02/13/04
In the last couple of days I’ve been researching how
to use the Boost.Python library
to bind Python and C++ together and this resulted in three
new samples, which I feel are going to be very useful
to some of you. Actually, I feel that Python is so useful
I decided to create a new page dedicated
solely to it. 
02/09/04
Well, today's been another busy one. I got two new samples
for you guys to download. The first one is a GLslang
port of my Cg based Vertex Displacement shader sample.
Hopefully, if time permits, all of my older shader samples
will eventually get ported to GLslang. The second sample
is a new Torque tutorial which
demonstrates how to add a drivable vehicle complete with
rigid body physics and sound.
02/06/04
Today, the Point Sprite,
and Particle System samples
got updated. They no longer use the NV_point_sprite extension,
but instead use the newer ARB_point_sprite extension.
I also added a new sample which is basically a heavily modified
version of the Particle System sample. It allows you
to switch between three different methods of creating eye-rotated
billboards. For the first method, billboard calculations
are done manually and take place totally on the CPU by
the application. For the second method, the particle system
uses ARB_point_sprite extension
to offload the creation of billboards to the GPU. And finally,
the third method uses Cg to
build billboards on the GPU via a vertex shader.
I also finished a new SDL
sample for the Linux page which
demonstrates how to use SDL to
render 3D scenes with OpenGL. Like the simple GLUT and GLX samples,
it doesn't do anything but render a single textured quad,
but I see people asking how to do this over and over
again in forums, so I'm sure a few of you out there will
find it helpful.
I would like to also take this time to thank my artistic
friend Chad Walker of Walker
Boy Studios for cleaning up my website’s logo. Some
of you may not notice too much of a difference, but the
new logo is considerably cleaner than the older one that
I tried enlarging myself.
02/05/04
Well, I finally got around to writing up my first GLslang
shader sample and for those of you interested it that sort
of thing, you can get it on my OpenGL
page.
I also updated my Python
download by adding a few new Tkinter based
GUI scripts to it, so if you’re into scripting stuff
using Python check
it out.
01/23/04
Again, I performed a global update on all of my OpenGL
samples so they would be more OpenGL
1.5 compliant. If you have any problems, let me know.
The changes are not too drastic and basically entail
swapping old "glext.h" and "wglext.h" headers
files for the newer ones that support 1.5. If you’re
interested, I got the new versions of these files from SGI’s
site.
01/12/04
After changing the names of a few of my samples and fixing
some project settings in the workspace files, I decided
that the best thing to do would be to simply to recompile
and upload all of the DirectX 8.1, DirectX
9.0, and OpenGL samples again.
This way, none of the changes could be accidentally left
out. With that said, let me know if you have any problems
trying to download, compile or run any of the samples on
those pages. I tried double-checking everything, but some
little things always seems to slip by unnoticed.
01/09/04
We’ll, it’s been a while since I posted any new news,
so lets get started!
There have been a few more changes to the site including
a new source page for Linux based
samples (developed and test on Fedora).
It’s still a little short on content, but I think in time
it will become very useful, especially for Windows programmers
who want to know more about Linux programming. Most Linux
samples will be offered in two downloadable versions: one
will use a traditional Makefile and
the other will ship with an eclipse .project file. If you’re
not familiar with eclipse,
it’s a new cross-platform IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
which is very similar to Visual Studio and is quickly gaining
in popularity on most Unix/Linux platforms. Honestly, it’s
the main reason why I actually got off my lazy rear and
actually added a Linux page. It really helps take the pain
out of Linux development.
Another change is my switch away from using GLUT for
my OpenGL samples. GLUT development has pretty much stopped
and it seems clear that freeglut,
an open source replacement for GLUT, will pick up where
it has left off. This actually shouldn’t effect any one
as long as you have one or the other installed because
freeglut is supposed to be a 100% replacement for GLUT.
This means that if you’ve installed freeglut properly,
you shouldn’t have to change anything to compile and run
any of your GLUT based samples. I’m actually using freeglut
right now to development and test OpenGL samples on both
Windows and Linux without any problems.
I’m also starting to edit my website with Dreamweaver
MX instead FrontPage
2002. I actually find FrontPage more intuitive to use,
but it doesn't offer many of the advanced features that
Dreamweaver does. Plus, it’s easier to build Netscape and
Mozilla friendly websites when I use Dreamweaver.
And last but not least, GameTutorials.com is
now linking to me which in turn is sending me a steady
stream of new visitors, so if you’ve never been over there
before, return the favor and make a visit today.
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