Search Results

Search found 15558 results on 623 pages for 'basic authentication'.

Page 370/623 | < Previous Page | 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377  | Next Page >

  • How do you properly organize a commercial game?

    - by Reactorcore
    For the past months I've been studying programming and I've finally learned how to code, but one thing that is confusing me is how to properly organize the design of a game project - code wise. The game I'm building is a pretty standard commercial game. It has the basic components of a normal game: A world, characters and items interacting with each other and all of this is run by game manager. Basically you play as a hero in a world and do stuff. Fight, explore and interact. Think of your standard adventure game that starts off with an intro, goes to the menu system, then gets into the game and back to the menu. Pretty much like 99% of any commercial game or otherwise serious game projects. Thats what I'm aiming at. The problem is: How do you properly code a commercial game architecture? How do you organize it? How do you make it not become unmaintainable spaghetti code? What specific things to keep in mind when building this, codewise? How you can help me: a) Please tell how do you code your own game projects. What is your thought-process when designing the architecture? b) Recommend books, blogs, tutorials, videos or anything else on how to organize a commercial video game. c) Give hints and tips on do's/don'ts when building a game, codewise. Please help!

    Read the article

  • Is the separation of program logic and presentation layer going too far?

    - by Timwi
    In a Drupal programming guide, I noticed this sentence: The theme hook receives the total number of votes and the number of votes for just that item, but the template wants to display a percentage. That kind of work shouldn't be done in a template; instead, the math is performed here. The math necessary to calculate a percentage from a total and a number is (number/total)*100. Is this application of two basic arithmetic operators within a presentation layer already too much? Is the maintenance of the entire system severely compromised by this amount of mathematics? The WPF (Windows Presentation Framework) and its UI mark-up language, XAML, seem to go to similar extremes. If you try to so much as add two numbers in the View (the presentation layer), you have committed a cardinal sin. Consequently, XAML has no operators for any arithmetic whatsoever. Is this ultra-strict separation really the holy grail of programming? What are the significant gains to be had from taking the separation to such extremes?

    Read the article

  • JDK bug migration: bugs.sun.com now backed by JIRA

    - by darcy
    The JDK bug migration from a Sun legacy system to JIRA has reached another planned milestone: the data displayed on bugs.sun.com is now backed by JIRA rather than by the legacy system. Besides maintaining the URLs to old bugs, bugs filed since the migration to JIRA are now visible too. The basic information presented about a bug is the same as before, but reformatted and using JIRA terminology: Instead of a "category", a bug now has a "component / subcomponent" classification. As outlined previously, part of the migration effort was reclassifying bugs according to a new classification scheme; I'll write more about the new scheme in a subsequent blog post. Instead of a list of JDK versions a bug is "reported against," there is a list of "affected versions." The names of the JDK versions have largely been regularized; code names like "tiger" and "mantis" have been replaced by the release numbers like "5.0" and "1.4.2". Instead of "release fixed," there are now "Fixed Versions." The legacy system had many fields that could hold a sequence of text entries, including "Description," "Workaround", and "Evaluation." JIRA instead only has two analogous fields labeled as "Description" and a unified stream of "Comments." Nearly coincident with switching to JIRA, we also enabled an agent which automatically updates a JIRA issue in response to pushes into JDK-related Hg repositories. These comments include the changeset URL, the user making the push, and a time stamp. These comments are first added when a fix is pushed to a team integration repository and then added again when the fix is pushed into the master repository for a release. We're still in early days of production usage of JIRA for JDK bug tracking, but the transition to production went smoothly and over 1,000 new issues have already been filed. Many other facets of the migration are still in the works, including hosting new incidents filed at bugs.sun.com in a tailored incidents project in JIRA.

    Read the article

  • How do I create my own programming language and a compiler for it

    - by Dave
    I am thorough with programming and have come across languages including BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, LISP, LOGO, Java, C++, C, MATLAB, Mathematica, Python, Ruby, Perl, JavaScript, Assembly and so on. I can't understand how people create programming languages and devise compilers for it. I also couldn't understand how people create OS like Windows, Mac, UNIX, DOS and so on. The other thing that is mysterious to me is how people create libraries like OpenGL, OpenCL, OpenCV, Cocoa, MFC and so on. The last thing I am unable to figure out is how scientists devise an assembly language and an assembler for a microprocessor. I would really like to learn all of these stuff and I am 15 years old. I always wanted to be a computer scientist someone like Babbage, Turing, Shannon, or Dennis Ritchie. I have already read Aho's Compiler Design and Tanenbaum's OS concepts book and they all only discuss concepts and code in a high level. They don't go into the details and nuances and how to devise a compiler or operating system. I want a concrete understanding so that I can create one myself and not just an understanding of what a thread, semaphore, process, or parsing is. I asked my brother about all this. He is a SB student in EECS at MIT and hasn't got a clue of how to actually create all these stuff in the real world. All he knows is just an understanding of Compiler Design and OS concepts like the ones that you guys have mentioned (i.e. like Thread, Synchronization, Concurrency, memory management, Lexical Analysis, Intermediate code generation and so on)

    Read the article

  • Software development is (mostly) a trade, and what to do about it

    - by Jeff
    (This is another cross-post from my personal blog. I don’t even remember when I first started to write it, but I feel like my opinion is well enough baked to share.) I've been sitting on this for a long time, particularly as my opinion has changed dramatically over the last few years. That I've encountered more crappy code than maintainable, quality code in my career as a software developer only reinforces what I'm about to say. Software development is just a trade for most, and not a huge academic endeavor. For those of you with computer science degrees readying your pitchforks and collecting your algorithm interview questions, let me explain. This is not an assault on your way of life, and if you've been around, you know I'm right about the quality problem. You also know the HR problem is very real, or we wouldn't be paying top dollar for mediocre developers and importing people from all over the world to fill the jobs we can't fill. I'm going to try and outline what I see as some of the problems, and hopefully offer my views on how to address them. The recruiting problem I think a lot of companies are doing it wrong. Over the years, I've had two kinds of interview experiences. The first, and right, kind of experience involves talking about real life achievements, followed by some variation on white boarding in pseudo-code, drafting some basic system architecture, or even sitting down at a comprooder and pecking out some basic code to tackle a real problem. I can honestly say that I've had a job offer for every interview like this, save for one, because the task was to debug something and they didn't like me asking where to look ("everyone else in the company died in a plane crash"). The other interview experience, the wrong one, involves the classic torture test designed to make the candidate feel stupid and do things they never have, and never will do in their job. First they will question you about obscure academic material you've never seen, or don't care to remember. Then they'll ask you to white board some ridiculous algorithm involving prime numbers or some kind of string manipulation no one would ever do. In fact, if you had to do something like this, you'd Google for a solution instead of waste time on a solved problem. Some will tell you that the academic gauntlet interview is useful to see how people respond to pressure, how they engage in complex logic, etc. That might be true, unless of course you have someone who brushed up on the solutions to the silly puzzles, and they're playing you. But here's the real reason why the second experience is wrong: You're evaluating for things that aren't the job. These might have been useful tactics when you had to hire people to write machine language or C++, but in a world dominated by managed code in C#, or Java, people aren't managing memory or trying to be smarter than the compilers. They're using well known design patterns and techniques to deliver software. More to the point, these puzzle gauntlets don't evaluate things that really matter. They don't get into code design, issues of loose coupling and testability, knowledge of the basics around HTTP, or anything else that relates to building supportable and maintainable software. The first situation, involving real life problems, gives you an immediate idea of how the candidate will work out. One of my favorite experiences as an interviewee was with a guy who literally brought his work from that day and asked me how to deal with his problem. I had to demonstrate how I would design a class, make sure the unit testing coverage was solid, etc. I worked at that company for two years. So stop looking for algorithm puzzle crunchers, because a guy who can crush a Fibonacci sequence might also be a guy who writes a class with 5,000 lines of untestable code. Fashion your interview process on ways to reveal a developer who can write supportable and maintainable code. I would even go so far as to let them use the Google. If they want to cut-and-paste code, pass on them, but if they're looking for context or straight class references, hire them, because they're going to be life-long learners. The contractor problem I doubt anyone has ever worked in a place where contractors weren't used. The use of contractors seems like an obvious way to control costs. You can hire someone for just as long as you need them and then let them go. You can even give them the work that no one else wants to do. In practice, most places I've worked have retained and budgeted for the contractor year-round, meaning that the $90+ per hour they're paying (of which half goes to the person) would have been better spent on a full-time person with a $100k salary and benefits. But it's not even the cost that is an issue. It's the quality of work delivered. The accountability of a contractor is totally transient. They only need to deliver for as long as you keep them around, and chances are they'll never again touch the code. There's no incentive for them to get things right, there's little incentive to understand your system or learn anything. At the risk of making an unfair generalization, craftsmanship doesn't matter to most contractors. The education problem I don't know what they teach in college CS courses. I've believed for most of my adult life that a college degree was an essential part of being successful. Of course I would hold that bias, since I did it, and have the paper to show for it in a box somewhere in the basement. My first clue that maybe this wasn't a fully qualified opinion comes from the fact that I double-majored in journalism and radio/TV, not computer science. Eventually I worked with people who skipped college entirely, many of them at Microsoft. Then I worked with people who had a masters degree who sucked at writing code, next to the high school diploma types that rock it every day. I still think there's a lot to be said for the social development of someone who has the on-campus experience, but for software developers, college might not matter. As I mentioned before, most of us are not writing compilers, and we never will. It's actually surprising to find how many people are self-taught in the art of software development, and that should reveal some interesting truths about how we learn. The first truth is that we learn largely out of necessity. There's something that we want to achieve, so we do what I call just-in-time learning to meet those goals. We acquire knowledge when we need it. So what about the gaps in our knowledge? That's where the most valuable education occurs, via our mentors. They're the people we work next to and the people who write blogs. They are critical to our professional development. They don't need to be an encyclopedia of jargon, but they understand the craft. Even at this stage of my career, I probably can't tell you what SOLID stands for, but you can bet that I practice the principles behind that acronym every day. That comes from experience, augmented by my peers. I'm hell bent on passing that experience to others. Process issues If you're a manager type and don't do much in the way of writing code these days (shame on you for not messing around at least), then your job is to isolate your tradespeople from nonsense, while bringing your business into the realm of modern software development. That doesn't mean you slap up a white board with sticky notes and start calling yourself agile, it means getting all of your stakeholders to understand that frequent delivery of quality software is the best way to deal with change and evolving expectations. It also means that you have to play technical overlord to make sure the education and quality issues are dealt with. That's why I make the crack about sticky notes, because without the right technique being practiced among your code monkeys, you're just a guy with sticky notes. You're asking your business to accept frequent and iterative delivery, now make sure that the folks writing the code can handle the same thing. This means unit testing, the right instrumentation, integration tests, automated builds and deployments... all of the stuff that makes it easy to see when change breaks stuff. The prognosis I strongly believe that education is the most important part of what we do. I'm encouraged by things like The Starter League, and it's the kind of thing I'd love to see more of. I would go as far as to say I'd love to start something like this internally at an existing company. Most of all though, I can't emphasize enough how important it is that we mentor each other and share our knowledge. If you have people on your staff who don't want to learn, fire them. Seriously, get rid of them. A few months working with someone really good, who understands the craftsmanship required to build supportable and maintainable code, will change that person forever and increase their value immeasurably.

    Read the article

  • Problem with DirectX scene-graph

    - by Alex
    I'm trying to implement a basic scene graph in DirectX using C++. I am using a left child-right sibling binary tree to do this. I'm having trouble updating each node's world transformation relative to its parent (and its parent's parent etc.). I'm struggling to get it to work recursively, though I can get it to work like this: for(int i = 0; i < NUM_OBJECTS; i++) { // Initialize to identity matrix. D3DXMatrixIdentity(&mObject[i].toWorldXForm); int k = i; while( k != -1 ) { mObject[i].toWorldXForm *= mObject[k].toParentXForm; k = mObject[k].parent; } } toWorldXForm is the object's world transform and toParentXForm is the object's transform relative to the parent. I want to do this using a method within my object class (the code above is in my main class). This is what I've tried but it doesn't work (only works with nodes 1 generation away from the root) if (this->sibling != NULL) this->sibling->update(toParentXForm); D3DXMatrixIdentity(&toWorldXForm); this->toWorldXForm *= this->toParentXForm; this->toWorldXForm *= toParentXForm; toParentXForm *= this->toParentXForm; if (this->child != NULL) this->child->update(toParentXForm); Sorry if I've not been clear, please tell me if there's anything else you need to know. I've no doubt it's merely a silly mistake on my part, hopefully an outside view will be able to spot the problem.

    Read the article

  • Would it be a good idea to work on letting people add arrays of numbers in javascript?

    - by OneThreeSeven
    I am a very mathematically oriented programmer, and I happen to be doing a lot of java script these days. I am really disappointed in the math aspects of javascript: the Math object is almost a joke because it has so few methods you can't use ^ for exponentiation the + operator is very limited, you cant add array's of numbers or do scalar multiplication on arrays Now I have written some pretty basic extensions to the Math object and have considered writing a library of advanced Math features, amazingly there doesn't seem to be any sort of standard library already out even for calculus, although there is one for vectors and matricies I was able find. The notation for working with vectors and matricies is really bad when you can't use the + operator on arrays, and you cant do scalar multiplication. For example, here is a hideous expression for subtracting two vectors, A - B: Math.vectorAddition(A,Math.scalarMultiplication(-1,B)); I have been looking for some kind of open-source project to contribute to for awhile, and even though my C++ is a bit rusty I would very much like to get into the code for V8 engine and extend the + operator to work on arrays, to get scalar multiplication to work, and possibly to get the ^ operator to work for exponentiation. These things would greatly enhance the utility of any mathematical javascript framework. I really don't know how to get involved in something like the V8 engine other than download the code and start working on it. Of course I'm afraid that since V8 is chrome specific, that without browser cross-compatibility a fundamental change of this type is likely to be rejected for V8. I was hoping someone could either tell me why this is a bad idea, or else give me some pointers about how to proceed at this point to get some kind of approval to add these features. Thanks!

    Read the article

  • The Iron Bird Approach

    - by David Paquette
    It turns out that designing software is not so different than designing commercial aircraft.  I just finished watching a video that talked about the approach that Bombardier is taking in designing the new C Series aircraft.  I was struck by the similarities to agile approaches to software design.  In the video, Bombardier describes how they are using an Iron Bird to work through a number of design questions in advance of ever having a version of the aircraft that can ever be flown.  The Iron Bird is a life size replica of the plane.  Based on the name, I would assume the plane is built in a very heavy material that could never fly.  Using this replica, Bombardier is able to valid certain assumptions such as the length of each wire in the electric system.  They are also able to confirm that some parts are working properly (like the rudders).  They even go as far as to have a complete replica of the cockpit.  This allows Bombardier to put pilots in the cockpit to run through simulated take-off and landing sequences. The basic tenant of the approach seems to be Validate your design early with working prototypes Get feedback from users early, well in advance of finishing the end product   In software development, we tend to think of ourselves as special.  I often tell people that it is difficult to draw comparisons to building items in the physical world (“Building software is nothing like building a sky scraper”).  After watching this video, I am wondering if designing/building software is actually a lot like designing/building commercial aircraft.   Watch the video here (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/video/video-selling-the-c-series/article4400616/)

    Read the article

  • Class hierarchy problem in this social network model

    - by Gerenuk
    I'm trying to design a class system for a social network data model - basically a link/object system. Now I have roughly the following structure (simplified and only relevant methods shown) class Data: "used to handle the data with mongodb" "can link, unlink data and also return other linked data" "is basically a proxy object that only stores _id and accesses mongodb on requests" "it looks like {_id: ..., _out: [id1, id2,...], _inc: [id3, id4, ...]}" def get_node(self, id) "create a new Data object from the underlying mongodb" "each data object can potentially create a reference object to new mongo data" "this is needed when the data returns the linked objects" class Node: """ this class proxies linking calls to .data it includes additional network logic operations whereas Data only contains a basic database solution """ def __init__(self, data): "the infrastructure realization is stored as composition by an included object data" "Node bascially proxies most calls to the infrastructure object data" def get_node(self, data): "creates a new object of class Object or Link depending on data" class Object(Node): "can have multiple connections to Link" class Link(Node): "has one 'in' and one 'out' connection to an Object" This system is working, however maybe wouldn't work outside Python. Note that after reading links Now I have two questions here: 1) I want to infrastructure of the data storage to be replacable. Earlier I had Data as a superclass of Node so that it provided the neccessary calls. But (without dirty Python tricks) you cannot replace the superclass dynamically. Is using composition therefore recommended? The drawback is that I have to proxy most calls (link, unlink etc). Any thoughts? 2) The class Node contains the common method .get_node which is used to built new Object or Link instances after reading out the data. Some attribute of data decided whether the object which is only stored by id should be instantiated as an Object or Link class. The problem here is that Node needs to know about Object and Link in advance, which seems dodgy. Do you see a different solution? Both Object and Link need to instantiate one of all possible types depending on what the find in their linked data. Are there any other ideas how to implement a flexible Object/Link structure where the underlying database storage is isolated?

    Read the article

  • Which language is more suitable heavy file tasks?

    - by All
    I need to write a script (based on basic functions) to process /image/audio/video files. The process is mainly filesystem tasks and converts. The database of files has been stored by mysql. The script is simple but cause heavy tasks on the system; for example renaming/converting/copying thousands of file in a run. The script does not read the content of files into memory, it just manage the commands for sub-processes. The main weight is on the communication with filesystem. The script will be used regularly for new files. My concern is about performance. I am thinking of Shell script a complied language like C Please advise which programming language is more suitable for this purpose and why? UPDATE: An example is to scan a folder for images, convert them with ImageMagick, move files to destination folder, get file info, then update the database. As you can see, the process has no room for optimization, and most of languages have similar APIs for popular programs like ImageMagick, MySQL, etc. Thus, it can be written in any language. I just wish to reduce resource usage by speeding up the long loop. NOTE: I know that questions about comparing languages are not favorable, but I really had problem to choose, because the problems can appear in action.

    Read the article

  • Friday Fun: Abduction

    - by Mysticgeek
    Finally another Friday has arrived and it’s time to waste the afternoon on company time playing a flash game. Today we take a look at a fun game called Abduction. Abduction Abduction is a neat game where you snatch people and livestock to sell them on the intergalactic market.   The controls are basic using the arrow keys or W,A,S,D and the left mouse button. Here is the tutorial that you can play first to get the hang of it. While you’re abducting hillbillies, they throw pitch forks and other objects at your craft so you need to avoid them.   The game has several levels to keep you distracted until quitting time. Play Abduction at FreeWebArcade Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Take Screenshots in Firefox the Easy WayFriday Fun: Portal, the Flash VersionFriday Fun: Play Bubble QuodFriday Fun: Gravitee 2Friday Fun: Compulse 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional How to Browse Privately in Firefox Kill Processes Quickly with Process Assassin Need to Come Up with a Good Name? Try Wordoid StockFox puts a Lightweight Stock Ticker in your Statusbar Explore Google Public Data Visually The Ultimate Excel Cheatsheet

    Read the article

  • Better solution then simple factory method when concrete implementations have different attributes

    - by danip
    abstract class Animal { function eat() {..} function sleep() {..} function isSmart() } class Dog extends Animal { public $blnCanBark; function isSmart() { return $this->blnCanBark; } } class Cat extends Animal { public $blnCanJumpHigh; function isSmart() { return $this->blnCanJumpHigh; } } .. and so on up to 10-20 animals. Now I created a factory using simple factory method and try to create instances like this: class AnimalFactory { public static function create($strName) { switch($strName) { case 'Dog': return new Dog(); case 'Cat': return new Cat(); default: break; } } } The problem is I can't set the specific attributes like blnCanBark, blnCanJumpHigh in an efficient way. I can send all of them as extra params to create but this will not scale to more then a few classes. Also I can't break the inheritance because a lot of the basic functionality is the same. Is there a better pattern to solve this?

    Read the article

  • ubuntu mass deployment kickstart file how/where?

    - by gkrawiec
    i've succesfully been able to prepare an OEM image that is ready to be cloned and installed in about 1100 machines. My only issue right now is that when the machine boots for the first time it asks for the basic setup questions. I think I have the kickstart file ready, but I dont know how to call it. My logic says that before I run the "prepare to ship to end user" script that I have to modify the boot parameters to call the ks file so the ks.cfg file goes with each drive. My issue is I cant figure out how to modify the boot parameters. Also, i dont know if there is a log i can check to see if its actually calling it or not. I am using ubuntu 12.04 desktop x64. I am trying on /etc/default/grub by modifying one line from GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash ks=file:/ks.cfg" then I run an update-grub but its not working. My ks.cfg file is: ----------------------- #Generated by Kickstart Configurator #System language lang en_US #System keyboard keyboard us #System timezone timezone America/Tijuana Initial user user mytestuser --fullname "Test User" --iscrypted --password $sdfsfsdgthrttyujtkyktru #Rebootafter installation reboot ------------------------- what am I doing wrong? thanks, -gk

    Read the article

  • Problem with sound driver

    - by JiminP
    I had problem that sound had lag in Flash. (Other than that, there was no problem.) On the internet, I found that installing OSS4 might help me. So I installed OSS4, but there was some problems (no sound on Flash, and couldn't use function key on the laptop - which is quite annoying), so I try to remove OSS4 and re-installing sound modules. After some mess-up, the whole sound was gone. I used Ubuntu for a year, but I don't know how to use the terminal well (All I know is basic commands like sudo, ls, or apt-get).. Now I'm trying to recover by following instructions at this page, but I have some problems... :( When I try to follow instructions: sudo aplay -l finds no sound drivers. find /lib/modules/'uname -r' | grep snd (backtick changed to ' due to code markup) returns nothing. When I try to do sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-'uname -r' linux-generic, it says that it can't find linux-restricted-modules-3.0.0-13-generic package. lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio" returns this, which doesn't contain anything about the name of the driver. Writing sudo modprobe sn and pressing tab twice only returns sudo modprobe sn9c102. sudo aptitude --purge reinstall linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils linux-image-'uname -r' linux-ubuntu-modules-'uname -r' libasound2 returns this, and didn't change non of above. sudo apt-get install linux-alsa-driver-modules-$(uname -r) fails because it can't find the package linux-alsa-driver-modules-3.0.0-13-generic. Compiling ALSA driver doesn't work. When I try to make, it says that /lib/modules/3.0.0-13-generic/build/include/linux/modversions.h doesn't exist. I'm using Ubuntu 11.10. Can anyone help me? I can re-install Ubuntu, but I don't want to....

    Read the article

  • New features for Expression Blend 4 Release Candidate

    - by kaleidoscope
    With Microsoft Expression Blend 4, you can create websites and applications based on Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Microsoft Silverlight 4, and desktop applications based on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) 3.5 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and WPF4. Expression Blend provides new support for prototyping, interactivity through behaviors, special Silverlight functionality, and on-the-fly sample data generation. Expression Blend includes new behaviors that are quickly and easily configured Expression Blend offers new sample data, behaviors, and features of project templates to support the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern The MVVM pattern is a way to structure a Silverlight or WPF application so that user interface (UI) objects are as decoupled as possible from the application's data and behavior. This makes it easier for design tasks and development tasks to be performed independently and without breaking each other. Essentially, your UI is the View. You bind objects in the View to properties and commands of the ViewModel, and the View can also call methods on the ViewModel. Compatible with Silverlight 3 and WPF 3.5 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) Interoperate able with Visual Studio. Included New Shapes: The Assets panel in Expression Blend contains a new Shapes category, including presets for the easy creation of arcs, arrows, callouts, and polygons. New Controls: Expression Blend has tooling support for the RichTextBox control in Silverlight. XAML cleanliness :Expression Blend generates less XAML with respect to animations and animation-related properties. MVVM project template: Expression Blend includes a new project template that offers a basic starting point for Model-View-ViewModel pattern applications. Run project with CTRL+F5:To improve consistency with Visual Studio, you can now invoke the Run Project command by pressing either CTRL+F5 or F5 Technorati Tags: Rituraj,Features of Expression Blend4 RC

    Read the article

  • Rendering a big game universe - bitmaps or vector graphics?

    - by user1641923
    I am new to an Android development, though I have much experience with Java, C++, PHP programming and a bit experience with vector graphics too (basic 3d Studio Max, Flash, etc). I am starting to work on an Android game. It is going to be a 2D space shooter/RPG, and I am not going to use any game engines and any 3D party libs. I really want to create a very large game universe, or even pseudo-infinite (without visible borders, as if it were a 2D projection of a sphere). It should include 10-12 clusters of 7-8 planets/other space objects and random amount of single asteroids/comets, which player can interact with and also not interactive background. I am looking for a least complicated aproach to create such a universe. My current ideas are: Simply create bitmaps with space scenery background so that they can be tiled seamlessly repeated and construct my 2D universe of this tiles, then place interactive objects (planets, other spaceships) on it. Using vector graphics. I would have a solid color background, some random background objects and gradients here and there. My problems here: Lack of knowledge of how well vector graphics is integrated in Android. Performance? Memory usage? Does Android manage big bitmaps well? Do all of the bitmaps have to be in memory during all game process? I am interested in technical details regarding each of the ideas and a suggestion, which I should go with.

    Read the article

  • Particle and Physics problem.

    - by Quincy
    This was originally a forum post so I hope you guys don't mind it being 2 questions in one. I am making a game and I got some basic physics implemented. I have 2 problems, 1 with particles being drawn in the wrong place and one with going through walls while jumping in corners. Skip over to about 15 sec video showing the 2 problems : http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tm9nfWsWfiM So the problem with the particles seems to be coming from the removal, as soon as I remove that piece of code it instantly works, but there shouldn't be a problem since they shouldn't even draw when their energy gets to 0 (and then they get removed) So my first question is, how are these particles getting warped all over the screen ? Relevant code : Particle class : class Particle { //Physics public Vector2 position = new Vector2(0,0); public float direction = 180; public float speed = 100; public float energy = 1; protected float startEnergy = 1; //Visual public Sprite sprite; public float rotation = 0; public float scale = 1; public byte alpha = 255; public BlendMode blendMode { get { return sprite.BlendMode; } set { sprite.BlendMode = value; } } public Particle() { } public virtual void Think(float frameTime) { if (energy - frameTime < 0) energy = 0; else energy -= frameTime; position += new Vector2((float)Math.Cos(MathHelper.DegToRad(direction)), (float)Math.Sin(MathHelper.DegToRad(direction))) * speed * frameTime; alpha = (byte)(255 * energy / startEnergy); sprite.Rotation = rotation; sprite.Position = position; sprite.Color = new Color(sprite.Color.R, sprite.Color.G, sprite.Color.B, alpha); } public virtual void Draw(float frameTime) { if (energy > 0) { World.camera.DrawSprite(sprite); } } // Basic particle implementation class BasicSprite : Particle { public BasicSprite(Sprite _sprite) { sprite = _sprite; } } Emitter : class Emitter { protected static Random rand = new Random(); protected List<Particle> particles = new List<Particle>(); public BaseEntity target = null; public Vector2 position = new Vector2(0, 0); public bool Active = true; public float timeAlive = 0; public int particleCount = 0; public int ParticlesPerSeccond { get { return (int)(1 / particleSpawnTime); } set { particleSpawnTime = 1 / (float)value; } } public float dieTime = float.MaxValue; float particleSpawnTime = 0.05f; float spawnTime = 0; public Emitter() { } public virtual void Think(float frametime) { spawnTime += frametime; if (dieTime != float.MaxValue) { timeAlive += frametime; if (timeAlive >= dieTime) Active = false; } if (Active) { if (target != null) position = target.Position; while (spawnTime > particleSpawnTime) { spawnTime -= particleSpawnTime; AddParticle(); particleCount++; } } for (int i = 0; i < particles.Count; i++) { particles[i].Think(frametime); if (particles[i].energy <= 0) { particles.Remove(particles[i]); // As soon as this is removed, it works particleCount--; } } } public virtual void AddParticle() { } public virtual void Draw(float frametime) { foreach (Particle particle in particles) { particle.Draw(frametime); } } } class BloodEmitter : Emitter { Image image; public BloodEmitter() { image = new Image(@"Content/Particles/TinyCircle.png"); image.CreateMaskFromColor(new Color(255, 0, 255, 255)); this.dieTime = 0.5f; this.ParticlesPerSeccond = 100; } public override void AddParticle() { Sprite sprite = new Sprite(image); sprite.Color = new Color((byte)(rand.NextDouble() * 255), (byte)(rand.NextDouble() * 255), (byte)(rand.NextDouble() * 255)); BasicSprite particle = new BasicSprite(sprite); particle.direction = (float)rand.NextDouble() * 360; particle.position = position; particle.blendMode = BlendMode.Alpha; particles.Add(particle); } } The seccond problem is the physics problem, for some reason I can get through the right bottom corner while jumping. I think this is coming from me switching animations but I thought I made it compensate for that. Relevant code : PhysicsEntity : class PhysicsEntity : BaseEntity { // Horizontal movement constants protected const float maxHorizontalSpeed = 1000; protected const float horizontalAcceleration = 15; protected const float horizontalDragAir = 0.95f; protected const float horizontalDragGround = 0.95f; // Vertical movement constants protected const float maxVerticalSpeed = 1000; protected const float verticalAcceleration = 20; // Everything needed for movement and correct animations protected float movement = 0; protected bool onGround = false; protected Vector2 Velocity = new Vector2(0, 0); protected float maxSpeed = 0; float lastThink = 0; float thinkTime = 1f/60f; public PhysicsEntity(Vector2 position, Sprite sprite) : base(position, sprite) { } public override void Draw(float frameTime) { base.Draw(frameTime); } public override void Think(float frameTime) { CalculateMovement(frameTime); base.Think(frameTime); } protected void CalculateMovement(float frameTime) { lastThink += frameTime; while (lastThink > thinkTime) { onGround = false; Velocity.X = MathHelper.Clamp(Velocity.X + horizontalAcceleration * movement, -maxHorizontalSpeed, maxHorizontalSpeed); if (onGround) Velocity.X *= horizontalDragGround; else Velocity.X *= horizontalDragAir; if (maxSpeed < Velocity.X) maxSpeed = Velocity.X; Velocity.Y = MathHelper.Clamp(Velocity.Y + verticalAcceleration, -maxVerticalSpeed, maxVerticalSpeed); lastThink -= thinkTime; DoCollisions(thinkTime); DoAnimations(thinkTime); } } public virtual void DoAnimations(float frameTime) { } public void DoCollisions(float frameTime) { Position.Y += Velocity.Y * frameTime; Vector2 tileCollision = GetTileCollision(); if (tileCollision.X != -1 || tileCollision.Y != -1) { Vector2 collisionDepth = CollisionRectangle.DepthIntersection( new Rectangle( tileCollision.X * World.tileEngine.TileWidth, tileCollision.Y * World.tileEngine.TileHeight, World.tileEngine.TileWidth, World.tileEngine.TileHeight ) ); Position.Y += collisionDepth.Y; if (collisionDepth.Y < 0) onGround = true; Velocity.Y = 0; } Position.X += Velocity.X * frameTime; tileCollision = GetTileCollision(); if (tileCollision.X != -1 || tileCollision.Y != -1) { Vector2 collisionDepth = CollisionRectangle.DepthIntersection( new Rectangle( tileCollision.X * World.tileEngine.TileWidth, tileCollision.Y * World.tileEngine.TileHeight, World.tileEngine.TileWidth, World.tileEngine.TileHeight ) ); Position.X += collisionDepth.X; Velocity.X = 0; } } public void DoCollisions(Vector2 difference) { CollisionRectangle.Y = Position.Y - difference.Y; CollisionRectangle.Height += difference.Y; Vector2 tileCollision = GetTileCollision(); if (tileCollision.X != -1 || tileCollision.Y != -1) { Vector2 collisionDepth = CollisionRectangle.DepthIntersection( new Rectangle( tileCollision.X * World.tileEngine.TileWidth, tileCollision.Y * World.tileEngine.TileHeight, World.tileEngine.TileWidth, World.tileEngine.TileHeight ) ); Position.Y += collisionDepth.Y; if (collisionDepth.Y < 0) onGround = true; Velocity.Y = 0; } CollisionRectangle.X = Position.X - difference.X; CollisionRectangle.Width += difference.X; tileCollision = GetTileCollision(); if (tileCollision.X != -1 || tileCollision.Y != -1) { Vector2 collisionDepth = CollisionRectangle.DepthIntersection( new Rectangle( tileCollision.X * World.tileEngine.TileWidth, tileCollision.Y * World.tileEngine.TileHeight, World.tileEngine.TileWidth, World.tileEngine.TileHeight ) ); Position.X += collisionDepth.X; Velocity.X = 0; } } Vector2 GetTileCollision() { int topLeftTileX = (int)(CollisionRectangle.TopLeft.X / World.tileEngine.TileWidth); int topLeftTileY = (int)(CollisionRectangle.TopLeft.Y / World.tileEngine.TileHeight); int BottomRightTileX = (int)(CollisionRectangle.DownRight.X / World.tileEngine.TileWidth); int BottomRightTileY = (int)(CollisionRectangle.DownRight.Y / World.tileEngine.TileHeight); if (CollisionRectangle.DownRight.Y % World.tileEngine.TileHeight == 0) // If your exactly against the tile don't count that as being inside the tile BottomRightTileY -= 1; if (CollisionRectangle.DownRight.X % World.tileEngine.TileWidth == 0) // If your exactly against the tile don't count that as being inside the tile BottomRightTileX -= 1; for (int i = topLeftTileX; i <= BottomRightTileX; i++) { for (int j = topLeftTileY; j <= BottomRightTileY; j++) { if (World.tileEngine.TileIsSolid(i, j)) { return new Vector2(i, j); } } } return new Vector2(-1, -1); } } Player : enum State { Standing, Running, Jumping, Falling, Sliding, WallSlide } class Player : PhysicsEntity { private State state { get { return currentState; } set { if (currentState != value) { currentState = value; animationChanged = true; } } } private State currentState = State.Standing; private BasicEmitter basicEmitter = new BasicEmitter(); public bool flipped; public bool animationChanged = false; protected const float jumpPower = 600; AnimationManager animationManager; Rectangle DrawRectangle; public override Rectangle CollisionRectangle { get { return new Rectangle( Position.X - DrawRectangle.Width / 2f, Position.Y - DrawRectangle.Height / 2f, DrawRectangle.Width, DrawRectangle.Height ); } } public Player(Vector2 position, Sprite sprite) : base(position, sprite) { // Only posted the relevant bit DrawRectangle = animationManager.currentAnimation.drawingRectangle; } public override void Draw(float frameTime) { World.camera.DrawSprite( Sprite, Position + new Vector2(DrawRectangle.X, DrawRectangle.Y), animationManager.currentAnimation.drawingRectangle ); } public override void Think(float frameTime) { //I only posted the relevant stuff if (animationChanged) { // if the animation has changed make sure we compensate for the change in with and height animationChanged = false; DoCollisions(animationManager.getSizeDifference()); } DoCustomMovement(); base.Think(frameTime); if (!onGround && Velocity.Y > 0) { state = State.Falling; } } void DoCustomMovement() { if (onGround) { if (World.renderWindow.Input.IsKeyDown(KeyCode.W)) { Velocity.Y = -jumpPower; state = State.Jumping; } } } public override void DoAnimations(float frameTime) { string stateName = Enum.GetName(typeof(State), state); if (!animationManager.currentAnimationIs(stateName)) { animationManager.PlayAnimation(stateName); } animationManager.Think(frameTime); DrawRectangle = animationManager.currentAnimation.drawingRectangle; Sprite.Center = new Vector2( DrawRectangle.X + DrawRectangle.Width / 2, DrawRectangle.Y + DrawRectangle.Height / 2 ); Sprite.FlipX(flipped); } So why am I warping through walls ? I have given this some thought but I just can't seem to find out why this is happening. Full source if needed : source : http://www.mediafire.com/?rc7ddo09gnr68zd (download link)

    Read the article

  • bash-like features in sqlplus, rman and other Oracle command line tools

    - by Gilles Haro
    As far as I can remember, I have always been complaining about the lack of “recall last command” from within sqlplus. Such a basic thing, available in any bash shell or windows cmd terminal, remains missing with Oracle command lines tools. Thanks to davidw who published a post in the french blog EASYTEAM, it is now possible to use a simple rpm package rlwrap to enhance sqlplus, dgmgrl, rman, … tools and give them bash “recall/completion” capabilities. I installed it in a few minutes and I am already wondering how can people work without it. The steps are here : Get the rpm file from sites like RPM PBone. AS root, install the package rpm -ivh rlwrap-0.37-1.el5.x86_64.rpm As Oracle, create a dictionnary file (for autocompletion) . This file is made of a series of words to be used for autocompletion. Put in it the list of dictionary tables, the list of sql commands, the list of sqlplus commands… whatever your like. And use the <tab> key as you would in a bash shell. $HOME/.oracle_keywords Create an alias for sqlplus alias sqlplus='/usr/bin/rlwrap -if $HOME/.oracle_keywords $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus' And enjoy it !!! Thank you DavidW. Gilles Haro Technical Expert - Core Technology, Oracle Consulting  Technorati Tags: rlwrap bash sqlplus

    Read the article

  • Good 2D Platformer Physics

    - by Joe Wreschnig
    I have a basic character controller set up for a 2D platformer with Box2D, and I'm starting to tweak it to try to make it feel good. Physics engines have a lot of knobs to tweak, and it's not clear to me, writing with a physics engine for the first time, which ones I should use. Should jumping apply a force for several ticks? An impulse? Directly set velocity? How do I stop the avatar from sticking to walls without taking away all its friction (or do I take away all the friction, but only in the air)? Should I model the character as a capsule? A box with rounded corners? A box with two wheels? Just one big wheel? I feel like someone must have done this before! There seem to be very few resources available on the web that are not "baby's first physics", which all cut off where I'm hoping someone has already solved the issues. Most examples of physics engines for platformers have floaty-feeling controls, or in-air jumps, or easily exploitable behavior when temporary penetration is too high, etc. Some examples of what I mean: A short tap of jump jumps a short distance; a long tap jumps higher. Short skidding when stopping or reversing directions at high velocity. Standing stably on inclines (but maybe sliding down them when ducking). Analog speed when using an analog controller. All the other things that separate good platformers from bad platformers. Dare I suggest, stable moving platforms? I'm not really looking for "hey, do this." Obviously, the right thing to do is dependent on what I want in the game. But I'm hoping someone somewhere has gone through the possibilities and said "well technique A does feature X well, technique B does Y well, but that doesn't work with C", or has some worked examples beyond "if (key == space) character.impulse(0, 1)"

    Read the article

  • Ubuntu unstable, showing awkward behavior

    - by Christophe De Troyer
    Let me start off by saying that this problem can't be described in such a way that allows me to find other topics, which have some relevance to this problem. That's why I created this question. In case this question might have been asked before, I apologize. So what is the problem: My computer (Intel Core I5 2500K - with HD3000 graphics -, 6 gb DDR, 1 SSD, 3 HDD's and an Asus P8Z68 mobo) runs Windows on the SDD. But I decided to give Ubuntu a chance to be my daily OS for basic needs since it's open source and I find it a handicap of not being able to work with it. I decided to run the windows installer and install Ubuntu 12.04 to my 320 Gb hdd which was not being used in my computer. After installing it and booting it, it worked great! I spent the rest of the day/night using it, and falling for it. Great, today I booted Ubuntu (I had the choice in the bootloader as I expected). It asked me for my login and it started logging in. Now, after a few (literally) minutes of letting it "boot" I tried determining the cause of this. What I've figured out so far: When I left click on my desktop it freezes completely for a few seconds I have something like tearing in the left side menu (in games, you know) when I move my mouse around It runs well when just hovering around with my mouse, but from the point I click on something it freezes. What have I tried? I ran a HD Tune diagnostic on the HDD but the performance seems to be very close to the stock values, so I'm taking it as a good HDD. I'm trying to get to the drivers update panel for Ubuntu, but with the state it's in, it's taking a lot of time.. Could anyone point me in a direction for troubleshooting this? I'm not really a noob at all, just when using Linux.. :) Thanks in advance! Christophe,

    Read the article

  • Problem with Ogre::Camera lookAt function when target is directly below.

    - by PigBen
    I am trying to make a class which controls a camera. It's pretty basic right now, it looks like this: class HoveringCameraController { public: void init(Ogre::Camera & camera, AnimatedBody & target, Ogre::Real height); void update(Ogre::Real time_delta); private: Ogre::Camera * camera_; AnimatedBody * target_; Ogre::Real height_; }; HoveringCameraController.cpp void HoveringCameraController::init(Ogre::Camera & camera, AnimatedBody & target, Ogre::Real height) { camera_ = &camera; target_ = &target; height_ = height; update(0.0); } void HoveringCameraController::update(Ogre::Real time_delta) { auto position = target_->getPosition(); position.y += height_; camera_->setPosition(position); camera_->lookAt(target_->getPosition()); } AnimatedBody is just a class that encapsulates an entity, it's animations and a scene node. The getPosition function is simply forwarded to it's scene node. What I want(for now) is for the camera to simply follow the AnimatedBody overhead at the distance given(the height parameter), and look down at it. It follows the object around, but it doesn't look straight down, it's tilted quite a bit in the positive Z direction. Does anybody have any idea why it would do that? If I change this line: position.y += height_; to this: position.x += height_; or this: position.z += height_; it does exactly what I would expect. It follows the object from the side or front, and looks directly at it.

    Read the article

  • Impossible to select folders and files with mouse (Ubuntu 12.04)

    - by François
    First-time post for me here (after being a regular reader for two years though) so thank you all for the quality of replies and help provided. My problem is very simple apparently but a tricky one. I just installed the Ubuntu 12.04(1) along with the Gnome3-shell environment on my new pc desktop Acer Aspire X3995 (see config below). Everything work (more or less) so far (I still have problems of sound and disabled 2-fingers gestures with my screen -- which I will have to deal with xconfig settings I think -- though), but the main problem is that I cannot select files/folders with my USB mouse. When I try to double click on them, nothing happen (sometimes one folder or file is selected but then unselected again). Note that the navigation works perfectly from the USB keyboard and from the touch-screen (I am using a 23" wide touch-screen Acer Monitor T231Hbmid). Also, the mouse works perfectly with other menu navigation, with the only difference that the text of certain menus is selected as if I was holding the left click on them. So I assume the problem is only related to the mouse. Needless to say that the usual basic hardware checks have been performed (unplugging, powered-off, etc.). My level is simply "advanced user", meaning that if you provide me with intelligible input I should find my way, but please don't expect too much technical/specific knowledge... :) Please let me know if you need more information on this bug. Now, fingers crossed... and thanks in advance! Ciao, François Config of Acer Aspire X3995: Ubuntu 12.04 / Gnome3-shell environment / Intel Core i5 3450 / nVidia GeForce 605, 1Gb. Screen: Acer Monitor TFT 23" wide T231Hbmid

    Read the article

  • Finally! Entity Framework working in fully disconnected N-tier web app

    - by oazabir
    Entity Framework was supposed to solve the problem of Linq to SQL, which requires endless hacks to make it work in n-tier world. Not only did Entity Framework solve none of the L2S problems, but also it made it even more difficult to use and hack it for n-tier scenarios. It’s somehow half way between a fully disconnected ORM and a fully connected ORM like Linq to SQL. Some useful features of Linq to SQL are gone – like automatic deferred loading. If you try to do simple select with join, insert, update, delete in a disconnected architecture, you will realize not only you need to make fundamental changes from the top layer to the very bottom layer, but also endless hacks in basic CRUD operations. I will show you in this article how I have  added custom CRUD functions on top of EF’s ObjectContext to make it finally work well in a fully disconnected N-tier web application (my open source Web 2.0 AJAX portal – Dropthings) and how I have produced a 100% unit testable fully n-tier compliant data access layerfollowing the repository pattern. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/linq/ef.aspx In .NET 4.0, most of the problems are solved, but not all. So, you should read this article even if you are coding in .NET 4.0. Moreover, there’s enough insight here to help you troubleshoot EF related problems. You might think “Why bother using EF when Linq to SQL is doing good enough for me.” Linq to SQL is not going to get any innovation from Microsoft anymore. Entity Framework is the future of persistence layer in .NET framework. All the innovations are happening in EF world only, which is frustrating. There’s a big jump on EF 4.0. So, you should plan to migrate your L2S projects to EF soon.

    Read the article

  • Advanced Level Troubleshooting for Oracle Process Manufacturing Financials

    - by Annemarie Provisero
    ADVISOR WEBCAST: Advanced Level Troubleshooting for Oracle Process Manufacturing Financials PRODUCT FAMILY: Oracle Process Manufacturing     February 16, 2011 at 8 am PT, 9 am MT, 11 am ET This one-hour session provides basic to advanced level troubleshooting information for Functional Users, System Administrators, DBAs and Customers. TOPICS WILL INCLUDE: Find Log File and Error messages for important processes in OPM Financials. Important SQL queries and filtering transaction related issues. Enabling Debug mode in OPM Financials and SLA. A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Oracle Advisor Webcasts are dedicated to building your awareness around our products and services. This session does not replace offerings from Oracle Global Support Services. Click here to register for this session ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

    Read the article

  • looking for a short explanation of fuzzy logic

    - by user613326
    Well i got the idea that basics of fuzzy logic are not that hard to grasp. And i got the feeling that someone might explain it to me in like 30 minutes. Just like i understand neural networks and am able to re-create the famous Xor problem. And go just beyond it and create 3 layer networks of x nodes. I'd like to understand fuzzy till a similar usefully level, in c# language. However the problem is face, I'd like to get concept right however i see many websites who include lots of errors in their basic explaining. Like for example showing pictures and use different numbers as shown in pictures to calculate, as if lots of people just copied stuff without noticing what they write down. While others for me go to deep in their math notation) To me that's very annoying to learn from. For me there is no need to re-invent wheel; Aforge already got a fuzzy logic framework. So what i am looking for are some good examples, good examples like how the neural XOR problem is solved. Is there anyone such a instructional resource out there; do you know a web page, or YouTube where it is shortly explained, what would you recommend me ? Note this article comes close; but it just doesnt nail it for me. After that i downloaded a bunch of free PDF's but most are academic and hard to read for me (i'm not English and dont have a special math degree). (i've been looking around a lot for this, good starter material about it is hard to find).

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377  | Next Page >