12/08/05
Again,
Anton Ephanov of the Guildhall at SMU,
has delivered unto us a
glorious new sample and just in time for Christmas. His
new sample deals with Rigid Body Dynamics, so if you've been
searching the internet in vain for the actual math behind
such magic... you're in luck!
10/13/05
All of the DirectX 9.0 based samples
that make use of Cg have been updated to work with the newest
Cg Toolkit 1.4.
According to the official Cg samples, this is the correct way
of retrieving the optimal options for a particular profile,
but the options it returns do not appear to work.
CGprofile
vertexProfile =
cgD3D9GetLatestVertexProfile();
const char *vertexOptions[] =
{
cgD3D9GetOptimalOptions(
vertexProfile ),
NULL,
};
For now, I’ve substituted the following hard-coded options so
the samples will run.
const char*
vertexOptions[] =
{
"-profileopts", "dcls", NULL,
};
Hopefully in the future, the call to cgD3D9GetOptimalOptions
will return something valid.
08/22/05
Well, things here are busy as usual, but I thought I would
drop a line to mention a
new user sample
submitted by a friend of mine.
His sample demonstrates how to use a pixel buffer to
simulate the trailing persistent after-glow of a radar's
sweep, which as we all know, is very useful for hunting down
pesky aliens which are hiding in your ship's air ducts... if
you have that sort of problem... I mean.
07/17/05
I have two new samples for you. The first one is a
C# port
of my DirectX 9.0 first-person-shooter control sample and
the second one is a
very special
user-submitted sample from
Anton
Ephanov who teaches at the Guildhall at SMU.
Anton has basically given us one of the best collection
of samples I’ve ever seen dealing with memory management and
I’m positive that anyone who uses C++ will find them very
useful!
07/08/05
For you Visual Basic types,
RobyDX has sent in
4 more VB .NET / DirectX 9.0 samples
for me to post. Enjoy!
For the rest of you, I’m sorry, but I’ve had my hands full
ever since I decided to create a lecture and PowerPoint
slide presentation concerning multithreaded programming. It
seemed easy at first, but this has turned into quite a
challenge. Actually, writing the lecture is fairly easy, but
creating good code samples that demonstrate real-life
multithreaded bugs is strangely difficult.
"What!?", you say. Writing bugs is difficult?
Weird I know, but the type of bugs that plague multithreaded
applications have a lot to do with timing and small samples
or applications often refuse to manifest these bugs under
such simple conditions. This is basically why multithreaded
applications can start off working fine, but as the project
gets bigger and the workload of each thread changes… all
hell begins to break loose.
Any way, this ordeal will hopefully be finished soon and
I'll be able release the presentation and code for all to
enjoy. All I have to do is round up a few more of these
pesky multithreaded programming bugs for my collection and I
will be done.
Now, for those of you who are new to multithreaded
programming and don’t understand how hard it is to catch,
let alone reproduce some of these strange bugs, the
following visual aid should put into to perspective for
you...
Of course, I don't mean to scare anyone away from doing
multithreaded programming. It can be grueling at times, but
the proper usage of threads is quickly becoming a crucial
skill as we move into a future where the common household
desktop could be running a multi-core processor, or even
multiple processors. Intel and AMD are pushing hard to make
this a reality and when it does, those applications that are
running multiple threads will have a major advantage over
those that run single-threaded.
Consider yourself warned!
07/06/05
Well, it’s been a while since my last update, but I think
you’ll forgive me once you check out my latest hand-dandy
OpenGL sample which deals with the proper usage of the
new
EXT_framebuffer_object
extension.
In particular, the sample demonstrates how this new
extension is an excellent replacement for the
traditional pixel buffer setup used to create dynamic
textures, which typically involves the
WGL_ARB_pbuffer
and
WGL_ARB_render_texture
extensions. In other words... say good bye to those nasty context
switches! Of course, you'll need the latest and greatest
hardware and drivers to see this bad-boy run.
06/28/05
I received a
new
user sample from ViLiO
concerning shadow volumes and how to use the Z-Fail technique
to render correct shadows when the viewing position is inside
the shadow volume. This technique is also know as Carmacks' Reverse.
I think many of you will find it very useful since my
original
shadow volume sample didn't incorporate this technique.
And, as usual, a
new C# sample
for you managed types. This go around we deal the basic of
using transforms. The sample also covers the MatrixStack
object of DirectX 9.0, which will allow you to Push and Pop
matrices to your hearts' content!
06/22/05
For those of you who have finally let go of your beloved Visual
Basic 6.0 and embraced Visual Basic .NET,
RobyDX has sent in
5 more VB .NET / DirectX 9.0 samples
to ease your transition.
And for the C# fans out there, I've posted a
new DirectX 9.0 C# port as well.
Also, all NovodeX samples have been upgraded to
NovodeX 2.2,
so if you haven't downloaded and installed the latest and
greatest from Aegia,
you'll need to.
06/13/05
I’m happy to announce that CodeSampler.com will now offer
user submitted code samples. So,
if you got a bunch cool samples just sitting around on your
hard drive suffering bit-rot, you now have a way of sharing
them with the world!
But before you get too excited, please note that I’m
stickler for quality! Therefore, make sure to read over
these handy submission guidelines
before submitting your wickedly cool, MMORPG based on the
“Friends” TV show, which is written completely in FORTRAN.
(That’s sarcasm people! Do not send me any such thing…
unless I get to play Joey and have god-like admin privileges
over the server… then we’ll talk.)
Now, with all that said, I would like thank
RobyDX for
submitting a series of introductory DirectX 9.0 samples
written in VB .NET. It’s a great way to kick-start this new
feature of the site since I’ve never offered anything
written in Visual Basic .NET. His samples will definitely
help expand CodeSampler’s audience.
In other news, Amy Tucker,
has created a new animated link button for the site, so if
you want to link to us in a cool and stylish way, you can
use this little button thingy.
But, I must warn you; even though the button looks
simple, it uses powerful subliminal messages to mesmerize
its prey. Do not stare at it too long you will be overcome
by a powerful urge to visit CodeSampler.com. Oops, too late!
06/12/05
Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know
that the
Guildhall at SMU has quickly become a Mecca for those
seeking the lofty heights of game design knowledge, and some
of the student projects being crafted there are truly
amazing.
With that said, I invite you to check out one of their
current projects titled,
eclipse (don't miss the
video). Besides being a total third-person conversion
of the Half-Life 2 engine, its art and level design are
top-notch. Incredible really, considering it's only been in
production for 5 months.
Clearly, there can be nothing legal
concerning the caffeine level of these
students!
More Site News... |
