Forum posts

If only you were closer to the Dallas area Zeeba

Terraria is $2 for the next hour. http://www.gog.com/game/terraria

I'm an engine programmer at Nerd Kingdom working on the sandbox game TUG.

You have to know C++ and lua. You also have to have a firm grasp on linear algebra and vector math. My specific job requires a lot of rendering, multithreading, and networking know-how.

I'm so glad everything is moving up to 64-bit. Managing a 32 bit project with a 64 bit one is annoying. Far too many 64 bit dll's still have 32 in their names. >_>

Hell yeah Tetsu0!

In a way Facebook could be the best thing to happen to VR. They have the leverage and exposure to mainstream VR more than any single game company.

Let's let Facebook do all of the VR-industry grunt work. Let them define standards, and do all of the positioning work to push VR to multiple industries and platforms. They will use their vast network of influence to drive VR to as many places as they can.

Once Facebook has proven VR as a financially viable industry, and there is wide support for VR, it's only a matter of time until competitor VR sets spring up. We won't have to deal with Facebook if we don't want to. In a way, they will make it easier for a competitor to enter the market. They won't have to create the VR industry from scratch like Rift is doing. VR support will be in so many places that they are just creating a VR set and not a whole market.

Edit: As long as these responses aren't outright lies, my predictions here are correct! Check out this collection of responses on Kotaku. We will get the mainstream exposure of VR, but without the facebook-overlord drawbacks.

Penguinboy is right. CPU's and GPU's are fundamentally different processors.

CPU's are about doing one set of instructions on one set of data really really fast. GPU's are about doing one set of instructions on multiple sets of data in parallel at a slower rate, but with higher throughput so more work gets done. They emphasize bandwidth over latency.

GPU's outperform CPU's in raw computation with well designed GPU algorithms. GPU's get slow when you start introducing lots of branching into the code. This is when you run different bits of code depending on data conditions. "If this condition is true, run that code, otherwise run that other code." When a CPU branches, it just follows out the code path and it's no big deal; It's only doing one thing at a time anyway. When a GPU branches, the core running the GPU code has to run the code for one branch on a subset of the threads that it is running in parallel. This means 12/1024 threads might be doing work while the others sit and wait. Then it has to run the code for the other branch, where 1012 threads are doing work while 12 threads wait. When one set of data causes a branch, the other set of data that doesn't follow the branch has to sit and do nothing. In the worst case, every individual thread will make a different branching decision. This is considerably slower than a CPU. If you design an algorithm in a way that it doesn't need branching, you can keep every thread occupied and doing work.

A good example of a parallel operation is when you want to find the largest number in a set of numbers.

0 4 28 49 8 14 94 03

A CPU will just run through these numbers sequentially and find the largest number. A GPU can do what is called a parallel reduction.

0 4 28 49 8 14 94 3

First we break the numbers up into groups of 2. A single GPU thread will decide which of the numbers is larger.

(0 > 4) | (28 < 49) | (8 < 14) | (94 > 3)
4 49 14 94

Here we have 4 GPU threads which operate in parallel at the same time. This is equivalent to doing "one" operation instead of 4 separate ones like on the CPU. Then you keep doing it until you have your one number.

(4 < 49) | (14 < 94)
49 94

(49 < 94)
94

And there's the answer. This effectively reduces us from doing X operations to log2(X) operations. There are more sophisticated ways to do this, but this gives you an idea of the strength of a GPU.

Lighting computations can definitely benefit from GPU computation. I can understand why Valve might not want to do that though. They've probably made too many CPU-specific assumptions. It would most likely be faster to rewrite it from scratch than to "fix" it to work efficiently on a GPU.

What do you mean graphic mode?

If you mean to do this problem graphically, just plot both lines on a grid and then mark the x value that the two lines meet up at.

Edit: Also, careful! I don't think your work makes sense! Plug your results back into the original equations and see if they equal each other.

Both expressions are equal to Y, so set them equal to each other and solve for x.

Set both equations equal to each other:
2x + 2 = -(1/3)x + 2(2/3)

Collect the x's on one side, and the constants on the other. To keep the equation equal, if you subtract or add something from/to one side of the equation you have to do it to the other:
2x + (1/3)x = 2(2/3) - 2

Multiply out the 2(2/3):
2x + (1/3)x = (4/3) - 2

Re-express everything in terms of thirds so we can add/subtract them easily.
(6/3)x + (1/3)x = (4/3) - (6/3)

Add/subtract:
(7/3)x = -(2/3)

Divide both sides of the equation by 7/3 to get x:
x = -(2/7)

By request, bump.

I'll do it this weekend. I already have battlefield, but Science!

I thought people weren't allowed to charge money for mods.

It isn't considered a mod because they are licensing the source engine.

I'm doing extensions this way because I don't want unexpected entries to trickle in afterwards. Every time I have officially extended a competition, people ask for after-competition extensions any way. I have had people ask to enter their maps after I have judged everything, and that's annoying. I just want a final idea of the number of entries I can expect.

Remember! I'm giving extensions to people that message me. I want this to have as much of a turnout as possible. You have to message me before the competition is officially over though.

I'm willing to give personal extensions to people that PM me. I will probably release the results a few weeks after the competition finishes.

Wtf Raver.

I don´t really care...
welcome to the real world .. son

That's the kind of community souring shit Urby is talking about. Go do that somewhere else. That kind of assholishness is completely uncalled for.

Im sad to see Urby go. He's right though. TWHL did used to be a more active and friendly place. Im hoping Valve's new engine will spark some life into this place when it comes out.

Can you submit more than one entry?

Limit it to one entry please.

O and 1 question, is it just the looks/design of the map that are being criticized or is it the gameplay as well?

This is a thematic competition, so I would say this competition is primarily about looks and "vibe". Any kind of single or multi-player gameplay would be a plus though. If two maps were in a tie, the one with gameplay would win against the one without gameplay.

could we Goldsource Guys use Spirit of Halflife/ Trinity Renders to make things a little more intresting ?

I'm ok with that as long as you package the entire thing up in one nice folder. I don't want to spend any time installing it.

Does the map literally need a piece of land inside it, or can it be a structure floating in air?

There doesn't have to be dirt or anything. It can just be a floating structure.

Hi TheGrimReafer, is it okay to use CS:GO?

Yep. Go for it.

Ghost129er: Suspended in the air by force... Wha??? Is it supposed to be movable/physics? 0.o Or can we build it in mid air because I have NO idea how to make land move... -.-

As Rufee said, the map just needs to be floating; no physics involved.

Captain Terror + Zeeba-G: Any possibility to allow team/studio entries for this?

It could be unfair to the others because a combination entry could theoretically have twice the polish. I personally don't have a problem with it, but I have to say no just in case. I could be persuaded to change my mind if several people decide to do combination entries.

hlife_hotdog: I just had my idea hit me, but it'll be a multi-level entry...shit...

There's nothing against that in the rules. Go for it if you have the willpower to finish!

Rimrook immediately has one-hundred billion ideas.

Hell yeah!

Competition 33 is up! Rules are here.

You guys have a little over two months, so get going and have fun!

Also feel free to post inspirations and ideas to get people excited.

I like how Steam does it where you can have a unique name, and then a non-unique nickname that is shown to everyone. With nicknames people can be as unoriginal as they want, and the chances that they will run into someone with the same name are still quite low.

Speaking of unoriginality I stole my name. I used to play TFC under several random names because I couldn't decide on one. I saw TheGrimReafer in a game of TFC and stole it because I thought it was funny at the time. I'm really not sure why I held onto it.

I think my earliest earliest name was probably bckstabber though. The missing a was intentional after a name conflict, heh. I chose it after my preference of sneaky gameplay tactics and "backstabbing".

My skype is brent_morris

What do you consider "I"?

So from what i get in hl i don't move at all the engine draws me what i should be seeing ?

It just depends on how you define "moving". The camera's position and direction moves around the map with your player's position. The part of the map that is drawn is decided by the position of the camera. Once the potentially visible portion of the map is decided that specific chunk of the map is transformed around the camera and drawn.

The camera transformation stuff that has to happen is based on the position and direction of the camera, so I consider myself to be moving with the camera. Don't make it more difficult than it has to be.

The world is only transformed around the camera when stuff is being rendered though. Positions aren't actively being moved when the camera moves. That would be nightmarish.

the "scene" feels like its the opposite of a normal map - world moves around you not you around

You're right! The world is moved around the camera, instead of the camera around the world. In the end there really isn't a difference, but the linear algebra used to project 3D coordinates onto the 2D screen makes this style more mathematically and computationally convenient.

It wont really make sense until you understand why it has to happen.

how can it use opengl or d3d or software w/o being forced to one or the other

OpenGL and DirectX essentially do the same thing, but with slightly different ways of doing things. Their only purpose is to draw triangles with hardware support. Both OpenGL and DirectX have software modes, which means that all of the rendering that normally happens on the GPU happens on the CPU instead.

Renderers that use either OpenGL or DirectX have an intermediary graphics code layer that allows the developers to draw things in an API independent way. For instance they might have a model class. When they want to draw an instance of a model, they only tell it to draw without thinking about how it is being drawn. This draw command then uses code from the the middle graphics layer to draw stuff. It is organized into generic graphics structures and classes like vertex buffers or textures. Based on which graphics API is selected in the options, the objects of the middle graphics layer know the appropriate functions to call from the selected graphics API. OpenGL and DirectX are similar enough that most of the classes and the thought processes behind them are the same for both API's. A lot of the code can be shared, but it's still annoying because everything you support in one API you have support in the other. You have to write all of your API dependent graphics code twice.

As someone who is learning you should focus your efforts on one API at a time. You won't get anything done if you try to write a rendering engine that supports both. That's the kind of annoying stuff you write only if you are being paid to write it, heh. Graphics middle-code isn't fun to write.

I can go into more detail on anything if you want.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed yodeling that much.

I've always thought of them in terms of price/performance ranges.

Netbook = A laptop that can serve basic purposes only. They can't do very much at once. They are generally cheap, small, and really light weight.

Notebook = A laptop that has a decent size and average performance. Unlike netbooks it can multitask. It is perfect for most everything that isn't a graphics-heavy game.

Gaming Laptop = A laptop equipped with heat ray vents capable of second and third degree burns! Oh, and it can play modern games too.

I'm staying away from netbooks from now on. For what they can do I would much rather get an ipad. At least an ipad has games, heh.

I have an Asus EEE and it's terrible. After you get everything installed for basic computer use it doesn't have the horsepower to do anything. It is slow for basic internet needs. It can't even run netflix or flash apps without the fans turning up to full-blast and still being really slow.

Just remember you get what you pay for.

If I had to choose from the other two I would go with the better GPU Acer.

Most things (especially non-games) don't take advantage of the multiple cores anyway, and a better GPU will serve games more than a CPU will. Also, more ram!

I hate that both of them are "100% better GPU or CPU" tradeoffs though. Can you find one that compromises a little?

I would go with the more expensive option too.

In a few years I'm going to remember my computer and what I accomplished with it, and not what food I ate.

Also if you eat mostly terrible food but budget for a few decent meals a week, you tend to appreciate the good meals more.

Goldsource has a 'solid' look to it that I miss from modern engines. Nice work Archie.

I'm going to get the floating island compo up this weekend.

I said that a while ago, but this time I mean it!

My group has been in queue 3 times now, and every time we get into a game it tells us "Bad Password" and kicks us all out. It's really annoying.

I know there was at least one serious developer leak where a random guy just walked into the dev office, walked into their server room, and walked out with some Hard Drives. Bungie now has finger print locks on their server room for that reason, heh.

Other times it might be a slip from closed beta testers, or from company-outsourced work with people not under explicit NDA's.

I'm on 5Mb/s, and I'm also next to one of the largest internet hubs on the planet. It isn't as fast as European internet there, but I honestly don't care for it to be faster. My latencies are awesome, and I usually fire+forget about my downloads so I can "oooh" them in surprise/excitement when they are done.

Also I love how Striker's 20Mb/s internet is slower than 60 of Romania. Damn >_>

I'm sorry, I was too busy laughing to respond for the past 20 minutes.

I guess you didn't read the sentence after that.

Sure politicians bend words, but they can't take every gun from us until they repeal the 2nd amendment. That probably wont happen.

Why are you mocking me for stating truth? >_>

Also your "stomping on the constitution" argument is a fallacy of division. What have they stomped on directly related to guns and the second amendment? There is nothing there saying that they can't regulate guns, and it makes total sense too. There are significantly more "arms" than existed back when the bill of rights was drafted. Without regulation people could legally keep chemical weapons in their garage. Civilians don't need weapons at all, let alone a fraction of the stuff we 'could' have.

1. You can get everything he had legally.

2. You can learn to make bombs on the internet. It's pretty interesting, but unusable in any practical way without ruining some lives. My friends and I have built some bombs in the past just to blow stuff up for fun.

3. They can't take guns from us completely because it's in the bill of rights. At least not without almost full agreement by both houses of the Congress, which is nigh impossible. I think they should limit guns. There's no legitimate purpose for anything more than pistols, shotguns, or hunting rifles. Semi-automatic rifles can't be used for any good reason.

Even then, why would a guy volunteer to ruin his life?

Considering the US has the largest population in the western world and a huge number of environments/conditions for people to be raised in, it's statistically more bound to happen here I think.

Crazy is crazy.

Edit: Oh, and relatively easy access to guns

Good article on it Stu

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-colorado-shooting-crime-scenes-20120720,0,2546455.story

B'aw thanks guys but yeah, there is zero chance for me to catch up in votes at this point.

You mean.. Z3RO chance! cough

Also, +1 for the good Captain from me. Z3RO's is a bit plain, and I can't understand why no00dylan's stabber has a steamer on it.

I think you would've gotten more favor CT if you blurred those grossly aliased hammer-edges.

What do you need modeled? I could use a diversion.

If you do plan on buying item(s), if you test an item out it will also let you buy it for a discount. Save some money.

Also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc2g-1jZSdY is great.

Yep, it's open beta.

That came much faster than expected.

http://www.sourcefilmmaker.com/

If HL3 is using some modified version of the source engine, most of the programming work is done already. Most of the tools and functionality required exists already. The game is most likely stuck in artist/design land. Even if Greenlight's development diverted attention from HL3 it serves us way better than HL3 ever will. We will get more games, as valve no longer has to accept games manually. Even more than that we will get more 'cheap' games because this system will push more indie titles onto steam.

It could also push shitty games onto steam if there isn't some secondary approving or denying process. I look forward to seeing how it works.