Been a hellish week

posted in Journal of Aardvajk

Published 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 did mess about improving the collision system a bit today, but I'm kind of getting to the point where I'm feeling like this project was an excellent way to testbed my ideas about implementing skeletal animation but am not actually producing a game that will be much fun to play.

I've been playing around with Box2D's test program today and am getting tempted to start on something physics based. I would really like to come up with a simple, feasibly completable idea for a game and get cracking on it, but I guess we can't all think of Crayon Physics.

I'd really like to get myself to the point where I could implement some decent physics myself and have been looking at Real Time Collision Detection on Amazon. It's quite pricey in the current economic climate - anyone have any feedback on this book?

Bit of a creativity dead zone at the moment. Might just spend some time working on modelling for a bit.

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Comments

Trapper Zoid

That Kaufmann book on collision detection has been in my Amazon "to buy later" list for about three years. I've bought thousands of dollars of books in the meantime, but I've never thought the price of that one was worth the knowledge. However that might be because I've made the decision to stick to 2D, and I'm pretty sure with some savvy use of bounding boxes I could mash up an algorithm to solve any physics issues I have. And, well, I like mashing up algorithms [grin].

January 31, 2009 05:33 PM

MrP

You can get Real-Time Collision Detection cheaper from CompMan.co.uk. You could certainly manage without buying the book as I'm sure the information is out there on the internet, it's really the author who makes it such a worthwhile purchase. Ericson is able to communicate ideas effectively without falling in to the trap of sounding condescending, or worse, rambling at such an elevated level that the reader is left behind.

One thing that should be made clear is that the scope of the book is limited to collision detection only and as such it doesn't cover physics at all. This isn't a criticism as it isn't to the detriment of the book, but the two are so intrinsically linked that it seemed important to mention incase you had expected otherwise.

February 01, 2009 05:45 AM

Aardvajk

Quote:Original post by Trapper Zoid
That Kaufmann book on collision detection has been in my Amazon "to buy later" list for about three years. I've bought thousands of dollars of books in the meantime, but I've never thought the price of that one was worth the knowledge. However that might be because I've made the decision to stick to 2D, and I'm pretty sure with some savvy use of bounding boxes I could mash up an algorithm to solve any physics issues I have. And, well, I like mashing up algorithms [grin].

Yeah, I suspect even armed with all the knowledge in that book, I'd still probably struggle to get anything working properly. Just seems like the sort of book I'd enjoy reading.

I agree it is amazing what you can accomplish with AABBs in 2D.

February 01, 2009 05:49 AM

Aardvajk

Quote:Original post by MrP
You can get Real-Time Collision Detection cheaper from CompMan.co.uk. You could certainly manage without buying the book as I'm sure the information is out there on the internet, it's really the author who makes it such a worthwhile purchase. Ericson is able to communicate ideas effectively without falling in to the trap of sounding condescending, or worse, rambling at such an elevated level that the reader is left behind.

Cheers. I'll take a look at that link when I've finished typing this.

[EDIT] Coo, that is a lot cheaper. On order as early birthday present from my girlfriend [smile].

Quote:Original post by MrP
One thing that should be made clear is that the scope of the book is limited to collision detection only and as such it doesn't cover physics at all. This isn't a criticism as it isn't to the detriment of the book, but the two are so intrinsically linked that it seemed important to mention incase you had expected otherwise.

Appreciate the clarification - I'm still quite keen to get hold of a copy.

February 01, 2009 05:50 AM

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Aardvajk

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Been a hellish week

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Aardvajk

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Been a hellish week

Comments

Aardvajk

Latest Entries

Hey

Further developments

Implementing Properties

Optimising my scripting language

QtScripting madness

Various

Progress Update

Multiple Lights and Shadows - Video and Code Walkthrough

Light and Shadow Musing - Call for opinions/experience please

Some progress (added new vid)

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