Okay so exam season is lasting forever. I managed to get my java architecture working with some extreme volatility in the frame timing so I'll have to look into it some more. Sadly I haven't had the time to touch anything since then. Studying has taken up most of my time but to stay on topic I will show off the final result of our CG class; the vogager introduction:
We got an A+ for it. I have to say my partner deserves most of the credit since he's the C++ guru. I did a little bit of modeling (not enough to actually deserve a mention here) and the scripting for the scene. It's pretty neat how it works in the back, I can create objects from a script file defined by us and change the file without having to rebuild the whole project. It really streamlines the whole process.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Java and Game Development
It really bothered me that a lot of people couldn't run NSR. I knew XNA was exclusive to Windows which I thought was fair enough thinking most people would have access to a copy (or use an emulator). However even if we ignore the non-windows demographic so many didn't have a video card that supported shaders 1.1, what a bummer.
Well while I wait for the end of the exam period and for Zedix and I to have time to fully commit ourselves to our new project I decided to explore java game development. I decided to install Eclipse and use java's own java2d stuff. From what I read it's not the best for game programming, especially when there are APIs dedicated to graphics like JOGL or GTGE, but for what time I have to invest in this project I think it will be just fine.
As far as design goes I figured that I didn't want to divert too far from the way XNA works. Now I know I can't develop something as fancy as XNA (ooh-la-la) but I could design a simple architecture that would emulate the coding feel of it.
Seeing how the major architectural feature that I use in XNA is the drawable component I made an abstract GameComponent class with the basic update and drawing functions. From there I implemented the MainComponent which would hold a list of all updatable and drawable components and iterate through them in every iteration of the game loop.
I'm unexperienced in the whole field of game loops but for how simple my project will be I will simply define a default frame per second (60) and make sure that only one frame can be executed per 1/60 seconds. I'd post some code but nothing in my design is concrete just yet.
Here are a few links that I found useful:
Well while I wait for the end of the exam period and for Zedix and I to have time to fully commit ourselves to our new project I decided to explore java game development. I decided to install Eclipse and use java's own java2d stuff. From what I read it's not the best for game programming, especially when there are APIs dedicated to graphics like JOGL or GTGE, but for what time I have to invest in this project I think it will be just fine.
As far as design goes I figured that I didn't want to divert too far from the way XNA works. Now I know I can't develop something as fancy as XNA (ooh-la-la) but I could design a simple architecture that would emulate the coding feel of it.
Seeing how the major architectural feature that I use in XNA is the drawable component I made an abstract GameComponent class with the basic update and drawing functions. From there I implemented the MainComponent which would hold a list of all updatable and drawable components and iterate through them in every iteration of the game loop.
I'm unexperienced in the whole field of game loops but for how simple my project will be I will simply define a default frame per second (60) and make sure that only one frame can be executed per 1/60 seconds. I'd post some code but nothing in my design is concrete just yet.
Here are a few links that I found useful:
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
End of Semester => Deadlines
Well things haven't been flowing too smoothly. Little to no progress has been done on our latest project but that's mostly due to school. However since my fan asked for an update I'll add an update.
Narcoleptic Soccer Rush
Well voting ended today and we finished 7th out of 48! Crazy! We were hoping for top ten and our hard work paid off. I think all the games did well and that the voting was fair (though with so many games some games didn't get as much credit as they deserved). Congratulations to all those who entered the competition. Keep an eye out on the TigSource front page for more details.
Avoid the Asteroids
We are presenting the demo and the XNA framework tomorrow morning at 10:00am. After seeing some of the other projects I'm a little nervous seeing how our demo can't possibly last more than thirty seconds (plus the presentation).
Star Trek Voyager Introduction
I haven't really mentioned this project but we are currently putting the finishing touches on it. The presentation is tomorrow morning at 8:00am. I'd list the project's details but instead I'll point you guys to the Assembla wiki where we took the time to add everything. Right here.
Adventure Game
Well not too much to add here but I'll post the sprite I made for it. I'm pretty proud of it considering that most walking animation I end up studying a current sprite extensively, this one was done looking at the walking cycle.
Narcoleptic Soccer Rush
Well voting ended today and we finished 7th out of 48! Crazy! We were hoping for top ten and our hard work paid off. I think all the games did well and that the voting was fair (though with so many games some games didn't get as much credit as they deserved). Congratulations to all those who entered the competition. Keep an eye out on the TigSource front page for more details.
Avoid the Asteroids
We are presenting the demo and the XNA framework tomorrow morning at 10:00am. After seeing some of the other projects I'm a little nervous seeing how our demo can't possibly last more than thirty seconds (plus the presentation).
Star Trek Voyager Introduction
I haven't really mentioned this project but we are currently putting the finishing touches on it. The presentation is tomorrow morning at 8:00am. I'd list the project's details but instead I'll point you guys to the Assembla wiki where we took the time to add everything. Right here.
Adventure Game
Well not too much to add here but I'll post the sprite I made for it. I'm pretty proud of it considering that most walking animation I end up studying a current sprite extensively, this one was done looking at the walking cycle.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Finishing Touches
Well I figured that I was done with Avoid the Asteroids but the project required a testing phase which then led to an improvement to the system. Seeing how it isn't too obvious to test a game using software metrics put forward by a program like SEG we decided to "tighten up" the collision detection and add sprite font support.
XNA makes this really easy for us so basically all I had to do was pop in a font I had drawn a while ago for Outpost and added a few functions to my GUI class. Beforehand I was cheating with my user interface by simply overlaying an image (I know, I know, it's dirty) but I didn't feel like adding the font seeing how I only had to display the introduction text and the game over screen. However the addition of the timer forced me to put it in. I think it looks much nicer.
XNA makes this really easy for us so basically all I had to do was pop in a font I had drawn a while ago for Outpost and added a few functions to my GUI class. Beforehand I was cheating with my user interface by simply overlaying an image (I know, I know, it's dirty) but I didn't feel like adding the font seeing how I only had to display the introduction text and the game over screen. However the addition of the timer forced me to put it in. I think it looks much nicer.
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