The main mechanics is in and working. Whew! I thought my math was off, but turned out to be a stupid error on my part. I was adding to the wrong variable. So, it was throwing my result of by about 15 degrees.
Okay, now on to see how to do texture mapping in OGL ES, it should not be to different from OGL. I know the iPhone uses PVRTC (PowerVR Texture Compression). The iPhone doesn't force you to use PVRTC, you can use PNGs, but PVRTC compresses the textures well for the iPhone, so I will use the "pvrtctool," to crush some images and figure out how to load them and display them.
I can now move from my little wire frames, and solids, and make this thing start to look like something. So, I can impress my boys. I know they look at what I've got going and say, all that time, and that's it. :) Dudes, houses aren't built over night. What you see is the scaffolding, and its going to get torn down after I have everything figured out...then I will build the engine.
Anyway, next up...texture mapping. "It's show time!" (Micheal Buffet's "let's get ready to rumble," oh oh...he has that copyrighted, right? Is better than the Showtime's guy, "It's show time," saying. Anyway...I digress.)
Big weekend ahead (movies, some sleep, family/friends, Dr. King celebrations, and Obama stuff) so I might not get to sit down and work, until late Tuesday...we'll see.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Double Barrell Blast
Whoohoo! I solved two problems today (one at work, and my math problem here at home). Work was fixing a VMWare upgrade issue. APIs should not change behavior in upgrades...that's all I'm going to say about that. I discovered what the problem was and fixed it. On the home front I was doing something stupid with the dot product. I was feeding it the wrong vectors. Problem solved.
Now, I have a new problem. I've been working on this main mechanics of my game since Saturday, its much, much better, but still not quite right. Sheesh...I don't want to waste a lot of time on this, I still have lots to do. If I get into specifics, then the game is revealed and I'm not going to do that for a while. So, I will battle it out, mono y mono.
Just wanted to celebrate that yesterdays problems were solved and now onto the next.
And, I just want to say, "Get well Steve Jobs." I have always loved and used this quote of his since I heard it in the early 80's (in fact it is engraved on the back of my iTouch)...
"the journey is the reward."
Now, I have a new problem. I've been working on this main mechanics of my game since Saturday, its much, much better, but still not quite right. Sheesh...I don't want to waste a lot of time on this, I still have lots to do. If I get into specifics, then the game is revealed and I'm not going to do that for a while. So, I will battle it out, mono y mono.
Just wanted to celebrate that yesterdays problems were solved and now onto the next.
And, I just want to say, "Get well Steve Jobs." I have always loved and used this quote of his since I heard it in the early 80's (in fact it is engraved on the back of my iTouch)...
"the journey is the reward."
Back To Life
Update on my work computer...its all good again (read previous blog to see why/how I got zapped by the prunnet.exe virus). So, a couple of days, doing slave back ups, and restoring software and my work computer is up and running again. I must admit it is going a bit faster too, I must have had a lot of junk on there.
Well, I am fooling around with some math, that I know is simple, but has me scratching my head. The first problem was that my coordinate system was upside down. I knew it was but I wanted to have the thumb app stop button on the iPhone on the right hand side (orientation left on iPhone), just so left handed folks wouldn't feel discriminated against. So, I got tired of that and switched things back to orientation right.
Hopefully, I will get passed this problem tomorrow, and move on. I'm still working out the mechanics of my game. After I solve this problem, I'm moving on to doing some procedural textures.
Wow! I've been at this for 40 days now. I've come quite a ways, but a long way to go. I hope things are looking even better in the next 40 days.
Well, I am fooling around with some math, that I know is simple, but has me scratching my head. The first problem was that my coordinate system was upside down. I knew it was but I wanted to have the thumb app stop button on the iPhone on the right hand side (orientation left on iPhone), just so left handed folks wouldn't feel discriminated against. So, I got tired of that and switched things back to orientation right.
Hopefully, I will get passed this problem tomorrow, and move on. I'm still working out the mechanics of my game. After I solve this problem, I'm moving on to doing some procedural textures.
Wow! I've been at this for 40 days now. I've come quite a ways, but a long way to go. I hope things are looking even better in the next 40 days.
Friday, January 9, 2009
No Sound...not yet
Okay, last post I said I was going to tackle sound, but I've decided to hold off on for now, since there are a few more things I need to figure out in my game mechanics, and I want to also code up some effects. So, I won't get side tracked.
The update on the beast I was going to slay at work (socket dropping connection inside the VMWare VM). Well, I figured out what the problem was. The DHCP lease inside the VM was set for 2 hours. Which explains when I would build a fresh VM the connection would last that long. However, reverting the VM reduces the time since the snapshot is still the previous one. Which explains the more I reverted the VM the quicker the connection would be lost. So, the solution up the min and max DHCP lease time and implement the reconnection code I kept saying I would get to, but first I wanted to know what was causing the problem. Now, I know.
Ahhh...but, in my trying to figure out what was the culprit, I decided yesterday to disable the "denial of service," security on XP, turn of virus scanning, and turn off my firewall. Oh nooooo...yep, immediately I get hit with a virus. I spent most of the day running virus scanner on my machine (with the help of a co-worker), and got my machine back...I thought. Tonight I sat down to work on the fix, and the blue screen of death popped up on my work laptop. I can't even boot in Safe Mode...sheesh! One problem solved, another one gained.
No, iPhone work tonight, my brain is exhausted.
The update on the beast I was going to slay at work (socket dropping connection inside the VMWare VM). Well, I figured out what the problem was. The DHCP lease inside the VM was set for 2 hours. Which explains when I would build a fresh VM the connection would last that long. However, reverting the VM reduces the time since the snapshot is still the previous one. Which explains the more I reverted the VM the quicker the connection would be lost. So, the solution up the min and max DHCP lease time and implement the reconnection code I kept saying I would get to, but first I wanted to know what was causing the problem. Now, I know.
Ahhh...but, in my trying to figure out what was the culprit, I decided yesterday to disable the "denial of service," security on XP, turn of virus scanning, and turn off my firewall. Oh nooooo...yep, immediately I get hit with a virus. I spent most of the day running virus scanner on my machine (with the help of a co-worker), and got my machine back...I thought. Tonight I sat down to work on the fix, and the blue screen of death popped up on my work laptop. I can't even boot in Safe Mode...sheesh! One problem solved, another one gained.
No, iPhone work tonight, my brain is exhausted.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Touches Update
Yeah!
Come on, come on, come on, come on now
Touch me, babe!
Can't you see that I am not afraid?
The touches are now working properly. They no longer lag. I had to fix my rendering code to render on the timer properly, and to switch over to double buffering. Now, things are working nicely. I will put in some code next to see what my frame rate is.
Some of the basic mechanics of the game are in place, but still much more to figure out...like sound. I will begin with OpenAL tomorrow evening. I have read some contradicting posts on the internet that say sound does and does not work on the simulator. I will put together some test code and find out.
Another gotcha...don't know if I mentioned this already, but since I'm running the simulator on a PPC, the colors are wrong. RGBA on the simulator with PPC is GRAB. I'm not going to worry about it for now. I'm going to do my prototyping and learning, and when I am well into the real game engine code then I will pluck down the $99 for the signing certificate and see if I can get a signature for the PPC (there appears to be a script that can do it, that someone posted on the internet). I'll give it a try, if it doesn't work, then I will plunk down $599+change for a mini Mac, and sign my app. However, that is down the road.
I've been wrestling with a tough beast on my day job...trying to figure out why my TCP/IP socket is dropping the connection inside a VMWare virtual machine. I don't know if it is their DNS kicking me out, or what. I've got keep_alives, receive/send time bumped up, pumping my own little heart beat messages, and still drops. The connections outside the VM work like a charm, so I will prepare for another day of battle. Why not ask VMWare support you ask...poooolllleeeaaaasssseee! I have asked them three times and "SILENCE!" (she blinded me with science). So, I'm on my own.
Oh...a funny thing happened to me the other morning. I was walking into a local grocery store to grab a couple of bagels from the bakery. As I walked into the store, two college age boys were coming out the door. I was wearing my "Video Games Live," (the Tommy Tallarico production) tour t-shirt (great show if you haven't seen it, check it out). Well, as I passed them, I heard a shout, "Video games DON'T LIE dude, they are the TRUTH!" So, I was like 30 steps passed them before it registered. "He was talking to me!" Which when I thought about it, proves three things...
1) Video games are an integral part of society.
2) People are passionate about video games (pro and con)
3) And...video games are contributing to the down fall of our youth...Dude couldn't read!! The shirt reads, VIDEO GAMES LIVE, not Video Games Lie. :)
Okay, I don't believe #3, but it makes you wonder.
Rockin' outta here to "Framing Hanley's," remix of Lollipop..."shawwty wannnna thuuug...you know I like to touch."
Come on, come on, come on, come on now
Touch me, babe!
Can't you see that I am not afraid?
The touches are now working properly. They no longer lag. I had to fix my rendering code to render on the timer properly, and to switch over to double buffering. Now, things are working nicely. I will put in some code next to see what my frame rate is.
Some of the basic mechanics of the game are in place, but still much more to figure out...like sound. I will begin with OpenAL tomorrow evening. I have read some contradicting posts on the internet that say sound does and does not work on the simulator. I will put together some test code and find out.
Another gotcha...don't know if I mentioned this already, but since I'm running the simulator on a PPC, the colors are wrong. RGBA on the simulator with PPC is GRAB. I'm not going to worry about it for now. I'm going to do my prototyping and learning, and when I am well into the real game engine code then I will pluck down the $99 for the signing certificate and see if I can get a signature for the PPC (there appears to be a script that can do it, that someone posted on the internet). I'll give it a try, if it doesn't work, then I will plunk down $599+change for a mini Mac, and sign my app. However, that is down the road.
I've been wrestling with a tough beast on my day job...trying to figure out why my TCP/IP socket is dropping the connection inside a VMWare virtual machine. I don't know if it is their DNS kicking me out, or what. I've got keep_alives, receive/send time bumped up, pumping my own little heart beat messages, and still drops. The connections outside the VM work like a charm, so I will prepare for another day of battle. Why not ask VMWare support you ask...poooolllleeeaaaasssseee! I have asked them three times and "SILENCE!" (she blinded me with science). So, I'm on my own.
Oh...a funny thing happened to me the other morning. I was walking into a local grocery store to grab a couple of bagels from the bakery. As I walked into the store, two college age boys were coming out the door. I was wearing my "Video Games Live," (the Tommy Tallarico production) tour t-shirt (great show if you haven't seen it, check it out). Well, as I passed them, I heard a shout, "Video games DON'T LIE dude, they are the TRUTH!" So, I was like 30 steps passed them before it registered. "He was talking to me!" Which when I thought about it, proves three things...
1) Video games are an integral part of society.
2) People are passionate about video games (pro and con)
3) And...video games are contributing to the down fall of our youth...Dude couldn't read!! The shirt reads, VIDEO GAMES LIVE, not Video Games Lie. :)
Okay, I don't believe #3, but it makes you wonder.
Rockin' outta here to "Framing Hanley's," remix of Lollipop..."shawwty wannnna thuuug...you know I like to touch."
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Slow Progress Today
I'm here struggling with timing refresh problems, I believe. I am working on some prototype code, hammering out the mechanics of my game. I have some test entities moving about the screen, and touches and collision detection working. The only thing is the touches are recording sloooowwww! It is like I see the object I would like to select moving on the screen and touch, and the object is gone, and then the touch registers.
So, I believe my game objects are moving at a much higher refresh rate, and my touch object isn't. I will fool with this some more to see what is what.
Tomorrow, is back to work day. So, I may knock off early tonight and get my mind right..."I'm shakin' it, boss." (what...another "Cool Hand Luke," reference?...Dude, can I help it, if I'm a movie buff?)
Well I will go take another crack at the timing issue, and see what is what.
Take Care
So, I believe my game objects are moving at a much higher refresh rate, and my touch object isn't. I will fool with this some more to see what is what.
Tomorrow, is back to work day. So, I may knock off early tonight and get my mind right..."I'm shakin' it, boss." (what...another "Cool Hand Luke," reference?...Dude, can I help it, if I'm a movie buff?)
Well I will go take another crack at the timing issue, and see what is what.
Take Care
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Digital Love
Well, the collision detection is working, thus the digital (work with me people...digital, finger, tapping, touches on the screen) love. My game will only deal with single touches so I will not enable the multi-touch capabilities in the release mode, but for debugging it is nice, I can tap the screen with two up to five fingers to do some mode I wish to toggle on and off.
I am really pleased with the iPhone and its capabilities for such a small machine, and non of the unofficial documents that I had to go through when hacking the DS, and not to mention the opportunity to get something out into the App Store. Really, I'm not focusing on that. I'm focusing on completing a quality, fun, little game.
Also, a very, very close friend of mine, Nick Davis, will be doing the artwork for me. He's a very good artist, but has never done anything for video games, so I'm telling him about sprites and he's learning how to create them. He's already mocked up some conceptual drawings for me and I'm more than excited about our game.
Tonight I'm going to treat myself, and knock off early. I've been burning the midnight oil way past midnight for like three weeks, and I think after my successes this week, well, I'm feeling a bit pleased with my progress. So, I'm gonna grab a Klondike and go watch one of the bowl games on TV.
Happy New Year again everyone!
I am really pleased with the iPhone and its capabilities for such a small machine, and non of the unofficial documents that I had to go through when hacking the DS, and not to mention the opportunity to get something out into the App Store. Really, I'm not focusing on that. I'm focusing on completing a quality, fun, little game.
Also, a very, very close friend of mine, Nick Davis, will be doing the artwork for me. He's a very good artist, but has never done anything for video games, so I'm telling him about sprites and he's learning how to create them. He's already mocked up some conceptual drawings for me and I'm more than excited about our game.
Tonight I'm going to treat myself, and knock off early. I've been burning the midnight oil way past midnight for like three weeks, and I think after my successes this week, well, I'm feeling a bit pleased with my progress. So, I'm gonna grab a Klondike and go watch one of the bowl games on TV.
Happy New Year again everyone!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
