Idevs

Smash - Some Really Really Old News

Jamie — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:34:48 +0000

So about 7-8 months ago I was messing around with XML and XSL and ended up creating a small concept language code named Smash (Smash Markup to Articulate Semantic Hypertext - yes I always struggle for acronyms) Any way the project is a sibling of the now ancient CASTL project which Dan and I worked on 3-4 Years ago. One very nice feature of Smash was its default stylesheet which allowed it to produce renderings of bar graphs(this is as far as I got into the project before I became distracted with other things. The original draft documents for Smash are still online, so feel free to look around and become inspired. I might take this project up again if Dan is serious about reviving the CASTL project.

FPS Engine:Mouse Movement and Collision

Jamie — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:27:11 +0000

Well today has been a slow one, most of the work has been done on the backend so no nice screenies to show. Basically mouse movement works perfecting with a full looking around now done (with upper and lower bounds set). I have also updated the collision slightly by adding some less than perfect sliding collision to the environment items(boxes, cylinders etc). I really should make a too do list has the last few days a lot of feature creep has settled in detracting from the aim. Here is a list of current features:

3D World Loading from file (floors - wall worked out automatically) - file format needs overhaul to include items
Normals set so OpenGL lighting works - Need to learn more about lights in OpenGL
Texture setting works
Environment Obstacles (non moveable items) can be loaded - need to test on different sizes/types to make sure collision is consistant
Placeholder gun and crosshairare in the correct place - need to work on this more
Classes for Maps, Obstacles and Player are coming together - Need one for Lights and another for Fog settings
Messed around with different height blocks - realised the initial level format needs some work before this becomes a permanent feature
Edit Mode hasn’t been started.
Anything above the Obstacle Layer is still in theory land. Everything below is in messy hack land.

Target for Tuesday : Bring the Current Code Up to Acceptable Standards with Comments, Class Files and No Global Variables(I think I have 2) - Remove all outdated code.

There we go. Now I have to do it.

FPS Engine - Items Planning

Jamie — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:31:50 +0000

So, I know this is slightly earlier than I thought I would be updating but I couldn’t help myself. I have started planning how items are going to work. So in order to do this I had to test the theory. Check the screenshot:

I have removed the temp crosshair and gun placeholder because they just looked messy. The next step is the get multilevel levels working so I can implement ramps and stairs. After that I am planning to design a basic level so I can work on some decent collision and then its onto the actual level editor.

Lights(getting there)! Camera(almost!) Action(Not yet)

Jamie — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:49:03 +0000

So, I ended up re-writing the rendering functions, it took some time but the engine is now a lot more efficient, i’m pretty sure i’ll end up re-writing it again at some point but since this is mainly a learning exercise I am not too worried.

I have light, not entirely finished but they are getting there, having some issue with some normals, but makes for some cool effects. The mouse input is getting there, you can now turn around using the mouse but there is no up and down movement yet.

As for other things, the level format hasn’t been worked on yet and anything above that(enemies, light position(currently hardcoded), items etc.) will have to wait. Enjoy the new screenie and I will keep you updated.

FPS Engine

Jamie — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:40:36 +0000

So today I started work on a new project. Well I say today, most of the ground work was laid last night. I am attempting to create an FPS engine in the hopes of building a fully fledged game on top. MY task for today was simple, render a simple level from a file and allow the camera to walk around it. 3 hours in and it is done. I would have taken less time but having to relearn everything takes a while

So now that is done my plan for tomorrow is to get mouse support working so I can look around the world. I am planning to take this project slow to give me plenty of time to clean the code up after every change.

Now for some technical details:

The Engine is written in C++ using the SDL Library and OpenGL
The Current Engine reads in a simple text file which lays out the level, it then uses this to place planes and cubes

So thats it for today, stay tuned for updates.

Gooie

Jamie — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:50:51 +0000

I don’t know about you but I am sick of people pronouncing GUI as “gooey”. NO!! GUI is an abbreviation not an acronym! If you really want an acronym to use then I suggest Gooie or Graphical Object Oriented Intuitive Environment. There we go, if you say “gooey” I will assume you are talking about Gooie and not GUI since there is a minute difference between then which I will not go into but you should be aware of….

Edit: as mentioned Mr. Mac from The Decline helped develop the Gooie acronym.

Clio and an Apology

Jamie — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:36:36 +0000

Yes, yes I know. I haven’t really been keeping to the posting schedule.

The thing keeping me busy is Clio, my little eeepc, yes I have one of those, and it is probably the best little laptop in the world ever! But more on her next week.

Thought of the Day

Jamie — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:27:14 +0000

Ann Summers and Apples logos are very similar…go ahead and check, both apples with a little bite taken out of them. Hopefully Steve Jobs isn’t thinking of going into the lingerie business can you imagine? Lingerie that could only be used by 5% of women….

Yeah, I forgot to prepare an article today…

PageRank wrecked the web

Jamie — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:17:45 +0000

Heya all, as you may have seen I am still working some kinks out in the site. Because of that I am not going to start with the articles today.

Instead Iam going to direct you to a post by Rich Skrenta entitled PageRank wrecked the web. In it Rich summarises what I and many other people have been saying for a while.

The end part of the article is a nice declaration.

Google is the cause of all of this.
and Google is going down with it.

Listen up Google, you started it, and in time the good, decent developers of this world will finish it.

Happy New Year!

Jamie — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:00:29 +0000

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2008 and a new Idevs. I hope this year will be the year Idevs fully takes off.

During the introduction period from July to September last year I laid the ground work for Idevs as a web development and programming blog. In 2008 I shall be adding security, privacy and robots to that.

Before I start with the blog posts I thought I would let you know about the new posting schedule and other useful tidbits of information.

Blog posts will be posted every Tuesday and Thursday.
The topics covered in the blog post will vary from post to post although there will be at least one book review and one tutorial a month.
The main categories will be Programming and Web Development, Privacy and Security, Robotics and of course General Computing.

So that is all for now. The first post of the new era will be on Tuesday the 3rd. Along with a new design.