Programmer - an organism that turns coffee into software.

Challenge Accepted!



I haven’t really updated this blog for a while because of the amount of work I have to do. Fed up of staring at my Java code for my android game, I thought I would finally update my blog.

Its coming up to that time of year, assignment deadlines and I have a shit load of them! But lets start with a positive, the placement hunt is finally over and done with. After my trip to GDC in San Francisco I had an interview. Personally I thought I could have done a little better however the company decided to offer me one of their placement opportunities. Looks like I am moving to Bradford in July.

I haven’t let the excitement suck in yet as I still got a massive hurdle to get over, ASSIGNMENTS! I thought I would just give a small update to what work I have got to do. I can’t paste a lot of screenshots as I have recently re-installed Windows on my desktop and haven’t got round to installing XNA and DirectX11. As some of you know, I got 5 modules this semester meaning a lot more work than last semester.

Mobile Devices
Oh… Java, how much I hate you but I got to live with you as I am sure we will meet again in the future. I think my twitter feed is spammed with my pure hate rage of Java and the IDE Eclipse doesn’t help. Having all sorts of issues but I am soldiering on in my own moany way. The game is getting there, couple of ‘lost data’ issues that resulted in me spending the last couple of days re-doing months worth of work but I am finally at a stage where I can start putting it all together. Here is a picture of some of the development I am making but in the next few weeks I will be posting a proper in-depth post about the game and how you can get it.

Interactive 3D Programming
DirectX 11, with all the issues I had at the start I am actually starting to like this module and programming using the Direct3D API. I still got a lot of work to do but the final outcome is to demonstrate a simple game engine that I have developed in DirectX 11. So far I have camera controls, terrain and completed my Framework. Now I got to start adding some collision. Haven’t worked on this for a while but here is a picture of the terrain I have generated. This isn’t MY terrain, its my housemates but terrain is terrain.

Console Development
This is one module I think I may struggle with but I am slowly getting there. We have two mini assignments for this which are both PSP Applications. The first is a benchmarking program, sounds complicated but it’s really easy and I think I will get this sorted soon. However the next part seems like a killer, billboard particle system that runs on the PSP. I haven’t started this or got any idea on what I will display, was thinking something fire/smoke related. Any ideas????

Team Software Development
We have been working on a XNA game, it is a platformer with a twist. We are going with the concept of gravity and how we can use it within a level. It is still a working development and we don’t have much to look at but the core programming for it is nearly complete. Aspects I have been working on is a level builder for us but I am also researching into a visual level builder that a user could use. Let other gamers design the levels. There has been mainly three of us working on this, not with all our attention but its slowly getting closer to its completion. Once its finished we are hoping to put it on the Xbox Indie Market.

Operating Systems
This module is simple but I have learnt a huge amount, I have been taking it further as my placement will involve programming in a lot of C which is what this module is all about. The assignment is relatively simple. Making three programs that use different processes and threads. I have all ready finished these programs. First program just demonstrates how long it takes for an event signal to be received by another thread. The other two are similar but instead of threads, I have created an event in one program (process) and called it in another program. Timing how long it takes and comparing the results to my first program.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. As I type this, it seems kinda pointless but I needed a break, if you watch this space I will be doing in-depth posts about projects and work I have been working on. I will also be updating my website to make these projects available.

Posted in Blog

GDC – Second Day and Third Day



Just got round to posting this post up as I have been quite busy today.  Just a quick update of my trip to GDC so far, now the conference has actually started.

We spent most of yesterday getting all the touristy stuff out the way, we went on a bay cruise which took us underneath the Golden Gate Bridge then around Alcatraz Island. It was only an hour long but it was truly amazing. I went a bit trigger happy with the camera but I have made the photos public on my Facebook account (the album). We also booked our Alcatraz Island tour for Saturday morning as it was fully booked for most of the week, apparently it can get extremely busy.

After walking all over the city we ended back at the hotel, we made plans in the evening to visit a friend that I knew from London who settled down in San Francisco. Weather was amazing (hence my sunburn) that we had a BBQ in his garden and some beers!

Today was the first day of the conference, up nice and early so I can get registered quickly but the system they have at GDC is the best I have seen when it comes to events. Within a minute I had my badge and goodie bag. The plan for today was to attend the Maths tutorial as my maths could be alot better, plus it was covering material that I could use this semester in my 3D graphics programming however I didn’t catch a 11 hour flight for something I could do back in the UK so I decided to attend the two day Game Design Tutorial to see if it could improve my creativity.

This tutorial has been amazing so far, I have met a lot of new people. Developers from big game companies to game designers who make casino slot machines. The tutorial in the morning was pretty much the same as my Game Design module at University (Sissyfight 3000)  but it went into so much detail. The afternoon was more work on some board games which will be carried on tomorrow. I got some talks that I want to attend tomorrow so hopefully I will have more to write about then.

Make sure you check out the Facebook album, it’s the pictures I have taken so far and I will be uploading more during the week.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far!

 

Posted in Blog

GDC – First Day Update



As some of you may know (from my facebook spam) that I am at GDC this week, which is in sunny San Francisco. We got into San Francisco last evening, so I don’t really have much to update people on apart from the flight.

Reason why I make alot of fuss about the flight was because it was my first flight since I was too young to remember. So I am counting it was my first time abroad and the first time I am flown. We already knew the flight was going to be a pain as it was 10-11 hours long. We knew the airline wasn’t very good and we knew we was in its famous ‘cattle’ class but we made do.

The flight was okay, I was sat next to some German IT consultant, so at least I met someone knew. Entertainment was awful, didn’t even get our on TV’s, however the moment they stuck a episode of House on I did smile! I was also forced to watch ‘Footlose’ … COME ON!

Once we got to San Francisco we tried to find were our shuttle bus was going to pick us up from and we failed completely. We ended up asking for help but eventually got to our hotel.   My hotel room is nice, big TV, nice view of the bay but for some reason the University has booked us in to double rooms ….. each! Neverless more room for me!

Sorry for the boring post, like I said I don’t have much to write, today we are doing some tourist things, golden gate bridge and Alcatraz! I am sure I will have some interesting things to write about tomorrow! The WiFi at the hotel is alot of money so I think I will be doing what I have done today, walked across the road to starbucks, got a coffee and used there free internet!

Thanks for reading!

Posted in Blog
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