Advanced Programming Techniques

Exodus: a distributed game engine

whatsInAname8 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:04:56 GMT

Since December 2008 I've been working on exodus, my latest project. It is an attempt to create an open-ended RTS\RPG which will feature a 'real' dynamic universe.
It will be a mix between civilization and freelancer. You will play as a character with the possibility to affect the strategic balance in the game, without scripted action (unlike freelancer).

There will be several planets with resources, with nations who'll exploit resources. Several types of resources exist (raw materials, consumers, shelter ec.). From raw materials other resources can be created (for example, a house can be created from wood and stone, which are both raw materials, while a house is shelter). Resources are produced and consumed by the population. With advancing technology, resources may be produced more efficiently, or from other materials (irrigation, masonry, etc.).

At this moment, the population model and resource model needed to 'run' a planet are nearly finished (== it produces the output I want).

So how does it work!
A planet is an object defined in an XML file, with regions, which can in turn contain resource locations. Nations must claim regions to be able to use their resources.
The resource model is defined in XML. It defines the available resources, of what type they are, how they 'grow' (a forest behaves different from an iron mine), and how population reacts to them. If I want my population to eat rocks, it's a matter of configuration. Very flexible.

The game engine is distributed (implemented!), which means that I can start up as many planets simulators as I want, anywhere I want! Each planet will run as a seperate process, making optimal usage of multicore systems. The simulation data is written in a distributed database (realtime low-latency opensource DDS middleware). Exodus applications will subscribe and publish data in the database. This inherently enables LAN multiplayer, where each player could host it's own set of planets, instead of having one host.

Haven't really started on the graphics yet, chances are big that I'll use XNA though. It seems a great deal more efficiently to me than using the DirectX API from what I've seen.

For those of you interested, I will post updates here from time to time ^^

Gliding

Specialboy — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:30:36 GMT

I save and quit my game in fable2. and when i returned to play again my guy was gliding instead of walking. I was just wondering if there is a fix to this.

If you can get back to me with an answer it would be great.

you can reach me at adam@addatech.ca

ps. (this glitch on happens on one profile on the other profiles they do not glide)

Model Data Management

ZuraK — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:20:47 GMT

Question: What would the best way for me to store my model data, vertices, normals etc?

I'm building a assets management system for my 3D engine. I'm using DirectX9, C++, unmanaged code. I'm aiming for a flexible system where i can load a model during runtime, via means of my choice (triggered, scripted, console), retain it in memory for unknown period of time, push it to video memory when i want, export it to my selected format, edit it's data, remove it from memory without crashing everything.

I know most of it is dependant on how i design the rest of my system, but as for now, i'm only out to know if i my GeometricAsset-object should keep it's data airy, or compact.
What i mean airy is several easy to access data structures, or a compact all-in-one structure i work against.

I'm kinda new with assets management so... i want to get it as right as possible on my first implementation. (I don't want to make stupid misstakes with data management as i've done with my previous rendering techniques, it resulted in a need of massive recode, and that in turn drained my will to work on my project.)

The current loading system looks like this.

*AssetsManager
{
* AssetsLoader(s), only handles loading of types, returns AssetsObjects of appropriate type.
* MinorManagers(for types: model, texture shader, etc)
{
* AssetsObjects (Different types depending on loaded object was model, texture etc. A SubManager only keep track of its own kind.)
}
}

It's basically how my AssetsObject for models that i need to work out as it is now. Simple to work against and i'll use it's structure or design to work out how to build my other AssetsObects.

I'm somewhat unsure that my question is correctly asked, but i'll regard any information about assets management for a 3D engine welcome.

/* ZuraK

Creating a Contact Database

Ragnarok8 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:18:12 GMT

Hi,

I'm not a programmer myself, I'm just asking for the advice of the wonderful people who are!

I'm looking to team up with somebody to create a database that keeps track of contact info for 10-20,000 clientele . I'm curious about the level of programmer that would be necessary to create this. I'm in college now and was thinking about finding somebody in the computer engineering department to team up with, but want to have an idea of who I should be looking for (upperclassmen v.s. lowerclassmen etc.).

Basically we need somebody who can create a database that:

-is searchable by the information entered under each contact.

-has several layers of security- one administrative account that can edit anything, and 10-15 other equal accounts that can add to their own sets of information, but can't edit any previous entries, and can't see each other's information.

-looks .

It seems to me that it shouldn't be too difficult- we can almost do it with a very large excel spreadsheet, but not quite, and we want it to have it's own unique UI anyway. Of course I don't really have a grasp of what is difficult in programming and what isn't, so I would really appreciate any advice you have on finding somebody to team up with!

Thank you very much

A couple of quick c# questions

New_Pornographer — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:34:05 GMT

Ok prompted by the deluge of c++ vs c# debates on this board and others I had a couple of quick questions:

1) The Standard Library
A golden rule of programming is not to reinvent the wheel, and the standard library in c++ is so useful that I was wondering are there standard libraries in c# that are as as the c++ standard library?

2)Platform dependence
I know about MONO for non windows/.net use, but what about non-MS game consoles? For example does anyone know of compilers that assemble and link c# code for running on the PS3, DS, PSP or Wii?

Thanks in advance!

Random Terrain Generators

Veni_Vidi_Vici — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:25:14 GMT

You know, i've seen a lot of level design issues that can be solved by random terrain/level generation. Such as the size of the gaming world itself. So many development hours are spent building the gaming world, one has to wonder what would happen if you just used a randomized generator to do most of the difficult/time consuming work.

If you used a random generator to generate a game world, you could more or less make it any size required, although probably not all at once. I got this idea from an older program created back in 2001/2002 for the game Morrowind.

Then recently I've seen some of Lionhead's designer diaries, and they interestingly enough reminded me of other industry professionals (in various places and media) who also made statement that had to do with the limitations of the game development team. Specifically, creating massive game worlds takes a lot of level designers, which raises development costs. I think the one that caught my attention might have been Peter Molyneux, when he said something about how he kept wanting to include more and more stuff in the game, but was only able to include so much just do to the practicalities and limitations of the development team. Sacrifices had to be made.

But what happens, if you just used a simple solution, that would allow you to overcome the limitations of the level builders? What happens if you had the ability to create a huge game world? You see what I'm saying, with the right attention to detail the game would certainly be better for it. And it'd set a new standard in the industry. No more tiny game worlds for me to wander around in.

So that got me thinking about that program I mentioned, and how if a game studio used these random generators to do the bulk of the work, then they could do two things:

A.) have fewer level designers

B.) those fewer level designers could then concentrate on key areas.

Let me explain; if the level builders/desinger were free'd up, then they'd be able to focus on specific areas. When a level builder wastes their time making a grassy field for instance, thats a real waste of their talents. Talents that could be beter applied by making key game areas (cities and towns, mission/quest locations ect) more razzle dazzle impressive. Better attention to detail certainly. It would strictly speaking, allow a development team to create a huge gameworld with far less costs involved.

In today's market, game studio's are really being pushed to go bigger and better with games. Bigger game enviroment areas (whether they be interior or exterior in nature), because players are constantly exploring the game world, and also better graphics and more features. Except the problem is, that huge game world's take sh*t loads of design time to build, and can really cost money to do.

The solution to this problem? Well duh, it's the random generator's I've been talking about.

I've had some experience with these type of programs and think that without enough work the things could probably create most the game world automatically. You see, it all has to do with the complexity of the generator itself. The more complex and sophisticated it is, the more realistic areas it will be able to develop.

For instance, if you want to make a forest. Then you need a feature that allows you to designate a certain percentage of the area to be covered by tree's. You'd also need an option to decide on the density of the trees. How many tree's per square acre for instance. Then include some options so you can decide what type of trees and plants are included in the area, and you would have a very basic forest.

In this way, you could probably create a forest the size of...well, however big you want it to be. This adds realism, because suddenly, the game world isn't restricted to a small place. I remember, even when playing games like Oblivion (The Elderscrolls IV), I remember feeling vagely claustrophobic. And bored as well, since aside from how impressively large the game world is, it's just that big in actuality. Especially with the ability fast travel anywhere on the map.

I remember playing in the Oblivion game world, and thinking that such small areas were unrealistic and not very interesting as a whole. The Great Forest in that game for instance, actually wasn't very big. You could walk from one side to the other in only a few minutes. Whats that mean for me? It means I got bored with that area very quickly, thus the replayability of the game as a whole was diminished.

Now I know what some game designers are thinking. They probably realize that the output files would require a lot of harddrive space (the GenMod program discussed below certainly did). Well, that might be a problem for consoles, but for pc's it isn't really an issue. Computers these days are practically coming with 100-300 GB of HD space as a standard. So what's the big deal about having a game world that takes up 10 GB? How about 20? It's really a non-issue for PC's. And most gamers would be perfectly willing to uninstall other stuff to make room for a game with that big of a game world.

So the actual limitation in implemnting the feature, would be the time it took for programmers to create the generator itself. So it's not the cure for all development team woes. Just an improvement.

I've seen a very basic level editor that was developed for The Elderscrolls III: Morrowind, it was made by a game user/fan so it wasn't all that complex, but it could create dungeons of near infinite size. Have you ever had to hack and slash through a 500 level dungeon? I have, and while it was very simply designed, it worked quite well. Took me days to get to the last level (the 500th floor/level whatever you want to call it).

Is a 500 levels dungeon realistic? No, it's not. But then again it's neither is magic, or any other number of things you see in games. Or if you didn't want to make such a expansive dungeon, just make more of them. Have 500 1 to 3 level dungeons instead. When I say level, I'm refering to the seperated areas of that dungeon.

That program was called GenMod, and was fairly simplistic as I've already mentioned. The individual who made it also did some work on a version of GenMod that could create exterior areas too (rather than strictly interior areas), however it was never completed. Most likely due to the time involved. However with that said, it's obvious with the right design team it could definitely be done. And manage to look in the end.

The program I'm talking about was designed to use the construction set, and create output files that could be loaded by the construction set that came with the game. (TES construction set).

So in conclusion, I'd say that a generator of this scope and complexity is definitely within the realm of possible. There's no doubt it could be done. And I think it could be implemented in a reasonable amount of time (months). Also, costs might not be offset by needing fewer level designers, since you need programmers (more programmers?) in order to build the program. But, I think it'd be both possible and practical.

Now if only the game industry would take a note from me, and actually utilize this concept. We'd raise the bar (standard) all across the industry.

No more tiny game worlds! At least not in the open-ended RPG's. I have a lot of solutions like this that I'll discuss to some degree or another here on the forums (and in other places on the net).

I'd love to get some feedback from other forum members. What do you all think of the concept?

how be games?

pitt360 — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:52:50 GMT

hi im from el salvador in central america, well im 15 years old and my dream is do my videogame!!! i love the videogames i wanna be videogames!!! so my questions is what i should study for do videogames!!! so if you can help me with my dream send me a message x_boxpro@hotmail.com thank you lionhead for this oportunity !!! see ya

Implementing a Hierarchical Task Network?

satamas — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:01:27 GMT

In the book "AI Game Programming Wisdom 2", Neil Wallace from Lionhead has an article where he describes the benefits of using a Hierarchical Task Network for planning tasks. However, the article is very short on any sort of implementation details, as were the academic articles that the article cited. I'm somewhat familiar with another project where a third party HTN planner(SHOP) was interfaced with Unreal Tournament, however, my question is, does anyone know if there exists any information about how to implement a simple HTN planner, especially in the context of a game environment?

Does QUaRk REALLY work?

Icetray86 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:32:19 GMT

Y'know, Quark? That one downloadable senario editor used for Half-Life, Doom, Quake, and Hexen maps? Ya, well, I downloaded supposidly the latest verison, 2.1 something or other. Well, it doesn't work at all. Ya, I know how to work it, place walls, insert the textures and everything (Learned it at my friend's house), but whenever I try to do something, it either doesn't respond or just closes out. Anybody know how to fix this?

ANN for gesture recognition

impega — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:37:05 GMT

hi. i've been reading up all day and am gettign ready to implement a neural net for fairly trivial gesture recognition and was wondering if anyone had any tips. i noticed the ANN thread but it's too long to read through and going into much more detail than required here. we're planning to implement a 3 level backward propogated nn for the task. what do you think? also. if you have any resources you can suggest we should be able to track down books and the like. cheers imp

The Anatomy of a Game Engine

Actium — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:35:10 GMT

Just recently I coded my first "real" C program - one that has actual use. It was very simple - forked to background and waited for connections on a TCP port, and would convert music files for an application on the networking site Facebook. It wasn't that complicated but it was the first useful program I have ever coded in C. It was exciting. I've also messed around with OpenGL some. I used Glut to draw the trajectory of a projectile, just single points with some math calculation functions. It was pretty simple. So now I'm looking at the sortof thing I've always wanted to do - game programming. I just can't seem to get my head around a game engine - I was reading in another thread about multi-threaded game engines being something new. How exactly do current game engines work, 2D or 3D? It seems to me as if it'd be very difficult with only one process. I am not looking for sample code or a link to a working game engine - just a general view of how a game engine manages to do everything it has to at once - sound, input, video, physics, AI, etc, all at the same time without forking. (I may have misread that other thread wrong - maybe they do fork.) Regardless, just a general idea would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

2D images displayed in a 3D environment

ModCreator — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 23:54:06 GMT

Hi guys =) Well, I pretty new here, that's my first post =) and I'm really proud about it . I have got a problem in OpenGL. Actually it isnt directly with OpenGL, it's a theoretical problem. I wanna display 2D images in my 3D environment like an user interface. But how I did it? I have looked for an gui tutorial, article or something but without success. I main problem is that I dont know exactly how I gotta handle with the window size. Cause if u wanna put an image to the right side of the window and the window has the resolution of 1024x768 then everthing is fine. But if the enduser changes his resolution on his pc to, for example, 800x600 then the images on the right side will be not visible or just a pieces of them.... How do it the pro's? Shall I update the images position in relation to the window size in every frame? Actually I have already a way to make it, maybe..... but I would like to know whether is that the right way? Well, just the window size is my problem. I think the image size itself is every times the same, doesnt matter which resolution is using. Just the position of the single images on the screen is my big problem and the question, is the way, how I render my 2D images, the right one or exists another one which the pro's r using it on their games.... Well, I would be really happy if someone could helps me.... Thx a lot Best regards Andy Edit: Sorry, I'm german, so my english isnt perfect, I hope u can handle it ^^ if not then just ask I will do my best to explain it as well as possible =).

Scenario editor, like "The Movies"

Ayesh — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:51:05 GMT

Hi,

I'm a Ph.D. student in the University of La Rochelle, France, in L3I (Laboratory of Informatics, Image and Interaction). We are working, among other things, on formal models of scenario and tools that are linked as edition, execution, ... . Our team's research are focused on a way to create adaptative scenario. The purpose is to allow scenarists to model the scenario with some freedom of actions for the player and be sure, while executing it, that it'll be adapted to the player, according to his skills, emotions, ... . This method is tested with video-game but could be applied to everything that play scenario : video, e-learning, ... .

I post here because we played "The movies" and its advanced movie-maker, in the custom scriptwriting facility, is meaningfull to us. Indeed it's the way we see a scenarist designing adaptative scenario : creating scene, or using default one, and dragging them to the timeline. Adaptativeness need branching and hierarchy too but we would like to know more about your editor.

I read the interview of Ash Harman on Scene Design but I was left wanting some other informations . I don't know your policy of confidentiality about informations but, if possible, I would like to know more about the way you modelised film's scenarios and how the implementation part was.

Thank you

and sorry for the rough english

Problem solving software

whatsInAname8 — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:22:20 GMT

Is anyone familiar with software that can mathematically solve problems? Not just the plain algebra\equation solving stuff, but really theorem driven reasoning.

I wonder.. would a similar approach be viable when it comes to software that is writing software? Formulate a problem in terms of math (?) or maybe a more domain-specific language and let a program create a solution for it.

video diary 3 - texture compression

herrwurst — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:07:42 GMT

I just watched the third video diary and was pretty surprised to hear about the texture compression Lionhead is apparently using:
To quote Tim Rance: "squeeze them down to just one per cent of their original size".
Even wavelet, LBT or weighted least squares based compression algorithms have trouble achieving such ratios for natural images without quite noticeable artifacts. Even then, they seem too expensive (LBT based approaches less so) to decompress in real-time.
If someone has some pointers as to what exactly he is referring to it'd be very much appreciated

The only way this'd make sense to me is to really take his "as a character moves around the world" literally and assume that he is either referring to a streaming system where a low-res approximate is kept in memory (the 1%) and refinements are streamed from disk or if he is talking about things such as wrinkle maps where only differences for spatially localized regions need to be stored (probably even using scalar quantization).

Could we maybe get a more hands-on tech video diary episode?

C# Vs Java in game Dev.

chang_surin — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 21:13:10 GMT

Which one between C# and Java are better than another? I have written game in C# but my familiar language is Java.

Java/.NET NTLM FTP Packages

fluKe — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:36:47 GMT

I was hoping that somebody here might know of an interface/package or similar which allows FTP via an NTLM proxy service.

At work they use a proxy service which uses NTLM authentication for HTTP and FTP. Part of one of the web based apps we are developing is Coldfusion based and we need to FTP files to an external FTP. This means we have to go through the proxy and authenticate. Unfortunately NTLM is proprietry and so is not implemented in Java for FTP (it is there for HTTP though). As such Coldfusion doesn't support it.

I'm looking for something that I can use to FTP using this method of authentication. I can do it manually or through an FTP package but I want to automate the process for the end user. I can make use of a .NET package or similar if one exists by creating it as a cfobject but I've not come across anything that looks helpful and would prefer not to have to write my own as I have too many other things to be doing.

Any help would be great, if you need more info about what I'm going on about let me know :)

PS. Not going through the proxy is not an option.

I need a microsoft reference, can somebody helps me?

ModCreator — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:16:47 GMT

Hi folks! Well, I looked at the webpage of microsoft and needed informations about the EnumDisplayDevices function but if I click on the link to the reference comes something typical: an ERORR . Hmm, I dont find another website with informations about it....can somebody helps me? Best regards Andy

omg dds (Data Distribution Service)

whatsInAname8 — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:54:43 GMT

No this does not stand voor Oh My God It stands for Object Management Group. This group is responsible for defining multiple standards as for example the IDL definition language, and yes, DDS. DDS is short for data distribution service, and in short it prescribes how to distribute data (realtime) among large systems (> 2000 network nodes) with large transport volumes. In contrary to the traditional client->server approach DDS does not have a single data store (or single point of failure if you want). Instead it distributes ALL of the data over ALL the nodes so that in the unlucky event that one node crashes, no data and\or functionality is lost. Currently DDS is used in state of the art naval combat systems all over the world, but it's capabilities reach far beyond that. I recently had the luck of doing a project with this technology and I'm impressed with it's features. For instance it adresses many features wich can be potentially usefull when implementing SOA applications (again, this stands not for sexueel overdraagbare aandoening, for all Dutch people here, but for Service Oriented Architecture). Does anyone around here has any experience with DDS, or takes interest in it? What about distrubuted game engines (too complex? or does it require just another level of attacking the problem?)

High lvl language from already high lvl

zoological — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:28:02 GMT

ok, my friend told me he had once made a language that used 8 characters. I only remember the function of 3 of those characters though. but the interesting thing was he made it from Java. I found this very interesting. Let me explain the language before I ask how he did it. Brainfart (or something like that) used 8 characters to make a language. All i remember was that everything had to do w/ numbers. I think ">" was the "Print to screen" operator. "+" and "-" made the single variable go up or down. and "." was to end the program. So say that the letter A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, and so on ( i think it did 1-0 before it did letters, but you get the point). We start at 0. heres a word in the language: see if you can guess it. [CODE]+++>-->+++++++++++++++++++>. [/CODE] that spells cat, if you didn't feel like counting. there were 4 other commands, but I dont remember them.... anyway, on to the fun part. He made that using Java, then running a command line of the code. It was very interesting hearing about some of the things he described doing with it. I am wondering how (in English, not real code) he did that, and how it works. He said it computed as well, so complex things could be done w/ it. Of course theres no reason to use this over C# or C++ unless you want to print "Hello World" to the screen, but I wanted to know to help me understand languages and how they are built. Also, what might the other commands be? I wont see him until late august, so I cant really ask him too much.

AI in games

matneee — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:27:03 GMT

I must first freely admit that I know absolutely nothing about this field. I am not and never will be a coder, so this is being posted purely out of curiosity. It started when a thread in OT veered off into using multi-core processors in games and how they could be utilised. Ravek observed...

Quoting: Ravek
AI is also interesting to try to divide. One entity per core? Wouldn't work for AI acting together. (Communication between cores is something that should be avoided) You could perhaps have all AI that are close to each other (and thus can interact) run on the same core, but what happens when AI from different groups meet and start working together? It seems then that one core would suddenly have to do everything. This is also a problem for AI that have some form of long-distance communication (e.g. the Combine via radio) It seems that you'd be able to run AI on different sides on different cores, seeing as they only need to react to what the other AI do, not to what they think. But then when you have a game where the player has little to no allies, you'll have poor parallelization anyway.

which rather piqued my interest. So I responded

Quoting: Me
It's interesting you should mention AI - I've long thought that a good way to simulate AI in games might be to the drop the Micro level of AI (individual AIs) and instead Model on a macro scale instead (where the entity being modeled is a large group or even society). One of the big problems in Social Sciences is the paradox that the simpler something is, the harder it is to predict. Take one human from a group - they have drives, needs, thoughts and generally behave in a largely unpredictable fashion on an individual level. But as you pull away from the individual level, things become much easier - It's relatively simple to predict what that group or society will do as a whole in a given situation by comparison. (this is a gross over-simplification of the phenomenon, btw, but the general concept is there) So maybe there's a way forward in modeling a 'group entity' as a whole on one core rather than a group of individual entities ? I mean, each individual would look like an individual, but is actually an expression that is part of one greater whole AI. I've really no idea how that would work or how to set about doing it though - I'm not a coder. But I think it would be interesting to try now we have the processing power available for games. I suspect this might be the sort of thing going on in, say, Assassin's Creed btw.. EDIT - mind you, for all I know that's how they already do things anyway....

So, I'm interested. How is AI usually handled in different gaming situations? Is it done this way already? If not, whould it work and how could it be done? As I say, this isn't anything I'll ever use, but any opinions and explanations gratefully accepted and considered...

Real Time Fluid Dynamics

willbiff — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 06:28:18 GMT

I in my spare time i like to partake in creating dynamic fluid simulations and some very basic modelling using blender im still getting the hang of maya (blenderfluid here>>)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tirOMABTIbQ i just had a question well a few questions really 1. is it hard to implement realtime fluid dynamics in to games 2. i know the ps3 can cope with fluid dynamics as it has the ageia physics chip but can the xbox360. 3. this one is stupid but i have realflow 4 on my computer but its such a long process creating simulations. anyways of doing it faster? any replies or friendly banter welcome. WillBiff

Need Programmers for XNA Project

ReigningDark333 — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:54:52 GMT

We've got a little group going for an XNA project we wanna create. We've got a main programmer who's got a decent amount of the work done, but since he's often busy he needs help. Since this is a coding board, I thought of no better place to ask than here. If you think you wanna get involved, or at least check it out head over to http://www.eternalxbox.com/forum/index.php and PM Jekkins about joining the Staff. If you are serious of course. Then you shall get some more insight into what we're doing. This is your chance to get involved with XNA. PLease help us out. (and gain some experience for yourself) Heres some of the concepts we got going: Level Design :http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e358/joelleojart/xna/concepts/lvl01_01.jpg Color Sketch of a enemy concept: http://upload6.postimage.org/494151/photo_hosting.html Design Ideas: •2d action game (2.5 if possible, as 3D would make it cooler, but 2D would also work) •Grabbed off the streets, your daughter abucted and your mind a blur, you wake up in the laboratory of The Corporation, a suit grafted to your body. Throw down an elevator chute, you are locked in the dark shaft as you finally get briefed on what is going on. The Corporation has abducted your daughter and is forcing you to do their dirty work in return for her safety. Your job is to retrieve the chemicals held in the various contianment units scattered throughout the underground complex. The robot security systems have suddenly gone rampant and are destroying the precious substance, a resource they can't afford to lose. Your job is to get to it before the security drones do. Thrust into a perplexing mystery, you have no choice but to follow the voice of your enemy. (stories actually quite good overall, but obviously can't give you any detailed or complete synopsis) •Using a vacuum like projection attached to your right arm, you are capable of removing the chemicals from their containment units and compressing it into a highly explosive, yet compact form. IF necessary, you may use the chemical as an attack method (shoot as a projectile) to the drones, stunning them/destroying them depending on the amount of damage you inflict. Unfortunately, after unleashing the chemical back into the environment, it will attract to the nearest containment unit, requiring you to go back and retrieve it. •In order for the security system to allow access to the next level, all traces of the chemical must be removed from their containment units, tricking the central system into believing the security teams have destroyed it. Your job is to get to it before they do. •The security robots’ primary objective is to destroy the chemical tanks, yet if you come close, they will ward you off, and if attacked, they will all begin hunting you (they will pursue you, ala the ghosts in pacman, but with guns) until they a) can’t get to you b) you lay low for a little bit. It is not necessary for you to kill the robots in order to bypass the central system,(move onto the next level) but it sometimes may be necessary in order to retrieve the substance. • A critical item to be used at your disposal is a grappling hook, an appendage that will come in very useful when traversing the caverns. Aimed with the right stick, and fired with the left trigger, once attached you will be flung towards the latching point (think Lost Planet) However, you can stop this process at any time, but pressing or holding the Left Trigger, in which you hang at whatever point you stopped the process at. This allows for several opportunities. For example, lets say you begin removing the contents of a containment unit with a grapple attached to a high ledge above your position. While you begin emptying the tank, a security droid comes and begins firing at your position. The grapple presents a quick way of escape, for as you let go the left trigger you will be launched towards the attach point, allowing you to quickly reach the ledge and try to find a new tank/lose the drone/attack. There are many different ways it can be used. Also, as suggested by a forum poster, an electrical shock from the grapple could present some cool ideas. Shocking droids, attaching your grapple to an explosive container across a pit hole, waiting for the droid to come up, then dragging the container into him, igniting it with an electruction and then causing him to explode are some neat possibilities. I'll try to incorporate this isn't some of the level designs. •At the start of each level, the robots begin locating containment units, then, once they find one, they begin firing at it, in an attempt to destroy it and its contents. The units hold up for a decent amount of time, but you must get to them quickly. If you destroy a robot, another one is spawned, with a few second pause in between. There are almost always an equal ratio of droids to tanks. •There are also environment factors that help/hinder you movement (ex: elevator with broken glass pieces that allow for multiple entry points/one way hatches/ low objects that may block robots from following/force them to find a different route,ect.)

.NET Framework Version 3.0 Released Today

cruleworld — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 21:06:59 GMT

.NET Framework Version 3.0 The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is the new managed code programming model for Windows®. It combines the power of the .NET Framework version 2.0 with new technologies for building applications that have visually compelling user experiences, seamless communication across technology boundaries, and the ability to support a wide range of business processes. These new technologies are Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows CardSpace. The .NET Framework 3.0 is included as part of the Windows Vista operating system; you can install it or uninstall it using Windows Features Control Panel. This redistributable package is for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Download Now