February 27, 2009
I'm English. I'm good at queueing. Hell, we invented queuing.
However:
It's worse than post office on giro day.
However:
It's worse than post office on giro day.
February 25, 2009
Just noticed Spliter and Reelix's comments on a post a couple of weeks ago when I released the playable demo. Sorry I didn't say thanks at the time, I have a habit of only checking comments on my most recent posts.
Especially thanks to Reelix for bothering to post up the video showing the glitches -…
Especially thanks to Reelix for bothering to post up the video showing the glitches -…
February 24, 2009
Refined the design from last post a little. It occurred to me that rather than just have a list per layer, I could have a list per render type per layer, avoiding the need to keep running through the entire list looking for objects of the correct type.
There is now an enum that corresponds to all th…
There is now an enum that corresponds to all th…
February 23, 2009
[WARNING: This is a very long, self-indulgent, thinking-out-loud kind of entry]
Been chasing myself round in circles trying to find a good, clean implementation of the ideas discussed last post to no avail. As sneaky pointed out in the comments, system falls apart with anything requiring multiple pa…
Been chasing myself round in circles trying to find a good, clean implementation of the ideas discussed last post to no avail. As sneaky pointed out in the comments, system falls apart with anything requiring multiple pa…
February 21, 2009
Work on Squishy is very slow at the moment as I am trying to think the design through properly. I always think I get bored with ideas but maybe I just get to the point where code becomes unmanageable and that's why I lose interest in projects so much.
Just wanted to ramble through some ideas I have …
Just wanted to ramble through some ideas I have …
February 20, 2009
Man, I got a lump the size of a quail's egg on my wrist. Can't believe I pay money to put myself through this twice a week. If I'm ever unfortunate to be attacked, I'll be so bruised and knackered that I'll probably just fall over with shock.
My partner's sister's Acer laptop has just died, apparent…
My partner's sister's Acer laptop has just died, apparent…
February 17, 2009
Decided to start Squishy again from scratch tonight. The prototype was very much flung together with no real thought for robust and extensible design so now I've proved the concept worth pursuing, I've decided to build from the ground up again.
Obviously this process involves lots of copy-pasting bi…
Obviously this process involves lots of copy-pasting bi…
February 16, 2009
Okay, I've cheated and posted a screenshot from yesterday.
I just wanted to share A NEW VIDEO showing off the new arms and a bit of the gameplay mechanic.
Now off to jujitsu but will probably try to get a couple of hours in on Squishy when I get back, although I'm at more of a boring refactoring phas…
February 15, 2009
Got the arms being rendered much better now - much as I planned in the last post. Here's a wireframe view showing how they are constructed:
I'm very pleased with the effect. The arms are really starting to look like they are made of elastic goo, which is entirely what we want.
The function to generat…
February 15, 2009
The arms are now working as desired - they connect when they hit the map and create the soft joint correctly.
When connected, W and S retract and extend the arms. It works pretty well if you connect to two opposite points then retract - you sort of get pulled in towards the middle.
The next job is to…
February 14, 2009
I'm about halfway through prototyping a version of Squishy that isn't squishy (so I really need to think of a new name).
I'm just using a simple rigid circle for the main character at the moment, but have the mechanics of firing two arms, using both mouse buttons.
I'm not sure how this is going to wo…
I'm just using a simple rigid circle for the main character at the moment, but have the mechanics of firing two arms, using both mouse buttons.
I'm not sure how this is going to wo…
February 13, 2009
Squishy's been squished. Just can't get it to stay stable. I think it is a bit too ambitious to be trying to implement soft bodies like this with Box2D.
Hadn't actually heard of Gish until people started pointing out the similarities but that game does do it so much better that I'd rather focus on t…
Hadn't actually heard of Gish until people started pointing out the similarities but that game does do it so much better that I'd rather focus on t…
February 12, 2009
Found a really cool way of rendering the squishy shape that looks pretty cool even when it is deforming.
HERE'S A VIDEO SHOWING THE NEW SQUISHY. (UPDATED!)
Had to record it with Fraps as CamStudio's framerate is too slow to capture the spinning effect as Squishy runs up slopes. Also found a much bett…
February 11, 2009
Box2D experimentation continues with an attempt to create a soft body. The screenshot is a bit vague, but the character you fly around the map behaves a bit like a sphere of jelly.
It's basically a ring of circles connected by joints and a central, heavier circle with a springy joint going out to ea…
February 10, 2009
Initial experiments with Box2D are going pretty well. I've got a map designed using an old polygon map editor I wrote ages ago (working with an inverted Y axis so the map is upside down in the editor but never mind [smile]) and a small shape that you can fly around the map with the keyboard, merril…
February 09, 2009
Had the interview I was talking about last post this afternoon, but I've just sent the recruiter an email backing out. The interview went pretty well and I think there was a good chance of an offer, but the place was an absolute pigsty - I expect the factory areas to be like that, but I don't think…
February 05, 2009
Real Time Collision Detection is a great book but it is a pretty steep curve for me. It assumes a bit more of maths knowledge than I currently have so I think it is going to require quite a lot of companion research on the net as I work my way through it.
Since it isn't going to let me write a physi…
Since it isn't going to let me write a physi…
February 04, 2009
Real Time Collision Detection arrived today - perfectly acceptable service from www.compman.co.uk and very cheap compared to Amazon. Thanks to whoever recommended that to me.
It looks awesome. I can't learn properly from a computer screen, never have been able to. I need to be able to hunch over foo…
It looks awesome. I can't learn properly from a computer screen, never have been able to. I need to be able to hunch over foo…
January 31, 2009
Long time without an update for me. Haven't really touched the computer this week. It's been a pretty horrendous week at work - people getting laid off and not replaced means those of us left have our workloads hugely increased (although obviously we're better off than those who lost their jobs).
I …
I …
January 25, 2009
HERE'S THE NOW OBLIGATORY POOR QUALITY VIDEO for today's post.
Hopping (i.e. jumping from a standing or walking start) is now working. The animation is not fantastic, but the actual physics of hopping, hitting walls while jumping and so on is all okay so I can always improve the animations later.
The…
January 22, 2009
HERE'S A POOR QUALITY VIDEO showing the latest progress.
Contrary to journal posting, I've been quite busy on my current project but tonight I have had to make a major design decision that I was hoping to avoid.
I've decided that the character is going to be grid anchored, like in the Abe games or th…
January 14, 2009
[EDIT] On second reading, much of the below probably won't make a lot of sense to anyone not living in my head so HERE'S A SHORT VIDEO showing the current physics and animation system working with a deliberately awkward animation. Video quality is poor as ever and Media Encoder has messed up the li…
January 13, 2009
Cry for help entry:
I'm baffled by how to get a keyframe animated model to remain flat against a plane (e.g. the ground is a good example).
Take the following (very simple) example - imagine two keyframes:
Note that in both frames, the soles of the feet are against the ground plane.
The interpolated fr…
I'm baffled by how to get a keyframe animated model to remain flat against a plane (e.g. the ground is a good example).
Take the following (very simple) example - imagine two keyframes:
Note that in both frames, the soles of the feet are against the ground plane.
The interpolated fr…
January 09, 2009
Going through more of an artistic phase today. I'm really quite pleased with my new alien model. You're looking at about ten hours work above, so I hope I get quicker at this as I progress.
I decided to model an alien for two reasons - one, I'm more a sci-fi than a fantasy sort of person and two, I …
January 08, 2009
Got blending between two different animations working now in the test application.
HERE'S A SHORT VIDEO of the system in action if anyone is interested (WMV in a zip file). It shows my model being smoothly blended between three daft little animations I did in Milkshape.
The only slight complication w…
January 07, 2009
I've now got the mesh skinning working on the GPU via a shader.
matrix world;
matrix view;
matrix viewproj;
matrix matrixarray[20];
vector lightdir=vector(-1,1,-1,0);
struct VS_INPUT
{
vector position : POSITION;
vector normal : NORMAL;
float2 texcoord : TEXCOORD;
float2 bone : BLENDINDICES;
float2 …
January 06, 2009
Well, I've just written my very first ever vertex shader. All a lot easier than I thought it would be really.
// Paul's first shader
matrix world;
matrix view;
matrix viewproj;
vector lightdir=vector(-1,1,-1,0);
bool do_light=true;
struct VS_INPUT
{
vector position : POSITION;
vector normal : NORMAL;
vec…
January 06, 2009
Not much progress, but just to show that I am doing something, I've got the basic construction of the array of bone matrices working based on rotating each bone via the keyboard.
I'm starting to see now how necessary multiple, weighted bone indices are going to be to get this looking any good, but i…
January 03, 2009
I'll try to ramble a bit less in this entry.
My Milkshape exporter now dumps out the bone data from the model in a fairly usable format, giving each joint's position relative to its parent and gives its parent as an index in the bone list rather than its name.
The above test program is now rendering …
My Milkshape exporter now dumps out the bone data from the model in a fairly usable format, giving each joint's position relative to its parent and gives its parent as an index in the bone list rather than its name.
The above test program is now rendering …
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