Green light when on.

Hey, I got money!

Even so much money that I was able to by GTA IV today, AND a 360 controler for my PC, AND enougth for my first 'perfection drive' tomorrow (that got something to do with the austrian driving licent stuff ...).

And that is not enought! ... I'll probable another bunch of money on May the first (I'll meet all my other related).


About GTA IV:
I just had played 2 hours, because my mom wanted her HDTV back, but I have to say that I probalby one of the realistic games I've ever have player, I can't say if it is the best game ever, but at least a great game.
Endorphin ROCKS!!!!!!!

About 360 Controler:
I only spend around 30mins with it yet, but I alread applayed the first stuff like throttle and sensitive waepon controls (as harder you press the trigger, as faster you shoot), but as long I don't stumble over GTA IV, the internet, or something different, I'll spend more time with it tomorrow.

About my Pants:
Slowly ... S L O W L Y ... the sommer is comming, and I'm one of the first people who took their short pants and shirst out of the locked and stared wearing them. ... I like the fresh feeling, and fortunatyl I got the legs to wear such clothes, but they also remind me that I don't got the skin typ that gets that easy tan ... :(
... its the 'Geek' skin typ. Not as white as the 'Nerd' skin typ, but also no 'Normal' skin tone.


So Long, and I even wear them when its reaning :P


Greg the Mad

19!

Today is my 19th birthday! Woot!

I never was that guy that celabreated such days with all my friends, alkohol, partys, etc
Probalby because I don't got enought friends to fill a room, and that is because I don't drink any alkohol (never), even if I got to a party/pub/disco which happens around 2 times is a year.

Woot 1 year closer to death!

But even if I'm one of those broing, not drinking, driver geeks, I still wanted to do at least something yesterday night. But the friend that wanted to go with me into a disco, and probably also wanted to force my to drink a beer, suddenly feared that I could be the only one he knew in that disco and so he stayed home ...
I feard too that I could be the only one I knew in that disco, so I too stayed at home.

... But I'm not supriced about that, he always stays at home when I want to go away ... capullo!


(yes, I searched some spanish cuss words in my online dictionary ;) )



And now about something happy :D
I did not write the force from absolut to relative code, that I need for my physics, as I was entertaimed the last few days:
SMA test, VKM test, Engish presentation (I got a +B, because I've spoken too fast, one even sayed that I speack like a english man! Woot!)

And I finaly don't to pay back anymore, and 200€ on my balance! ... - 60€ for GTA 4, - 50€ for a 360 controler for my PC (and the game development).

And the other 90€ ... I played with the thought to buy a instrument, and finlay start playing one (I wistle the whole day melodys, only because I can't play one), but I don't think that I'll get one for that much, so it will stay on my balance. :)


So Long


Gre the Mad

Control

I just have writen a the second way of controling my space ship.

The first was the engine controls, accelorate, deccelorate forward.

And now the sceond way are the jets.


If you ever have seen a Star Wars movie or any other SciFi thing, you may have noticed that there are always little jets of gas when they land a space ship. I took that idea of little jets all around the ship and created so the 'Emergency Control Jets'!


The idea behind that is, that even if your ship is hit by a EMP bolt, you still got at least weak jets to turn and accelorate/deccelorate your ship, very usefull if you're hit while you try to land on a planet (see => Serenity). This is possible because the jets, or valves, a connected to the cockpit via several lines, and got tornister filled with enougth gas presure to lift the ship up for a few seconds with out any other energie.

As the presure tornistor get constantly refilled, if energie is avaliable, you also can use them for a perfect landing on a space station/planed. But keep in mind that, on planets, the forces, that the jets have to provide, are much heigher than in space, so even if you got a black hole reaktor in your ship, you might woun't got endless energy to hoverer longer than a few seconds.

Currently I control those jets with the Numberblock, but I already got some ideas how I can swich to those controls on a 360 controller. :)


The next thing would be the Mouse control unit, but once I got this thing done I'll focus on how to transfere a force from absolut (used for the acceloration) and relative (used to turn the ship) ... that'll get complicated ...


Gre the Mad

Turn, Scale, Move ... Rebuild!

I had a few little confusing moments in the last days.

For example is the Vector3.Forward value equal (0,0,-1). Minus?!? Its called 'Forward' but actually points into the negative direction?!?

Ok, that would not the a problem, you can live with it.

But what next?
The Blender Y-axis is not equal the XNA Y-axin, but ther to are some ways you can live with.

I have to scale a Blender model with 0.001 to get it more or less right into XNA, but the exproter got 0.01 as the smallest scale value.


It appears that my force physics, somehow, work now. It may turns the ship into the wrong direktion, but after I spend two days (!) in changing the ship model (because of that the title), it still don't work yet.

Fortunatly I build the TPS camera with such a great code that I only had to change two values and it looked into the same direction like the ship.

But its still not finished. I still don't put any great deal of time into the absolut force into relative force thing. For example did I just a few minutes ago discover that the forces I used where something beyond absolut and relative ...
Not to mention that I also changed the relative axis with the whole ship changing thing, so it may take a few minutes till I cleanded the code up ...

So long.


Greg the Mad

Publishing

There is a new page online http://www.xnawiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Its XNA Wiki!!!

That what makes it a special awsome to me is that it freatures a code I put on.!

Woot!

Its my old camera movement class, that lets you hover the camera free through space to watch the awsomeness you're programming ;)



Else ther is noting new, yet.

I didn't found any time for the physics yet, because a friend of mine decided to come to my home and play Halo 3 with me.

So Long


Greg the Mad

Progress?

As my ship started turning (spinning would probably be the right word) and moving based on the one force I apply at the rear, next to the planed exhaustfumes, I somehow feel good.

Good about where this is going. Just thing about how much stuff I'll be able to make once I got such basic physics?
Particles (good animated particles ;) ), ... objects that react physical correct, and ... a bunch of other stuff ...

.. Its just so basic to got a force and its effects ... *whiping a tear away* ... I'm so proud of my physic engine ... even if it dose not work right, even if I only use on force and no collition, but ... but ...



Anyway, no about something complet differnt:
I start to get scared. The end o thies years term comes closer, and I still got that subject where I'm in the red numbers, and if I don't start learning for test, that one I got tomorrow, ... Math, I don't got any problems with it, ... I programmed a own programm on my hand held calculator just to calculate the half of tomorrows test, so ...
... I'll have to start to lear, ... for those subject where I got bad grades, and the want to bee's ...

(In on subject I earned A, A, C, and now the teacher wants to tell me that I might get a E in the end WTF?)


So thats all for now. Its already later here, and I still want to go to bed, so long and thanks for reading.


Greg the Mad

Physics? Ship Control? Baby?

Hmmm ...

I'm done with the basic structure of the physics I'll use to control my ship. ... ok ... I have to admit that it was a work of 5 minutes, I did in a short break at school, ... but its a structure.

And so that what wondered me was that it pretty looks like physics I also could use for other, not controled, objects ...
I may would have to make some changes here and there, but it apears solid to me ...

The only thing why I didn't applayed the new code yet is that I somehow fear to loos the old one ... I'll have to make a back up of it, even if its nothing special on it, to be honest ... I even would say that the whole code is crap, ... but its my baby :(

I even will have to add a lot of new values, like the float that tell the code of strong my shields are and so how strong the effects of the controls are, not to mention the pill of stuff I'll have to do to make the jet controls (that a little jet, like you know from real spacecrafts, which a supposed to work even if your hit by EMP, and will make fun when you got gravity to fight with :D )

So there may will pass some time till I got jing and jang in perfect flow for this task, but once I got it I can applay it to the editor and got something ... yeah ... I actually don't know why I did stop working on the editor and made that ... but it will be done soon ... ?


Greg the Mad

Forcing the ship to turn

Hey, it worked!

I now got a ship that turns in use of forces.

It might not be finished as I only turn the ship propably and not accelorate it with them ...

Hey ... while I was writing the last line I read the article on wikiperdia about torque (How the heck to pronounce that word?) and read there that a force dose accelorate a mass and rotates it if the force goes not straigt through the center of gravity ... GREAT!

All I need now is to get that some how into a system ... where I put the keys (AWSD) and the mouse position in and get the rotation out ... with pysics!!!

Now that I more or less got the basics, all I need it to draw a ground concept of it on paper, falt that paper, create a cigarett, smok it, use the ash as shampoo and I can create the control system for a space ship!!!

Why the fuck I want to make it with forces?
Easy! Not only that I so can make that shield stuff that I've talked of last post, but also that I'll get a realistic change in fly physics when I change the weigth and sice of the ship!

AWSOME!!!


Greg the Mad

... and it made damage

Well I actually spend 20 mintues on this new physics thing yesterday ...

I stoped it because it ended up with my ship shooting through my little solarsystem.
Ther problem was not that I don't got any control about the physics, but because I ended up without any control over the forces. It was like my first trys of 3D motion.

The problem is that I don't got those anti momentum shield yet, that I've spocken of. All that they would make is to applay a force that would affect the actuall velocity so that its always pointing into the direction the ship looks. No problem, applay a force that rotates the ship and deliveres enought acceloration that also turns the actuall velocity vector.
But how dose a Force realy turn a object like a ship?

F = m * a

M = F * l

M = J * 'alpha'

J = ?

'alpha' is that what I need, but how dose I got J?
My ships are normaly not a easy shape so I could use the basic shapes J's for that ...
One way would be to easy take every object as a sphere and use J=2/5 m*r^2 ...
But somehow I would never be quite happy with it, but for now it have to be enougth ...

Also how dose I know how much a force dose rotate a object and how much it accelorates it? I don't got an answer on this one yet ...

And I made a misstake.
Its a habbit I dislike, but which can be handy from time to time. ... Somehow I don't got fear ... OK, I got fear from ... I can't think of anything yet, but I got it ... sometimes, as long its nothing like to code physics. What I mean is that did not prepare for that yesterday. Ther was no line I've drawn on paper before I started, and that is not good. You easyly loos track if you work like that ... and I'll have to change this!

And I'll start now with it ... today ... soon!
And make some basice logic for the physics!


Greg the Mad

A Apple hit my head ...

Last week I spend around 5 minutes in coding anything usefull, and even less in doing anything meaningfull, I think oyu can imagne how I feel now about the last week ...

And just on monday I've seen something that should change my code, and now is the moment I'll start with it!

I watched Serenity and found out that the system I used till now woun't work in futur. Till now I tolled the space ship where to be in the next frame, but that would get hard to tell, once I start to make stuff like landing on planets (shaking), or if one of two engines is brocken and the ship starts turning around all three axis ...

And so I plan to use some physics for that, easy stuff like F=m*a => a=F/m only to accelorate the ship and later a use a little method to change the resulting Vector based on the rotation of the ship. (I easyly could turn the velocity vector, but that would not fit to my planed design ;) ).

That would be the first step to create the final ship behav, with anti- external force shields, anti momentum shields, atmosspheric control trusters, multiple engines typs and all that stuff can be toggled on and off.
That would add a nice simulation touch to my game. I your ship is heading towards a enemy ship and you start shooting, but instead of stoping shooing and flying pass the ship, you just disable your anti momentum shield and the thrusters, so that you can turn your ship will you stay on your flypath, enabling you to continuo the shooting.

Its just a little detail and the player may woun't use it that often, ... but he can!

So enougth talk, I'll now grap my old prototype and try to applay that new system, wish me luck!


Greg the Mad

Its getting better

My cold is getting better. I already was at school yesterday for a test, ... which was a mistake ...

It don't look that good if you sneeze and all that snot hangs out of your nose ...

Not to mention the amout of hankys I needed. I run out after the 6th lesson, fortunatly it was the last lesson and because of my high driving skill (which disables every kind of sneezing while I drive) I made it home in time to reach for the first hanky and make a big honk.

... This adventure persueded me to stay at home for the next day (today). Yes, I got school on saturdays, ... as long I don't got a cold.


Anyway. I finaly found out why I make all that stuff, no not the point of life, I figured that out years ago, no, but why I write this blog while it appears that I'm the onlyone who reads it.

Not only that I practise my english skills, but also because its great to get thougth, no matter what kind of thoughts, into a string. To focus them, got think about them, to make them better!

In the last post I've writen that I did nothing about my editor project, guess what I did just a few minutes after a I'vs clicked on 'PUBLISH POST', yep, I sat down and spend some hours in my project,
I'm may didn't added that great pile of code (because I still don't fell that well), but I did at least something! Thats all what it is about, ... the project, the editor and the game.

No, I don't mean that I only make it now to wast some time, but because I don't have to learn all that stuff now.
I found a public school in vienna, that got a field of study called: "Game Engineering and Simulation Technology'. Its a masters degree and so I'll have to make a bacelor before that, something like ... computer science.
So I got a way of finaly becoming a Game Designer, I realy can afford the money for! (ONLY: ~400€ à semester!).

But just think about it ... How cool It had to be in a interview to be able to say: "I got a degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Bacelor of Computer Science and a Master of Game Engineering and Simultaion Technology" ... I know that still woun't get me the job and stat I'll need stuff like my current project (port folio), good ideas, sympathy, evil madness powers, hamster like skills and luck to get a job, ... but ...
Man, ... that would be so cool!

All I need now is to finish my current school (D'OH!) and pass the accepance test. The test should be that hard and the school thing ... well ... we'll see :)


And yes, it look like not only my cold is getting better. :D


Greg the Mad

Handkerchief Invaders

Not only that I was sick at the start of my holidays last month, I now got a nother cold again ... even worst ...

I'm actually not that guy that stays at home if he got a little cold, but this one stricked me down ... I've stayed at home for the last 3 days and have done nothing, apert form producing 3 paper bags full of used handkerchiefs (and more to come).


... I hate such kind of cold ... sometimes is takes me 3 handkerchiefs for one honk, and I don't want to go into the details now ...

I also have done nothing about the Mad-Ed, ... I actually didn't even opend the C# Express Edition ...

But ... if you didn't already noticed I spend 5 minutes in the html of my blog, changed some collors and scales, it may not be perfect yet, but ... I just like green. :)


Greg the Mad

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