We have free real-time models like this:
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3223/x0207bsn1.jpg
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/2056/x020xbqz8.jpg
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/2527/copyofx0202beb7.jpg
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4761/copyofx0205bei2.jpg
and others:
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5711/x0301brx5.jpg
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/9731/x0102bys4.jpg
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/2812/x0601bro6.jpg
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/2262/x0701bhn9.jpg
Developers always need model, so we try our best to make as many free model as we can and hope they might help you! New products are available every week, we kindly invite you to visit 3d4ya.com frequently to check them out! Sorry if you find it annoying.
3d4ya.com
]]>This thread on the XNA forums provides a replacement function, which I'm going to use.
]]>Our initial pass, designed for quick prototyping so we could really test the motion-tracking camera system, was based entirely on using the BasicEffect fixed function pipeline. We could draw models. We also used SpriteBatch to draw our graphical representations of pieces (called "visuals" in our nomenclature), but these use a different coordinate system than our model space. As a result, everything is kind of a mess. Our physics and collision detection was hacked together out of some rather simplistic assumptions I made about impulses. It worked, mostly, but not reliably in all cases. Still, we were able to test a 80% scale system in a museum space.
The second pass, which I'm doing now, is more carefully achitected, but I'm also now learning more details about how the graphics device draws. It's actually pretty simple at the lowest level: lists of triangles get rendered by the graphics device. You set up various buffers that contain vertex data, and then tell the graphic device to draw it through an Effect. Effects are essentially programs that convert the vertex data into the filled, shaded 3D shapes projected on the screen.
The learning problem: shaders are mysterious black boxes to me, and they are quite varied. BasicEffect, which implements an approximation of the "fixed function pipeline" of older versions of Direct3D, is good enough for drawing textured, lit models, but it doesn't do fancy stuff that we'd like. To do that, you have to get into using custom Effects, which in essence means you need to learn how to write a shader using a language called HLSL (High Level Shading Language). This is a significant jump. Unfortunately, there is no shader source code available for BasicEffect, which would have been WONDERFUL for people learning how to write shaders who started learning the guts of XNA with the built-in Model code.
I found this list of HLSL Shader Resources, which I'm starting to work through. My immediate challenge is just to draw a per-pixel opaque texture map onto a quad, which will complete the implementation of my VSprite3D visual class. This is not supported by BasicEffect. So I'm looking for a good starting bit of code that I can just drop in as-is.
]]>Player classes manipulate Pieces, which are representations of the various "self-determining" entities in the game. Pieces possess the following kinds of information at minimum:
Player classes also implement Update() and Draw(). Each Player class maintain a list of managed pieces.
The GameController class, which is the root-level object, essentially will call the following loop:
The actual loop may be more complicated than this to handle tricky interdependencies, but this is the basic idea.
]]>I love the site, but I'm still a bit confused about the types of available forms, current versions, and how you actually use them in the course of a day, week, month, year. Let's tackle this in two sections:
1) The Printable CEO forms: I know you list the names of most of them on the "main" Printable CEO page (davidseah.com/pceo), but do you keep one page with a list of directly download-able, current versions of all of your forms? I've been browsing your site and it's like a mini game of scavenger hunt ;-) "Click here for the form, read the linked page, click here for history, click here for last year's version...."
2) I've read the history on most of your forms, checked out the various versions over the years, and it's interesting to watch the development. What I'm curious is which forms you actually use on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. I've used FranklinCovey for the last three years - I combine paper and electronic planning - and I'm looking to integrate The Printable CEO into my current setup.
My Current Setup:
FranklinCovey PlanPlus for Outlook v5 - I use the "Home" page so I can see my e-mail, calendar, and daily task list all on one screen.
FranklinCovey PlanPlus utilities for PalmOS - Mainly used to keep my Palm synchronized for appointment reminders, but also somewhat useful for looking at current tasks when in a meeting.
FranklinCovey Monarch Planning Pages - Used to take daily notes, meeting minutes, etc. A notebook would probably do, but I like the "Monthly Index" for keeping track of important notes that happened during the month and the "Monthly Business Expenses" and "Annual Summary of Business Expenses" worksheets - useful for my business travels. Also used to house important phone numbers, service information, etc. in case the Palm stops working for one reason or another. (Read: I don't completely trust electronic devices)
My Proposed Setup:
Everything from my Current Setup
Task Progress Tracker - Used to roughly prototype a project before being transcribed into Microsoft Project (a necessary evil at my place of employment. Just like Outlook...)
Intermittent Task Tracker - Used for the weekly recurring important tasks to which I'm assigned, probably to be posted to my whiteboard
Task Order Up - Created as tasks come in, posted to the whiteboard, and updated in Outlook at the end of the day (boss uses Outlook to delegate tasks, expects employees to update those assigned tasks so he knows what's going on and where we are on our assignments at all times - Outlook handles this automatically when I make an update).
The one thing I'm trying to address is visibility in the workplace - While most of us use Microsoft Project for planning and Outlook for tasks - the boss doesn't do a good job of communicating what he's assigned to various members of the team. Therefore, several of us have inadvertently (so we think) been assigned the same tasks, which can be frustrating because you feel like you've wasted your time on duplicate effort. Using Task Order Up may address some of these issues because we can visibly see what everyone's working on, and address task overlap immediately.
How do you use your forms? What do you think of my existing and proposed setups?
Thanks!
Scott
]]>David did a great work with this timers & trackers! Thanks a lot for that.
Since i have heard of this website, i've worked (actually i work with) my filofax. (a5 format)
I need this tool, cause i'm very often out of my home-office, work with different customers and have to fill out different 'trackers' for finished work.
It's very simple to plan meetings and keep me up to date. The only problem is, it makes me crazy to add (on this timetable) done work.
At the end of each day, i have a ... let's say .. very unclear timetable for the finished day. Sometimes, theres about 30 finished topics ... uargs. - it's very unstructured.
There's some great ideas from different companies to solve this problems. (in my opinion, a lot of freelancers have this problem) But in my opinion, there's no solution who is perfect. (at the end for me ;-))
The question is, how to combine a filofax (so, a 'book', who is clear in the struktur of itselfs, cause of no several papers) and this great tools of david.
I feel really happy with this emergent task timer (the wide power user edition). So i can plan every day. But, i need a a5 edition ;-)
But i also have projects beyond two or three month, sometimes half a year long. For this, the progress tracker is a very good tool.
For short projects in the future, i would like to take the task order up! tool.
Now i have three different tools (one for every day) and one for projects and one for short tasks, who are not solved on the same day/week.
Do you have a plan, how to create a a5 version of the day-planer (emergent task timer), combine it with a a progress tracker and mix it up with this great order up! tool? :-)
At my point, it's hard to keep (most of the time) two of the three forms up to date: (e.g): I have a conference call with a customer, i pick up the task order up! and write a new task:
description: tell bob something about the printable ceo due date: jan. 30, 2008
The next few day's are very busy, so i put the task on my task-table (pin) - or in my filofax in the category 'tasks'...
Ok, now i have time to finish the task.
I need half a hour (i paint in to of the time-bubbles) and finished the task by writing the 'hours logged'
But in the same time, i have to fill out my emergent task timer with the same topic - stupid! isn't it? (But i have to fill it out, otherwise it's very hard for me to see what's happend on the day) - it's the redundancy problem.
Ok, thanks a lot for some anwers!
best regards, Max.
]]>In other news, I'm starting to talk to some other area people who are interested, and we're talking about getting together somewhere.
]]>Anyway, here's what I got started doing:
Installing Visual Studio 2005 - this is going to be our dev platform for the entire project
Installing DirectX SDK from August 2007, the last stable release version with the MDX 1.1 stuff still in it.
Compiled the sample code to see if it worked.
Created a simple model in Modo, exported to .X format.
Tried to add mesh loading code to EmptyProject sample code, to test if I understood it correctly. It did not work.
Tried loading my .X mesh using a modifed version of "Enhanced Mesh" sample code. This did work.
Currently, I am trying to figure out what I did wrong in importing Mesh loading code from "Enhanced Mesh". I am missing something.
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