Blog for Steven Peterson at GarageGames.com

2006 Year in Review!

Steven Peterson — 2006-12-28T18:32:42+00:00

Time flies when your having fun; or are just that busy...

So here's what I did in 2006:

January 1st - March 31st(ish):
- Frame out the backend of EnviroTorque 2.0.
- Build a rules-based dynamic weather engine.

April 1st(ish) - June 15th:
- Began working on a new cloud-manager resource to completely replace the old cloud handler.
(And very nearly completed it...)

June 15th - July 1st:
- Accepted a job offer through an old college connection
- Flew down to SC. to checkout said offer
- Began packing

July1st - July 9th
- Moved (out of my parents house) from NJ, to the SC into my first real apt/condo!

July 10th - December 22nd
- Began new job working anywhere from 40-60 hours a week.
- Bought a surfboard
- Bought a bowflex
- Made (some) new friends
- Determined my Adaptec-RAID card only does software RAID, and was the source of 5-crashes in 10 months...

December 23rd - January 2nd
- Flew home for "Christmas Break"

---

GG
So before June I was on GG nearly everyday. And then I very unceremoniously dropped off the face of the earth. Looking back, I know I let some people down and probably injured a few relationships. For that all I can say is I'm sorry - I guess I took on way more than I could handle at one time, and didn't want to admit it at the time...

New Job
So I got hired by [link=http://lcpaver.com]Lowcountry Paver[/link]. Their a small manufacturer of concrete pavers for driveways, walkways, and pool-deckds - conveniently located less than 30 miles from the beaches of Hilton Head Island, SC.

They needed a (mostly) full time IT. guy to do things like overhaul their web-site, build a new hardware-infrastructure and network etc. Hopefully in 2007 we will move away from Quickbooks to some full-fledged tier-2 ERP/MRP system to manage all aspects of the business and production cycle.

Since I was out of money, and this was the first-best full-time job offer, I took it and so far it has worked out pretty well. It's taken me quite a while to get settled, but then I've been living "on-the-go" for two or three years straight so I guess it takes time to get organized again.

In 2007 I'm hoping to finish my Cloud resource and Enviro-Torque. It will probably come just-in-time to have to port it to the shader engine, but what-can-you-do...

Real Estate
As a final note - I'm looking at my first possible real-estate-investment deal. I found a new plantation in Myrtle Beach that's opening up and I might try buying a lot this month so I can resell it in a year or so.

The End
So that's my update - I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year. I wish everyone all the best in 2007! Even if I'm not online, I think of you guys all the time.

Steven

Enviro-Torque 2.0 Update: New Cloud-System Resource

Steven Peterson — 2006-05-24T17:26:34+00:00

Enviro-Torque 2.0 Update: New Cloud-System Resource

Enviro-Torque 2.0 is progressing along slow and steady. The biggest challenge so far has been fixing the way Torque handles cloud-layers. To gain the functionality I want, I've had to entirely redesign this system, and am hoping to release it as a free-resource soon!

This is a 'brief' overview of how the new system works, the problems solved, and where I still need some help. Feedback is encouraged!

New Torque Cloud-System Resource:

1. Design Goals and Intended Features:

- Control individual cloud layers (on/off).
- Ability to fade layer alpha to any value between 0 and 1.
- Support for arbitrary number of cloud layers.
- Allow for easy addition of new procedural effects for generating cloud layers.
- Allow for different types of textured and procedural cloud layers to be used simultaneously.
- Specifically include:
- - Basic textured layers.
- - Rob Rendell's Perlin based cloud generator.
- - Joseph Jahn's fractal cloud generator.

2. Why the old Cloud-System didn't work:

2.1 The Sky Class:

A look at the old code shows that the Sky class's main purpose is to draw and manage the skybox including effects like visible distance, fog-bands and sky-textures. In my view this is the only thing it should be doing.

In reality, it also manages wind, volumetric fog and cloud layers just to name a few. While these effects are tightly integrated in their current implementation, most of them should be their own classes with low or no coupling between them.

2.2 The Cloud Class:

The Cloud class, for reasons unknown, can also be found in the sky.h/cc files. Even in the old system each cloud layer was it's own object-instance. Regardless, many properties, for example, if the layer was on or off, were properties of the Sky class not the individual cloud-layers.

Making the fundamental design changes I required just did not seem possible, so I looked for other avenues.

3. A New Approach:

3.1 A Clean Slate and fxCloudLayer:

First I stripped all the cloud stuff out of sky.h/cc. I momentarily had the old system working with the Cloud class located in cloud.h/cc to prove it worked; then I dumped it. From now on my work would be in /engine/game/clouds/.

Second I got in touch with Rob Rendell who had started an fxCloudLayer class. The idea was that you would add cloud-layers similar to fxSunLight objects. fxCloudLayer was essentially a single basic cloud-layer with an optional Perlin-fractal generator for random cloud creation.

One of my design-goals was easy addition of new procedural effects for generating cloud layers. So, dropping the 'fx' and taking out the procedural-code, I created an abstract base class: CloudLayer. Through inheritance I quickly came up with concrete classes:
- BasicCloudLayer - texture from image.
- RendellCloudLayer - Rendell's Perlin implementation.
- JahnCloudLayer - Jahn's plasma-fractal implementation.

So far everything worked great.

3.2 UpdateSpeed() - A Bug Fix:

In current versions of TGE cloud-layers have a 'cloud-speed' which gets multiplied by the wind-velocity to adjust the rate each cloud texture scrolls across the sky. Unfortunately it only updates itself when you hit 'Apply'.

I added an updateSpeed() function that gets called from CloudLayer's renderObject() which checks the wind-velocity every frame. It would probably be more efficient to have the wind-velocity notify the cloud-layers when there was a change, but that's another day.

Note: This getWindVelocity() call is the only way in which my system is coupled to the Sky class!

3.3 UpdateAlpha() A New Feature:

To date I don't understand how this was done in the past.

I rewrote it so that: each layer has it's own mTargetAlpha and mTargetTime. renderObject() also calls updateAlpha(). Here, I get the difference between the layer's current alpha-level and mTargetAlpha. Using that info, the last 'change in time', the time remaining and a touch of calculus, I interpolate the current alpha level towards the target. The final equation can be seen below:

The advantage to this approach is that on any given frame all I care about is:
- how far do I have to go (difference in alpha)
- how long do i have to get there (difference in time)
- ( and what was the last change in time if-applicable )

I don't care if the clouds are fadeing in/out, so I can change mTargetAlpha and/or mTargetTime at any point, even mid-fade - no problem! mTargetAlpha can also be any alpha level, not just 0 or 1. And finally - each layer does this independently.

stormAlpha = currentStormAlpha + ( alphaToGo / ( ( timeToGo + dT ) / dT ) );

where:
stormAlpha = new layer alpha
CurrentStormAlpha = current layer alpha
dT (delta-Time) = change in time

Fig. 3. A quick UML diagram.

4. CloudManager:

I wanted a common interface from which you could control all the cloud-layers in-simiulation, wheather using the console, script or C++ code. The answer was singleton-simObject CloudManager.

As part of their onAdd function, inherrited from CloudLayer, all cloud layers 'register' with CloudManager by calling CloudManager::registerLayer( this ). The handle then gets stored in a vector. Now we have reliable handles to all our cloud-layers in one place.

Right now CloudManager only provides a few simple function calls:

   void layerToggle( U32 layer, SimTime time );       /// toggles layer on/off
   void layerToggleAll( SimTime time );              /// toggles all cloud layers
   void layerSet( U32 layer, F32 alpha, SimTime time );
   void layerSetAll( F32 alpha, SimTime time );

Up to this point everything (with a single exception) works great! With just a touch of inherritance, the solution is elegant, organized, and flexible and I have hit all my design goals (save one). This is where the whole thing gets ugly and complicated and if you see a better way PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!.

5. The Last Wall of the Castle: Multi-Layered Procedural Effects

Untill this point JahnCloudLayer works functionally, as an object, but not visually. Written for the old cloud-system it is not a single cloud-layer, but a composit of three cloud layers to create a single visual effect.

I tried using additive-blending to merge the 3-layers into one but for some reason, it isn't even close to the same. There may be a different way to 'blend', 'merge', or 'layer' three bitmaps into one but this is well beyond my realm of knowlege. A closer examination reveils that even if blending worked the three layers don't actually tile! This is normally hidden when the three layers are moving at different rates in real-time.

How best to solve the problem?

Fig. 4. Jahn Fractal Clouds as it's supposed to look:

Fig. 5. Jahn Fractal Clouds as they look now with additive blending:

6. SubLayers

6.1 Overview

Fig. 6. Another quick UML diagram

The next approach I tried was for each CloudLayer to be a composite of one or more sublayers. So I created an abstract class SubLayer which takes on most of the former reponsibility of CloudLayer. CloudLayer gets an array of SubLayers to control.

At this point CloudLayer is still the (scene)object that gets added to your *.mis. However it's the SubLayer(s) that are the sceneobjects that get rendered. CloudLayer initially sets up the texture in setTexture() and then calls setTexture( textureHandle ) on each of the subObjects. CloudLayer is also still the one registering with CloudManager. It is mostly acting as an interface class.

6.2 Problems with this Approach

In execution, this approach is only a handful of extra lines. For the programmer, the complexity doubles with the addition of sublayers. Because there is now a SubLayer, BasicSubLayer, JahnSubLayer, etc. in addition to CloudLayer, BasicCloudLayer, JahnCloudLayer, etc. it is litterly twice as many files. It seems my solution went from 'elegant' to 'explosion in a paper-mill' overnight.

So far I haven't gotten this working yet. Today's problem is that while CloudLayers are the objects added to the *.mis and thereby added to the simulation correctly; SubLayers are instanciated from C++ and so I have to register them myself. Based on the 'Adding already added object' errors, I gather I'm doing this wrong.

I'm calling registerObject() in the SubLayer child-objects' constructors. That seems to ensure onAdd() (inherited from SubLayer) gets called. I'm still not sure how this is going wrong but it is...

7. Final Conclusion:

I think this is one of Torque's systems that was in dire need of re-engineering. It will definitely be a huge milestone in the completion of EnviroTorque 2.0 and I hope it will prove a huge leap forward for the Torque engine as a whole.

I think the idea of SubLayers is a huge mis-step in an otherwise solid design. However, getting the Jahn Fractal Clouds properly integrated to work alongside static-textured cloud layers is a key feature. At this point I'm open to ideas...

Last Idea:
I suppose it would be possible for just the JahnCloudLayer to maintain an array of three texture-handles and I could probably adjust properties like cloud-speed for each of them. Then I could just layer the three layers together into one texture in RenderObject(). This last step I'm not sure how to do though.

8. Help Wanted:

Torque Networking is something I just don't understand yet. I'm looking for a Torque-Veteran who will be able to properly finish off the networking aspect of this resource. Essentially netmasks, packUpdate(), and unPackUpdate() functions.

I'm also looking for a small handful of Torque-Veterans to beta-test it before I make it a final resource. Testing will happen as soon as I have a release-candidate to email out.

If your interested in helping please find the email-address in my profile or the contact box on my website to let me know!

And lastly - Thanks for reading!

Student to Professional in (under) $1000, or "The Right Tools for the Job"

Steven Peterson — 2006-04-06T20:13:26+00:00

The Transistion
In the last 3 months, I've realized that making the jump from "Student" to "Professional" is quite a transition. The hardest part has probably been fixing that sleep-schedule and getting my body onto a 9-5 workday... Aside from less tangible things like time-management, and work flow changes, I've had to completely overhaul my toolset.

Now this may be something one doesn't really think about much as a programmer. All you need is a computer with a text editor, right? Wrong!..

Suffice it to say with my outdated hardware I couldn't even open the TSE demo's and I was afraid my 5-year old HDD's would die at any moment. On the software side, the commercial compiler that I didn't actually own, is no longer supported. This did not make for an efficient workflow

New Hardware
I'll try not to bore you with the details, but I've spent most of the time since everyone else left for GDC replacing this stuff. I had bought a high-end Pentium-IV several years ago, and had slotted in my own video card and HDDs so those were the main bottle necks. Here's the new hardware list:

Hardware:
2x 250gig Seagate SATA-150 HDD's
Adaptec 2-port SATA RAID controller PCI-card
2x 256mb DDR 400 RAM
eVGA - nVidia-7800GS
Netgear FVS318 Network Switch and VPN Firewall Router

The new harddrives are arranged in RAID-1 for redundancy (and improved read-times), which gives me peace-of-mind at night, if nothing else.. My RAM is doubled to 1-gig now. The 10/100 router will replace a hand-me-down base-10 switch.

The nVidia-7800 is the best AGP card available, and has made such a difference! As the back-ported "base-line model" the price is a cool $285 now. The card weighs in somewhere around 5 pounds, so it feels like your getting your money's worth too! ;-)

Forum Thread: What video card should I buy

Software:
TSE
Half-Life 2

I immediately went out and bought TSE. Haven't gotten to far into it yet but now I can browse my very own shader engine, at my leisure. I hear a new release is "eminent" so I'm going to wait for that probably.

Next I bought "Half-Life 2 Game of the Year Edition". This is probably the best-value I've ever gotten for a game. The box includes the original Half-life(that I never played) ported to the new engine, and a full edition of Counter-Strike SOURCE. All that aside it includes the SOURCE-sdk so I have another game engine to play with when I get to it.

Free-Software:
Microsoft Visual C++ (v.8.0 / 2005) Express Edition
Subversion

MSVC-EE
Well neither TSE nor SOURCE-sdk support older compilers. So I downloaded the newer MSVC-EE. On first-glance I actually like it better than MS-VC6 because it's stripped down and doesn't seem to get in the way as much. I haven't gotten too far into it yet, and it takes some hacking to make either engine forwards compatible to the 2005 compiler. If all goes well, I will probably buy Visual-Studio Professional 2005 so I have all the "right tools". It would be the first Microsoft product I've bought since Office-2000.

Forum Thread: What Compiler should I buy

Subversion
By now I have about 20 zipped and dated copies of different TGE-sdk's and no version control. Turns out my host ( Dreamhost already has Subversion installed. I've spent quite a bit of time figuring out how I can import all my different TGE work into a single TGE-repository. I think I've finally gotten it down but not without a fight.

SO since before GDC I've gotten very little development on Enviro-Torque done. Now, however, with faster (and redundant) HDD's, off-site version-control on a professionally managed server, a 100mb/s connection, forwards-looking compilers and SDK's, and the 'fastest video-card in the east' I'm expecting development to leap forward hardware-failure free!!! (knocks on wood..)

Total Cost: approx: $800.00

Thanks for reading,
Steven
www.stevengpeterson.com

ps.
Don't buy from Monarch-Computers, they billed my account same-day but didn't ship the "in-stock" video card for a full week. Based on several calls to customer-service I think it's only a handful of guys running a somewhat fly-by-night operation.

On the other hand Tigerdirect.com offered a great buying experience!

Friday Dec 2 18:50

Steven Peterson — 2005-12-02T18:50:57+00:00

Specular Highlights of a Setting Sun - An updated look at where I am and where I'm going in the new year. And a snapshot of a new TGE-feature i'm working on.

Quote:
I have often and often in the course of this session, ... looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.
Ben Franklin

Well actually this sun is setting, however, as any ending is but the begining of somthing else it may-as-well reperesent both. For all of us I suppose the sun is setting on 2005, and rising on the next-gen of gameing. For me, personally, it is setting on college and rising on, well, life, I guess.

In torque-terms this means the end of Senior-Project (for now..) and the beginning of development on Enviro-Torque 2.0.

Senior Project - Legend of Zelda
For those who have been following, senior project is due on December 7th. So basically development is frozen in it's tracks, while I compile documentation, a demo release and graduate my butt outta here.

Up till now I've pretty much prototyped the overworld, the inventory system, and part of the first level. I wanted to at least program some of the advanced charecter movements, but I haven't finished Blendering my 'Link' charecter model yet, so that won't be happening... :-(

I did solve some neat problems with triggers, and got the joystick working etc. So my efforts weren't totally in vain. Mostly I just learned alot!..

For now i'm going to take a break from this one. When I'm done with my new environmental resource I'll port what I can slavage into TLK-1.4 and try again in my spare time...

Enviro-Torque 2.0 - Pre-Production
In my original
Enviro-Torque Resource I refreshed the most recent Celestial day/night cycle and did a hack job of "integrating" it with a weather-resource to create more of a single Dynamic Enviroment System.

Now, I'm currently designing Enviro-Torque 2.0; a ground-up rewrite of my dynamic-enivroment system resource. It hopes to offer fully modular and scaleable managment of date/time, weather and celestial events.

The specific-feature wishlist is fairly long but heading it are multiple celestial bodies, and multiple (independently configurable) weather zones.

One of the many new features of much smaller scope is the sunset above. Didn't think I'd get to it, did ya? This is an early prototype of a new hook from the celesial sub-system into the water-block to scale the specular highlighting as a function of the position of the sun.

In the final version I want to shade and scale the reflection using a weighted average of values from all celestial objects above the horizon, with those closest to the horizon getting the heaviest weight. This is just one of the many new features coming, from me to you!

[The Design]
Currently the class diagram stands at 14 classes! Sounds like alot. The basic run down is a scheduler on top which opperates on a collection of task-objects. These include the Calender-Module, the Weather Manager, Celestial Manager, and any user defined tasks large or small. Similarly the Weather Manager opperates on a collection of weather-zone objects, while the Celestial-manager opperates on a collection of celestial objects.

I intend to have several celestial-objects like celSun.cc, celSatelite.cc, celStarfield.cc all derived from celestialObject.cc. For celSun.cc, I really want to capture the essence of Sun.cc and fxSunLight.cc into one class so everything that goes together IS together, and I can have multiple instance of it. I don't know if this is possible though, depending on how tightly the rest of TGE is coupled to Sun.cc

The last and most nebulous componet of the whole thing will be numerous hooks from the celestial subsystem into various parts of the engine to create the actual day/night effects.....
[/The Design]

Enviro-Torque 2.0: Coming to a Garage Near You - Spring 2006

Well that was longer than I expected but thats where I am and where I'm going. Is that a plan or what?

Comments, Suggestions greatly appreciated!

WebSite: www.stevengpeterson.com

Sunday Oct 30 9:15

Steven Peterson — 2005-10-30T09:15:06+00:00

I'm doing the senior-project thing, using Torque to make a game. Idea is to reimpliment the original The Legend of Zelda in TGE-3D. Also looking for a job!

First Plan.

Well lots going on. I'm working on my Senior Project, which is to, using Torque 1.3x, reimpliment the original The Legend of Zelda for the NES in full 3d. So far it's going well but slow. Having to make models and textures and the learning curves for the art-pipeline is killing me.

I also dumped a fair amount of time into a new homepage for me, my portfolio my project and my job hunt. Next on the list is a new resume.

Make sure to check it out:
Homepage: www.StevenGPeterson.com
Project Page: www.StevenGPeterson.com/zelda

Thats it for now.