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• What is the worst programmer habit?

  - by 0x4a6f4672

  Many people get into programming because programming is fun. At least in the beginning. After some time doing it professionally, programming is no longer fun, often just hard work. Sometimes we develop bad habits along the way to make it fun again. Some bad habits of programmers are well known, for example the "I fix that in a second" habit, the "reinvent the wheel" practice or the "all code except mine is crap" attitude (which often leads to "I will re-write the entire program from scratch" syndrome). There are things which a programmer should never do. What is the worst programmer habit?

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• Best practice for organizing/storing character/monster data in an RPG?

  - by eclecto

  Synopsis: Attempting to build a cross-platform RPG app in Adobe Flash Builder and am trying to figure out the best class hierarchy and the best way to store the static data used to build each of the individual "hero" and "monster" types. My programming experience, particularly in AS3, is embarrassingly small. My ultra-alpha method is to include a "_class" object in the constructor for each instance. The _class, in turn, is a static Object pulled from a class created specifically for that purpose, so things look something like this: // Character.as package { public class Character extends Sprite { public var _strength:int; // etc. public function Character(_class:Object) { _strength = _class._strength; // etc. } } } // MonsterClasses.as package { public final class MonsterClasses extends Object { public static const Monster1:Object={ _strength:50, // etc. } // etc. } } // Some other class in which characters/monsters are created. // Create a new instance of Character var myMonster = new Character(MonsterClasses.Monster1); Another option I've toyed with is the idea of making each character class/monster type its own subclass of Character, but I'm not sure if it would be efficient or even make sense considering that these classes would only be used to store variables and would add no new methods. On the other hand, it would make creating instances as simple as var myMonster = new Monster1; and potentially cut down on the overhead of having to read a class containing the data for, at a conservative preliminary estimate, over 150 monsters just to fish out the one monster I want (assuming, and I really have no idea, that such a thing might cause any kind of slowdown in execution). But long story short, I want a system that's both efficient at compile time and easy to work with during coding. Should I stick with what I've got or try a different method? As a subquestion, I'm also assuming here that the best way to store data that will be bundled with the final game and not read externally is simply to declare everything in AS3. Seems to me that if I used, say, XML or JSON I'd have to use the associated AS3 classes and methods to pull in the data, parse it, and convert it to AS3 object(s) anyway, so it would be inefficient. Right?

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• How do you make a bullet ricochet off a vertical wall?

  - by Bagofsheep

  First things first. I am using C# with XNA. My game is top-down and the player can shoot bullets. I've managed to get the bullets to ricochet correctly off horizontal walls. Yet, despite using similar methods (e.g. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3203952/mirroring-an-angle) and reading other answered questions about this subject I have not been able to get the bullets to ricochet off a vertical wall correctly. Any method I've tried has failed and sometimes made ricocheting off a horizontal wall buggy. Here is the collision code that calls the ricochet method: //Loop through returned tile rectangles from quad tree to test for wall collision. If a collision occurs perform collision logic. for (int r = 0; r < returnObjects.Count; r++) if (Bullets[i].BoundingRectangle.Intersects(returnObjects[r])) Bullets[i].doCollision(returnObjects[r]); Now here is the code for the doCollision method. public void doCollision(Rectangle surface) { if (Ricochet) doRicochet(surface); else Trash = true; } Finally, here is the code for the doRicochet method. public void doRicochet(Rectangle surface) { if (Position.X > surface.Left && Position.X < surface.Right) { //Mirror the bullet's angle. Rotation = -1 * Rotation; //Moves the bullet in the direction of its rotation by given amount. moveFaceDirection(Sprite.Width * BulletScale.X); } else if (Position.Y > surface.Top && Position.Y < surface.Bottom) { } } Since I am only dealing with vertical and horizontal walls at the moment, the if statements simply determine if the object is colliding from the right or left, or from the top or bottom. If the object's X position is within the boundaries of the tile's X boundaries (left and right sides), it must be colliding from the top, and vice verse. As you can see, the else if statement is empty and is where the correct code needs to go.

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• Career Shifters: How to compete with IT/ComSci graduates

  - by CareerShifter

  I am wondering what are the chances of a career shifter (mid 20's), who have maybe 3-6 months programming experience vs. younger fresh IT/Com Sci graduates. You see, even though I really love programming (Java/J2EE), but nobody gives me a feedback when I apply online. maybe because they preferred IT/ComSci graduates vs a career shifter like me.. So can you advice on how to improve my chance on being hired. How can i get a real-job programming experince if nobody is hiring me. I can make my own projects (working e-commerce site blah blah) but it is still different from the real job. And my codes are working but it still needs a lot of improvement and no one can tell me how to improve it because no one sees it (because I'm doing it alone?). Do you know any open source websites (java/j2ee/jee) / online home-based jobs who accepts java/j2ee/jee trainees.. Thank you very much

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• Help with calculation to steer ship in 3d space

  - by Aaron Anodide

  I'm a beginner using XNA to try and make a 3D Asteroids game. I'm really close to having my space ship drive around as if it had thrusters for pitch and yaw. The problem is I can't quite figure out how to translate the rotations, for instance, when I pitch forward 45 degrees and then start to turn - in this case there should be rotation being applied to all three directions to get the "diagonal yaw" - right? I thought I had it right with the calculations below, but they cause a partly pitched forward ship to wobble instead of turn.... :( Here's current (almost working) calculations for the Rotation acceleration: float accel = .75f; // Thrust +Y / Forward if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.I)) { this.ship.AccelerationY += (float)Math.Cos(this.ship.RotationZ) * accel; this.ship.AccelerationX += (float)Math.Sin(this.ship.RotationZ) * -accel; this.ship.AccelerationZ += (float)Math.Sin(this.ship.RotationX) * accel; } // Rotation +Z / Yaw if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.J)) { this.ship.RotationAccelerationZ += (float)Math.Cos(this.ship.RotationX) * accel; this.ship.RotationAccelerationY += (float)Math.Sin(this.ship.RotationX) * accel; this.ship.RotationAccelerationX += (float)Math.Sin(this.ship.RotationY) * accel; } // Rotation -Z / Yaw if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.K)) { this.ship.RotationAccelerationZ += (float)Math.Cos(this.ship.RotationX) * -accel; this.ship.RotationAccelerationY += (float)Math.Sin(this.ship.RotationX) * -accel; this.ship.RotationAccelerationX += (float)Math.Sin(this.ship.RotationY) * -accel; } // Rotation +X / Pitch if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.F)) { this.ship.RotationAccelerationX += accel; } // Rotation -X / Pitch if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.D)) { this.ship.RotationAccelerationX -= accel; } I'm combining that with drawing code that does a rotation to the model: public void Draw(Matrix world, Matrix view, Matrix projection, TimeSpan elsapsedTime) { float seconds = (float)elsapsedTime.TotalSeconds; // update velocity based on acceleration this.VelocityX += this.AccelerationX * seconds; this.VelocityY += this.AccelerationY * seconds; this.VelocityZ += this.AccelerationZ * seconds; // update position based on velocity this.PositionX += this.VelocityX * seconds; this.PositionY += this.VelocityY * seconds; this.PositionZ += this.VelocityZ * seconds; // update rotational velocity based on rotational acceleration this.RotationVelocityX += this.RotationAccelerationX * seconds; this.RotationVelocityY += this.RotationAccelerationY * seconds; this.RotationVelocityZ += this.RotationAccelerationZ * seconds; // update rotation based on rotational velocity this.RotationX += this.RotationVelocityX * seconds; this.RotationY += this.RotationVelocityY * seconds; this.RotationZ += this.RotationVelocityZ * seconds; Matrix translation = Matrix.CreateTranslation(PositionX, PositionY, PositionZ); Matrix rotation = Matrix.CreateRotationX(RotationX) * Matrix.CreateRotationY(RotationY) * Matrix.CreateRotationZ(RotationZ); model.Root.Transform = rotation * translation * world; model.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo(boneTransforms); foreach (ModelMesh mesh in model.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { effect.World = boneTransforms[mesh.ParentBone.Index]; effect.View = view; effect.Projection = projection; effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); } mesh.Draw(); } }

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• 2D collision resolving

  - by Philippe Paré

  I've just worked out an AABB collision algorithm for my 2D game and I was very satisfied until I found out it only works properly with movements of 1 in X and 1 in Y... here it is: public bool Intersects(Rectanglef rectangle) { return this.Left < rectangle.Right && this.Right > rectangle.Left && this.Top < rectangle.Bottom && this.Bottom > rectangle.Top; } public bool IntersectsAny(params Rectanglef[] rectangles) { for (int i = 0; i < rectangles.Length; i++) { if (this.Left < rectangles[i].Right && this.Right > rectangles[i].Left && this.Top < rectangles[i].Bottom && this.Bottom > rectangles[i].Top) return true; } return false; } and here is how I use it in the update function of my player : public void Update(GameTime gameTime) { Rectanglef nextPosX = new Rectanglef(AABB.X, AABB.Y, AABB.Width, AABB.Height); Rectanglef nextPosY; if (Input.Key(Key.Left)) nextPosX.X--; if (Input.Key(Key.Right)) nextPosX.X++; bool xFree = !nextPosX.IntersectsAny(Boxes.ToArray()); if (xFree) nextPosY = new Rectanglef(nextPosX.X, nextPosX.Y, nextPosX.Width, nextPosX.Height); else nextPosY = new Rectanglef(AABB.X, AABB.Y, AABB.Width, AABB.Height); if (Input.Key(Key.Up)) nextPosY.Y--; if (Input.Key(Key.Down)) nextPosY.Y++; bool yFree = !nextPosY.IntersectsAny(Boxes.ToArray()); if (yFree) AABB = nextPosY; else if (xFree) AABB = nextPosX; } What I'm having trouble with, is a system where I can give float values to my movement and make it so there's a smooth acceleration. Do I have to retrieve the collision rectangle (the rectangle created by the other two colliding)? or should I do some sort of vector and go along this axis until I reach the collision? Thanks a lot!

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• Why occlusion is failing sometimes?

  - by cad

  I am rendering two cubes in the space using XNA 4.0 and occlusion only works from certain angles. Here is what I see from the front angle (everything ok) Here is what I see from behind This is my draw method. Cubes are drawn by serverManager and serverManager1 protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); switch (_gameStateFSM.State) { case GameFSMState.GameStateFSM.INTROSCREEN: spriteBatch.Begin(); introscreen.Draw(spriteBatch); spriteBatch.End(); break; case GameFSMState.GameStateFSM.GAME: spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Deferred, BlendState.AlphaBlend); // Text screenMessagesManager.Draw(spriteBatch, firstPersonCamera.cameraPosition, fpsHelper.framesPerSecond); // Camera firstPersonCamera.Draw(); // Servers serverManager.Draw(GraphicsDevice, firstPersonCamera.viewMatrix, firstPersonCamera.projMatrix); serverManager1.Draw(GraphicsDevice, firstPersonCamera.viewMatrix, firstPersonCamera.projMatrix); // Room //roomManager.Draw(GraphicsDevice, firstPersonCamera.viewMatrix); spriteBatch.End(); break; case GameFSMState.GameStateFSM.EXITGAME: break; default: break; } base.Draw(gameTime); fpsHelper.IncrementFrameCounter(); } serverManager and serverManager1 are instances of the same class ServerManager that draws a cube. The draw method for ServerManager is: public void Draw(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice, Matrix viewMatrix, Matrix projectionMatrix) { cubeEffect.World = Matrix.CreateTranslation(modelPosition); // Set the World matrix which defines the position of the cube cubeEffect.View = viewMatrix; // Set the View matrix which defines the camera and what it's looking at cubeEffect.Projection = projectionMatrix; // Enable textures on the Cube Effect. this is necessary to texture the model cubeEffect.TextureEnabled = true; cubeEffect.Texture = cubeTexture; // Enable some pretty lights cubeEffect.EnableDefaultLighting(); // apply the effect and render the cube foreach (EffectPass pass in cubeEffect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); cubeToDraw.RenderToDevice(graphicsDevice); } } Obviously there is something I am doing wrong. Any hint of where to look? (Maybe z-buffer or occlusion tests?)

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• What is the recommended way to output values to FBO targets? (OpenGL 3.3 + GLSL 330)

  - by datSilencer

  I'll begin by apologizing for any dumb assumptions you might find in the code below since I'm still pretty much green when it comes to OpenGL programming. I'm currently trying to implement deferred shading by using FBO's and their associated targets (textures in my case). I have a simple (I think :P) geometry+fragment shader program and I'd like to write its Fragment Shader stage output to three different render targets (previously bound by a call to glDrawBuffers()), like so: #version 330 in vec3 WorldPos0; in vec2 TexCoord0; in vec3 Normal0; in vec3 Tangent0; layout(location = 0) out vec3 WorldPos; layout(location = 1) out vec3 Diffuse; layout(location = 2) out vec3 Normal; uniform sampler2D gColorMap; uniform sampler2D gNormalMap; vec3 CalcBumpedNormal() { vec3 Normal = normalize(Normal0); vec3 Tangent = normalize(Tangent0); Tangent = normalize(Tangent - dot(Tangent, Normal) * Normal); vec3 Bitangent = cross(Tangent, Normal); vec3 BumpMapNormal = texture(gNormalMap, TexCoord0).xyz; BumpMapNormal = 2 * BumpMapNormal - vec3(1.0, 1.0, -1.0); vec3 NewNormal; mat3 TBN = mat3(Tangent, Bitangent, Normal); NewNormal = TBN * BumpMapNormal; NewNormal = normalize(NewNormal); return NewNormal; } void main() { WorldPos = WorldPos0; Diffuse = texture(gColorMap, TexCoord0).xyz; Normal = CalcBumpedNormal(); } If my render target textures are configured as: RT1:(GL_RGB32F, GL_RGB, GL_FLOAT, GL_TEXTURE0, GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT0) RT2:(GL_RGB32F, GL_RGB, GL_FLOAT, GL_TEXTURE1, GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT1) RT3:(GL_RGB32F, GL_RGB, GL_FLOAT, GL_TEXTURE2, GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT2) And assuming that each texture has an internal format capable of contaning the incoming data, will the fragment shader write the corresponding values to the expected texture targets? On a related note, do the textures need to be bound to the OpenGL context when they are Multiple Render Targets? From some Googling, I think there are two other ways to output to MRTs: 1: Output each component to gl_FragData[n]. Some forum posts say this method is deprecated. However, looking at the latest OpenGL 3.3 and 4.0 specifications at opengl.org, the core profiles still mention this approach. 2: Use a typed output array variable for the expected type. In this case, I think it would be something like this: out vec3 [3] output; void main() { output[0] = WorldPos0; output[1] = texture(gColorMap, TexCoord0).xyz; output[2] = CalcBumpedNormal(); } So which is then the recommended approach? Is there a recommended approach at all if I plan to code on top of OpenGL 3.3? Thanks for your time and help!

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• StringBuffer behavior in LWJGL

  - by Michael Oberlin

  Okay, I've been programming in Java for about ten years, but am entirely new to LWJGL. I have a specific problem whilst attempting to create a text console. I have built a class meant to abstract input polling to it, which (in theory) captures key presses from the Keyboard object and appends them to a StringBuilder/StringBuffer, then retrieves the completed string after receiving the ENTER key. The problem is, after I trigger the String return (currently with ESCAPE), and attempt to print it to System.out, I consistently get a blank line. I can get an appropriate string length, and I can even sample a single character out of it and get complete accuracy, but it never prints the actual string. I could swear that LWJGL slipped some kind of thread-safety trick in while I wasn't looking. Here's my code: static volatile StringBuffer command = new StringBuffer(); @Override public void chain(InputPoller poller) { this.chain = poller; } @Override public synchronized void poll() { //basic testing for modifier keys, to be used later on boolean shift = false, alt = false, control = false, superkey = false; if(Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_LSHIFT) || Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_RSHIFT)) shift = true; if(Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_LMENU) || Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_RMENU)) alt = true; if(Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_LCONTROL) || Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_RCONTROL)) control = true; if(Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_LMETA) || Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_RMETA)) superkey = true; while(Keyboard.next()) if(Keyboard.getEventKeyState()) { command.append(Keyboard.getEventCharacter()); } if (Framework.isConsoleEnabled() && Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_ESCAPE)) { System.out.println("Escape down"); System.out.println(command.length() + " characters polled"); //works System.out.println(command.toString().length()); //works System.out.println(command.toString().charAt(4)); //works System.out.println(command.toString().toCharArray()); //blank line! System.out.println(command.toString()); //blank line! Framework.disableConsole(); } //TODO: Add command construction and console management after that } } Maybe the answer's obvious and I'm just feeling tired, but I need to walk away from this for a while. If anyone sees the issue, please let me know. This machine is running the latest release of Java 7 on Ubuntu 12.04, Mate desktop environment. Many thanks.

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• Climbing the hacker ladder

  - by cobie

  This is not a question in which I am asking for opinions rather I am asking for first hand experience. I have been programming in python for quite a while and I feel solid enough in python programming. I can come up with algorithms for problems and implement them but I somehow feel I am stuck with remaining an apprentice. What are some first hand experiences on how to climb up the ladder and become better at programming as in learning about browsers security, compilers etc. Personal experiences would be valued in responses.

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• How are OpenGL ES 1 framebuffers and textures sized?

  - by jens

  I am trying to draw to a texture using a framebuffer using OpenGL ES 1.1 on Android, Java. Afterwords I want to overlay this texture full-screen over my game. In theory, this works like a charm, but somehow the coordinates are off. For testing I drew something at (0,0) with width and height 200, and it partly is off-screen. This is how I create the framebuffer: fb = new int[1]; depthRb = new int[1]; renderTex = new int[1]; gl11ep.glGenFramebuffersOES(1, fb, 0); gl11ep.glGenRenderbuffersOES(1, depthRb, 0); // the depth buffer gl.glGenTextures(1, renderTex, 0);// generate texture gl.glBindTexture(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, renderTex[0]); gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL10.GL_LINEAR); gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL10.GL_LINEAR); gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL10.GL_REPEAT); gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL10.GL_REPEAT); texBuffer = ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(buf.length*4).order(ByteOrder.nativeOrder()).asIntBuffer(); gl.glTexImage2D(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL10.GL_LUMINANCE, texW, texH, 0, GL10.GL_LUMINANCE, GL10.GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, texBuffer); gl11ep.glBindRenderbufferOES(GL11ExtensionPack.GL_RENDERBUFFER_OES, depthRb[0]); gl11ep.glRenderbufferStorageOES(GL11ExtensionPack.GL_RENDERBUFFER_OES, GL11ExtensionPack.GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT16, texW, texH); Before I draw, I do this: gl11ep.glBindFramebufferOES(GL11ExtensionPack.GL_FRAMEBUFFER_OES, fb[0]); gl.glClearColor(0f, 0f, 0f, 0f); // specify texture as color attachment gl11ep.glFramebufferTexture2DOES(GL11ExtensionPack.GL_FRAMEBUFFER_OES, GL11ExtensionPack.GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT0_OES, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, renderTex[0], 0); // attach render buffer as depth buffer gl11ep.glFramebufferRenderbufferOES(GL11ExtensionPack.GL_FRAMEBUFFER_OES, GL11ExtensionPack.GL_DEPTH_ATTACHMENT_OES, GL11ExtensionPack.GL_RENDERBUFFER_OES, depthRb[0]); I set texW = 1024 and texH = 512. When rendering this texture fullscreen, with a lightmask (size 200x200) placed at (0, 0) and (texW/2, texH/2). You can see that it seems like the coordinate system doesnt start at (0,0) as that light overlaps the screen and the images are not drawn as squares (my lightcone-texture is a circle, not an ellipse). So, how is the coordinate system of this offscreen-drawn texture defined? Thanks

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• I'm a beginner Java programmer but I want to be useful

  - by user105418

  Programming has always interested me, but after learning some of the basics of Java(I'm talking high school level), I don't really know what to do from there. I want to be able to apply what I learned in some way, whether it be a volunteer project or something, but I probably don't know enough programming. Is it possible for a novice Java programmer to be useful in some way whatsoever. I want to do this because I feel like I could learn more about programming by helping people in theirs, but I'm not sure if I'm even able to this though. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can contribute to other people's project in some way or how to apply it in some way?

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• Frame rate on one of two machines running same code seems to be capped at 60 for no reason

  - by dennmat

  ISSUE I recently moved a project from my laptop to my desktop(machine info below). On my laptop the exact same code displays the fps(and ms/f) correctly. On my desktop it does not. What I mean by this is on the laptop it will display 300 fps(for example) where on my desktop it will show only up to 60. If I add 100 objects to the game on the laptop I'll see my frame rate drop accordingly; the same test on the desktop results in no change and the frames stay at 60. It takes a lot(~300) entities before I'll see a frame drop on the desktop, then it will descend. It seems as though its "theoretical" frames would be 400 or 500 but will never actually get to that and only do 60 until there's too much to handle at 60. This 60 frame cap is coming from no where. I'm not doing any frame limiting myself. It seems like something external is limiting my loop iterations on the desktop, but for the last couple days I've been scratching my head trying to figure out how to debug this. SETUPS Desktop: Visual Studio Express 2012 Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Laptop: Visual Studio Express 2010 Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit The libraries(allegro, box2d) are the same versions on both setups. CODE Main Loop: while(!abort) { frameTime = al_get_time(); if (frameTime - lastTime >= 1.0) { lastFps = fps/(frameTime - lastTime); lastTime = frameTime; avgMspf = cumMspf/fps; cumMspf = 0.0; fps = 0; } /** DRAWING/UPDATE CODE **/ fps++; cumMspf += al_get_time() - frameTime; } Note: There is no blocking code in the loop at any point. Where I'm at My understanding of al_get_time() is that it can return different resolutions depending on the system. However the resolution is never worse than seconds, and the double is represented as [seconds].[finer-resolution] and seeing as I'm only checking for a whole second al_get_time() shouldn't be responsible. My project settings and compiler options are the same. And I promise its the same code on both machines. My googling really didn't help me much, and although technically it's not that big of a deal. I'd really like to figure this out or perhaps have it explained, whichever comes first. Even just an idea of how to go about figuring out possible causes, because I'm out of ideas. Any help at all is greatly appreciated.

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• Angry Birds and Star Wars Join Forces for an Awesome New Edition [Plus Wallpaper!]

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you ready for a new version of Angry Birds? Then rejoice, you are less than a month away from an awesome new release of everyone’s favorite bird-slinging, pig smashing game! Prepare for a journey to a galaxy far, far away… From the blog post: From the deserts of Tatooine to the depths of the Death Star – the game and merchandise will feature the Angry Birds characters starring as the iconic heroes of the beloved Saga. In the coming weeks, fans can expect additional new videos, characters, and much more exciting content to be revealed. The game will be available on iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle Fire, Mac, PC, Windows Phone and Windows 8. Here is the first of the promo videos for the new version. Also, make sure to download the first official wallpaper (linked to below)! How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference How To Troubleshoot Internet Connection Problems 7 Ways To Free Up Hard Disk Space On Windows

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• Calculating a circle or sphere along a vector

  - by Sparky

  Updated this post and the one at Math SE (http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/127866/calculating-a-circle-or-sphere-along-a-vector), hope this makes more sense. I previously posted a question (about half an hour ago) involving computations along line segments, but the question and discussion were really off track and not what I was trying to get at. I am trying to work with an FPS engine I am attempting to build in Java. The problem I am encountering is with hitboxing. I am trying to calculate whether or not a "shot" is valid. I am working with several approaches and any insight would be helpful. I am not a native speaker of English nor skilled in Math so please bear with me. Player position is at P0 = (x0,y0,z0), Enemy is at P1 = (x1,y1,z1). I can of course compute the distance between them easily. The target needs a "hitbox" object, which is basically a square/rectangle/mesh either in front of, in, or behind them. Here are the solutions I am considering: I have ruled this out...doesn't seem practical. [Place a "hitbox" a small distance in front of the target. Then I would be able to find the distance between the player and the hitbox, and the hitbox and the target. It is my understanding that you can compute a circle with this information, and I could simply consider any shot within that circle a "hit". However this seems not to be an optimal solution, because it requires you to perform a lot of calculations and is not fully accurate.] Input, please! Place the hitbox "in" the player. This seems like the better solution. In this case what I need is a way to calculate a circle along the vector, at whatever position I wish (in this case, the distance between the two objects). Then I can pick some radius that encompasses the whole player, and count anything within this area a "hit". I am open to your suggestions. I'm trying to do this on paper and have no familiarity with game engines. If any software folk out there think I'm doing this the hard way, I'm open to help! Also - Anyone with JOGL/LWJGL experience, please chime in. Is this making sense?

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• Why is it good to split a program into multiple classes?

  - by user1276078

  I'm still a student in high school (entering 10th grade), and I have yet to take an actual computer course in school. Everything I've done so far is through books. Those books have taught me concepts such as inheritance, but how does splitting a program into multiple classes help? The books never told me. I'm asking this mainly because of a recent project. It's an arcade video game, sort of like a flash game as some people have said (although I have no idea what a flash game is). The thing is, it's only one class. It works perfectly fine (a little occasional lag however) with just one class. So, I'm just asking how splitting it into multiple classes would help it. This project was in JAVA and I am the only person working on it, for the record.

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• What OpenGL version(s) to learn and/or use?

  - by zuko

  So, I'm new to OpenGL... I have general knowledge of game programming but little practical experience. I've been looking into various articles and books and trying to dive into OpenGL, but I've found the various versions and old vs new way of doing things confusing. I guess my first questions is does anyone know some figures about percentages of gamers that can run each version of OpenGL. What's the market share like? 2.x, 3.x, 4.x... I looked into the requirements for Half Life 2 since I know Valve updated it with OpenGL to run on Mac and I know they usually try to hit a very wide user-base, and they say a minimum of GeForce 8 Series. I looked at the 8800 GT on Nvidia's website and it listed support for OpenGL 2.1. Which, maybe I'm wrong, sounds ancient to me since there's already 4.x. I looked up a driver for 8800GT and it says it supports 4.2! A bit of a discrepancy there, lol. I've also read things like XP only supports up to a certain version, or OS X only supports 3.2, or all kinds of other things. Overall, I'm just confused as to how much support there is for various versions and what version to learn/use. I'm also looking for learning resources. My search results thus far have pointed me to the OpenGL SuperBible. The 4th edition has great reviews on Amazon, but it teaches 2.1. The 5th edition teaches 3.3 and there are a couple things in the reviews that mention the 4th edition is better and that the 5th edition doesn't properly teach the new features or something? Basically, even within learning material I'm seeing discrepancies and I just don't even know where to start. From what I understand, 3.x started a whole new way of doing things and I've read from various articles and reviews that you want to "stay away from deprecated features like glBegin(), glEnd()" yet a lot of books and tutorials I've seen use that method. I've seen people saying that, basically, the new way of doing stuff is more complicated yet the old way is bad . Just a side note, personally, I know I still have a lot to learn beforehand, but I'm interested in tessellation; so I guess that factors into it as well, because, as far as I understand that's only in 4.x? [just btw, my desktop supports 4.2]

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• Becoming an expert vs boredom [closed]

  - by QAH

  I am a college student, and I love to program, period. I code all kinds of things in different kinds of languages. Although I enjoy programming, I have an extremely hard time sticking to one project for a long time. I attribute this shortcoming to my high level of curiosity, exploring different technologies, languages, libraries, etc. What would be best? Should I settle down more and spend time on becoming an expert in one or two programming fields, or should I be more of a jack of all trades, trying out all kinds of new technologies, languages, programming methods, etc.? I'm guessing that somewhere in the middle would be best. I'm always amazed at how many developers are able to create one or two projects, and develop on them for years. What techniques do you guys employ to help you stay focused on a project?

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• Why does my goblin only choose a walk direction once?

  - by Eogcloud

  I'm working on a simpe 2d canvas game that has a small goblin sprite who I want to get pathing around the screen. What I originally tried was a random roll that would choose a direction, the goblin would walk that direction. It didnt work effectively, he sort of wobbled in one spot. Here's my current apporach but he only runs in a rundom direction and doesnt change. What am I doing wrong? Here's all the relevant code to the goblin object and movement. var goblin = { speed: 100, pos: [0, 0], dir: 1, changeDir: true, stepCount: 0, stepTotal: 0, sprite: new Sprite( goblinImage, [0,0], [30,45], 6, [0,1,2,3,2,1], true) }; function getNewDir(){ goblin.dir = Math.floor(Math.random()*4)+1; }; function checkGoblinMovement(){ if(goblin.changeDir){ goblin.changeDir = false; goblin.stepCount = 0; goblin.stepTotal = Math.floor(Math.random*650)+1; getNewDir(); } else { if(goblin.stepCount === goblin.stepTotal){ goblin.changeDir = true; } } }; function update(delta){ healthCheck(); if(isGameOver){ gameOver(); } if(!isGameOver){ updateCharLevel(); keyboardInput(delta); moveGoblin(delta); checkGoblinMovement(); goblin.sprite.update(delta); //update sprites if(mainChar.kills!=0 && bloodReady){ for(var i=0; i<bloodArray.length; i++){ bloodArray[i].sprite.update(delta); } } //collision detection if(collision(mainChar, goblin)) { combatOutcome(combatEvent()); combatCleanup(); } } }; function main(){ var now = Date.now(); var delta = (now - then)/1000; if(!isGameOver){ update(delta); } draw(); then = now; }; function moveGoblin(delta){ goblin.stepCount++; if(goblin.dir === 1){ goblin.pos[1] -= goblin.speed * delta* 2; if(goblin.pos[1] <= 85){ goblin.pos[1] = 86; } } if(goblin.dir === 2){ goblin.pos[1] += goblin.speed * delta; if(goblin.pos[1] > 530){ goblin.pos[1] = 531; } } if(goblin.dir === 3){ goblin.pos[0] -= goblin.speed * delta; if(goblin.pos[0] < 0){ goblin.pos[0] = 1; } } if(goblin.dir === 4){ goblin.pos[0] += goblin.speed * delta* 2; if(goblin.pos[0] > 570){ goblin.pos[0] = 571; } } };

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• How to do proper Alpha in XNA?

  - by Soshimo

  Okay, I've read several articles, tutorials, and questions regarding this. Most point to the same technique which doesn't solve my problem. I need the ability to create semi-transparent sprites (texture2D's really) and have them overlay another sprite. I can achieve that somewhat with the code samples I've found but I'm not satisfied with the results and I know there is a way to do this. In mobile programming (BREW) we did it old school and actually checked each pixel for transparency before rendering. In this case it seems to render the sprite below it blended with the alpha above it. This may be an artifact of how I'm rendering the texture but, as I said before, all examples point to this one technique. Before I go any further I'll go ahead and paste my example code. public void Draw(SpriteBatch batch, Camera camera, float alpha) { int tileMapWidth = Width; int tileMapHeight = Height; batch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Texture, BlendState.AlphaBlend, SamplerState.PointWrap, DepthStencilState.Default, RasterizerState.CullNone, null, camera.TransformMatrix); for (int x = 0; x < tileMapWidth; x++) { for (int y = 0; y < tileMapHeight; y++) { int tileIndex = _map[y, x]; if (tileIndex != -1) { Texture2D texture = _tileTextures[tileIndex]; batch.Draw( texture, new Rectangle( (x * Engine.TileWidth), (y * Engine.TileHeight), Engine.TileWidth, Engine.TileHeight), new Color(new Vector4(1f, 1f, 1f, alpha ))); } } } batch.End(); } As you can see, in this code I'm using the overloaded SpriteBatch.Begin method which takes, among other things, a blend state. I'm almost positive that's my problem. I don't want to BLEND the sprites, I want them to be transparent when alpha is 0. In this example I can set alpha to 0 but it still renders both tiles, with the lower z ordered sprite showing through, discolored because of the blending. This is not a desired effect, I want the higher z-ordered sprite to fade out and not effect the color beneath it in such a manner. I might be way off here as I'm fairly new to XNA development so feel free to steer me in the correct direction in the event I'm going down the wrong rabbit hole. TIA

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• Why is the MaskBit maxed out

  - by CStreel

  Hi there for some reason the maskbit of my b2FixtureDef is being maxxed out and im not sure why Here is the declaration of the items that are used in the game enum PhysicBits { PB_NONE = 0x0000, PB_PLAYER = 0x0001, PB_PLATFORM = 0x0002 }; Basically what i want is the player to run along a surface is not slow down (i set platform & player friction to 0.0f) I then setup my Contact Listener to print out the connections (currently only have 1 platform and 1 player) Player Fixture Def b2FixtureDef fixtureDef; fixtureDef.shape = &groundBox; fixtureDef.density = 1.0f; fixtureDef.friction = 0.0f; fixtureDef.filter.categoryBits = PB_PLAYER; fixtureDef.filter.maskBits = PB_PLATFORM; Platform Fixture Def b2FixtureDef fixtureDef; fixtureDef.shape = &groundBox; fixtureDef.density = 1.0f; fixtureDef.friction = 0.0f; fixtureDef.filter.categoryBits = PB_PLATFORM; fixtureDef.filter.maskBits = PB_PLAYER; Now correct me if im wrong but these are saying the following: Player Collides with Platform Platform Collides with Player Here is the printout of the fixtures colliding with each other ******** <-- Indicates new Contact Platform ContactA: 2 MaskA: 1 ------ Player ContactB: 1 MaskB: 2 ******** <-- Indicates new Contact Platform ContactA: 2 MaskA: 1 ------ Player ContactB: 1 MaskB: 65535 ******** <-- Indicates new Contact Platform ContactA: 1 MaskA: 65535 ------ Player ContactB: 1 MaskB: 65535 Here is where i am confused. On the second & third contact the player maskBit is set to 65535 when it should be 2 and there are 3 contacts when i am sure at most there should only be 2. I've been trying to figure this out for hours and i can't understand why it is doing this. I would be very grateful is someone could shine some light on this for me UPDATE: **I printed out the class of the contacting objects. For some reason it seems to do the following: First Contact: Correct Result. Second Contact: Player b2Fixture Obtains a new maskBit. Third Contact: Platform b2Fixture appears to be set to the same as the Player b2Fixture. It would seem I have a memory race condition i think**

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• Should I continue to learn and program using ansi c or non standard? [closed]

  - by Erik

  I am a Cs Student, enthusiastic about programming. C is my first programming language that I learned. (Never been exposed to programming, data structures, algorithms before) I failed the exam because I studied on my own and didn't know how to use windows non standard libraries like conio.h. (I had to draw circles, etc using get x and get y). I told them but they just don't care. What do I do because for a beginner this is very confusing? Do I continue to study ansi c on my own, or should I study non standard c? Should I do them in parallel? *I did use the search bar but found nothing useful that could help me.

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• job offer in dead technology

  - by bold

  I have a job offer in a dead technology (specific programming language) that I don't want to work with nor do I believe it will offer many jobs in the future. It requires twice a year travels abroad, which not a plus in my eyes. On the other hand the money on the table is high. What would you do? edit: as its not clear I got a job in a programming language that is different from the academic programming language I worked with. Now I see it as a mistake to head to that direction.

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• Why do we need private variables?

  - by rak

  Why do we need private variables in classes in the context of programming? Every book on programming I've read says this is a private variable, this is how you define it but stops there. The wording of these explanations always seemed to me like we really have a crisis of trust in our profession. The explanations always sounded like other programmers are out to mess up our code. Yet, there are many programming languages that do not have private variables. What do private variables help prevent? How do you decide if a particular of properties should be private or not? If by default every field SHOULD be private then why are there public data members in a class? Under what circumstances should a variable be made public?

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• Why distant objects draw in front of close objects?

  - by cad

  I am rendering two cubes in the space using XNA 4.0 and the layering of objects only works from certain angles. Here is what I see from the front angle (everything ok) Here is what I see from behind This is my draw method. Cubes are drawn by serverManager and serverManager1 protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); switch (_gameStateFSM.State) { case GameFSMState.GameStateFSM.INTROSCREEN: spriteBatch.Begin(); introscreen.Draw(spriteBatch); spriteBatch.End(); break; case GameFSMState.GameStateFSM.GAME: spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Deferred, BlendState.AlphaBlend); // Text screenMessagesManager.Draw(spriteBatch, firstPersonCamera.cameraPosition, fpsHelper.framesPerSecond); // Camera firstPersonCamera.Draw(); // Servers serverManager.Draw(GraphicsDevice, firstPersonCamera.viewMatrix, firstPersonCamera.projMatrix); serverManager1.Draw(GraphicsDevice, firstPersonCamera.viewMatrix, firstPersonCamera.projMatrix); // Room //roomManager.Draw(GraphicsDevice, firstPersonCamera.viewMatrix); spriteBatch.End(); break; case GameFSMState.GameStateFSM.EXITGAME: break; default: break; } base.Draw(gameTime); fpsHelper.IncrementFrameCounter(); } serverManager and serverManager1 are instances of the same class ServerManager that draws a cube. The draw method for ServerManager is: public void Draw(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice, Matrix viewMatrix, Matrix projectionMatrix) { cubeEffect.World = Matrix.CreateTranslation(modelPosition); // Set the World matrix which defines the position of the cube cubeEffect.View = viewMatrix; // Set the View matrix which defines the camera and what it's looking at cubeEffect.Projection = projectionMatrix; // Enable textures on the Cube Effect. this is necessary to texture the model cubeEffect.TextureEnabled = true; cubeEffect.Texture = cubeTexture; // Enable some pretty lights cubeEffect.EnableDefaultLighting(); // apply the effect and render the cube foreach (EffectPass pass in cubeEffect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); cubeToDraw.RenderToDevice(graphicsDevice); } } Obviously there is something I am doing wrong. Any hint of where to look? (Maybe z-buffer or occlusion tests?)

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