|  |
 
 DirectX Graphics for Visual Basic Part 1
by Jack Hoxley
The series begins with an
introduction to using DirectX 8 in Visual Basic and created a simple
Direct3D application.
 Loading JPEGs to DirectDraw Surfaces by Johnny Wood
Sweet Snippets is an ongoing
series of to-the-point programming articles, covering very specific topics
with source code included. This article covers using Intel's JPEG library
to load and work with JPEGs.
 Game Programming Genesis Part VIII : Basic Tile
Engines by Joseph "Ironblayde"
Farrell
Walks through the development of a very basic tile
engine with eight-way scrolling, flexible tile animations, and
multi-layered maps.
 Quadtrees by
Jonathan Ferraris
Explains the quadtree data structure and how
it helps with scene management, as well as providing a sample
implementation.
 
| Sunday,
February 18, 2001 |
new stuff at 3D
tech
Posted by: Antonio at 19:50 |
 3D Tech has posted
a new version of the terrain generator, now including the particle
deposition algorithm and terrain smoothing. A new tutorial on Maths
for Computer Graphics was also posted including interpolation and
intersection routines.
http://www.fatech.com/tech/opengl/
|
| Saturday,
February 17, 2001 |
CornflakeZone.Com
Updates
Posted by: Francis Shanahan at
13:40 |
The
CornflakeZone.com has recently undergone a number of updates. First
off I've released 2 great effects complete with source code.
Twisty Bulge, an old-school 2-D illusion that you'll swear
is 3D but it's not.
Texture Blending Demo is an interesting
effect created by manipulating texture coordinates. Full source code
is included for both projects. Check them out in the Projects
section of http://www.cornflakezone.com/
In addition we've created part one of an ongoing Math
article/FAW which details some of the more common math formula used
in games programming. It also describe examples of when you'd use
these functions and how to speed them up. |
| Friday,
February 16, 2001 |
Musicandsfx.com
Adds Surround Sound Mixing and Encoding
Posted by: Robert Cole at
00:12 |
 Citing the ever increasing demand for movie-like game
audio environments, musicandsfx.com has ramped up it's game audio
production services to include surround sound mixing and encoding.
Musicandsfx.com is
now offering 5.1 audio mixing along with Dolby Digital and DTS
encoding for DVD and Playstation 2 cinematic content, as well as
pre-encoded background ambience/music for in-game environments.
Musicandsfx.com also offers Dolby surround mixing and encoding for
systems that do not support multi-channel audio formats.
Musicandsfx.com provides
original music, sound effects, consultation, and audio
post-production services for entertainment software.
CONTACT:
Robert Cole
Musicandsfx.com
Tel (219)
324-3725
Fax (219) 325-9585
rcole@musicandsfx.com
http://www.musicandsfx.com/
|
| Thursday,
February 15, 2001 |
Intel Developer
Additions
Posted by: John Munsch at 22:24 |
| While I'm covering external articles, I
need to mention recent additions to Intel's site as well:
|
Gamasutra
Additions
Posted by: John Munsch at 22:10 |
| Various additions to Gamasutra's site
over the last few weeks:
|
TimeGate's Kohan
lights up Developer's Spotlight
Posted by: Sieger at
16:55 |
 TimeGate's newest title, Kohan: Immortal Sovereign has
found a place in the February Spotlight over at Sieger's Post!
Kohan is a new realtime strategy game that has some of the most
intriguing RTS features to date. A super storyline mixed with its
well balanced gameplay will keep you entertained for days on end.
Here's a small quip from the spotlight:
"Many units have more than one attack or ability. Each different
action a unit can make has its own animation. This means that when
our Archers get in melee combat, they pull out swords and start
swinging, rather than continue to shoot their bows at point blank
range. The basic difference between Kohan and other RTS titles is
the amount of depth in the gameplay. Kohan gives the player many
options and different paths to success. Even Kohan's scenarios
strive to have more complex goals than "kill everything on the map".
This will keep players coming back for more!"
For more info please see the Developer's Spotlight for
February. |
The Secret To My
Engine
Posted by: Bas Kuenen at
10:03 |
I hope not to
sound too arrogant, but if you are serious about programming 3D
engines - this design structure is one thing you need to look at! Do
you have a scene? Did you do particles? No problem drawing models,
do animations and even physics makes you sleepy? This peace of code
let's you combine all your previous graphics-code, and gets you on
your way to building a solid OOP 3D engine. For me - this structure
has proven itself time after time. I've also had a lot of positive
response from people who are now also using it. I hope it can do the
same for you - as it did, does and will do for me!
It all
starts with the CObject Class...
I've included a small explanation, something on how to use it, and
of course the full source code.
You can find it at: baskuenen.cfxweb.net |
| Wednesday,
February 14, 2001 |
Jobs: AI
Programmer
Posted by: Dave Astle at 09:20 |
|
Awesome Games! Awesome Environment! Awesome Company! Awesome
Benefits!!!
Terminal Reality needs a full time programmer with AI experience.
Familiar with AI concepts and ideas including search techniques,
knowledge representation control strategies and advanced problem
solving. 2+ yrs professional C/C++ programming and ability to work
within existing game code base. Must have designed and programmed AI
in at least one published game title, and have an understanding of
game production cycle. Visual C++ experience preferred. Visit our
Web Site http://www.terminalreality.com/
Get the
full details here |
| Tuesday,
February 13, 2001 |
Sub Hunter Game
Design Document Released
Posted by: Torn Space at
23:26 |
 Torn Space has released the original design document for
Sub Hunter in the hopes that somebody can learn from it. It's seven
pages of sheer Game Design Madness! Get it here.
Full
Story |
OpenGL Skeletal
Animation Tutorial
Posted
by: Brett Porter at
04:15 |
 I have completed a tutorial on skeletal animation using
Milkshape 3D models in OpenGL.
It is available from Real Soon Now
productions. |
| Monday,
February 12, 2001 |
Not a Number and
Terraplay in Agreement
Posted by: Kevin Hawkins at
15:05 |
Dutch-based Not a Number BV, (NaN),
creator of the powerful Blender 3D content creation software, and
Swedish Terraplay Systems AB, innovators in the field of network
game interfacing have announced a strategic cooperation agreement.
As a result of the cooperation, NaN will integrate the
respective technologies to create the core of a new and
comprehensive multiplayer gaming solution for Internet, mobile and
broadband services
Click full story for more information.
Full
Story |
Marathon Open
Source Marches On
Posted
by: John Munsch at
12:56 |
| Slashdot mentioned that Bungie spun off
the source code to Marathon, a popular first-person 3D shooter, last
year under open source and that it was now available in a working
form under Linux. The new version of the engine is tagged Aleph One and actually has
working versions for several platforms.
All of this begs the question: Which of the various open source
3D engines would be best for building a project? Now that there are
a few to pick from, including Quake, Genesis3D, and Aleph One (plus who knows how
many I didn't mention), how do their features stack up against each
other? And which ones might work better for specific projects like
shooters with both indoor and outdoor environments or multiplayer
games over the Internet? |
| Sunday,
February 11, 2001 |
Level of Detail
Demo/Source/Library
Posted
by: John Munsch at
21:00 |
| Stefan Krause has a nifty little demo on
his website. Here's his
message to us:
I've put a progressive meshes demo on my website including source
code and win32 executables using OpenGL. The demo is released under
the LGPL. The demo shows how to load a 3D Studio mesh from a file,
create a progressive mesh and display it. It preserves geometry,
shading groups and materials including color, transparency, textures
and lightmaps. The progressive meshes are created using a quadric
error metric in order to create high quality approximations.
Rendering of the model is optimized for GeForce graphic cards: The
demo uses glArrayRangeNV, if available, to maximize hardware T&L
performance. The demo is built on a sample framework that was
developed for my game under development, which is going to be
released under the LGPL.
If nothing else you have to love the fact that the game he's
working on is based on Battlestar Galactica. A truly goofy series
but when I think about it, one ideally suited for a episodic game
kinda like Crimson Skies. Lots of luck on the game Stefan, I'm
looking forward to playing it. |
MultiEx Commander
plays sounds
Posted by: Mr.Mouse/XeNTaX at
11:46 |
 Yet another fast update of the multi-game-file
extractor. The addition of PLANY.EXE (by Bill Neisius) enables
MultiEx Commander to play WAV, VOC, SND, IFF and AU sound files,
using the soundblaster environment variable. This makes it easier
for the user to listen to extracted sounds from within MultiEx
Commander. The whole up to date MC package, complete with setup, can
be retrieved from: http://www.xs4all.nl/~michael/multiex.html
|
| Saturday,
February 10, 2001 |
PortaLib3D Version
0.1.3
Posted by: Brett Porter at
00:33 |
| I wanted to
announce PortaLib3D
Version 0.1.3 has been released, which adds improved support and
bugfixes for dynamic shadow casting and skeletal animation of models
from Milkshape 3D. Linux support is also much improved, and Paul
Nettle's memory manager has been added. PortaLib3D is an OpenGL
library for games and demos, released under the LGPL.
|
| Friday,
February 09, 2001 |
OpenFX
1.0
Posted by: Dave Astle at 16:32 |
| Anil Madhavapeddy sends along word that
the commercial modelling, animation, and rendering package formerly
known as SoftFX has been GPLed and released as OpenFX. The package
includes a full renderer and raytrace engine, NURBS support,
kinematics-based animation, morphing, and an extensive plugin API.
It's currently only available for Windows, but Linux/BSD ports are
in the works. To learn more, visit the OpenFX website.
|
| Thursday,
February 08, 2001 |
Client/Server Game
Architecture Under GPL
Posted by: John Munsch at 23:00 |
 There's a new client/server architecture for 3D games
from a company called Nevrax. They have a .com site that doesn't give a lot
of info and a .org site that
they keep the GPL'ed source code on (no binaries, uh-huh, make it
easy for me to look at your stuff). Anyway, evaluate the hell out of
it and let everybody know what you think on the message
board. |
Job: Junior
Programmer @ Cryptic Studios
Posted by: Dave Astle at 18:02 |
|
Cryptic Studios is
an independent, fully funded company developing a revolutionary
massively multiplayer online game. We are looking to hire a junior
programmer. Professional game development experience is *not*
required, but strong C or C++ coding ability *is*. We're looking for
someone who is itching to show what they can do, someone who can
grow into a full-fledged member of a kick-ass development team.
Ideally we would like to see an example (that we can run) of your
most impressive program. Excellent salary, full benefits, etc.
Get the
full details. |
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