I just got to the part of the book where you add sound to lunar lander. Sure, its noobish, but can I get a hint on making it zoom in when the lander gets closer to the ground?
Nevermind. I'd like to thank you (Andre Lamothe) for writing your books. Its nice to see something that doesn't tell me I'm insane for wanting to simulate a system more complicated than this reality...and fit it in my pocket!
- One of the kids you dedicated the black art to.
Thanks [noparse]:)[/noparse] As far as zooming, really easy, here's how to do it. The land is broken into segments if I recall, loop thru the segments and compute the distance from the center of the lander to the segments center's (use distance squared), find the nearest segment, the moment the lander is within a certain threshold, then you render the scene differently such that the segments are zoomed say 3-5x, and scaled on the screen properly, and then scale the lander a little bit as well to match.
So basically its a matter of testing when to scale by computing when you are close to the terrain, then you need to center attention on the terrain segments near the point of interest, scale them and the lander and continue you game logic.
That doesn't sound too bad! I think I'm going to finish the first read through and wait till the second read to really experiment. I'm too excited by the ending of the Tile engines chapter to stop now. "At this point, you can more or less make about any 8-bit tile based game you have ever seen..." How many more years before I can make RL? 20? 30?
I would truthfully bet that in 30 years definitely we will have neural interfaces, the computing power I am not worried about, its the interface that is going to be the problem. But, 30 years should do it. And just think where where computers 30 years ago, the Apple II just came out 1Mhz, .3 Mips basically, compare that to what we have now. Then project forward, then assume at least one singularity or surge due to innovation such as quantum computing or spin tronics and you can see in 30 years things are going to happen.
That's something I have a problem explaining to people. All you have to to is extend the little line that shows how fast computers are/have been and you have something really exciting. They're just like "aw, nah! thats not gonna happen!" Why not?? We went from pong to Playstation 3 in a pretty short time! I'm supposed to live for another 65 years or something too (assuming i live to 86). Why would they tell me its not possible or worth putting in the time to help push this forward? Its not very far away at all! I've got the resources to be in school for the next 30 years and spend all of my time solving these problems(with breaks for scuba and eating). As far as the interface goes...won't that allow us to engineer even more complicated systems once we can use that to extend our conciousness? I'd like to have a distributed existence across a network of thousands of computers. Connect them all directly to my brain and then have my brain treat those systems like an extension of itself. Push that along far enough and you could have the majority of my existence silicon(or whatever) based. Cut off(or smash) my biological brain and the information/processing capabilities lost due to its death will be insignificant when compared to the total capabilities of me as a distributed individual. Then build the robotic armies :x A million for one controlled under one.
What I am more worried about is that for the past 2000 years more or less you get up, goto work, come up, etc. If you take someone from 50 years ago and plop him down here, 99% of everything he would be able to understand. And if he didn't "get" computers, most people don't anyway. Moreover, he could be gainfully employeed in many jobs, bottom line he wouldn't be in shock. But, I think if you take someone from today and bring him 50 years in the future, technology is going to radically change so many things and we simply "live" that it may seem alien to a person from today. We will see.
Andre' great to see these Hydra forums here at parallax. Also congradulations on the HYDRA both my sons have one and are enjoying the learning and experimentation. They are 10 and 13 years old. We have heaps of fun.
There is a logo as well that some one is working on that they might have fun with. IF you scan this forum section for logo, you can IM the author and see if you can get the latest copy of it as well.
Any news Andre' on your FPGA based GPU? Will you be making an expansion cart for it?? I would love an FPGA on a cartridge with a book explaining how to make my own GPU and accompanying graphics engine. That would be cool.
It would complement both the XGS and the Hydra and is the natural progression from your first book.
AndreL said...
There is a logo as well that some one is working on that they might have fun with. IF you scan this forum section for logo, you can IM the author and see if you can get the latest copy of it as well.
All we need is 50,000 others that share you interest then I could break even on that [noparse]:)[/noparse] We need way more people that are interested in learning things to put up the money and buy these things, that way it can fund future products. Right now, I am going to focus more on "instantaneous gratification" systems that you just turn on and program. 100x, maybe 1000x more people will want these systems rather than systems that you have to work to code on in ASM etc.
But, the only way I would be able to do a GPU book is if sams or one of the large publishers would commit to it and had some tangible investment to sell books. Bottom line is to break even on time/money to write a book you need to sell 50,000 copies, that's quite a bit in today's saturated market.
Thanks for the reply Andre'. I don't suppose maybe a series of tutorials rather than a book is out of the question?? I know your time is worth a lot of money, maybe in the long run it may help sales of the XGS/HYDRA system?
Also is there a second book in the works regarding video game console design??
Or can you give us info on your next project now that the SRAM card is virtually finished?
Post Edited (Damien Allen) : 3/9/2007 7:26:32 PM GMT
Jeremie Urieff(Parallax)
Posts: 10
Comments
Just got my Hydra Book and CD... Time to Play.
Charlie
Andre'
- One of the kids you dedicated the black art to.
So basically its a matter of testing when to scale by computing when you are close to the terrain, then you need to center attention on the terrain segments near the point of interest, scale them and the lander and continue you game logic.
If you get it working, post a new copy !
Andre'
·
Andre'
Andre'
iv just got the hydra sys. today, im so exited
And make sure to check out all the demos in chapter 25, load them and see what they do to get an idea of what's in store.
Andre'
im reading your book right now, i like it alot [noparse]:)[/noparse]
i bought the Hydra from Elektronikladen Distributor
Austria (
Mike
Andre'
·
It would complement both the XGS and the Hydra and is the natural progression from your first book.
Damo
All we need is 50,000 others that share you interest then I could break even on that [noparse]:)[/noparse] We need way more people that are interested in learning things to put up the money and buy these things, that way it can fund future products. Right now, I am going to focus more on "instantaneous gratification" systems that you just turn on and program. 100x, maybe 1000x more people will want these systems rather than systems that you have to work to code on in ASM etc.
But, the only way I would be able to do a GPU book is if sams or one of the large publishers would commit to it and had some tangible investment to sell books. Bottom line is to break even on time/money to write a book you need to sell 50,000 copies, that's quite a bit in today's saturated market.
Andre'
Also is there a second book in the works regarding video game console design??
Or can you give us info on your next project now that the SRAM card is virtually finished?
Post Edited (Damien Allen) : 3/9/2007 7:26:32 PM GMT