Drealmer's Tumblr
26/11/2009
Oldies ported to Adobe Flash 10
I recently got my attention drawn by Ralh Koster (link) to Flash 10 conversions of old Atari arcade and VCS titles (link). These conversions have been done by Code Mystics (link) using their own proprietary “Prometheus” cross-platform engine. The cool thing is that this is real emulation, not some retro-remake.
At about the same time, I read on “Rock, Paper, Shotgun” (link) that Quake now has a Flash 10 version (link), and it runs crazy fast! It is playable on my 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom EEE pc… Okay, you could play Quake on a 486dx4 back in the days, but hey.
And while I am at it, here are Doom, Heretic and Hexen in Flash 10: (link)
These amazing things have apparently been done using Adobe Alchemy (link) which compiles C/C++ to ActionScript virtual machine byte code. More info about Alchemy in the FAQ: (link)
Text posted at 13:54 -- Comments
22/11/2009
Gmail, Blat and Stunnel
Many times I tought it would be very convenient if I only could zip a few files and send them to myself by email all from a batch script. I finally made my homework and found a solution, which turned out to be rather complicated, especially because Gmail SMTP requires SSH. So let me document it here, it might come in handy.
My requirements were:
- Windows.
- Use only free stuff.
- Don’t require to install anything.
- No user input, click the batch file and that’s it.
Tools of the trade:
- Archiver: 7-Zip (link)
- SMTP server: Gmail (link)
- SMTP client: Blat (link)
- SSH tunnel: Stunnel (link)
All the software above can be copied around without install and the whole fits under a megabyte, so make yourself a package and put it online, it’s a one-time job.
Now here is the Stunnel config file (that I named gmail.conf):
[ssmtp] accept = 587 connect = smtp.gmail.com:587 sslVersion = SSLv2 protocol = smtp client = yes
And the batch file goes like this:
stunnel -install -quiet gmail.conf stunnel -start -quiet gmail.conf 7z a archive.7z @listfile.txt blat -body "..." -server localhost:587 -f login@gmail.com -to login@gmail.com -u login -pw password -attach archive.7z stunnel -stop -quiet gmail.conf stunnel -uninstall -quiet gmail.conf
Obviously you will have to change the login and passwords to match your gmail account and fill in listfile.txt with the files you want to backup. Note that the blat command is only one line (but I had to cut it so it fits the blog layout) and that the body has no use but is required and cannot be empty (hence the ellipsis). Finally, Stunnel is run as a service, only because that’s the only way I found to stop it automatically.
And now I can send myself savegames from home to work and back! Sweet :-)
Text posted at 19:01 -- Comments
19/11/2009
Real-time 3D Developers in Belgium (update)
Thanks to a0a who pointed me to two more belgian companies involved in real-time 3D. They are apparently closely related, from what I understand Anygma (link) provides the technology that Nazooka (link) uses.
The full list has been updated here: (link)
Text posted at 21:30 -- Comments
Video game characters walking on uneven terrain often look bad. Because animations cannot be designed to fit any situation they are usually made for flat surfaces, and when on a slope the character ends up with a foot in the air and the other one inside the ground. From there it’s all about working around it or attracting the player’s attention on something else.
As you can see in the video above, the guys at Unity Technologies came up with some very impressive IK system to fix the problem. The main downside seems to be that it is a tad heavy on the CPU.
For more information, look at Rune Skovbo Johansen’s web site (link) and browse the GDC 2009 slides (link).
Video posted at 13:15 -- Comments
17/11/2009
Video Game Developers in Belgium (update)
Amazing, I found another video game developer right next to where I live! How come I never heard about them yet? Quick, let’s update the list with “Vetasoft”: (link)
Text posted at 21:27 -- Comments
Real-time 3D Developers in Belgium (update)
I just added “de pinxi” to the list, check it out: (link)
As usual, if you are aware of other companies that belong there, let me know.
Text posted at 20:53 -- Comments
16/11/2009
Max Kanat-Alexander, “The Singular Secret of the Rockstar Programmer” (link)
Quote posted at 14:36 -- Comments
14/10/2009
Dungeon Twister Championship
Last week-end in Tourcoing, France was the 4th World Championship of the Dungeon Twister board game (link), being developers of the video game adaptation we hosted the event this year (link).
On the Ikosa web site, you will find a report (in French) with a lot of pictures and a few screenshots: (link).
Text posted at 19:02 -- Comments
07/10/2009
This video is rated #INF on a scale of cool to awesome. I have a friend who just joined the ranks of CCP I wonder if he signed before of after seeing this video.
Video posted at 18:59 -- Comments
