Tutorial 9 - Topic Vote

[mikeschuld]

Alright guys, you can vote on these topics up to 2 times per person This will give us a good idea of what to include in tutorial #10 poll/discussion as well.

GUI
Particles
Spatial Partitioning
Simple Physics
Pathfinding

Items are alphabetical and not in any order prior to the poll.


GO GO GO!!!!

[Chr0n1x]

Vote cast.

Voting closes: 02-06-2008, 09:45:02

... wtf, why 2 seconds after that minute? Why isnt it round?!!?!?!??1?1/11!?1/1

This moment of insanity brought to you by my 3 Live Mesh invites. (at time of writing)

[Nemo Krad]

lol...

[mikeschuld]

Aww now google is going to index us for Live Mesh, even though we don't have any content about that here yet.... Oh crap..... I said Live Mesh again... OH NO!!! I did it again.

[Chr0n1x]

There, I have used a nefarious technique to hide the words which will make the GOOGBots find you.

Also by your logic wouldn't we then show up on the same google search pages for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Finding Nemo?

I blame this bout of craziness on the spam of exams that my Uni has decided we need to endure for the next  2 weeks. (Including assignments)

[Nemo Krad]

LOL! Wait till you get a real job! Oh, and get married, Oh, and have kids... then and only then will you truly know what busy is......

MUAA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA! (my best evil laugh)

[Chr0n1x]

I said craziness, not busy-ness.

Plus, I don't think all those things you listed forced you to try and re-learn Thermals in one week. (Which some people here should know is like trying to eat your own ears)
Combine that with Differential Equations 2 days later and the fun of a Physics Poster on Optics.
2 Reports in 2 weeks, and oral presentations of those reports, as well as the poster.

Organising and running a 1hr MSP event.
Attending CeBIT.
Crying over my pitiful attempt at a preliminary Physics test last week.

Hmm, also gotta get some programming done, and prepare for Rock Band arriving next week.

Now that I think about it, busy as well.

[muchrejoicing]

Out of curiosity, what would your take on pathfinding be? I know the original 'complaint' about it was that everyone in pathfinding talks about A*... as far as I've seen, that's because A* is a nice mix of optimal and adaptable, depending on the heuristic you choose. So, yeah: what would your angle be?

[mikeschuld]

There are all kinds of tree searching functions that could be used. Graph theory has about a billion ways of doing things like this with the math involved. There are pages that go through many different searches as well

(http://ai-depot.com/Tutorial/PathFinding.html)

The reason everyone always uses A* is because it is a great search technique. Like most things in CS though, it is not the best solution for EVERY problem, but it is good to use most of the time.

[Chr0n1x]

There has to be a reason its the most discussed and shown one. I would be safe in saying it is used a fair bit in professional development, and so knowing it would be useful.

The only gripe I have with most of the tutorials online is the fact that they just assume that you have or can determine an appropriate resolution grid for the algorithm, and none go into detail on how to find the best for your game. That is why my second vote went to that. I want to see it implemented in a system I know, especially one without a terrain grid to provide an easy way out.

Too fine a resolution and you create lag, too sparse and you get 'stupid' pathfinding. Is there a way to determine an optimal resolution for a given game world?

[Nemo Krad]

Chr0n1x,

Ah, but if fluffed any of that or you just decided to not do ANY of it, the only person it would impact is you, a big impact on you I agree, but if I did that then my company as well as our customers would lose a lot of money, I may then lose my job, which could mean I wont be able to make payments on the house, cloth my wife and kids, and so screw up not just my life but those of my wife and kids...

I would happily swap with you on the craziness front, I have been on a project now for over a month, a simple project really, we submitted SOE's to the client, they were to big, so we reduced them agreeing with the client the loss of some functionality to get them what they wanted in the time scales they required, we have been bouncing functional specs to them all month, each time they sneak another requirement in, but keep the time scales where they are, so we push back, they escalate and we are then told by the powers that be that we should give them what they ask for.....we will end up doing so much FOC work that we will lose money on the deal...that's crazy..

Just read that all back and I sound like a right old fart, but as I have written so much it would kill me to delete it....forgive my madness....pluss it was a nice release to vent about my current crappy project.

[Chr0n1x]

Oh yeah, except you don't have exams.

Don't worry, i'm just saying i'm busy, so are you, except you seem to have the time to play around in XNA. *cries*

http://www.thedailywtf.com Go, Read, Lol, Enjoy. (As a programmer you will get it, unlike some of my friends who just look at the pictures on Error'd)

Vent away, I have 4 more years of having everything crammed into 2 weeks at least, before I can get to experience that.

[mikeschuld]

I can't feel too bad for anyone at the moment, as I am working 35 hrs/week and taking 16 credits of summer courses. Summer full time is considered 9 credits... so :/

[Chr0n1x]

Noone is feeling bad for anyone, except my ears. Entertainment students seem to learn everything except appropriate volume levels.

[Nemo Krad]

Did not have time to read the full article as it will get in the way of my XNA lol

You are right, I do get time to play with XNA, but it is either in my lunch hour or when I should be sleeping, probably why I am such a grumpy arse!!