World of the comming Dark

Yesterday I downloaded 13 hours every kind of patch for World of Warcraft that oyu can imagen. 2.5 GBs of and complet different world.

Yes I'm about to restart my WoW playing.

There are a few causes why I do that. First did I yesterday finish the 4th class of my school the second time, but this time I'm allowed to enter the 5th class. And so I thougth of a little reward for me: Two months of WoW.
Second will I start my summer job on the 1st july, and I don't think that I will be able to realy work on my camera class after a hard days work. WoW will be there a little relexation ;)


Thats all vor now.
Now I will reenter the World of Warcraft with my good old AlterEgo: Abstinenz


Greg the Mad

Steps

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.
One Stpe Aside, Jump Straight Ahead.


A little rhyme I cam up with a few minutes ago.

I got some problems with my camera class, as I was trying to rotate the camera back to the normal Vector3.Up rotation, while I was working with a quaternion. Every time I hit the button, the camera jumped to some kind of random rotation, which was a problem. Because of the local heat I was not willing to stay stuck in this matter and so took a look over to the Magma class again (the class in which I create the Flexible LOD planets) and continued my work there.
I tryed some new stuff and changed some old so that the resulting grid would always face the camera (which it dose now), but at the beginning it didn't worked that fine. There was a bug.
The bug was settled in the AngleBetweenTwoVectors method that I copied from xnawiki.com , but unfortunatly changed in a few lines. After I got rid of that bug I pressed F5 again to see what happened, and as I was looking at the new, working, grid I thought 'Hey, wait ...' pressed that rotate button and *ting* ... the camera was rotated to normal again.
I used the same method for that camera rotation as I did for the planet grid. :D

As sayed:

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.
One Stpe Aside, Jump Straight Ahead.


Greg the Mad

Ships

HOOOOOT ...


... HOOOOOT

Its so hot in my room at the moment ... why dose it have to be on the West side of the house ... East would be much cooler, in the truest sense of the word

I'm not able to do anything ... its 20:11 when I write this line, FatBoySlims Rockefaller Skank in the background ... and. I. sweat ... a little, but I doing noting to increase the sweat ... till now (I'll make some sit-ups later)


Yesterday I saw a vid on youtube which showed some screenes of SciFi movies, to be accurate, it where 3 movies (one of them was Battlestar Galactica). I couldn't resist, I just had to take a paper and start drawing some ideas down.
This made me think about the ships in my game, not actually on how the'll look, but more on how they'll be controled, you know, with my physic engine ... and I thought that I can't use real forces for that, I only can use translating forces for them, else it would be to complex.
And the second thought was about the application points of those forces. In my first prototypes I used 'empty' bones from blender for that and I turned out to be quite handy, as I can call them names with numbers and later, in the code, I can call their name and make a loop for the numbers (if I got more then one force), perfect! But the problem, I figured out, was the number of points and the directions the forces will have to be applied ...

... but its ... too ... hot to .. put more thought into that atm ... all I want now is a cool coce ... BUT WE DON'T HAVE ONE IN THE HOUSE!!!! :(


Now about something comlet different: Tomorrow I'll have a little school excurse ... in the hot vienna ... [obvious sarcasm]WHOOT![/obvious sarcasm] ... 2hours sun, probably only a handfull of other students (you should have seen the class last week ...) ...
... If I stumble over a job that sells those little hand vents ... I'll buy one! I swear!


till them ... So Hot


Greg the Mad

Point. Click. Forget?

Today I've seen that 300 people have viewed my profile ... not a small number I have to admit.

Ok, 100 of them were me clicking on it myself to see how many are looking at my profil.


And that bothers me now ... 200 people have viewed my profile and found me so uninteresting that they didn't write a comment to any of my posts or whatever. ... Am I realy that uninteresting?
Yes, my blog is not something that anyone could realy read regulatry (I actually see it more as my personal diary), as it contains stuff of my boring life as stuff from my coding adventures, and all mixed into a single blog ... its like milk with soda (don't try it, ...), I guess.

... But as lazy I am I don't want to start another Blog, as I like that one ... :D ... its my blog after all.


You know, that blog thing is not the only thing where that happens, it also dose happen in real life ...
People come to me, talk to me, have fun with me, but once I leave that room, ... they don't start to hate me, its not like that (I didn't wanted to do it, but I once overheared some, they didn't sounded like they were unhappy that I just were there), but still ... they don't realy think of my anymore late ...
I'm like a ghost in their minds ...
and I still didn't figured out why, but I'm working on myself to make at least some good impressions ...


And now about something complet different:
Its seem that I get somewhere with 'The Mother of all Camera Classes', just a fwe more features (like turning the camera back into a neutral angle) and I can start to work on the TPS code, which I will make in my prototype of Orbit.


Till then, So Long


Greg the Mad

Fortun smiles upon me

ITS NOT DEATH!!!

WOOT!

my suggestion with the old recharge kit was rigth, I play estimated 5 hours with the xbox now with out any kind of problem. ... It appears to work :D


But I didn't spend the whole day on the consol, I also finaly manged to do some coding again. I'm currently working on my new camera class.
While the old only featured the position, lookat, ... so basic values of the camera, the new one got a initialization and a update method, which I only have to apply in the game class to get results.

Its not finished yet, as a problem with the lookat rotation appeared and that I want to implant a enum to change the actuall control of the camera, as I plan to make a second update method featuring a TPS camera, and maybe a third for a FPS camera, but I'll have to solve the current problems before I can do that.

The whole camera class thing may don't sound that importent, but I finaly had enought of the camera to jump around when I look straight down or up (its a problem with how the camera is build up, and I don't want to use a Quaternian yet, maybe later when I need it ... or when I find no other sulution).


So Long.


Greg the Mad

Red ... Ring ... Death?!?

To day I saw the red ring of death ...


3 red LEDs blinking at me ...


*Horror*!


I shut the consol down to eat my lunch, but the consol stayed on charging my wireless controler, after lunch I sat down and watched some TV, and then it happened. The red ring of death appeared ...

I already restarted my consol and tryed how and it it works. It workes fine, but I didn't made a realy test yet. ( which I will down now then ...)
I hope that the problem was my already old play and recharge kit, and not the consol itself ... *fingercrossing*



And now about something complet different:
Today. is. so. boring. !
Our teachers let us home after the first lesson because we were so few and the teachers were busy too ...
So I spend the whole day at home ... First I planed to continue my work on my Surface prototype, ... but some how I didn't ... I'm so unmotivated today ... :(

... UNMOTIVATION!!!!! ... ... ...


Anyway, I hope that I got more motivation tomorrow, and now I'll go and fight the red ring of death in a battle to death! WOOOHOOO!



Greg the Mad

Drop it!

Just a second ago I decided what I will make in the next time. I will work on little prototypes, that I later can use for my Orbit game desinge.

The final impuls cam from my recent visit of the BioWare boards. There I found a topic talking about a Normandy replica (its the ship from MassEffect), I turned my head 90° right and spoted a white (because of the much sun it gets on its new spot from last month, it starts to get creamy) Lego Mako!
It reminded me of the times where I spended each and every day on the BW boards, talking about how this and that should be in the finaly game, etc.
And it reminded me of an idea I had for Mass Effect, I think its already 2 years ago. It was the Mako Drop Minigame. The Mako would not be droped like in the game, from under 30 meter (WTF? IMPOSSIBLE!), but from around 5 kilometers, and your job would be to control the jets and break thrusters to get it save pass those 5 kilometers. It would just fir that perfectly into the game desinge ... with Geth on the ground that are shooting at you, missiles, wind, maybe some enemys that fall down beside you and you have to turn your ship to face and kill them with the main cannon ...

And I just thought that this wouldn't be that hard ... shouldn't be that hard to make for me now. All I need it a ground that comes close (or a Mako that comes closer the the ground, how ever you take it), some physics, where I already do have some, and a Mako!
It would be interesting to take the Lego Mako model I made for the constuction Manual and apply some physics on it if it crashes ... WUWHAHAHA! ... every Crysis playing PC would crash if you force him to calculate 362 bricks 60 times in a second ... hehe
And so I'll start with a simple Mako thing model falling down, later I add control forces, maybe get some ground collition, ... etc.


So Long


Greg the Mad

What to target at?

Its amazing how fast you can get rid of a cold, if you wrap yourself into a blanket and watch some of the best scrubs series ever (My first day, My musicle, and the last which name I've forgotten).
I still fell some pain in my throat when I swalow, but I feel much better today.

Today I also started thinking about what to do next. The sample I've writen for ziggyware.com has shown me how great it feels to have a target your working for, and so I wondered today what I should work next on.

The Mad-Ed project?
Today I spend some moments on it, and started changing some stuff. I could make it work in a day or two, and later add more and more features. The problem would be that I don't got yet may feature I could add ...

Or Orbit itself?
I still got some problems with the new screen state architecture, and that the half game is not rendered.

I figured out that the best solution would be to start thinking of what I actually need. Just mindmap my desinge down somehow, maybe there is a free mindmaping software out there, else I have to do it in exel ...
For example that I need for ship flight a control system, a fire system, ergo a weapon system, a upgrade system, etc.
Would it be better to write a editor for that or just write a prototyp for it?

I'll have to figure that out the next few days, else I would end up writing random prototypes, which would not be that bad either, but still ... I would miss the plan ...


Greg the Mad

Cold Day

Today was worst.

It already started worst ... with me driving home from summer prom at 0am ... why?!?
5 steps after I passed the secruity at the entrence I already wondered why, ... I could have spended a nother tree hours chating with some of my class ... ok, ther only where two of them, 'HornyWhenDrunk' (Shes a nice girl, just with a wired behaviour when drunk, and what dose she always got with her cellphone?But I only keep calling her that way because it somehow got a sound to it, ... and because she never will read this :p) and Sido (He is one of thos guys who, when started, never stops talking, but noone cares, because he is funny ;) , and yes 'Sido too is a nice name, too keep them unknown)
Jep, just two ...but why did I drove away? Maybe because of the friend I brought with me, ... I already sad last year I woun't take him with me 'He woun't enjoy it' and what has he done last night? "Greg, when do you want to frive home?" Me: "DIE!" ... he didn't die :(


Anyway ... at the prom I was chased by a drunk friend of mine, telling that he will split all his beer over me ...
... and so ... running + cold air = cold ... -.- .. I realy had to force me to do the last lines of that documentation for my sample, but its done now. I send it to ziggyware an hours ago, I didn't recieved a answer yet, but I think that it is a good signe (He got nothing to complain about ;) )

... Its only 21:17 here at the moment, but I think that I will go to bed soon, ... trying to get rid of that cold ... again ...


So long.


Greg the Mad

Shoes, Summer, Sample

Today I was going to mall with a friend of mine (not martin, I woun't see him that othen anymore, now that he's not in my class anymore ...) to get some new shoes.
I like timberlands, you know, they look good, a nice to wear, and somehow also got something of funktion in them, so I was walking straight to the place in the shoe shop labled "Timberland", I looked though the different variations of brown, found some nice mixtures out of brown and orange, and one shoe that realy looked good in my eyes, ok, not that special like I would say: "HEY! I take that pair!" but still good. But unfortunatly they only hade them in one size, ... not mine ...
And that bugs me now ... what if I would hade liked them? What if they realy would fit to my stile? And why are they not produced anymore? (between the last two questions I looked at timberland.com :( )

Also some thing that bugs me now, why are ther so many brown shoes, but none that I like ... Dose I have to wear my current for ever now?


And now about something complet different:
Tonight is school summer prom (which summer? *look at weather*), and I'll be there. I don't know yet if it will be that great (weather again), and if I realy will enjoy it (I have to take a friend with me, all freedome of driving is gone ...), well ... I'll see.


Last but not least:
The last two days I was working on a sample for a article that I posted to Ziggyware.com (its not finished yet). Its about my physics code 'How to apply a force'. I always knew that this code is a great pile of work, and that it was worth every moment that I spend on its development, but ... now that I can grab that sphere (in that sample) I realy realised how powerfull it actually is.
It is just a force that I apply on a object, but that allown already looks so great (and realistic), ... and that from a 19 year old programmer that teached all himself ...
If the whole thing continues like it is now, I could be one of the best programmer in a few years.
I already got the understanding and creativity, all I'm lacking of is the basic knowlede, ... and that will be give to me in my bacelor study. ... :D


Greg the Mad

D like Dirt

Man is it alread 3 days ago that I have writen the last time? It appears that I'm not that kind of frequent writer :D

Anyway. Today I helped Martin (a friend of mine) to cut some flat-bar steel, ~130 pices, and you cant imagen how dirty you get when you make that. After 10 times washing my hands still can't be called clean. But on the other hand it felt good again to work something with your hands ... ok, I only hold the bar and Marting pushed the button (they were 9 meters long ;) ), and later we changed that role as we also changed the machine for a different dimension of bar.
... but still it felt good to wash my hands white again (from pitch black).

Also did I have that one last test today. I passed, BUT!

But a few seconds before I actually got the test, teacher told me that he and some other teachers have decided to give me a D in a differnt class (Lab), and that with out any warning.

... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ... :(

Now I have to hope that I got a C in that class last year, or that the most of the teachers decide that I'm good enougth to pass that year even with that D, ... or else I have to perform a test at the start of the next term ... damn them ...

ok, thats all for now, So Long


Greg the Mad

Gras?

As you may now dose the Euro currently take place in austria. Yesterday the maches started, and today was the first mach for austria, and ... even if we lost 0:1 ... even if I'm not that great soccer fan ... We did play good ... we actually ruled tho whole second half time ... ... we may, with a great amount of luck of course, could get in the next round ... may

Anyway, aslo did I spend some minutes on my planet code, but it actuall only was playing around with the current build:

In this case did I randomiced on vertex of two faces at the same time, and made a vertex every 1°. Looks like gras, dose it not? :P

Er ... and yes the 11 frames are without instancing, but also with out lightning ;)

Greg the Mad

Sphere?

Today I saw a topic on the xna. com board asking if it is possible to create a seamless planet - space transition.

Guess what my answer was: YES! I'm currently working on ...

But as I thought that the topic is not interresting for me anymore, a XNA guy came over and sayed something about "Fold ... unfold" "huge pile of work for one guy" ...

... I actually started feeling a little smaller at that moment. There was that guy knowing what he is talking, and he says that that what your working on at the moment is not that easy and it takes many many man hours to get it done. That makes you think about your project ...
Never the less, I'll continou working on my random planets.

Today I changed the two x any y coords into angles, like you know it from every map. Thats also the same way how I will check if I need to create a mesh on that part of the planet or not, the angle. Now a system to get a two angles out of the position of the player and I can stop to waist vertex on the backside of the planet.
Later I tryed to get some random evelation into the vertex, but it appears that the system, at the moment creates a vertex for every possible random evelation ... (means it dose not work ;) ).


But thats all for now, ans I don't know if I will be able to spend more time on the weekend, as I got the final test next wednesday, and if I pass this one positive ... than I got no Es anymore, and that means that I can contiue to the 5th class without any more probles! WOOT! One step closser to the school leavings exam and so closer to the 6 month military service and after that finaly my studie in Computer Science! WOOT^2!


Greg the Mad

Surprisingly Different ... ?

Today Matin told me the reaction of his friends on me (from the party):

"Wow, I never thougth that anyone could be more quiet that you (matin)"

... yes ... :( ... its true ... I'm a quiet guy ... But I'm working on myself. I try to come more out of me, ... its just that ... that ... I'm not that great in impulse ... when I'm forced to say something cool with out time to think of it ... I'm not thaaaaat good ... not to mention thos moments when there are girl around ...

Why am I talking about that? Because!


... Because it helps that write it down, it makes it easyer to deal with it. Just try it ;)



And now about something complet different:
Today I spend some minutes on continouing my work on my planet algoruithm. Or better would be: I restarted it.
My first attempt was to use a XNA content processor to generate a planet sphere, but lately I discovered that it only takes one kind of content and changes it into something different, just like mouth.
And now I started working with a list of so called VertexPositionCollor thing ... I think its would be called 'Vertex buffer', but I could be mistakeing. And working with that buffer is more like working with your hands than with your mouth ;) . I came up with that my seld.
Anyway, it only took me a hour to get it done, that may sounds a long time for just a few lines in space, but it also was the first time I used a 'DrawableGameComponent' class templer
(I know that templers are something different, but I just recovered the C++ book that teached me the basics and I stoped reading after page 100, because I felt I don't need it anymore, but I now got it again and I may continou reading it)
Anyway, I now got a few red lines on my screen that more or less look like a sphere, ... for and hours work ... not bad.

Later I'll have to make it more look as a sphere, use faces and not lines and change the update code (I recalculate that thing each and every frame, that could become unhandy once it becomes a planet). And once that is done, I can start using textures for the evelations, collor, random plants, clouds, etc.
... And when I got that, so around in a year, I got that thing what I once called 'Nature of Random' ...


I'm not like everyone else, ok, I'm no wired guy that sits in his corner speaking rubbish, nor am I ugly, rud, ...
OK! IÄm like that most others, I'm just a little more MAD! ... and even if I may never get a girl just because I never find the courage to speak to her, I don't want to be different.


PS: Today I figured out that I probalby got the most courage in my class. I was the only one who was brave enougth to got to the teacher and asking if we could just forgett that last school leason today and we all walk home (it would have been substituted). ... It didn't worked that up as imaged, but we DID went out of school earlier than usual (right into a thunderstorm ...).



Greg the Mad

Scrubs

Yesterday I was all day long busy, and that means something for a lazy guy like me.
I was invited to a birthday party of that guy in school that sits next to me, Martin.
It was a nice little party with BBQ, a pool filled with beer cans and some other funny drinks, like that clear one ... 60 to 70 % I was tolled ... only the half bottle survived, which was a great plus of that party.
Becuase all of them where friends of Martin, noone wanted to barf somewher into the grass, and so noone drunk too much. Ok I knew non of them, so I don't know how they drink, but as I know Martin, they woun't drink in such a way anyway.
Which leads to a little bumper ... I knew non of them, this and my little shieness made it hard for me to know any of them. Fortunatly they've got frisbees!


Ok and now about something different:
Today I put a part of that online that is supposed to become a physic engine one day.
Its up now on http://www.xnawiki.com/ and I hope that one of those greater programmer will have a eye on it and may changes some errors I did miss.


Nearly forgotton:
I finaly managed to finish scrubs off.
Yes I spend the last 2 month in whaching all episodes of the first 6 seasons!
Unfortunatly I discovered today that they're already working on 8 and that 7 will be out somewhere in the far futur (speacking about stuff like scrubs there is a huge time differents between austria and U.S.).
Now I can spend my time on something meaning full, ... for now ...


Thats all for now, so long


Greg the Mad