As you may or may not know, I am currently working on a game called Mendel’s Farm with the rest of the team at Static Games. Over the last couple of days I have been thinking about various ways of adding AI-controlled actors to the game and how best to make them navigate the farm…

I decided that path-finding over a grid will be required to achieve this, so I decided to investigate the A* path-finding algorithm. Before implementing it in-game (in UnrealScript) I decided to create a test implementation in JavaScript using HTML for rendering and the UI. I’ve uploaded the result here, so click here to run the A* test!

For a recent university assignment, I needed to create many different textures for both 3D models and surfaces. I wanted to create normal maps for each of these but I didn’t know how to do it.

I decided therefore to experiment with different approaches including photographing a surface with light from different sides and by using filters in GIMP and Photoshop. Both techniques worked well and I realised that I could create a program to speed up the process.

I completed an assignment for university which asked for a representation of a film scene to be created using UDK and 3DS Max. I decided to use “The Shining” directed by Stanley Kubrick. The assignment required me to create at least two 3D models, one which should be a character with three distinct animations. I chose to model the boy, Danny, for this purpose. The assignment also asked for a cinematic to show off the project, here it is: -

I have been programming now since about the age of 8. I started programming in BASIC on my Amstrad CPC464 by copying programs from the user manual and from Type-Ins from Amstrad Action magazine (and what a magazine that was…). Since then, I have moved from BASIC, to machine code and assembler (Z80, MOS 6510 and x86), C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Pascal, PHP, Rust and more.

I have a real passion for programming, I really enjoy being able to make a computer do what I want it to do! Before I started programming professionally, I wrote hundreds of programs in various languages and on various platforms so that I could learn techniques and APIs. From games to basic operating systems, graphical techniques to physical simulations, it was all about learning and having fun!

I created this level in Unreal Development Kit (UDK) as part of an assignment for university. The task was to create a single or multiplayer level in UDK based on a theme of our choice. I decided to create a multiplayer level based on top of 4 buildings. I was also asked to create and texture 2 vehicle and 2 character models using 3DS Max – these models can be seen in my 3D modelling posts.

Genesis-uk.com is the main website for Genesis UK . Com Ltd., which provides an on-line wholesale catalogue for customers together with basket and checkout facilities. Genesis UK . Com Ltd. offer customised products including garments, mugs, pens and much more all customisable via screen printing, embroidery and transfer printing. The site itself was built from scratch and uses many different technologies both on the website itself and in the back office.

This is a low-poly helicopter model that I created and textured in 3DS Max for my Rooftop Deathmatch map. I wanted one of the roof-tops to be used as a helicopter landing pad, so this helicopter model was used for this and to provide some cover for the player during matches.

Eyewood Marquetry is a work in progress site that I built for a friend’s marquetry business. The site is designed to showcase his work, give information about the artistic process involved in creating the work and to provide a place where people can commission a piece of work.

This is a low-poly car model that I created and textured in 3DS Max for my Rooftop Deathmatch map. In the level, I created 4 different materials with different colour bodywork to provide some simple variation to the cars in the level.

Teeshirtdirect.com is a site that allows customers to create their own t-shirts, hoodies, polo shirts and more. Customers can add stock designs, custom text and their own uploaded images. The site itself was built from the ground up and uses a Flash interface to allow customers to position, scale, rotate and otherwise manipulate the designs directly on the garment. There are also options for changing the garment size, colour, style etc. Customers can order directly from the site using a full e-commerce system including a basket and a secure checkout.

This is a low-poly gargoyle model that I created and textured in 3DS Max for my Rooftop Deathmatch map. I wanted one of the buildings to have some areas for cover so a gargoyle at each corner was used. The gargoyles also add some variation to the rooftop of the older-style building in the level.

This is a low-poly rat model that I created and textured in 3DS Max for my Rooftop Deathmatch map. I also created a variation on the model which was a dead rat. Both models were used in the stairwells in the level.

This is a work in progress Commodore 64 emulator written from the ground up in C. I’m lucky enough to own an original Commodore 64 together with the technical reference manual, and using both of these I was able to create a working emulator.

My first step was to code the MOS 6510 processor core. From there I coded the memory manager, the I/O, interrupt handling, the VIC chip etc. All I then needed to do was plug in the original C64 ROMs (Kernal, Character Generator and Basic) and I had bare-bones emulated C64, which was quite a thrill!

Downloads

• Linux build: malevolent_revenge_linux_v1.0.0.zip (29.5KB)
• Windows build: malevolent_revenge_win_v1.0.0.zip (364.5KB)
• Source code: malevolent_revenge_src_v1.0.0.zip (38.5KB)
• The resource files (bitmaps, music etc), same for Linux and Windows versions, to be placed in the same directory as the executable: malevolent_revenge_files_v1.0.0.zip (14.6MB)

Building from source in Ubuntu aside from the usual also requires liballegro4.2-dev and running requires liballegro4.2 and liballegro4.2-plugin-esd. Running under Windows requires alleg42.dll (included in the ZIP file) and the MS Visual C++ 2010 runtime, which can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5555

We all know that Facebook is pretty popular to say the least, but new research by Facebook and the University of Milan now finds that instead of the popular conception that there are six degrees of separation between us, there are actually 4.74.

The original research for the “six degrees of separation” finding comes from research published by the psychologist Stanley Milgram (also known for the infamous Milgram Experiment) in 1967 who used 296 volunteers in his research. This experiment was called the “Small World Experiment”. The latest Facebook research by comparison used 721 million Facebook users’ data and shows that the world, in this respect, is now even smaller.

I am writing this blog post having done no research whatsoever. Rather than laziness, the reason for this is that I cannot research the topic I was going to write about. This is because my Internet connection has not been available to me this evening, something which I had, maybe foolishly, relied upon having. But then it struck me; after finishing a very frustrating phone call with my ISP, I have decided to share my opinions of technology companies and their treatment of customers.

As most web developers will know there are three main image formats used on the web – the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Pictures Expert Group (JPEG) and Portable Network Graphics (PNG). Most will also know about their various advantages and disadvantages. Google are hoping to unify these formats in their new WebP image format and a recent announcement shows that they are getting closer to this goal.

Technically any image format can be used on the web, but support from browsers dictates how popular a format will be. All of the major browsers support the above three and Google will need to make sure that they can support WebP in order for it to become viable.

Yesterday, BBC news reported that a “hacker” had allegedly destroyed a pump in the Illinois water treatment system. Apparently, this person had managed to gain access to the system and break the pump by repeatedly turning it off and on. This attack on a SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) follows a similar attack earlier this year by the Stuxnet virus which appeared to target the Siemens SCADA system of the Uranium nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran.

The latest era in the so-called “Browser Wars” seems to be focused largely on JavaScript execution speed. With more and more websites using client-side scripting to enhance functionality (Google Docs, Google Maps, Facebook etc.), the faster these scripts can run the better. ...

The LinuxCon conferences are annual events organised by the Linux Foundation and currently held in North America, Japan and Brazil. This week in LinuxCon Brazil, Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, shared his views on “locked down” technologies from the likes of Microsoft and Apple.

Specifically, Torvalds talked about Apple’s use of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and Microsoft’s new Secure Boot feature that will be used in their upcoming Windows 8 OS.

The 11th of November 2011 saw the release of Bethesda Game Studio’s latest instalment of the Elder Scrolls series, part five, Skyrim. Continuing with the series’ single-player role playing theme, Skyrim is the result of around 5 and a half years of development since the previous instalment, Oblivion. Skyrim has been hugely anticipated, with a large number of screen-shots having been released over the last month or so.

It’s clear from these that, at least graphically, Skyrim is very special. Its predecessor Oblivion was graphically cutting-edge when it was released in 2006 and Skyrim seems to continue the boundary-pushing tradition.

Nintendo have just released the latest game in the massively successful Mario Series – “Super Mario 3D Land” for the new Nintendo 3DS. While most people, even non-fans, will see this as another piece of harmless entertainment, one organisation has already taken offence. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, commonly known as PETA.

PETA’s particular grievance with this new game is in Mario’s not-so-new “Tanooki suit”, which has the appearance of a raccoon. According to PETA, Mario is “…even wearing the skin of a raccoon dog to give him special powers”. The reason I say “not-so-new” is that in fact Mario has worn this suit as far back as the early 90’s in “Super Mario Bros. 3” for the NES.

The use of Adobe’s Flash plugin on mobile devices has been a contentious issue recently, with Apple devices notably lacking support. So news that Adobe is dropping support for the Flash plugin for mobile devices in favour of HTML5 technologies may be unsurprising. But what d...

Google has recently announced that they have updated their core software to allow fresher results in their search engine. These specific changes are intended to allow the search engine to find out whether a person wants up-to-date or historical results. Google is hoping that...

Described as, “Europe’s biggest and best-loved videogames culture festival”, the 6th GameCity festival has just taken place in Nottingham. The culmination of the four-day event was the GameCity Prize 2011, with the entries including Minecraft, Portal 2, Ilomilo, Pokemon Black and others. And the winner was… Minecraft!

Compared to the competition, Minecraft upon initial scrutiny appears to be the weakest of them all, offering very simplistic graphics and not even boasting a full release as yet (it is still in the beta stage). However the judges saw past this and awarded Minecraft first prize based on its mood and the creativity it offers to players. As one of the judges Ed Hall put it, “It’s the broadest definition of art that you can have”.

Well, I’ve just purchased another Humble Bundle, this time with the game Voxatron. Just looking at the statistics, it’s already made $210,943.12 for the game’s developer and charity and it still has 13 days to go. The previous bundle made over $1.2 million (techdirt.com, 2011). So what is it?

The idea for the Humble Bundles came from Wolfire Games’ Jeff Rosen, with the first being released in May 2010. Rosen’s idea was to offer a bundle of games for download in a pay-what-you-want manner. The whole package could be purchased for any price the user wanted and the total amount donated could be split between developers, charities and the Humble Bundle itself. It was a huge success, generating over $1 million in donations. The bundles always contain games that are available for Linux, Mac and Windows platforms.

ARM, the British multinational semiconductor company, have just announced their forthcoming ARMv8 microprocessor architecture, the first of their architectures to incorporate a 64-bit instruction set.

ARM have been steadily growing in the microprocessor market ever since the days of the Acorn Archimedes (released in 1987 (old-computers.com, 2011)). Since then, their processors have been used in mobile phones, routers, modems, tablets, music players (including the iPod), hand-held consoles (including the Nintendo DS) etc. Their processors are so widely used that many common operating systems have versions capable of running on them (for example, Linux, iOS, Android) and Microsoft have recently announced that Windows 8 will ship with support for these later ARM processors (Bloomberg, 2011).

You will no doubt be aware of the fact that sadly Steve Jobs recently passed away (October the 5th) after his struggle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. But how many people have heard about the death of another computing trailblazer just a week later? I am referring of course to Dennis Ritchie, the man “…who helped to shape the digital era”, who died on the 12th of October at the age of 70, again after losing his battle with cancer (www.nytimes.com, Oct 2011).

Epic Games’ Chief Executive Officer and Technical Director Tim Sweeney has recently (4th October 2011) demonstrated the Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) running inside an Adobe Flash environment at Adobe’s MAX 2011 conference (the same conference at which Photoshop’s new unblur feature...

I have just finished reading an article about Adobe’s demo of their new “incredible unblur feature for Photoshop”. While this feature is undoubtedly very useful, I wonder how many people understand what is actually going on here.

I am reminded of a similar video a year or two ago that demonstrated a new feature that is now part of Photoshop CS5, the Content Aware Fill. Again, this is a very useful and impressive feature, but many people don’t realise that this technology has been available before Adobe developed their version, and for free too.