HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 19:20:39 -0500 
From: Court Demas <court+@CMU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Xlib Clipping Revisited
	<1992Dec14.221838.10200@u.washington.edu>

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.programmer: 14-Dec-92 Re: Xlib Clipping
Revisited Kludge@hardy.u.washingto (1673)

>   I *really* doubt it works for compiled bitmaps - how do you clip code? :)
> Maybe there should be a new type of compiled bitmap that does clipping
> automatically, but I bet that wouldn't have much of a speed advantage over
> regular bitmaps - and they'd be about 8 times as large. 

I actually fooled around with this a bit, and I think it might be
possible.  At least horizontal clipping seems fairly easy - you have a
set on instructions n-bytes long broken into sections of each scanline. 
Just compute the top line and jump into the correct section, and then
check at the end of each line to see if you should cut out (could get a
little hairy though if you wanna do it really fast (self-modifying code,
blech)).  Clipping vertically would take a bit more work but it's
basically the same concept.  Has anybody else played with this?

>   Don't give up on lines, though.  They're pretty easy to write a clipping
> routine, though it's been a while since I tried.  There are quite a few
> books with algorithms for clipping lines in them.  It also looks as if
> the XLib line drawing algorithm could be sped a bit, but I'm not sure.

Maybe implementing the "enhanced" bresenham's (or whatever it's called)
would make it faster - precomputing the length of the spans and such. 
Tricky to implement though (I think Abrash wrote something about this).

> 							-Kludge
-court


Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: opex@brg5.ldgo.columbia.edu
Subject: Test
Organization: Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 04:32:18 GMT

Test
From: flipper@pascal (Philippe Desaulniers)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Continous Keyboard interrupt
Date: 13 Dec 92 23:45:50 GMT
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]


 I am wondering how is it possible to get a continous keyboard interrupt, i.e. to prevent the standard PC procedure wich consists in getting a caracter once, then wait a bit, then get a series of caracters (when you keep a key pressed for a while). Of course my intention is to use the keypad's arrows as a "joystick".

Is that standard procedure due to DOS? or the BIOS? or what?

I am using your everyday PC, and I program with Bordland's Turbo C 2.01 & Microsoft's MASM.

If anyone can help me, I'd be very thankful....
 
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: collins@blkbox (Chad R. Collins)
Subject: Copyrights of old games...
Organization: The Black Box, PO Box 591822 Houston, TX 77259-1822 
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 18:44:38 GMT
Summary: A question about old game copyrights...

	I was wondering about a couple of games I have seen recently-
Castle Wolfenstein 3D and Llamatron. Both are new versions of old games-
dont they violate someone's copyright? I rember some discussion on this
group before about the possiblity of someone making a M.U.L.E. clone,
but the consensus seemed to be that you couldn't make one, even a public
domain one, without violating a copyright. What about these games?

Chad R. Collins
collins@blkbox.com
From: checker@acf5.NYU.EDU (checker)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Copyrights of old games...
Date: 20 Dec 92 23:48:40 GMT
Organization: New York University

toddl@county.lmt.mn.org (Todd Lehman) gives his opinions on `simple' games:
>Getting back to the copyright thing, it's really a matter of luck who gets to
>own the simple ideas, and it's really sort of sad when someone does.  I mean,
>nobody cares if someone owns the copyright to Super Mario World XXVII.  But
>we're all a little peeved when a simple game like Tetris is copyrighted.

I think you have things backwards here.  Coming up with more levels to
Super Mario Brothers is my definition of easy (perhaps brainless is a
better description).  Coming up with something elegant and simple like
Tetris is a _lot_ of work.  Of course you're peeved; all great ideas
seem to be simple, once you hear about them.

Let's give credit where credit is due.

Chris
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: mccarty@netcom.com (Michael K McCarty)
Subject: Fireworks Code
Summary: Looking for Fireworks Code.
Keywords: Fireworks Code
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:36:58 GMT

Does anyone have any code for producing on screen fireworks bursts,
or anything similar.  Thanks

Mike

-- 
<=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=>
  Michael K McCarty                Internet: mccarty@netcom.com
  Strategic Visions, Inc.    --==> Home of the Imagination Junky

"...close the hatch. Careful not to lock it on the way out."
    -Buzz Aldrin :: Apollo XI
From: troye@cs.mcgill.ca (Troy ENGLISH)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Share Ware $5
Date: 14 Dec 92 22:21:47 GMT
Organization: SOCS - McGill University, Montreal, Canada

In article <1992Dec09.161920.8550@blkbox> collins@blkbox (Chad R. Collins) writes:
>baylor@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Baylor) writes:
>
>
>>	Does it bother anyone (else) about those places that advertise in 
>>magazines and stores with deals like Commander Keen $15, Galactix $10?
>>	They normally only sell the disks with copies of the files - you are
>>of course not considered registered, and you must still pay the share ware fee.
>>	Do share ware authors get anything off this? Do those of you who can
>>never get anyone to register mind that some mail order place is making $5
>>just to copy it to a $1 disk while you frequently make nothing?
>>	Just wondering, as some of these places are beggining to charge 
>>outrtageous sums to purchase their disks (close to the normal registering fees).
>>					
>>						- baylor
>	Well, I think you have to remember two things about these guys:
>1) They can't charge more than the author will allow (legally, anyway :)
>2) Even if the vast majority of people don't realize that they are buying
>	a shareware program, the services are usually free and will give you
>	some sales you normally wouldn't get.
>
>						Chad R. Collins
>						collins@blkbox.com

Frankly , the shareware authors should be pissed! I know of a place that
sells the games at 7.00 a piece with cost of producing being about 0.25
each and they sell maybe a hundred a week... you do the math. Most of
the people who buy these as well will not register them since they
figure they have already paid for the software. ie one place alond is
making about 500$+ a week on something and the authors don't get zilch.

In this case the distibutors are making LOTS more than the producers,
not very fair frankly.

Troy
-- 
*****************************************************************
--Your naive idiocy makes me very angry -- Job (The Lawnmower man)
"I want to lie Shipwrecked and comatose, drinking fresh mango juice"
--Part of Themesong to Red Dwarf
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: greg@dent.uchicago.edu (Greg Kuperberg)
Subject: Re: Jerky animation (Was: The Correct Way to Control Game Speed)
Organization: Dept. of Mathematics, U. of Chicago
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 23:05:50 GMT

In article <1992Dec19.221442.3741@news2.cis.umn.edu> toddl@county.lmt.mn.org (Todd Lehman) writes:
>In article <1992Dec19.190258.15117@midway.uchicago.edu> greg@dent.uchicago.edu (Greg Kuperberg) writes:
>>15 or more frames per second looks good, and it is a waste of CPU
>>time to have more than 30 redraws per second.
>For 3D animation, sure...maybe the animation rate doesn't matter that much.
>
>But for sprite-type animation, the animation rate actually DOES matter. 
>If you move an object at 30 f.p.s. on a monitor refreshing at 60 Hz., there
>will be a double-image effect, and the animation will appear jerky.

My comment about >30 redraws per second was an overstatement and you
have a very good point about synchronizing animation with monitor refresh.
It has nothing to do with whether or not the animation is 3D, except
that 3D animation can be so hard that many other niceties besides
synchronization with the monitor go out the window.

What you are talking about it is what is known in film computer
graphics as the strobe effect.  The film people can't solve the problem
by changing the frame rate, for obvious reasons.  Instead they
introduce motion blur, whereby a single frame is a composite image of
many instances in time.  Moreover, avoiding the strobe effect
by increasing the frame rate can be added to the brute-force hall of
fame alongside anti-aliasing by means of higher resolution and
memory management by means of large computer memory.

However, very few if any personal game or computer platforms have the
CPU time available to compute complex motion blur.

Sticking to the more basic issue of diminishing the kind of strobe
effect that you mention as well as its crude cousin, flicker, the ideal
is to never let the monitor send an unwanted pixel to the phosphorus,
as well as never to waste time drawing pixels that won't be displayed
anyway.  If your monitor refreshes the even lines in a 60th of a second
and the odd lines in the next 60th of a second, then you will be a Jedi
Knight among animators if you redraw the even lines while the monitor
sends the odd lines to the phosphorus and vice-versa.  In theory
you will save CPU time and gain smooth motion.

Perfectionist though I was when I wrote games, I never synchronized
my games with the vertical retrace.  I was content with avoiding
flicker by not letting the monitor display an erased sprite that hadn't
been redrawn, and my IBM games were timed to the system clock, which
is hopelessly out of synch with the vertical retrace.
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,alt.tv.red-dwarf
From: etljmme@etlxd30.ericsson.se (Jim)
Subject: WOLF3D - ShareWare version
 
Reply-To: etljmme@etlxd30.ericsson.se
Organization: Ericsson
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 10:02:56 GMT

Hi everyone.

I've received alot of requests for the ftp site for wolf3d.  I don't know!!

Because alot of people want it, I'll uuencode it with all relevant details and
post it to alt.binaries.multimedia by the end of the week.  Sorry for the delay
but I've got to go home and get it, etc.

I'll let you know when it's there.

NOTE:  The debugging/cheat keys I gave will only work on the SHAREWARE version
of wolf3d, not on the commercial one.  Mail me with any questions.

Also, does anyone know the e-mail address of John Carmack or John Romero, the
authors of Wolf3D and Commander Keen?

Cheerio and Merry Christmas,
Jim.
From: mkelly@mystix.cs.uoregon.edu (Michael A. Kelly)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Jerky animation (Was: The Correct Way to Control Game Speed)
Date: 19 Dec 92 23:16:21 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Dec19.231621.22521
Organization: University of Oregon Computer and Information Sciences Dept.


Hey, I just had a thought (!)  Maybe the ghosting effect is caused by 
interlaced video?  It makes sense....

But is the Apple 13" High-Res RGB monitor interlaced or non-interlaced?
I can't find the answer in any of my books....

Later,

Mike.
-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
Michael A. Kelly                                               Senior Partner
mkelly@cs.uoregon.edu                                      High Risk Ventures
_____________________________________________________________________________
From: hmallat@robin.cs.hut.fi (Hannu Mallat ~ PurpleHaze!)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Strategy algorithms
Date: 19 Dec 1992 18:10:14 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, CS lab
Distribution: inet
NNTP-Posting-Host: robin.cs.hut.fi

Hi,

I'm planning on programming a simple(ish) strategy game, something
like Empire. Otherwise I can handle doing such a game, but I have
hardly no idea whatsoever concerning the computer AI.

I wouldn't like to start from scratch and come up with something that
a 7-year old kid could beat eyes closed. Are there any good books or
articles on the subject? Does anyone have any ideas concerning this
subject?

(btw: Is there a FAQ? How often is it posted? I just subscribed to
this group, and looked at the articles, but the FAQ may have expired)
--
I gotta roll, can't stand still,		\/
Got a flame in my heart, can't get my fill,	/\	     Hannu Mallat
Eyes that shine burning red,			\/	hmallat@niksula.hut.fi
Dreams of you all thru my head.			/\
From: Jacob.Hartog@f99.n121.z1.fidonet.org (Jacob Hartog)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: skewed map
Date: 19 Dec 92 16:15:58 GMT

Not to ask people to write my game for me but...

        Assuming you have a coordinate plane with its origin at a given point. 
        Does anyone have any idea how you would get the x,y of points
        on that in terms of another coordinate plane skewed off the original
        one n number of degrees with its origin at a different point.  I'm
        writing a Wolfenstein/Ultima Underworld type game and need to know
        where points on the map are relative to the player given his current
        position and facing.  Thanks!

 * Origin: NineJackNine (1:121/99)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: toddl@county.lmt.mn.org (Todd Lehman)
Subject: Re: Jerky animation (Was: The Correct Way to Control Game Speed)
Organization: none 
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 21:07:39 GMT

In article <1992Dec19.225450.21560@cs.uoregon.edu> mkelly@mystix.cs.uoregon.edu (Michael A. Kelly) writes:
>In article <1992Dec19.221442.3741@news2.cis.umn.edu> toddl@county.lmt.mn.org (Todd Lehman) writes:
>>It's the same kind of effect you
>>see when 24 f.p.s. movies are converted to 30 f.p.s. video cassette format
>>by doubling up every 5th frame.  (Ever wonder why movies on TV look kind-of
>>jerky, but live video such as talk shows and soaps look smooth?)
>
>I've never noticed this effect.  Are you sure it isn't just you? :)

Pretty sure.  As a child I had always wondered why live video (e.g. local
news, sit-coms, SNL, Letterman) looked so smooth, yet things like movies and
a lot of prime-time television shows looked jerky.  One day I sat down and
freeze-framed Star Wars after taping it on network TV.  The frames repeated,
like this:

    1 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 20 20 21 22 ...

That must be how they convert a 24 f.p.s. movie to 30 f.p.s. video.  Pretty
gross, huh?

I also then freeze-framed a video version of some old Whinnie the Pooh
cartoons (with my little sister's premission of course), and apparently
there they had carefully interpolated the images for a smoother effect.

I don't know if they routinely interpolate images nowadays when converting
movies to video, but my hunch is that they don't, since they still look
pretty jerky.

The most noticible demonstration of this conversion effect is a prime-time
sit-com that normally films in video indoors.  If they step outside for a
few minutes, they may choose to use movie cameras for better lighting, and
you'll notice the difference in smoothness.  It's pretty subtle if you don't
know what to look for, but you'll notice that something is different.

I wish I knew more about this subject (I only know what I have observed and
deduced, and it all may be quite wrong) because it's all pretty wild to me.

--
Todd Lehman
toddl@county.lmt.mn.org

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: boutell@isis.cshl.org (Tom Boutell)
Subject: Re: games project
Organization: Cold Spring Harbor Labs
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 20:26:02 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.085451.10791@nuscc.nus.sg> eng10317@nusunix1.nus.sg (TAN PONG FEI) writes:
>    Hi!!!!! I am looking for some help from anyone of you, in fact quite
>a desperate help that i need. At this moment, we are told to write a
>programme on games on either the mastermind or othello. I have to submit


This is a class project, isn't it?

A piece of advice:

Do your own work. Thank you so very much.

-T


-- 
Tom Boutell, boutell@cshl.org

Clausthaler is the best non - alcoholic beer in the known universe.
From: thor@lcc.edu (Thor Odinsblood)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: 3D Maze AlGoreIthm
Date: 16 Dec 92 23:38:34 GMT
Organization: Anarchy,Nilhilism & the Comming of the 7th Dawn
Originator: aiello@indian.cps.msu.edu

Does any kind soul out in net-land have an
algorithm for a 3D scrolling maze/room.
It doesn't have to be up the Wolfenstien3D standards
(although I wouldn't mind seeing the source to that)
just your basic walking thru a dungeon 1st person
viewpoint.

Please send replys to:	THOR@LCC.EDU
From: nllopis@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Trailblazer
Date: 19 Dec 92 14:46:52 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.205804.21794@hou.amoco.com>, zklf0b@gs144.hou.amoco.com (Fergason) writes:
> In article <1992Dec15.160623.22219@ugle.unit.no> gardabr@unix1 (Gard Eggesbo Abrahamsen) writes:
> 
> 
> This is certainly not always true.  Does anyone remember a game called
> Trailblazer?  I want to say it was published by Mindscape, but I am
> sure i will be corrected if that wasnt the case.  I got to see it at
> Epyx before Mindscape got it.  Needless to say, Epyx rejected it, but
> Mindscape didn't.   Just all depends on the company, the game, the mood
> of the guy who is reviewing submissions that day... 
> 
Funny... I remember Trailblazer being published by Gremlin Graphics.
It was a long time ago and it was for the AMSTRAD CPC though... I
guess they might also have different companies for different versions
back then :) (good old times!! sniff...)

	
	Noel Llopis
Xref: sparky rec.games.programmer:5086 comp.sys.amiga.programmer:17482
From: fkpec@westminster.ac.uk (Liaket Ali)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Game timing
Date: 17 Dec 92 14:40:44 GMT
Organization: University of Westminster

A question (hypothetical) related to Game timing...

I have an AMIGA 500 and will soon be getting a 1200 which is a faster computer.
The game that I'm currently writing runs at 10 frames per second on the A500.
However, I would like the game to run at 20fps on the A1200 but be smoother.
This means that it will not zoom past at twice the speed but instead will increment the display view by half increments.

For example, consider a flight simulator which, say, updates 10 pixels in 1 frame in order to achieve a frame rate of 10fps.
I would like to be able to then update 5 pixels in 1 frame to achive 20fps.

Is this possible? And how would I go about programming it.

Thanks for any info.

LIAKET ALI
fkpec@westminster.ac.uk
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: jraja@vipunen.hut.fi (Jarno Tapio Rajahalme)
Subject: Re: Game timing
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: 18 Dec 92 12:43:46

In article <1992Dec17.144044.18199@westminster.ac.uk> fkpec@westminster.ac.uk (Liaket Ali) writes:

   A question (hypothetical) related to Game timing...

   I have an AMIGA 500 and will soon be getting a 1200 which is a faster computer.
   The game that I'm currently writing runs at 10 frames per second on the A500.
   However, I would like the game to run at 20fps on the A1200 but be smoother.
   This means that it will not zoom past at twice the speed but instead will increment the display view by half increments.

Note: I have never done this, but...

To adapt to the speed of the machine the game is running on you should
measure how many frames it takes to draw the scene. Then when you know
that drawing the scene too, say, 5 frames, you advance the simulation
time of your game by 5 frames, draw next scene, etc. Note that this
algorithm adapts to the complexity of your scene too (more detail =>
less frames / sec, but the 'time' will be correct, only taking bigger
jumps.).

One problem with this is that the game control will be taken into
account only after the prevoius scene is totally ready, so if the
frame rate falls too low, your game will not be playable anymore. But
this should not be a problem for moderate frame rates.

   LIAKET ALI
   fkpec@westminster.ac.uk

	Jarno
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Address: Jarno Rajahalme            | EMail:                              |
|          Servin Maijan tie 12 H 111 |   Jarno.Rajahalme@hut.fi            |
|          02150  ESPOO, FINLAND      | tel: +358 0 468 2891                |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pinky@tamu.edu (The Man Behind The Curtain)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Game proposal-how to sell?
Date: 13 Dec 1992 15:24:27 -0600
Organization: Texas A&M University
NNTP-Posting-Host: tamsun.tamu.edu
Keywords: game proposal sell commercial

I have an idea for a game which I would like to develop, but don't have time
to work upon, since I have other projects which I find more interesting.
What I'd like to do is sell the idea, and provide the specifications
and details for my idea, to some commercial company.  What I'd like
to know specifically is what companies are open to such proposals,
and in what manner should I present them.  What about non-disclosure
agreements?  How many games are first conceptualized in this way?

-- 
Till next time,                \o/   \o/
                                V \o/ V     email:pinky@tamu.edu
<>  Sam  Inala  <>                 V
From: kds@phy.duke.edu (Stokes Kevin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Controlling Game Speed
Keywords: speed timer
Date: 11 Dec 92 17:58:42 GMT
Organization: Duke University Physics Dept.; Durham, N.C.

>I use something like that in my game. At the start of the game I set the
>timer to interrupt at 768 times/second (that particular number for various
>reasons, all of which have nothing to do with the problem in question).
>Then I calculate how many ticks it took to go thru the whole game loop
>after every frame. Then I use this value to calibrate all the movement
>of the objects during the next frame.

  I do this in my Corncob Aircombat game also.  It works beautifully when
it works.
  There are some difficulties I've had because of this though. 
  Since many user's TSR's depend on the timer interrupt, you must still
call the old interrupt routine when yours is finished.  Obviously you
want to call the old interrupt only every once and a while, so that the
BIOS and TSR's still see the timer ints coming at 18 ticks/sec.  ( IE if
you call the old timer int routine 768 times per second, you will find
that your BIOS system clock runs rather fast while you play your game!).
  However, some TSR's do alot of stuff in their timer interrupt routines
and you may miss interrupts if another 1/768th of a second goes by before
you get control back from the called old interrupt.  On my system, this will
simply crash the computer.
  So you have to set the timer int rate back to 18/sec before you call the
old timer int routine.  This also keeps the task switchers happy.

  Now comes the bad part... I have found that on a small percentage of
customer's machines, the timer doesn't reset to different speeds reliably.
I found that increasing the delay between accesses to the timer chip
helped, but there are many machines where this simply fails.  I was forced
to put an option in for manual-fixed time scaling where the timer is not
messed with.  Mostly I get complaints from PS/2 and Packard Bell owners.

                                                  -Kevin



-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Kevin Stokes                        |     Please direct all pointless     |
|  Pie in the Sky Software             |   flames to my mailbox, it's much   |
|                                      |          more irritating.           |
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer