At 7/23/13 06:27 PM, Diki wrote: I've ripped on PHP for being a terrible language many times, so I'm happy to see I turned someone away from that mess. And there's nothing wrong with C#. It can be a bit goofy sometimes, but overall it's a good language.

I think C# is really cool. PHP is terrible of course, but if you're serious about doing any server side scripting then surely it's a must? (being the most popular and therefore most widely supported)

ASP is a terrible idea :)

I don't know that much about server side stuff though, so I'll take your word for it :)

At 7/24/13 06:30 AM, Rustygames wrote: ASP is a terrible idea :)

Mostly because ASP doesn't support anything but Windows systems, which is awful for servers.
May I suggest Python for your server-side needs?
(Hell, you could make a server-side language with anything that supports sockets. Yes, that includes AS3)

But why Newgrounds Flash Reg Lounge, why not PHP! :'(

At 7/24/13 02:43 PM, Rustygames wrote: But why Newgrounds Flash Reg Lounge, why not PHP! :'(

Even my TAs were talking about php yesterday during java recitation. They said you can code it poorly and still have it work...or something, it was in the background.

To fix the horrid lag in my iso rpg, I turn down the quality when the screen is panning (re-depthing and re-rednering all the tiles), and it seems to be good now. Hopefully with real art it doesn't look too poopy. The tiles will eventually be replaced by a background, maybe assembled by tiles or maybe one image covering all the tiles, so that'll help performance quite a bit.

At 7/24/13 03:55 PM, MSGhero wrote: To fix the horrid lag in my iso rpg, I turn down the quality when the screen is panning (re-depthing and re-rednering all the tiles), and it seems to be good now. Hopefully with real art it doesn't look too poopy. The tiles will eventually be replaced by a background, maybe assembled by tiles or maybe one image covering all the tiles, so that'll help performance quite a bit.

Silly question but, are the tiles bitmaps?
Also what's the target platform for the game? (Flash on desktop?)

At 7/24/13 04:29 PM, Rustygames wrote: Silly question but, are the tiles bitmaps?
Also what's the target platform for the game? (Flash on desktop?)

The default tiles are IsoBoxes, which eventually boils down to a Sprite with drawn graphics. When I look at the render phase in Scout, there's a million green rectangles when the camera pans, which would be those tiles. I want the background to end up as a single sprite or bitmap (there's zooming involved so I'd kinda prefer sprite to keep the quality). Foreground objects that the player could end up behind would have to be on another layer.

Flash. I had this demo before I started with haxe, and I have no interest in porting it over when it's probably only going on flash sites.

It turns out ASP.NET MVC turns your site into a C# application that spits out HTML, rather than a series of HTML docs manipulated by C#. Nifty, huh? :) Shouldn't be that hard to find a free web host that supports ASP.NET, right?

Incidentally, I just realised w3schools taught me to use the Entity Framework the wrong way. I trusted them for such a long time...

At 7/24/13 07:19 PM, FlyingColours wrote: It turns out ASP.NET MVC turns your site into a C# application that spits out HTML, rather than a series of HTML docs manipulated by C#. Nifty, huh? :) Shouldn't be that hard to find a free web host that supports ASP.NET, right?

Incidentally, I just realised w3schools taught me to use the Entity Framework the wrong way. I trusted them for such a long time...

PHP has frameworks too, http://puremvc.github.io/

At 7/25/13 05:56 AM, Rustygames wrote: PHP has frameworks too, http://puremvc.github.io/

Diki would have far better answers than I, but here's what I got from his rants:
PHP is slow. Like, ungodly slow - http://www.phpbench.com/
PHP is buggy - https://bugs.php.net/search.php?boolean=0&limit=30&order_by=
id&direction=DESC&cmd=display&status=Open&bug_age=0&bug_upda ted=0&bug_type=All
PHP doesn't have good documentation - https://www.google.com/search?q=PHP+missing+documentation&oq =PHP+missing+documentation&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i62l3j69i64.
4345j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
PHP doesn't have standards (this is my big pet-peeve) - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/307089/php-coding-standar ds
PHP also has type-casting, which promotes REALLY bad coding practices (AS2, anyone?)

this has some stuff, but it just came up in another google search I did, so take it with a grain of salt.

At 7/25/13 09:27 PM, egg82 wrote:

At 7/25/13 05:56 AM, Rustygames wrote: PHP has frameworks too, http://puremvc.github.io/

Diki would have far better answers than I, but here's what I got from his rants:
PHP is slow. Like, ungodly slow - http://www.phpbench.com/
PHP is buggy - https://bugs.php.net/search.php?boolean=0&limit=30&order_by=
id&direction=DESC&cmd=display&status=Open&bug_age=0&bug_upda ted=0&bug_type=All
PHP doesn't have good documentation - https://www.google.com/search?q=PHP+missing+documentation&oq =PHP+missing+documentation&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i62l3j69i64.
4345j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
PHP doesn't have standards (this is my big pet-peeve) - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/307089/php-coding-standar ds
PHP also has type-casting, which promotes REALLY bad coding practices (AS2, anyone?)

this has some stuff, but it just came up in another google search I did, so take it with a grain of salt.

Okay this makes sense :)

It's the age old problem that has plagued us (and will continue to do so) for many years.

IE6 is a piece of shit but you have to support it (not any more I hope!)
Windows is slow but everyone uses it so you have to
Javascript/HTML5 is terrible but some commercial requirements demand it

Sour bout having to do things because of legacy reasons and demand :(

At 7/21/13 09:38 AM, Innermike wrote:

At 7/21/13 08:06 AM, Rustygames wrote:

At 7/20/13 12:09 PM, Innermike wrote: Anyone ever got a job out of just hanging around places? It seems like a parsec-long-shot but it's better than nothing.

No that's not gonna work ;)

At least I'll meet some new peeps right? I figured talking to people would be helpful at least in absorbing some experience.

Which companies have you sent a CV to?

I think any sort of full thing is off limits right now so I'm eyeing up this seemingly gettable internship here and this one too.

This thing is looking sparse though http://innermike.com/CV.html :(

Please teach me o wise one.

Looks like the interships you picked are normal frontend work after all. You should get experience making something with HTML/JS for your portfolio instead of only games.

For that you will need a backend, so you should learn that too. Learn to build PHP sites, and maybe Rails, so you don't get overwhelmed when you're asked to fix something on the website at work. Otherwise you could only design and not implement.

I've had job offers at meetups, it happens fairly often.

Pick a meetup with beer & slides. Peeps that come with presentations talk about things like app ideas, experience with their business' growth or new social initiatives. That way it's interesting to watch and talk to people even if you don't get no deets. You will though.

I go to this one the most http://www.meetup.com/techhubriga/. Think the closest equivalent in London is http://www.meetup.com/HNLondon/

At 7/23/13 01:48 PM, Innermike wrote:

At 7/23/13 09:36 AM, egg82 wrote: C# is amazing for game development (ever heard of the XNA framework? Terraria, anyone?)

Easy, wouldn't say amazing, especially if we're talking cross-platform.

ESPECIALLY if we're talking cross-platform

Thanks to the efforts of the Mono team (http://xamarin.com/) C# actually is a good choice for cross-platform app development. Unity too supports every OS, phone type and console (http://unity3d.com/unity/multiplatform/) and is the best game engine option by technical merit. XNA has been discontinued for some years, funny to see someone bring it up.

At 7/23/13 06:00 AM, FlyingColours wrote: I wanted to make a PHP site for me an my friends to play Mafia/Werewolf online, but then I remembered what you said on multiple occasions about PHP, so I figured ASP.NET with C# would be a better choice.

PHP is a good choice for web page experiments. ASP.NET is not.
Do you want to make your own online game?

When you start with PHP you need to pick a framework (use CakePHP) and follow its conventions. It will give you helpers for accessing the database and printing output, it's easier to understand than ASP. If you want a more fun to use language for it, get Rails, it's similar. You can host both on Heroku for free.

Alternatively you can use static hosting and build everything in Javascript. Firebase has a database service that tells your app when data changes in real-time.

At 7/26/13 12:23 PM, yoloswag69 wrote: XNA has been discontinued for some years, funny to see someone bring it up.

Yeah, I noticed XNA stopped being developed. I'll probably end up switching GW to another framework after I finish some big, important stuff on it.
I'm not quite sure how I would implement Unity or even if I would want to. I'd like something lightweight that I can build upon instead of creating redundant classes. I'd also like to focus more on 2D than 3D, since I already included a 3D engine in the framework.

At 7/23/13 06:00 AM, FlyingColours wrote:

Do you want to make your own online game?

With PHP? Not a good idea. Just create a server using your preferred language and directly access a database from that.

When you start with PHP you need to pick a framework (use CakePHP)

apparently CakePHP is a bad idea. I never asked Diki why, so i'd ask him instead of taking my word for it.

At 7/26/13 12:23 PM, yoloswag69 wrote: PHP is a good choice for web page experiments.

Personally I prefer Python with Flask. Quick and easy, and I don't need to be farting around with Apache and .htaccess files.

At 7/26/13 12:23 PM, yoloswag69 wrote: When you start with PHP you need to pick a framework (use CakePHP) and follow its conventions.

I would recommend Laraval a million times over CakePHP.

This whole page confuses me lol. One day I'll branch out of my OOP/game dev language bubble. I think the next class in my CS minor is C, but we're making game boy emulator games or something idk.

I'm sitting in kenney's ng chat+...I don't know what I was expecting because it's just general forum with faster post times. It's toxic but amusing like luis said a few pages back.

At 7/26/13 04:55 PM, MSGhero wrote: This whole page confuses me lol. One day I'll branch out of my OOP/game dev language bubble.

I did it because jobs. Web dev isn't difficult, just time-consuming.

:I think the next class in my CS minor is C, but we're making game boy emulator games or something idk.

What's your major? I thought we were all CompSci, here.

At 7/26/13 11:38 PM, egg82 wrote:

At 7/26/13 04:55 PM, MSGhero wrote: This whole page confuses me lol. One day I'll branch out of my OOP/game dev language bubble.

I did it because jobs. Web dev isn't difficult, just time-consuming.

I think the next class in my CS minor is C, but we're making game boy emulator games or something idk.

What's your major? I thought we were all CompSci, here.

Mech engineering. Coding flexes my logic muscle, but it wasn't something I wanted more of my focus to go to.

yeey, i wrote my first java class, it was extension for smartfox server, be happy

At 7/26/13 12:23 PM, yoloswag69 wrote:

Thanks for the advice :)

When you start with PHP you need to pick a framework (use CakePHP) and follow its conventions. It will give you helpers for accessing the database and printing output, it's easier to understand than ASP. If you want a more fun to use language for it, get Rails, it's similar. You can host both on Heroku for free.

After what Diki said, I don't think I'm doing PHP. :P I do have a big problem with ASP.NET though: I don't know LINQ! I'll look into Ruby; if it turns out to be easier, Ruby it is. (though I've already started 'getting' ASP.NET and don't really want to change, LOL.)

Also, Heroku looks like a great idea! I'll definitely look into it.

Alternatively you can use static hosting and build everything in Javascript. Firebase has a database service that tells your app when data changes in real-time.

I don't think I'll do that since JS is weakly typed (and I'm the kind of person who cannot survive without type checking, simply because I make sooo many mistakes :P)

Just looked at Wikipedia's Ruby page.

Typing discipline: duck, dynamic

Noooooo...

Sorry for posting too much, but would Google Dart be a good idea? The top answer in this Stack Exchange Programmers page seems to recommend it.

At 7/27/13 07:21 AM, FlyingColours wrote: Sorry for posting too much, but would Google Dart be a good idea?

Wasn't that called "Google Go" before?
If it is Go, then it looks like it'll be a good language when it's finished. Very python-esque.

At 7/27/13 07:05 AM, FlyingColours wrote: Just looked at Wikipedia's Ruby page.

Typing discipline: duck, dynamic

Noooooo...

Ruby is a great language. You should try it out. :)

At 7/27/13 12:55 PM, egg82 wrote: Wasn't that called "Google Go" before?

No, Go is a completely different language (it is made by Google, though).

At 7/26/13 11:38 PM, egg82 wrote:

I think the next class in my CS minor is C, but we're making game boy emulator games or something idk.

I highly recommend picking up a copy of "Practical C" by Steve Oaulline (probably got the last name wrong). I got a used copy for dirt cheap. Despite being about 18 years old, I think it's my favourite programming book out there in terms of how it's formatted.

At 7/27/13 05:50 PM, pirateplatypus wrote: I highly recommend picking up a copy of "Practical C" by Steve Oaulline (probably got the last name wrong). I got a used copy for dirt cheap. Despite being about 18 years old, I think it's my favourite programming book out there in terms of how it's formatted.

Turns out C and game making are 2 different classes. I'm taking C with boring hardware stuff, though I could probably take it anyway and have it credit. We'll be assigned a textbook, but I'll look into that one if that's not the book we're using.

So far 3 textbooks were "required" and I never looked at them. They were required cuz the teacher of that class wrote the book.

At 7/27/13 10:52 PM, Innermike wrote: Man, I never would have thought it'd be impossible to find a piece of software that backed up a single file/folder, pretty much every backup up I've found just seems to do all or nothing. Guess I'm going to have to try and write this shit myself.

backup a single file? What, like copy it?
Not hard to do in the slightest, just make sure the CRC matches afterword to avoid corruption.

In order to avoid sounding like I'm just venting I'm going to turn this into a potential new topic:
Situations where you couldn't find something to do exactly what you wanted and you were like "I guess I am a programmer... might as well give it a shot"

So many times. I quite often find I have very specific needs, though usually I can get a couple free tools and combine them in different ways to get the effect i'm looking for.

At 7/27/13 10:52 PM, Innermike wrote: Man, I never would have thought it'd be impossible to find a piece of software that backed up a single file/folder, pretty much every backup up I've found just seems to do all or nothing. Guess I'm going to have to try and write this shit myself.

Have you tried synctoy? I have it sync each of my project folders with its counterpart in the dropbox folder.

Situations where you couldn't find something to do exactly what you wanted and you were like "I guess I am a programmer... might as well give it a shot"

I made a blitting engine when a search didn't provide anything helpful. Of course, I missed the flixel link which would have saved a lot of time. The other time is when I went hard for regexp to do some specific string stuff. "I'm an engineer" has applied a bit more, mainly when there's no instruction manual and I have to monkey around to figure out what to do.

At 7/28/13 02:05 AM, MSGhero wrote:

At 7/27/13 10:52 PM, Innermike wrote: Man

Is there a such thing as an outtermike?

Hey guys, I want to make a little flash game using sprite graphics made in GraphicsGale, can anyone tell me if this will/will not work?

At 7/28/13 10:48 AM, Rad wrote: Hey guys, I want to make a little flash game using sprite graphics made in GraphicsGale, can anyone tell me if this will/will not work?

If it exports to a file of any sort, you can probably use it in just about any way you please.

Yayy, byte arrays!