November 2008

14:40 - 25/11/08 - Only took near a month

Well after renewing the hosting for this site and changing the website layout / colour scheme I was planning on writing a blog update of the stuff that's been happening over the last few months, but predictably it got put on the back burner. It's probably as much for myself to come read in a year or two as anyone that checks this anymore, finishing Uni and realising that my online presence counts for something these days has put something of a dampener on my updates and has stopped me 'going emo' on here at all. Of course, part of the point of this blog is just a sounding board so I can write down anything I feel like and feel like I told someone (in fact probably its main use) this of course gives something of a skewed perspective, and for this reason I toyed with the idea of setting up an anonymous web log somewhere, where I could say every crazy thought that came into my head and talk about topics that I don't touch here. However, for whatever reason, that never happened so I've decided to revert to my standard "sit down and type my thoughts as they come to me" style blogging and avoid sticky subjects.

A fair bit has happened that I've not posted, as you'd expect after only 1 sizable update in 7 months! A large portion of the start of that was trying to learn as much of 4th year Physics as possible whilst doing my MSci Project, the Project went well and I got a fairly good grip on General Relativity (comparative to everything else) but that was pretty much it. Curtousy of my (pretty good if I'm honest) MSci Project I finished my degree with a 2:1, which I already mentioned, but in all honesty I was (and am) really upset about, unfortunately you can't talk to anyone about how you feel stupid and disorganised for not getting a first because they'll think you're an arrogant bastard. Having applied for a couple of Software Engineering jobs but not suceeded at interview (the feedback being my basic apptitude/logic tests and basic coding style was fine but lack of advanced technical knowledge was a problem / they didn't have enough space... which considering I applied only for jobs that encouraged applications from non-computer science degrees and said "no technical knowledge requried" was a bit rich I thought) I found a really interesting looking PhD position on computational analysis of General Relativity, applied and got told because of funding cuts in the research budget (that whole thing where the government science research council realised they'd allocated millions they didn't have) they couldn't offer me a place this year! So then after having my hopes of helping further scientific knowledge for mankind crushed mercilessly I decided I'd do something more fun!

So as one of the few things I've mentioned in previous post, I decided to try my hand at video game programming. Of course at some point I'd love to be part of the actual game design process, you need several years industry experience before a large company will let you anywhere near the increasingly large budgets for games, so how about go in with something I know I'm fairly good at and enjoy doing, programming! I got myself a book that I can recommend highly for a good introduction to C++ / DirectX programming, "Beginning Game Programming" by Jonathan S. Harbour, and ordered a laptop to be my working computer. I hoped to take it on holiday with me to Italy so I could code and relax in the Sun. Alas there were delays to the laptop (supplier issues Rock assured me) and I went to Italy with only a notepad and my code book to help me improve. Italy itself is always fantastic, the holiday itself was mixed, probably the subject for an anonymous blog though. After working all the way through my game programming book and my laptop still hadn't come, and I didn't really want to keep working on my desktop PC as I'd somehow convinced myself I needed a completely fresh start and the laptop was necessary to make this transition. So I installed World of Warcraft once more as a timesink (this is after my post that I was going to play EVE instead, that didn't stick), and sink time it did, I had a lot of fun on there with new 70s and old ones. Unfortunately WoW has a tendancy to eat more of your time and attention than you'd like it to.

After it became apparent that my laptop wasn't going to be coming any time soon, I ordered a new book, "Ultimate Game Programming with DirectX" which isn't as good at introducing the new concepts as the first book but it goes into a lot more depth concerning 3D games, in fact the first book pretty much did sprite based games, then went "here's how to make and load models, have a ball and here's a sample game". Which isn't very helpful, I'm glad I started with "Beginning Game Programming" but UGP is much more useful as an insight into 'real' game design, good coding practice and 3D techniques. I played around with this book and building the engine that came with it whilst playing WoW (not at exactly the same time, least not most of the time), until my laptop came after 4 months of delays. Now I feel I should point out that I did change my order halfway through the process as a new laptop came on offer more suitable to my needs, and I understand that ordering a brand new laptop model offering higher specs and cheaper prices than any of the competition from a small company is going to take a while, still it felt a like a bit of a piss take. That said, I love my laptop, it is absolutely great, and I'd recommend the company to anyone on the condition that you order a model already in production, not one that "should ship within a month".

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King expansion for WoW, felt I should probably stop playing and focus on my work, I couldn't resist giving it a try, after all I'd preordered it before I decided I should stop playing. The gave it a few hours play time and it looked to have a lot of cool new things, however thankfully I think I've just become a little bored with WoW for now, and the headlong rush for 80 reminded me that the majority of players have nothing they'd rather be doing with their lives, which (apart from in my darker moments) isn't me so I have stopped playing. There's always a chance when I'm in a better place I might give it a go, so I'm not selling my account or deleting my characters or anything, but it's not going to be anytime soon. So since then I've managed to get a good amount of work done and I'm now working on a Space Shooter with real space physics (rather than the norm of pretendering star fighters work like jet planes... they don't, or wouldn't if they existed) I'm planning to put up a development page tracking the progress of creating my first 3D game.

Whilst I've stopped playing WoW, I haven't stopped playing Video Games, we all need some way to unwind and TV is for the most part crap (although strictly come dancing is awesome). One game that I've bought in the last few days is Left4Dead, and it is amazing. It does what it sets out to almost flawlessly, a surival horror fps coop game, sounds complex but it works, and works well. It's the most immersive multiplayer video game I've ever played, and to me that gives it huge kudos points. The cinematic effects on the graphics are brillant, graining and colour distortion, and really make you feel like you're in a horror movie, and the source engine might not be cutting edge but there's nothing I'd rather be playing. The AI director is as immpressive as Valve's blurbs on it would imply and the touch of aim lag is just enough to make you feel like you are character you're playing, not someone wtf pwning zombies, without being annoying (this coming from a big CS fan). There's much more I could say about this game, but instead I'll just say this, I cannot recommend this game highly enough, buy it, now, seriously. It's making me want to break open the SDK and start work on a campaign of maps or related game mod just thinking about it.

A final note on this blog, I read an amusing few articles starting from this one. It has encouraged me to relocate 'my cave' back from the lounge to my room and I've set up my desk so I can use both desktop monitors and my laptop all at once, and amusingly I've not got so much work done in such a short space of time since I left Uni.