ThePentiumGuy

High Level Shader Language :). Its basically a way of writing scripts(.fx files) and using the programmable graphics pipeline as opposed to to the fixed function pipeline... meaning more flexibility :P. Clicky here for more info: http://www.neatware.com/lbstudio/web/hlsl.html -The Pentium Guy

Cartoon modes eh? Look into HLSL. Meanwhile, check this out for DirectX vs OpenGL: http://gamels.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12 -The Pentium Guy

Just a random thought, isn't GDI+ slow for this kinda thing? -The Pentium Guy

OpenGL is less supported in .NET, however there is this thing called CsGL which is for C#, although I'm not sure if it works with VB.NET. OpenGL is great, its faster, but it has less features... but you can push it to its limits :D... I mean look at Doom3.. shees that game was awesome.. its a pity it wasn't as good as it was said to be... DirectX on the other hand.. look at games like Half Life... MAN .. best game of all time IMO.. so interactive. Ask wyrd, he knows a lot about this type of thing Now there's advantages with OpenGL: -No Runtimes -Multi-Platform (I beleive it runs on Linux as well) -Supposed to be Faster -If you look into doing this for C++, there's a great library out there called SDL. DirectX: -More features -Better Interface/Easier to code -Better support(although version 9 really.. um.. blew it :p.. but Microsoft will get better :p) -Can be programmed in more languages :D. -Hey! there's a DirectX forum on this site :). -Will be merged with XNA, supposedly an "XBOX SDK" if the rumors were true -A lot of sites out there for this -HLSL, PS/VS version 3.0(or is it 2.0) -Lots of cards support it -The Pentium Guy edit: shouldn't this bein the DirectX forum?

:O! Thank god you're not talking about spyware http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/x_images/images/smilies/smile.gif Hmm, I'm not too sure about this, but its possible that you could email some companies for this type of thing. Depends on your software I guess... Try google or something http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/x_images/images/smilies/smile.gif.. I dunno -The Pentium Guy

Hmm... I didn't find MDX to be that hard... Frankly I dont care about the documentation - there's a crapload of books out there for MDX.. and hell, you can even use the unmanaged books (whcih is what I do) and apply them to Managed. Yeah i agree that the documentation isn't adequate, providing you with vague and hollow definitions (for example the explanation for Vector3.Multiply is Multiplies 2 vectors o_O!). So what? :p There's other sources out there... but since this is a poll for bad support from *Microsoft* ... they did release a few directX 9 books you know? Take a look at: Microsoft DirectX 9: Programmable Graphics Pipeline... I heard its pretty good -The Pentium Guy

Hey Krunksplein, could you tell us what you did with the Projection matrix? the arguments seem right :p.. I have no idea why you got the error. I'm just curious as to why that happened. I think its beacuse you need an f (aka Convert.ToSingle) at the end of the arguments. -The Pentium Guy

I beleive he's doing 2d - so he doesn't need Projection and LookAtLH. KrunkSplein - this is easy :). All you have to do is change the coordinates of the View matrix.. for example, this is what you had: D3Ddev.Transform.View = Matrix.OrthoOffCenterLH(0, 600, 600, 0, 1, 10) If you pushed right, the "LEFT" argument would increase by 1, and the "RIGHT" argument will also incrase by 1.. same with if you pushed left, down and up. So basically, do something lik ethis D3Ddev.Transform.View = Matrix.OrthoOffCenterLH(0 + OffsetX , 600 + offsetX , 600 + OffsetY, 0 +OffsetY, 1, 10) (The first 4 args represent Left, Right, Bottom and Top). Where offset is increased or decreased when you press a key. Btw, there's numerious ways of doing this - you could even translate the entire world if you wanted. I think this is the simplest method IMHO. -The Pentium Guy

Ok - Scrolling eh? First of all, visit my Matrices and Transformations tutorial in the Tutor's Corner - you'll learn how to move stuff there. Here's how you'd scroll... in order to move the character left, you move the map right and keep the character ceneterd on the screen..etc. So basically you move the character in the opposite direction of the map. D3DDev.transform.world = Matrix.Identity 'Don't move the character char.Render D3DDev.Transform.wrold = Matrix.Translation(x,y,0) map.Render you'd set x and y like this in form1_keydown if e.keycode = keys.right then x -= 1 'move the map LEFT to move the char right end if do this for all the directions.. Btw - this only applies if the center of your screen is 0,0,0. If you've used my tutorials, I generally choose topleft of my screen to be 0,0,0. So since you're only viewing 600x600 of your map, translate the world to 300,300,0 before rendering the char. Now - her's how you make it only display 600x600 of the map: D3Ddev.Transform.View = Matrix.OrthoOffCenterLH(0, 600, 600, 0, 1, 10) '0 - Left side of the view '600 - Right side of the view. In our case, it's 800 '600 - Bottom side of the view. In our case, it's 600. '0 - Top side of the view '1 - Specifies the ZNear plane: The closest our object can be before it's cut-off from the view '10 - Specifies the ZFar plane: The farthest our object can be before it's cut-off from the view THat makes the topleft of the screen 0,0,0 and the topright of the screen 600,600,0. If you wanted the center of the screen to be 0,0,0 (which means that the topleft of the screen would be -300,-300,0 and the topright of the scren to be 300,300,0) - you can use the OrthoLH matrix - its the same thing as the OrthoOffCenterLH except the OrthoLH focuses on 0,0,0. -The Pentium Guy

UNIX?? :-P! I never even thought about that :). I'm gonna stick with linux and learn it like Nerseus says.. and then i *might* give Unix a try... Woot! I ordered the ethernet card... NewEgg is the best, I saved almost 75% :). I burnt all the debian cd's and im waiting for the adapter and then give it a try :p -pent

Nice - It worked! I get a bit more FPS(+4 or 5)... I also made the camera "lower" so that you dont see the entire terrain at once :).

I've learned a great deal from these forums alone :)! Just by searching through these threads are a valuable source of information :). -The Pentium Guy

1500! DAMN! What do you sign up for ;)! Wow! And I thought I was having spam problems!

Woah. I just got gmail :-D. Obviously I haven't gotten any junk mail yet :). I think i'll use hotmail for my mailing lists (cuz im always on Messenger and I can receive updates such as "you have just received a new mail from...", and gmail for personal mail :-D... wow :) So far so good - the only quirky thing i noticed is that the interface is plain, but hey im not complaining -> less loading time ;p. Pent

Heh - I just realized another solution for your "problem" :-P, vertx[0] = new CustomVertex.PositionNormalColored(x,y,z, rhw or normal, clr) Points away from the front side of the face eh? Hmm I'll mess around with that..

DOH! :-p even I read your post incorrectly o_O. My real question was "Hmm, well i'm not sure about Fog Raising the FPS.. but it would certainly make the progression a LOT smoother :D" Why would it raise the FPS? It's more particles/vertices(?) to render.

Hmm.. This is strange - I always thought that it was rhw instead of Normal. Maybe in the latest release it isn't. I'm not even sure what the normal DOES :-P. I usually set it to 1f: verts[0].Rhw=1f; Maybe you could try something like this? verts[0].Rhw = (Convert.ToSingle(new Vector3(0,0,1))); or possibly verts[0].Rhw = new Vector3(0,0,1).Normalize -The Pentium Guy

Hey, I heard that getting the single CD doesn't come with KDE. Yes, i can use apt-get KDE, but I don't have an ethernet adapter, and i'm forced to use Wireless... and setting up wireless on Linux = ><. I'm looking into Wlan-Linux.. or I might order http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=33-180-004&depa=0 and get it over with.. its only $3.50 So - without Internet, I cant get KDE - and my dad wants to use the linux box for some reason as well (he'll get confused if I dont put KDE or Gnome or whatever). Besides, I'm in no rush - and we have like 500 cd's at home (you gotta love those mail n rebates where they give u a box of 100 cd's for free). I'm also installing this on a 40 gb hard drive (not that it's necessary, but its the only other comp I have lol) -The Pentium Guy

Hmm, well i'm not sure about Fog lowering the FPS.. but it would certainly make the progression a LOT smoother :D, thanks for the idea -The Pentium GUy

Crap! SuSe sucks!! It hides everything from you.. and like you said Volteface it "Babies" you.... The stupid installer didn't even install gcc or even the make command!! (and i chose Install All).. Jeez... Man, I'm not making that mistake again!! I'm downloading all 7 cd's of debian ;). Should be done by tomorow. -The Pentium Guy

I'm going to first try out SuSe personal (my friend already has it and burnt :-D, and its not a live eval). I'll mess around with that first - and then get a bit confortable with Linux, then install Debian + LAMP. Thanks

Hmm... I think i'll worry about that when I get it installed ;). ftp://ftp.minet.net/pub/distrib/debian-cd/images/3.0_r2/i386/ <-- that's what I'm getting.. Do i really need SEVEN cd's?? I heard debian required only one...

Hmm - man :p... Kind of a tough decision here. I think that I'm going with Debian (sombody please tell me there's KDE included... :s, anyways i can download it with apt-get install KDE).

Hey, In my game, to save memory - I use terrain progression... meaning as you get close to the terrain, you can see more of it. IMO this looks very artificial, is there any way i can change the LOD (Level of Detail) as I go through the terrain? That would really help, Thanks -The Pentium Guy

Well I am up for learning... hmm what if i choose not to use Graphical mandrake and choose to use the command line prompt instead? Is all the command line stuff the same no matter what distro you have? That's what im confused out - isn't Linux the same - just the graphics/interface are different (ex: diff versions of KDE or Gnome)?