
@\NightandtheShape/@
Members-
Posts
1512 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by @\NightandtheShape/@
-
FIFE - a next generation Fallout-like engine
@\NightandtheShape/@ replied to mvBarracuda's topic in Computer and Console
I'm glad to hear you guys finally ditched the singletons, but that's also commonly refered to as the "anti-pattern", singletons pretty much break the whole point of OO design. That said, there are other patterns which I picked up upon, but it was a while ago, I do intend on taking another look now I've finished my degree. As for the logging module, first thing I'd suggest is a static class. -
LMFAO... True, true... But I can speculate!
-
Finally I shall be able to see if Boki really does look like Jabba
-
How did you get into the gaming industry?
@\NightandtheShape/@ replied to jlf2n's topic in Developers' Corner
I'm not sure if I could really say that I fit into this thread, but as someone coming straight out of University who has had a little industry experience and is currently looking for a job it may interest some folks who are, how can it be put, younger and curious. I started programming when I was 6 on the Amstrad CPC 464, this was the start of what became a lifelong passion for games, both from a development perspective, and a gaming perspective. I never did anything more fantastical than copy programs from an old teach yourself BASIC manual, but for loops and goto's etc... Kinda made sense to my childish mind. When I was about 10 I got hold of an Amiga 600, and a copy of something called S.E.U.C.K., Shoot 'em Up Construction Kit, which was my first experience of something akin to a game engine which allowed users to generate assets for use in the engine, and place togeather a simple shooter, I built a couple of games using this and began to grasp coding concepts such as tile set engines and sprites etc... Later I moved onto using AMOS BASIC, where I actually started programming again from the age of about 11 to 14 I did nothing more than teach myself how to program, writing a bunch of small games using the language which was actually fairly powerful. I mostly wrote simple shooters, and a beat 'em up. Then Commadore went bust, so I played around with QBASIC, but I never did write any games with it, frankly it wasn't really a language suited to developing anything graphical. I tried to learn C, and assembler, but at the time I didn't quite get it. And so I assumed that I was absolutely stupid, and incapible. So it was that I actually stopped programming, I started to indulge a passion for music, I set up a band and played a whole bunch of gigs before finally realising that while I love music, doing it for a living meant a total comprimise towards commercial music if I was ever going to actually feed myself, I floated around and did a bunch of travelling and generally questioned myself for years. I eventually found myself at the age of 20, engaged, and with very little hope of a happy future... The only thing I ever remembered enjoying as much as making a noise, was programming, I had started to toy around again with BASIC languages on the PC, playing with DarkBASIC, learning fundemental 3D concepts. So I looked towards what I could do, what options were available to me. The local College did something called an "Access course", which was a 21's and over course which basically meant I could get into University and avoid taking a bunch of A Level's so I figured what the hell, I should just give it a shot. So I did, and ended up learning PASCAL, the fundementals Assembly language and blitz the course, then I moved onto doing a (Bsc)Hon's in "Computer Games Programming", at Huddersfield University. I did a whole bunch of stuff at University, being a game's programming course naturally the focus was on game's programming principles and the obvious computer science stuff, the first year was a typical introduction to programming, I got my mind round Java and Object Orientated Programming, consider I'd never dealt with object up until then, it was a slow and bizzare transition, I'd always written sequencial code. With the first year out of the way, the second year was when things finally got interesting, and I started to really understand what was happening. I learnt the basic's of C/C++ in a week, wrote my first DirectX 9 application in the first few months, along with my first particle engine. From that point onwards, I was sold on C++, I read everything I could related to it and direct X, and eventually attempted to write my own game engine, opposed to using a supplied game engine which was basically what everyone else did. By the end of the year I was the first person to learn and implement shaders, using HLSL which wasn't a huge feat really but considering that we wasn't supposed to cover it until our final year it was a pretty big thing for me, and granted me alot of kudos with my peer's. Then I did a work placement at Canalside Studio's, a studio which was funded and setup by the University, but run by the students, it was the first year the project had been run, the studio had no contracts, a year's budget, no technology, just a room full of PC's and 8 programmers, no design staff, and no game idea's. I was assigned the role of lead programmer and assistant producer on one of the projects. All I can really say is that decision's were made to use C# and XNA to build our games, I was actually against this as XNA was in Beta, most people hadn't even touched C# (I had some generic experience with it). Management decided that was the route they wanted to take, students were invited to pitch game idea's etc.. I spotted the Dream Build Play competition and presented it to University management as being a good way of securing a contract for the studio, and considering we had three projects on the go all in XNA it seemed wise, they went for it, but not in the way I thought they would, they placed most of the resource's on one of the games and left me and another guy running on a very complicated concept doing all the grunt R&D work, as well as trying to produce something akin to a game. I worked 16 hour days, for month's, eventually providing alot of knowledge which was used by the other team for 3D animation and multi-threading, along with this we had a semi complete game that was lacking in art resource's that didn't hit the DBP deadline, the other project did, and ended up coming second and secured a contract for release on XBLA. So I trundled off solo to Seattle represented the studio, ran up a $400 phone bill and had a good time before going on to finish my degree. The final year basically consisted of myself and some of the guys from Canalside working on a team project, which I produced, and wrote a majority of the game engine, gamescript and tools for, which eventually produced a prototype our groups game idea, called Solar Flux, which we're all still working, some of the guys are now working in industry. I also did my dissertation, which made use of L-Systems, DirectX 10 and Geometry shader's, where i managed to produce some nice performance statistics, along with a 132 page report. Now that I've actually done all this work, I've been sending my CV/Resume to prospective employer's, and building my portfolio up read for my portfolio website. I've got my first interview for the new Codermasters studio in Guildford where they're working on some super secret project codenamed "Strike Team". So that's me banging on the door to the games industry. To Be Continued... -
-
FIFE - a next generation Fallout-like engine
@\NightandtheShape/@ replied to mvBarracuda's topic in Computer and Console
I'd suggest taking a look now, if only to get an impression of the codes structure. It's fairly pattern heavy ahem and I still don't see any point in singletons. That said if you wanna contribute having a read of some of the code sure would help in the long run, I implore you take a look. -
FIFE - a next generation Fallout-like engine
@\NightandtheShape/@ replied to mvBarracuda's topic in Computer and Console
Because you're a bizzare strange deranged human? -
... Obsidian forums without mkreku. That'd be like a gym without a punch bag!
-
Have you got IK, and physique options? Animation in general is a tough disipline, of all the guys I knew on the design degree, there are two which are competant animators.
-
That's a whole other kind of stupid that only the southern american states could produce... To be honest, I don't think she is "stupid", just "un-educated". The dialogue between her and the host is hilarious in a funny way though stupid, un-edumacated, I don't care... I get all gooey over that kinda girl Well, she probably knew that she would be subject to some degree of ridicule and went ahead anyway for the sake of charity. Kudos to her for having her heart in the right place if not a minimum of geography skills Aye, well what's public embarrassment at the side of helping a bunch of people... I'll agree with ya there, more people with that attitude and I could finally implement my plans for world domination :D
-
It's cool... I wasn't implying stupidity
-
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't intending to give some sort of coding lecture, more just show the majority of the size of a basic HDR implementation. Graphical features are, in alot of ways alot easier to implement, and certainly something that alot of people like... Myself included. It's not that its hard to implement cloth physics in an environment with awesome collision detection, it's more a matter of resources within a said company, and perhaps more importantly computing resources themselves. Some of the best top end systems would be just about capible of running the sort of thing that you'd like to see, I'd like to see it too, but realistically physic implementations are really still quite basic. NVIDIA has a nice example of a sheet of cloth which you can cut up and place over spherical objects etc... but that's far from perfect, spherical collision is infact the fastest method of collision available as far as I can recall, even a box is more complicated. The reason for my response was not to insult but more to demonstrate that while HDR is a common graphical feature that is often thrown around, some folks like it some folks don't, it's actually a fairly simple process which is why it is so common now that it has been established, it's also expected. The two are not comparative, and I felt you was making a statement of equality. Perhaps I jumped the gun. I just wanted to make it very clear that the kind of thing you're asking for is cosmetic, resource intensive, and certainly not essencial. It is on the otherhand not that hard to implement and certainly if you didn't want to do much else an implementation could be done, a poor implementation like was commonly seen in tomb raider is really the best you could hope for.
-
This people is an example of overwhelming ignorance. Yes crashgirl, to do them properly is a very very very big ask, also it's very processor intensive. It would require complex cloth physic's, well i say cloth physics, but basically material physics for things such as leather, some damn fine bounding volume geometry. Naturally it's possible, but the cost of that compared with... // ---------------------------------------------- // paramaters provided by the application // ---------------------------------------------- texture hdrTexture; float Exposure; sampler hdrSampler = sampler_state { Texture = (hdrTexture); ADDRESSU = CLAMP; ADDRESSV = CLAMP; MAGFILTER = LINEAR; MINFILTER = LINEAR; MIPFILTER = LINEAR; }; texture bloomTexture; sampler bloomSampler = sampler_state { Texture = (bloomTexture); ADDRESSU = CLAMP; ADDRESSV = CLAMP; MAGFILTER = LINEAR; MINFILTER = LINEAR; MIPFILTER = LINEAR; }; // ---------------------------------------------- // I/O Structs // ---------------------------------------------- struct VS_OUTPUTLUMINANCE { float4 Pos : POSITION; float2 texCoord : TEXCOORD0; }; // ---------------------------------------------- // vertex shader // ---------------------------------------------- VS_OUTPUTLUMINANCE vs_luminance(float4 Pos: POSITION) { VS_OUTPUTLUMINANCE Out; // Simply output the position without transforming it Out.Pos = float4(Pos.xy, 0, 1); // Texture coordinates are setup so that the full texture // is mapped completeley onto the screen Out.texCoord.x = 0.5 * (1 + Pos.x); Out.texCoord.y = 0.5 * (1 - Pos.y); return Out; } // ---------------------------------------------- // pixel shader // ---------------------------------------------- float4 ps_luminance(float2 texCoord : TEXCOORD0) : COLOR { // exposure level static float fExposureLevel = Exposure; // sampler colour maps float4 hdrColor = tex2D(hdrSampler, texCoord); float4 bloomColor = tex2D(bloomSampler, texCoord); // lerp between the two colour maps float4 color = lerp(hdrColor, bloomColor, 0.65); texCoord -= 0.5; // range -0.5..0.5 float vignette = 1.0 - dot(texCoord, texCoord); // multiply colour with vignette color *= vignette * vignette;// * vignette * vignette; // multiply colour by exposure leve; color *= fExposureLevel; // map colour back to non fp values and return return pow(color, 1.0); } // ---------------------------------------------- // technique // ---------------------------------------------- technique Luminance { pass Pass1 { VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 vs_luminance(); PixelShader = compile ps_2_0 ps_luminance(); } } //---------------------------------------------------------------- // Variables provided by the application //---------------------------------------------------------------- #define SAMPLE_COUNT 15 float2 SampleOffsets[sAMPLE_COUNT]; float SampleWeights[sAMPLE_COUNT]; //---------------------------------------------------------------- // Textures and Samplers //---------------------------------------------------------------- texture renderTexture; sampler renderTextureSampler = sampler_state { Texture = (renderTexture); ADDRESSU = CLAMP; ADDRESSV = CLAMP; }; //---------------------------------------------------------------- // Output Structures //---------------------------------------------------------------- struct VS_OUTPUT { float4 Pos: POSITION; float2 TexCoord: TEXCOORD0; }; //---------------------------------------------------------------- // Vertex Shader //---------------------------------------------------------------- VS_OUTPUT vs_main(float4 Pos: POSITION) { VS_OUTPUT Out; // Clean up inaccuracies Pos.xy = sign(Pos.xy); Out.Pos = float4(Pos.xy, 0, 1); // Image-space Out.TexCoord.x = 0.5 * (1 + Pos.x); Out.TexCoord.y = 0.5 * (1 - Pos.y); return Out; } //---------------------------------------------------------------- // Vertex Shader //---------------------------------------------------------------- float4 ps_main(float2 texCoord : TEXCOORD0) : COLOR0 { float4 c = 0; // Combine a number of weighted image filter taps. for (int i = 0; i < SAMPLE_COUNT; i++) { c += tex2D(renderTextureSampler, texCoord + SampleOffsets[i]) * SampleWeights[i]; } return c; } technique GaussianBlur { pass Pass1 { VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 vs_main(); PixelShader = compile ps_2_0 ps_main(); } } In terms of development time, general compatibility etc... well... I think you're getting my point here?
-
...
-
Any operating system is OK as long as you don't try to do anything fancy with it. I'm not touching Vista with a 10m pole until one year after SP2 deployment. P. S. Some Vista "features":
-
Oblivion was one of the first games I am aware of to implement the technique, it wasn't used as well as it has been since but the HDR implementation is better than the bloom implementation. From my experience with Bloom and HDR, both through writing and implementing the techniques, setting it up is like you indicate something which can go wrong, artists and designers have to be careful as it's very easy to overdo it. Bloom works by taking values over and under a particular threshold and modifying their saturation and intensity... You can do other stuff too, but that's the basics of how bloom calculates the final result where something like HDR works directly with light exposure, hence the exposure should change based on the current environment, Oblivion doesn't appear to do this very well it, if at all... Tone mapping generally helps with better HDR calculations, but if you make someone so painfully white in the first place HDR will take it a step further as the lighter a colour is the more it is effected. So that's why you experienced what you experienced, HDR can be done well, and Oblivion certainly gives it a fair shot. At the end of the day though it's a matter of personal like and dislike... You would probably prefer a scene with high AA and no bloom or HDR, so just don't activate it.
-
That's a whole other kind of stupid that only the southern american states could produce... To be honest, I don't think she is "stupid", just "un-educated". The dialogue between her and the host is hilarious in a funny way though stupid, un-edumacated, I don't care... I get all gooey over that kinda girl
-
*holds head in shame and shakes his head while wiping away the tears of laughter* You guys...
-
Bloom & HDR are 2 different effects, bloom looks pretty bad at the side of HDR and oblivion looks pretty good when using HDR. Ahem. The performance was also very good especially compared to the likes of NWN2's perf.
-
Dutch Embassy bombed in Pakistan
@\NightandtheShape/@ replied to GreasyDogMeat's topic in Way Off-Topic
The storm is brewing, and it will rain blood before europeans will choose islam, I 100% garentee it. -
Indeed, and probably how it should have been implemented.
-
That's a whole other kind of stupid that only the southern american states could produce...
-
I did screw up though... crossed wires and got it wrong . Well, frankly speak that's not a dramatic divergance really, magnitude and duration... success, basically higher the skill better the result so I don't see a problem with that... it's nothing like an FPS. FPS's tend to focus on area hit and weapon. Oblivion would be more has it hit, and what should the damage be. This makes it quite different as the effectiveness of a weapon, spell etc... Is based in turn on the skill with an ability, where instead in an FPS the result would ALWAYS be the same. You can eventually be as effective, you wouldn't start out as effecting, the idea is simple you have your major skills which you should use loads and hence effects your leveling etc... And minor skills which should progress behind them. The dev's set out to make a game where the player gets to choose what's what, they've always appeared to have made that statement about eldar scroll games since I can remember, it seems like you yourself don't like that all that much. The TES games are ABOUT HUMAN CHOICE You want tight restraints on rules, or a pure skill system where everything is equal.... Kinda the old D20 or Fallout SPECIAL system. The approch with beth takes does leave it open to exploits, but heck, so what does it spoil the game that much for you? If so wow, they made the thing easy to mod, most problems that people find are probably addressed in a mod, so that could be seen as adding house rules forcefully. Your problem, from what I appear to be able to see from what you've written is that they've not made the game structured enough for you, and there are exploits, design desicions etc... That really bother you, now here's an interesting thing for you to think about. The game can be modded, it has been played by alot of people who will have all perhaps been frustrated by some feature, ain't a single game that can be considered to satisfy everyone, and thus by allowing the game to be easily modified the game itself can be altered so as to more or less fit the persons desired taste. Now here's something, if the game was how you say it should be by your logic, you'd quickly realise that you'd have people modify it and say you're illogical in your idea's etc... Oblivion setup at stock settings is perfectly adequette, and if the player has any ounce of disipline it can be a damn fine game, heck even exploiting the crap out of the game people will have still had fun. Out of the box the game was certainly good on release, I was pleased, extended over a long playing period certain thing may seem pointless, but most gamers won't play anywhere near that long, heck a bunch will never even finish the game, others will do the main story and then never play it again. Those who play it into the ground will come across things that a majority of players won't come across. This isn't the dev's fault, heck MMO's are pretty much constantly tweaked for balance, and despite all the play testing that a company can afford it's never the same as thousands perhaps millions of people playing something, all with individual likes and dislikes.
-
You rant about the cutting of weapon skills and then start saying armour should just be one skill, my gods you're certainly female. I think it actually comes down to choice, at the end of the day you don't start where you end up you firstly have to get their, heavy armour certainly offers more protection in my experience. It becomes a matter of choice instead of simply having the player able to wear and use every armour, you either use light or heavy, I really don't see the problem, it's a fair result too. I don't find you to be terribley logical in your deductions. What is meaningful to gameplay in your experience may indeed be meaningless to others, something are just there as a nice extra, some things aren't... I would say that the dev's attempted to mostly apply a fairness to skills and thus not make any particular skill stand out as a must have option, there are a few that would be must not have for particular playing styles.