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This entry is part of a series, NotMyBase.com WIP» OK, so I’m really procrastinating now. I’ve still not started any serious revision for Monday’s exam, and I just have the urge to do everything else, evident by the rise in posts per day on my site from less than one to around sixty-two.
When I first worked on this new site, I came up with a series of goals, and some of them have been fulfilled. I’ve redesigned the header, and the colour makes the search box a little more obvious then when it was purely white like the search box itself. I’d still like a status in the header, and I promise it wont be as obscene as my Facebook ones.
As for sidebar widgets, I’m still getting used to the site management so I’m still figuring out what is genuinely useful and what is just clutter. Speaking of clutter, I need to tidy the menu up a bit.
But I now have a new issue, allow me to explain. Take a look at everything I’ve posted about this years tour of Japan (I still get all giddy when I say that), what I’d really like to do is have the map stickied to the top half of the page, and for the bottom half, have a slide-show of the other posts in the topic. I already have a few idea’s on how to do this, but I really should get revising.
Don’t worry, you haven’t accidentally broken some security barrier to see this; “Top Secret” is the name of the project and has nothing to do with its level of security.
The Competition
A couple of years ago, producers of Trackmania, 2moons and other titles, announced the “Top Secret” competition, where amateur games developers were to work together and create a game based on the specifications from the design team (at the same time, the designers were also in a competition for best input etc. The prize was to become director of the project). The winning team gets an instant $100,000 and any production costs up to $1million are paid off. Acclaim will then publish the game, and the developers get revenue and more money based on revenue and time spent supporting the game once it’s released. Continue reading Top Secret: Not a Secret.
It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now, a kiting (possibly kite-boarding) simulator, the plan was to originally do it a Wiimote project, but they’re damn expensive on their own, and I already have a (much cheaper) Xbox 360 controller, so I figured I’d use this.
At the moment I’m daunting myself with the task of getting the physics sorted, I’m amazed at how, despite being a kiter for several years now, I’ve never really appreciated how much kites defy the laws of physics. To make the job easier I’ve implemented PhysX, though this means you’ll need PhysX installed on your own PC should you ever want to try out this creation.
 First ever screenshot of the project, early days. I’m currently toying around with PhysX, working out how best to build the kite with what the engine has to offer. Cloths seem an obvious choice for the bridle, except as far as I can work out, PhysX doesn’t yet support non-rectangular cloths, so for now, the bridle only looks remotely kite-like. I’m almost having to use cloths for the lines, as it’s the closest PhysX has to offer in similarity to lines, the problem here is that if i make the lines any less wider than they are in this screenshot, the engine struggles to handle the physics of so many vertices, (the engine works cloth by cutting it up into squares, with thinner lines, the squares are smaller, so a lot more have to be fitted in the length of the lines). There are several work-arounds to this problem,I’ll investigate them in due course. The other problem at the moment is attaching the lines to the kite, I wont go into the details of how it’s done, but you can see the results in the screenshot. For the purpose of this shot, the wind is simulated with an invisible force applied to the cloth, which is pinned into place at 5 points along the top and bottom of it (hence the ridges you can see in the kite). Where I’m going to go from here? Well, despite only just starting, I need to take time off for exam revision, and then I’ll decide.
Continue reading Soaring low.
This entry is part of a series, NotMyBase.com WIP» Yup, you heard, this seems fine, so I’ll stick with it. I’m using the “Atahualpa” theme, as it’s designed to be (and is) very customisable. I’m still deciding what widgets to put in the left and right margins, I could probably do with widening them actually. A few other changes I’d like to make:
- Change the icon to be a Zig fighter.
- Make the search function more obvious.
- Make an appropriate header image, the default one is some flowers, not my style, so I’ve hidden it for now.
- Add a temporary status widget, similar to what Twitter has to offer, but without using Twitter. This is for things I want to say without it leaving a permanent mark on the site, passive comments such as “Weathers a bit poo today”.
- Add some kind of “now listening to” widget just for fun, I could probably find one linking to Last.fm if I tried.
- Spam content, it’s all so empty at the mo
- Get some smileys on the go.
In the words of Leeroy Jenkins.. LETS DO THIS!
Just for the record. I do not play WoW, I hate it with a passion. Please do not confuse me for a WoW player, I will gut you, at least I got chicken.
This entry is part of a series, NotMyBase.com WIP» The truth is, I’ve spent so much time working on the new MSUOTC website that I just can’t bare to touch any more html, so for now, I’m back to using a CMS (wordpress). The plan was to make my own site from scratch, not only because I decided Drupal was rubbish for what I wanted, but also simply to demonstrate my web dev skills. I’m also fed up of just having that blasted “coming soon” splash screen, every morning I wake up with things I want to write about, only to get frustrated at not having a site to publish them on. I have great stories to tell of running along Hadrian’s Wall firing off an FN Minimi at wannabe lieutenants, kiting accidents rendering me unconscious on Brancaster Bay, and nightmares of blood, gore and penguin/goose hybrids stealing orange tango from McDonalds. I want to show off my fractal terrain, Lego robot and “Top Secret” projects, and get peoples feedback.
So far I’ve tried Joomla and the later version of Drupal, I thought both were a bit bloated, so now I’m trying out WordPress. So far it looks like it’s onto a winner, perhaps I could show off my skills simply by making plug-ins for this.. we’ll see.
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