August 17, 2005
so debug works and load its from a file (mainfx.fx). in release it's supposed to build that file as a reosurce and then load it so that the result is completely selfcontained but my cally to D3DXCreateEffectFromResource is not working and there is no debug output because I don't have the debugr tun…
August 16, 2005
I just wrote a quick screensaver framework in about a half hour - dug up all the APIs, found how to configure the debugger for it (pass /s to launch in screensaver mode), found how to handle messages... then hooked it up to DirectX, found the stuff on device init, found the stuff on ATL COM smart p…
August 15, 2005
One of the things that you'll find old Xbox Live games supporting is 'voice masks.' They're basically filters you can run your voice chat input through, so that people can't tell who/what you are over voice.
Microsoft no longer require games to implement them - I assume because people didn't really …
Microsoft no longer require games to implement them - I assume because people didn't really …
August 14, 2005
Very surreal weekend. I was supposed to be meeting up with someone on Saturday afternoon to go and see a film or something, but she had to cancel as she didn't have a way of getting there. So I was up before noon on a Saturday with the whole weekend stretched out in front of me.
I've spent most of i…
I've spent most of i…
July 25, 2005
I just ordered an AOpen GeForce 7800GTX. It's PCI-Express so I won't be able to use it once it arrives, but there's some kind of comfort in not making single purchases greater than GBP400. I'll figure out a new motherboard and processor after it arrives.
Oh, and a 46-cm SATA cable.
Oh, and a 46-cm SATA cable.
July 15, 2005
FITCHBUCKING LENISPICKING CHITSOCKING WUNTING CHORE
I can't find the backup of my last two years of composition work.
I think it's gone.
I can't find the backup of my last two years of composition work.
I think it's gone.
July 14, 2005
I went to see someone a couple of nights ago. I asked her, "Should I bring anything?" She said, "No chocolate." She said this because on previous visits I had brought her chocolate. I feel it's necessary to explain that because otherwise you wouldn't understand why she'd said it. I still don't unde…
July 10, 2005
My uncle needs a new computer. I've offered to build one for him.
This will be the first computer I've actually built from scratch, so I'm slightly nervous about the spec - I've encountered problems in the past with not accounting for bus speeds, balanced RAM, power levels, etc.
I built a spec a coup…
This will be the first computer I've actually built from scratch, so I'm slightly nervous about the spec - I've encountered problems in the past with not accounting for bus speeds, balanced RAM, power levels, etc.
I built a spec a coup…
July 04, 2005
On Saturday I hung out with someone who is an incredibly talented keyboard player, and furthermore has never had any formal lessons - she can sit down and play something, anything she wants, but can't read music or tell me what a major or minor key is. She invited me to play alongside her - improvi…
June 19, 2005
There's a thread over in GP&T about solving cracks between patches in standard GMM systems. Naturally, one of the methods discussed has been skirts.
For the uninitiated, a skirt is basically a 'side' bolted to your terrain patch, usually made by taking the vertices along the side of the patch an…
For the uninitiated, a skirt is basically a 'side' bolted to your terrain patch, usually made by taking the vertices along the side of the patch an…
June 18, 2005
So I'm sat here, 10:50pm on a Saturday night, in my underwear, eating a bowl of cereal. Does that make me a bad person? The cereal does at least have milk.
I'm beginning to get a little worried about the heat levels in my room, too. I mean sure, sweating is a good way to lose weight, but there's a s…
I'm beginning to get a little worried about the heat levels in my room, too. I mean sure, sweating is a good way to lose weight, but there's a s…
June 18, 2005
Was trawling through some old ICQ logs... amidst the porn spam and russian mafia recruitment messages (the ones that got me to adopt my policy of "don't respond to 'hi'"), I found this gem:
Session Start (ICQ - 139762446:268602683): Mon May 10 13:13:53 2004
[13:13] 268602683: Hi
[13:14] Superpig: hi
[1…
June 16, 2005
I finally got around to installing and trying out NVPerfHUD to get a performance metric today.
Man, that thing is sweet. Very simple and easy to use - much nicer than PIXfW (though it's still falling short of PIX - I'm getting used to PC tools doing that now). If you've got an NVidia card and use Di…
Man, that thing is sweet. Very simple and easy to use - much nicer than PIXfW (though it's still falling short of PIX - I'm getting used to PC tools doing that now). If you've got an NVidia card and use Di…
June 14, 2005
I'm listening to two songs:
Feel (Robbie Williams)
Carbon (VNV Nation)
But not at the same time.
Feel (Robbie Williams)
Carbon (VNV Nation)
But not at the same time.
June 10, 2005
I'm considering making my own 4E4 game. I can't enter it, because I'm staff, but it might be interesting to see what I can come up with over four months. Like a sort of 'control group' experiment. I do have the slight advantage that I've been working on a ninja/robot game since before the idea was …
June 10, 2005
I've come to an understanding of why long-distance relationships suck. Communication can be infrequent, and the result is that nagging doubts about the strength of the relationship ("Maybe she's seeing someone else over there? Maybe she doesn't want to talk to me?") have more time to gestate and ma…
June 09, 2005
The world's a funny old place.
Tonight I played a single-player game. I bet the game that the last bus out of Oxford was at 11:30pm. It turns out that it was at 11:00pm. So I lost. The taxi driver got GBP30 more than he otherwise would have done that night (or so I assume - I guess he could have mad…
Tonight I played a single-player game. I bet the game that the last bus out of Oxford was at 11:30pm. It turns out that it was at 11:00pm. So I lost. The taxi driver got GBP30 more than he otherwise would have done that night (or so I assume - I guess he could have mad…
June 08, 2005
So I was thinking about glass on the bus this morning (while looking out the window, would you believe?). When rendering glass what we'd really like is to correctly mix reflection and refraction. This is more or less sorted for glass objects, but to my knowledge nobody has done it for sheet glass -…
June 06, 2005
Finally finished Half-Life 2. Folks were right, it is a cool ending - the entire last two chapters kick ass, from the badass you yourself become to the awe-inspiring train rides.
June 05, 2005
...an interstellar war that takes place on a chocolate chip cookie.
June 03, 2005
Say you wanted to write a generic mesh processing library, for polygon meshes. It would include a way of representing 'meshes' (with varying vertex formats, and varying placement of data, some in polys and some in vertices, etc) as well as a set of operations that work on them (merge meshes, weld …
May 31, 2005
One of the big problems with next-gen graphics is asset production. Previously, if you wanted a high-res texture, you could just grab a digital camera and go find it - get the right lighting, line up your shot, and *snap*, you've got everything you need. The next-gen stuff needs so much more - norm…
May 24, 2005
Asheh told me about an interesting idea he'd had last night, and I'd like to post it here because it's a good one. I hope he won't kill me too much.
The basic idea is this: in an MMO game, situations can arise where your party is the only one in a situation (e.g. Final Fantasy style battles). Furthe…
The basic idea is this: in an MMO game, situations can arise where your party is the only one in a situation (e.g. Final Fantasy style battles). Furthe…
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