My C++ Mario Game And 3D Design

May 22nd, 2009 8 Comments »

In my last post I mentioned that I’ve been learning Game programming in C++ and also 3D design using Blender. Chris commented on the post suggesting that I post my works on the blog and thats exactly what I’m going to do in this post. I’m a master neither in the game programming nor in the 3d design. So forgive me if my work is amatuerish.

Mario

This has been tested on Windows XP and Vista. But hopefully it should run without a problem on older versions as well. This just includes the first level environment that i created using Mappy. Also, this doesn’t include any interactions with the environment. I’ve also included the source code. So, you can take a look at it too and also use it for your own works. Licensed Open source :P.

3D Design

This may look very very noobish. But after all this is my first go at 3D. I followed this online tutorial to achieve this. Very eager to hear your comments on this one.

Good Bye Chrome, Back to Good Old FireFox

May 16th, 2009 5 Comments »

I’ve been using Google Chrome as my primary browser for the past 6 months, before which I was a loyal Firefox user. As with all of them, I missed my FF addons for the first few days. Then, I got used to Chrome. I fell in love with its lightness and speed. After months of using only, the problems began to surface. The browser began to lag a lot. It began to crash a lot. People say that due to its multi-process approach, one rogue website wouldn’t affect the other tabs. But it wasn’t so in my case. One non-responsive flash video on a page, made the entire Chrome "not responding".

The main culprit was the Flash plugin. It makes me shut down Chrome via Task Manager -> Processes, 3-5 times a day. My entire computer appeared to slow down because of Chrome. Also, when I have large number of tabs open and switch from one tab to another, the new tab that I switched to remains blank. And the content slowly appear from the top, like a powerpoint animation.

So, now I’m back and happy with Firefox. So, what I’d like to say to the readers ? If you’re an average Web user, using a browser for nothing more than browsing few pages, then you can very well replace Chrome for IE. But, if you are like me, leaving Flash videos loading on 5 tabs, Java applets on 2, Chatting in 1 tab and Browsing in 10 other tabs, then probably Chrome isn’t for you.

For those who’re thinking of switching back to FF from Chrome, I’d tell you that FF is a lot more than just a web browser. Check out Mozilla Labs. They’ve some ubercool experiments like Ubiquity, Weave, Prism which will really change they way you use a web browser. (Tip: If you’re a developer, check out Bespin project).

As an additional information, I’ll be participating in the Mozilla Design Challenge. Where in the world will I publish my ideas other than this blog of mine ? So, stay tuned.

What Am I Upto These Days ???

May 15th, 2009 6 Comments »

Hello everybody. It happens to be again and again. I blog consistently for some 6 months together. Then, for 6 months I don’t blog at all. Then, again I resume blogging. I don’t know why. And with this I’m resuming blogging :D

So, what was I doing all these days ? Actually I did a lot of useful things.

  • Learnt Game programming in C++. I already was pretty proficient in C++. I began to use Allegro library. To test my skill, I recreated the first level of classical Mario. It is 80% functional. You don’t know how much excitement it gives you unless you develop your own game :)
  • Began to learn Java. Everybody knows that it is one of the important languages to be learnt by every programmer.
  • Learnt 3D designing. This one’s using Blender. I know the basics of it now. But am not using Blender much nowadays, because my system has very less memory. Gotta upgrade it soon.
  • Bought a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, after selling my 5310. This touchscreen’s very cool.
  • Watched a loooot of English movies. I’ve exhausted almost the entire list of IMDB’s Top 250. Why ? Deep inside I’ve the ambition to direct a movie :)
  • Did a lot of freelancing. Most of them are PHP projects. Some XHTML works and some Logo designs. And am still doing. So, if you’re looking for a freelancer, don’t hesitate to contact me.
  • Switched back to good ol’ Firefox from Google Chrome. A separate post coming up on why I did this.

So, from now on I’ll be blogging quite consistently. In the past, I covered mostly blogging related topics. From now, I’ll expand this and will be posting about anything Geeky. I assure you that it’ll be interesting.