666 pages and it's halloween

Not that I am reading much into it.

Continuing the good progress, model loading and sound now done...really feel like I'm on the final push and writing a page here or there every spare moment I get.

Projects are still far more basic than I'd like but I must try to remember they are basic for a reason, so the readers can build them up.

Right, going to try and do 4 more pages on the subject of 3D collision....oh that'll at least 20 pages.

ok it was the bend before the bend

But progress has been great this last few days. Projects are all takiing shape really well and the sense that they are cool and playable is very palpable..though I need some more graphics from my art friends

The text for the book is pretty much  all there now. I'm really pleased with it... probably only another 50-60 pages to go of actual explinations, then another 50-60 of code snippets and I can make a start to edit it down.

phew..

Hardest thing so far has been the texture and shader managers...trying to get them to be so simple that they work with no frills at all, was a major pain. In fact making the code so simple has been really hard work...I want so many features in there but it juse causes confusion.

But its done, and that was kinda the last bit of pushing the rock up the hill, everything else is now pretty smooth sailing and just explaing very simple game concepts that can be built on.

hhmmm maybe I shouldn't jinx it.

On the horizon though I have to do the compatible projects, make sure that everything works on the various clones...the graphic class set up is easy enough but the physical time to plug them in and try them...its at least a day or 2 assuming they all work, which is optomistic, which is why its been left to the end. I haven't been able to work out how to get an EGL context as a full screen on the clones, but no matter if it can't be done, I'll let them work in a window.

Home straight

Well at least the bend before the home straight,  or maybe the bend before the bend before the home straight.
But whatever I am on a roll. I currently have a week off and am forcing myself to sit for 8 hours and write and code the book and its projects. I'm still worried about the time takes to do the projects but they are moving forward and I have to curb my natural obsession with making a complete game. These are not complete games, they are demo's to show points.. All I have to do is make them playable, and let the reader/student finish or add to it.

I got stuck for such on long time on 590ish pages, but finally cracked 600 over the weekend. And did another 15 today. I'm hoping the addition of the how too walk through this week will take it over 700 and next week, the final 50-100 pages before I start to edit down and then can move towards producing the final versions and sending out test copies to some poor volunteers.

My deadline is at the end of November...its still going to be tight, if something does not go to plan, but its certainly possible.

Ah its fun. I printed it out the other day, and it is huge....I hope its not all bobbins !!!

new board :D

Not bought a new board for a while so decided to try one of these puppies.Its only available from Arrow Electronics in the US
$75 so under the 100euro limit I set myself on boards.
It has a load of on board features on it, including a GPS system, though its need for 12v power makes it less portable than other boards. But...its got a very cool GPU which also can handle DirectX so it will provide an intereting alternative coding at some point, Also OpenGLES 3.0 and OpenCL1.1
Ordering it from the website was a bit of a pain though, very very poor website.
I don't  think this has a lot of traction in the community but its nice to try a different system

Cubes anyone?

The 3D sections are finally going ok, after a couple of re-writes of the base project code which had too much content in it I didn't need. I noticed when I was writing the chapter to explain it, that a lot of stuff was unused...and broke the idea I had of making the base ObjectModel class absurdly primitive.

I stripped it back and  can now produce my basic 3D object shapes and transform and render them with ease and edited the book section explaining it, it is now much easier to digest.

The camera section is also complete and allows 2 of the initial 3D games, a space shooter, and a race game, to be written very easily Since basically you are just moving the camera around :D

Next to add to the 3D code is the obj file loading and manipulation, as well as environments and with it collision detection and other pitfalls. I may add some info on optimisation before the 2 big projects at the end. Well I have to add it somewhere.

Anywhere here's some very boring cubes, since I don't want to let the good stuff out of the bag yet...

Hello from Breda

I had terrible jet lag when I came back from Tokyo, that and catching up with school work meant I have been slow to get started again on the book. But I am now on a roll again.

The 3D sections are starting to take shape, the basic 3D framework is now in place. Its primative of course, by design, I don't want to write an engine in the book, just give the user a flexible and usable set of systems that will allow them to place and manipulate objects.

I have my hello cubes project with base classes that do just enough to show models,and camera's at work, its all starting to work nicely. Of course any engine coders out there will go mad, but as I say, the point is to get people coding, not show people who can code to do advanced stuff.

I'm just cleaning up the projects now to put on the site. Looking forward to doing the next stage with models.