Archive for March, 2009
Assignments and Left 4 Dead
My AI assignment is done, handed in and demoed. I have no idea how I have done on it. I covered everything that was asked but who really knows how she will mark it. My C# assignment, the multi-threaded airport simulation, is almost done as well. I have already demoed it but need to finish the report and diagrams etc. and hand it in.
I quite enjoyed working on it, the code wasn’t too complicated it was more about the problem solving, protecting the resources and making sure data was securely passed between threads. I had 12 in the end I think and yet it was only about 600 lines of code. The hardest part was solving the problems to ensure thread safety, it doesn’t resolve deadlocks if there is too many planes meaning nothing can move but otherwise it works OK. The diagram is proving to be quite annoying to make. It is supposed to show the use of the semaphores and buffers for inter-thread communication, the problem is with 12 threads, 13 semaphores and 12 buffers there is a lot of elements and lines all over the diagram. Not sure if it will even be possible to make it look neat yet. I will worry about that when I have it all in place.
My third assignment this semester is for physics and AI. I have started working on it but only really got the basics in so far. We are supposed to implement quite a lot of different features in it such as swarming and tracking as well as all the physics to control the movement of each of the bodies. The basics of the physics is nearly done although the collision detection isn’t the best, it is only using bounding sphere so it is not very accurate, I was thinking of having a bounding box as well and have it only respond to a collision in both. It isn’t due until after Easter though I should have plenty of time to get it working.
On another note, I picked up Left 4 Dead for the Xbox 360 this week. I haven’t played much of it yet, only 1 1/2 of the campaigns but I am enjoying it so far. I think that it makes for a really good cooperative game, we had 4 people playing it briefly and it was a lot of fun. I haven’t tried playing the multiplayer yet though so don’t know what that is like.
I have heard some criticism about the AI for the other characters but they seemed good enough to me. Having another person will always be better but I didn’t think there was any problem with them. I also like the feature of being able to go idle for while and have the AI take over until you get back. There is as always, the console vs. PC argument particularly when it comes to an FPS. I think that the game works well with a console controller, I haven’t really been into PC games for quite a while now. It was really before I started uni that I stopped playing PC games, I still do occasionally but not anywhere near as much as I used to. I much prefer to sit in an arm chair in front of the TV than at my desk on the computer.
Placement
I’ve been accepted for a placement at Eurocopter for next year so I’ll be off to Germany in the summer for the whole year 
. Now just to get these assignments finished…
Midweek update
This time next week I will have finished and handed in my AI assignment. I need to get some more work done on it although I think that I am quite close to completing the program. It is really just the user interface and then bringing it all together. I still have to write the report though, I tried it last night but realised that I was waffling about rubbish and there is an 800 word limit on it so I can’t have that.
I got the results for my math test from last week though, 100%. It was a multiple choice and I guessed on one of them but that doesn’t matter. Full marks in the next test should make life easier for me in the final exam, I will only need 54% in that to get a grade-point 15.
My C# assignment, the airport simulation, is coming on well though, I keep on working on it when I should be doing AI, since it isn’t due until after Easter I have plenty of time to do it but I have done all of the check boxes except for other so I don’t really know what to do for that. I should probably leave it alone for a while and get on with Physics and AI but I have no motivation to do it. I was hoping that the assignment would be open and we could do anything really as long as it ticked the boxes, but instead we have to do a very specific system and I don’t really want to. I will have to at some point but I would like to get the AI out of the first.
I had another placement interview this morning, I think that it went well and hope that I get offered the job, it looks like very interesting work. I have another interview in Liverpool tomorrow as well though, I am driving up there for that.
No new games at the moment though, there isn’t really anything coming out in the near future that I am looking forward towards either. I still want to play some more Halo Wars, I want to play the campaign again at some point and do some multi-player. It realised the other day that I never really played any multiplayer on Red Alert 3 so I might do that as well. I want a new game like Halo where I can pick it up at anytime and play it for a while without having to think too much. Looking at my game shelf there is a few that I never completed but I don’t really want to, it seems like too much hard work. I thought about getting Empire Total War but I played the demo and didn’t really like it, I’d much prefer an RTS that is a bit faster. I might have another look at it next week.
I’ve been finding myself very bored in the evenings lately, I don’t really know what to do, it is one of the reasons that I made this blog although posting once every few days doesn’t really keep me occupied for long. I need some kind of project that I can work on when I have nothing else to do but I can’t really think of anything now.
This week
It’s been an eventful week. I had a placement interview on Monday, it must have gone well because I have been invited to a second interview next week. That will be my 4th interview then, as I have another next week as well.
Had a Math test today as well. I think that it went OK, we should get the results next week but there were only a couple of questions that I struggled with and have since found that I was right. I have an AI assignment due in a couple of weeks so I really need to get that done soon. The problem is that I have only just worked out how I am going to structure the program. I don’t even know where to begin with writing it in Prolog. Still it should be fun….
We completed Halo Wars as well, there is only 15 missions in the campaign but because of the scoring system attached to it, as well as par time and the collectibles in each mission there is still plenty that we need to do to get 100% completion. I will probably try it on an easier difficulty though as we did it on Legendary difficulty. Playing through it cooperatively was an interesting experience, it is very different to Red Alert 3, the last coop RTS I played, rather than getting a base each we shared the same base, but we could get our own units simultaneously from the same buildings. It’s also possible to transfer units to each other so it makes a very different game to Red Alert 3.
Halo Wars
I bought Halo Wars last Friday and have been playing through the campaign on coop. Personally, I like it. I know that a lot of people don’t like RTSs on the consoles because of the difficulty with the controls but I’ve bought all three Command & Conquer games and now Halo Wars and loved all of them. Command & Conquer 3 did have the worst by far, but once they got the radial interface for Kane’s Wrath there wasn’t any problems. Halo Wars has taken the best of this and improved it even more. There isn’t the dozen of button combinations to perform different tasks. In most cases each button has one job and that’s it.
I think that it has kept the feel of Halo very well. The warthogs move like they do in Halo and everything is as you would expect from a Halo game. There is a few new units but they don’t ruin it and it was necessary as there wasn’t really enough to start with.
The game is a lot simpler than other RTSs, there is only really 9 units for each faction and 6 buildings but I find that the game play is more about the fight between units rather than the overall battle with the enemy. While a lot of strategy is needed to win I find that it is very different to Command & Conquer.
At first I didn’t like the idea of the set number of build slots at each base, although many maps have more base sites if you need them and it just adds to the strategy, you can’t just build loads of supply pads because you need the other buildings as well. You also can’t have a completely varied army with only one base in most situations because you won’t have enough cash.
The multiplayer is fun as well. The matchmaking finds other players quickly and so it only takes a few seconds to get into the game. There are plenty of other base sites on the map so it is easy to expand. Some of them are controlled by rebels, they are easy enough to kill once you have a few units, I think that it is just to stop someone sending out 1 warthog at the beginning to get every single base.
Overall though I think that it a good game and it holds true to the Halo Universe.
Hello
So I’m a blogger. The main purpose of the site is as a portfolio but I’ll also post things now and then. You can see some of my work at the Portfolio page.
It’s taken me a while to get this setup, haven’t done any web work in a while and couldn’t remember some of it. Had to modify the theme a bit as there was some things that I didn’t like but I’m happy with it now. Will probably change my mind in a week so the theme might change yet.