GameDevKicks.com

Integrating ToLua++ and Your Game Engine

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:24:24 GMT

ToLua is a sort of API/code generator that binds Lua to C code and functions by using a pkg file, a declaration file in which you simply transplant the public members, member functions, and non-member functions of the construct/routine you wish to call in Lua. ToLua++ (the focus of this article) takes this a step further and binds C++ constructs and functions to Lua. It will allow you to use your game engine classes in Lua as native types, and allow you to shunt data between C++ and Lua through the Lua stack while retaining the data structure. The possibilities are endless; you could create objects in Lua using the scripts as initializers, you could expose your object management class and control it from scripts, or you could expose your entire game engine, handling every detail from Lua. ToLua++ is relatively easy to setup, even if the documentation is somewhat lacking.

iLang Syne: A Guide To iPhone Game Development In 2009

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:24:21 GMT

In this in-depth Gamasutra feature, veteran developer Alessi looks at the state of the iPhone/iPod Touch game market in 2009, mapping out the pitfalls, engine choices and opportunities of developing for Apple's hit device.

All Photoshop blending modes + RGB to HSL, etc. in a GLSL shader

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:52:22 GMT

Something that might interest you.. all the Photoshop blending modes as GLSL macros + RGB to HSL (hue, saturation, luminance), contrast, desaturation.

GPU Gems 3: Chapters 11, 12, and 13 Online

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:15:49 GMT

Three new chapters of GPU Gems 3 are now available and cover the following topics: Shadow Volumes Using Hierarchical Occlusion Culling and Geometry Shaders, High-Quality Ambient Occlusion and Volumetric Light Scattering.

NVIDIA GPU Programming Guide Updated for GeForce 8/9

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:15:49 GMT

NVIDIA has updated its GPU Programming Guide and this new version is focused specifically on the GeForce 8 and 9 GPUs.

2008 AiGameDev.com Awards for Game AI: The Results

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:43:10 GMT

Here are the results for the 2nd Annual AiGameDev.com Awards for Game AI, where the best games of the year are nominated and voted by professionals, enthusiasts, and researchers in artificial intelligence for games.

Blender 3D - creating a Low Poly Character

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:35:57 GMT

Mykre has found a very good Video tutorial that uses Blender 3D to create a low poly character for use in your XNA Game Projects.

How To Load and Display an Image with DevIL and OpenGL

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:03:45 GMT

This tutorial shows how to load an image file with DevIL 1.7.5 and use it as a texture in OpenGL. Demo binaries as well as source code are provided.

Optimizing the rendering of a particle system

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:04:10 GMT

There are many things that can kill the frame rate in a modern game, and particles are up near the top of the list of causes. A key contributing factor is that particles are subject to a lot of overdraw that is not present in your opaque geometry.

XNA Society - Story Development and Game Design (Part 2)

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:35:23 GMT

Thus far, story development using the Heroic Monomyth technique has been discussed. This next part of the article is going to focus on designing a game using preliminary and technical design documents.

XNA Society - Simulating Planetary 2D Gravity

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:16:25 GMT

If you've ever wanted to or planned on making a 2D space game, then this tutorial might be of interest to you. By the time you are finished reading it, you will know how to simulate planetary gravity. In other words, you will be simulating the gravity field that surrounds planets, such as Earth, which pulls objects towards it.

A Retrospective Analysis of Game AI in 2008

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:21:24 GMT

Last year, Alex over at AIGameDev.com wrote about his Top 5 Trends and Predictions for 2008. Not only was it a fun article to write, but it also very popular! Now seems like a good time to go back over those five predictions and see how accurate they actually were. He also added a few more trends of 2008 that he didn't predict but turned out to be very important nonetheless.

Announcing First Annual Blade3D Community Games Contest for GDC

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:08:32 GMT

Digini announced the first annual Blade3D Community Games Contest! The contest is open to any Blade3D members who want to create a game using Blade3D. They'll announce more about the submission process and the judging guidelines between now and New Years ... but suffice it so say - make something FUN and you'll have a good chance at winning. And what might you win? How about a trip to GDC, including airfare (for 1) and hotel (for as many as the hotel will allow you to fit in 1 room), and your own demo station in the Blade3D booth at GDC. We have a booth right in the front of the North Hall, next to Intel, so the winner will have the opportunity to be "front and center" with the GDC audience. Stay tuned to thier news page for more details as we reveal them!

Tinting an Enemy to Show Damage

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:18:23 GMT

A simple way to show in your XNA game that an enemy has been hurt (but not killed) without having to create any additional frames of animation.

Blender 3D - Texturing a Box

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:29:20 GMT

Process of Drawing a simple box, Adding the UV Map and Breaking it up, then extracting the UVMap and using Photoshop to create a texture for it.

Better Programmer Art

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:53:25 GMT

Joel Davis thought he'd share a set of tips for making better programmer art. These tips are intended to be useful to anyone, regardless of artistic ability or experience. While tips like "practice sketching everyday" or "visit an art museum" might be useful for the aspiring game artist, this document is meant for the non-artist, how to trick people into thinking that you--the left-brained, code-writing, math-loving programmer--have some artistic ability. In addition, none (mostly) of these tips require "practice", because, while practice is useful and even essential to being a true artist, it always seems like the your deadline is coming up with the sunrise and you just need some damn sprites.

Diary of a Graphics Programmer: Major Oolong Update

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:24:36 GMT

Wolfgang Engel has updated the Oolong Engine's memory manager, the math library, upgraded to the latest POWERVR POD format and added to each example VBO support. Please also note that in previous updates a new memory manager was added, the VFP math library was added and a bunch of smaller changes were done as well.

Free Online Book: "Programming Vertex, Geometry and Pixel Shaders"

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:23:22 GMT

This a very nice Xmas gift for computer graphics developers: a free online book about vertex, geometry and pixel shaders programming in Direct3D 9 and 10.

Hilva Graphics Engine

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:04:58 GMT

Mahdi Khodadadi Fard has released new version of his XNA graphics engine: Hilva. The new version supports hardware shadow maps and there are lots of small changes and improvement comparing with previous versions, specially in materials and HDR rendering system.

You Say Tomato: A Pro on Fan-Translating Nintendo's Mother 3

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:30:45 GMT

In this in-depth interview, Gamasutra talks to Mother 3 fan-translator Clyde 'Tomato' Mandelin on working on the unofficial translation of the Nintendo classic, his day job in translation, and his localization heroes.

You've Been Eaten by a Grue - Escaping Game Dev's Dark Dungeon

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:42:15 GMT

Game development involves a lot of uncertainty -- but could inviting professionals from other walks of life help? Turbine and Disney veteran Patricia Pizer shows how an architect, a naval officer and a professional CSM have helped "serve as examples and inspiration" while working as game professionals.

Collision Textures and 2DRenderTargets in XNA

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:09:48 GMT

I started making a Tower Defense Game which I will be sharing soon, including all my trials and tribulations and the theory behind it. Whilst making it I came across an interesting problem, which was how to tell whether or not the user could place the tower where they currently have the cursor. I thought about it for a while and then decided that the best method would be a sort of collision texture whereby you have a texture 'underneath' the main texture which outlines the areas where a tower can and cannot be placed (though this texture is never actually rendered).

Free Texture Pack for Realtime 3D

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:43:42 GMT

Free texture pack for realtime 3D applications. Almost all textures are seamless 256×256 pixels in PNG format and cover the following categories: bricks, marble, metal. stone, wood, walls and floor.

How To Create an OpenGL 3.0 Context with ForceWare 181.00

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:24:55 GMT

Here is a short tutorial about how to create an OpenGL 3.0 rendering context with the latest ForceWare 181.00 graphics drivers. This post also lists the five new OpenGL extensions exposed by ForceWare 181.00.

AMD/ATI GPU Tools Updates: Xmas Gifts for Graphics Developers!

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:00:52 GMT

AMD/ATI has updated several tools and libraries for graphics developers to analyze your GPU applications, optimize performance, compress and optimize meshes and textures.