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Old 04-26-2007, 05:12 AM   #501
cjmaddy
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So, dare we now say, that you have come out of the shade, and seen the light?

.... Sorry 'bout that! ... But very many congratulations! ... Yeah!!!

This event deserves an all-round celebration! .....
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Old 04-26-2007, 06:11 AM   #502
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Great Jim!
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Old 04-26-2007, 07:27 AM   #503
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This is nothing short of fantastic news.
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman
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Old 04-26-2007, 07:38 AM   #504
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Great work Jim.
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Old 04-26-2007, 08:28 AM   #505
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What she said!
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,
'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
" /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.
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Old 04-26-2007, 01:28 PM   #506
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More good news. I just solved a problem that the Aquarium had suffered from since Day 1. Without getting too technical, people often noticed that the edges of the lightplay did not always exactly match each object. In the current version, this is because the "objects" are just part of the 2D background, while the lightplay is projected on a "pretend" 3D object in front of it. Creating and matching all these invisible objects with the background pictures is extremely difficult.

Well, the 3D version has a problem that's visually identical to this, but for a different reason. Each object is drawn in two passes - first the object, then the lightplay, using the same mesh. The holes and rough edges of each object are not in the mesh, they are only in the texture. The alpha channel tells the renderer not to draw any pixels in these areas. Now along comes the next pass, and draws lighplay pixels over the whole object - holes and all - right out to the edges of the polygons.


There are recommended ways of dealing with this, but they simply don't work. Well, I finally discovered settings for the Alpha system and Z buffer which cleared the problem right up. Here's a before and after pic:
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Image1.jpg (15.4 KB, 75 views)
File Type: jpg Image2.jpg (15.2 KB, 68 views)
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Old 04-26-2007, 01:41 PM   #507
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Oh wow, more great news. Seems like you are making progress in leaps and bounds the last few days.

Now its just a matter of implementing all of it.
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Old 04-26-2007, 02:13 PM   #508
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He's on a roll, when it rains it pores!
Write paranormal mysteries. Six books so far.
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Old 04-26-2007, 02:56 PM   #509
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Thumbs Down YEAH PROGRESS

I'm glad to hear you broke through some barriers. Your screensaver is by far my fav! I can't wait for the next version. By the way will I need a seperate graphics card to run it?
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Old 04-26-2007, 03:10 PM   #510
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So far, the new version works pretty well with just the on-board graphics chips in both my HP machines. There are still a lot of objects to add, but right now I'm getting over 40 frames per second at 1920x1200x16. These cards support vertex shaders but not pixel shaders. There is one subtle effect I'd like to use which would require pixel shaders, but I'll probably write it so that it's just not used if the machine doesn't support it.
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Old 04-26-2007, 03:47 PM   #511
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Embarassed Thanks For The Updates!

Jim, Great to hear of some legitimate progress...... YEA !
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Old 04-26-2007, 04:35 PM   #512
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Originally posted by Jim Sachs:
<snip> There is one subtle effect I'd like to use which would require pixel shaders, but I'll probably write it so that it's just not used if the machine doesn't support it.  
That's the best piece of news for me. Thanks for choosing this path!
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,
'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
" /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.
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Old 04-26-2007, 05:45 PM   #513
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Originally posted by Jim Sachs:
...These cards support vertex shaders but not pixel shaders.  
Correct me if I'm wrong but the chip probably isn't doing the vertex shader work, they are commonly emulated on the processor in low end chips, pixel shaders cannot however be emulated (well at least they aren't ever, I'm sure they could be, for a terrible performance hit)...
I don't watch commercials.
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Old 04-26-2007, 06:02 PM   #514
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Keep up the great work, Jim!
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Old 04-26-2007, 08:36 PM   #515
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Doc - Both machines say they have v1.1 vertex shaders. Pixel Shaders are available in Emulation Mode, but then it's a slideshow, not an animation.
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Old 04-27-2007, 05:20 AM   #516
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Anyone wonder what the hell they're talking about? ..... shader

Note! - It might be worth stoping when you reach the Wiki section, otherwise your brain might start to hurt! ... Mine did!!!
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Old 04-27-2007, 05:25 AM   #517
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I'll just take their word for it, I don't need to know how it works just that it works. Save on aspirin for my headaches.
Write paranormal mysteries. Six books so far.
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Old 04-27-2007, 07:39 AM   #518
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Originally posted by Jim Sachs:
More good news. I just solved a problem that the Aquarium had suffered from since Day 1. Without getting too technical...  
I didn't understand a thing, but the screenshot was nice!
Anyway, fantastic new that you got pass some problems all of a sudden.

Gonna show the screensaver at my scuba course, showing the
humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa...
Yodelking - För god att kolsyra!
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Old 04-27-2007, 08:16 AM   #519
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So much easier to just say "humu trigger". Oh well.
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman
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Old 04-27-2007, 08:24 AM   #520
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Hawaiian is a pretty laid back language otherwise, huh? Nothing sharp in it - just smooth waves...
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,
'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
" /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.
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