On top of all the celebs who are dying right left and center, it seems even the games industries bright lights are now starting to dim. Today we heard the sad news that Fergus McGovern, former head honcho at Probe Software died suddenly , apparently from a blood clot cause by DVT. Such a tragic waste.
I won't go as far as to say we were friends, in fact I probably pissed him off big time doing my 4th and final NHL hockey game for him as I simply had a massive breakdown and could not finish it.. He tried to talk me into continuing but to his credit, he knew I was beaten, and let it go.. No we were not friends, but he was a big influence in my career, and many others. He worked well with people and got what he needed out of them, rewarding them well if they manged to get things done a bit quicker or a bit better, and as I discovered being sympathetic when it didnt' go so well
He could have sued the arse of me if he wanted when I just broke down in tears on the phone. but it would not have achieved anything! I worked for Fergus many times over the 80's and 90's and it helped pay a lot of bills and set me up as a freelancer. Its hard to explain how something like that connects you to people.
Even after the breakdown on NHL, and inevitable fallout he absorbed, he was always nice to me when we met at shows and events, remembered my name and said Hi, asked how I was. That meant a lot. He wasn't a spiteful man, he was a ball breaker sometimes but always fair. He loved negotiating you down on price, but never went below what he knew the job was worth,
The games industry does not have too many true legends, a lot of overbearing diva's for sure, but actual honest hard working legends who achieved something special are rare. Fergus was most certainly a Legend.
RIP.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 27 February 2016
Friday, 26 February 2016
Oh shit, its happening
I sent off my finished book proposal yesterday, fully expecting to hear nothing back, but no...the editor replied within a few hours and was very happy with it, :D
I'm very happy with that, no I'm totally delighted... It still has to go through a publishing committee and get good feedback from reviewers but he feels its got a very good chance of going forward.
I'll hold off putting the deposit down on my Larry Corsa Les Paul (which is what I'll buy with the income) for now, since I won't know for 100% sure till April, and even then it could still be a no. But I have to say this excites me and will give me a lot of motivation to continue with my slightly crazy ideas for the next few months.
Also a very good excuse to feed my OCD collecting habit and get a few more SBC's to test the projects with.
Onward and upward.
Ahthankyew
I'm very happy with that, no I'm totally delighted... It still has to go through a publishing committee and get good feedback from reviewers but he feels its got a very good chance of going forward.
I'll hold off putting the deposit down on my Larry Corsa Les Paul (which is what I'll buy with the income) for now, since I won't know for 100% sure till April, and even then it could still be a no. But I have to say this excites me and will give me a lot of motivation to continue with my slightly crazy ideas for the next few months.
Also a very good excuse to feed my OCD collecting habit and get a few more SBC's to test the projects with.
Onward and upward.
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
I like Raspberry and Banana but Orange disagree's with me
Picked up an Orange Pi one on ebay, another cheap clone of the RPi but unlike the Banana Pi, this one seems to be a very poor copy.
Failed to recognize any of my full size keyboards, preventing me from logging in. Though I did try to use my mini wireless combination pad/key unit which almost worked though did stick on some letters.. However no matter how many times and how carefully I entered the password it failed to recognize it.
It maybe the password is not orangepi as suggested on some sites, but its impossible for me to find out since their website is down....
I think I'll have to write this one off as a not worth the effort.. The others all fired up really quick and easy with no keyboard hassles.
Oh well....I have more than enough fruit in my diet for now, and some meat in the form of a BeagleBoard XM is on the way, if it actually ever gets sent back from Canada, where Royal Mail apparently believe the Netherlands is located!!!
Ahthankyew
Failed to recognize any of my full size keyboards, preventing me from logging in. Though I did try to use my mini wireless combination pad/key unit which almost worked though did stick on some letters.. However no matter how many times and how carefully I entered the password it failed to recognize it.
It maybe the password is not orangepi as suggested on some sites, but its impossible for me to find out since their website is down....
I think I'll have to write this one off as a not worth the effort.. The others all fired up really quick and easy with no keyboard hassles.
Oh well....I have more than enough fruit in my diet for now, and some meat in the form of a BeagleBoard XM is on the way, if it actually ever gets sent back from Canada, where Royal Mail apparently believe the Netherlands is located!!!
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 16 February 2016
new tiny machines
My C1+ arrived all the way from Korea, 4 days after being posted, sadly I wasn't at home but arranged to have it re-delivered at work the next day..what a service so 5 days total...including a weekend!
Meanwhile I think my Pi Zero has been delivered 3 weeks after allegedly being posted, at least that's what the tracking site says....will find out when I get home!
The C1+ tried out quickly on my work station at the office, and its certainly a nippy little bugger, much more responsive and lively than the Pi or Pi 2 I'm quite looking forward to getting it hooked up at home to test out, hope it does not prove to be a couple of days of new frustration like the Banana Pi turned out to be ;)
Ahthankyew
Meanwhile I think my Pi Zero has been delivered 3 weeks after allegedly being posted, at least that's what the tracking site says....will find out when I get home!
The C1+ tried out quickly on my work station at the office, and its certainly a nippy little bugger, much more responsive and lively than the Pi or Pi 2 I'm quite looking forward to getting it hooked up at home to test out, hope it does not prove to be a couple of days of new frustration like the Banana Pi turned out to be ;)
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 13 February 2016
I miss my old chair
After putting up with its slipping height adjustment for months, I finally cracked and got rid of it, now sitting an a much better but quite different feeling mesh style office chair
the old one has served me well for 7 years now...but the slips were ever 10 mins now and thats annoying when you're already screaming at the screen about to pound on another hapless keyboard when something that should work doesn't..
I seems there is a bug in some of the Raspberry Pi's OpenGL extensions...meaning that some of the things I want to do can't be done, quite the same way...took quite some research to work it out, and find some possible work around.. I'm not there yet.
:(
So I'm going to blame the new chair.
Ahthankyew
the old one has served me well for 7 years now...but the slips were ever 10 mins now and thats annoying when you're already screaming at the screen about to pound on another hapless keyboard when something that should work doesn't..
I seems there is a bug in some of the Raspberry Pi's OpenGL extensions...meaning that some of the things I want to do can't be done, quite the same way...took quite some research to work it out, and find some possible work around.. I'm not there yet.
:(
So I'm going to blame the new chair.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 12 February 2016
Insomnia again......
7.14am and I've not been to sleep yet, the cycle continues...I'll probably doze off on the couch where I am sat doing this, and wake up rough as fuck around 1pm...maybe 2.
It does not seem to matter how tired I am, I go to bed and just can't drop off...its very frustrating
I'd do some work on my book projects but I'd just end up getting into a groove and staying up even later,
Anyway the book is going fine 120 pages now, edited down now so that I have all the chapters laid out and the 1st set of projects and what they introduce all sorted, but still need to get the projects tested and cleaned up. I'm still waiting on a couple of the boards I ordered, though I believe they are on the way. I haven't tried to properly do the Banana yet, beyond getting it to connect. I'll do that when I have the 1st game with graphics up and running.
I have my own version of a surface/canvas class sorted, just different enough from the old School template we used to use but the principles of a smart buffer are essentially the same, I got the double buffer framework almost done, just need to try and run a game loop through it and see how it goes. Hopefully that will let the 1st couple of games sorted before I then do the GPU based frameworking.
Also doing some proper C++ coding for work, something I've really not done for a long time, I usually do C with classes, but for work I really need to do proper C++, kinda strange but it's started to click after a while
And Z80 is going fine too, got a great new idea to save memory and give me room to finish, it is taking a while to code but it is getting there...
ok, I'm bored now, lets see if the sleeping thing works on the couch.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 6 February 2016
So, thats how you do it.
There's a reason I don't like Linux....not just that it seems to exist only for hardcore geeks to show off their condescension skills. Its just pants. I mean utter utter pants, nothing you ever want to do is simple and easy.
This is from someone who still has fond memories of Dos 3.0 and enjoyed using line commands.
Linux is just bloody weird and has become such a subset of internalised knowledge that you have no clue what to do when you want something normal without asking some guru who will chuckle publicly are your inability to understand the relevant runes.
Anyway, I have no interest or intention of actually doing much with Linux in the book, but I do need it in order to set up some of the target machines.
My 1st non Raspberry one being the Bananna Pi, which runs a version of Rasbian, but not quite.. And needed to install the Open GL libs...which I have to say is not a simple case of going to a website, downloading and installing...oh no, that would be just too easy.
To cut a painfully long story short, since I really don't get why people on Linux forums are so flaming obtuse...I eventually stumbled on the idea of updating and upgrading my OS...then trying the "standard" install system again which had failed miserably the 1st 20 times, I tried it.
After the upgrade though it finally worked, and I now have OpenGLES on the Banana Pi...I took the best part of 3 days worth of hunting and reformatting to do it, but I think I now have a system, which only takes 2 hours, to prep the target, that should work on the other targets (careful now, don't make statements you can't back up)
I'll try to get some actual coding done on it soon, but for now the experience has drained me and I want to finish some Z80 and C++ coding jobs I have waiting.
Ahthankyew
This is from someone who still has fond memories of Dos 3.0 and enjoyed using line commands.
Linux is just bloody weird and has become such a subset of internalised knowledge that you have no clue what to do when you want something normal without asking some guru who will chuckle publicly are your inability to understand the relevant runes.
Anyway, I have no interest or intention of actually doing much with Linux in the book, but I do need it in order to set up some of the target machines.
My 1st non Raspberry one being the Bananna Pi, which runs a version of Rasbian, but not quite.. And needed to install the Open GL libs...which I have to say is not a simple case of going to a website, downloading and installing...oh no, that would be just too easy.
To cut a painfully long story short, since I really don't get why people on Linux forums are so flaming obtuse...I eventually stumbled on the idea of updating and upgrading my OS...then trying the "standard" install system again which had failed miserably the 1st 20 times, I tried it.
After the upgrade though it finally worked, and I now have OpenGLES on the Banana Pi...I took the best part of 3 days worth of hunting and reformatting to do it, but I think I now have a system, which only takes 2 hours, to prep the target, that should work on the other targets (careful now, don't make statements you can't back up)
I'll try to get some actual coding done on it soon, but for now the experience has drained me and I want to finish some Z80 and C++ coding jobs I have waiting.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 5 February 2016
uggg not all Pi is good
To maintain some degree of independence in my targets, I have mentioned before some of the other SBC's I plan to target in the book, one of which I thought would be simple to work with. The Banana Pi, which for all intents and purposes is a Chinese copy of the Raspberry Pi with a bit of a boost.
It supposedly even runs a version of Rasbian. and is moderately popular with the SBC community because of that. Any way mine arrived yesterday and its not at all unlike the Raspberry model
It didn't come with an SD card so I had to hunt for the OS, called Rasbian of course, on the Lemaker (the makers) site. Installed it over the course of an hour hunting the right tools, but it seems the card wasn't quite compatible, but lucky I had another and repeated..Got it working
Ok so fire up VS and VisualGBD and yes it connects no problems at all, but the libraries are not in the same places as on the Raspberry.. Its not really Rasbian, its Debian with fruit, kinda, it does not have the same layout or tools as the Raspberry, but no matter it was connecting and that's my main consideration...
And so began a hunt of epic proportions for the OpenGLES dev libs, they do exist, I don't really know exactly where, Linux seems to have repositories on line which I assume mimic the concept of the cloud. A strange command line process called sudo apt-get install gets them for you, so I entered the required magic runes into the console..
And it did its thing
And then it said after a while that 5 or 6 of the files could not be obtained.... and install aborted
I tried this several times..but no joy, the standard install process fails when it cannot access all the files it is expecting, and it appears a server no longer has those files...I have no control over that, and the --fix-missing option does not help.
grrr
So more hunting, more google fu, and no result by midnight. I called it a day. There are a full set of all openGL libs available which I can download and compile on the target but that's going to be a weekend of download and compile time..with relative amounts of WTF is happening moments.
What a fucking pain in the arse......seriously, Linux...why??? archaic and unreliable, I have no idea why people like this shit?
Still got a Bananaboard and a Pine A64 to review.....oh joy!
Ahthankyew
It supposedly even runs a version of Rasbian. and is moderately popular with the SBC community because of that. Any way mine arrived yesterday and its not at all unlike the Raspberry model
It didn't come with an SD card so I had to hunt for the OS, called Rasbian of course, on the Lemaker (the makers) site. Installed it over the course of an hour hunting the right tools, but it seems the card wasn't quite compatible, but lucky I had another and repeated..Got it working
Ok so fire up VS and VisualGBD and yes it connects no problems at all, but the libraries are not in the same places as on the Raspberry.. Its not really Rasbian, its Debian with fruit, kinda, it does not have the same layout or tools as the Raspberry, but no matter it was connecting and that's my main consideration...
And so began a hunt of epic proportions for the OpenGLES dev libs, they do exist, I don't really know exactly where, Linux seems to have repositories on line which I assume mimic the concept of the cloud. A strange command line process called sudo apt-get install gets them for you, so I entered the required magic runes into the console..
And it did its thing
And then it said after a while that 5 or 6 of the files could not be obtained.... and install aborted
I tried this several times..but no joy, the standard install process fails when it cannot access all the files it is expecting, and it appears a server no longer has those files...I have no control over that, and the --fix-missing option does not help.
grrr
So more hunting, more google fu, and no result by midnight. I called it a day. There are a full set of all openGL libs available which I can download and compile on the target but that's going to be a weekend of download and compile time..with relative amounts of WTF is happening moments.
What a fucking pain in the arse......seriously, Linux...why??? archaic and unreliable, I have no idea why people like this shit?
Still got a Bananaboard and a Pine A64 to review.....oh joy!
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Crikey 100+ pages
wow I've written 108 pages and 26,000 words...granted a lot of them are descriptions of what I'm going to write, but still I can't recall ever writing so much stuff in my life. I still have to write the games properly that I am going to use as the vehicle for introducing topics and test them out on my expanding collection of single board computers. I've done most of them over the years with students so its not exactly new, but I need to create, before and after versions of them, and make sure the code is clean and tidy and simple to read. That will take most of the time I think.
As I read it back to myself I am developing a growing sense of confidence in this slightly crazy idea, a book that will cover all the basic aspects of writing a modern game on any target machine, without having to become a master of the hardware or the languages used, just knowing enough to get it done..
I need to do a bit more research to finish my publishing proposal, mainly to work out what other competitive books there are out there which are current and relevant.
I've also been on the hunt for some other Single Board Computers to use as targets, there's a few on the market, but none come close to the popularity of the Raspberry Pi, but I've got hold of a full set of Pi's now, a Beagleboard XM and a Banana Pi M1 (the soon to be released octocore M3 looks sexy, but will wait for it as its nearly 100quid), With my new Pine A64 due in March that should be more than enough to ensure decent cross board compatibility.
All this creativity has got my juices flowing on other things too, the Colecovision project has been languishing in no memory hell for weeks, but I hit on something that gives me shed loads , I'm looking forward to finally finishing that and handing it over to his long expecting dad.
Ahthankyew
As I read it back to myself I am developing a growing sense of confidence in this slightly crazy idea, a book that will cover all the basic aspects of writing a modern game on any target machine, without having to become a master of the hardware or the languages used, just knowing enough to get it done..
I need to do a bit more research to finish my publishing proposal, mainly to work out what other competitive books there are out there which are current and relevant.
I've also been on the hunt for some other Single Board Computers to use as targets, there's a few on the market, but none come close to the popularity of the Raspberry Pi, but I've got hold of a full set of Pi's now, a Beagleboard XM and a Banana Pi M1 (the soon to be released octocore M3 looks sexy, but will wait for it as its nearly 100quid), With my new Pine A64 due in March that should be more than enough to ensure decent cross board compatibility.
All this creativity has got my juices flowing on other things too, the Colecovision project has been languishing in no memory hell for weeks, but I hit on something that gives me shed loads , I'm looking forward to finally finishing that and handing it over to his long expecting dad.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 30 January 2016
doped up Zombie and laying out chapters
Yesterday I had another of my silent migraines, no real pain, just a bit of a dull ache, but the scintillating scotoma that comes over me makes me partially blind for 5-10 mins, its rather scary
Worse though is the odd sensation afterwards, like a very stoned zombie, slightly nauseas, dizzy when I close my eyes and a strong feeling of drugged detachment not unlike when you get morphine in the hospital but without the happy feelings, which can last several hours. ie a Doped up Zombie
This one went on for about 6, really very unpleasant hours which I tried to fill with sleep...then I got drunk and the effect was similar.
I've been checked out with an MRI before where they concluded it was just an age/state of health issue, but I think I should go get another as I seem to be having them a lot more often, at least once a month and I think with increasingly effect.
At least I don't get the mega headaches I hear of in others...
Anyway, the interest of the publisher in my book has spurred me on to format the chapters in the book more carefully, I've added a few, and edited some of my waffle out a bit, I think the overall layout seems quite good so long as I can get my relevant points across in 700 or so pages.
Which is actually pretty challenging, squeezing what would take around 2 years for a student to learn into around 20 chapters...from beginner to Console wiz...will be interesting. But I think the method I use of not worrying so much about the language and focusing on the confidence and techniques will come though. I've done 100 pages so far with 4 chapters complete, though containing a lot of source at the beginning, I use less source as the book progresses and I discuss specific concepts.
Also I have done some research in to my potential target audience, that was very interesting indeed but I think I need to expand it a bit as I'm not 100% sure I can appeal to just 1 group of trainee coders.
Anyway, watch this space for update.
Ahthankyew
Worse though is the odd sensation afterwards, like a very stoned zombie, slightly nauseas, dizzy when I close my eyes and a strong feeling of drugged detachment not unlike when you get morphine in the hospital but without the happy feelings, which can last several hours. ie a Doped up Zombie
This one went on for about 6, really very unpleasant hours which I tried to fill with sleep...then I got drunk and the effect was similar.
I've been checked out with an MRI before where they concluded it was just an age/state of health issue, but I think I should go get another as I seem to be having them a lot more often, at least once a month and I think with increasingly effect.
At least I don't get the mega headaches I hear of in others...
Anyway, the interest of the publisher in my book has spurred me on to format the chapters in the book more carefully, I've added a few, and edited some of my waffle out a bit, I think the overall layout seems quite good so long as I can get my relevant points across in 700 or so pages.
Which is actually pretty challenging, squeezing what would take around 2 years for a student to learn into around 20 chapters...from beginner to Console wiz...will be interesting. But I think the method I use of not worrying so much about the language and focusing on the confidence and techniques will come though. I've done 100 pages so far with 4 chapters complete, though containing a lot of source at the beginning, I use less source as the book progresses and I discuss specific concepts.
Also I have done some research in to my potential target audience, that was very interesting indeed but I think I need to expand it a bit as I'm not 100% sure I can appeal to just 1 group of trainee coders.
Anyway, watch this space for update.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 29 January 2016
Getting very serious
Publisher has been in contact, the editor likes the idea, wants me to put together a formal proposal.
gulp...what am I letting myself in for!
700 pages of fun fun fun I suspect.
Ahthankyew
gulp...what am I letting myself in for!
700 pages of fun fun fun I suspect.
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Now I got to get serious
Thanks to some help from old friends and colleagues, I've been able to get some advice on the book and some very positive feedback on the concept.
and...I may well have interested a publisher....just waiting for some more feedback but if they say they want it, I'll have to knuckle down and get very serious about it :D
very excited now.
Ahthankyew
and...I may well have interested a publisher....just waiting for some more feedback but if they say they want it, I'll have to knuckle down and get very serious about it :D
very excited now.
Ahthankyew
Monday, 25 January 2016
I has keys..and mice
One oddity of the Raspberry Pi seems to be its key and mouse handling. I am not a Linux coder, and am very deliberately trying to avoid doing anything with Linux beyond letting it compile and boot my programs remotely with VisualGBD, but there are a few things I still need it to do, especially when accessing any attached hardware to the Pi. For example Keys and Mice..
Documentation on how to access input systems, was sparse, mainly of course because sensible people usually are using some kind of library like SDL2 which itself handles all the key and mouse input.
I am however loathed to add SDL2 or any other large libs to my project as I try to emulate working on the machine as bare as possible. I want to maintain a promise to use only what the machine comes equipped with. Some libs will be needed, my screen loader and audio for example which would take far too long to do anything low end with. But the less the better. If we assume our lowest system is a Raspberry Pi A, we only have 256Mb of ram, I don't want that filled up with API's that use memory for code we never use, the lighter the project the more effective it will be.
Fortunately a fellow grumpy old git developer came to my rescue with some code that showed me how to get it working, and as a bonus is a good intro to threads and multi core coding. It still took a bit of twiddling with to get it to compile, but eventually it all clicked and ran on the Pi :D I will of course be giving Gareth Lewis an appropriate credit for his invaluable assistance. I think I would have been some time getting that to work on my own, and probably have to hit the Linux manuals (shudder)
So I now have a fully working and very small Input system that gives me key presses and mouse input, the rest of the process should now be fairly easy...fingers crossed!
Also I found a retail supplier for a new Pi zero, the teeny weeny version of it that was sold on a magazine for £5 last year...sadly I had to pay 3 times that but its ok I want to be sure my projects will also run on the lesser Pi's. I already have a B+ and I put in an ebay bid for an older A+ that should be plenty to ensure the projects reach the largest capture. They can still be bought retail though for $20 or so.
I also have a Pine64 on the way after the kickstarter program I backed was fully funded by some margin, which though not a Pi, shares the basic architecture of it and then some, and also runs Linux, so hopefully I can get that to also work and demo a higher powered system.
I must say I am REALLY enjoying writing this book, I am coding and also I feel I am teaching again, which is not something I get a sense of with our new V2 system. I can safely say I am laying down all my old course work into this book and it should help anyone who wants to write games, even if they don't want to use the Pi.
Ahthankyew
Documentation on how to access input systems, was sparse, mainly of course because sensible people usually are using some kind of library like SDL2 which itself handles all the key and mouse input.
I am however loathed to add SDL2 or any other large libs to my project as I try to emulate working on the machine as bare as possible. I want to maintain a promise to use only what the machine comes equipped with. Some libs will be needed, my screen loader and audio for example which would take far too long to do anything low end with. But the less the better. If we assume our lowest system is a Raspberry Pi A, we only have 256Mb of ram, I don't want that filled up with API's that use memory for code we never use, the lighter the project the more effective it will be.
Fortunately a fellow grumpy old git developer came to my rescue with some code that showed me how to get it working, and as a bonus is a good intro to threads and multi core coding. It still took a bit of twiddling with to get it to compile, but eventually it all clicked and ran on the Pi :D I will of course be giving Gareth Lewis an appropriate credit for his invaluable assistance. I think I would have been some time getting that to work on my own, and probably have to hit the Linux manuals (shudder)
So I now have a fully working and very small Input system that gives me key presses and mouse input, the rest of the process should now be fairly easy...fingers crossed!
Also I found a retail supplier for a new Pi zero, the teeny weeny version of it that was sold on a magazine for £5 last year...sadly I had to pay 3 times that but its ok I want to be sure my projects will also run on the lesser Pi's. I already have a B+ and I put in an ebay bid for an older A+ that should be plenty to ensure the projects reach the largest capture. They can still be bought retail though for $20 or so.
I also have a Pine64 on the way after the kickstarter program I backed was fully funded by some margin, which though not a Pi, shares the basic architecture of it and then some, and also runs Linux, so hopefully I can get that to also work and demo a higher powered system.
I must say I am REALLY enjoying writing this book, I am coding and also I feel I am teaching again, which is not something I get a sense of with our new V2 system. I can safely say I am laying down all my old course work into this book and it should help anyone who wants to write games, even if they don't want to use the Pi.
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 24 January 2016
Boom there it is....what took us so long..
Been having some struggles on the Pi with getting images in, loading was pretty painless, I managed to incorporate an image loader and get the Pi to use its file handling as expected, carefully managed the memory and reported back on the data that was loaded, all was fine.
But actually displaying my images was just bloody weird, I could sort of see the image, but they were scrambled, all the example code samples I tried failed, and there was so much re-writing of the standard OpenGL ES2.0 text book code to make it compile I was starting to think I'd invented my own language
But eventually as is often the case, it turned out to be a minor error on my part, I'd got height and width of my images mixed up...doh!!! Brians 1st rule of self fuckery*, applies even to Brian!,
I now have a lovely pic of Danni and Harvey2 on the Raspberry Pi :D
I can now finish the chapter on loading and displaying images, though I'll have to change the images before I put them in the book.
Its nice when you finally get something working, even if you cock it up a few times as you go...its called learning ;)
*Brians 1st rule of self fuckery as taught to all 1st years at IGAD , "If your code doesn't do what you expect it to do, you fucked up!"
Ahthankyew
But actually displaying my images was just bloody weird, I could sort of see the image, but they were scrambled, all the example code samples I tried failed, and there was so much re-writing of the standard OpenGL ES2.0 text book code to make it compile I was starting to think I'd invented my own language
But eventually as is often the case, it turned out to be a minor error on my part, I'd got height and width of my images mixed up...doh!!! Brians 1st rule of self fuckery*, applies even to Brian!,
I now have a lovely pic of Danni and Harvey2 on the Raspberry Pi :D
I can now finish the chapter on loading and displaying images, though I'll have to change the images before I put them in the book.
Its nice when you finally get something working, even if you cock it up a few times as you go...its called learning ;)
*Brians 1st rule of self fuckery as taught to all 1st years at IGAD , "If your code doesn't do what you expect it to do, you fucked up!"
Ahthankyew
Friday, 22 January 2016
Johnny 5 needs more input
As the book takes shape and most of the concepts of coding and anecdotal explanations are now in place, I have to turn to the technical bits. I've got the getting started and other things up and running and it is now perfectly possible to make a painfully simple bat and ball game, but its time now to start doing the cool things, sprites, backdrops. Then move on to the super cool things in 3D.
I can do all these things normally but when putting things into a book I feel I need to be a bit more careful in my approach, anyone reading it could be scarred for life if they do some of my sloppy get it working then fix approach and consider that an industry standard.
So I've been hitting amazon for some books.. BOOKS? In this day and age, well yes I like books theres something easy and comforting in having a text book next to you as you type in examples. The internet is amazing but when coding I find books very reassuring to use.
I am very proud of my library, 1 large IKEA Expedia bookcase bursting to the seams with technical books and manuals dating back to my early coding days. It needs a few more modern ones, but since consoles don't have a lot of books, the most recent things cover Direct X 11 and OpenGL3, not had a chance to do much with this years latest thingymajig
It might even be time to cough up a 2nd library, or at least an extra tier to be added..hmmmm that could be Saturdays shopping trip!
For my book I need more info on OpenGL ES 2.0, something until now I have not had much direct exposure to, though its not vastly different from standard OpenGL 2.0, it just has shit loads missing that I never used much anyway.
The plus is that with the release of OpenGL ES 3.0 some time back, all the ES 2.0 books are being given away...some as low as under a pound, though postage is always a fiver or so.
I have therefore splurged on some new books that will hopefully give me some enjoyment to read and provide some much needed proper technical approaches to use in my book.
I'm getting a lot of joy out of putting this book together, its got my juices flowing again, and even given me some smart ideas to finish my Colecovision project which is floundering in lack of memory hell, but a few good ideas have come forward which might get the last tiny bits of code in there to complete it.
Ahthankyew
I can do all these things normally but when putting things into a book I feel I need to be a bit more careful in my approach, anyone reading it could be scarred for life if they do some of my sloppy get it working then fix approach and consider that an industry standard.
So I've been hitting amazon for some books.. BOOKS? In this day and age, well yes I like books theres something easy and comforting in having a text book next to you as you type in examples. The internet is amazing but when coding I find books very reassuring to use.
I am very proud of my library, 1 large IKEA Expedia bookcase bursting to the seams with technical books and manuals dating back to my early coding days. It needs a few more modern ones, but since consoles don't have a lot of books, the most recent things cover Direct X 11 and OpenGL3, not had a chance to do much with this years latest thingymajig
It might even be time to cough up a 2nd library, or at least an extra tier to be added..hmmmm that could be Saturdays shopping trip!
For my book I need more info on OpenGL ES 2.0, something until now I have not had much direct exposure to, though its not vastly different from standard OpenGL 2.0, it just has shit loads missing that I never used much anyway.
The plus is that with the release of OpenGL ES 3.0 some time back, all the ES 2.0 books are being given away...some as low as under a pound, though postage is always a fiver or so.
I have therefore splurged on some new books that will hopefully give me some enjoyment to read and provide some much needed proper technical approaches to use in my book.
I'm getting a lot of joy out of putting this book together, its got my juices flowing again, and even given me some smart ideas to finish my Colecovision project which is floundering in lack of memory hell, but a few good ideas have come forward which might get the last tiny bits of code in there to complete it.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 16 January 2016
Sense of foreboding
What a shitty shitty start to the year with Bowie, Alan Rickman, and a host of minor celebs all dying at pretty young ages, not much older than me.
I don't think much about dying, but I have the last week or so, due to these deaths it just makes me realise how utterly fleeting our lives are, we're there, and gone in no time.
Sad, also strange, I wasn't a big big Bowie fan, but he has always been there or thereabouts in my musical world, some things getting to me more than others. His death is a true loss for music. I play quite a few of his songs with one band or another, they won't feel as much fun now.
In the more mundane world, I've just been getting on with coding and writing, the book is still on track, though the actual coding on the Raspberry Pi has been hit by some silly and annoying tech faults but they are slowly coming under control. Help has come from the support teams and I am back on the very slow learning horse and quite enjoying it.
Work is tiring me out, V2 is quite demanding, even though I appreciate that I can switch off at 5 and try to make best use of my time. The 2 full days of project work is exhausting, and frustrating too, I don't really get the sense that I am passing on much experience or wisdom in what I am telling them. But I have to give it a chance, self learning is the goal, and if they find the wisdom in other ways I can at least recognise that.
Love life is still DOA, even tied to get somewhere on Tinder...nope..a few people will match, but then after a short chat you find yourself unmatched and left with no reason why....too many people using it for fun I suspect..
I need to get out into the real world and get my Dutch improved, I have a pile of homework backing up from my Dutch classes that I'll try to do this weekend
Oh well time to go make some music, after I clear up the man cave, I've had a bit of a shopping spree of small things the last few months, Mics, stands, pedals and other goodies, and they need to be organised and stored, instead of strewn across the floor and tables. A Tidy Man Cave is the sign of an eligible man...maybe.
There's always the positives though, Danni's sending me regular pics of Harvey 2 and he's started to smile.. I've been boring everyone at work with the pics...still a very proud Opa.
Yeah, that's enough to cut through the dark things, focus on the light (oh saw Force Awakens...damn it is a good fun Star Wars movie)
Ahthankyew
I don't think much about dying, but I have the last week or so, due to these deaths it just makes me realise how utterly fleeting our lives are, we're there, and gone in no time.
Sad, also strange, I wasn't a big big Bowie fan, but he has always been there or thereabouts in my musical world, some things getting to me more than others. His death is a true loss for music. I play quite a few of his songs with one band or another, they won't feel as much fun now.
In the more mundane world, I've just been getting on with coding and writing, the book is still on track, though the actual coding on the Raspberry Pi has been hit by some silly and annoying tech faults but they are slowly coming under control. Help has come from the support teams and I am back on the very slow learning horse and quite enjoying it.
Work is tiring me out, V2 is quite demanding, even though I appreciate that I can switch off at 5 and try to make best use of my time. The 2 full days of project work is exhausting, and frustrating too, I don't really get the sense that I am passing on much experience or wisdom in what I am telling them. But I have to give it a chance, self learning is the goal, and if they find the wisdom in other ways I can at least recognise that.
Love life is still DOA, even tied to get somewhere on Tinder...nope..a few people will match, but then after a short chat you find yourself unmatched and left with no reason why....too many people using it for fun I suspect..
I need to get out into the real world and get my Dutch improved, I have a pile of homework backing up from my Dutch classes that I'll try to do this weekend
Oh well time to go make some music, after I clear up the man cave, I've had a bit of a shopping spree of small things the last few months, Mics, stands, pedals and other goodies, and they need to be organised and stored, instead of strewn across the floor and tables. A Tidy Man Cave is the sign of an eligible man...maybe.
There's always the positives though, Danni's sending me regular pics of Harvey 2 and he's started to smile.. I've been boring everyone at work with the pics...still a very proud Opa.
Yeah, that's enough to cut through the dark things, focus on the light (oh saw Force Awakens...damn it is a good fun Star Wars movie)
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 9 January 2016
11,000 words and 50 pages in
The book is progressing and its a lot of fun, especially as I am learning how to use the Rspberry Pi as I do it, its quite exhilarating learning a new machine and then putting down the experience in a form a beginner can handle.
Reading it back it needs a bit of re-organising as some of my initial layout ideas need to be moved around but it reads quite well in the 1st 3 chapters.
I've so far done the setting up of a dev system, running and debugging 1st simple text programs on PC and target machine, and now have got the set up for Graphics and Graphic image loading done..
Just need to work out image display and we're ready to rock and roll.
Found out lots of cool things, as I've done tests, been confused by a few others but worked them out and detailed the results.
This weekend, I hope to get a background screens and key control of an object in place to produce the 1st very simple game to build the framework on.
At this rate should only take a few months work to get the book and accompanying games to work. Though given my bad typing and propensity to make silly gag comments it might take a few months of editing to get it down to a decent number of pages.
Might need to go find a tame artist though to give me some decent assets for the project(s).
Hey ho...this is certainly a more interesting way to learn OpenGL ES2.0 than simply running through a few dry books. I always insist my students learn by doing, and here I am doing exactly the same...
Ahthankyew
Reading it back it needs a bit of re-organising as some of my initial layout ideas need to be moved around but it reads quite well in the 1st 3 chapters.
I've so far done the setting up of a dev system, running and debugging 1st simple text programs on PC and target machine, and now have got the set up for Graphics and Graphic image loading done..
Just need to work out image display and we're ready to rock and roll.
Found out lots of cool things, as I've done tests, been confused by a few others but worked them out and detailed the results.
This weekend, I hope to get a background screens and key control of an object in place to produce the 1st very simple game to build the framework on.
At this rate should only take a few months work to get the book and accompanying games to work. Though given my bad typing and propensity to make silly gag comments it might take a few months of editing to get it down to a decent number of pages.
Might need to go find a tame artist though to give me some decent assets for the project(s).
Hey ho...this is certainly a more interesting way to learn OpenGL ES2.0 than simply running through a few dry books. I always insist my students learn by doing, and here I am doing exactly the same...
Ahthankyew
Friday, 1 January 2016
So long 2015, you've been ......
I see lots of people saying how shit 2015 was, and lets be honest for me its been one of my most miserable years, I've been single the whole year and overall my love life sucks cheesy balls, work has been a pain at times, (side projects mainly, NHTV is still a great place to work)
But really it wasn't a bad year, every year, bad things happen, some worse that others, But why focus on the bad things, and why taint the whole year as bad..I didn't get cancer again, so that's a plus, I became a granddad which was a mega plus, I got to spend Xmas with my daughter and cried with pride again (need to stop that). Had some amazing gigs with Starrcase, and a shocker with The Gadgeteers which sadly started a decline to breakup.
Ok there's some bad, but the good certainly was worth focusing on... It was a year...it came it went, good things and bad things happened...next year will probably be the same.
Who knows, maybe I'll sort out my love life....hmmm maybe not..
Right now I have a hangover from an amazingly fun party..Happy New Year
Ahthankyew
But really it wasn't a bad year, every year, bad things happen, some worse that others, But why focus on the bad things, and why taint the whole year as bad..I didn't get cancer again, so that's a plus, I became a granddad which was a mega plus, I got to spend Xmas with my daughter and cried with pride again (need to stop that). Had some amazing gigs with Starrcase, and a shocker with The Gadgeteers which sadly started a decline to breakup.
Ok there's some bad, but the good certainly was worth focusing on... It was a year...it came it went, good things and bad things happened...next year will probably be the same.
Who knows, maybe I'll sort out my love life....hmmm maybe not..
Right now I have a hangover from an amazingly fun party..Happy New Year
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
New TV...cool but annoying
My old faithful Samsung 40inc beastie which has served me well since I arrived in NL has been troubled of late with a nasty splodge in the middle of the screen, which apparently cannot be fixed, don't know exactly what the cause is, but it gives actors a slight ruddy complexion or maybe a breard, depending on the lighting.
It seemed to be worse after my return from the UK, so I decided I better get a new set which the Xmas bonus had not yet been spend on a new Gibson or Fender
A bit of a shop around and I ordered a Phillips PFK557509 a massive beast of a telly 55 or your actual inches in diameter.
It arrived very swiftly and on time with amazing real time on line tracking, and I swiftly unpacked it from its ginormous box, which at first had me worried they'd delivered an 80" one.
A bit of reshuffling of TV boxes later and purchase of a slightly longer than 8" satellite cable, since it has a satellite decoder in it too.
And I sat down to watch, and listen to something quite wonderful
It's big, I think I mentioned before, its full HD also high frequency, compared to my older set which was no HighFreq...
The higher frame rate makes movies seem incredibly realistic, lighting and shade don't seem to work as well as the traditional blurry 24fps you see in the cinema, a bit like when I watched The Hobbit in Hi Freq.
it takes a bit of getting used to but the size and quality of the image is amazing.
The Sound too is awesome but odd, with a wireless subwoofer now sitting under my seat as well, I get something quite amazing in terms of rumble
It has inbuilt wifi so easy to hook up to my network, which in turn means Netflix is available and no more need for my Chromecast device, though I will probably keep it installed
Installing satellite is really slow and I need to try to work out how to keep them in a nice order, I'm not abandoning my Humax freesat box but this gives me another tuner to work with..and the picture is amazing :D
But I get my freesat channels and probably loads more...so that's cool.
Ambilight is an odd idea, LED's at the back of the set change colour and project to the wall at the back of the set, but somehow it works really well...it might annoy me later but for now, I am loving it,.
Annoying comes from the fact that the menus and set ups are painfully bad, once set up its ok but wow...someone needs to get a course or 2 in GUI design.
anyway, will now continue with my setting up. I can also include my Ziggo cable and if I plug in a USB drive I can also save and record programs...quite amzing. TV tech really has come on a lot in the last few years.
Ahthankyew
It seemed to be worse after my return from the UK, so I decided I better get a new set which the Xmas bonus had not yet been spend on a new Gibson or Fender
A bit of a shop around and I ordered a Phillips PFK557509 a massive beast of a telly 55 or your actual inches in diameter.
It arrived very swiftly and on time with amazing real time on line tracking, and I swiftly unpacked it from its ginormous box, which at first had me worried they'd delivered an 80" one.
A bit of reshuffling of TV boxes later and purchase of a slightly longer than 8" satellite cable, since it has a satellite decoder in it too.
And I sat down to watch, and listen to something quite wonderful
It's big, I think I mentioned before, its full HD also high frequency, compared to my older set which was no HighFreq...
The higher frame rate makes movies seem incredibly realistic, lighting and shade don't seem to work as well as the traditional blurry 24fps you see in the cinema, a bit like when I watched The Hobbit in Hi Freq.
it takes a bit of getting used to but the size and quality of the image is amazing.
The Sound too is awesome but odd, with a wireless subwoofer now sitting under my seat as well, I get something quite amazing in terms of rumble
It has inbuilt wifi so easy to hook up to my network, which in turn means Netflix is available and no more need for my Chromecast device, though I will probably keep it installed
Installing satellite is really slow and I need to try to work out how to keep them in a nice order, I'm not abandoning my Humax freesat box but this gives me another tuner to work with..and the picture is amazing :D
But I get my freesat channels and probably loads more...so that's cool.
Ambilight is an odd idea, LED's at the back of the set change colour and project to the wall at the back of the set, but somehow it works really well...it might annoy me later but for now, I am loving it,.
Annoying comes from the fact that the menus and set ups are painfully bad, once set up its ok but wow...someone needs to get a course or 2 in GUI design.
anyway, will now continue with my setting up. I can also include my Ziggo cable and if I plug in a USB drive I can also save and record programs...quite amzing. TV tech really has come on a lot in the last few years.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 26 December 2015
Me time, can be expensive
Lucky there is Primark to keep the cost down.
I've bought my new winter wardrobe, couple of jackets and jeans, lots of shirts a few jumpers and the new Mission Impossible vid, and didn't break 200quid...amazing :D
Ermm I also managed to take a trip to Ramsbottom to meet Pat at Mad Dog Guitars, what a lovely chap, he's got his own range of really nice guitars, low prices and a wee bit hit and miss on quality from the makers, the good ones are amazing, but there's a few less good ones, but still super value, but he's doing a fine job setting them up to be a good solid buy. I couldn't resist buying one of his absurdly cheap Jumbo's, it was just so nice to play. Even though for me the strings were a bit light. I think this may be the actual one I bought here..
I need to add a pickup to it at some point though but I think this will be brilliant for my new ToneWoodAmp fx unit when it gets here..hoping it will be there soon after I get back.
One odd thing though I've really buggered my shoulder and today my neck, I think it sfrom changing gear with my left hand again...can't think of anything else.
Really is absurdly painful and can't raise my left arm above shoulder height...hope to fuck it settles down soon, Nicked some of mums Co-codomal to keep it under control...might need to go see the sadist Chinese masseuse when I get home...must be bad to even consider that!
Ahthankyew
I've bought my new winter wardrobe, couple of jackets and jeans, lots of shirts a few jumpers and the new Mission Impossible vid, and didn't break 200quid...amazing :D
Ermm I also managed to take a trip to Ramsbottom to meet Pat at Mad Dog Guitars, what a lovely chap, he's got his own range of really nice guitars, low prices and a wee bit hit and miss on quality from the makers, the good ones are amazing, but there's a few less good ones, but still super value, but he's doing a fine job setting them up to be a good solid buy. I couldn't resist buying one of his absurdly cheap Jumbo's, it was just so nice to play. Even though for me the strings were a bit light. I think this may be the actual one I bought here..
I need to add a pickup to it at some point though but I think this will be brilliant for my new ToneWoodAmp fx unit when it gets here..hoping it will be there soon after I get back.
MadDogGuitars Jumbo acoustic.
A little vid of the Jumbo filmed last week with Roger Crombie in the MadDogGuitars shop in Ramsbottom. Guitar is solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides, Rosewood fingerboard, bone nut and saddle. £179 inc free postage. Cheers Pat 07715572304
Posted by Maddog Guitars on Monday, 12 October 2015
One odd thing though I've really buggered my shoulder and today my neck, I think it sfrom changing gear with my left hand again...can't think of anything else.
Really is absurdly painful and can't raise my left arm above shoulder height...hope to fuck it settles down soon, Nicked some of mums Co-codomal to keep it under control...might need to go see the sadist Chinese masseuse when I get home...must be bad to even consider that!
Ahthankyew
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