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• Keyboard freezes / stuck if a key pressed repeatedly

  - by Aziz Rahmad

  I use Acer 4530. This problem has happened long since Ubuntu 10.10 and now that I use 11.04 dual booted with Linux Mint 10. Everytime I press one key repeatedly, like when I read a long article in a website/ebook or when I play games which required me to press arrow keys repeatedly, it would randomly freeze. That is, whatever I press on keyboard has no effect, and that also happens with touchpad. However, the USB mouse works just fine. I later found out that it's not actually freeze but more like it's like the key stuck. For example when I play tetris which I usually press w (down) button repeatedly, after some times it would freeze. And if I put the cursor in, say, browser's address bar, it would type "wwww....." infinitely. The only way I could fix it is by suspend the laptop, either by using mouse or by closing the lid. And instead of suspended, in that case the laptop would automatically wake up and everything will be fine. (Usually my laptop would wake up after suspended by pressing any key) It has happened since the first time I use Ubuntu, 10.10, and it also happens in Linux Mint 10, and until now in Ubuntu 11.04. It never happened when I use Windows, though. Anyone has ever encounter similar problem? Anyone know how to fix it permanently?

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• Styles of games that work at low-resolution

  - by Brendan Long

  I'm taking a class on compilers, and the goal is to write a compiler for Meggy Jr devices (Arduino). The goal is just to make a simple compilers with loops and variables and stuff. Obviously, that's lame, so the "real goal" is to make an impressive game on the device. The problem is that it only has 64 pixels to work with (technically 72, but the top 8 are single-color and not part of the main display, so they're really only useful for displaying things like money). My problem is thinking of something to do on a device that small. It doesn't really matter if it's original, but it can't be something that's already available. My first idea was "snake", but that comes with the SDK. Same with a side-scrolling shooter. Remaining ideas include a tower defense game (hard to write, hard to control), an RPG (same), tetris (lame).. The problem is that all of the games I like require a high-resolution screen because they have a lot of text. Even a really simple game like nethack would be hard because each creature would be a single color. tl;dr What styles of games require a. No text; and b. Few enough objects that representing them each with a single color is acceptable? EDIT: To clarify, the display is 8x8 for a total of 64 pixels, not 64x64.

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• Styles of games that work at low-resolution

  - by Brendan Long

  I'm taking a class on compilers, and the goal is to write a compiler for Meggy Jr devices (Arduino). The goal is just to make a simple compilers with loops and variables and stuff. Obviously, that's lame, so the "real goal" is to make an impressive game on the device. The problem is that it only has 64 pixels to work with (technically 72, but the top 8 are single-color and not part of the main display, so they're really only useful for displaying things like money). My problem is thinking of something to do on a device that small. It doesn't really matter if it's original, but it can't be something that's already available. My first idea was "snake", but that comes with the SDK. Same with a side-scrolling shooter. Remaining ideas include a tower defense game (hard to write, hard to control), an RPG (same), tetris (lame).. The problem is that all of the games I like require a high-resolution screen because they have a lot of text. Even a really simple game like nethack would be hard because each creature would be a single color. tl;dr What styles of games require a. No text; and b. Few enough objects that representing them each with a single color is acceptable?

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• Keyboard freezes / stuck if a key pressed repeatedly

  - by Aziz Rahmad

  I use Acer 4530. This problem has happened long since Ubuntu 10.10 and now that I use 11.04 dual booted with Linux Mint 10. Everytime I press one key repeatedly, like when I read a long article in a website/ebook or when I play games which required me to press arrow keys repeatedly, it would randomly freeze. That is, whatever I press on keyboard has no effect, and that also happens with touchpad. However, the USB mouse works just fine. I later found out that it's not actually freeze but more like it's like the key stuck. For example when I play tetris which I usually press w (down) button repeatedly, after some times it would freeze. And if I put the cursor in, say, browser's address bar, it would type "wwww....." infinitely. The only way I could fix it is by suspend the laptop, either by using mouse or by closing the lid. And instead of suspended, in that case the laptop would automatically wake up and everything will be fine. (Usually my laptop would wake up after suspended by pressing any key) It has happened since the first time I use Ubuntu, 10.10, and it also happens in Linux Mint 10, and until now in Ubuntu 11.04. It never happened when I use Windows, though. Anyone has ever encounter similar problem? Anyone know how to fix it permanently? UPDATE I just recently installed Windows 7 and Windows 8 Development Preview and both have similar symptoms. So I declare that this problem is not OS specific, probably hardware problem.

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• Museum of Modern Art Starts Video Game Collection; Acquires Myst, Pac-Man, and More

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The Museum of Modern Art is weighing in on the video-games-as-art debate by starting a collection of iconic video games and putting them up for public display. Read on to see what games are included in the initial batch and the MoMA’s reasons behind starting a video game collection. Although the MoMA is slated to grow to over 40 titles, the seed batch is 14 titles including: Pac-Man, Tetris, Sim City 2000, Myst, Portal, and Dwarf Fortress. In the announcement they explain the motivation for building a video game collection: Are video games art? They sure are, but they are also design, and a design approach is what we chose for this new foray into this universe. The games are selected as outstanding examples of interaction design—a field that MoMA has already explored and collected extensively, and one of the most important and oft-discussed expressions of contemporary design creativity. Our criteria, therefore, emphasize not only the visual quality and aesthetic experience of each game, but also the many other aspects—from the elegance of the code to the design of the player’s behavior—that pertain to interaction design. In order to develop an even stronger curatorial stance, over the past year and a half we have sought the advice of scholars, digital conservation and legal experts, historians, and critics, all of whom helped us refine not only the criteria and the wish list, but also the issues of acquisition, display, and conservation of digital artifacts that are made even more complex by the games’ interactive nature. This acquisition allows the Museum to study, preserve, and exhibit video games as part of its Architecture and Design collection. The above quote is only a small snippet of a much lengthier look at the benefits of examining and preserving video games, hit up the link below to check out the full post including future titles the MoMA would like to include in their archive. Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters [Inside/Out] How To Boot Your Android Phone or Tablet Into Safe Mode HTG Explains: Does Your Android Phone Need an Antivirus? How To Use USB Drives With the Nexus 7 and Other Android Devices

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• Creating a 2D perspective in 3D game

  - by Accatyyc

  I'm new to XNA and 3D game development in general. I'm creating a puzzle game kind of similar to tetris, built with blocks. I decided to build the game in 3D since I can do some cool animations and transitions when using 3D blocks with physics etc. However, I really do want the game to look "2D". My blocks are made up of 3D models, but I don't want that to be visible when they're not animating. I have followed some XNA tutorials and set up my scene like this: this.view = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, Vector3.Zero, Vector3.Up); this.aspectRatio = graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.AspectRatio; this.projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView( MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f), aspectRatio, 1.0f, 10000.0f); ... and it gives me a very 3D-ish look. For example, the blocks in the center of the screen looks exactly how I want them, but closer to the edges of the screen I can see the rotation and sides of them. My guess is that I'm not after a perspective field of view, but any help on which field of view/settings to use to get a "flat" look when the blocks aren't rotated would be great!

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• I have an "amoeba" game mechanic. Any idea on how to implement it?

  - by Jason

  Outside of a tetris clone, a crappy 2D top-down shooter, and some messing around with stuff like Unity and Flixel, I realize that I have yet to complete a single, polished, bells-and-whistles game. I want to change this, and I have an idea for my next project. The idea is that you're an amoeba. Amoebas have these eye-like cores (or something like that, I don't know biology), and you have two of 'em. You control one with WASD and the other with IJKL. There has to be a constant radius of stuff around each of the cores: And the area of the amoeba has to stay constant. So if you move a core in one direction, you increase the amoeba's area, but that increase is compensated by a decrease somewhere else: Aaaaaand I'd like to implement a vagination mechanic. You absorb things by engulfing them, like a boss. Maybe even an extra core, or a needle that pops you and causes all your inner stuff to start gushing out: But here's the problem: I don't know how to make this. However, I would like some ideas on how to implement it. Should I explore physics libraries like Box2D? Or maybe something involving fluid physics? Any help would be much appreciated. P.S. Feel free to steal this idea. I have plenty of ideas. If you do, please tell me how you made it so I can try it myself.

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• How does a single programmer make a game?

  - by Mike

  I have always been a software developer, but lately I've been wanting to get into games. The only thing stopping me is the fact that I'm a programmer, not an artist. I've made some simple stuff, Tetris, 2D chess things like that but I can't do much art and that's really what holds me back. Now the problem is, I've yet to go to college so most commercial projects wouldn't accept me even to work for free and learn a bit especially with my lack of experience in games and any indie projects I've looked into really have an issue with responding to people interested, or actually completing (or starting really, most don't get past the ideas on paper) the project they want to do. I've looked around locally for artists, anyone who can do modeling, textures or animating or even anyone with some ability to make some more advanced 2D assets to get something like a side-scrolling RPG or something but haven't been able to find anyone. So how do you guys do it? Do I really just have to wait until I can go to college to see if I like working with games or is there some way I can get art (for free, anything I do is just going to be for fun so I don't want to have to sink money into it) and just start messing around on my own? Or am I just having bad luck and not looking in the right places for other people interested in having me help? I'm not looking for anything in particular, just something to fill some time with and see if I like making games. If not, well I'll go back to my software projects. I just have one more year of highschool and I'd like to try a few different areas before I go to college.

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• What's the right/standard way of achieving separation of concerns?

  - by Ghanima

  Some background: I want to start developing games, and taking some of the advice given in this site, I've started with something simple and familiar, such as pong, tetris, etc. I want to take as much time as needed to make sure that I have the basics right before moving on to something bigger. I have medium programming experience but I realize making games is a different thing. I find myself wondering many things like should this be in a separate class? Should this module handle this stuff or is it better to let other modules have that kind of functionality? For example, the bouncing of a ball in pong, right now is handled in the ball module, but maybe it's better that some other module did it. Right now I have different modules: one for the graphics, one for the game logic, and others for the objects (depending on the kind of movement required, not all the objects are alike). I know I am asking a lot, any tips you have will be very much appreciated. Short question: What's the right or standard way of separating the modules? What have you found most effective? Is it enough to just keep the drawing (graphics) and the logic separate? Is it necessary to have a lot of classes? (for example for the objects in the game, to handle the movement, etc)

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• How to pause and resume a game in XNA using the same key?

  - by user13095

  I'm attempting to implement a really simple game state system, this is my first game - trying to make a Tetris clone. I'd consider myself a novice programmer at best. I've been testing it out by drawing different textures to the screen depending on the current state. The 'Not Playing' state seems to work fine, I press Space and it changes to 'Playing', but when I press 'P' to pause or resume the game nothing happens. I tried checking current and previous keyboard states thinking it was happening to fast for me to see, but again nothing seemed to happen. If I change either the pause or resume, so they're both different, it works as intended. I'm clearly missing something obvious, or completely lacking some know-how in regards to how update and/or the keyboard states work. Here's what I have in my Update method at the moment: protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { KeyboardState CurrentKeyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); // Allows the game to exit if (CurrentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape)) this.Exit(); // TODO: Add your update logic here if (CurrentGameState == GameStates.NotPlaying) { if (CurrentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Space)) CurrentGameState = GameStates.Playing; } if (CurrentGameState == GameStates.Playing) { if (CurrentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.P)) CurrentGameState = GameStates.Paused; } if (CurrentGameState == GameStates.Paused) { if (CurrentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.P)) CurrentGameState = GameStates.Playing; } base.Update(gameTime); }

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, June 19, 2013

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, June 19, 2013Popular ReleasesSQL Compact Query Analyzer: 1.0.1.25676: Beta build of SQL Compact Query Analyzer Bug fixes: - Resolved issue where the application crashes when loading a database that contains tables without a primary key Features: - Displays database information (database version, filename, size, creation date) - Displays schema summary (number of tables, columns, primary keys, identity fields, nullable fields) - Displays the information schema views - Displays column information (database type, clr type, max length, allows null, etc) - Support...xFunc: xFunc (2.2.2.0): Added: hex, bin, oct numbers; gcd (greatest common factor) and lcm (least common multiple); Fixed: the "undef" function;Prism Model Factory Extensions: 1.0.0.0: Initial releaseCODE Framework: 4.0.30618.0: See change notes in the documentation section for details on what's new. Note: If you download the class reference help file with, you have to right-click the file, pick "Properties", and then unblock the file, as many browsers flag the file as blocked during download (for security reasons) and thus hides all content.Toolbox for Dynamics CRM 2011: XrmToolBox (v1.2013.6.18): XrmToolbox improvement Use new connection controls (use of Microsoft.Xrm.Client.dll) New display capabilities for tools (size, image and colors) Added prerequisites check Added Most Used Tools feature Tools improvementNew toolSolution Transfer Tool (v1.0.0.0) developed by DamSim Updated toolView Layout Replicator (v1.2013.6.17) Double click on source view to display its layoutXml All tools list Access Checker (v1.2013.6.17) Attribute Bulk Updater (v1.2013.6.18) FetchXml Tester (v1.2013.6.1...Media Companion: Media Companion MC3.570b: New* Movie - using XBMC TMDB - now renames movies if option selected. * Movie - using Xbmc Tmdb - Actor images saved from TMDb if option selected. Fixed* Movie - Checks for poster.jpg against missing poster filter * Movie - Fixed continual scraping of vob movie file (not DVD structure) * Both - Correctly display audio channels * Both - Correctly populate audio info in nfo's if multiple audio tracks. * Both - added icons and checked for DTS ES and Dolby TrueHD audio tracks. * Both - Stream d...LINQ Extensions Library: 1.0.4.2: New to release 1.0.4.2 Custom sorting extensions that perform up to 50% better than LINQ OrderBy, ThenBy extensions... Extensions allow for fine tuning of the sort by controlling the algorithm each sort uses.ExtJS based ASP.NET Controls: FineUI v3.3.0: ??FineUI ?? ExtJS ??? ASP.NET ???。 FineUI??? ?? No JavaScript，No CSS，No UpdatePanel，No ViewState，No WebServices ???????。 ?????? IE 7.0、Firefox 3.6、Chrome 3.0、Opera 10.5、Safari 3.0+ ???? Apache License v2.0 ?：ExtJS ?? GPL v3 ?????(http://www.sencha.com/license)。 ???? ??：http://fineui.com/bbs/ ??：http://fineui.com/demo/ ??：http://fineui.com/doc/ ??：http://fineui.codeplex.com/ FineUI???? ExtJS ?????????，???? ExtJS ?。 ????? FineUI ? ExtJS ?：http://fineui.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthrea...CMake Tools for Visual Studio: CMake Tools for Visual Studio 1.0 RC2: This is the second release candidate of CMake Tools for Visual Studio 1.0, which contains the following bug fixes and enhancements: The CMake Editor is now available for file extension mapping and in the Open With dialog box. A bug that caused CMake IntelliSense to appear when editing ordinary text files has been fixed. Commenting characters are now properly placed for large blocks of code. Smart indentation now behaves correctly when the cursor is not at the end of the line. Function...BarbaTunnel: BarbaTunnel 8.0: Check Version History for more information about this release.ExpressProfiler: ExpressProfiler v1.5: [+] added Start time, End time event columns [+] added SP:StmtStarting, SP:StmtCompleted events [*] fixed bug with Audit:Logout eventpatterns & practices: Data Access Guidance: Data Access Guidance Drop4 2013.06.17: Drop 4Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.94: add dstLine and dstCol attributes to the -Analyze output in XML mode. un-combine leftover comma-separates expression statements after optimizations are complete so downstream tools don't stack-overflow on really deep comma trees. add support for using a single source map generator instance with multiple runs of MinifyJavaScript, assuming that the results are concatenated to the same output file.Kooboo CMS: Kooboo CMS 4.1.1: The stable release of Kooboo CMS 4.1.0 with fixed the following issues: https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/1 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/11 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/13 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/15 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/19 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/20 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/24 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/43 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/45 https://github.com/Kooboo/CMS/issues/46 https://github....VidCoder: 1.5.0 Beta: The betas have started up again! If you were previously on the beta track you will need to install this to get back on it. That's because you can now run both the Beta and Stable version of VidCoder side-by-side! Note that the OpenCL and Intel QuickSync changes being tested by HandBrake are not in the betas yet. They will appear when HandBrake integrates them into the main branch. Updated HandBrake core to SVN 5590. This adds a new FDK AAC encoder. The FAAC encoder has been removed and now...Employee Info Starter Kit: v6.0 - ASP.NET MVC Edition: Release Home - Getting Started - Hands on Coding Walkthrough – Technology Stack - Design & Architecture EISK v6.0 – ASP.NET MVC edition bundles most of the greatest and successful platforms, frameworks and technologies together, to enable web developers to learn and build manageable and high performance web applications with rich user experience effectively and quickly. User End SpecificationsCreating a new employee record Read existing employee records Update an existing employee reco...OLAP PivotTable Extensions: Release 0.8.1: Use the 32-bit download for... Excel 2007 Excel 2010 32-bit (even Excel 2010 32-bit on a 64-bit operating system) Excel 2013 32-bit (even Excel 2013 32-bit on a 64-bit operating system) Use the 64-bit download for... Excel 2010 64-bit Excel 2013 64-bit Just download and run the EXE. There is no need to uninstall the previous release. If you have problems getting the add-in to work, see the Troubleshooting Installation wiki page. The new features in this release are: View #VALUE! Err...WPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 3.0.0.440: Version: 3.0.0.440 (Release Candidate): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. Please build the whole solution before you start one of the sample applications. Requirements .NET Framework 4.5 (The package contains a solution file for Visual Studio 2012) Changelog Legend: [B] Breaking change; [O] Marked member as obsolete Samples: Use ValueConverters via StaticResource instead of x:Static. Other Downloads Downloads OverviewBlackJumboDog: Ver5.9.1: 2013.06.13 Ver5.9.1 (1) Web??????SSI?#include???、CGI?????????????????????? (2) ???????????????????????????Free language translator and file converter: Free Language Translator 3.3: some bug fixes and a new link to video tutorials on Youtube.New ProjectsA model oriented programming language and IDE for model driven development: Mo+ Solution Builder is a model oriented programming language and integrated development environment for effective model driven development.ActiveWindowsStoreAppFromWin32: This is a dome of how to active Windows Store App From MFC and pass value to itAjax Jquery ASP.NET Control Toolkit: User Controls to facilitate ASP.NET integration to Ajax and JQuery components.Animations: empresaAricie - Distributed Caching Provider: Aricie - Distributed Caching Provider is a DotNetNuke module and a DNN caching provider, which leverages distributed caching technologies (AppFabric, Memcached)Background Action Pool<TParam, TReturn> (.Net Task Pool): Provides a generic typed Pool for running Tasks/Funcs in an extra thread with return value and various parameters for every task Bordecal.ImportsSorter: Visual Studio add-in for sorting imports/using blocksCodagenic Bootstrap Theme: Codagenic Ecommerce 3 ThemeeBook: eBook is an engine designed to perform text mining on TEI based document.Microsoft CRM 2011 RESTful Grid: MIcrosoft CRM 2011 RESTful Grid CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Destroy) data operations.MyHandsCursor 1.0: MyHandsCursor is a demo application that uses the Kinect for Windows SDK 1.7 .mylib2: mylib2nodejs chat server: nodejs websocket jquery chat serverPiGraph: Ph?n m?n h? tr? kh?o sát hàm s? - Pixels Ð?i H?c Khoa H?c T? Nhiên TP.HCM - Khoa Công Ngh? Thông TinPurpleKnife: The Swiss Army Knife for Extreme Networks XOS switches.PVMapper Desktop: PVMapper Open Source TeamSSQForecast: TESTStored Procedure Pager: Stored Procedure Pager is an open source asp.net/mvc user pager control.The most important feature is support for Stored Procedure.Tetris Online: A 2-player Tetris game you play against another person on the internet.ubdblib: A library providing multipolar model parameterization of electron density using ubdb aspherical atom data bank.Umbraco Multi User Picker: Multi User Picker is an Umbraco datatype for selecting one or more users.UnLinkAlbumTracks: Unlinks tracks in Windows Media Player, allowing them to have their album info updated independently.Vis på Google Maps hvor medlemmerne bor: This project is only relevant for people living in Denmark Ud fra en CSV-fil genererer dette lille program en KML fil indeholdende et koordinatsæt for hvor adresse i CSV-filen. Dette kan f.eks. bruges til at vise hvor medlemmerne af en forening bor.

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• What are the things I use every day programmed with?

  - by sub

  It isn't so interesting to find out what this text editor here or that IRC client there was programmed with, also it isn't really hard and neither are there really suprising things to come out. Wow so it was programmed in Python, I didn't expect that. What I'm asking is: What are the things that we daily see, use or generally need programmed with? To name a few (really only a few of those out there): My alarm clock It has many features so it would probably be hard programming it with assembler or whatever, so did they probably use a programming language? If yes, which? My electrical tooth brush The (stupid) board computer of my car. (6 years old, has few features but a red LED display showing me how cold/warm it is outside and how much gas I'm using up per hour at the moment) Those (old) plastic mini-mini computers with the LCD(?) displays that only had one game available on them: PacMan, tetris or so. I'm not directly thinking of this but it may be similar: Other, probably more interesting, things I didn't mention

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• Getting started with microcontroller programming

  - by Trix

  I'm a fairly good programmer, knowledgeable in C, C++, Python, Ruby and PHP. I'd like to get started with microcontroller programming. I do know nothing about this topic. Microcontrollers are minimal computers on little circuit boards, right? I'm pretty new to electronics too, do I need to be an expert in it to do stuff with microcontrollers? What can I do with them? Would e.g.: A Pacman or Tetris game on an LCD be possible and not too hard? Where should I start? Basically I want to program something really small I can then take with me. This is my only real goal. Are microcontrollers the right thing for this, or are there better solutions? I'd like to do this for fun and as a hobby, I don't want to become a professional in it.

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• Multiple Input From Keyboard C# WPF

  - by Alex

  I am writing a Tetris clone in WPF. If I hold down the right arrow key, the current piece shifts right. For playability, I want to allow the user to press another key (i.e. F-key) and rotate the moving piece without having to let go of the right arrow key first. Currently when I do this, the piece stops shifting. My first basic attempt at this was hooking into Window_PreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) and then sending a message to the controller layer. How do I structure my input-listening code to allow this? My current code Here

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• How do Arrays work in C#?

  - by Slateboard

  I know that they are used to store data, but I have a difficult time understanding exactly how to use them in a program. In addition, I found this site with a tetris clone tutorial (the actual tutorial is missing). It uses arrays, but I can't really make sense of how it works. Here's an example of the code - public int[, ,] TShape = new int[4, 4, 2] { {{1, 0}, {0, 1}, {1, 1}, {2, 1}}, {{1, 0}, {0, 1}, {1, 1}, {1, 2}}, {{0, 0}, {1, 0}, {2, 0}, {1, 1}}, {{0, 0}, {0, 1}, {1, 1}, {0, 2}}}; Could it be that I'm looking too hard into this, or perhaps there's something I'm not grasping about it?

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• Finding patterns in Puzzle games.

  - by José Joel.

  I was wondering, which are the most commonly used algorithms applied to finding patterns in puzzle games conformed by grids of cells. I know that depends of many factors, like the kind of patterns You want to detect, or the rules of the game...but I wanted to know which are the most commonly used algorithms in that kind of problems... For example, games like columns, bejeweled, even tetris. I also want to know if detecting patterns by "brute force" ( like , scanning all the grid trying to find three adyacent cells of the same color ) is significantly worst that using particular algorithms in very small grids, like 4 X 4 for example ( and again, I know that depends of the kind of game and rules ...) Which structures are commonly used in this kind of games ?

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• What did they program this toy with?

  - by Trix

  A rather strange question: I'm often asking myself with what programming languages things were created. I recently found this toy mini computer I played with when I was 13 or so at home. (Note: It is not one of those toy "notebooks", it's really small and came as an extra with a magazine) "Features": Hadware: LCD with a small field of pixels where the games were going on, besides that some stats such as score, highscore etc. Sounds and horrible music when started A really small "keyboard" with a wire Software: At least 14 or so games, from Snake over Tetris and Breakdown to some abomination of a car racing game A calculator Game selecting menu An alarm clock Inside there is a really small circuit board, I don't want to open the thing up now, though. Can you imagine if the games and "Operating System" of this thing where actually programmed using a language? If yes, what language could it be? If not with a programming language, how else was it created?

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• Will polishing my current project be a better learning experience than starting a new one?

  - by Alejandro Cámara

  I started programming many years ago. Now I'm trying to make games. I have read many recommendations to start cloning some well known games like galaga, tetris, arkanoid, etc. I have also read that I should go for the whole game (including menus, sound, score, etc.). Yesterday I finished the first complete version of my arkanoid clone. But it is far from over. I can still work on it for months (I program as a hobby in my free time) implementing a screen resolution switcher, remap of the control keys, power-ups falling from broken bricks, and a huge etc. But I do not want to be forever learning how to clone ONE game. I have the urge to get to the next clone in order to apply some design ideas I have come upon while developing this arkanoid clone (at the same time I am reading the GoF book and much source code from Ludum Dare 21 game contest). So the question is: Should I keep improving the arkanoid clone until it has all the features the original game had? or should I move to the next clone (there are almost infinite games to clone) and start mending the things I did wrong with the previous clone? This can be a very subjective question, so please restrain the answers to the most effective way to learn how to make my own games (not cloning someone ideas). Thank you! CLARIFICATION In order to clarify what I have implemented I make this list: Features implemented: Bouncing capabilities (the ball bounces on walls, on bricks, and on the bar). Sounds when bouncing on bricks and the bar, and when the player wins or loses. Basic title menu (new game and exit only). Also in-game menu and win/lose menus. Only three levels, but the map system is so easy I do not think it will teach me much (am I wrong?). Features not-implemented: Power-ups when breaking the bricks. Complex bricks (with more than one "hit point" and invincible). Better graphics (I am not really good at it). Programming polishing (use more intensively the design patterns). Here's a link to its (minimal) webpage: http://blog.acamara.es/piperine/ I kind of feel ashamed to show it, so please do not hit me too hard :-) My question was related to the not-implemented features. I wondered what was the fastest (optimal) path to learn. 1) implement the not-implemented features in this project which is getting big, or 2) make a new game which probably will teach me those lessons and new ones. ANSWER I choose @ashes999 answer because, in my case, I think I should polish more and try to "ship" the game. I think all the other answers are also important to bear in mind, so if you came here having the same question, before taking a rush decision read all the discussion. Thank you all!

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• How do I keep user input and rendering independent of the implementation environment?

  - by alex

  I'm writing a Tetris clone in JavaScript. I have a fair amount of experience in programming in general, but am rather new to game development. I want to separate the core game code from the code that would tie it to one environment, such as the browser. My quick thoughts led me to having the rendering and input functions external to my main game object. I could pass the current game state to the rendering method, which could render using canvas, elements, text, etc. I could also map input to certain game input events, such as move piece left, rotate piece clockwise, etc. I am having trouble designing how this should be implemented in my object. Should I pass references to functions that the main object will use to render and process user input? For example... var TetrisClone = function(renderer, inputUpdate) { this.renderer = renderer || function() {}; this.inputUpdate = input || function() {}; this.state = {}; }; TetrisClone.prototype = { update: function() { // Get user input via function passed to constructor. var inputEvents = this.inputUpdate(); // Update game state. // Render the current game state via function passed to constructor. this.renderer(this.state); } }; var renderer = function(state) { // Render blocks to browser page. } var inputEvents = {}; var charCodesToEvents = { 37: "move-piece-left" /* ... */ }; document.addEventListener("keypress", function(event) { inputEvents[event.which] = true; }); var inputUpdate = function() { var translatedEvents = [], event, translatedEvent; for (event in inputEvents) { if (inputEvents.hasOwnProperty(event)) { translatedEvent = charCodesToEvents[event]; translatedEvents.push(translatedEvent); } } inputEvents = {}; return translatedEvents; } var game = new TetrisClone(renderer, inputUpdate); Is this a good game design? How would you modify this to suit best practice in regard to making a game as platform/input independent as possible?

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• Can aptitude for learning Programming paradigms be influenced by culture or native language's gramma

  - by DVK

  It is well known that different people have different aptitudes regarding various programming paradigms (e.g. some people have trouble learning non-procedural, especially functional languages. Some people have trouble understanding pointers - see Joel Spolsky's blog for musings on that. Some people have trouble grasping recursion). I was recently reading about a study that looked at how the grammar of someone's native language affected their speed of learning math. Can't find that article now but a quick googling found this reference. That led me to wondering whether someone's native culture or first language might affect their aptitude towards various programming paradigms. I'm more curious about positive influences - e.g. some trait that make it easier/faster for someone to learn a particular paradigm, for example native language grammar being very recursion-oriented. To be clear, I'm looking for how culture/language grammare may affect the difference between aptitude of the same person towards various paradigms as opposed to how it affects overall aptitude towards programming between different persons. Important: the only answers I'm interested in are either references to scientific studies, or personal observations from someone intimately familiar with a particular culture/language, including from their own experience. E.g. I'm not interested in your opinion of how Chinese being your first language affects anything unless you speak Chinese or worked with extremely large set of Chinese-native programmers extensively. I'm OK with your guesstimates not based on scientific studies, but please be sure to supply your reasoning about plausible causes of your observation. I'm not interested in culture-bashing (any such commends will be deleted or flagged for deletion). I'm also not particularly interested in culture-building - we all know Linus is from Finland and Tetris was written in Russia and Larry Wall is an American. Any culture/nation can produce a brilliant mind in any discipline. I'm interested in averages.

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• PHP / C++ space calculations for parcel packing

  - by Andrew Willis

  I am working on a shopping cart project which requires a 'postage calculator' based on items that the person has in their cart. Obviously I will be storing the item's dimensions incl. weight and padding in a database and will also store the parcel (box) size and weight that the items will go in to, incl. box padding. Figuring the weight of the parcels will be easy but I was wondering how to go about figuring how to pack the box via PHP, that is, I would like the code to 'play tetris' with the items to make sure they get the best possible fit, giving accurate postage costs. Does anybody have any ideas on how best to achieve this or does anybody know of a PHP Class or function that can do this? EDIT: When I said 'best possible fit' maybe I was being optimistic! Having the script try every possible combination of package distribution within the parcel would be over the top, however I could improve the speed by writing the algoritm in C++ and running the program in PHP when the user 'checks out', the return value being an array with the parcel size and weight (which are all that are needed to calculate postage costs)

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• Making Javascript and HTML5 games

  - by Jeff Meatball Yang

  A long time ago (Netscape 4-era), I wrote Javascript-based games: Pong, Minesweeper, and John Conway's Life among them. I'm getting back into it, and want to get my hands even dirtier. I have a few games in mind: Axis & Allies clone, with rugged maps and complex rules. Tetris clone, possibly with real-time player-vs-player or player-vs-computer mode Breakout clone, with a couple weapons and particle velocities In all of these, I have only a few objectives: Use JavaScript and HTML 5 - it should run on Chrome, Safari, or maybe an iPad. Start small and simple, then build-up features. Learn something new about game design and implementation. So my questions are: How would you implement these games? Do you have any technology recommendations? If you've written these games, what was the hardest part? N.B. I also want to start from first-principles - if you recommend a framework/library, I would appreciate some theory or implementation details behind it. These games are different enough that I should learn something new from each one.

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• Should I be worried if I don't get any internships by 3rd year's end?

  - by karamba

  I am in some mediocre college in some corner of India. Am about to complete 3rd year C.S. in a month and a half. I have no idea how to go about "finding an internship" as everyone seems to put it. Looking at online advice, I find that a primary way is to "use your contacts". I am sad to say that I don't have many friends(those I have, I am trying to get help from them for all it's worth), and my family can't help me as they have no idea about the software industry. My college has no official facility for aiding students in this, and the few faculty members who had contacts in "whatever" part of the industry have favoured some students that they have personally come to know. (Though I hear that the "internships" they got involve them stocking equipment in some small companies.... still it's something?) I'm getting nervous. I am considering just spending the coming summer refining my skills in C++ and begin learning MySQL and C#, both of which I have zero experience in. Maybe work on my own project... like a library management system. Relative to those in my college, I think I am among the best programmers there, but that isn't saying much as a lot of students can barely write basic code. I have experience in teaching myself C++, and DirectX9 having created a Tetris clone, some basic 3D apps (bouncing balls), and a basic console-based, text-file-database-using library management system (which I plan to improve this summer). Is it alright if I spend my summer so? Will I be able to get a job later on? I know I have to improve my social skills to get anywhere in life, and I will try, but say I am stuck like this till 4th year's end... will such self studying, online learning help me in landing a decent job? Perhaps after I have learned a bit more, joining some open source project?

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• c# Xna keydown with a delay of 1 sec

  - by bld

  Hi!. im writing a tetris in xna. i have a class with a method rotateBlocks. When i press the "Up" arrow key. i wanna have that when i hold the button down for 1 sec or more that it executes the arguments in the first else if(rotating the blocks fast) right now nothing is happening. i have declared oldState globally in the class. if i remove the gametime check in first the else if the block will rotate fast imedietley. if i try to step through the code with linebreaks the resolution get f****d up public void RotateBlocks(loadBlock lb, KeyboardState newState, GameTime gameTime) { _elapsedSeconds2 += (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; if (lb._name.Equals("block1")) { if (newState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up) && !oldState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) { // the player just pressed Up if (_rotated) { lb._position[0].X -= 16; lb._position[0].Y -= 16; lb._position[2].X += 16; lb._position[2].Y += 16; lb._position[3].X += 32; lb._position[3].Y += 32; _rotated = false; } else if (!_rotated) { lb._position[0].X += 16; lb._position[0].Y += 16; lb._position[2].X -= 16; lb._position[2].Y -= 16; lb._position[3].X -= 32; lb._position[3].Y -= 32; _rotated = true; } } if (newState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up) && oldState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) { // the player is holding the key down if (gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds >=1) { if (_rotated) { lb._position[0].X -= 16; lb._position[0].Y -= 16; lb._position[2].X += 16; lb._position[2].Y += 16; lb._position[3].X += 32; lb._position[3].Y += 32; _rotated = false; } else if (!_rotated) { lb._position[0].X += 16; lb._position[0].Y += 16; lb._position[2].X -= 16; lb._position[2].Y -= 16; lb._position[3].X -= 32; lb._position[3].Y -= 32; _rotated = true; } _elapsedSeconds2 = 0; } }

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, June 30, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, June 30, 2012Popular ReleasesDotChess: DotChess v0.5.0: v0.5.0 Rearchitected the domain. Updated solution to Framework 4. Initiated test project. Implemented exceptions for errors. Improved coding style. Fixed minor bugs. Fixed setup shortcuts to use executable's icon. v0.4.0 Converted to Visual Studio 2010. Improved architecture.Magelia WebStore Open-source Ecommerce software: Magelia WebStore 2.0: User Right Licensing ContentType version 2.0.267.1EPPlus-Create advanced Excel 2007 spreadsheets on the server: EPPlus 3.1 Beta: EPPlus-Create advanced Excel 2010 spreadsheets This version contain version contains two new major features - VBA and conditional formatting New featuresVBACreate,read and write a VBA project from scratch or in a template. Add and modify modules and classes. Read and write code to documents(workbook and worksheets), modules and classes. VBA protection Code signing And more... Conditional FormattingApply conditional formatting on any range of cells. Choose between more than 40 diff...Supporting Guidance and Whitepapers: v1 - Supporting Media: Welcome to the Release Candidate (RC) release of the ALM Rangers Readiness supporting edia As this is a RC release and the quality bar for the final Release has not been achieved, we value your candid feedback and recommend that you do not use or deploy these RC artifacts in a production environment. Quality-Bar Details All critical bugs have been resolved Known Issues / Bugs Practical Ruck training workshop not yet includedDesigning Windows 8 Applications with C# and XAML: Chapters 1 - 7 Release Preview: Source code for all examples from Chapters 1 - 7 for the Release PreviewHyperStat.NET: Public Alpha Release: Ubuntu Installation Instructionssudo add-apt-repository ppa:xexenon/hyperstat.net sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install hyperstatMicrosoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.57: Fix for issue #18284: evaluating literal expressions in the pattern c1 * (x / c2) where c1/c2 is an integer value (as opposed to c2/c1 being the integer) caused the expression to be destroyed.Visual Studio ALM Quick Reference Guidance: v2 - Visual Studio 2010 (Japanese): Rex Tang (?? ??) http://blogs.msdn.com/b/willy-peter_schaub/archive/2011/12/08/introducing-the-visual-studio-alm-rangers-rex-tang.aspx, Takaho Yamaguchi (?? ??), Masashi Fujiwara (?? ??), localized and reviewed the Quick Reference Guidance for the Japanese communities, based on http://vsarquickguide.codeplex.com/releases/view/52402. The Japanese guidance is available in AllGuides and Everything packages. The AllGuides package contains guidances in PDF file format, while the Everything packag...Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Branching and Merging Guide: v1 - Visual Studio 2010 (Japanese): Rex Tang (?? ??) http://blogs.msdn.com/b/willy-peter_schaub/archive/2011/12/08/introducing-the-visual-studio-alm-rangers-rex-tang.aspx, Takaho Yamaguchi (?? ??), Hirokazu Higashino (?? ??), localized and reviewed the Branching Guidance for the Japanese communities, based on http://vsarbranchingguide.codeplex.com/releases/view/38849. The Japanese guidance is available in AllGuides and Everything packages. The AllGuides package contains guidances in PDF file format, while the Everything packag...SQL Server FineBuild: Version 3.1.0: Top SQL Server FineBuild Version 3.1.0This is the stable version of FineBuild for SQL Server 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005 Documentation FineBuild Wiki containing details of the FineBuild process Known Issues Limitations with this release FineBuild V3.1.0 Release Contents List of changes included in this release Please DonateFineBuild is free, but please donate what you think FineBuild is worth as everything goes to charity. Tearfund is one of the UK's leading relief and de...EasySL: RapidSL V2: Rewrite RapidSL UI Framework, Using Silverlight 5.0 EF4.1 Code First Ria Service SP2 + Lastest Silverlight Toolkit.SOLID by example: All examples: All solid examplesSiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: SiteMap Editor (1.1.1726.406): Use of new version of connection controls for a full support of OSDP authentication mechanism for CRM Online.Umbraco CMS: Umbraco CMS 5.2: Development on Umbraco v5 discontinued After much discussion and consultation with leaders from the Umbraco community it was decided that work on the v5 branch would be discontinued with efforts being refocused on the stable and feature rich v4 branch. For full details as to why this decision was made please watch the CodeGarden 12 Keynote. What about all that hard work?!?? We are not binning everything and it does not mean that all work done on 5 is lost! we are taking all of the best and m...CodeGenerate: CodeGenerate Alpha: The Project can auto generate C# code. Include BLL Layer、Domain Layer、IDAL Layer、DAL Layer. Support SqlServer And Oracle This is a alpha program,but which can run and generate code. Generate database table info into MS WordXDA ROM HUB: XDA ROM HUB v0.9: Kernel listing added -- Thanks to iONEx Added scripts installer button. Added "Nandroid On The Go" -- Perform a Nandroid backup without a PC! Added official Android app!ExtAspNet: ExtAspNet v3.1.8.2: +2012-06-24 v3.1.8 +????Grid???????（???????ExpandUnusedSpace????????）（??）。 -????MinColumnWidth（??????）。 -????AutoExpandColumn，???????????????（ColumnID）（?????ForceFitFirstTime??ForceFitAllTime，??????）。 -????AutoExpandColumnMax?AutoExpandColumnMin。 -????ForceFitFirstTime，????????????，??????????（????????????）。 -????ForceFitAllTime，????????????，??????????（??????????????????）。 -????VerticalScrollWidth，????????（??????????，0?????????????）。 -????grid/grid_forcefit.aspx。 -???????????En...AJAX Control Toolkit: June 2012 Release: AJAX Control Toolkit Release Notes - June 2012 Release Version 60623June 2012 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit. AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 3.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 3.5 and sample site (Recommended). Notes: - The current version of the AJAX Control Toolkit is not compatible with ASP.NET 2.0. The latest version that is compatible with ASP.NET 2.0 can be found here: 11121. - Pages using ...Cloud Media SharePoint Extension: Cloud Media SharePoint Extension: Version 0.1 Enables adding YouTube and Vimeo Video to a asset libraryComputation Visualizer: V 1.1d: ????????? ??????????, ??????????? ?? ??????New ProjectsCEP: CEP With Esper on Android Colorific: Colorific is a Visual Studio extension which enhances the syntax coloring support for C#.Dan's Utility Libraries: Dan's Utility Library is a collection of reusable code that I've written or found throughout my programming career.Delete Inactive TS Ports: The presence of Inactive TS Ports causes systems to hang or become sluggish and unresponsive. Printer redirection also suffers when there are a lot of Inactive TS Ports presents in the machine.FastNet: Extremely efficient WCF client and server for exchanging binary messages.FoodBank: Track what you eat with FoodBankGUIMalort: Malort is a raytracer developed in C++ and using Qt for the user interface. For now, it implements basic primitives, lights sources, global ambient light. Future improvements are about textures and procedural textures, bump mapping and animations.ImapClient for .NET: This ImapClient was created to incorporate Imap Mailbox Syncing with following features. This client is not full featured client, but it provides sufficient features to sync remote mail box easily and it is only free library which supports BODYSTRUCTURE correctly.iTunesContorol: iTunes??????????????、iTunes????????????????????????。JavascriptHelper - Managing JS files for ASP.NET MVC: JavascriptHelper is a MVC component to manage Javascript usage handling dependencies, CSS files and file placement.Jeanfish.com: JeanFish.comjFadeList: JQuery List Fade Plugin v1.0 betaLogwiz - Automate the collection of Performance monitor logs using logman.exe: This tool is used to automate the process of collecting Performance monitoring data using the logman.exe on Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2MtelAnalyzer: Mtel Analyzator analyze the transactions that your emplyees were made and find the best plan for lower pricing.patterns practices - HiloJS: Dev a Windows Metro style app using JavaScript: Hilo guides you though the development of a Windows Metro style app. The Hilo sample is a photo viewing app using HTML 5, CSS3 and JavaScript.PHP Database Management: A PHP library to facilitate MySql database managementpintos: pintosPlay N Hunt: Scanner for the website eternal-apocalypse.frPokemon Text Tools: Pokemon Stars SP ??ProjectEulerIssues: Collection of solved/processing tasks from ProkectEuler.netScheme.Net: A R5RS Scheme interpreter/compiler for the .NET runtime.Speed up Printer migration using PrintBrm and it's configuration files: This tool is used to create the BrmConfig.XML file that can be used for quickly restoring all the print queues using the Generic / Text Only driver when migrating from a 32bit to a 64bit server.SvnLightClient: ???? svn server url, username, password ??，???????svn??????。 ??????project checkout??????。（??）WikiQuizz: It's the first real game on Wikipedia!xlsdiff: Show changes between Excel filesXNATetris: Il gioco è un clone in XNA del classico Tetris. Permette la modalità single player con aumento della velocità di gioco in relazione al livello raggiunto.Xperf123 - Xperf perf data collection made as easy as 1-2-3: This tool is used to automate the process of collecting xperf traces easy without the user worring about the various settings and configuration options. Just select the kind of trace you want and this tool does the rest for you.

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