Head Buried In Code
Only a quick update today as I cannot really show exciting screen shots as all my art are place holders and all the magic is happening in code. I decided to clean up the code for the next step in advancing the buffer system, and in doing so slightly messed up the functionality. All back to normal now and moving progress again but was touch and go for a moment.
When coding to render polygons, you really only have the polygons visibility to tell you when things are going 'sort of' well. I know there are such wonderful tools as PIX and really awesome DirectX debugger viewers, but stuck back in DirectX 9 I am not sure I can take advantage of these helpers.
Still, I can continue plugging away using the old fashioned debugging technique of changing a little bit then running it to see if everything messed up, and when it does, reverse a little to see what you run over :)
The Story So Far
Still coding the it which spawns off multiple buffers when new reference data comes in. It's something I don't want to rush, but hopefully I will be able to post a screen shot Friday of blank segments being drawn to the screen and held in place by my new vertex and index buffers.
Signing Off
I have also found it imperceptive to find and buy a car in the next week or so. I figured as I planned to spend the rest of the year in my code cave I did not need wheels and so got rid of my last car, choosing to use a rent-a-car when I absolutely needed to roll. Turns out this does not go smoothly when the underlying plans change from day to day :) Seems I will need some wheels after all. It won't be anything flash, just a wheel in each corner and an engine that won't explode on the motorway.
Sounds good! I still enjoy seeing "programmer art" concept screens and videos, gives so much more insight than just text :) Oh well, I look forward to whatever you can show.
ReplyDeleteOn another note... The Oculus Rift! It is really an incredible piece of work; the most immerse experience to date even with the lower resolution dev kit. It would be wonderful for DBP and FPSCR to natively support it, much like DBP already supports anaglyph and IZ3D/S-3D stereoscopy. Currently only Unity and Unreal UDK support it out of the box so it is still a very fresh market. Combine the Rift with the Hydra for controls and you are pretty much "in" the game. Team Fortress 2 already supports it natively and many more will follow. I'd love to be able to crank apps out for it in TGC products. The Rift essentially uses side-by-side images from two cameras, with a DirectX shader to compensate for distortion of the lenses. It's a very surreal experience to be completely immersed in a game like this.
I also enjoy the programmer art, often more so than polished art.
ReplyDeleteAbout the Rift... I agree that Lee should attempt to add support for it in DBPro and FPSCR. However I don't believe it should be given a high priority. It's very much still a novelty as they are very expensive and few people will own them. Maybe AFTER the first version of FPSCR is released.
You're right Clonkex. We are still at least 12-18 months away from the first sign of the consumer edition, and adaption rate will probably still be low for some time. When the time comes though I don't think it'll be too difficult to add especially since Lee already has experience integrating other VR sets from the past.
ReplyDeleteLee seems to be very good at integrating awesome new technologies into DBPro :D Just look at what he did with the UCCII ;)
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