Michael’s Blog

Well, as you are no doubt aware change has come to America. 

For those not in the know, President Obama was inaugurated as President today, closing Bush’s 8 year stretch (Videos of Obama’s speech are on the BBC). Honestly, I do think that this is a change for the benefit of the world and starting tomorrow we will be able to see if he holds out on promises which he made.

In-keeping with that promise to change, I have updated both the ‘About Me’ page and the ‘Application’ page.

On the Application page you will now find my two projects which I completed last semester, complete with videos for them. Code samples are available upon request, dependent upon your situation.

Programming, Rants and Raves, University Politics, Programming, University

Phew!

Been a long week, 4 exams and 2 assignments over the last 5 days. With the exception of one report, last semester is finished! Onto a week of sleep and games

Im back in Stafford now, have been since the 3rd and its been differant getting back into the student life style and will be even more-so in the coming week when the first lectures start.

New year has been fun, had quite a quiet day as most of the family who normally come around were either out or ill .

On a completly unrelated note however, Game’s sales are crazy. Yesterday I picked up a brand new copy of the collectors edition of Alone in the Dark (the new one)… for £6.99… Bargin! It even came with an awsome little figure of some guy who I presume is the main character…

Hope all has been well for everyone!

Gaming, Programming, University Gaming, University, Work

Well, Christmas for this year has been and gone, which is quite an odd feeling, also, it gives me less excuses to procrastinate.

What is rather weird is that there is only a few more days left of this year, then its straight, head first, into 2009 and whatever it holds for everyone.

2008 has been a very awkward year really, for a start there is the blummin’ credit crunch were all in, but there’s also a lot that’s happened to myself. At the start of this year I couldn’t program in any of the C languages (C, C++, C#), I couldn’t do any OpenGL programming, nor XNA. And, I couldn’t play Guitar Hero!

Ive lived in University Halls for a bit, then at home with parents, and now in a house with close friends. And in the new year, I will be moving back to Stafford for a bit, then back to home, then wherever my placement takes me. 

Ontop of all of this, I have started this blog!

I guess it just gives me something to look-forward to, considering this time next year I will be working in the industry and will have picked up so much more knowledge. 

I hope everyone has had a good year, and indeed a good holiday season. And I will see you all in 2009!

OpenGL, Programming, Uncategorized, University 2008, Life, University

Well Christmas is almost upon us once again, and its time to be merry and jolly and the such like. 

I just got back from our family’s Christmas party, all dressed up with food and drinks. Well, all dressed up until a waiter spilt gravy all down my arm and I had to go and find a clean shirt, but hey, its Christmas !

Whats happening in the world of me? Well, still cracking on with assignments, although they are slowly getting their. Spending time with family as-well, so its all been good.

In the meantime the Internet has given us a new ZeroPunctuation and Darfall Beta Preview, part 6.

Happy Holidays!

Programming Christmas, Darkfall, Family, update

Long time no post, well, here it goes.

In the few weeks before Christmas I’ve been trying to get as much of the big areas of work done as possible, so that more time can be spent being joyous, merry and what have you. So its been quite a busy week. 

My OpenGL project is almost finished (Screenshot of which will be up *after* hand-in), only really got the finishing touches left to add, but the meat of it is there. I havnt spend much time working with XNA, mainly due to the ease that it brings working with it. Plans are in motion for ‘Level 2′ (our own custom level), with the to-the-spec level being almost complete. Just need to add in some balloon->wall collision, and the life system… then get it to transition to level 2. All of which shouldn’t take long!

I have however, hit a large brick wall. I have been developing my OpenGL work on my gaming PC, however it will need to work on my laptop for demonstrating. Well fine, so I load the thing up and get given quite a hefty 14FPS. Some would say reduce its 1600 spheres down, but I say nay! That’s a last resort, I quite like the large amount of objects it uses . Now, my second thought was to reduce the size of the call stack it generates, but according to Andy, this will produce negligible results. So after sifting through my code, changing the odd line or three, ive given it a 4FPS boost. What I really need is a profiler to find out where its getting dragged down in performance…or some kind of mega-powerful laptop…

PS. I am planning to write the ‘About Me’ section at some point before christmas

OpenGL, Programming, University OpenGL, Programming, University, Work, XNA

Ive been doing alot of programming this weekend towards my two assignments left from this year (OpenGL and XNA).

I have only just started the XNA, getting a basic framework in-place today with level stacks and what-have-you. 

Yesterday I finally finished getting a perfect free-look camera implimented in OpenGL, I might start on the 3DSMax file reader tonight.

On the gaming side, Vox ex Machina have posted an interesting article about Age of Conan and its ‘death’ (Thanks Kotaku! – Clicky). Really is a shame, I was hoping to hop back into Hyboria now I have this new PC, but now, well…meh.

Gaming, OpenGL, Programming Age of Conan, Kotaku, OpenGL, Programming, Work, XNA