Rethink

I finaly found some tim yesterday to solve my littl array problem.

The problem was that I've forgotten to thing about the stuff that I've already done.
When I was working on my game prototyp I used a array for the astroids, and each astroid contained a nother array for the shards that would fly away once the astroid is hit (I never finished that feature).

And there I found my solution: Stupid me has forgotten that for a array you should use 'struct' instead of 'class' for your ... class (I don't know the details about programming).
And once I got that, C# tolled me that I can't initilize a value in a struct, that means that I can't give it a value.
And then I thougt that I have to give it some where else this value, ... and bingo!

All I had to do was to initialize those values later in the Form1 class, there where I also initialize the Build1 class.


And I tryed it, it work. I can load a moden, place it and save the whole scene, the next step (which should be easy *fingercrossing*) is to load a scene,

And once that is done I'll have a look in flexible array and how to realize them. Many because I currently useing a arrays with a standard range of 100, ... wich can lead to pretty big file scizes of around 42kb, only the normal saving of the empty arrays ...

And after that ... Features ...

But: Baby steps, baby, ... baby steps! :)


Greg the Mad

Fazit:

What did I manage to do in that 1 and a half week:

• Changes in the propertygrid affect the model
• Able to save files ... more or less ...

Not as much as I hoped to do, but if you consider that all that other stuff only is just differnt use of stuff I've already done ... it should not be hard or take much time to make those stuff later.

Now I got different problems, like a Level3D class thats, always, seams to be 'null' ... so that I can't use the Obstacel class array that it contains to save the model paths.

Level3D?

Jop, Level3D.

I actually spend some time to get a idea on how I'll build the editor. The basic of it all will be the Build class, it will contain a array of Leves and maybe some other stuff. And a Level3D is a ... 3D level, ... unlike a 2D level ...

I plan to make the editor flexible, so that if someone wants to make a 2D game, he just has to click on 'add 2D Level', and if he want to make a 3D Level he has to click that button.

The clou is that you also will (should) be able to combine those two types of levels. From simply using 3D stuff for the game and 2D stuff for the interface/menu to real game play parts in both styles.

When I look back, I realy have to say that I'm impressed by myself, ok, I asked the XNA community about that save thing, but all that other stuff was made bymyself, only using tutorials and my own geniusity. Once I got rid of that 'null' I don't know anything that should stop my from making the first demo ... but ... there probably will be something I hadn't meet yet ...

PS: Cool! If you enter "Greg the Mad" (with ") in Google, nearly all links on the first page are about me! That means that I'm the only one in the world who uses the nicname 'Greg the Mad'! I'm unique!

Greg the unique Madman!

Save Terror!

Lets say that I never had saved anything befor, to beginn with.

So I was complet on the edge of my knowledg when I first thought of saving the editor and its values. I first tryed to get some infos about that out of the 'How do I' files from C# Express. It only contained a hint on how it works, ... for the 360 ...
My next try was the internet. But unlike all the other problems I've got earlyer, ther was no working standard solution for this (WTF?).
... So I did that what I actually do every day, but not to get support for something. ... I've writen something in a online community.

Fortunalty there where some nice programmer gurus, who know exactly how to do this and that.

A few hours later (I start to get lazy ... don't work that much in holidays ... that sucks ...), I got the first 'Hello.mad' file on my PC saying 'Hello World'.

... aint it nice? ... To have his own file format? :D ...


Today I started to connect the Editor values with the save file method. ... It worked ... till I pressed the button saying 'Save ... ' ... the programm crashed ... :D

Now a few hours, a round Crackdown, to come down and a lunch later, I finaly figured out that the XmlSerializer, I'm using to save the file, dose not support the Model Class from Xna ... Bastard.

Genious as I am, I already came up with a ways to solve that problem, ... it may take a while till I changed to whole save code to work without the Model class (I'll save the path of the model files), but its a light at the end of the tunnel, and normaly those lights are not from a train :D


Greg the Mad

The First Pic of

Hi,

I just reworked some of the 'Select' lines of my editor and also made the property grid affect the actuall model, which ... is quite a lot.

I now can place different model in space and ... watch them, ... from many points of view.

(Thats more than I could do with the NWN2 Toolset ... :p )

The white wire orbs are the bounding sphere, and ... yes, ... they don't fit ...

The space ship sphere don't even get displayed ...

So, thats all for now, cu

Greg the Mad

How NOT to do it.

I'm impressed. I'm confused

How did they ... I tryed it! I tryed it so hard, but still I can't think how they do it.

How dose BioWare/Obsidian work with such a editor (NWN2 Toolset)?!?
OK, its powerfull and got a lot of features, but ... the camera!

You only can orbit stuff with you camera!
If you want to work on a open field you first have to place a object in the middle just to have a good few.

... you can't move the camera freely! That stops any kind of creativity! Even I was able to make a better camera movement in my Editor!

I thought of may making a little NWN2 modul, ... but that ... its impossible to make a good modul, without planing ever detail 2D before. ... that sucks!

C'mon!

If anyone read this, and too works on a Editor, or something similar:
The NWN Toolset is no good guideline, talking about camera control.
Keep that in mind.


Greg the Mad

WTF?

Do you know those moments wher you can't believe your eyes?

Today was on of those moments.
I stood up, maundered to the window and as I opended the curtain, a beam of white blind my sight.

SNOW!! Snow in March!!

That was a great start into the day. It had to be.

My cold is nearly gone, and I did some stuff for my Editor project, Mad-Ed.


I currently working on the little feature, that makes it possible to click 3D objects with the cursor, which is quite interesting.

I already made some stuff featureing the cursor and its connection to the 3D world, so the basics only where copy and past stuff, but that what made the new thing so interesting was that, that the mouse class form XNA, only provides the absolut position of the cursor, starting on the top left corner of the screen. So if your game window is not located at that point you have to use a offset, to get correct results.
Sounds easy.
But how to get the actuall position of an windows form, while its not in full screen?

... Don't look to me, I don't know it either!


I also dicovered that the bounding spheres, of my loaded modes, are beyond good and evil.
The bounding sphere of the table mesh, from the XNA Picking sample, spans the entire field of view! ... just somthing else I have to work on.


But on the other hand dose the actuall clicking feature code work, I just can't controll what I click ...


Greg the Mad

Strike 1, Strike 2, waiting for 3 ...

Strike 1:

A little cold smack me in my face right at the start of the holidays. Probable a chronicle desease, I got it at the start of every holidays ...

The problem I got with the cold is not the amount of handkerchiefs all around me, but the permanent ... 'down' feeling it provides ...

Strike 2:

Suddenly a copy of NWN2 appeared on my desk. I'm actually not that great fan of round based combat, nor the fan of level up's that take 10% of the entire game play, but I have to admit that it is quite charming. ... Just watching what my character dose, ... its like a fantasy movie, just with figures hovering over the just killed bodys.
A nother cause why I got myself the game was the NWN toolset it contains.
I don't plan to create any module for the game, but I want to have a look on how BioWare (who hade programmed the toolset) thinks about game development tools, and may applays some ideas on my Mad-Ed.
And no that mean not that I'll just blindly copy their editor.


While I'm talking about my editor:
I don't got any great new feature yet (read Strike 1, and 2), but I did create a little grid, like you may know it from other editors. That actually made me think about the scale I'll use there, but I'll have a look into that problem later. Now its about the cursor and telling the editor to care about what I do with it. :) ... so ... once I'm fine again ... and NWN2 is beaten ...


Greg the Mad

1 and a half week work

Its raining outside my cosy cold room. Its a steady rain. No wind moves any drop away from its choosen path. I just fewed my Mail-Box, only advertisement.

Infront of me, 1 and a half week of nothing.

No plans, no work, no duty.

That means that I got comlpet 1 and a half week that I can spend in my Editor Project with the new name: Mad-Ed.

Status of today:

• 3D View Window with Controls ... done
• Loading Objects ... done
• Display Properties ... done

Planed:

• Changes in the Property Grid will change stuff in 3D View
• Move/Scale/Rotate controls
• Change DisplayMode
• Save Levels

... Its actually not that much that I've planed, but that what a pro would make in just a few days, probably will take me a few weeks ...

Lets see :)

Greg the Mad

A light at the end of the Workshop

Some how, I realy don't know how, I managed to get some time, somewhen between learning for school, trieng to get my gamescore back and playing on the new HD-TV from my perents.
And this time was use to work on my Workshop, project.

Just a few minutes ago I got rid of a problem, because of which I was not able to load more then one model, and I also made the first try with the proparties.

It may will take some trys till I got a working propartie system, but it is a great feeling if you try something complet new and after the second try it. dose. work!!!

Once I got this, ... yeah ... then I probably have to thing about how to control, or even write background skripts with Workshop ... that woun't be a pice of cake ...

Anyway ... still can't wait form next weeks holidays :)


Greg the Mad

Still Workshop

I have already managed to use my CameraMovement class for the edito, even if I hade to change some controls (I was forced to replace the Arrow-Keys with the arrows on the number pad, because the windows form, too uses them).

Also I managed to load some meshes, but later failed ot use mor then one mesh, I tried to use a list for this, but I probably have to use a differnt solution (or rethink the list thing).

But when I keep in mind that all that I'm a complet zero in programming, its going pretty well.

I'll maybe will have the first 'move objects' features in a few days, and later (in around a month :P ) I'll be able to save those moved objects in a Workshop file (if I still call it workshop at this moments) and use them in a game.

If only I had not school ... I could work the whole day on my stuff, ... could ... but unfotuantly I'm lazy and only work when I got a straigt plan ... which I'm lacking at the moment, because I'm not sure yet how to load more then one mesh, ... maybe without list ...

... but I got 3 test this week, but on the other hand I'll have around two weeks holidays after that week ... can't wait!


Greg the Mad

Workshop

And again.

I droped something.

I droped the work on the space station models and stuff.

But I finaly started something that I planed much longer then all the other stuff.

My own editor!

Finaly I managed to get some knowledge out of the XNA samples and use them for my planes.
I don't know how much effort I'll put into the editor, but I'm sure that ther'll be a 'planet' button, where I just have to click and suddenly there is a planet cycling the sun. A button labled 'Astroids' and *pop* I got astroids! etc.

I've chosen the name Workshop for it, because I'm actually a mechanicle engineering studen, and I somehow feel connected to the word Workshop, even if I don't like to work in one ...
... Once I know a better name I'll change it ^.^

I don't got many feature yet (non to be honest), but I hope that I'll got the first feature at the end of next week, as long as I don't waist too much time learning for school ... :p


Greg the Mad

Drop, Station and Scale

I droped the physic stuff.

No, not because I would not be able to do it, but because its not worth the effort.
Just yesterday I created my second way of tracking physics (using energy instead of mumentum), but I was confronted with some bugs, like the one where the sphere suddenly started orbiting the cube (something that I tried to skriped for astroids, but didn't manage ...). And so I stoped it.

I plan to focus more on the actuall game then the tools all around.


And the next thing that is on my path is the implementation of space stations in my game.

I already made one centuries ago, but I don't like the style of it anymore. The new are build out of many little modules (like the actuall space stations are).
I spend the last day building those moduls, or parts, in blender. I also assembled the first few, but I still now sure about how they'll look, you know, where to place this airgas tank, where the container modul, etc.

And I also finaly made some researches in the scale of .fbx and .x file in XNA.
I discovered that .x files got a 1 to 1 porting from blender to XNA, but .fbx on the other hand got a 1 to 100 porting form blender to XNA.
It always was confusing when I made a new model, but coun't just implent it into my game, because it suddenly got the scale of the whole skysphere ...

At the same time, I made just a little test, wher I tried how close the XNA camer could come a mesh before it cuts thought the surface. 0.5 XNA Units was the first value that I tried and it worked for me, so I'll stay there.
I may could even go a little bit closer, but I don't have to.

So that was it today. I'll have another look into the stations tomorrow. So long and thanks for reading todays post.

;)


Greg the Mad

Waisted Time

And again, another week has past without leafing any trek.

I've spend the last whole week learning for school and some other stuff.

... ther even is nothing I can talk about ...

hopefuly ther'll be much more the next time I write ...


Greg the Mad