December 26, 2006
One of the things we want to do to the gamedev codebase sometime in the near future is rewrite the Journal system. It's got some major performance issues, stemming mainly from the fact that each journal is a single gigantic thread. The forum software was never built to deal with large threads (like…
December 12, 2006
I don't know whether it's the conferences and workshops, or the fact that I've seen my games running on a 360, or simply MS's persistant marketing, but I'm finally excited about XNA.
I'll be at the launch event in Warwick tomorrow, if anyone else is going. Come say hi and get your picture taken for …
I'll be at the launch event in Warwick tomorrow, if anyone else is going. Come say hi and get your picture taken for …
December 11, 2006
Today I was invited to attend a workshop on XNA, hosted by a team of developers at Rare (yes, that Rare) up in Warwickshire. XNA 1.0 is basically done - it went RTM today (you can download it already) - so it was a nice chance to play with it in more or less its final form. One important difference…
December 11, 2006
So, I'm sat here at a workstation in the grand and beautiful offices of Rare Ltd, near the scenic village of Twycross, playing with the final release of XNA Game Studio Express. The release that includes 360 deployment support.
It's nice. Very nice. More details to follow once I get home.
It's nice. Very nice. More details to follow once I get home.
December 08, 2006
My PC's just died. This means I will probably be around less than usual until I get it fixed.
Impeccable timing, no?
Edit: please help
Impeccable timing, no?
Edit: please help
September 02, 2006
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a new invention of mine that I am calling the scenegraph. The blue boxes represent rendering-actions while the orange boxes are read-only GPU resources (e.g. textures). The 'Input' relationship is a little confusing, but it's directed the way it is because it's a rela…
August 14, 2006
Basic structure of the harness is in place. After a couple of false starts - including an attempt to write the whole thing in C++/CLI - I've settled on a three-component structure:
- Render module DLL, written in C++ - consists of a class derived from RenderingModule, and a factory function to instant…
August 12, 2006
At long, long last.. I've gotten D3D10 working on Vista. I can now begin developing stuff.
I suspect my first task is going to have to be a test harness. The refrast runs at extremely low framerates - several seconds per frame, though in some cases it seems like we might be talking minutes - so the …
I suspect my first task is going to have to be a test harness. The refrast runs at extremely low framerates - several seconds per frame, though in some cases it seems like we might be talking minutes - so the …
August 12, 2006
Warning to anyone interested in playing with D3D10: Apparently, the June SDK states that the D3D10 pieces in it work on Vista Beta2 - and they mean only Vista Beta2. I've spent a couple of hours today trying to get it to install on the July CTP - a build a couple of months newer - and it won't. You…
August 10, 2006
I'm back under Vista again, trying to get up and running with D3D10. It's a slightly old build - 5365 - but it's actually installed and running, so I'll be damned if I'm going to mess about trying to install a newer build [razz]
Here's something silly - not sure whether to blame Vista or myself. If …
Here's something silly - not sure whether to blame Vista or myself. If …
August 06, 2006
So I picked up WiX and am writing an XML file that describes the MC2 deployment. There's a lot more in the FinalBuild folder (the output directory that the MC2 XNA project ships with) than is required to run the game itself - files for the editor etc are in there as well - so I'm constructing my de…
August 06, 2006
Ever since Microsoft released their XNA Build CTP - with accompanying sources for MechCommander 2 - I've wanted to play around with it. Making changes to a large commercial codebase is usually quite a bit more educational than writing something from scratch.
The first thing I want to do is extend th…
The first thing I want to do is extend th…
August 01, 2006
I frequently spend time in #gamedev helping out anyone and everyone who stops by. This can, at times, include the complete newbies... I have fond recollections of spending an hour chatting to a guy whose mind was blown when we explained to him that he'd have to write code to do the bloodsplats on t…
July 25, 2006
Crunch continues. Looks like I won't be home much before 10pm any day this week.
I've had a devilish idea about 4E6... but I'm not sure what people's responses would be, or that it's even workable. Simply enough, it'd be the requirement that at least two people are credited on an entry (and by 'cred…
I've had a devilish idea about 4E6... but I'm not sure what people's responses would be, or that it's even workable. Simply enough, it'd be the requirement that at least two people are credited on an entry (and by 'cred…
July 08, 2006
Strip Risk.
Every continent represents one piece of clothing.
ithankyou
Every continent represents one piece of clothing.
ithankyou
July 08, 2006
Went out in my car for the first time today, just into town and to the shops and suchlike. It's going to take some getting used to - the throttle is much, much more sensitive than my instructor's car, and conversely the brake seems slow to respond. It's a pretty smooth drive though. My little trip …
June 20, 2006
So, yesterday was my last exam. It didn't go very well, but I was always anticipating that it wouldn't, cos it's the maths exam. The rest of the day was spent chilling out with some fellow finishers, culminating in a walk around Worcester College's lake at 2am in the pitch black. Today, the maths s…
June 13, 2006
I think I've discovered a foolproof plan for drinking double vodkas. you follow them up with apple sours to take the taste away. works pretty damn well.
June 11, 2006
I'm still alive. The street luge was awesome, but exhausting. it's hurting my fingers just to hit the keys here. so I'm going to bed.
June 09, 2006
4E5 seems to be going pretty well. People are into it here, and I've also been publicising it a bit around the web (such as here, here, and here). Four new sponsors have signed up, too: Delgine have donated three copies of their DeleD environment modelling suite, IndiePath have donated a couple of …
June 05, 2006
Sometimes I wish I wasn't running the contests, so that I could enter them [grin]
I've had an idea pertaining to 'Emotion' that I think is rather cool.
(disclaimer: using this idea will not make me score you higher than if you'd used any other idea of equal quality)
Say you're a totally badass Samura…
I've had an idea pertaining to 'Emotion' that I think is rather cool.
(disclaimer: using this idea will not make me score you higher than if you'd used any other idea of equal quality)
Say you're a totally badass Samura…
June 04, 2006
I spent much of the day being hugged by pretty girls.
I've also discovered the history of the terms "Escape sequence" and "Escape characters." It's very simple - an 'escape sequence' was ESCAPE (0x1B) followed by any other character, and indicated some particular action that was not what that other …
I've also discovered the history of the terms "Escape sequence" and "Escape characters." It's very simple - an 'escape sequence' was ESCAPE (0x1B) followed by any other character, and indicated some particular action that was not what that other …
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