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Programmer activities

Submitted by redwyre on

Since it's been so quiet in here, I've been thinking we could liven it up with some programmer challenges or something. Since XNA is freely available and easy to get started with, perhaps we can do some simple challenges with that. Thoughts?

Submitted by Talvash on Mon, 07/05/07 - 8:36 AMPermalink

sounds ok to me, it means it would give me a real reason to download XNA and have a play with it. Till now i've been constintly saying "i'll DL it next week".

Submitted by Brawsome on Mon, 07/05/07 - 2:56 PMPermalink

Well I don't own a 360, so I suppose I'd be out of the XNA challenge. But I've been looking for an excuse to look into LUA lately, don't know if there's an idea for a challenge to do something that involves some very simple LUA. I really don't know much about it at all, but a good place to start if you haven't even heard about it is here: http://www.lua.org/about.html

Submitted by Brawsome on Mon, 07/05/07 - 3:00 PMPermalink

Just off the top of my head "Make a text based adventure game with 10 or more rooms, several inventory items, a goal and several sub-goals and 1 or more NPC's you can talk to. Do it entirely in LUA". I don't even know if this is possible... =0)

Submitted by redwyre on Mon, 07/05/07 - 3:44 PMPermalink

You don't need a 360, XNA is both on PC and Xbox360.

And I *really* hate Lua ;)

Submitted by Talvash on Tue, 08/05/07 - 1:43 AMPermalink

From what i hear it's a pain on te arse to get programs onto the 360 anyway you have to have an xbox (which i don't) am xbox live account, and a XNA dev subscribtion. It's much easier to just make stuff for the PC with it.

Submitted by souri on Tue, 08/05/07 - 6:51 AMPermalink

Why not do a puzzle like game instead?? Perhaps you could even eventually sell on Xbox Live Arcade if it all works out?

Submitted by Kezza on Wed, 09/05/07 - 5:31 PMPermalink

Not for me I'm afraid.
I've just started hammering away at modding UT2004 again.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 17/05/07 - 5:06 AMPermalink

So how's this going? I would love to see some programmer activity happening!!

Submitted by Talvash on Sun, 20/05/07 - 12:19 PMPermalink

Well in standard programmer behavior for this site sod all has happened so far.

I'm downloading XNA now, so i'll have a look at it for a while and see what i end up doing.

Submitted by redwyre on Sun, 20/05/07 - 5:18 PMPermalink

Have to let the word get around before anything starts, and that usually takes a while. But if people are ready and willing we could start soon.

Submitted by souri on Mon, 21/05/07 - 8:55 AMPermalink

Should we promote this is the next Sumea programmer challenge?

Submitted by poser on Sun, 10/06/07 - 12:32 PMPermalink

Some images using particles for a steam effect - really slows down the grapics card though - trying to work out why...
Steam 1
Steam 2
Steam 3
Found out why so slow - too many particles - 600 can just do with 100 and thicken them up / change cycle / speed. Quite quick now.poser2007-06-10 03:58:11

Submitted by Swiftless on Tue, 12/06/07 - 5:57 PMPermalink

I might be interested in the programmer challenge, but have never used XNA. What about a challenge where we can use any compiler and language we want? I think that would draw a larger crowd.

[QUOTE=poser] Some images using particles for a steam effect - really slows down the grapics card though - trying to work out why...
Steam 1
Steam 2
Steam 3
Found out why so slow - too many particles - 600 can just do with 100 and thicken them up / change cycle / speed. Quite quick now.[/QUOTE]

Are you using XNA poser? If you are, I am not sure if you can, but I would look into trying point sprites for fog particles. On my old 6800gts, I could get up to 500,000 point sprite particles in OpenGL, without it slowing down my application. But XNA is Microsoft, so I am betting they want you to use DirectX? And I don't know if that supports point sprites.

Submitted by poser on Wed, 13/06/07 - 2:33 PMPermalink

Hi Swiftless, yes I'm using point sprites or XNA's implementation through HLSL to create particle systems - depends on how far the particles are away and how big the images for them but I can do 10,000's but only if far away which was my misunderstanding. Also, I've discovered post process bloom lighting - please take a look at the newest shot the models look a lot better lit.

Post Process Bloom Shot

Droid on the run - particle weaponposer2007-06-13 07:22:54

Submitted by redwyre on Fri, 29/06/07 - 6:57 PMPermalink

So what are we going to make the challenge? I've been thinking of doing this as two tasks, one not-so-hard task and one hard task. Beginners can start with the not-so-hard task, and tackle the harder one when they finish, and more advanced programmers can go straight to the hard one. eg. Start with the puzzle game starter kit and for the not-so-hard task change the game mechanic to something more like bejeweled, and the hard task is to change it to tetris or something.

Submitted by Maitrek on Sat, 30/06/07 - 2:51 AMPermalink

Run with that I'd say, if too long is spent umm-ing and ahh-ing nothing will happen! Just try to make sure that potential participants are aware of the programming challenge, that's the biggest hurdle :(

Submitted by Maitrek on Sat, 30/06/07 - 2:52 AMPermalink

Perhaps if some of the students here could send out a group email to some of their class-mates about it then that might get some numbers up !

Submitted by souri on Tue, 03/07/07 - 5:13 AMPermalink

I agree, enough of this umming and ahhing crap.

Let's get this show on the road. I'll be chatting to Redwyre on the specifics, but what say we have this challenge starting on August, and ending 4th of November (same day as the ending of the modeller challenge)..

Hopefully I'll find a sponsor for this challenge.

Submitted by richard on Thu, 26/07/07 - 5:11 AMPermalink

Well, I've got another PyWeek coming up. There's a number of folk from Melbourne and interstate playing along now.



I've not been to this board recently as I finally landed myself a job programming OpenGL and Python a few months back and have thrown myself into that :)

Submitted by jnmaloney on Fri, 03/08/07 - 4:26 AMPermalink

[QUOTE=chameleon]"Make a text based adventure game ..."[/QUOTE]

This is a good idea. Text adventures are sorely under-represented these days.

There was some mention of using Lua. Ive used Lua briefly and found it has some nice ways of manipulating text, and is simple enough to learn quickly.

Otherwise, I would probably prefer Python. Or maybe C++, since there's Popcap for 2d and Ogre for 3d.

Perhaps we could all work to a common theme rather than a specific language of framework. That would make it accessible to everyone.

Or there could be a joint sumea challenge-pygame week.

Submitted by yosh64 on Sun, 04/01/09 - 3:57 PMPermalink

Sounds pretty cool to me also, but can XNA be used on linux? as that's not very cool for me :\, I'd even prefer python, maybe use the Blender Game Engine?

Anyhows I usually use C/C++ and my own 3d game/graphics lib :).

edit: Hah, seems I'm rather late to reply, just realised this discussion is very old!

Posted by redwyre on

Since it's been so quiet in here, I've been thinking we could liven it up with some programmer challenges or something. Since XNA is freely available and easy to get started with, perhaps we can do some simple challenges with that. Thoughts?


Submitted by Talvash on Mon, 07/05/07 - 8:36 AMPermalink

sounds ok to me, it means it would give me a real reason to download XNA and have a play with it. Till now i've been constintly saying "i'll DL it next week".

Submitted by Brawsome on Mon, 07/05/07 - 2:56 PMPermalink

Well I don't own a 360, so I suppose I'd be out of the XNA challenge. But I've been looking for an excuse to look into LUA lately, don't know if there's an idea for a challenge to do something that involves some very simple LUA. I really don't know much about it at all, but a good place to start if you haven't even heard about it is here: http://www.lua.org/about.html

Submitted by Brawsome on Mon, 07/05/07 - 3:00 PMPermalink

Just off the top of my head "Make a text based adventure game with 10 or more rooms, several inventory items, a goal and several sub-goals and 1 or more NPC's you can talk to. Do it entirely in LUA". I don't even know if this is possible... =0)

Submitted by redwyre on Mon, 07/05/07 - 3:44 PMPermalink

You don't need a 360, XNA is both on PC and Xbox360.

And I *really* hate Lua ;)

Submitted by Talvash on Tue, 08/05/07 - 1:43 AMPermalink

From what i hear it's a pain on te arse to get programs onto the 360 anyway you have to have an xbox (which i don't) am xbox live account, and a XNA dev subscribtion. It's much easier to just make stuff for the PC with it.

Submitted by souri on Tue, 08/05/07 - 6:51 AMPermalink

Why not do a puzzle like game instead?? Perhaps you could even eventually sell on Xbox Live Arcade if it all works out?

Submitted by Kezza on Wed, 09/05/07 - 5:31 PMPermalink

Not for me I'm afraid.
I've just started hammering away at modding UT2004 again.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 17/05/07 - 5:06 AMPermalink

So how's this going? I would love to see some programmer activity happening!!

Submitted by Talvash on Sun, 20/05/07 - 12:19 PMPermalink

Well in standard programmer behavior for this site sod all has happened so far.

I'm downloading XNA now, so i'll have a look at it for a while and see what i end up doing.

Submitted by redwyre on Sun, 20/05/07 - 5:18 PMPermalink

Have to let the word get around before anything starts, and that usually takes a while. But if people are ready and willing we could start soon.

Submitted by souri on Mon, 21/05/07 - 8:55 AMPermalink

Should we promote this is the next Sumea programmer challenge?

Submitted by poser on Sun, 10/06/07 - 12:32 PMPermalink

Some images using particles for a steam effect - really slows down the grapics card though - trying to work out why...
Steam 1
Steam 2
Steam 3
Found out why so slow - too many particles - 600 can just do with 100 and thicken them up / change cycle / speed. Quite quick now.poser2007-06-10 03:58:11

Submitted by Swiftless on Tue, 12/06/07 - 5:57 PMPermalink

I might be interested in the programmer challenge, but have never used XNA. What about a challenge where we can use any compiler and language we want? I think that would draw a larger crowd.

[QUOTE=poser] Some images using particles for a steam effect - really slows down the grapics card though - trying to work out why...
Steam 1
Steam 2
Steam 3
Found out why so slow - too many particles - 600 can just do with 100 and thicken them up / change cycle / speed. Quite quick now.[/QUOTE]

Are you using XNA poser? If you are, I am not sure if you can, but I would look into trying point sprites for fog particles. On my old 6800gts, I could get up to 500,000 point sprite particles in OpenGL, without it slowing down my application. But XNA is Microsoft, so I am betting they want you to use DirectX? And I don't know if that supports point sprites.

Submitted by poser on Wed, 13/06/07 - 2:33 PMPermalink

Hi Swiftless, yes I'm using point sprites or XNA's implementation through HLSL to create particle systems - depends on how far the particles are away and how big the images for them but I can do 10,000's but only if far away which was my misunderstanding. Also, I've discovered post process bloom lighting - please take a look at the newest shot the models look a lot better lit.

Post Process Bloom Shot

Droid on the run - particle weaponposer2007-06-13 07:22:54

Submitted by redwyre on Fri, 29/06/07 - 6:57 PMPermalink

So what are we going to make the challenge? I've been thinking of doing this as two tasks, one not-so-hard task and one hard task. Beginners can start with the not-so-hard task, and tackle the harder one when they finish, and more advanced programmers can go straight to the hard one. eg. Start with the puzzle game starter kit and for the not-so-hard task change the game mechanic to something more like bejeweled, and the hard task is to change it to tetris or something.

Submitted by Maitrek on Sat, 30/06/07 - 2:51 AMPermalink

Run with that I'd say, if too long is spent umm-ing and ahh-ing nothing will happen! Just try to make sure that potential participants are aware of the programming challenge, that's the biggest hurdle :(

Submitted by Maitrek on Sat, 30/06/07 - 2:52 AMPermalink

Perhaps if some of the students here could send out a group email to some of their class-mates about it then that might get some numbers up !

Submitted by souri on Tue, 03/07/07 - 5:13 AMPermalink

I agree, enough of this umming and ahhing crap.

Let's get this show on the road. I'll be chatting to Redwyre on the specifics, but what say we have this challenge starting on August, and ending 4th of November (same day as the ending of the modeller challenge)..

Hopefully I'll find a sponsor for this challenge.

Submitted by richard on Thu, 26/07/07 - 5:11 AMPermalink

Well, I've got another PyWeek coming up. There's a number of folk from Melbourne and interstate playing along now.



I've not been to this board recently as I finally landed myself a job programming OpenGL and Python a few months back and have thrown myself into that :)

Submitted by jnmaloney on Fri, 03/08/07 - 4:26 AMPermalink

[QUOTE=chameleon]"Make a text based adventure game ..."[/QUOTE]

This is a good idea. Text adventures are sorely under-represented these days.

There was some mention of using Lua. Ive used Lua briefly and found it has some nice ways of manipulating text, and is simple enough to learn quickly.

Otherwise, I would probably prefer Python. Or maybe C++, since there's Popcap for 2d and Ogre for 3d.

Perhaps we could all work to a common theme rather than a specific language of framework. That would make it accessible to everyone.

Or there could be a joint sumea challenge-pygame week.

Submitted by yosh64 on Sun, 04/01/09 - 3:57 PMPermalink

Sounds pretty cool to me also, but can XNA be used on linux? as that's not very cool for me :\, I'd even prefer python, maybe use the Blender Game Engine?

Anyhows I usually use C/C++ and my own 3d game/graphics lib :).

edit: Hah, seems I'm rather late to reply, just realised this discussion is very old!