Chris - Caglog
(9:55:43 PM)
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The future of caglog is at present undecided. As I am moving off to pastures new for a year I think a fresh look and a new start for my own blog is needed. Free-Conversant doesnt really offer me a lot of ease in designing the look of the pages so I am considering converting to movabletype as suggesting by a friend. It seems to be a lot cleaner looking and more the style I want to achieve without spending days on my blog making it look good.
I will let you all know before I make the move so you can sort out any links etc.
Chris - Projects everywhere
(9:44:57 PM)
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This graphics class has inspired me some to play around with the Java3D SDK. It is quite a lot more complex than I assumed it would be, but once you get your head in about the tutorials it is fairly obvious.
I decided to go with Java3D over C or C++ and OpenGL for the simple fact that I can run them as either applications or web applets. In fact Java3D has an excellent utility class that allows you to give your applet a main method and allow you to run it as an application in one line of code. The only worries I have with using Java is that it is not best known for its graphical speed. If this becomes a real problem later on then I may switch back to OpenGL and C. In fact the Java3D implementation is actually based on whether you have DirectX or OpenGL installed, so I should be able to convert the code fairly easily will keeping the output exactly the same.
The first plan is to combine all the techniques I have learnt so far and to improve them. I plan to create a very simple tank game to start with based on an old classic I used to play when I was younger. Java has excellent support for creating your own loaders for different 3D modelling package output files and there are no doubt loads out there already. So I think I will design my Tank in a 3D modelling package and output the file to a format I can load and go from there.
On top of all this, I have been playing around with Vector mathematics over the past few days and I am considering on using it to emulate forces in my game accurately.
So I think that should keep me going for a while. Not quite sure when I will get back to the OS project....lets just say for the moment it is ongoing. ;)
Chris - Studying, studying and er...studying
(9:29:23 PM)
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Yes, it is indeed that time of the year again. Study leave has officially started and no doubt this will mean that for this month and this month only we will be trapped inside studying as the weather turns glorious.
The first two exams are Compilers and Graphics. Graphics, I am really enjoying...in fact I think that just about everyone in the class has enjoyed this one. I think a lot of this is down to our excellent lecturer in this subject. Lecturers who are enthusiastic about the lecture marterial are in short supply unfortunetly so we are all greatful when we get one.
Compilers on the other hand I am finding very tedious. I am sure it is an interesting class but I am finding it extremely tedious at the moment sadly.
My first exam (Graphics) is on the 15th so not long now till they all start. I will be finished on the 30th of May so not bad at all. :)
