Hello everyone,
I was quite for a while, I know. However, it is not true. I have a real blog now with a real domain. Yes, this post isn't going to be long, but you will be happy to read more in my new blog. If you are still interested in my work and speeches, then you can find more of them here.
See you all there.
Cheers,
Arnold.
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Friday, 26 October 2012
Development Diary Day 8
Once again, it's Friday! I am starting to understand, that my posts are being posted on Friday's only.
That's because this week was quite dull and empty. And yes, we finally met the client. And yes, he ripped the project apart.
Even I did a combo meter working last week, there was no point writing about it, because I was waiting for the client. The great thing is, he told us many things he wanted to see in a game. The bad thing, I had to rip most of the project apart. On the other hand, I got a chance to re-write all the files and make them cleaner. I know it's a wrong thing, especially when we talk about programmers. We always want to make something better when it was. But what we actually do, is more errors and bugs. It's paradoxical, I know.
So, this week I started changing the game core. You should remember, I wrote about passing boxes. They are gone now. I wrote about distance and points meter - they are gone. Right now, there are three boxes, or human poses, which work as buttons. Each pose has its own number. Choose the right pose, choose the right answer, move to the next equation. Would you like to know, what is so innovative in this game? Yes, it's Kinect. It won't be used this semester, but the game is being made for it.
It's fun to write code and make everything work, although sometimes it is quite depressing. I don't like ripping the project apart. However, it's industry. It's meant to be like that. One day you are working on FPS, next day you are making RTS out of it and so on... doh!
Have a nice weekend. I hope next week gonna be much better then previous one.
That's because this week was quite dull and empty. And yes, we finally met the client. And yes, he ripped the project apart.
Even I did a combo meter working last week, there was no point writing about it, because I was waiting for the client. The great thing is, he told us many things he wanted to see in a game. The bad thing, I had to rip most of the project apart. On the other hand, I got a chance to re-write all the files and make them cleaner. I know it's a wrong thing, especially when we talk about programmers. We always want to make something better when it was. But what we actually do, is more errors and bugs. It's paradoxical, I know.
So, this week I started changing the game core. You should remember, I wrote about passing boxes. They are gone now. I wrote about distance and points meter - they are gone. Right now, there are three boxes, or human poses, which work as buttons. Each pose has its own number. Choose the right pose, choose the right answer, move to the next equation. Would you like to know, what is so innovative in this game? Yes, it's Kinect. It won't be used this semester, but the game is being made for it.
It's fun to write code and make everything work, although sometimes it is quite depressing. I don't like ripping the project apart. However, it's industry. It's meant to be like that. One day you are working on FPS, next day you are making RTS out of it and so on... doh!
Have a nice weekend. I hope next week gonna be much better then previous one.
Friday, 19 October 2012
Development Diary Day 7
I wrote quite a long time ago. Each day I thought, that I did nothing, so I didn't know what to write. Nevertheless, I did some work during my spare hours.
I talked about score system last time. I have already implemented it. Good, but could be better. Right now it is called "Meter". However, it is just a score, nothing more. You get score for good answers and you lose it otherwise. To make it more attractive, I added the position meter, which acts something like this: if you have a line, divide it by 2. You get half of your line. Then divide it into 60%, 30%, 10% intervals. Each interval represents different amount of score:
60% - 1 point
30% - 2 points
10% - 4 points
After this achievement, we can think about the ability to spend them or whatever...
I changed the GUI elements from static 2D into 3D elements. I thought doing that would help me to transform and position text easier later on. And I managed to repair the error, where pause didn't work instantly.
While we are waiting for a brief from client, I implemented a start menu. It would be implemented during the polishing stage, but I just made my work easier. I know, that all the work in a latter stages will drop on my shoulders, so I must have more work done now. I mean, all the assets', artwork's and sprites' implementation is being done in the end and by me.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Good luck! Don't drink too much, if you know what I mean.
The innovation or scam... Ask yourself
I start the post as always... It's Friday!
This week was a busy one, so I didn't have a spare time to write a post here. Although it was a tough time for me, I had some time for reading. And suddenly I got flash to my mind. This time it was about Computer Graphics and Graphics programming.
I hardly believe innovations, because it is something I don't have. Nevertheless, I start to believe them, when they are released to public. It is not some kind of stubbornness. The innovations come as miracles to our life and believing in miracles it's not my type. For example, the flying cars. Would you believe that? The best you could say to the person, telling you this, is some words... It is similar in all situations. However, when they are released to public, you don't have to believe it. It becomes another truth.
The subject I wanted to write about today is called Euclideon, a.k.a Unlimited Detail Algorithm. You wouldn't surprise me telling I am crazy. As I said earlier, it's the best you can say to me. The first question, which pops up into my head, is: "how can you do something unlimited?", because it is not possible. And I totally agree with you. I have been investigating into this "scam" or innovation, whatever you call it, and it seems to be realistic.
I have found a great article about all of this written in Andromeda's blog. This article helps to understand a little bit about this engine. To add more, I add link to a new video, which was released few months ago.
Most people say it is a scam. And they might be true. However, most of us do not believe in innovations. On the other hand, some people want that we wouldn't believe in innovations. For example, the car fueled by water to move, instead of petrol. It is a great innovation, even though the article was written in 2008. There might be even more innovations related to that up until now. The problem is that people selling the oil don't want that. What would happen, if the whole world started using water fueled cars instead of petrol? They would bankrupt in one way, or would lose a lot of money in another way.
The same is with Game Engine companies such as CryTek, Unreal, Unity, Marmalade and many more. They would lose customers, because their technology wouldn't achieve the same result as Euclideon would. And they invested too much money into that.
You can believe it or not. I don't say it is true or it is a scam. I just wanted to inform you about innovations coming into our world, especially - game developers world.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
See you.
This week was a busy one, so I didn't have a spare time to write a post here. Although it was a tough time for me, I had some time for reading. And suddenly I got flash to my mind. This time it was about Computer Graphics and Graphics programming.
I hardly believe innovations, because it is something I don't have. Nevertheless, I start to believe them, when they are released to public. It is not some kind of stubbornness. The innovations come as miracles to our life and believing in miracles it's not my type. For example, the flying cars. Would you believe that? The best you could say to the person, telling you this, is some words... It is similar in all situations. However, when they are released to public, you don't have to believe it. It becomes another truth.
The subject I wanted to write about today is called Euclideon, a.k.a Unlimited Detail Algorithm. You wouldn't surprise me telling I am crazy. As I said earlier, it's the best you can say to me. The first question, which pops up into my head, is: "how can you do something unlimited?", because it is not possible. And I totally agree with you. I have been investigating into this "scam" or innovation, whatever you call it, and it seems to be realistic.
I have found a great article about all of this written in Andromeda's blog. This article helps to understand a little bit about this engine. To add more, I add link to a new video, which was released few months ago.
Most people say it is a scam. And they might be true. However, most of us do not believe in innovations. On the other hand, some people want that we wouldn't believe in innovations. For example, the car fueled by water to move, instead of petrol. It is a great innovation, even though the article was written in 2008. There might be even more innovations related to that up until now. The problem is that people selling the oil don't want that. What would happen, if the whole world started using water fueled cars instead of petrol? They would bankrupt in one way, or would lose a lot of money in another way.
The same is with Game Engine companies such as CryTek, Unreal, Unity, Marmalade and many more. They would lose customers, because their technology wouldn't achieve the same result as Euclideon would. And they invested too much money into that.
You can believe it or not. I don't say it is true or it is a scam. I just wanted to inform you about innovations coming into our world, especially - game developers world.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
See you.
Friday, 12 October 2012
Development Diary Day 6
It's Friday, again!
And I did some job since last post. Remember, I told you about the fonts. They are working now! And they aren't blurry anymore. Wonderful achievement.
There were some problems with buttons, where you pushed them and they didn't work. I think I managed to solve that problem. The problem was, that when the OnTrigger event was launched, it got triggered only that frame, like in FixedUpdate, so there were some frames, you were unable to fit in. There were about 75% of times you were able to succeed, but in other 25% the button didn't react. Fixed that now.
We have to re-think the score system to something more addictive. I thought, that applause meter, or self-esteem would help to improve that, but that was just my opinion. Shall see, how it goes on Monday.
I have added a dancer. It is just a stick man, but it works. Sprite system works. it's good to know that. The equations are changing depending on your answer. If you answer it correct, the equation changes and if you're not - it becomes red. That means you are wrong. I have also implemented two buttons into the system. A - means true, D - means false. You have to click each cube passing through the trigger, in order to get all the "score", which is still not implemented.
That's it for two days.
Have a nice weekend.
And I did some job since last post. Remember, I told you about the fonts. They are working now! And they aren't blurry anymore. Wonderful achievement.
There were some problems with buttons, where you pushed them and they didn't work. I think I managed to solve that problem. The problem was, that when the OnTrigger event was launched, it got triggered only that frame, like in FixedUpdate, so there were some frames, you were unable to fit in. There were about 75% of times you were able to succeed, but in other 25% the button didn't react. Fixed that now.
We have to re-think the score system to something more addictive. I thought, that applause meter, or self-esteem would help to improve that, but that was just my opinion. Shall see, how it goes on Monday.
I have added a dancer. It is just a stick man, but it works. Sprite system works. it's good to know that. The equations are changing depending on your answer. If you answer it correct, the equation changes and if you're not - it becomes red. That means you are wrong. I have also implemented two buttons into the system. A - means true, D - means false. You have to click each cube passing through the trigger, in order to get all the "score", which is still not implemented.
That's it for two days.
Have a nice weekend.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Development Diary Day 5
Yesterday was a great day. I started work from early morning.
I managed to solve the problem, where I needed to calculate the answer of the equation. I knew there is a function, which evaluates a string, although, I haven't used it before. After some time of Google'ing I found what I needed. There were some minor problems after that, but I solved them quite fast. However, I still need to render the correct answer.
At last, we tried our game on a "dinosaur". This is another name for stone-age computer. And you wouldn't believe it, it worked! Well, with some problems. We launched it on a "dinosaur" and it didn't work, in the first place. Because it didn't have a VGA Drivers. What a stupid mistake. After the installation of drivers, it worked flawlessly.
We got into trouble, when I tried to change a resolution of a game. The background was not wide enough, so there was a sky-box background visible. And it was blue. So one of our artists widen background image, so it fills the whole background now. Minor fix.
I added the background music and it sounds brilliant. Even it is just a draft, I really like it!
Some minor changes to the game speed. Me and an audio guy tried to solve the problem with music beats and game speed. It is still under development. Although it is mostly synchronized.
There is still a problem with fonts. They are rendered blurry and I can't stand that. I'll try to investigate.
4 weeks of studying have passed and my knowledge increased drastically. Thank you all for your support.
See you in a next page.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Some tips for Games Developers
I could talk a lot about this, but who am I, to say, what is good and what is bad. I am not Steve Jobs, or any other well-known figure. So just watch yourself. Have a good time listening to some great tips for all of you, guys.
Good luck with that.
Good luck with that.
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