Remember that time when I was trying to track down those memory leaks?
Well I'm proud to say that I found them. All it took was practically a whole day rewriting sections and matching up Adds with Releases.
So now I'm glad to have that mission over with, it's been lingering with me for the past week. I'll even be able to sleep well ... until I find a new mission tomorrow.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Glorious Debugging
Ok, so one week to go till Milestone 2. We've fixed a lot of bugs today and got a cleanish build up and running. We'll be doing a bit of overtime tomorrow to catch up on a couple of things, but otherwise things are looking good.
cheers,
Paul
cheers,
Paul
Another week finished
Well another week into production comes to an end. For the most part of this week I developed the sound assets for the game, which are quite fine if I do say so myself. Need a good rest tonight because we'll all be in tomorrow (Saturday) to do some crunching!
Fridayday-dayday
Yay! It's Friday, possibly my favorite day of the week! How can one be angry, knowing that the weekend is only a few hours away?
Anyway, today we finally got around to fixing things that have been broken for a very long time. Namely, heap corruptions (the worst of the worst). We've fixed a whole lotta problems, but unfortunately we still haven't found them all.
Its a good thing we decided to stop adding new things and fixing the old ones. If there's one thing people hate, it's a buggy game.
So, assuming we can get all these problems fixed before Monday, we might actually have a semi-working game by the start of next week...
At least I hope so, because I'm getting in some testers on Monday.
Anyway, today we finally got around to fixing things that have been broken for a very long time. Namely, heap corruptions (the worst of the worst). We've fixed a whole lotta problems, but unfortunately we still haven't found them all.
Its a good thing we decided to stop adding new things and fixing the old ones. If there's one thing people hate, it's a buggy game.
So, assuming we can get all these problems fixed before Monday, we might actually have a semi-working game by the start of next week...
At least I hope so, because I'm getting in some testers on Monday.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Progress
A week into Milestone 2, we've made some progress, but not as much as we'd like. Memory leaks are slowing us down. We'll be discussing some of the issues surrounding this our team meeting tomorrow.
That's all for today.
cheers,
Paul
That's all for today.
cheers,
Paul
Repetition: Lets do it Again!
I think the hardest part for me with the code is tracking down all the memory leaks. These occur when you grab a section of your computer's memory, but forget to tell the computer that you're finished with it.
Our first line of defense is a nifty program called Visual Leak Detector (VLD) which tells you exactly what wasn't released. The only problem is that it doesn't detect heap corruptions, which is currently what our code contains. Even worse is that they only show up on a release build.
The only way to track them down (that I know anyway) is to look through the code line by line until the problem has been found. I must have looked through it a million times by now but there still seems to be problems.
Our first line of defense is a nifty program called Visual Leak Detector (VLD) which tells you exactly what wasn't released. The only problem is that it doesn't detect heap corruptions, which is currently what our code contains. Even worse is that they only show up on a release build.
The only way to track them down (that I know anyway) is to look through the code line by line until the problem has been found. I must have looked through it a million times by now but there still seems to be problems.
Mmmmmm.... GUI
As part of our project, we decided to create our own GUI, similar to what Windows provides. This means we've had to make a whole lot of weird things, such as buttons, tab orders, list boxes and scroll bars. The Idea behind this GUI stuff is that we want to try and keep our code nice and expandable; should we ever decide to swap out our renderer or go cross platform, we can change a few classes and the game will work...
OK, so there's a bit more to it than that, but that's the basic philosophy.
OK, so there's a bit more to it than that, but that's the basic philosophy.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Production
With production now back underway and a renewed vigour we begin coding the next phase of development.
The hardest part at the movement seems to be learning each other’s systems and trying to integrate systems together. With the 2DModel class confusing all, terrifying most and making believers out of Pauls "just hack it" philosophy. We will never turn Paul.
By the end of today we are all tired, and looking forward to a productive day tomorrow.
The hardest part at the movement seems to be learning each other’s systems and trying to integrate systems together. With the 2DModel class confusing all, terrifying most and making believers out of Pauls "just hack it" philosophy. We will never turn Paul.
By the end of today we are all tired, and looking forward to a productive day tomorrow.
Array Etiquette
When most people start counting, they begin at the number one.
When computers start counting, they tend to prefer our old faithful number zero.
As you can probably see, this has caused a little bit of stress over whether computing arrays should begin at zero or one.
I think my idea of having arrays start at 0.5 was rejected without proper consideration. Surely being the Lead Programmer of a small student game should give me some power on this matter.
When computers start counting, they tend to prefer our old faithful number zero.
As you can probably see, this has caused a little bit of stress over whether computing arrays should begin at zero or one.
I think my idea of having arrays start at 0.5 was rejected without proper consideration. Surely being the Lead Programmer of a small student game should give me some power on this matter.
Digital Watches are neat
To borrow the words from the book 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams, deadlines are great, I love the wooshing noise they make as they speed by... :)
...but seriously, our next deadline is next Friday, where we deliver Milestone 2, in which we will feature all the elements of the game in our submission.
Today we managed to get a (only slightly buggy) version of our code built that featured our core gameplay mechanic (that we had hoped to demonstrate in the 1st Milestone), much to the enjoyment of our team!
We continue work tomorrow, whilst I wrestle with scheduling the myriad of tasks into a manageable and logical sequence that will enable us deliver the project on time and under budget (our budget being zero dollars).
Adieu,
Paul
...but seriously, our next deadline is next Friday, where we deliver Milestone 2, in which we will feature all the elements of the game in our submission.
Today we managed to get a (only slightly buggy) version of our code built that featured our core gameplay mechanic (that we had hoped to demonstrate in the 1st Milestone), much to the enjoyment of our team!
We continue work tomorrow, whilst I wrestle with scheduling the myriad of tasks into a manageable and logical sequence that will enable us deliver the project on time and under budget (our budget being zero dollars).
Adieu,
Paul
I Like Turtles
Greetings,
Finally, the wait is over and we can get back to coding. I'm filled with happiness. There's something soothing about sitting down, and coding up some of the ol' if else. Come to think of it, the soothing feeling tends to go away, usually when you realize that your code has to be scrapped because its grown self-aware and turned on the development team...
Anyway,
Maybe its just me, but for a few hours before your code goes to HAL, you are at peace.
Finally, the wait is over and we can get back to coding. I'm filled with happiness. There's something soothing about sitting down, and coding up some of the ol' if else. Come to think of it, the soothing feeling tends to go away, usually when you realize that your code has to be scrapped because its grown self-aware and turned on the development team...
Anyway,
Maybe its just me, but for a few hours before your code goes to HAL, you are at peace.
The wait
As of now we are waiting for the producer to approve our new addition to the technical design document. It is a good seventy pages long, and written in two days. Not too bad if you ask me...
Let's hope that it does get approve so we can get out of this feature freeze and get back to coding... man I love coding. And now with all our functionality fully fleshed out it will be easy coding too, well, I hope so... =P
Oh yeah, and we have a new blame hat now, and because we're in feature freeze, our lead designer was the last one to make a mistake and now he has to wear it until someone can put another bug in our code, which won't be until we are coding again! Hah!
Let's hope that it does get approve so we can get out of this feature freeze and get back to coding... man I love coding. And now with all our functionality fully fleshed out it will be easy coding too, well, I hope so... =P
Oh yeah, and we have a new blame hat now, and because we're in feature freeze, our lead designer was the last one to make a mistake and now he has to wear it until someone can put another bug in our code, which won't be until we are coding again! Hah!
This post has no title
Someone needs to grab a picture of the new blame hat and post it up...it's very pretty.
Well, the new schedule has just been sent off for approval. I'm much happier with it this time round, and our design has been set out in greater detail which will make it easier to manage the day to day completion of tasks. The whole team has again raised the level of their output and produced a lot of work today. Still, need to wait to see if it get's approved by our Producer first...
Must...sleep...now...zzz
Paul
Well, the new schedule has just been sent off for approval. I'm much happier with it this time round, and our design has been set out in greater detail which will make it easier to manage the day to day completion of tasks. The whole team has again raised the level of their output and produced a lot of work today. Still, need to wait to see if it get's approved by our Producer first...
Must...sleep...now...zzz
Paul
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Brute Force
With the last two days being a feature freeze, I've spent my time breaking down the tasks into more and more detail. Now I'm left with a seventy page document to the intricate workings of the project.
Fingers crossed that it's enough to get us back up and coding tomorrow.
Fingers crossed that it's enough to get us back up and coding tomorrow.
More Fridgedness
Greetings,
It's the second day of feature freeze here, and things are starting to get stressy. We really have to get the updated project plan finished before the end of the day, because we're already two days behind schedule and we can't afford to lose any more time.
Here's the trouble though: the project plan rules all. We're going to have to abide by it, whether or not its any good. However, the more time we put in here, the less time we're going to have in Production. Conversely, the less time we put in on the project plan, the more problems are going to arise we get back to production again...
We really should have got this nutted out during pre-production, but being our first large-scale team project, we weren't completely sure as to how the whole thing worked. Nevertheless, we stuffed up and now we've got to fix it.
Oh, and remember: take care not to believe in the impossible, otherwise you're likely to find yourself stranded 400 feet above the ground, strapped to a banjo, wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
It's the second day of feature freeze here, and things are starting to get stressy. We really have to get the updated project plan finished before the end of the day, because we're already two days behind schedule and we can't afford to lose any more time.
Here's the trouble though: the project plan rules all. We're going to have to abide by it, whether or not its any good. However, the more time we put in here, the less time we're going to have in Production. Conversely, the less time we put in on the project plan, the more problems are going to arise we get back to production again...
We really should have got this nutted out during pre-production, but being our first large-scale team project, we weren't completely sure as to how the whole thing worked. Nevertheless, we stuffed up and now we've got to fix it.
Oh, and remember: take care not to believe in the impossible, otherwise you're likely to find yourself stranded 400 feet above the ground, strapped to a banjo, wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
Monday, November 24, 2008
New and Improved Blame Hat.
The good guys and girls... wait theres only one.
The good person in marketing has brought us a new and improved blame hat. Its bright pink, gold full of glitter.
Thank You very much.
The good person in marketing has brought us a new and improved blame hat. Its bright pink, gold full of glitter.
Thank You very much.
Milestone Review
Well, they say the best way to learn is make mistakes. I don't who they are, but they're right.
While there's no doubting everyone's committment to the completion of this game, given the limited time frame and the adjusting to working in a team, we've made a few errors in our first Milestone that our tutor pointed out to us during the review today.
We had loads of very useful feedback from our tutor on where we went astray, and we've been busy today re-working our production plan for Milestone 2.
It's the end of a long day! More tomorrow.
Paul
While there's no doubting everyone's committment to the completion of this game, given the limited time frame and the adjusting to working in a team, we've made a few errors in our first Milestone that our tutor pointed out to us during the review today.
We had loads of very useful feedback from our tutor on where we went astray, and we've been busy today re-working our production plan for Milestone 2.
It's the end of a long day! More tomorrow.
Paul
first milestone dramas
Yay we made it through the first milestone!
only just =S
we learnt heaps, though we did indeed feel the pain!
pre-production is EVERYTHING!
cant stress that fact enough,
So we're back to documenting and designing and planning and scheduling,
to ensure a smoother grind to the next milestone.
Wish us luck!
only just =S
we learnt heaps, though we did indeed feel the pain!
pre-production is EVERYTHING!
cant stress that fact enough,
So we're back to documenting and designing and planning and scheduling,
to ensure a smoother grind to the next milestone.
Wish us luck!
Breaking it down
Reflecting on milestone one, we came to the realisation the we completely lack planning. To rectify this problem we spent today reworking the technical design.
On another note, did you know you can type "we require your poor typewriter" by only using the top line of your keyboard (apart from the spacebar, and provided you are using a QWERTY style keyboard).
On another note, did you know you can type "we require your poor typewriter" by only using the top line of your keyboard (apart from the spacebar, and provided you are using a QWERTY style keyboard).
Begin Phase Two
Greetings,
Today we started the second phase of our project... Actually, let me rephrase that, today we were supposed to start the second phase of our project.
I say 'supposed' because we got frozen... Feature frozen... Because we have to rework the production plan. Not that this is a bad thing, its just a little inconvenient.
So, we've spent the whole day dividing up the remaining classes and assigning them to people, so they suss them out and provide a task list based on their required functionality. Not a fun process, but unfortunately its necessary.
Keeping the Romans at bay,
Ben.
Today we started the second phase of our project... Actually, let me rephrase that, today we were supposed to start the second phase of our project.
I say 'supposed' because we got frozen... Feature frozen... Because we have to rework the production plan. Not that this is a bad thing, its just a little inconvenient.
So, we've spent the whole day dividing up the remaining classes and assigning them to people, so they suss them out and provide a task list based on their required functionality. Not a fun process, but unfortunately its necessary.
Keeping the Romans at bay,
Ben.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Just another update
It’s amazing how much work is involved in developing a game with a team. Communication is of the upmost importance if you want to create something decent. Communication can be done in code, something we’re always reminded of on a daily basis yet I forget to do from time to time. One small comment can make a difference. More of these little things and it makes a big difference. So, a tip for the three or so viewers, comment EVERYTHING. It may seem straight forward but there will be times where you’re in a rush to complete something and five seconds worth of a comment may seem like a very long time. However, five seconds there can potentially save your team five hours down the track.
I noticed a comment about the level editor so I thought I’d do a little update. The level editor in its current state is usable, but far from completion. It would be nice to be able to provide the player’s with the ability to mod the game as they wish, as some of the best multiplayer games out at the moment are mods from the public. But I don’t think we’ll have the time to create something that fancy, nor did we intend to build the editor to do so at the moment.
Before I head back, just a reminder, keep the comments/questions rolling. Any input is appreciated, especially when it gives me something to write about.
Cheers
- Andrew
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