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| Thursday, September 28, 2006 |
  Time = consumed! | 
Posted - 9/28/2006 11:28:49 PM | University - Workload
Boy oh boy, I'm up to my ears in assignments. 
Basically I have three courses that I get assignments in (and 2 that I don't) on a weekly basis. Algebra takes 4-6 hours, CS takes 2-3 hours, and Calculus takes 5-7 hours. I'm sure you could now reasonably rank my skill level in each of these areas. Heh.
Anyways, these take up a lot of time. Today was completely consumed by classes, assignment work, and lectures, so I've had zero free time until now. (11PM) So what better to do with my time than to complain about the work I've had to do? Just kidding. :P
GameDev - Skirmish Online
A few days ago I took a big step backwards and evaluated my game development position. And then I read an awesome article by Steve Pavlina. These two actions were almost immediately followed by a few realizations about Skirmish:
- Side Projects seem to be an excuse for me to escape from the worries and fears I have about pursuing my main project, Skirmish Online.
- I do have a fear of failure concerning Skirmish, so it's only natural for me to seek a way out (via side projects). Skirmish is doubtlessly the biggest project I've ever dedicated myself to doing, so a failure would be a devestating blow to my ego. (And us coders have big egos )
- Living with that fear is what seperates mice from men, so to speak. It's time I sit down and write Skirmish. And finish it.
Okay, a little more "talk about my feelings" than most would like, but that's the general thought process going on here. In case it's not now apparent, I'll be dropping all of these side projects and returning full-force to Skirmish.
Thank goodness.
GameDev - Design Document
I've begun a design document for the aforementioned project. This is a big step for me, because I'm not normally a designy guy. My typical design 'process' involes me sitting down and coding the game, essentially making it up as I go along. Sure there are some rudimentary design processes beforehand, but nothing substantial.
The more I thought about it, the more apparent it became that my lack of prior design is largely accredited to why just about all of my 'big project' attempts have failed: I simply didn't plan enough, and as a result I made bad decisions down the line that screwed things up later on. Looking through the old source of Skirmish I saw tons of bad design in my code, and very constraining methods that become sources of agony later on.
If you look back at my posts from way back when, you can see me rewriting/refactoring my network code 4 or 5 times. Gah. If I plan it out properly the first time, I can save myself tons of time in rewrites in the future. Genius!
So far the document is taking some time to write. Namely the areas that I'd normally very haphazardous implement without much thought (weapon/item management, networking, etc) are taking a long time for me to design, since they can be very tricky to do well. I'm extremely excited now that things are taking a much more planned approach, and I'm confident it'll result in a finish product significantly faster than otherwise (if at all).
But enough self-realizations for one day.
GameDev - GameDev Club @ Waterloo
Today was the official "Club Day" at my university. I'm VP of the gamedev club. Our club did not have a booth at this club event. Doh. I was barraged by Calculus today, and Kas (the pres) had his co-op job to attend to. Which means a huge advertisement opportunity for the club was lost. Arg.
I spoke to Kas about this, and it looks like we'll be using the backup method of pure advertisement. We're going to post up ads around the school -- he knows all of the good places :P -- a day or two before the first meeting (Monday), and hand out flyers/ads to people who are/may be interested. Hopefully it'll be enough. More on that on Monday evening!
Oh! We also opted to switch from XNA to SDL.NET for the gamedev club, because me and Kas felt that the hardware requirements for XNA were just too darn steep that they might exclude a number of potential members (need a DX9 video card, Windows XP SP2, etc). SDL.NET is a lib that I'm very well-versed in, and works on just about any .NET-capable computer you throw it at. Hush, Rob. :P
And that's the Thursday News.
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| Thursday, September 21, 2006 |
| Guh, work. | 
Posted - 9/21/2006 11:00:08 PM | My post frequency has been nothing short of appauling. My apologies. But my workload has been most burdenous. I finally just finished my Calculus assignment for this week, and previous had to write my Algebra and CS assignments, too. Thank goodness for the impending weekend!
The Scheme
In my CS-135 course we're essentially doing an introductory course to programming. Seems a little odd given my existing knowledge with programming, yes? The introduction is performed with Scheme, a functional programming language. A very strange and whacky thing thus far to a programmer like myself who was raised on the joyous lands of imperitive languages (like C++, Java, Python, etc).
Although different, it's all essentially the same. Just a new way of looking at an old book. So far the it's been very easy; I breezed through the assignment. I asked my teacher today -- this guy is awesome, BTW -- and he assured me that the class was actually the ideal one for an experienced programmer, and that the material would begin to pick up in short order. Fingers crossed. The one-notch-down course (CS 134) is a Java course. *shudder*
Windows XP
My university gives me a free (legal) copy of Windows XP. Woot. I've put in my order for it, so soon I'll be a legal man.
Er, I mean, I, uh, already am. I mean, uhm..
Side Project off of a Side Project?
Looks like I may be deviating once again. For the gamedev club that I'll be co-running this term I need to get some valuable XNA experience and write some small sample/test/fun stuff with C#+XNA as material for teaching our upcoming membres, and for nice stuff to talk about in the slides for the presentation I need to make. Which I haven't started. Guh.
So, in short, we may be seeing a few small/fun games dished out in the near future. Maybe this weekend, since it'll be the closest thing to free time I'll have this week.
But after that, back to Project Ex. And then back to Skirmish. (I smell too-many-projects-syndrome (TMPS).
Why did the multi-threaded chicken cross the road?
to To other side. get the
| |
| Monday, September 18, 2006 |
| No time for gamedev :( | |
Posted - 9/18/2006 10:06:03 PM | Too Busy for my Shirt?
Phew. University life is just plain busy. Since the brief development spree I had prior to my last post, I haven't even had a chance to really sit down and get working on the map editor. Today I only had an hour or two to myself, which I promptly spent playing a funfun session of Deus Ex 2.
Three assignments due this week. Zero completed. I've already put around 5 hours into my Algebra one, and haven't even glanced at my CS and Calculus ones. It's going to be a rough week. And likely thereafter, since the assignments are weekly. Groan.
But all is not lost.
GAME DEV CLUB! REJOICE!
This evening I met with Kas, the current President of the GameDev club here at the university. We worked out how we'd structure the first meeting, a layout of the rest of the meetings throughout the term, the projects our members would (likely) be pursuing, and some website discussion.
The Tools: Me and Kas both agreed that C# with XNA is a really cool direction to take this club in. C# is a reasonably friendly language (compared to demons like C++) and is very similar to Java, which most uni students are already relatively competant in. Wonderful. Since I'm the "programmer guy" I basically need to do a crapload of "looking into" XNA and learning more about it so I can intelligently put together presentations and answer questions regarding it. Hopefully this won't mean deviations from my FPS project.
The Project: We foresee two types of members. Those with no/very-little gamedev experience, and those who -- to some degree -- know what they're doing. The beginners will work on a game of 'Asteroids' throughout the term. In sessions we'll cover areas like init, main loop, entity management, resource handling, game states, and other areas full of examples, and then more or less leave them to implement and work on this game during their own time. We'll have a forum setup (ideally) so we can assist people actively over the 'net, since people WILL get stuck. More advanced members will be able to assemble a project proposal and run it by us for advice/recommendations. This is mainly to prevent people from going gung-ho crazy-ambitious and starting on a game they'll never finish.
The Website: Looks like I'm doing that part, too. I think we'll opt for a web-portal system. They're reasonably easy to setup (I think?), and come with virtually all of the features we'll need, like a screenshot gallery, downloads, links/resources page, announcement page, and a forum of somesort. Shouldn't be TOO bad.
Feedback: You guys are great, so feedback about how I can better manage the club is definitely welcome. After I get the site/forum up, I'm sure plenty of my fellow developers 'round 'ere can offer their insights and help people who need help, to some degree.
What about that FPS map editor?
I'm getting there!
| |
| Friday, September 15, 2006 |
| Of gyms and sectors.. | |
Posted - 9/15/2006 1:50:19 PM | University - Karate/Exercise
What's a first week of classes/university without checking out the intro class for the Karate club?
Ouch.
It was definitely a good workout -- and I remember a few of the kicks/punches -- but I'm hurting still. Not being an active exercise'r, doing 100 crunches or so (of varying flavours) has given me pained abs for the last couple of days. My legs endured a similar experience after a short 2.5km run on my residence's gym's treadmill. Crap, I'm out of shape.
Irregardless, I'm going to be pushing myself to beef up my cardio, muscle, and general fitness. Now that I'm at a place that's actually packed with tools for getting in shape, there's just no excuse not to.
Plus, buff programmers get all the ladies.
GameDev - FPS!
So I've been continuing to tinker away at the map system (both format and rendering) for my cyberpunk/FPS/DooM-ish game.
The original approach was to make a tile-based format similar to the ancient Wolfenstein 3D, but I soon realized that this would be painfully limiting. I mean, how many interesting levels can really come out of a tile-based 3D game? (I of course exclude the awesome RoTT)
So I scrapped that code. Next up was kicking the complexity/flexibility up a notch with a rectangular sector system. I figured this would be ideal, since it's essentially a median of the tile-based Wolf3D map format and polygonal-sector'd format of DooM. It's also pretty easy/fast to drag+drop rectangles in a map editor. I soon realized that this, although reasonably flexible, would be a pain in the arse. Attaching portals -- portals being part of a wall removed so that another joined sector can be latched onto it -- would be a burden, since the sectors are defined by x/y/width/height rather than a cluster of vertices like DooM or Duke3D.
So I scrapped that code. Next up, of course, was the tested-and-true method of polygonal sectors. Ironically, what I deemed the most complex and time-consuming ended up being the easiest one of all to implement. Yesterday I wrote virtually all of the rendering, including: normal sectors, subsectors, portals, proper texture mapping (the coords took FOREVER, gah!), and variable floors/roofs that adjust their lower/upper/main walls accordingly.
(That nice sector is currently hard-coded-ly moving up and down to a sine wave!)
Sorry if there aren't many types of textures at the moment; looks a tad monotonous. These are just the initial ones by Draffurd so I had something other than programmer art to work with.
But progress didn't stop there! This morning (between classes, of course :P) I implemented a free-look mouse-controlled camera that allows for forward, backward, and strafing movements via a Camera class.
So yeah, things are going well on this project. Next up is the fabled map editor! :-O
(Oh, and kudos to John Hattan, whose point-in-polygon code I grabbed (and fully credited in source/future-credits-screen) and adapted. I owe you a beer. )
| |
| Monday, September 11, 2006 |
| The Big One | |
Posted - 9/11/2006 11:54:23 PM | Catching up!
Hey everyone. It's been far far too long since my last journal update -- gads, over a week! :-O -- but I'll try to keep this potentially lengthy post as to-the-point as I can. But no promises. There's just too much to ramble about. But nobody likes to hear me ramble.
University - Moving In
It was rough. It was strange. It was painful.
I'll start off by informing everyone that me and my roommate unwittingly moved into the wrong sides of the room. Apparently there are designated sides, since our telephones and network connections are dependant on our given side. Nuts. It felt weird for the first couple of days after we switched around, but it's fine now. I don't know how I ever managed to live on the other side in the first place. Psh.
Saying goodbye to the 'ol parental units was tough, too. I'm a fairly home-stuck guy, so this move and experience has been an interesting one, to say the least. The first couple of nights were lonesome, but I'm more or less adjusted now. It's all downhill from here!
University - Frosh Week
Frosh/Orientation Week was alright. 'Nuff said. I wasn't wow'd by it like some were, but I'm not a social butterfly either. Had some good rounds of beach vollyball, enjoyed plenty of free pizza, and met some new people. Also endured some boring (and lengthy!) presentations and lame events. I would say "oh well", but it did technically cost me $100 out of my payments!
University - RCC (Residence Computer Consultant)
I believe I did briefly mention that I was going to be an RCC for this term. What this basically entails is that I make sure that the people on my floor have functioning internet, and some general software troubleshooting on the side. The bulk of the calls I receive -- to which I use the term 'call' lightly, as I forgot to bring my phone up, doh! -- was during the first couple of move-in days where people were just plugging in and hoping for the best.
By far the most common problem was simply the ResNet's DHCP server. It stinks; or so it seems. I had to request a large number of manual port resets and DHCP forces simply because it wasn't dishing it out automatically. Bah.
The other issue was that most newer laptops seem to like to automatically force the wireless connection as the primary type -- irregardless of if it's disabled AND there's a LAN connection plugged in AND connected! Gah. It's just a matter of changing the metrics on the connection types, but gah. :P
Still, it's worth $200(CAN) for the term, so I'm not complaining. I smell an iPod around the corner!
University - Meal Plan
I found a piece of black plastic in my potatoes today. I think that sums it up.
University - Game Development Club
OMG.
Yesterday afternoon I met with the current President of the GameDev club here at Waterloo at a nice coffee pub, where we had an excellent discussion about game development and the position and direction of the club.
The gist of the club's position is that: a) it's young (just started last term), and b) there's not much support. Apparently a lot of people joined last term, but only a handful of active members remained.
I spoke with Kas (the Pres) about my experience and the sorts of games I've developed in the past, and I think I took him a little off-guard. He told me that the majority of the join-ers are first-year students, and that most have never even touhed game development. Heck, some are new to programming! He hasn't seen my stuff yet, but he seemed impressed with what I've accomplished. Let's hope when he checks out my portfolio that doesn't waver. ;)
Assuming things go fine, I'm going to be taking on the Vice-President position, which means I'll be working on areas like recruiting, presentations, and the leading programmer guy. Which is cool. I absolutely love teaching programming and game development, and I even sometimes entertain the thought that I'm somewhat good at it.  This is definitely going to be a hugely fun experience, and I can't wait to get started. Expect news on this as it develops!
University - First Day of Classes
This would be today. I had my first Algebra and Calculus lectures, as well as my first Algebra tutorial class. Both lectures were ludicrously simplistic, but the coursework appears to be far more involved. I hope it's just because it's the first day. I paid too much to have teachers shirking on their teaching buffness.  My first assignment is some Calc/Discrete review involving proofs (gurr!) and math induction. Neither are my favourite. :P
The tutorial class was great; mainly because of the instructor. He's also apparently the guy who writes a lot of the course material/layout, but his main feature is that he's funny as heck. Definitely great to see some folks in the Math faculty with a good sense of humour.
Tomorrow morning I have my first Computer Science class (woo woo!) and Psychology in the evening. Should be fun stuff. Can't wait to get into some cool functional programming!
Game Dev?
Oh yeah, I've been working on some gamedev stuff during all of this madness, too!
Once I again -- with much remorse and shame -- I put Skirmish on the backburner. Partly because I'm currently in a huge DooM/cyberpunk phase at the moment, and partly because I'm going to need to purchase another ISP line if I want to be able to host Skirmish, since our ResNet prohibits such.
I'm aiming for a 2-2.5 month timeframe for this project. It will be a first-person shooter played in a similar fashion to such wonderful games as DooM and Halo, with elements from the excellent cyberpunk genre, from superb titles like Deus Ex and Restricted Area. Now, I really dislike describing my game in terms of other games, but it tends to get the 'feel' across better than something I cook up. I have no intention of simply stripping out gameplay from these games and slapping them in, so banish the thought. The plan is to have a unique and interesting game of vast enjoyment. Vast.
As for programming progress, I'm still hard at work on getting a good (and functioning!) map format/system going. I managed to borrow a lot of existing code from Skirmish, such as the logging system, OpenGL init/drawing, and the FPS/mainloop stuff, so that's saved tons of time. Figuring out sectors, sub-sectors, and portals is next. Then somesort of map editor, who knows? Hopefully screenshots will soon follow.
Have an uber night, everyone!
Shout-Out: Check out Mushu's groovy new release, Hiatus!
| |
| Saturday, September 9, 2006 |
| Untitled | |
Posted - 9/9/2006 1:14:02 PM | Still alive.
Might be going on a short 2-3 month cyberpunk/DooM-like Wolfenstein-3D-like project.
EDIT: Or not. Methinks I should keep focused on Skirmish.
EDIT 2: Or not not. FPSes are pretty rad.
Next entry should purge vagueness.
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"Good night, Monster Land."
"Good night, brave warrior."
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