There’s a lot of talk about HTML5 and it’s WebGL support. Of course, it may just seen like a lot of talk to me because I hang out with graphics nerds. The question everyone’s mind is will this be the Flash (and Silverlight) killer? I hope so.
Flash is perfectly fine as long you’re in a Windows world, but things get pretty ugly in the Linux world from my experience. My laptop playing a movie in Flash usually heats up to a temperature that I could use to cook an egg. It’s irritating to know that I’m sacrificing hard drive life to watch the D&D flash cartoon with magic missile or the Superjer Counter-Strike cartoon.
The HTML5 video support in Google Chrome is pretty excellent as far as I can tell. HTML5 video also doesn’t cause my laptop to heat up ridiculously. That’s a winner in my book. The added benefit of WebGL gives game development for the web a new face. WebGL appears to be easy to use and possibly easier to use than Flash. This may not be a fair statement since I’m much more familiar with OpenGL than Flash.
I plan on spending some time with WebGL once I get a little more time to spare.
Just bring back the anti-piracy measures they used with Earthbound on the NES. If the game detected that it was being played on an unlicensed cartridge then it would ramp up the difficulty to an almost unplayable level and randomly flash messages reminding you that piracy is a crime, and if you managed to get to the final boss the game would crash and erase your save data. It was cruel, hilarious and probably taught a few people a lesson
I had never heard of this, so I started wondering if it was true. I went to Google to find the answer. The Earthbound 0 ROM apparently has three versions of the ROM floating around that defeat different areas of the anti-piracy in the game code.
I think making the game so difficult to be unplayable is an excellent way to combat piracy personally, although games like Demons Souls raises the bar on how difficult we have to make it before gamers give up.
I’ve been considering the directions I’m planning to go with a few projects, and I began to realize that my this will probably draw attention to my own blog and YouTube page. I was beginning to be concerned that my footage of Yes performing at Pittsburgh would potentially get flagged as a copyright issue. I began to consider taking the videos down when I started checking out the statistics for my videos and discovered that none other than Benoit David the current lead singer for Yes (at least he was when I saw them touring last summer) had embedded one of my videos on his MySpace page! Don’t believe me?
Compare to the Machine Messiah video on Benoit’s MySpace page: Benoit’s MySpace Page.
Best discovery ever? Maybe not, but it’s pretty close…
By the way, go see them if they tour near you. It’s a wonderful show with great music and awesome fans if the responses to my videos are any indication.
I spent a lot of time yesterday writing some early classes and prototyping a game idea I had to satisfy my CS 570 (Interactive Computer Graphics) and potentially serve as my first Xbox Live Indie Arcade release. I not only discovered that my idea is significantly different from anything else on the market, but I discovered some interesting trivia about many puzzles games that involve matching three objects of a type.
This idea originated from a Russian programmer Eugene Alemzhin who originally developed the game “Shariki” in 1988 for DOS PC’s. The object was to match three balls of the game color. This causes the balls to disappear and new balls to come in to take their place. Fascinating, eh? More information and other links at the Wikipedia page linked to below.
Trying to time something in your OpenGL application? I know I was! My goal was to time my glDrawArrays function call to see how long it would take to post n point sprites to the screen. How did I accomplish this in a cross-platform way (without using the C time library?) I did this by constructing a GL_TIME_ELAPSED query, and I was able to receive the time required for my function calls with precision to the nanosecond! Continued…
So, I’ve built my first particle system using point sprites in OpenGL. The process wasn’t terribly difficult although I did find a few design flaws with my implementation. I’ve heard a quote saying you don’t truly understand the problem until you implement the solution, and I definitely believe that to be the case here. I don’t think this is a bad effort given it’s my first (and done in a few hours nonetheless), but I definitely think I can make a lot of improvements here. This version is very inefficient. The vertices are stored in a Vertex Buffer Object (located on the video cards memory), and my code updates the VBO every iteration of the code. I lose some speed here by having to send vertices to the VBO during every iteration when I could use a vertex shader program to instruct the GPU to change the vertices and use glTransformFeedback to write the information back to the VBO. My justification for not doing it this time is that this particle system was actually a class assignment, and I only did what was required by the assignment specification.
This is my first system. A flaw in my logic made the particles flow in an unintended way, but I decided that I actually liked the effect and decided to keep that first recording.
I call this one “the Dorrito.”
I’ll definitely be writing a new one to try to apply what I’ve learned while using a vertex shader. I’ll probably release the code for that effort on the Depth Charge Gaming site (once I get it online.)
So, I scored a beta code from Massive Action Game, and I’m pretty excited to try this out. I wasn’t aware that the beta required you to have huge downloads very time you want to play it. Craptastic, right? You bet! Never fear! I’ve compiled a list of possible activities to do while waiting for this epic download to finish.
Watch your neighbors with your night vision goggles from the Modern Warfare 2 preorder!
Do you really want to freak your neighbors out? Simple! Just go out on your balcony and try to be obviously discrete. If they ask questions, explain that you are in fact a secret operative and trying to fight the Russian terrorists. You can also offer one of your special brownies if you wish. You will be awarded bonus points (read: brownies) if you comment on their sexual abilities and provide constructive criticism on how they can “improve”.
Do your assignments.
Seriously… I’m convinced that I could complete my semester graphics project in the time it takes for this beta to download. I might even be able to write MAG all over again. If you have a turtle-speed internet connection, you may want to pick up several more projects to fill the time.
Find true love and eternal happiness.
Your kids will want to play this beta too. Take this activity slow! You have plenty of time. Perhaps you could suggest MAG as a 1 month wedding anniversary present? Just sayin’.
Earn a degree at home in your spare time.
You could seriously earn an associates degree from DeVry University in the time it takes for this beta to download. I’m currently studying HVAC, and I feel I will be well prepared for the workplace and for whatever class in MAG is the equivalent of an Engineer.
Write silly exaggerated ideas on a blog.
I opted for this option. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
So, what did YOU do while the MAG beta was downloading? Hmmmm?
I’ve been mulling over ways to start LAN parties in Morgantown for quite some time. My opinion since moving here a year and a half ago has been that Morgantown would be a fantastic place for a LAN party given the right leadership and stubborness. Unfortunately, I found that securing space for such an event is rather difficult if you aren’t affiliated with WVU in some way.
It was suggested today that I help organize the WVU student chapter of the International Game Developers Association. The idea is that programmers and artists who are interested in game design can meet and share ideas, collaborate, and other things. We can get game industry professionals to do seminars and, of course, do huge LAN parties. This would also help jump start the game development cirriculum for bachelor’s and masters students that’s currently being developed.
This also means I have to pick my battles. I had earlier wanted to try starting a 2600 group in Morgantown. I’m far more interested in the IGDA chapter. I’d definitely still participate in a 2600 group, but I don’t think I’d choose that when given the option to choose between the two.
I shared my previous experience with planning LAN parties with the advisor, and he seemed very interested in the way the events were used to promote the department in exchange for equipment. In short, it all sounded doable except with a WVU-sized budget. Being a school organization also gives access to rooms such as the NRCCE expo room which is roughly twice the size of the Tech Center Ballroom. This appears from the outside to be the opportunity to plan the LAN party I’ve dreamed of with all of the resources I’ve ever wanted. On the other hand, I haven’t dealt very much with the department, so Admiral Ackbar may have useful input on this. I also have to consider if I can keep up with my school, research, and work responsibilities with the added leadership responsibility. I must remeber that I am a student first and foremost.
If you’re a WVU student who is seeking a degree in Computer Science or an Arts degree that would be associated with some form of digital art or design for video games, weigh in on the comments of Facebook or my blog @ praisechaos.com. Feel free to share this information to those who would be interested. If you’re interested in a huge Morgantown LAN party, let me know as well. This won’t be starting until next semester, so I’ve got some time to mull it over.
Most of today was spent adjusting floor tiles and moving around high-performance cluster machines (also called clusters from this point forward) from their old home to a new refridgerated home. This is really the first instance to my knowledge that the College of Engineering as a whole has listened to the wishes of researchers who take advantage of the power of high-performance computing. What’s next? A collaborate effort to provide all departments access to high-performance computing? I won’t get my hopes up.
It annoys me to see universities such as Purdue provide services such as the Rosen Center for High-Performance Computing while WVU, more specifically the College of Engineering, fails to provide this sort of access to departments. It’s not as if this sort of research occurs in Computer Science only. I count at least six different high-performance cluster projects across Computer Science/EE, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Chemical Engineering. These are just the projects I’m aware of; there could be more!
The possibility does exist that there is an initiative for high-performance computing, but, if so, why haven’t I heard of it and why are these groups not using that service? Why spend your research dollars on building your own cluster when you can use a professionally maintained cluster. I don’t understand the lack of cooperation in some groups especially when there is clear benefit for all parties involved.
On another note, I’ve installed Wordpress for Blackberry, and I’m trying to post something on my blog daily. It’s also appearing on my Facebook as notes, so you should definitely visit the blog and leave comments there.
This blog is the personal blog of Kel “PraiseChaos” Cecil, a Masters of Science student at West Virginia University working in the area of Knowledge Engineering and Computer Forensics. Kel also loves the open-source movement, gaming, and authentic Shoyu ramen.
