XianForce's Blog

Back from Vacation!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 10:20 PM XianForce
Labels: More Development , 0 comments

Sorry for the delay! I was on vacation for practically two weeks. But now I'm back and refreshed; ready to code!

So I have two projects I'm working on right now:

Charge

a New Framework...

Now you might be wondering why I'm making yet ANOTHER framework.

Well this framework is different! A friend and I will both be working on it, and we intend it to be a high level library. So basically it will consist of 5 basic 'cores':

System Core

Input Core

Video Core

Audio Core

Network Core

And these cores will be virtual, so that different implementations can exist. All the base cores will be stored in a Platform namespace, and then any implementation would be stored in another namespace; Then there'd be lines like this:

Platform::BaseVideoCore = new Platform::VideoCore();

And at the top of a certain file, you'd do something such as:

namespace Windows = Platform;

So that your VideoCore class in Windows namespace can now be called through the platform namespace.

This way you can use the same code throughout.

My friend and I want to make some sort of top down game with it, and make PC and iPhone implementations.

I'll be working on the PC implementation using SDL, OpenGL, and perhaps DevIL to load images (but I'm thinking of just sticking with the SDL_image extension).

Well, back to Charge stuff! I fixed up the problems with the framework. There were just a few issues with not asserting pointers to make sure they had a valid value. Now that it's all fixed, Charge development can continue. I remember outlining what I had planned next for Charge, so I'll go back and check that out, and then start working. But for tonight I'm done, so peace =D

New SDL Video Tutorials Up

So hey, go check my youtube channel to watch my new SDL Video Tutorials! I have two up so far, with a third already made. But I'm running into a problem.

I trimmed the video with VirtualDub, and Youtube will not upload it. So I need to find another program to trim it with, but that will probably not be tonight.

Also, UPS is nearly finished, I'm just looking for music now, which I'll find tonight.

I'll be gone for a few days, because I'm going camping, but I'll be sure to get all that wrapped up when I come back.

Also I'll only be back for 2 days, then I'm taking a 1 week vacation. Once I come back from that, Charge Development will start back up, along with a new project that I'm diving into =D.

Updates for UPS (and 50th blog post !)

Friday, June 11, 2010 8:24 AM XianForce
Labels: Unintuitive Physics Competition , UPS , 0 comments

Well I got some work done on UPS, so here's what I've done:

-2 Players

-Bouncing Slimes

-Ice tiles

I posted 2 videos, one shows all of them, and it shows a glitch I was having with the ice tiles. Later, after posting the video, I realized the problem, and reposted a video showing what caused the problem, and showing it fixed.

So here's the two videos:

UPS Iteration 3

UPS Iteration 3 (Ice Fix)

So the next, and final iteration, will be the last =D.

It will have music, sounds, and perhaps slightly improved graphics.

It seems Moosader may be extending the competition, though, so I may continue to add features.

But that's all for now, have a good one =D

OpenGL works 0.o???

Saturday, June 5, 2010 11:34 PM XianForce
Labels: OpenGL , 0 comments

Well, someone on the Elysian Shadows posted an OpenGL app a little while back, and I tried to run it without even thinking.

So after I amused myself by running it, I realized, "OpenGL has never worked on my computer...". So I started playing around with different things, and apparently, OpenGL code compiled with the MinGW compiler works =D.

So I'll probably have to do some code porting, but I DEFINITELY want to upgrade my framework to use OpenGL for the 2D graphics.

Before I do that though, I want to wipe my computer. I'm going to back up everything soon, and wipe it. I have so much crap cluttering up my computer, and I just need to clean it. This way I can set up SDL for Code::Blocks in a somewhat elegant manner. As of now there are random folders scattered across my computer that all have different SDL and SDL extension(s) files.

So I'll definitely be working on UPS, studying up on OpenGL, extending the framework, and working on Charge!

Note: I won't extend my framework to use OpenGL until AFTER Charge, so it won't affect Charge =D.

Well that's it for now =D, just thought I'd let you in on today's success =p.

Update on UPS

Friday, June 4, 2010 9:13 PM XianForce
Labels: UPS , 0 comments

Well, I got the bouncing working right (or wrong I should say, because it's 'unintuitive'), and I also successfully created two players.

I've decided that for every Slime that's grabbed, EVERY player will have the held effect. So that just gives more room for hectic game play haha.

I would post screen shots, but there isn't really any much to show at the moment. Tomorrow I have to take my SAT test, but afterwards I'll try to work on the slippery tiles. Once I have those done I'll post an update.

Well I gotta go to sleep so I can wake up early enough. Peace out =D

Last Day of School

Thursday, June 3, 2010 6:43 AM XianForce
Labels: Coding , End of School , Summer , 0 comments

Well, today is the last day of my Junior year of Highschool, I have a Spanish 3 final to take, and then my Junior year is officially over.

I had great times this year.

So, over the summer, I'm going to be running, playing tennis, and working out every day, and I'll also be programming a lot.

I hope to finish Charge early on in the Summer, and begin something bigger and better.

This year, a lot of time went into school work to get a 4.5 GPA, but next year, I'm going to tone it down a bit, to give me more time to program.

So this was just a quick update to let you know that I'll have more time soon.

Also I want to remake all my SDL Video tutorials this summer =D!

UPS Iteration 2

Monday, May 31, 2010 10:09 AM XianForce
Labels: Moosader , Unintuitive Physics Competition , UPS , 0 comments

Well here's a video of Iteration 2:

Link

Look at the video description for more information!

UPS Iteration 1

Thursday, May 27, 2010 9:18 PM XianForce
Labels: Moosader , Unintuitive Physics Competition , UPS , 0 comments

I just posted a new video on youtube showing Iteration 1 of my entry to Moosader's Unintuitive Physics Competition. Hopefully soon, I'll have iteration 2, which should have much more to show off =D!

Anyways, here's the link.

Charge On Hiatus Temporarily...

6:40 AM XianForce
Labels: Charge , Competition , UPS , 0 comments

I'm starting to work on my entry for LusikkaMage's (AKA Moosader, Rachel, etc) Unintuitive Physics competition.

The reason I won't be working on Charge, is because every time I have a project using my framework, I tend to change things with my framework to improve it. If I do that with two separate projects, then there will be problems because I'll have two separate versions, which both have important changes that the other doesn't have.

I really want to avoid this, so I'm just going to try to as quickly as possible get my entry done, then move the changes back.

But rest assured, I doubt this will happen again. As soon as I'm done with my entry, I'll begin working on the MusicBank, and Text System. Once those are done, I'll compile the framework into a lib.

So my entry, for any that don't know, is going to be called Unintuitive Pickin' Slime. It's nothing special. Basically, every 5 seconds a new slime will spawn. For each slime you collect, you get a point, but each slime has an effect. Gravity will change directions, your controls will be swapped, directional speed will change, etc.

The graphics will suck. As of now, the player is only a simple ball. And I probably won't do anything else with it graphics wise. I would love to add animations, and the like, but I'm imagining the problems, and how much time I have to complete the game, and I don't really want to go that in-depth for something such as this.

Once I finish the first iteration (hopefully today), I'll make a video. But that's all for now I suppose, later.

New Video

Sunday, May 23, 2010 6:03 PM XianForce
Labels: Charge , Video , 0 comments

Just wanted to say that I uploaded a new video =D!

It's a bit long, but here it is: