October 13, 2008
Dealing with different screen resolutions in 2D games is, as we all know, a bit of a pain.
Up until now, the way I have handled this is to basically have a behind-the-scenes "native" resolution for my game, then to calculate a scaling factor and offset that gets applied to any geometry (quads, lines…
Up until now, the way I have handled this is to basically have a behind-the-scenes "native" resolution for my game, then to calculate a scaling factor and offset that gets applied to any geometry (quads, lines…
October 09, 2008
Antheus posted a pretty interesting article today (the "automatic destructors" bit, I couldn't give a monkeys about memory mapped files). Someone said in a thread the other day about consoles sometimes doing cold shutdown to save all the time of manually releasing resources that would just get recl…
October 08, 2008
Sort of had what (to me) was a slightly interesting idea in the car on the way home from work tonight.
I outlined the bitmap font file format I've been using for the last year or so a few posts ago and the basic way I'm generating the files from a Windows font.
Something I've been thinking about a lo…
I outlined the bitmap font file format I've been using for the last year or so a few posts ago and the basic way I'm generating the files from a Windows font.
Something I've been thinking about a lo…
October 07, 2008
Awful first day back at work after my brief holiday. Always regret having a holiday when I go back - never seems remotely worth it.
Playing rip-off at chess in the PM's at the moment using the power of capn_midnight's jschess but no sign of him on line at the moment.
Programming interest at precisely…
Playing rip-off at chess in the PM's at the moment using the power of capn_midnight's jschess but no sign of him on line at the moment.
Programming interest at precisely…
October 02, 2008
[EDIT - Hmm. Something gone screwy with my GDNet webspace. I've tried to post a couple of images for insertion here, but they are appearing in my list as 0k in size and any attempts to access them result in "File being used by another process" errors. Can't delete them either. Any friendly mods hap…
September 30, 2008
Start a six day holiday tomorrow, and have woken up with chronic man-flu. Typical.
Last day of the month today so have to go to work - must get stuff invoiced onto Septembers figures or kittens will die.
Not a happy bunny. Supposed to be taking my fiance out for her birthday meal tonight as well.
Why,…
Last day of the month today so have to go to work - must get stuff invoiced onto Septembers figures or kittens will die.
Not a happy bunny. Supposed to be taking my fiance out for her birthday meal tonight as well.
Why,…
September 26, 2008
Guess I probably won't make weekend reading this week, but what the hell. Weekend reading didn't make it into weekend reading last week so can't be so bad.
It's Friday night drinking night posting tonight so will try to be brief.
I'm a 33 year old man typing out a game programming journal while liste…
It's Friday night drinking night posting tonight so will try to be brief.
I'm a 33 year old man typing out a game programming journal while liste…
September 25, 2008
Just had a useful chat on #gamedev about where to store game config files in these modern, multiuser and write-restricted times and have been pointed at SHGetFolderPath().
I've just finished updating Pod to check for its config file in the current user's Local\AppData folder. If it doesn't find it, …
I've just finished updating Pod to check for its config file in the current user's Local\AppData folder. If it doesn't find it, …
September 23, 2008
Yay. My GDNet+ is back.
Damn thing must have expired on me. So signed up for another year. So you all get another year of my ramblings in journal land.
Ramble ramble ramble.
[EDIT] Hmm - can't upload my avatar though. Getting the following when I try:
Damn thing must have expired on me. So signed up for another year. So you all get another year of my ramblings in journal land.
Ramble ramble ramble.
[EDIT] Hmm - can't upload my avatar though. Getting the following when I try:
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0007'
Out of m…
September 20, 2008
Just as I was getting a bit bored and fed up with Pod, my mate came round last night and before we went to the pub, he had a quick go on it.
It was really interesting watching someone else playing it - particularly since my friend is not much of a game player.
He seemed to treat it more like a puzzle…
It was really interesting watching someone else playing it - particularly since my friend is not much of a game player.
He seemed to treat it more like a puzzle…
September 18, 2008
Just another quick post tonight since I'm pretty tired still.
As a bit of a diversion, I started messing about tonight with using GDI+ with native C++ in a straight Win32 application.
Given how little I've heard mentioned about this, I was expecting it to be difficult, but it's so straightforward it'…
As a bit of a diversion, I started messing about tonight with using GDI+ with native C++ in a straight Win32 application.
Given how little I've heard mentioned about this, I was expecting it to be difficult, but it's so straightforward it'…
September 17, 2008
Got the imagey-listy thing finished and dropped it into my Map application very easily in the end. Was going to take a screenshot but I can't be arsed. You're not missing anything very exciting.
God, I'm tired. Can't believe it's Thursday tomorrow already. Not next week but the week after I've got a…
God, I'm tired. Can't believe it's Thursday tomorrow already. Not next week but the week after I've got a…
September 16, 2008
God, my GDNet webspace access is slow tonight. Took bloody forever to upload that image.
Been working away tonight on a little custom Win32 control for my Map editor. It's basically like a stripped down ListBox but with a custom image against each item.
First time I've ever tried to write a custom co…
September 14, 2008
Not the most interesting screenshot ever posted, but basically the non-stick blocks are now working. Each type of map cell has a "sticky" property and I've used a similar technique as discussed earlier.
It proved a bit more complicated than I was expecting as the collision data already returned from…
September 13, 2008
Ahem. Good morning. My apologies for my emo posting last night [smile].
Turned out to be one of the most polite discussions about singletons I've ever seen on GameDev after all that. My thanks to PSS for his civilised response (and the rating point [grin]).
So getting back to game development, I'm ju…
Turned out to be one of the most polite discussions about singletons I've ever seen on GameDev after all that. My thanks to PSS for his civilised response (and the rating point [grin]).
So getting back to game development, I'm ju…
September 12, 2008
Oh God. I just got into an argument about singletons.
GameDev, I'm genuinely sorry. The only reason that someone as inept as me (seriously) ever got into the top 50 non-mod rated posters is through avoiding nonsense like this.
Hands-up - I've been drinking. By tomorrow, when I'm rating 732 and no-one…
GameDev, I'm genuinely sorry. The only reason that someone as inept as me (seriously) ever got into the top 50 non-mod rated posters is through avoiding nonsense like this.
Hands-up - I've been drinking. By tomorrow, when I'm rating 732 and no-one…
September 11, 2008
Appreciate it doesn't look like much as a static image, but I've implemented the basic particle system and an explosion effect in Pod.
I rambled at length about my particle system a few weeks ago so I won't bore you with the details again. Suffice to say, ExplosionSystem is a derived instance of Fix…
September 10, 2008
My actual work has gone nuts again so I'm back to fairly long days and pretty tired in the evening. Problem I have is that since so much of my job involves talking to suppliers, there's only so much you can do after 5pm. I'm trying to push anything that can be done after 5pm to one side during the …
September 09, 2008
Took a fairly major overhaul decision with Pod tonight.
Like most of us, I want my game to look as good as possible on as many different hardware setups as possible. I only recently made the jump to LCD screen myself, and have noticed what I have long heard said - that an LCD simulating a non-native…
Like most of us, I want my game to look as good as possible on as many different hardware setups as possible. I only recently made the jump to LCD screen myself, and have noticed what I have long heard said - that an LCD simulating a non-native…
September 08, 2008
I discovered that even though my Map editor does not support a scale function, I can set the scheme up to work at a different scale to the game quite easily. The above is a map for Pod being created out of 32x32 instead of 64x64 blocks to make it a bit easier to lay out a map.
Actor co-ordinates wer…
September 06, 2008
[EDIT] Posted this before I read all the comments to my last post - seems like several people are behind the idea. Thanks.
So I came up with the above draft main sprite. I think it looks really nice - simple and minimalistic and no need for animation. One of the big problems with the mechanical arm …
So I came up with the above draft main sprite. I think it looks really nice - simple and minimalistic and no need for animation. One of the big problems with the mechanical arm …
September 04, 2008
Excuse horrible placeholder graphics:
Time to unveil a bit more detail about the new project then. The backdrop and main sprite graphics in the above are purely placeholder.
Now that the basic physics is sorted after yesterday's post, it was time tonight to start on some of the cool stuff. The main c…
Time to unveil a bit more detail about the new project then. The backdrop and main sprite graphics in the above are purely placeholder.
Now that the basic physics is sorted after yesterday's post, it was time tonight to start on some of the cool stuff. The main c…
September 03, 2008
Right. Found a working solution to the problem I posted about, after some helpful responses in the thread.
Basically, I am only permitting blocks of the shape A, B and C in the above picture. Obviously the graphics can be anything, but these are the only shapes I can construct a map from. It means t…
September 02, 2008
Contrary to journal evidence, I am still programming away hard. I've hit a big stumbling block that I've posted a thread about here so if you know much about SAT, stop by and give me a hand.
Now using this Google Chrome thing. Seems to have put a spellchecker on while I'm typing this and, amusingly …
Now using this Google Chrome thing. Seems to have put a spellchecker on while I'm typing this and, amusingly …
August 28, 2008
Back down to earth and sober again after the holiday.
Had another job interview yesterday - another account manager job but for domestic rather than export. Went very well and they were very keen for me to go have an interview with the top chap, but something didn't feel right so I respectfully aske…
Had another job interview yesterday - another account manager job but for domestic rather than export. Went very well and they were very keen for me to go have an interview with the top chap, but something didn't feel right so I respectfully aske…
August 25, 2008
Just come back from holiday. Just camping in North Norfolk.
Went to see these dudes:
They were pretty cool.
This is me lost in a maze:
Obviously I've run this through Paint Shop Pro's "uglify" filter and I'm far better looking in real life.
Mazes are shit, actually. Used to find them very entertaining a…
Went to see these dudes:
They were pretty cool.
This is me lost in a maze:
Obviously I've run this through Paint Shop Pro's "uglify" filter and I'm far better looking in real life.
Mazes are shit, actually. Used to find them very entertaining a…
August 16, 2008
Right. Time to start rambling about the progress on the scripting language.
This is an example of an UdoScript program showing some of the currently implemented features. Note that the out statements print to the console and are for debugging - this feature will probably be removed when it is implem…
This is an example of an UdoScript program showing some of the currently implemented features. Note that the out statements print to the console and are for debugging - this feature will probably be removed when it is implem…
August 14, 2008
One of my biggest weaknesses has always been writing exception safe code. I realised last night that my expression tree builder was leaking memory all over the place when errors were discovered.
I had code like this:
I had code like this:
Node *Term(CompileData &Data,bool Get)
{
Node *N=Prim(Data,Get);
while(true…
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