line will frighten them!) and I don't want them to use VNC (as stated above). Ideally there would be an icon on the Windows desktop, they double-click it, reply to a simple 'are you sure?' prompt, and then the Ubuntu box is told to restart. The Windows side of that won't be a problem, we can write something using Delphi, Python & Qt4, whatever - it's the Ubuntu side of it I'm stuck with. Out of sight/view, could I have a Windows program open a terminal across the network and tell Ubuntu to restart? Is this what SSH could be used for (I have never set that kind of thing up). The Windows programming side isn't really an issue, it's just that I'm a total Ubuntu noob and don't know where to start from the platform point of view. The other thing we considered is also having the machine automatically restart itself at a set time each day (obviously out of store hours!). To me, that seems a bit unnecessary (though forcing a restart once a week/month might be worthwhile). Any thoughts or suggestions? Being able to restart the box on demand across the network is my prime requirement.

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  • In-Store Tracking Gets a Little Harder

    - by David Dorf
    Remember how Nordstrom was tracking shopper movements within their stores using the unique number, called a MAC, emitted by the WiFi radio in smartphones?  The phones didn't need to connect to the network, only have their WiFi enabled, as most people do by default.  They did this, presumably, to track shoppers' path to purchase and better understand traffic patterns.  Although there were signs explaining this at the entrances, people didn't like the notion of being tracked.  (Nevermind that there are cameras in the ceiling watching them.)  Nordstrom stopped the program. To address this concern the Future of Privacy, a Washington think tank, created Smart Store Privacy, a do-not-track service that allows consumers to register their MAC address in much the same way people register their phone numbers in the national do-not-call list.  A group of companies agreed to respect consumers' wishes and ignore smartphones listed in the database.  The database includes Bluetooth identifiers as well.  Of course you could simply turn your bluetooth and WiFi off when shopping as well. Most know that Apple prefers to use BLE beacons to contact and track smartphones within their stores.  This feature extends the typical online experience to also work in physical stores.  By identifying themselves, shoppers can expect a more tailored shopping experience much like what we've come to expect from Amazon's website, with product recommendations and offers that are (usually) relevant. But the upcoming release of iOS8 is purported to have a new feature that randomizes the WiFi MAC address of smartphones during the "probing" phase.  That is, before connecting to the WiFi network, a random MAC number is used so as to keep the smartphone's real MAC address secret.  Unless you actually connect to the store's WiFi, they won't recognize the MAC address. The details on this are still sketchy, but if the random MAC is consistent for a short period, retailers will still be able to track movements anonymously, but they won't recognize repeat visitors.  That may be sufficient for traffic analytics, but it will stymie target marketing.  In the case of marketing, using iBeacons with opt-in permission from consumers will be the way forward. There is always a battle between utility and privacy, so I expect many more changes in this area.  Incidentally, if you'd like to see where beacons are being used this site tracks them around the world.

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  • Why datacenter water cooling is not widespread?

    - by MainMa
    From what I read and hear about datacenters, there are not too many server rooms which use water cooling, and none of the largerst datacenters use water cooling (correct me if I'm wrong). Also, it's relatively easy to buy an ordinary PC components using water cooling, while water cooled rack servers are nearly nonexistent. On the other hand, using water can possibly (IMO): Reduce the power consumption of large datacenters, especially if it is possible to create direct cooled facilities (i.e. the facility is located near a river or the sea). Reduce noise, making it less painful for humans to work in datacenters. Reduce space needed for the servers: On server level, I imagine that in both rack and blade servers, it's easier to pass the water cooling tubes than to waste space to allow the air to pass inside, On datacenter level, if it's still required to keep the alleys between servers for maintenance access to servers, the empty space under the floor and at the ceiling level used for the air can be removed. So why water cooling systems are not widespread, neither on datacenter level, nor on rack/blade servers level? Is it because: The water cooling is hardly redundant on server level? The direct cost of water cooled facility is too high compared to an ordinary datacenter? It is difficult to maintain such system (regularly cleaning the water cooling system which uses water from a river is of course much more complicated and expensive than just vacuum cleaning the fans)?

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  • sql server 2008 cluster hang when a heavy load is run

    - by Billy OT
    we have a sql server 2008 active/active cluster running on wondows 2008R2 O/S. 14GB RAM, 4xCPU. we have set a ceiling of 12GB for sql server. We're running an agent job which loads 3 million records to a database. during this load the job fails and the cluster seems to attempt to fail over to the other node but unsuccessfully i.e., the cluster address is no longer accessible. we have to manually fail the cluster node back. during the load on viewing task manager we can see that memory usage hits a max of 12.5GB and CPU at times hits 100% on all 4 CPU, but for the most part fluctuates at an average of about 60%. I suppose my question is, will a cluster try to fail over if memory or CPU are taking a heavy hit? or am i barking up the wrong tree? also any ideas why it wouldn't fully fail over? we've crawled through logs, of which there are a lot, and can't find anything useful. we've also tried recreating the issue but it ran successfully at a later time. Also 3 million rows doesn't seem like a lot but in terms of resources should 14GB RAM and 4xCPU not be sufficient? Further information on this, we ran the load again today and corrupted the database! We received the error message : LogWriter: Operating system error 170. It looks like, under the heavy load, the sql cluster attempted to fail over and in doing so migrated a lun (or drive) which meant the disk was no longer reachable. (this is just our theory). The database is now 'suspect' and requiring restoration. The 170 error above also indicates that on failing over to the other node, the sql service could not start as it was already in use, therefore it couldn't fail over fully?? But I'm wondering why would it need to fail over in the first place? My assumptions could be completely wrong on this, so any ideas would be appreciated.

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  • Cooling Server Closet - No A/C Is Possible

    - by JamesCo
    We're moving into a new office in an old building in London (that's England :) and are walling off a 2m x 1.3m area where the router & telephone equipment currently terminates to use as a server closet. The closet will contain: 2 24-port switches 1 router 1 VSDL modem 1 Dell desktop 1 4-bay NAS 1 HP micro-server 1 UPS Miscellaneous minor telephony boxes. There is no central A/C in the office and there never will be. We can install ducting to the outside quite easily - it's only a couple of metres to the windows, which face a courtyard. My question is whether installing an extractor fan with ducting to the window should be sufficient for cooling? Would an intake fan and intake duct (from the window, too) be required? We don't want to leave a gap in the closet door as that'll let noise out into the office. If we don't have to put a portable A/C unit into the closet, that'd be perfect. The office has about 12 people; London is temperate, average maximum in August is 31 Celsius, 25 Celsius is more typical. The same equipment runs fine in our current office (same building as new office, also no A/C) but it isn't in an enclosed space. I can see us putting say one Dell 2950 tower server into the closet, but no more than that. So, sustained power consumption in the closet would currently be about 800w (I'm guessing); possibly in the future 2kw. The closet will have a ceiling and no windows and be well-insulated. We don't care if the equipment runs hot, so long as it runs and we don't hear it.

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  • Can I get ethernet out of my Verizon FIOS set-top box?

    - by Tom Hughes
    Setup: my home network is long & skinny, and the FIOS-connected router is all the way at one of the apartment. At the other end, far away (and a floor higher) is my HD TV, which gets a cable-TV signal from a Verizon set-top box that is coax-connected back to the FIOS on-premises equipment. Wi-Fi won't work, the apartment is too stretched out, with old, thick walls and floors. Goal: I think there are three ways to get ethernet back to where the HD TV is: 1) run a cable! this isn't crazy but isn't cheap either (my building won't let me do it, it involves hiring an electrician because the cable would run partly through the public hallway ceiling) 2) split the coax near the TV and put in... a MoCA device? 3) somehow tease the set-top box, which has an RJ-11 (ethernet) port on the back, to give me network access. Question: any other choices? and, is one choice better than the others? #3 is by far the most desirable because it would involve the least wiring -- but I can't find any resources to help make it happen. #2 is a bit scary, I don't want to degrade service to the TV or anywhere else for that matter.

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  • What is the peak theoretical WiFi G user density? [closed]

    - by Bigbio2002
    I've seen a few WiFi capacity planning questions, and this one is related, but hopefully different enough not to be closed. Also, this is related specifically to 802.11g, but a similar question could be made for N. In order to squeeze more WiFi users into a space, the transmit power on the APs need to be reduced and the APs squeezed closer together. My question is, how far can you practically take this before the network becomes unusable? There will come a point where the transmit power is so weak that nobody will actually be able to pick up a connection, or be constantly roaming to/from APs spaced a few feet apart as they walk around. There are also only 3 available channels to use as well, which is a factor to consider. After determining the peak AP density, then multiply by users-per-AP, which should be easier to find out. After factoring all of this in and running some back-of-the-envelope calculations, I'd like to be able to get a figure of "XX users per 10ft^2" or something. This can be considered the physical limit of WiFi, and will keep people from asking about getting 3,000 people in a ballroom conference on WiFi. Can anyone with WiFi experience chime in, or better yet, provide some calculations for a more accurate figure? Assumptions: Let's assume an ideal environment with no reflection (think of a big, square, open room, with the APs spaced out on a plane), APs are placed on the ceiling so humans won't absorb the waves, and the only interference are from the APs themselves and the devices. As for what devices specifically, that's irrelevant for the first point of the question (AP density, so only channel and transmit power should matter). User experience: Wikipedia states that Wireless G has about 22Mbps maximum effective throughput, or about 2.75MB/s. For the purpose of this question, anything below 100KB/s per user can be deemed to be a poor user experience. As for roaming, I'll assume the user is standing in the same place, so hopefully that will be a non-issue.

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  • MongoDB on 128mb 32-bit VPS (plus Tornado and Redis)

    - by apito
    i am curious about how mongodb will perform in a limited vps. specifically, i'll deploy this configuration on 32-bit ubuntu 9.04 server with 128Mb memory (UPDATE: now i'm considering 360mb too). nginx and redis three instances of tornado apps (one is for mobile site; limited app, not my primary audience); has around 8 Collections. social webapp for my community. mongodb all beside mongodb seems to have small footprint. memory-mapping-wise, i dont know how mongodb will behave. i know it's a little bit a stretch to use this kind of config on a tiny vps, but that's what i can afford for now. i expect to have.. hmm.. maybe ~50 15rps. i did my homework doing a lot of frontend optimizations and yslow says grade A 91 (ruleset V2) :-) anyone willing to share experiences? eg. how big the data set size when mongo hit the ceiling, performance when mongo do a lot of disk IO, etc. thanks. UPDATE: this is my pet project. i'll get back to you when i have next spare time to do same httperf in a vbox with exact spec. suggestion how to do stress testing welcomed. i'm new to this kind of stuff.

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  • Three server processes consume no more than 50% of Dual Core CPU

    - by thor
    I have three processes running on Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. From watching output of 'top' and graphs of CPU load (drawn by MRTG, data collection via SNMP) I can see that CPU load is never more than 50%, and, most of the day, when those processes are busy CPU load has a ceiling at 50 %. I mean, CPU load grows up to 50% in the morning and stays there until late evening. My first thought was that only one core was used at 100% thus giving 50% of both CPUs. But, as there are three processes running and from 'top' I see that both cores are being loaded, so this is not the case. schedtool shows that CPU affinity for those three processes is at default, 0x03, allowing them to use both cores. If I force one process to one core (schedtool -a 0x01), and two others to second (schedtool -a 0x02), cumulative usage grows beyond 50%. Why three processes seem to consume only 50% of two cores? Why forcing them to different CPUs allows usage to grow higher? Any hints? P.S. Processes in question are Counter-Strike servers.

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  • ACER ASPIRE V3-571G-9435 Fan not kicking in leading to overclocking

    - by brythespy
    This laptop has always had this problem. The temperatures kick up to the thermal ceiling of 99C for the CPU (i7-3610QM) and 94C for the GPU (GT 640M). Problem is, the FAN doesn't give a damn. It's actually QUIETER when the temperatures are that high, than when it's at 60C or so. I figured it was a problem with the BIOS, so I updated that, no change. So maybe it was a problem with windows? Nope, same result on gaming with Ubuntu. The major problem of this, is that after gaming for ten minutes the CPU throttles itself to 1197MHz(as opposed to 3193), and the GPU goes down to 135MHz( as opposed to 843MHz). The problem is that the fan won't kick in like I know it can, because when the laptop is in POST, like at BIOS setup, the fan is like a vacuum cleaner it's so loud! I don't really care about noise, so I'd love to have the fan like that all the time as long as the temperatures don't fly through the roof... So, things I've tried so far, to avoid possible duplicate answers. Checked for dust: It's been this way since the laptop was new, and I've since then taken it apart. No dust buildup. Background stuff running?: No, problem persists across OS'es, and it happens while gaming anyways Manually underclocking both CPU/GPU: Using windows, I can force the CPU to stay at 1.1GHz, but the temperature STILL easily hits 99C after 5 min of gaming Contacted Acer support?: No help at all. They told me to update and reset the BIOS, which I have done multiple times. There are only about 6 changeable things anyway, none of which should affect the FAN control Third party fan control program?: None detect the fan So, I'm screwed until I can afford to replace this laptop, but I am very satisfied with performance in games... Whenever the CPU/GPU aren't being throttled. Anyone that can offer advice to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated. Hell, if you solved my problem I'd send you some monies through paypal.

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  • View AccuWeather Forecasts in Google Chrome

    - by Asian Angel
    Being able to keep an eye on the weather while at work or browsing the Internet is definitely helpful. If you like detailed forecasts then join us as we take a look at the Forecastfox Weather extension for Google Chrome. Getting Started As soon as the Forecastfox Weather extension has finished installing you will automatically be presented with the “Customize Forecastfox Page”. The default setting is for New York with English measurement units. Enter your location into the blank and hit “Enter” to display the listing for your city/area. If you are presented multiple options to choose from simply click on the appropriate listing. Once you have your city/area displayed you will notice that it is possible to have access to weather forecasts for multiple locations. You can easily remove any unneeded listings with the “Remove Link”. For our example we removed the New York listing. Note: Click on desired locations and measurement units to automatically set them as defaults (no save button required). Forecastfox Weather in Action You can hover your mouse over the “Toolbar Button” to see the current weather conditions. Clicking on the “Toolbar Button” opens a popup window with the current conditions, 7 day forecast, and a static satellite image. If desired you can access additional details for the current weather conditions. Clicking on “details” opens a new tab with a nice bit of information such as UV Index, Moon Phases, Cloud Ceiling, etc. Note: AccuWeather.com webpages will have some ads displayed. Perhaps you need the Hourly Forecast… Once again a new tab will be opened with the predicted hourly weather conditions for the current day. Going back to the popup window you may also select a specific day from the 7 day forecast. You will be presented with a “Day & Night” forecast for the chosen day with links to view “Additional Details & Hourly” information. Interested in the satellite image instead? You can click on either of the available links for larger images. Once the new tab is open you can choose from a variety of different satellite images. Conclusion If you have been wanting a solid weather forecast extension for your Chrome browser then Forecastfox Weather is definitely a recommended install. Links Download the Forecastfox Weather extension (Google Chrome Extensions) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add Weather Forecasts to Google ChromeView Weather Underground Forecasts in Google ChromeView the Time & Date in Chrome When Hiding Your TaskbarView Maps and Get Directions in Google ChromeGoogle Image Search Quick Fix TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Office 2010 Product Guides Google Maps Place marks – Pizza, Guns or Strip Clubs Monitor Applications With Kiwi LocPDF is a Visual PDF Search Tool Download Free iPad Wallpapers at iPad Decor Get Your Delicious Bookmarks In Firefox’s Awesome Bar

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