Prentice's Programming Blog

Wow, technology is amazing these days. Have you seen Firefox for flash drives? It's called Portable Firefox! (See: http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_firefox/) It's amazing what they can do... but even more, they put an ENTIRE OPERATING SYSTEM on a USB key... yes, you heard correctly, OPERATING SYSTEM. And what would that be? Linux... duh. It's called Flash Linux, check it out (see: http://gnomedesktop.org/node/2059)! I believe that one day we will see software sold on USB memory sticks... specifically operating systems. Think about it, they are getting smaller and cheaper and they can store more and more information... not only that but they are portable. Just imagine, you can boot up your computer by plugging in your USB key and use your same settings at home, at work, at school or at a friend's house, simply by swapping your USB key. Especially with the development of Spintronics (see: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0007A735-759A-1CDD-B4A8809EC588EEDF), USB keys will be able to hold more than ever! Got commentary for me? Send it to: prentice.wongvibulsin@gmail.com

We are going to Thailand for a month (leaving 22nd of June and returning 21st of July) but I'm taking my laptop with me, hopefully to complete the falling blocks project.

So, spring break is over and we have accomplished little less than the completion of a design document. We are currently in progress of creating a game design in further detail to help guide us in our programming task. I have estimated that this project will be completed by the end of May; however, I do not know if we will be able to finnish in time (factoring in the growing amounts of homework/schoolwork that we have).

On the other hand, there is the game project which we are still working on. Silver, has been working hard on the story and the character developments. She is in charge of the story line and character development. She will be needing people to voice her characters for her, but before all that... We need a game engine! We are still debating -- if we will be making a game engine or using an existing one. I guess I won't be finding out soon.

That's all for now. ~outs!~

It's been a while since I last posted here. Nothing much has been happening with all this shcool work. Spring break is comming up which should give me some time to work on my projects. Firstly, project: Falling Blocks is well on it's way, the project proprosal has just been approved by our instructor and we're in the process of writing a design document (which should be completed over spring break). Second, project: the Game, which still has no name, is still in the design stage. I'm also drafting a design document for that project too. Upon completion of these documents, I will post as much as I can. I'm thinking of getting a copyright on the game project, it looks good. I'll have to look into that. Anyways, that's all for now. More to come later.

UPDATE! New version: "Open Gl Free Falling Blocks II"

This version allows the blocks to have mass and stack instead of just covering over each other, they also stick together when pushed from the side. Colors are changed now from RGB to green fading to blue. You can make pretty designs with this program. Use 'P' to pause and 'O' to continue. The program stops after 500 blocks (to prevent old computer from crashing). All the other controls are still the same.

OpenGl Free Falling Blocks II (Windows)

Part of learning OpenGl and the making of "Falling Blocks", I decided to work on the theory of blocks dropping. It's not all perfect, but what's important is that I got blocks to fall. Nothing stacks, so it lines up at the bottom. I capped it at 500 blocks so that if you have a horrible computer, it wont crash. Also, on my computer, running it in full screen makes the blocks fall faster.

OpenGl Free Falling Blocks (Windows)

These problems are things I have to figure out how to overcome prior to programming these games. I think I figured out the speed issue, I'll just run a timer in the game to limit frame rate, etc. Well, enjoy.

Keys:
Arrow Left - Move left.
Arrow Right - Move right.
F1 - Full Screen/Windowed Mode
Esc - Exit

Note: Down does not speed up cube drop.

New Project: Falling Blocks
Description: A Tetris game written in C++ with OpenGl.
Platform: Mac OS 9.2 (We will port for Windows and Linux)

This project is for my 2nd semester project. I am working on this with Mike Chao.

Now, I am trying to work with physics in a 2D environment. I am assuming the mass of the two objects are the same and I am able to bounce the objects.

OpenGl Bounce (Windows)

Use the enter key to start the action. You can experiment by pressing the enter key while it is moving or try holding it. I was able to get both objects to bounce.

They only move along the x-axis.

Now I'm trying to apply friction but I'm having trouble with applying the formula, since my program does not track time. a=(f*g)/m from f=(ma)/g - with friction being the force - and using that by.... v=v+a(t).

Also, I need to remember the formula of the energy transferred in a collision between two objects with different masses. Then I'll apply that.

So, right now I'm learning open GL on the Windows environment, and here is what I have created:

OpenGl Pyramid (Windows)
OpenGl Cube (Windows)

You can use your arrow keys to move the shape and press F1 to switch between full screen and windowed mode.

Welcome. This blog was created as a programming diary for ME! to post what I'm doing and for YOU! to read.