What I did today

Miscellaneous Topics
#3821

We are still dealing with model import issues in different engines. We really want to use the animation tools of blender rather than yet another tool for our artists. So next few days a stand alone blender importer based on jME with preview and some debug is the task for the next few days.

As for the vulkan subthread. I personally think it is about time for a new api. quite frankly many aspects of the current ones (opengl and DX) are kinda silly, old and only make sense if you consider doing stuff like that a million years ago with crap hardware and super expensive ram.

However using vulkan probably wouldnā€™t be that difficult for me. I draw only index vertex buffers. But again i donā€™t really need to. Use an engine. Donā€™t write one. And if i didnā€™t use an engine, i would write something that is not an engine to render the game state. It would be a shadow of an engine because anything else is a waste of my time.

#3822

Well, with OpenGL, yes, but with Direct3D actually no. Microsoft allowed itself to completely overhaul the whole API with every version. Something which the ARB sadly never did with OpenGL.
I find Direct3D 11 is actually pretty good (if it wasnā€™t for COM) and close to Vulkan, with Direct3D 12 being even closer.
So if people learn Vulkan today, theyā€™ll feel right at home with Direct3D 11 and 12.

#3823

I second that. DX11 is quite solid. Little bit too restrictive but nothing too bad. On other hand OpenGL is just retarded.

#3824

Itā€™s geeting graphic in here again huh?

Got back to trying to fix a problem in my game.
Realized it would make me run into even more problems. Backed back off.
Tomorrow is a day as well!

#3825

Upgraded my laptop to Windows 10.

#3826

Big pot bust at my high school; saw a few kids get chewed out. Itā€™s crazy what getting caught with a plant can do to the rest of your life.

#3827

\being rant

Yea a bunch of kids back i my school got sent to jail. A few kids got killed at a party drinking. Stupid how much trouble a little fermented fruit juice can get you in

Trouble is what you make when you do stupid thingsā€¦ like bring WEED to schoolā€¦ Shesh stoneheads in my day were far smarter. We didnā€™t take it too school people. Or light up in front of a cop. Ya know, things that get you in trouble.

\end rant.

#3828

People got killed due to making stupid decisions under the influence of drugs.
Iā€™d imagine the conclusion youā€™re supposed to get to is the fact that drugs are bad, not that kids should hide it better from the police, but okay. That people influenced by drugs are stupid has hardly changed over time.

#3829

Had my first day of uni today!
;D

Edit:

Woah. Medals.
For starting uni? Ok.

Anyway. Iā€™m going to the University of Auckland, New Zealand, studying Computer Science as part of a BSc. :slight_smile:

#3830

@NegativeZero where? :slight_smile:

#3831

Welcome to University, where you will learn more about yourself, the opposite sex, and how to procrastinate than any time before!

#3832

Souther hemisphere :stuck_out_tongue:

#3833

@NegativeZero

Really Auckland? that is where i am. We are getting a informal weekly games dev meeting going here. If your interested?

#3834

iā€™ve made my interwebsite open-source!

http://memleaks.net/

http://memleaks.net/index.phps

::slight_smile:

#3835

I got a third person surfing level up and running using AWT and it actually looks okay, water included. I was pretty proud of myself. Nothing special, it looks like a Sega game, but I thought it was cool!

#3836

I want to get something like this going in Chicago! Anybody on here live in Chicago?

#3837

Sure, PM me the details.
If you hop on IRC, there are quite a few kiwis there. (#java-gaming on freenode)

#3838

Just realized that in OpenGL you donā€™t need any vertex source at all to draw vertices. :slight_smile:
All you need is gl_VertexID (or gl_VertexIndex in Vulkan-GLSL) and of course a function that computes the vertex positions, such as with a regular poylgon or rendering splines with only the control points given. And you also donā€™t need any geometry shader.

The following vertex shader renders an arbitrary regular polygon:


#version 130
#define PI2 6.28318530718
uniform int count; // <- number of vertices (3 for a triangle)
void main(void) {
  vec2 pos = vec2(0.0);
  if (gl_VertexID > 0) {
    float t = float(gl_VertexID - 1);
    float ang = t * PI2 / float(count);
    float x = cos(ang);
    float y = sin(ang);
    pos = vec2(x, y);
  }
  gl_Position = vec4(pos, 0.0, 1.0);
}

// Draw call:
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLE_FAN, 0, 2 + count);

EDIT: Also fun: Rendering an arbitrarily large grid without any vertex source:


#version 130
uniform ivec2 size;
const ivec2 off[6] = ivec2[] (ivec2(0,0), ivec2(0,1), ivec2(1,1), ivec2(1,1), ivec2(1,0), ivec2(0,0));
void main(void) {
  int vertIdx = gl_VertexID % 6, gridIdx = gl_VertexID / 6;
  vec2 pos = (vec2(gridIdx / size.x, gridIdx % size.x) + vec2(off[vertIdx])) / vec2(size).yx * 2.0 - 1.0;
  gl_Position = vec4(pos.x, 0.0, pos.y, 1.0);
}

// Draw call:
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 6 * sizeX * sizeY);
#3839

i worked on my 3d engine (gif is bad quality)

#3840

Iā€™ve been writing some UI stuff recently, and I just got my label widget to have clickable hyperlinks with the cursor changing over the link :slight_smile: