HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: okes@essex.ac.uk (Oke S)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design,rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: 3d graphics problem
Date: 8 Oct 92 12:23:34 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, UK.
In-reply-to: boender@dutiws.tudelft.nl's message of 8 Oct 92 09:48:39 GMT

In article <2203@dutiws.tudelft.nl> boender@dutiws.tudelft.nl (P.Boender.TI-tel-4593) writes:
| A friend of mine is writing a 3d-game. (Elite-ish, I guess).
| In this game, the orientation of objects is kept in a 9*9 matrix. This
| matrix is in 4+12 bit fixed point representation. Now, this matrix is altered
| whenever the object rotates. And, because the matrix is in fixed-point, it
| suffers from a loss in precision. He tried to fix this by getting the 
| determinant of the matrix. Whenever it gets too large or too small, he divides
| all elements of the matrix by the determinant. However, this doesn't work:
| the elements of the matrix get out of proportion, resulting in a distorted view
| and (eventually) in a crash.
| Now, how is this to be solved? He could keep the three angles of the object,
| calculate the matrix from that, and change the angles whenever the object is
| rotated. This makes it hard to rotate the object about any axis other than
| x, y, z. Also, it is slow. So, are there any ways to repair the matrix quickly
| and efficiently?

The standard way to do this is not to continually update your representation
of the object, but to keep an untouched copy of the matrix and each time you
rotate the object, work out the new matrix by applying a rotation of the
absolute angular position to the pristine copy.

Hope this is clear,
Simon Oke (okes@essex.ac.uk)

--
This signature is copyright 12/6/1992 Simon Oke. All rights reserved. If you
like it and keep a copy for your own use, you owe me $20. Please pass it on
to your friends with all documentation.              Email okes@essex.ac.uk.
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Reincarnation: life sucks, then you die. Then life sucks again.
From: tennis@ziff.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: OOP in game design
Date: 14 Oct 92 02:00:50 EDT
Organization: Ziff-Davis, Medford MA

In article <1992Oct7.100509.1783@ghost.dsi.unimi.it>, vaccari@ghost.dsi.unimi.it (matteo vaccari) writes:
> appelo@dutiag.tudelft.nl (C.J. Appelo) writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
>>I am trying to find out if object-oriented programming could be of any help
>>in designing computer games. There are some questions I would like to spread
>>around here:
> 
>>1. Does anybody know if a study on this matter has already been done? Maybe
>>there are some people who already evaluated the possibilities of doing things
>>the object-oriented way in game-making activities. Names of persons or titles
>>of books/articles would be very welcome. (Although I am afraid that nobody
>>can help me with this one.)
> 
> [...]
> 
> 
> There exists a package, called TADS, that enables to build text-based
> adventure games.  It is basically an interpreter for an
> object-oriented programming language.  I sent email to the authors,
> but got no answer so far.
> 
> I think going OO is exactly what you need to model the world :-) .
> If you want to have "objects" and characters using them, then OO
> is the natural choice.
> 
> Matteo
> 
> -- 
> Matteo Vaccari                  tel.    +39-2-55006347
> Dipartimento di Informatica     fax.    +39-2-55006348
> Universita` di Milano           e-mail: vaccari@ghost.unimi.it


Objects are pretty good for modelling reality.  A game is a model of reality.
:)
So this should work, right?  If you are not sure, think of it this way:
Let's say you are designing a computer board game, like Panzer Leader.  So
you  define a tank and everything you can do with a tank.  the TANK class
would have attributes (Weight, Speed, Defense, Attack) and "methods", or
things you can do: MOVE, SHOOT, DRAW-SELF, etc...

Then if you have another type of tank, you can model it after the first tank
(above), changing only what you need to change to give it its unique
characteristics.  This reduces the amount of code you will have to write,
but may increase the complexity a bit - The TANK object must be carefully
designed.  One of the neat things about
this application, though, is that you build a lot of consistency into the
game when you use OOP.  A tank acts like any other tank except for itss
peculiarities.  And since TANKS and TRUCKS are both vehicles, you can make
a VEHICLE class that handles common things, such as MOVING.  etc etc...

And you thought no one would know what you were talking about... ;)

I can not recommend a book since I do not know what you want to do...

Good luck,
Tony
From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Movement systems in general.
Date: 12 Oct 92 14:37:53 GMT
Organization: DB and ES Subdivision, TU Vienna

From article <1992Oct12.122222.5359@odin.diku.dk>, by torbenm@diku.dk (Torben AEgidius Mogensen):
> Simultanious movement is used in several games I know of, Diplomacy
> being the best known.

> Obviously, it becomes unreasonable if each player has many pieces. In
> Diplomacy the players each have less than 18 pieces, and usually less
> than 10.

Another problem with simultaneous movement is if the movement rates
are too high.  This often a problem with si-move air combat games, if a
plane can evade a more maneuverable opponent all the time by guessing
right.


-- 
Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
From: mike@isgtec.com (Mike Sellers)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: History of FRP systems
Date: 6 Oct 92 01:00:22 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: ISG Technologies Inc., Mississauga Ontario

In article <1992Oct2.192353.11513@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> picl17@fsphy1.physics.fsu.edu writes:
> I'm trying to put together something on the history of RPG systems, and
> would appreciate any help that anyone could give me.  Right now, I have
> the following stuff:
> 
> D & D :	       First RPG system

Actually, I think it was Prince Valiant, circa 1970.  The Chain Mail
supplement came out several years later ('74? the memory fades...)
and the "three white books" sometime after that.  Personally I'd put
the beginning of the Role Playing Age at the original white books,
but strictly speaking they weren't the first.

> Runequest:     First %-ile system (not full percentile, but...)

Was this before or after C&S?  Both it and Arduin had _some_ percentile
portions of character development.  Then there was the Midkemia system 
which was strongly percentile-based, but it was never published...

--
              Mike Sellers      User Interface Team Leader
           mike@isgtec.com      ISG Technologies, Toronto, Canada
              "Actum ne agas" -- Do not do what has been done.
                         Furare tantum ab Optimis
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: amitp@owlnet.rice.edu (Amit J Patel)
Subject: Re: OOP in game design
Reply-To: amitp@owlnet.rice.edu
Organization: Rice University
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 12:49:43 GMT

In article <appelo.718402868@dutiag>, appelo@dutiag.tudelft.nl (C.J. Appelo) writes:
|> 
|> 2. Can someone tell me if OO is already been used by the professional
|> software designers? I'm trying to contact such people, but this could be a
|> very difficult job.
|> 

Try Ultima 6 and Ultima 7 --- they were written using an object-based 
approach, and it shows.  They used OO for creating "objects" such as 
player characters, non-player characters, innocent bystanders, inanimate
objects, monsters, etc.  Each object can be "used" (double clicking), and
the live creatures move themselves around, attack, sleep, etc.


		Amit

-- 
/\\ Amit J Patel, amitp@owlnet.rice.edu
\\/ I think I'm at Rice University 
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: Re: firsts in RPGs
Reply-To: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, N.H.
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 92 11:20:27 GMT

batemanc@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (Mad Chris) writes:
[Among other errors, most of which were corrected in other posts]
>
>Traveller:		First Sci-fi game (but only just!)

Nope.  Starfaring by Ken St. Andre (Flying Buffalo) beat Traveller by a
year.

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu
From: jpg@bnr.co.uk (Jonathan P. Gibbons)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Sequential movement in wargames
Date: 7 Oct 92 08:46:15 GMT
Organization: BNR Europe Ltd, London Rd, Harlow, Essex, CM19 9NA, U.K.

In article <1992Oct5.230737.25377@trl.oz.au> mathers@sibelius.trl.oz.au (Steven Mathers) writes:

>   What about allowances for different movement rates?  As you say, it is
>   an advantage in most cases to move last, after seeing what moves your
>   opponent has made.  I figure that a rule forcing players to move their
>   slowest units before their quickest units would seem to make sense.

Have you ever played star fleet battles?  The system they have is really only
suitable for games where each side has only a few pieces and works via:

Each go is split into 24 bits (say) and the fastest ship can move 24 times.
At the start of each go each player states what speed the ship will move at
and a controling player notes it down.  The go then starts with the 1st move
- only those ships which are shown as moving on the table in this segment of 
the go are moved. Once moved go onto the next segment.  All ships move in the
last segment.
eg for a max speed of 5 the table would be
segment      speed =
           1    2    3   4   5
   1                 x   x   x
   2            x            x
   3                 x   x   x
   4                     x   x
   5      x     x    x   x   x
Ships can fire in any segment.  I think the system works V. well.

Jonathan

--
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  With fearsome eyes and fiery breath the dragon burnt the girl to death
                    -- from "Too Late Saint George"
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: engjs@wombat.newcastle.edu.au (James Smith)
Subject: Re: firsts in RPGs
Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 00:01:29 GMT

Mad Chris writes:

> Was Ars Magica the first unlimited magic rules?

Tunnels and Trolls certainly predates Ars Magica by many years.  Its
magic system allowed you to make up a spell on the spur of the moment
to do what needed doing.  Is this what you mean by 'unlimited magic'?

Jim
-- 
James J Smith             | "I couldn't get over it. All these women
School of Engineering     | in the world...and under their clothes
Newcastle University      | each and every one of them was naked, you
engjs@cc.newcastle.edu.au | know..." -- Psycho-killer, "Sandman"
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: mathers@sibelius.trl.oz.au (Steven Mathers)
Subject: Movement systems in general.
Reply-To: s.mathers@trl.oz.au
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 05:30:30 GMT


Having just playtested a game, I would like to change the movement
system.

Currently each player moves all of his units, fighting battles as they
occur, before play moves to the next person.  Other players may
intercept the current players moving units if they are in a position to
do so. (adjacent to the area the moving unit is coming from and going
to...)

The trouble with this system, and any turn based movement system, is
that it favours the last player(s) in the sequence.  Its advantages is
that it is easy to understand, needs almost no rules to define, and is
fairly quick.

What other systems are there out there?

I have thought about a 'everybody moves all their pieces, then all
conflicts are resolved' system.  This would have the following
disadvantages.  Escalation:  If you move there, then I am moving
here...oh, yeah, well then I am doing this, oh double yeah, then I am
doing this...etc.. And it still has the problem of deciding in what
order players move.

I have been thinking about an operation-based system instead of a unit
based system where players take it in turns to activate, move, attack
and resolve one particular combat with a unit or group of units.
Something like the system used in Pelopeneasan War, although I can't
spell it.

Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: kivinen@cs.hut.fi (Tero Kivinen)
Subject: Re: Dirty pool in vdesign.c
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 23:01:37 GMT

In article <43758@ogicse.ogi.edu> nabil@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (Aaron Nabil) writes:
>    715           * Checks that HARMs are only on side mounts.
>    717  #if 0
>    721           * Restrict HARM's to one per side
>    735  #endif
> #ifndef NO_GAME_BALANCE would be more appropriate...

It doesn't matter if the HARM's are at the side #ifdef NO_GAME_BALANCE
could be used for them all the time...

I tested this little vehicle against 4 Gnat's (one team) and 4 Tagmans
(one team). It took about 7 shots and then I won. Gnat and Tagman
teams got about 2000 points per team.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vehicle: Killer
Designer: ttk
Body: Hexo
Engine: Small Turbine
W#0: T1 Anti-Radiation
Armor Type: New Steel
Front: 0
Back: 0
Left: 0
Right: 0
Top: 0
Bottom: 0
Special: Console
Special: Mapper
Special: Radar
Special: HU Display
Heat sinks: 0
Suspension: Light
Treads: Smooth
Bumpers: None
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Just find the nearist enemy, shoot HARM, crash agains wall. Repeat
until you win. This tank costs about 40000 so by killing one gnat or
disgorge you get about 4000 points, so after 5-6 kills its all over.
--
Tero_Kivinen@hut.FI              Work : +358-0-451 4032
Klovinrinne 6b, 02180, Espoo     Home : +358-0-524 207
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Re: Bullets, Walls, and Ricochet
Date: 8 Oct 92 12:43:08 GMT
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision

In article <4633@moscom.com> wjb@moscom.com writes:
>Anyone else have the following problem?

We had it, gordon fixed it (I figgured out what it was about the same time
he did, but he was the first to lock the right file...).

>With ricochet on, and a maze with borders that're on the North or West edges
>of allowable maze locations, bullets don't bounce off the edges, they just
>disappear?
>
>Note that this only happens when the maze edge hit is as far North or West
>as maze edges can be designed.

Or south, or east (at least for fast bullets).  It is "fixed in the next
release".
-- 
           stripes@pix.com              "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise.       - Larry Wall
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: epeterso@encore.com (Eric Peterson)
Subject: Re: Bullets, Walls, and Ricochet
Organization: Encore Computer Corporation
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 13:41:00 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Josh Osborne (stripes@pix.com) wrote:

| In article <4633@moscom.com> wjb@moscom.com writes:
|
| >With ricochet on, and a maze with borders that're on the North or West edges
| >of allowable maze locations, bullets don't bounce off the edges, they just
| >disappear?
| >
| >Note that this only happens when the maze edge hit is as far North or West
| >as maze edges can be designed.
| 
| Or south, or east (at least for fast bullets).  It is "fixed in the next
| release".

I fixed this by adding -DDESTROY_ONLY_FLYING to the XTANK_FLAGS in the
Imakefile.  This affects the coll_bullets_maze() function in
collision.c.  It works for me, although I'm not sure what the
implications are for everyone else ... it was quite annoying to launch
a tac nuke and have it disappear straight into the wall instead of
detonating ;-)

Eric
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: jclarke@bnr.ca (John Clarke)
Subject: Porting xtank to b/w
Reply-To: jclarke@bnr.ca (John Clarke)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 14:23:11 GMT


I don't know if this newsgroup is read anymore, but if
anyone has successfully ported xtank to use b/w (instead of colour)
could you let me know what changes you made?

John

jclarke@bnr.ca
From: scottd@cs.hw.ac.uk (Scott Dunn)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Can a robot take commands from keyboard?
Date: 16 Oct 92 08:26:52 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computing & Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

Hi,

You may recall a recent posting when I wrote about a project where I
am currently working on, whereby a robot would be controlled by a 
neural network.

The problem :

In order to train the net I need to capture data about the environment
plus MY actions in response to the environment.  Now, a tank can be designed
which simply captures data (how close to walls, nearest bad guy, nearest good
guy, armour, weapons, speed, direction etc.), but I can't take control of
this tank.  Do you see my point?

If you don't understand what I'm trying to say but think you may
be able to help, then please mail me and I'll try and clarify my
point.

Thanks for any help,

Scott.
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 11:27:15 GMT
From: jean@plod.esrin.esa.it (Jean Manuel Melinotte)
To: xtank@eng.umd.edu
Subject: Problems to link (cc) xtank, no problem to compile it


Hello,
My name is jean, i am working at European space agency.
I got  xtank1.3d.tar the 13/10/92

Hardware platform : sun 4/490 (server)
OS version : 4.1_PSRA
Windowing System : OpenWin 3
Compiler used : default
suppression of -DMULTI_SYNC
we do not have flex

The compilation seemed to give no problem, but the loinking failed

cc -o xtank.sun4 3d.o XMultiSync.o actions.o animate.o box.o collision.o  console.o cosell.o display.o escher.o explosion.o  file.o game.o gr.o graphics.o highlib.o hit.o icounter.o  init.o input.o interface.o intersect.o lowlib.o main.o  malloc.o 
maze.o mdesign.o menu.o message.o  objects.o program.o radar.o repair.o scroll.o setup.o  setups.o status.o sysdep.o thread.o unix.o update.o  util.o vdesign.o vehicle.o newfile.o vload.o  version.o  -g -Bstatic -lXext -lX11 /usr/lib/debug/malloc.o 
-llwp -LPrograms -lxtankrobots -lm

Undefined 
_setup_game 
_init_combatants 
_customized_combatants 
_game_running 
_num_combatants 
_combatant 
_standard_combatants 
_robot_combatants 
_play_game 
_player_combatants 
_setup_terminal 
_all_terms 
_place_vehicle 
setups.o: _strtoke: multiply defined 
setups.o: _yy_init_buffer: multiply defined 
setups.o: _cv_str: multiply defined 
setups.o: _cv_flt: multiply defined 
setups.o: _cv_int: multiply defined 
setups.o: _yval: multiply defined 
setups.o: _yyin: multiply defined 
setups.o: _yy_switch_to_buffer: multiply defined 
setups.o: _load_settings: multiply defined 
setups.o: _cv_maze: multiply defined
setups.o: _cv_kw2i: multiply defined
setups.o: _cv_bool: multiply defined
setups.o: _yyout: multiply defined
setups.o: _yylex: multiply defined
setups.o: _yy_delete_buffer: multiply defined
setups.o: _yy_create_buffer: multiply defined
setups.o: _yyrestart: multiply defined
setups.o: _yy_load_buffer_state: multiply defined
*** Error code 2 
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `xtank.sun4'

Please could you give a reply, i am really interested to get xtank working .

Thank you
From: okes@essex.ac.uk (Oke S)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Game type Madman
Date: 7 Oct 92 14:41:04 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, UK.

What is this game type? I didn't notice it until about 10 minutes ago when
someone showed me a bug; when you throw a disc it goes straight through walls
and then leaves a trail of disc images after it. Until I know what's up with
it I'm disabling Madman.

Simon Oke (okes@essex.ac.uk)
--
This signature is copyright 12/6/1992 Simon Oke. All rights reserved. If you
like it and keep a copy for your own use, you owe me $20. Please pass it on
to your friends with all documentation.              Email okes@essex.ac.uk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hell's bells!" the machine roared as it plummeted fifteen storeys and
	smashed itself to bits on the ground below.
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Porting xtank to b/w
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 18:26:01 GMT

In article <1992Oct16.142311.16787@bmerh85.bnr.ca> jclarke@bnr.ca (John Clarke) writes:
>I don't know if this newsgroup is read anymore, but if
>anyone has successfully ported xtank to use b/w (instead of colour)
>could you let me know what changes you made?

It works out of the box, has for a good 3+ years.  No changes needed.
No speical defines.
-- 
           stripes@pix.com              "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise.       - Larry Wall
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: robind@code3.com (Robin P. Dunn)
Subject: XTank availability
Organization: 3M Health Information Systems
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 21:22:27 GMT


I complied and installed XTank on a few machines when I worked for the 
school a few years ago.  I was thinking it would be nice to have it here 
where I work now, so I was wondering where the sources are located these 
days, and if it is available for more platforms, (I had it when it was a VAX 
and IBM/RT only beast...)  Our priamry machine here is a DG AViiON, but 
there are a few others around if it hasn't been ported to the AViiON yet.

Thanks,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robin P. Dunn, Software Engineer                    ...!uunet!code3!robind
3M Health Information Systems                             robind@code3.com
Code3 Product Development                                   (801) 265-4820
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer