Older blog entries for bratsche (starting at number 296)

Someone also has been working on a new sound system for the engine and that was recently committed to cvs by Mattias, with some changes. The sound system originally only worked with DirectSound, but Mattias added basic support for ALSA as well. I have not looked at the sound device code yet, but I'm interested in seeing if we could add 3D spatial sound positioning using DirectSound and OpenAL.

I think we're releasing 0.8.0 release tomorrow.

One problem with having a single vertex buffer was that the entire terrain system was limited to 65k vertices, which means a 256x256 heightmap since we require the heightmap to be square in shape. You could always load multiple terrain systems at a time, but that didn't make sense. The new system provides ample vertex space, setting the limit to 65k vertices per terrain block (which is, of course, way too much). For my tests, I'm dividing my terrain blocks down to 4096 vertices each.

Well, on paper those are the numbers. One problem that came up is the obvious disconnectivity in the index buffers between the various blocks. The index buffer of one terrain block cannot contain triangles that connect vertices from one vertex buffer with vertices from another. The result looks something like this. Those gaps are due to the index buffers not connecting. Each block is 64x64 vertices, and the entire system is 256x256.

So the solution is to add a little "buffer strip" along the edges. A block needs to have 65x65 vertices, such that row 65 of both axes is set to the same position as rows 0 of the neighboring block, and they look like they're all one mesh. That looks like this. Much better.

But for other purposes, I don't want the heightmaps to be non-power-of-two images. I still want the same heightmap. I ended up making the terrain systems internally add the extra buffer vertices, while the user of the engine still sees the terrain system as being 256x256. Any queries to sizes will tell the user the size based upon heightmap calculations, so it's slightly inaccurate. I thought this was a trivial trade-off, though.

I went to hear UNT's orchestra concert tonight. They started with Allegretto movement of Beethoven Symphony No.7 (devoted to a former faculty who passed away recently), then did Strauss' Don Juan, and then Berlioz's Harold in Italy with Susan Dubois playing the viola solo. Naturally, Susan sounded fantastic. She has a great sound, and is really fun to listen to. She almost makes me like that piece!

Sadly, I think nothing will ever change my mind on this piece. It has really wonderful moments in it that make me think, "Oh, wow.. this is really nice." But then it has other moments where I remember why I always thought this piece falls distinctly short of being "good". The prime example is in the second movement where horn and flute play single long notes back and forth at one another. I'm not going to bother to describe exactly how ridiculous it sounds here on Advogato, but take my word for it or go listen to a recording (either Tabea Zimmermann's or Pinchas Zukerman's, since they are both fantastic enough violists to almost pass this off as a decent work). The outer movements are not that bad, but the inner movements are very unsatisfying.

For me, Berlioz is like the definitive mediocre composer. We know who the Great composers are, like Beethoven and Schubert and Brahms. But if you look at some of Berlioz's works, you realize they're all "pretty okay" pieces. And those are just the few that are actually heard. I can't help but notice how few of his works are ever performed at all. "Mediocre" might be overstating his value.

...I don't know how I always get off on these little rants. My intention here was to say that I went to the concert and that Susan sounded awesome. =)

Orkut/Friendster are sort of weird, but sort of cool. Maybe it's just a neat little gimmicky fad thing right now, I don't know.

It's really cool stuff. I made a couple simple tests that worked beautifully, and now I'm beginning on some GLSL support for NeoEngine.

Then I played in East Texas Symphony last week and they performed it with the orchestra. It was really nice. We also did Mahler Symphony No.1 and some newish piece that I found uninteresting.

It's nothing really new or revolutionary in this game. Usually when I say something like "basically more of the same" it is not meant in a good way, but I'd basically have to say that about this game and mean it in a good way. If that makes any sense. I thought the original Max Payne was really fantastic and was one of the best games I had played at that time, and the sequel basically just takes a good thing and improves slightly on it. There was really no reason for them to try to do anything amazingly new in this game, and I'm glad that they basically preserved the gameplay.

It began very well when I showed up, but things quickly went downhill when Andy came into the room, coughing and hacking. He informed me in his usual manner that he has been very sick recently; he had mono for awhile, and now he has the flu and has had it for awhile. I kept trying to step away from him, but he kept stepping forward as he told me all about it.

So I fled to the main room, where there were chips and dips and other munchies to be had. I ate a few chips, but the fun didn't last long for soon Andy sat in the chair on the opposite side of the coffee table and began coughing in my general direction, never bothering to cover his mouth, and never bothering to aim away from the chips.

So, once again I fled, this time with Short Megan and a small crew of faithful followers, to the front room. Once again, things became jolly (as things so often are in the company of Short Megan), and this time Cathy joined us. We laughed, and were merry, and things were great. But he eventually came into that room, spoke a few friendly words, then remembered something and told Cathy that there was something in the other room that needed to be cleaned up. A certain dread filled Cathy's eyes, but not Josh's.. oh, no! Josh was mightily amused, and slid in a very ungraceful manner from his chair to the ground, where he laughed heartily.

Finally, after the vomit had been cleaned up, Andy decided that he was too sick to stay, and so he began the long journey home to Fort Worth. And there was much rejoicing.

The chips had to be thrown out, both those of the potato variety and those of the corn. Sadly, even the purple corn chips had to go. In my heart, I knew they were the most tainted of all.

Dan brought forth the brisket, and it was a sight to behold. And I did call forth for all to hear, "Yum!", and a good time was had by all.

We laughed into the wee hours of the early morning, when Kathryn left and discovered, much to her dismay, that her car had been broken into by an extremely untalented thief, who managed only to burgle a bottle of motor oil, a bottle of wildshield wiper fluid, and the faceplate of her CD player. Amongst the items left behind were a stack of CDs, a brand new copy of the Extended Edition of The Two Towers on DVD, and the rest of her CD player.