What are you working on at the moment?

[combatking0]

It's in flash.

[Canopy]

not spent as much time as i'd have liked on the engine for my project

main issue i had was with tearing and after a bit of tinkering here n there with gfx card vbl setting and eglSwapInterval i knew what i had to do..

a quick 45 mins coding last night has left me with with delta timing that is also independent of refresh rate, and self adjusts delta time (up to a clamped point) if calc's/drawing take longer than desired.

happy bunny now, much more motivating when somethings not bugging you!

[combatking0]

My first proper go at c#:

Unlike the Flash versions which came before it, you'll be able to load text files into it, encrypt them, and save the results.

That's what I call progress

[Kirl]

Cool stuff CK, how does C# compare to C++?

I've been reading and watching a lot about encryption and decryption the last few days after I found this: 10 biggest unsolved mysteries.


I'm not working on nothing atm, but I picked up Godel, Escher Bach again, it's awesome! 
(book is really falling apart now, it's in 2 parts)

[combatking0]

It's a lot less code based (from the interface I'm working with), which takes a lot of the fun out of it, but if it's the future, then it's what I've got to learn so I can pass it onto the kids at work.

Many of the same principles and libraries apply, but I hear OpenGL isn't as easy to work with in C# as it is in C++. It's workable, but there's a lot more typing involved for some reason:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/536065/using-opengl-with-c
But apparently there are frameworks designed to use the current OpenGL libraries with C# without the extra fuss.

Much of the design interface details are stored within .cs files, so it's possible to edit the layout in code (which comes in handy sometimes, as the Properties pane doesn't show some of the useful properties, such as event handlers).

It's a lot like Flash 8, but without the emphasis on graphics, and with more capital letters on the start of each built-in method  And you can compile, which makes everything run faster when the project is finished.

The strict typing is tricky, but not difficult to get used to - Flash 8 didn't make a distinction between numerical types, and readily converted numbers to strings where needed, but C# inherits its type policy from C++, and if it makes things more efficient at runtime, then I'm willing to get used to it.

If you're used to C++, there's still plenty of life in the old language - it isn't dead yet. If you're new to programming, I'd recommend C#, as it's easier to use, and supports most of the same libraries quite readily, if my understanding is correct.

[Jim]

Much of the design interface details are stored within .cs files, so it's possible to edit the layout in code (which comes in handy sometimes, as the Properties pane doesn't show some of the useful properties, such as event handlers).

The events are there - at the top the the properties window there's an icon with a lightning strike on it.  Click that for a list of events.  Double click the event and VS will write the function template for you to fill in.  For buttons you can just double click the button in the designer as a shortcut.

And you can compile, which makes everything run faster when the project is finished.

C# is like Java in that respect.  The compiler generates IL (intermediate language) and the IL runs on the .Net framework - that is where the compilation happens - a JIT (just in time) compiler steps in just before the IL needs to be executed and turns it into native code.  This is cool because it means the same C# program can run on many hardware platforms so long as .Net framework is available (it's available in more places than you think) and still take advantage of all that platform's features.

The strict typing is tricky, but not difficult to get used to

Very different from Flash indeed .  I write C# code at work all day long.  Our web service and UI and pretty much everything else are built using it.  Millions and millions of lines of code in over 100 project.  It's a great language for that - robust and usable for massive reliable projects.  The type safety and memory manager are just a small part of what C# offers to an enterprise programmer.  If we'd built it in C++ it would have leaked memory like a sieve and have buffer overflows everywhere.  In C# it's hard to do that!
With an add-in like Jetbrains' Resharper it's very fast to code and fast to refactor - you can do cool things like rename a variable in a class and it will rewrite the rest of the code so it still works automatically.

If you're used to C++, there's still plenty of life in the old language - it isn't dead yet. If you're new to programming, I'd recommend C#, as it's easier to use, and supports most of the same libraries quite readily, if my understanding is correct.

If I needed absolute speed or I wanted control over the executable size or portability or I was targeting some environment without .Net I'd use C++.  If I was working in an embedded space I'd use C.
C# can use all Windows libraries via COM Interop, if there's no wrapper class available.

So, I'm a raving C# fan but I still use C and OpenGL for my demos...

Jim

[Blacksheep8Bit]

I Am currently working in a demo (orly?) about pokemon, trying to remake goldenrod city + music in a 32/64kb demo

[TinDragon]

Long time since I posted anything new, hadnt really done much but I recently picked up the ide after chatting with a few people. Dived into my old 3d engine I was making to see if I could get a working normalmap shader going to display there models. While it kinda works I cheated the light/tangent calcs so it can appear to flip the normals at certain light positions but it atleast did what I set out to do and got me back inside an ide

Pic and exe attached. Badly painted and modelled shoulder pad are also by me 

[combatking0]

K++ Jim - I hadn't noticed the lightning symbol before. It's there in SharpDevelop too.

[TinDragon]

Thread revival 

Had an hour to spare so I had a go at modelling and texturing a object, settled on a sword. Texture needs some work but it's better than it started out

[egons]

on metaballs and shaders

[combatking0]

Cool sword TinDragon. Hopefully I'll be able to make my first texture mapped demo soon.

I almost read meatballs there, egons - I must be hungry again. What's a metaball?

[Shockwave]

Hardware or software textures?

Looks good either way

[Kirl]

Nice sword TinDragon! 

I've been working on some pretty neat moire effects, I was about to show it off but I just discovered a weird bug that only occurs in the browser... 

[Kirl]

Fixed the bug!
I've been experimenting with moire patterns. Press Space to switch between 2 patterns and several sounds.
Alt to toggle the color overlay on/off to see the moire effect better.
http://kirl.nl/moireLiquid.swf

[benny!]

Awesome, Kirl!

[Raizor]

Nice one Kirl, very cool effect!

[Shockwave]

Excellent effect!

I really think it goes well with those sound effects too

[Kirl]

Thanks guys!
I just noticed some ocasional deformation spasms, probably because of how I fixed the bug. It didn't work the way it was supposed to, so I kind of hacked a quick fix.

Weird stuff though, it only ocurs in the online version, all is well on my HD... 

[combatking0]

Looks like the browser-plug-in Flash Player may be different to the non-browser Flash Player.

Nice effect though - I can only wonder how it was done.