31 July

I can't wait till that day ...

First this is the day that my actuall vacation will start, WHOOT!

Second will that be the day the Ziggyware contest judging periot will end, and every following day could contain the answer on who was better than me and who was not.


Anyway, thats still in the futur.
What have I done in the past ...
Yesterday I made a little but importent step towards my game engine. I redefined the Mad-Ed programm, put some thoughts into how it will work, I've drawn the classes, what they will contain and to what the will be connected, etc.
Its not finished yet, I mainly have focused on the backgraund structure and how you come from the saved .mad file to the 3D level (or now 'Screen' called) and back. Also did I spend some time into the question how to control in the 3D window, and I came up with the idea to use the 360 controler for this, so I got a complet free mouse to do the manipulation. OK, its not tested yet, and I don't know if it will stand the praxis tests, but I think that it is a nice idea at least, and will be there at least for fun. :D


Greg the Mad

Physic, Laptop and my room

So what happened ...

My force article and sample finaly is up on ziggyware.com and also did the judging periode start. Till 31 july you can send ziggy a mail telling him how great my article is and that you've learned so much from it.
Also did he anouced that ther will be a nother contest soon. I don't know yet what kind of contest it will be, or what it will be about, but if it will be one like that current, then I already have a loot of ideas for new stuff.

You can find my article here http://www.ziggyware.com/readarticle.php?article_id=199


My calligraphy language, ... well. I didn't managed to get that 3D tool for a win app working again, but I have to admit that I didn't worked much on it yet.
Also am I not sure if I will have time for it today. My room need to be tidied up as soon as possible, the exercises gets harder every day ...


And now about my work ... well, now I'm already trusted to work on complet standards ... Only one week left, YES!!
I may miss it in the next month, as it is something constant in my life (I like to have something constant around me, like a swiss army knife I can count on, but if you forget about it, it will slice some shirts when you mom trys to wash you pants ... ).
Anyway, I'm happy abou it for the moment, and thats enougth.

That what woun't be enougth will be the money I'll get, to purchas in a lapetop. Thos I want (like the ASUS Eee PC, or the ACER ASPIRE ONE) got too less power, or (like the ACER Traver Mate C210) are too expensive. Ther will be laptops that I can effort, and those are able to do that what I want them to do, but ... they are all so big (look at the Eee PC/Aspire One I want that sice!) and ugly (again Eee PC and Aspire One). But they are better then non ...
... And in a year there may be laptops with the features of the Travel Mate C210, and the sice of the Eee PC out, till then I will be able to work with one that don't fits to me that great ...


So Long,


Greg the Madß

A nother week has passed

Ok, it was less then a week, but it did pass.

I didn't get any great thing farther with my engine. I may have complet the main 'Independent' part of the camera engine, but suddenly, a few seconds later, I stoped it and changed over to a different project.

Calligraphy is it working name. What it is? A graphic skripting language.

Yes, I know that this is something that nomaly done by guys who actually have studied programming, but why not? Its not the skript I'm faling ... its the Windows forms tool that should be the background system of it on which I'm faling ...
I already have worked with the Windows forms sample from XNA, I even already got a application with it ... but I can't recall how I did it ...
It already was hard the last time, so I thought that I may will now make it to create something I can put into my libary before I start to figure out how to make the skripting, which should be the easy part. ... :D


About that wher I should get my dayly bread, work:
I get more and more work. Now that they know that I'm not only able to draw with CAD programms (and others), I'm able to speak english (stop laughing) and that my work normaly is delivered in high quality they give me more and more complex jobs. ... I hope they don't figure my other tallents out till next week, which will be my last week. ^-^


I take others with me!
Today I talked with the guy sitting next to me that work about game development, and that hes dream job would be to artist, but I never will be reach it.
... "Hey, its not that hard, just look that this job page of a well known game studio, its would not be that hard to reach thier requiraments, time consuming, but not hard."
A few minutes later he was sure that he can become a artist and already looked for the right place for his education in the internet.

Man I'm good.


Greg el Loco

I'm at work

Right now at the moment I sit infront of my new working station (I had to change, to a other one last week, as the last dose not have AutoCAd installed), wondering how I can spend the last one and half hours not working ...

Yes, I said: "Not, working"

It would be bad if any of my future employers would read this, but I got my cause.

Yesterday, my new supervisor (I also changed the department, now I'm in ... in ... call itStandardization) gave me some taff work. I have to make the drawings of a 60 page norm bi-langual ... I got the whole next week time for it ...
... I only got 7 drawings at the moment ... and that makes 24 pages ^.^

I guess I will walk up to my boss on tuesday and pressent him my work, ... 3 days before it should be done :D


... So what could I do? ... I could write the next whole one and a half hour on this post, but ... no ...

I could surfe around in the net, ... not that funny anymore ...


OK, I'll find something, this was just to show you how interesting my work is. Its not bad, the first week, where I hade to do nothing, was worst, but the work I got now ... is some how 'hard' but not real 'hard' ... its hard to discribe ...

Anyway, I'm happy :)


Greg the Mad

Serpentines

Wooops ...
Ther you write a update every second day for your blog, and *ding* ... you skip a week ... Its that easy.

OK, what happend ...

... I played a lot of WOW, but mainly skilled up some stuff and not made many levels.

On the weekend I work a little on my Camera Class, but somehow I don't remember how far I got ... damn you blizzard!
Anyway, I spend a few minutes at work (between some tasks) in reseaching curves. Yes I've decided to use the XNA Curve tool, but it dose not appear that great anymore, now I know some basics of spline interpolation. For example did I find yesterday a way to calculate the length of a curve ... XNA Curves don't got that ...

I don't know, I'll set down this weeked and have a closer look into that, because now with the Cubic Hermite Spline Interpolation and that way of getting the length ...
Now I only have to get the Hermit Interpolation and the length thing together, get that into a code format and ... I could publish a curve class that beats the XNA curve class ...

... Now that I just writen that I realized how great that single thing could be! ... Hmmm ... how to get the 1th derivation of the Cubic Hermite Spline Interpolation?

Demotivation ... :(

Somehow I'm demotivated today ...

Maybe its because of the dark weather, maybe because I steped into something, while I took the trash out, maybe because my internet connection is so damn slow on the weekend, maybe because my larynx hurts since two days every time I swallow, or maybe because I done know why I'm so down ...

Anyway, I will now start WoW again, because my mind is running without a gear in and playing with a alt ist the perfect thing for such a situation.

:(


Greg the Mad

CAD

I finaly got a real job at the company: Drawing CAD drawings.

I actually was a funny story: The guy I'm sharing the office with, needed a easy drawing of a tornister and some pipes. He gave me that paper wher he hade drewn it with his hands, and walked out to meet with someone. 5 minutes he returned and was supriced about that I was already done with the job, and that better then expected. 5 minutes later again, I got a phone call telling me that I have to got up to the 4th flore to get myself a new task: drawing.

As far as I can tell, they are actually impressed by my drawing skills, so I get one job after a nother. And I woun't mind if it would be some bigger jobs like those peenuts if drawn till now.

Its also some change in my daiely work as one of the twins works next to the office I get my jobs from, and so I got some chances to talk to her.


Anyway:
Today I start again with my programming weekend. The main thing I've done till now was to change the major build up of the camera class. Now you only have to call the Camera.Update() method and it runs, nothing else. Of course you still have to call the Camera.Initialize() method too before you get relevant results, but I don't know if ther actually is a easyer way of doing that.



PS: wow, my PC writing skills start to improve, I've writen the whole post without looking down to the keyboard, ... again something I've teached myself and that works out to be great :D


Greg the Mad

I shuld not have eaten that fish ...

A few minutes ago, around 10 minute, I was over in the cantine and eat my lunch, together with the twins.
The twins are (surprice) two girls I sat myself to at lunch. I'm normaly not that guy who sats his self just to two girls (I'm shy), but in that case I got some support buy the girl that works with me in the same department. I followed her, she sat herself to the twins, and so did I, end of story.
Anyway, they are not that special about them, just to say that clear, they're just good looking, nice girls, and so I was proud of me today.
I sat my self to them, and? AND?! I talked to them! I started a conversation! You have to know that I'm in real life a quiert boy, who only starts talking if he knows someone, that makes that success even more valuable! Whoot!

But then my meal stricked me down.

I like fish, its always a good alternative to the normal flesh (And I think that fish is meat too *evillook*), and the other stuff on the menu didn't sound that good.
But as I was standing there ... seeing how the cantine guy gave me that fish ... the complet fish ...

I looked at the fish and it looked back ... *shiver*

First I thought "Hey, I eat that kind of fish before, I can do it again", but after I was finished with that place where his bellybutton should be ... I don't know ... I stoped feeling well ...

I eat everything, but not stuff where I can tell wher which organ was ... stuff that looks at me ... or even is still alive.
I just get mercy with that animals. Only having the flesh kills that feeling.

OK, don't get me wrong. I could hunt and slay a animal myself and eat its muscles, but only them and nothing else.


To get back to the twins again. They were ther around 10 minutes before I arrived and started eating, ... they stoped at the half of their meal, I stoped at the same moment at the bellybutton ...
Man I feel sick now ... its not that kind of feeling sick where you have to through up, ... its more like the head line sayed ...

Now I sit in the office and hope that the half liter of coce will kill that feeling and the boring time till my working day ends.


And now about something different:

Finaly I found a way to make spline interpolation without the xna curve tool!
I don't actually need it right now as using the curve tool is so much easyer, but I may need it next school semester for a project, and also dose it feel better to wrok with tools that you know how they (could) work.
It key is Hermit Spline Interpolation (wiki it).
Hermit probably was a guy who appearendly had the same problem as I did: Two points, two tangents and nothing inbetween.
He made a solution, I'll copy it. :D
I actually could make now my own curve class, but for what? All I do now is to keep that sheat of paper, wher I have write the !easy! formular (compared to the other solutions) down, near to a save place, where I woun't forget it. :)


Long post, So Long.


Greg the Mad

Mahjong

Yesterday evening I got my first realy project ... Calculate the pressur los in a 70m long pipe ... it took me 4 hourse, 3 internetpages, 1 book, 5 pages of my mechnic stuff to calculate the pressur in two way.
Man was I proud of it. ... My supervisor took a look at it, sayed 'hmm ... ok" and walked away again ...


Anyway:
I the mean time I played my new favorit game: ....
Wait? What has told you that it is mahjong?

Shanghai Mahjong to be precise. That what makes is special to me is not that game itself, but more the ideas I get while I'm playing it.
How about a whole X-box live arcade game about it? With different modi, multiplayer, etc?
I already got some ideas for that stuff, ... but it will require something ... a 6D curve for the stone movements ...

I will have some more thought about it, maybe write some stuff down ... its just a easy game ... I could make it in a few weeks, if you ignore the fact that there wount be a great art behind it ... :)


So long.


Greg the Mad

Day 5.

Again I sit alone in my office, that guy I share it with is sick today ...
The same, appears, has happened to my work, still I sit here surfing the net waiting for the work that never will come ...


Spline:

To the supreice of everyone I did not play WOW at the weekend. On frieday I thougth, if I play the whole week WOW, than I have at least to work on the week end on my game/engine. Yes I just sayed the e word. I thought about it, took a look at some other engines and editors, and thought that I should be able to create at least a little engine.
Start: Cameras and Cinematic.

As easy as Cameras may appear, it stopes being easy if you consinder all the times of cameras you may could need for a game, going from static cameras to cinematic animated camera and everything in between.
And that is why I used the headline 'Spline' for that part of the post.

I spend the whole weekend working on my 'Path' class. Its a class that (will) take given keyframes and form it into 3D curves (actually a 4D curve considering time, but ... forget that). This may gets some simple parts with the curve system that xna provides, but it shows up some hard parts if you try to get a tangent or a normal of a specific part of the curve, and that is what I did not manage to get bug free yesterday and so have to take care of next week end. That and a few other things I got in my mind of the curve, like one single curve for complet control of a plane (yaw, pitch and roll), which will make a 4D curve (yaw and pitch controled with the tangents) and probably a 6D curve ...
... How I will display that will be funny :D


Greg the Mad

Day 4.

I could have stayed at home today I guess.

In the morning I went up to the guy I had to do a little job yesterday, and told him that I already finished it, after that I walked into my office and sat down.
Today that guy I normaly share the office with never appeared ... so I'm alone in the office ...

Fortunatly I know how to use the internet as radio reciever, it gives my company.
Also I bought some paper with me today. I planed to write some basics for my Camera Class down, ... it turned up to be a lot of basics I had in my mind.
If I realy make all that stuff I got on that one paper now, I could sell that Class for a few € á Licend. It got a lot of features which will be great for as one of the first real features of the Mad-Ed. Just to name one thing:
I changed the Camera kinds. Before I had only the one basic camera kind in mind for the basic movments, now I got 10+ different kinds, based on the use in the code and behaviour. For example the LookAt kind:
The Camera is fixed at a place and follows a object with its few.

Theres a lot more about that class, but I don't want to give to much way now ;)


And last, but not least:
Yesterday I bought the Burning Crusade for WoW ... just to mention it ...
I'll now spend some time there ... and probably not on my Camera Class.


Greg the Mad

Project: N.O.T.H.I.N.G.

Today I came into offic like every day, motivated, smiling, greeting every person that corss my path and hoping that I will get a chilly work like yesterday again.
I went up into the office, set down and booted the Laptop. At 7 o'clock, when my actuall working day started, I went over to the office of my supervisor hunting for a job. Ther arrived I found a empty office with a empty secritary place, so I turned around to come later again.
15 minutes later, in which the guy I share the room with arrived, who instandly started hard working (which makes me feel bad :( ), I retuned to the office of my supervisor to see if he is already here.
His office still was empty, but fortunatly his secritary was already here, who tolled my that he took of two days. "Ok", I sayed, "... So will give me something to work now?", to what she answered: "I don't know, I'll take a lot at this.", and I answered on tht again: "Ok, till then I'll be in the office again."


... This was three hours ago, and I'm still waiting ...

I'm quite quick in getting boring, you know ...
I spend that whole time surffing the internet, visiting all the pages I hadn't visited for a long time now, send some time in forums and checked out the new Diablo3 ...

Whoops, while I was writing the last line, the secritary appeared in my office and tolled my that she got something for me ... later, and she asked me if I could take some school work with me tomorrow, so I do have something to work.


... Anyway ...
Still boring.


WOW vs. Camera Class:
Currently I got two things I could do at home for my entertainment: work on my Camera Class, or work on my Charakters in WOW.
The problem would be, like I told you yesterday, that I only have the trail verison of that Bunring Crusaders and that I only can play my alts at the moment (and level up). So I have to choose now: Dose I get myself the full vision and so terminate the chance that I will continue the work on my Camera Class, or will hope for the already little chance that I will work on that Class?
... I think, lazy as I unfortunatly am, I will play WOW anyway, so why should I now play the full game anyway?

I will have to figure that out soon, I'll probably make a spontan decision out of it when I drive home today: Drive direct home, or make a stop at the next Computer Store (and McDonalds and get the free Ice I've won)?


Quite a long post, isn't it?
So Long,


Greg the Mad

Work ... ing

Today was (... is ...) my second day at the company OMV.
My Job ther?
... I don't know yet ...

Yesterday I spend 9 hours reading 2 files full of norms ... but I don't remember what it all was about anymore.
And today I finaly got a 'real' task: Get some system into that mass of E-Mails'

WhooHoo! (I'm realy happy about that, its better then reading norms the whole day)

How is working there?
You know, OMV is the biggest oil production here in austria, ... so there are lot of pipes, huge tornisters, etc.
The place I'm actually working at the other hand is a quiert little office, where I sit the most of the time alone spending time with the Laptop that stands on my desk. Some times I have to go to my supervisor and get my self a job. But I have to be care full, they always look that puzzled when I return too early saying "I'm done, whats next?" ... *austrians* ...
Yes, I could use that to impress them, but I don't want to get promoted here, dose I?

Only 24 working days left till 31.July ...


And now about something complet different:
Two days ago I dicovered that you can't level up to 61 (in WOW) if you only have the trail version, ... I probably have to get my self the full version of BC ... soon ... SOON!!!! MUWAHAHAHA!

... somewhen it this week ... ... till then I'll have to spend the time twinking ...


PS: I love wrting stuff on a Laptop, ... its feels ... so modern ... if just the well known problem of the battery woun't be ... it would be perfect ... *dream* ...


Thats all for now.
Till then, So Long


Greg the Mad