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Search found 8 results on 1 pages for 'skeith'.

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• How to explain pointers to a Java/VB programmer

  - by Skeith

  I am writing a game and my friend has offered to help me as it is a RPG and will take a long time to do the "scripting" bit of the game. The problem is IMO he's not that good a programmer :( (add flame war here). He has only programmed in Java and VB and keeps saying really stupid things to me like "Why don't you drag and drop an onClick event" to design my UI when I'm using DirectX. I tried explaining pointers to him but his response was, if it's just a variable that holds a memory address, why don't you just use an int? I create an instance of an attack class and give the creature a pointer to it so if several creatures use the same attack there is only one instance of it. He keeps saying why not put if statements in the creature class for every attack class and set true for the ones that are there. He has programmed mainly in VB and a little in Java just to learn OOP. How can I explain advanced C++ concepts like pointers and memory management to him? He just doesn't understand there are no super functions like form.show in C++.

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• Are programmers getting lazier and less competent

  - by Skeith

  I started programming in C++ at uni and loved it. In the next term we changed to VB6 and I hated it. I could not tell what was going on, you drag a button to a form and the ide writes the code for you. While I hated the way VB functioned I cannot argue that it was faster and easier than doing the same thing in C++ so i can see why it is a popular language. Now I am not calling VB developers lazy in just saying it easier than C++ and I have noticed that a lot of newer languages are following this trend such a C#. This leads me to think that as more business want quick results more people will program like this and sooner or later there will be no such thing as what we call programming now. Future programmers will tell the computer what they want and the compiler will write the program for them like in star trek. Is this just an under informed opinion of a junior programmer or are programmers getting lazier and less competent in general? EDIT: A lot of answers say why re invent the wheel and I agree with this but when there are wheels available people are not bothering to learn how to make the wheel. I can google how to do pretty much anything in any language and half the languages do so much for you when it come to debugging they have no idea what there code does of how to fix the error. That's how I cam up with the theory that programmers are becoming lazier and less competent as no one cares how stuff works just that it does until it does not.

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• Writing Java in Java

  - by Skeith

  I have been using Java for several months at work now and am becoming mildly competent in it. The problem I think I am having is that I program C++ in Java . By that I mean I have always used C++ and am treating Java as a simple syntax change instead of appreciate if for its own language. For instance a static variable in C++ is the same as a normal variable in Java as Java is all classes so they maintain there values between function calls. Little things like this are tripping me up constantly as I am self taught. What I want is to invest the time to become a good java programmer not just a C++ programmer that can write in Java. The problem is I do not know how to do this. I have tried reading the Java doc pages but I find them very clinical and hard to understand. So what I am looking for is recommendations on how I can learn to think in Java. Books that teach Java concepts not Java syntax, online tutorials that I can work through that give it a context, established Java traditions/best practices and any other thing that you could recommend.

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• what knowledge would I need to make a good simulation games

  - by Skeith

  I have an idea for a game like theme park but don't know how simulation games are made. I am not some noob on his first game so I appreciated constructive answers instead of "its hard, don't do it". What I want is to know how simulation game mechanics are put together. I figure it would be heaver on the AI than normal games and not knowing much about AI would like to know some programming techniques I should look into for this style game. specific techniques please not just a book on ai. what sort of architecture would be used? I guess it would have some sort of probability engine with pre designed events that are triggered based on the AI state. Would it use a FSM or be purely event driven ? Any information on how a sims game functions would be cool.

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• How to draw tile edges when you don't know where they're going.

  - by Skeith

  This is more of an art question than a programing one but still game development. I have a tile engine that makes a map randomly from tiles, each tile is a square 3x3 grid. The problem is that while the elements on each tile work well together such as having forests along the top three squares and grass on the other 6, the engine could put the forrests against anything such as rivers, grass, mountains or more forest. how can i draw the edges of the tiles so the look good no matter what they are places against ?

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• Synchronise graphics and logic code

  - by Skeith

  I have a procedural approach to the game loop that runs various classes. it looks like this: continue any in progress animations check for used input apply AI move things resolve events such as collisions draw it all to screen I have seen a lot of posts about how drawing should be running separately as fast as it can, possibly in another thread. My problem is that if the drawing runs as fast as it, can what happens if it tried to draw while I'm still applying the AI or resolving a collision? It could draw the wrong thing on screen. This seems to be a well established idea so there must be an explanation to this problem as I just cant get my head around it. The only solution I have is to update the screen so fast that any errors like that get refreshed before we see them but that sounds hacky. So how does this work / how would you implement it so that they are in sync but running at different speeds?

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• Where can I find some Cocos2dx beginner tutorials?

  - by Skeith

  I have tried to start programing with Cocos2dx but I have no idea where to start and the tutorials are no very not very helpful. What I am looking for is some tutorials/guides on how to begin using cocos2dx for the total beginner. Things like how to setup a project and run it and how to do simple things like draw graphics on the screen, play sounds and get input. I am running on windows 7 and have been told by the Cocos2dx wiki that this may cause problems so if anyone has a solution to this that would also be helpful.

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• cocos2dx beginner tutorials

  - by Skeith

  I have tried to start programing with coco2dx but i have no idea where to start and the tutorials are no very not very helpful. What i am looking for is some tutorials/guides on how to begin using cocos2dx for the total beginner. Things like how to setup a project and run it and how to do simple things like draw graphics on the screen, play sounds and get input. I am running on windows 7 and have been told by the cocos2dx wiki that this may cause problems so if anyone has a solution to this that would also be helpful.

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