Tagged Questions

-3
votes
0answers
42 views

How many commercial games use software rendering?

It seems many games today use graphics accelerating (e.g. OpenGL) but how many still use software rendering? I mean commercial game wise, how many?
1
vote
1answer
40 views

Damage indicator screen overlay

I want to make something already done by a lot of games , which is when I am taking so much hits from enemy red screen drawn like the following , using XNA 4.0: after it's drawn and I am still alive ...
1
vote
1answer
53 views

Jogl2 won't accept jogl 1.0 code - GL_LIGHTING and GL_LIGHT_MODEL_AMBIENT cannot be resolved or is not a field?

I'm trying to run my code on jogl 2.0 , for the first time (until now I worked with jogl 1.0) however Eclipse throws to almost every that I have a "cannot be resolved or is not a field" message . ...
1
vote
0answers
51 views

Another Question from the Image Efficiency for Memory Handling

At this topic, "Which image format is more memory-efficient: PNG, JPEG, or GIF?", one of the fellow Game Development community @Panda Pajama told about the complex concept about image memory handling ...
41
votes
6answers
4k views

Which image format is more memory-efficient: PNG, JPEG, or GIF?

Which image format is more efficient to save memory? PNG, JPEG, or GIF?
1
vote
0answers
105 views

How to draw a large number of model (identical) with vertex buffer in XNA?

I am facing a problem that many developers as have probably found a solution. I have a small project with a floor designed with small cubes (100X100). If I exceed this limit, my game suffered major ...
-3
votes
4answers
560 views

Starting to make 2D games in C++ [closed]

I'm fairly experienced with C and C#, but I've only ever created console/windows applications. I'm also experienced with AS3 and I've made some flash games. I want to make proper 2D games in C++, but ...
10
votes
3answers
890 views

How do I scale down pixel art?

There are plenty of algorithms to scale up pixel art. (I prefer hqx, personally.) But are there any notable algorithms to scale it down? My game is designed to run at a resolution of 1280x720, but if ...
0
votes
0answers
80 views

Opengl binding shaders vs binding buffers performance

Quick question for an opengl guru, I'm in the process of building a render queue and can either reduce the number of shader binding or the number of vertex buffer binding. I just want to know which ...
1
vote
2answers
177 views

Is 2 lines of push/pop code for each pre-draw-state too many?

I'm trying to simplify vector graphics management in XNA; currently by incorporating state preservation. 2X lines of push/pop code for X states feels like too many, and it just feels wrong to have 2 ...
0
votes
2answers
195 views

In need of Game Development Industry guidance [closed]

Sorry if there is already a question like this, i searched but didn't found the answers i'm looking for. I need advice on what should i focus more and where i should start, i need a plan. Currently ...
1
vote
1answer
867 views

global transform to local transform?

If an object is attached to another one and you need to set its position, rotation and scale in global space, what do you do to get the local versions of these values, knowing the same values for the ...
0
votes
1answer
226 views

Is it possible to extract textures or sprites from compiled game files?

For instance, every map in Portal has what appear to be sprites over a texture indicating the obstacles you'll face (see screenshot). Are these resources compiled into the source as byte code, or is ...
4
votes
1answer
857 views

GLSL default shaders

I've been arming my engine with error checking code. I'll try to describe this situation to my best abilities. Whenever i load a shader and there's an error (file doesn't exist, compilation error, ...
0
votes
2answers
252 views

GLSL shader compilation

When i'm compiling a shader does it have to be complete? Can i use glCompileShader on a shader without a main() function? The OpenGL reference documentation has a nice writeup on program linking ...
0
votes
1answer
122 views

handling buffers in OpenGL

I'm reading through the OpenGL docummentation for version 3.3 core. I'm having issues understanding proper buffer deletion. ATM i have an object that loads itself into OpenGL memory in the ...
3
votes
2answers
193 views

Full screen display mode

Could somebody point me to resources that would explain what full screen actually is? What's the point of it? It seems to be more than just a window that has the client are taking the whole screen.
5
votes
1answer
393 views

Difference between the terms Material & Effect

I'm making an effect system right now (I think, because it may be a material system... or both!). The effects system follows the common (e.g. COLLADA, DirectX) effect framework abstraction of Effects ...
2
votes
3answers
320 views

Optimizing graphics for an iOS flash game

A friend of mine and myself are working on a flash developed iOS (and later Android) puzzle board game. He's a developer and I'm a designer/developer so (no surprise) we have different points of view. ...
8
votes
1answer
376 views

How to represent cliff faces in terrain?

I'm trying to figure out the best way to programmatically represent terrain in my game. I've been considering using a heightmap (or grid of evenly spaced vertices) to represent the surface of the ...
2
votes
1answer
201 views

text wrapping on a texture applied to a 3D model

How would I create and implement a texture of text that wraps around a 3D model? The texture will just be white and you should be able to add text to it, but I need to create this so that when the ...
4
votes
1answer
346 views

Cross-Sections of 3D Rendered Objects

I am currently trying to look into techniques that allow the calculation of arbitrary cross-sections of a 3D object or rendered volume. However, I have been unable to find much on the topic. I know of ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views

Should I use Game Engines to learn to make 3D games?

HI i am a software engineering student in his second-last year. I am proficient with C,C++,C# and java programming languages, and being a student of engineering I have studied calculus, vectors etc ...
2
votes
1answer
448 views

Computer generated 2d graphics for games - how to get started

I've seen a lot of nice 2d games recently, like Geometry wars that have really nice computer generated graphics. I would like to know how is it done so game looks really nice even if it is composed ...
2
votes
1answer
562 views

What C++ features should I know about for a graphics programming job interview?

I really don't want to be boring, I searched a lot but didn't found a focused answer to this question. I wanted to focus on the role of C++ in graphics programming. Can somebody explain, which are ...
21
votes
3answers
4k views

How can I make this style of 2D “glowing” graphics?

I'm comfortable with the basics of building a 2d sprite based game in XNA, where all my objects are simply .png images that I move around. What things do I need to learn next to be able to develop a ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views

How are the graphical effects in the Android game Orbital created?

I would be very grateful if someone could tell me how the graphics (and in particular, the lighting effects) for this game, Orbital, are created. Would it be OpenGL? For some background: I'm new to ...
4
votes
2answers
450 views

Material vs Material Pass

I am trying to figure out the difference between a "Material" and a "Material Pass" (in theory). Is it basically that a Material will have multiple "Material Pass"'es, along with a name. Then the ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views

Draw contour around object in Opengl

I need to draw contour around 2d objects in 3d space. I tried drawing lines around object(+points to fill the gap), but due to line width, some part of it(~50%) was covering object. I tried to use ...
5
votes
4answers
775 views

How to make game appear to run faster?

I believe I read somewhere that there is a technique which will make games appear more smooth than they are. I believe it is some visual trick, but I don't remember which one. (It is be something like ...
1
vote
1answer
2k views

OpenGL 3D Camera

And here I am again, looking for help with my OpenGL camera once again. This is starting to get embarrassing. Anyway, here's the deal: I think my OpenGL First Person free roaming camera is starting ...
3
votes
1answer
108 views

connecting multiple anti-aliased lines together

I implemented/copied the wu line algorithm from pseudo-code on wiki-pedia and other places. When drawing a sine wave it breaks down at the point where the line changes from y dominant to x dominant ...
2
votes
2answers
255 views

Are there any issues with not drawing to all render targets when using MRT?

Lets say I set 2 render targets: device.SetRenderTargets(color, depth); And then half my draw code only outputs color and not depth. This works fine on the PC and produces the expected results ...
5
votes
4answers
1k views

The recommended road map to be a good graphics/game engine programmer

I am a computer science student and I am developing with C/C++ and Python and I want to begin learning graphics tools to start developing with game engines, especially the Blender Game Engine. So what ...
6
votes
2answers
582 views

OpenGL or OpenGL ES

What should I learn? OpenGL 4.1 or OpenGL ES 2.0? I will be developing desktop applications using Qt but I may start developing mobile applications in a few months, too. I don't know anything about ...
4
votes
1answer
777 views

How are potentially visible sets (PVS) determined in state of the art games?

As I understand it, potentially visible sets (PVS) are used to determine 2 things; 1. which objects are inside the camera's view volume 2. which objects are not occluded (hidden) from the camera's ...
7
votes
5answers
1k views

Drawing very large slowly rotating planets

I'd like to draw very large (~500 px) graphics of planets slowly rotating. These graphics are meant to impress. What's the best way of doing this? I don't have experience with any particular 3D ...
6
votes
2answers
483 views

What will AMD Fusion or likewise hybrid CPU/GPU will change for the 3D programmer ? Are they potentially faster?

Since the early days of accelerated graphics, programmers were obligated to use hardware-supported libraries like directX or OpenGL. If we wanted to explain someone what happened by introducing a ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views

How to do this sprite motion blur?

Some of you may know fraxy... Basically, I was watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL7zWdDCtOE And there are some times where some sprites spin really fast (4:00 mark for example), ...
2
votes
2answers
381 views

Help making a visual transition with pygame and NumPy

Perhaps this could be better answered on Stack Overflow, but I thought it would be worth posting here. Right now I'm trying to make visual transitions with pygame's surfarray module which uses NumPy. ...
2
votes
4answers
625 views

How do you make use of all texture units on today's graphics cards?

I saw a review of the GeForce GTX 460 graphics card. It has 56 texture units. I'm not that knowledgeable about graphics effects. But, the ones I know use around 3 or 4 texture units. In this ...
14
votes
4answers
919 views

What should every graphics programmer write

I've seen this question on SO, but here i want it to focus on GFX. So in your opinion what applications/features should every aspiring GFX programmer write/change to get better? Community wiki since ...
13
votes
5answers
2k views

boolean operations on meshes

given a set of vertices and triangles for each mesh. Does anyone know of an algorithm, or a place to start looking( I tried google first but haven't found a good place to get started) to perform ...
5
votes
6answers
1k views

Algorithm for drawing asteroids from, er… Asteroids game?

What would the algorithm be for generating/drawing the asteroid shapes from the original Asteroids game? Is it even an algorithm? Or would they be hard coded shapes? Here is a screenshot to jog your ...
11
votes
7answers
2k views

Fastest way to create a simple particle effect

I am looking to the fastest way to create really simple particle effect that will be spammed like hell on the game... Basically, my game looks like a vectrex game, made mostly of lines... I want to ...