I had an email yesterday from a guy with some questions about working in game testing. He had some very... optimistic impressions about what working in the field could be like. After straightening out some of his misconceptions, I asked him where he'd picked up the idea that he'd be able to make a …
Where was I? Oh, yes. BTW Jack has posted his writeup as well so if my rambling stream-of-consciousness intartube blathering is not appealing to you he has a low-sodium alternative for you.
I totally forgot to tell you guys about the keynote speech!
Well, ok, not much to tell. David Gosen, VP of Stra…
I totally forgot to tell you guys about the keynote speech!
Well, ok, not much to tell. David Gosen, VP of Stra…
Well, as you can see, my attempt to liveblog the conference didn't really happen. I was all set until I realized that if I kept my phone on all day I would have run out of phone battery and been unable to find my way home.
So, I took lots of paper notes instead. Many thanks to jollyjeffers and Phant…
So, I took lots of paper notes instead. Many thanks to jollyjeffers and Phant…
OK, so I've been using the iPhone for a couple of days now. It's such a big step up from my previous phone that I can't help but be pleased with it. The interface is intuitive and generally responsive; there are some nice touches, like the ability to browse in both landscape and portrait modes simp…
Work continues apace. Yesterday I sent the doc out to all of the site moderators for their opinions on things, and this afternoon I'll be sending it out to a select few users who I want to consult about particular aspects of the site.
You'll all get the chance to play with it before long, trust me […
You'll all get the chance to play with it before long, trust me […
OK, post icons - on threads - are safe for now. I've left them off individual posts, though they might go back on; I can see them sometimes being useful to communicate the overall tone of a post (I often used to use the roll-eyes smiley when being sarcastic). We'll see. Certainly where icons are ke…
4E6 is nearly done now. I have some prizes here that will hopefully make up for the extreme delay.
Work continues apace on the design document: 38 pages and counting. It's a bit long, really, but it includes my analysis of the user base, the V4-V5 migration plan, and the development schedule, as wel…
Work continues apace on the design document: 38 pages and counting. It's a bit long, really, but it includes my analysis of the user base, the V4-V5 migration plan, and the development schedule, as wel…
So, the main thing I'm working on at the moment is the design document for the next version of the site. It's not a small document - it outlines everything I plan to bring to the site, in terms of functionality, across the entire V5 line - and will probably guide development for at least a year. So…
Another three down, only one to go now.
The Intelligent Systems papers didn't go well. That's two papers, both sat in a single 3-hour period (so you can spend 1hr on one paper and 2hrs on the other, etc). The first paper wasn't too bad - A* search, configuration space and potential field path planni…
The Intelligent Systems papers didn't go well. That's two papers, both sat in a single 3-hour period (so you can spend 1hr on one paper and 2hrs on the other, etc). The first paper wasn't too bad - A* search, configuration space and potential field path planni…
Two exams down, four to go. The next two are a double-session, one single 3-hour block, all about "Intelligent Systems" - pathfinding, Bayesian networks, Markov processes, a little neural networks, decision trees, inference - stuff like that.
The exam I sat today was Machine Learning, and went very …
The exam I sat today was Machine Learning, and went very …
My project is very nearly finished - a good thing too, because I've only really got one more day to work on it.
Preview PDF. It's missing the final section - where I discuss an actual implementation of some of the object model stuff - I've still got to implement some bits of that before I write abou…
Preview PDF. It's missing the final section - where I discuss an actual implementation of some of the object model stuff - I've still got to implement some bits of that before I write abou…
After being absent for many years, the "Reveal URLs in posts" option has finally been re-implemented. Instead of happening server-side, which was such a drain on our resources that we had to kill the feature (apparently VBScript regexps are not friendly), the new implementation happens in your own …
Well, I've just gotten back from the MS party. Generally great.. spent most of it hanging out with The ZMan, along with a couple of guys I've not met before - Matthew from Exhale Games and Shane from I don't quite remember where. I hope Shane gets to his hotel OK... I was waiting for him outside, b…
Today's been a bit of a writeoff. After going to the Games Tech Mixer last night (where I met up with some ex-colleagues from NaturalMotion, and was introduced to some guys from Emergent - great party, folks, wish I could have stayed longer) I came back to the hotel at 9pm for a GDNet meeting. That…
Just got back from the MS keynote. A summary, by time segment:
- Introductions and self-congratulatory fluff. We're so awesome, you're so awesome, the industry is so awesome that it's now making more money than the music industry. (Gee, I wonder why that is...)
- Funny video with James Silva, creator of …
Yesterday I went to the Normal Mapping Industry Survey. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting... I've come away wanting a copy of ZBrush, and with a recommendation that you all check out CrazyBump. It's not just a very slick app, it's also funny.
Today things are really getting going, with the h…
Today things are really getting going, with the h…
Well, I think that's the last of the site prep for GDC - only a day behind schedule [smile]
Let me know if you spot particular problems with the site theme or with the coverage - as you might expect my response times will be a bit slow this week but I'll fix what I can.
This morning I went to the gam…
Let me know if you spot particular problems with the site theme or with the coverage - as you might expect my response times will be a bit slow this week but I'll fix what I can.
This morning I went to the gam…
One of the things I've been working on - for quite a while now - is a rewrite of the Journal software. The main reason for this is that the way journals are currently structured - one huge thread per journal - is pretty poor from a performance point of view. Viewing a journal entails scanning the e…
Let's see...
- Yesterday's server crash was an internal problem with one of the components we use. It actually fixed itself while I was asleep. (Either that or I sleep-fixed it and went back to bed and don't remember).
- I've spent much of the day playing Assassin's Creed, generously lent to me by a frie…
I've been playing with the content pipeline stuff, particularly with regards to processing and loading my own custom objects. To make it easy I'm using XM.
One of the things that was bugging me was that one of my objects contained a dictionary of subobjects, and the XML for it wasn't very pretty:
One of the things that was bugging me was that one of my objects contained a dictionary of subobjects, and the XML for it wasn't very pretty:
…
Well, that was a fun 24 hours.
About two hours before the site went down, people started reporting that they were seeing an ActiveX popup on every page of the site. It was in response to this that the site was brought down. (I would have done it earlier, but I was out when it was reported and didn't…
About two hours before the site went down, people started reporting that they were seeing an ActiveX popup on every page of the site. It was in response to this that the site was brought down. (I would have done it earlier, but I was out when it was reported and didn't…
I've finally updated the image component to support avatars in formats other than .GIF, so hopefully most quality issues should be gone.
In fact, unless your avatar is under 50x50, I'd probably actively recommend avoiding .GIF because it's a limited-color format and the algorithm the component uses …
In fact, unless your avatar is under 50x50, I'd probably actively recommend avoiding .GIF because it's a limited-color format and the algorithm the component uses …
So, something I've been working on a fair amount recently is a new syntax hilighter for GDNet. The existing hilighter supports something like four languages, runs in VBScript, and is basically just a small number of regexp passes over the code.
What I'm looking at doing is replacing it with a compon…
What I'm looking at doing is replacing it with a compon…
Before I start: Anyone out there interested in translating your game into Russian? A friend of mine is a Russian living in the UK and she's interested in doing some translation work. She's not currently looking for money from it, just experience and some references she can put on her CV. She can do…
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