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• Does concurrency inherently introduce "randomness" into a game?

  - by Jeff

  When a game is implemented with concurrency (as most games are), does this necessarily, by its very nature, introduce an element of randomness into the game that is outside of the players' control? Note that when I use the word "random", I'm not meaning to launch into a philosophical debate about the deterministic nature of the system. I understand that concurrency is deterministic in the sense that the operating system decides which processes to allow time on the CPU and in what order (or the JVM controls which Thread's turn it is to execute, etc). But my understanding of this is that there is no way to control or predict whether one thread's next command will execute before or after another. The reason I'm asking is because this seems like a fundamental difficulty for game development where a game is supposedly designed around a player's skill. Consider a game like League of Legends. Assume that two players are battling it out. It's a very close contest between the two and it's coming down to the wire -- so much so that whoever gets their last attack off will be the one to kill the other and win the game for their team. If the players are implemented using concurrency and the situation really was like this, is it essentially out of the players' hands at this point? Is the outcome of this match all up to whatever system is arbitrarily deciding which player's thread/process will execute next? If not, what am I misunderstanding about concurrency? If so, is there any way around this problem so that a game of skill can always be a game of skill, especially in those most crucial moments?

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• Regarding sprite design and resolution for tablets and phones

  - by Dimitris P.

  I am about to start working on a game for android devices, in my spare time, to get familiar with android development. I'm more interested in using the best practices possible than getting a quick result, and that is why I need some guidance regarding graphics. I think the game is going to be fully sprite based. Everything is going to be in .bmp form, or something similar, and my question is: Should I design the sprites in a small resolution (ie for phone screens) and scale them up to fit into larger screens (tablet screens), should I do it vice-versa or should I consider a completely different approach? Would designing a different set of sprites for each of the most used resolution settings be worth it or are there simpler solutions to the problem with fewer drawbacks than the ones I mentioned above? (If I follow the first approach, for example, the larger the screen the worse the graphics will get, since every pixel of the original drawing will cover several pixels on the screen). Is there a standard approach for dealing with this kind of problems? If you need me to be more detailed or more clear about something I mentioned (or forgot to) please don't hesitate to ask. Also, excuse me for any inaccurate use of the English language. Thank you in advance for your input.

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• Sprite Animation using cocos2dx 2.0.2

  - by Lalit Chattar

  I am new in game development and learning coco2dx framework. I am trying to implement sprite animation using coco2dx. i tried many demo they all are same. But when i tried i got access violation error in my code. CCSpriteFrameCache::sharedSpriteFrameCache()->addSpriteFramesWithFile("AnimBear.plist"); CCSpriteBatchNode *spreetsheet = CCSpriteBatchNode::create("AnimBear.png"); this->addChild(spreetsheet); CCArray *bearArray = new CCArray(); for(int i = 1; i <= 8; i++) { char name[32] = {0}; sprintf(name, "bear%d.png",i); bearArray->addObject(CCSpriteFrameCache::sharedSpriteFrameCache()->spriteFrameByName(name)); } CCAnimation *walkAnim = CCAnimation::animationWithSpriteFrames(bearArray, 0.1f); CCSize size = CCDirector::sharedDirector()->getWinSize(); CCSprite *bear = CCSprite::spriteWithSpriteFrameName("bear1.png"); bear->setPosition(ccp(size.width/2, size.height/2)); CCAction *walkAction = CCRepeatForever::actionWithAction(CCAnimate::actionWithAnimation(walkAnim)); bear->runAction(walkAction); spreetsheet->addChild(bear); error is coming in first line while we passing plist refrence. Plese help me. I a using Visual Basic 2010 and put both files in Resource folder (png and plist).

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• MiniMax function throws null pointer exception

  - by Sven

  I'm working on a school project, I have to build a tic tac toe game with the AI based on the MiniMax algorithm. The two player mode works like it should. I followed the code example on http://ethangunderson.com/blog/minimax-algorithm-in-c/. The only thing is that I get a NullPointer Exception when I run the code. And I can't wrap my finger around it. I placed a comment in the code where the exception is thrown. The recursive call is returning a null pointer, what is very strange because it can't.. When I place a breakpoint on the null return with the help of a if statement, then I see that there ARE still 2 to 3 empty places.. I probably overlooking something. Hope someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Here is the MiniMax code (the tic tac toe code is not important): /* * To change this template, choose Tools | Templates * and open the template in the editor. */ package MiniMax; import Game.Block; import Game.Board; import java.util.ArrayList; public class MiniMax { public static Place getBestMove(Board gameBoard, Block.TYPE player) { Place bestPlace = null; ArrayList<Place> emptyPlaces = gameBoard.getEmptyPlaces(); Board newBoard; //loop trough all the empty places for(Place emptyPlace : emptyPlaces) { newBoard = gameBoard.clone(); newBoard.setBlock(emptyPlace.getRow(), emptyPlace.getCell(), player); //no game won and still room to move if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.NONE && newBoard.getEmptyPlaces().size() > 0) { //is an node (has children) Place tempPlace = getBestMove(newBoard, invertPlayer(player)); //ERROR is thrown here! tempPlace is null. emptyPlace.setScore(tempPlace.getScore()); } else { //is an leaf if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.NONE) { emptyPlace.setScore(0); } else if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.X) { emptyPlace.setScore(-1); } else if(newBoard.getWinner() == Block.TYPE.O) { emptyPlace.setScore(1); } //if this move is better then our prev move, take it! if((bestPlace == null) || (player == Block.TYPE.X && emptyPlace.getScore() < bestPlace.getScore()) || (player == Block.TYPE.O && emptyPlace.getScore() > bestPlace.getScore())) { bestPlace = emptyPlace; } } } //This should never be null, but it does.. return bestPlace; } private static Block.TYPE invertPlayer(Block.TYPE player) { if(player == Block.TYPE.X) { return Block.TYPE.O; } return Block.TYPE.X; } }

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• Producing a smooth mesh from density cloud and marching cubes

  - by Wardy

  Based on my results from this question I decided to build myself a 3D noise map containing float values in place of my existing boolean point values. The effect I'm trying to produce is something like this, rather than typical rolling hills; which should explain the "missing cubes" in the image below. If I render my density map in normal "minecraft mode" (1 block per point in the density map) varying the size of the cube based on the value in my density map (floats in the range 0 to 1) I get something like this: I'm now happy that I can produce a density map for the marching cubes algorithm (which will need a little tweaking) but for some reason when I run it through my implementation it's not producing what I expect. My problem is that I'm getting something like the first image in this answer to my previous question, when I want to achieve the effect in the second image. Upon further investigation I can't see how marching cubes does the "move vertex along the edge" type logic (i.e. the difference between the two images on my previous link). I see that it does do some interpolation, but I'm not convinced I have the correct understanding of what I think it should do, because the code in question appears to give the same result regardless of whether I use boolean or float values. I took the code from here which is a C# implementation of marching cubes, but instead of using the MarchingCubesPrimitive I modified it to accept an object of type IDrawable, containing lists for the various collections (vertices, normals, UVs, indices), the logic was otherwise untouched. My understanding is that given a very low isovalue the accuracy level of the surface being rendered should increase, so in short "less 45 degree slows more rolling hills" type mesh output. However this isn't what I'm seeing. Have I missed something or is the implementation flawed and need to be fixed? EDIT: A little more detail on what I am seeing when I "marching cube" the data. Ok so firstly, ignore the fact that the meshes created by the chunks don't "connect" (i'll probably raise another question about this later). Then look at the shaping of the island, it's too ... square, from the voxels rendered as boxes you get the impression there's a clean soft gradual hill and yet from the image there are sharp falling edges even in the most central areas where the gradient in the first image looks the most smooth. The data is "regenerated" each time I run this so no 2 islands come out the same, and it's purely random so not based on noise, but still, how can it look so smooth in 1 image and so not smooth in the other?

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• Help to organize game cycle in Java

  - by ASIO22

  I'm pretty new here (as though to a game development). So here's my question. I'm trying to organize a really simple game cycle in my public static main() as follows: Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in); //Running the game cycle boolean flag=true; while (flag) { int action; System.out.println("Type your action please:"); System.out.println("0: Exit app"); try { action = sc.nextInt(); switch (action) { case 0: flag=false; break; case 1: break; } } catch (InputMismatchException ex) { System.out.println(ex.getClass() + "\n" + "Please type a correct input\n"); //action = sc.nextInt(); continue; } What's wrong with this cycle: I want to catch an exception when user types text instead of number, show a message, warning user, and the continue game cycle, read user input etc. But instead of that, when users types wrong data, it goes into a eternal cycle without even prompting user. What I did wrong?

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• Does Unity have existing support for Timelines?

  - by Raven Dreamer

  I am planning the development of a game in Unity3D, and trying to come to terms with what the engine has already provided, and what I must code myself. The game itself is going to be a rhythm game, which means synching audio and graphical events so that they always play when they're supposed to. What I'm looking to avoid is a potential scenario of lag where either the audio or the graphics starts to progress faster than the other. When we discussed this type of coordinating system in my game design class back at university, my professor called this type of design a "Timeline" class. The idea being that you can instantiate one or more of these to progress at different rates, schedule things to happen in the future, and synch up periodic events. However, calling this a "Timeline" class seems to have been limited to my professor himself, as googling for whether a certain API features "Timeline" functionality has been a fruitless endeavor. Is there some more common name for this kind of functionality? Does Unity have any pre-existing methods to coordinate the scheduling of events like this, or is this the kind of thing that needs to be built onto the engine? And if it does, I'd appreciate being pointed towards some tutorials!

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• Alternatives to Component Based Architecture?

  - by Ben Lakey

  Usually when I develop a game I will use an architecture like what you see below. What other architectures are popular for simple game development? I'm concerned about having a narrow view of what exists out there for architectures beyond this. Is this an example of component-based architecture? Or is this something else? What would that look like? What alternatives exist? public abstract class ComponentBase { protected final Collection<ComponentBase> subComponents = new LinkedList<ComponentBase>(); private boolean enableInput; private boolean isVisible; protected ComponentBase(boolean enableInput, boolean isVisible) { this.enableInput = enableInput; this.isVisible = isVisible; } public void render(Graphics2D graphics) { for(ComponentBase gameComponent : this.subComponents) { if(gameComponent.isVisible()) { gameComponent.render(graphics); } } } public void input(InputData input) { for(ComponentBase gameComponent : this.subComponents) { if(gameComponent.inputIsEnabled()) { gameComponent.input(input); } } } ... getters/setters ... public void update(long elapsedTimeMillis) { for(ComponentBase gameComponent : this.subComponents) { gameComponent.update(elapsedTimeMillis); } } }

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• What would be the level of effort required to implement a screencapture command on a PS3 game?

  - by Sean Scott

  Looking to see what the level of effort is for implementing a screen capture command into PS3 game by a mid-level PS3 game developer. Bonus for a description of what is involved in the process... EDIT Not sure how to get back my question since it was the first but let me clarify some things. @Nate Bross, nope I am not the actor although i've fielded calls for him on occasion @coderanger my intent was to try and speak to other PS3 developers, however coming from a web development no one in my social circle close or extended develops on the PS3. Additionally i'm interested in hearing the effort required in terms of hours so that this information can be passed on to a client. A client who has a game on the PS3 using the unreal engine. Convo with devs sometimes go something like "can you implement feature a" which gets a response "this will take us 8 weeks and an army". Trying to be educated before the ask. I hope that helps If anyone here is a PS3 game dev and would like to respond off site so as not to break NDA that would be awesome. @Roger it would be from within the game, something that users can use. Something akin to the iphone screencap utility. No need to get fancier than that.

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• What web technology could I use which would support a decision tree?

  - by Rami Alhamad

  I am a big game development fan but I haven't done any commercial work in the past. I have been asked by a non-profit to look at developing a game similar to the award-winning www.playspent.org They want the following features: support 5 scenarios mobile isn't important but compatibility with older browsers would be a big bonus they want it to be visual and audible bonus is to have it easily modifiable support 4 languages I don't have much knowledge of Flash and would rather avoid using it as a solution. I started breaking down the problem into segments that I will need to examine, they are as follows: ability to read the game flow from a file that they can produce (xml, etc.) db design to store decision tree language challenge browser compatibility I am leaning towards an Google app engine/GWT solution but I am not sure what technology is best for this. I am really hoping to get your opinion/recommendation on my approach and on what technology is best. A special thanks (and beer if you live in Toronto) will be awarded to anyone who can help give me a ballpark estimate on how much such a game should go for. I know it's tough to estimate but any rough figure will help (how much would you charge for building something like playspent.org?) Thanks in advance

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• How to boot load the kernel using EFI stub (efistub) loader?

  - by Pro Backup

  I have Ubuntu 14.04 running in UEFI mode as only operating system, no dual-boot here. The kernel version is 3.13.0-24-generic. There is an EFI partition. In this case the EFI partition is not at the default /dev/sda1 but at /dev/sda3 because I did actually convert BIOS mode to EFI mode. I have used the grub-efi-amd64 package, though that actually loads GRUB boot menu from UEFI firmware boot menu (UEFI boot loads \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi). I want to skip that double boot menu loading step, and boot faster, directly from UEFI into the kernel. The Ubuntu kernels since 12.10 have "Kernel EFI stub loader" feature. I know I do need to copy the Ubuntu kernel to the EFI partition (possibly rename) and create an entry in UEFI boot menu (for instance using efibootmgr). Which exact terminal commands are necessary to do this?

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• How to remap Fn key combinations (Lenovo G500)

  - by Anatoli

  I am running Kubuntu 13.10 on a Lenovo G500 laptop. My question is similar to this one: How can I remap my F keys on my HP laptop? That is to say, my F1-F12 keys are mapped to certain special functions, and only holding down the Fn key restores access to the standard F1-F12 keys. How do I remap certain keys? I would like to know if there is a way to remap Fx to Fn+Fx and vice-versa. As per the instructions of #87043 I checked my BIOS and there is no option to switch the Fx/Fn key functionality. Googling through Leonovo's support forums indicates a BIOS update enabling this is in the works, but there's no indication of when it will be complete. Using xev I was able to see what X sees when F1-F12 are pressed. Some send separate keycodes, but some are somehow mapped to key combinations or other unknown things: F1 - XF86AudioMute F2 - XF86AudioVolumeLower F3 - XF86AudioVolumeRaise F4 - Alt_L + F4 F5 - F5 F6 - Disables touchapd, cannot quite understand what xev tells me is happening, reenables if disabled (Kernel log reveals these have well-defined scancodes not assigned to any keycodes) F7 - XF86WLAN F8 - Alt_L + Ctrl_L + Tab F9 - Turns off LCD backlight, xev sees nothing F10 - Super_L + p F11 - XF86MonBrightnessLower F12 - XF86MonBrightnessRaise Following the instrusctions on this page: How do I remap certain keys? I remapped all the keys that have definite keycodes (F1, F2, F3, F5, F7, F11, F12) This still leaves the F4, F6, F8, F9, F10 keys not functioning properly. This is especially frustarting since F4, F6, F9 now kill the current window, the touchpad and screen, respectively. Any help on remapping these keys to their proper functions would be much appreciated! -Anatoli xev output for these 5 keys: F4 KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3674037, (228,298), root:(911,321), state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False FocusOut event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001, mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor FocusIn event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001, mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor KeymapNotify event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x0, keys: 4294967197 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 65 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3674040, (228,298), root:(911,321), state 0x8, keycode 70 (keysym 0xffc1, F4), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3674042, (228,298), root:(911,321), state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False ClientMessage event, serial 40, synthetic YES, window 0x4800001, message_type 0x12a (WM_PROTOCOLS), format 32, message 0x12b (WM_DELETE_WINDOW) F6 disabling touchpad MappingNotify event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x0, request MappingKeyboard, first_keycode 8, count 248 FocusOut event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor FocusIn event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor KeymapNotify event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x0, keys: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 MappingNotify event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x0, request MappingKeyboard, first_keycode 8, count 248 F6 enabling touchpad MappingNotify event, serial 42, synthetic NO, window 0x0, request MappingKeyboard, first_keycode 8, count 248 FocusOut event, serial 42, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor FocusIn event, serial 42, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor KeymapNotify event, serial 42, synthetic NO, window 0x0, keys: 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 MappingNotify event, serial 43, synthetic NO, window 0x0, request MappingPointer, first_keycode 0, count 0 F8 doing whatever it is F8 does KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3508985, (13,-12), root:(696,11), state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3508986, (13,-12), root:(696,11), state 0x8, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3508988, (13,-12), root:(696,11), state 0xc, keycode 23 (keysym 0xff09, Tab), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) " " XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) " " XFilterEvent returns: False KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3508989, (13,-12), root:(696,11), state 0xc, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3508991, (13,-12), root:(696,11), state 0x4, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3508994, (13,-12), root:(696,11), state 0x0, keycode 23 (keysym 0xff09, Tab), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) " " XFilterEvent returns: False F9 gives no output to xev F10 doing whatever it is F10 does KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3586076, (9,-14), root:(692,9), state 0x0, keycode 10 (keysym 0x31, 1), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (31) "1" XFilterEvent returns: False KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3586552, (9,-14), root:(692,9), state 0x0, keycode 133 (keysym 0xffeb, Super_L), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3586554, (9,-14), root:(692,9), state 0x40, keycode 33 (keysym 0x70, p), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (70) "p" XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (70) "p" XFilterEvent returns: False KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3586557, (9,-14), root:(692,9), state 0x40, keycode 33 (keysym 0x70, p), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (70) "p" XFilterEvent returns: False KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4600001, root 0x9d, subw 0x0, time 3586560, (9,-14), root:(692,9), state 0x40, keycode 133 (keysym 0xffeb, Super_L), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False

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• Installed UBUNTU12.04 in Legacy, when changed to UEFI just runs the Terminal, not GUI

  - by jraulvc

  Well, I installed Ubuntu 12.04 in a Gateway NE 522 with Windows 8. First, I had to install it in Legacy mode, because in UEFI it would not run the bootable USB. In the Legacy mode it runs perfect. Once done that with help of the "Boot-Repair" I changed it to the UEFI and disabled the secure boot mode. GRUB runs fine but when I run ubuntu I get the following message: microcode: failed to load file amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam16h.bin kvm: disabled by bios kvm: disabled by bios kvm: disabled by bios and then I just get access to the terminal. From there, I have already tried with reinstalling unity and gmd. When I try to install amd64-microcode the same error ocurrs ( microcode: failed to load file amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam16h.bin ) by the "updating the microcode on all online processors..." phase of the installation. Can somebody tell me how can I recover the graphical interphase of ubuntu from the terminal? Thanks a lot

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• Reusable skill class structure

  - by Martino Wullems

  Hello, Pretty new to the whole game development scene, but I have experience in other branches of programming. Anyway, I was wondering what methods are used to implement a skill structure. I imagine a skill in itself would a class. I'm using actionscript 3 for this project btw. public class Skill { public var power:int; public var delay:int; public var cooldown:int; public function Attack(user:Mob, target:Mob) { } } } Each skill would extend the Skill class and add it's own functionality. public class Tackle extends Skill { public function Tackle(user:Mob, target:Mob) { super(user, target); executeAttack(); } private function executeAttack():void { //multiply user.strength with power etc //play attack animation } } } This where I get stuck. How do I termine which mobs has which skills? And which skill will they later be able to retrieve (by reaching a certain level etc). How does the player actually execute the skill and how is it determine if it hits. It's all very new to me so I have no idea where to begin. Any links would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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• Common way of animating 'motion' for walk cycle animations

  - by Ben Hymers

  I've just posted this at the Blender artists' forums before realising I would probably get a better response from a more game development-specific audience, so apologies for cross-posting! It's for the right reasons :) I'm a programmer trying to animate a character walking for a game project, using Ogre. I've made a very simple walk cycle in Blender and exported it to Ogre, and it plays just fine. By fine, I mean it works, but there's terrible foot sliding. This is because I just animated the walk in-place (at the origin) in Blender, and of course I don't know what "speed of walk" that corresponds to, so when I move the character in-game the motion doesn't necessarily match up with the movement of the feet in the animation. So my question is: what's the normal approach for this kind of thing? At work we use Maya, and the animators either animate a special 'moveTrans' node that represents the "position" of the character (or have the exporter generate it for them from the movement of the root node), then the game can read this to know how fast the animation moves the character. So in the Maya file, the character will walk forward for one cycle and this extra node will follow along with them by their feet. I've not seen anything like this in open-source land, and there's certainly no provision for that in the Ogre Exporter script. What do you chaps normally do for this?

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• How does a one-man developer do its games' sounds?

  - by Gustavo Maciel

  Before anything, that's not a "oh, where can I find resources?" question. Well, I've been curious about one thing in the indie games industry. For the development of the game, such tasks like game design, art, sketches, code programming and etc can be easily done by just one person. You can just take up a paper and pencil and you're a game designer. You can just take software like Photoshop or Paint and you're an artist, a scanner and you're a sketcher, a compiler and you're a programmer. For sound it's different. You may tell me: Well, follow the line, take a lot of instruments and record it. But all we know that things don't work this way. I can list up some changes for us: External noises are a big problem, sound effects can't be made with instruments, it can't sound like a recorded and clipped sound. Well I can imagine how they do this in large companies, with such big studios and etc. But to summarise, my question is: What's the best way for a one-man indie to do all its sound? Does he have to synthesize everything? Record and buy some crazy program for editing sounds?

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• Difference between the terms Material & Effect

  - by codey

  I'm making an effect system right now (I think, because it may be a material system... or both!). The effects system follows the common (e.g. COLLADA, DirectX) effect framework abstraction of Effects have Techniques, Techniques have Passes, Passes have States & Shader Programs. An effect, according to COLLADA, defines the equations necessary for the visual appearance of geometry and screen-space image processing. Keeping with the abstraction, effects contain techniques. Each effect can contain one or many techniques (i.e. ways to generate the effect), each of which describes a different method for rendering that effect. The technique could be relate to quality (e.g. high precision, high LOD, etc.), or in-game-situation (e.g. night/day, power-up-mode, etc.). Techniques hold a description of the textures, samplers, shaders, parameters, & passes necessary for rendering this effect using one method. Some algorithms require several passes to render the effect. Pipeline descriptions are broken into an ordered collection of Pass objects. A pass provides a static declaration of all the render states, shaders, & settings for "one rendering pipeline" (i.e. one pass). Meshes usually contain a series of materials that define the model. According to the COLLADA spec (again), a material instantiates an effect, fills its parameters with values, & selects a technique. But I see material defined differently in other places, such as just the Lambert, Blinn, Phong "material types/shaded surfaces", or as Metal, Plastic, Wood, etc. In game dev forums, people often talk about implementing a "material/effect system". Is the material not an instance of an effect? Ergo, if I had effect objects, stored in a collection, & each effect instance object with there own parameter setting, then there is no need for the concept of a material... Or am I interpreting it wrong? Please help by contributing your interpretations as I want to be clear on a distinction (if any), & don't want to miss out on the concept of a material if it should be implemented to follow the abstraction of the DirectX FX framework & COLLADA definitions closely.

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• Creating user UI using Flixel

  - by Jamie Read

  I am new to game development but familiar with programming languages. I have started using Flixel and have a working Breakout game with score and lives. What I am trying to do is add a Start Screen before actually loading the game. I have a create function that adds all the game elements to the stage: override public function create():void // all game elements { How can I add this pre-load Start Screen? I'm not sure if I have to add in the code to this create function or somewhere else and what code to actually add. Eventually I would also like to add saving, loading, options and upgrades too. So any advice with that would be great. Here is my main game.as: package { import org.flixel.*; public class Game extends FlxGame { private const resolution:FlxPoint = new FlxPoint(640, 480); private const zoom:uint = 2; private const fps:uint = 60; public function Game() { super(resolution.x / zoom, resolution.y / zoom, PlayState, zoom); FlxG.flashFramerate = fps; } } } Thanks.

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• Distributing an Android game with plugins via the market

  - by Peter Serwylo

  I'm new to Android development, and was wondering how the following could be achieved within the confines of the Android market as a distribution channel: One main application, which handles the main menu, networking, high scores, etc. Several games which can be launched from the main menu, which all work within the same eco system. The main application is not just a pseudo launcher for other games, these different games will share high scores and other achievements/preferences. In a traditional package management system such as apt, pacman or yum, this could be handled quite happily through dependencies. This does not appear to be possible via the Android market. The closest I've seen is when apps scan to check if the required app is installed, and if not, launches the market and asks the user to download the app. This sounds like a very messy solution. It also begs the question, would they download the game (plugin) first, which then downloads the main shell application? Or would they download the main shell application, and when they navigate to a menu item which says "Play game", then it scans for any installed games, and if none exist, redirects to the market? Also, I'm not even sure if it is possible to dig up the package from another application on the device, and start invoking classes from within (e.g. when you want to launch the game (plugin)) A final option is just to have a 3rd component which is a .jar that each game includes, which effectively contains the entire shell application. Then each game would appear to have the same menu, but it would become a nightmare as soon as you want to update the menu component and have to re-release each game. It would be especially worse if other people released games (plugins) based on the same framework and didn't update them. Is there any other options which I haven't thought of? Has anyone else solved this or seen a solution in any apps they've installed (doesn't have to be games)? cheers.

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• Dual booting Ubuntu 12.04: UEFI and Legacy

  - by cmhughes

  I'm trying to dual boot Ubuntu 12.04 (or 12.10) with Windows 8 on a new Sony Vaio, but have run into some problems :) Specifically, my problems seem to come from choosing UEFI or Legacy as the Bootmode in the BIOS. Here is what I have found so far: Windows 8 needs to boot using UEFI, and doesn't work in Legacy mode Ubuntu (both 12.04 and 12.10) needs to boot using Legacy, and won't boot (at least from the live disk) in UEFI mode I have been able to boot Ubuntu using a live USB disc, provided that I change the Bootmode to Legacy. I haven't committed to installing it yet, because I don't really understand the consequences. My main concerns are that instead of simply selecting Windows or Ubuntu in Grub, I would also have to change my Bootmode every single time, which seems like a lot more trouble than it should be. So, the question: how can I install Ubuntu 12.04 or 12.10 in UEFI boot mode?

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• How can I dynamically load the correct sprite from a sprite sheet?

  - by Leonard Challis

  I am making a simple card game in unity. The game is based on a standard 52-card pack, with identical backs for unique faces. In my particular game different cards are worth different values and have various special abilities. The game will have 52 cards on the table (on the draw position or in the face-down deck or in someone's hand) at all times, so this number won't change. I thought that making a Card prefab and instantiating 52 of these manually would be a bad idea. Even doing it in code, I thought, would be a bit OTT, and that I should just instantiate visual cards when they are face-up to the player. I have a sprite sheet of the 52 cards and the back, which is imported as a Sprite in multiple mode, sliced in to a grid containing all the cards needed to play the game. The problem I now face is that, through my GameController script I want to generate a shuffled pack of cards, deal some to each player and then show those cards to a player. However, I am not sure of the best way, or even if it's possible, to do this dynamically with the sprite sheets as they are. For instance if I have the following: private CardRank rank; private CardSuite suite; private void Start() { this.rank = CardRank.Ace; this.suite = CardSuite.Spades; } This class would be instantiated by the game manager. I would have 52 of these in code. Whenever I have to visually show a card in the scene, I would use a card prefab, which is essentially a game object with a SpriteRenderer on it. I would need to dynamically load the correct sprite for this object from the spritesheet. The sliced sprites from the sprite sheet actually have names in the format AS (Ace of Spades), 7H (Seven of Hearts), etc - though this was a manual thing I did myself of course. I have also tried various alternative solutions, including creating animations, having separate sprites not in a spritesheet and having an array of available sprites in an array with a specific index for each card, but none seem as elegant as trying to load the correct sprite at runtime, as I'm trying to. So, how do I load a specific sprite from a spritesheet at runtime? I'm open to suggestions, even those that make me think differently about how to approach the problem.

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• Custom inventory items based on inheritance

  - by Bogdan Marginean

  So, here's the scenario: I'm building an RPG. Like most of the other RPGs on the market, my game will feature an inventory and of course, inventory items. So far I've worked well with using a single class for all items, because I did not need anything else than character stat alteration on item usage (consumption). However, I'd like some items to have a more exotic effect. Think of something like when the user consumes a transformation potion, he automatically turns into a beast. In order to achieve this I've thought about declaring a new class that inherits from BaseItem for each item. Each descendant would override some methods (like void OnConsume()), to change the base behavior. This works fine, but when it comes to inventory management, I have some issues. The actual inventory will have to work with BaseItem components only (for obvious reasons, as it's an enumerable collection of objects of the same type); casting any descendant to the base class is possible, so no problems in adding items to the inventory. But how can I keep track of the descendant's type (class) for each item in the inventory? And how to perform the descendant's OnConsume from withint he inventory, for each item? Let me know if you can think of a better solution than mine, or if you can think of a solution to my problem only. Development is done in C#, inside Unity 3.5. Thanks!

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• Unexpected results for projection on to plane

  - by ravenspoint

  I want to use this projection matrix: GLfloat shadow[] = { -1,0,0,0, 1,0,-1,1, 0,0,-1,0, 0,0,0,-1 }; It should cast object shadows onto the y = 0 plane from a point light at 1,1,-1. I create a rectangle in the x = 0.5 plane glBegin( GL_QUADS ); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.2,-0.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.2,-1.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.5,-1.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.5,-0.5); glEnd(); Now if I manually multiply these vertices with the matrix, I get. glBegin( GL_QUADS ); glVertex3f( 0.375,0,-0.375); glVertex3f( 0.375,0,-1.625); glVertex3f( 0,0,-2); glVertex3f( 0,0,0); glEnd(); Which produces a reasonable display ( camera at 0,5,0 looking down y axis ) So rather than do the calculation manually, I should be able to use the opengl model transormation. I write this code: glMatrixMode (GL_MODELVIEW); GLfloat shadow[] = { -1,0,0,0, 1,0,-1,1, 0,0,-1,0, 0,0,0,-1 }; glLoadMatrixf( shadow ); glBegin( GL_QUADS ); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.2,-0.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.2,-1.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.5,-1.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.5,-0.5); glEnd(); But this produces a blank screen! What am I doing wrong? Is there some debug mode where I can print out the transformed vertices, so I can see where they are ending up? Note: People have suggested that using glMultMatrixf() might make a difference. It doesn't. Replacing glLoadMatrixf( shadow ); with glLoadIdentity(); glMultMatrixf( shadow ); gives the identical result ( of course! )

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• Algorithm for dynamically calculating a level based on experience points?

  - by George

  One of the struggles I've always had in game development is deciding how to implement experience points attributed to gaining a level. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to gaining a level in many of the games I've played, so I assume they have a static dictionary table which contains experience points vs. the level. e.g. Experience Level 0 1 100 2 175 3 280 4 800 5 ...There isn't a rhyme or reason why 280 points is equal to level 4, it just is. I'm not sure how those levels are decided, but it certainly wouldn't be dynamic. I've also thought about the possibility of exponential levels, as not to have to keep a separate lookup table, e.g. Experience Level 0 1 100 2 200 3 400 4 800 5 1600 6 3200 7 6400 8 ...but that seems like it would grow out of control rather quickly, as towards the upper levels, the enemies in the game would have to provide a whopping amount of experience to level -- and that would be to difficult to control. Leveling would become an impossible task. Does anyone have any pointers, or methods they use to decide how to level a character based on experience? I want to be fair in leveling and I want to stay ahead of the players as not to worry about constantly adding new experience/level lookups.

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• Drawing lots of tiles with OpenGL, the modern way

  - by Nic

  I'm working on a small tile/sprite-based PC game with a team of people, and we're running into performance issues. The last time I used OpenGL was around 2004, so I've been teaching myself how to use the core profile, and I'm finding myself a little confused. I need to draw in the neighborhood of 250-750 48x48 tiles to the screen every frame, as well as maybe around 50 sprites. The tiles only change when a new level is loaded, and the sprites are changing all the time. Some of the tiles are made up of four 24x24 pieces, and most (but not all) of the sprites are the same size as the tiles. A lot of the tiles and sprites use alpha blending. Right now I'm doing all of this in immediate mode, which I know is a bad idea. All the same, when one of our team members tries to run it, he gets very bad frame rates (~20-30 fps), and it's much worse when there are more tiles, especially when a lot of those tiles are the kind that are cut into pieces. This all makes me think that the problem is the number of draw calls being made. I've thought of a few possible solutions to this, but I wanted to run them by some people who know what they're talking about so I don't waste my time on something stupid: TILES: When a level is loaded, draw all the tiles once into a frame buffer attached to a big honking texture, and just draw a big rectangle with that texture on it every frame. Put all the tiles into a static vertex buffer when the level is loaded, and draw them that way. I don't know if there's a way to draw objects with different textures with a single call to glDrawElements, or if this is even something I'd want to do. Maybe just put all the tiles into a big giant texture and use funny texture coordinates in the VBO? SPRITES: Draw each sprite with a separate call to glDrawElements. Use a dynamic VBO somehow. Same texture question as number 2 above. Point sprites? This is probably silly. Are any of these ideas sensible? Is there a good implementation somewhere I could look over?

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