This is how graphics used to be done kids

This is how graphics used to be done kids

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Back in the day when I was learning, there wasn’t much (or any) hardware acceleration for graphics. Programming graphics back then, on 8088/286/386 processors was much like this. Bisqwit gives it a shot.

In this tool-assisted education video I create a simple FPS style walking and jumping scene for OpenGL, with DJGPP, in DOS. In a 256 colors 320×200 VGA mode. This is my first OpenGL exercise. Apologies about some little mistakes in the program (such as reloading the textures on every frame). I noticed them when this video was already late in production, and it would take several days before the new version would be available if I were to fix them, and I’m itching to get this video out and into making the next video already, and none of the mistakes actually prevent the content being understood, so I’ll leave them be. Most people don’t even notice. Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealBisqwit Patreon: https://patreon.com/Bisqwit (alternatives at https://iki.fi/bisqwit/donate.html) Twitch: https://twitch.tv/RealBisqwit Homepage: https://iki.fi/bisqwit/ I wrote a FAQ after this video was picked up on Reddit the first time in 2012. Here it is: https://bisqwit.iki.fi/jutut/kuvat/pr… Source code and prebuilt lightmaps: (Compiles and runs on Linux): https://bisqwit.iki.fi/jutut/kuvat/pr… (includes also a superior ellipsoid-based collision testing, and a buggy WIP for portal rendering: I’m not good with the math.)

Pondering immortality in the movie Groundhog Day

Pondering immortality in the movie Groundhog Day

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“Movie stories are by nature about change, and if I were going to test the change of this character against an infinity of time, I’d want him to begin as somebody who seemed unable to change.” -Danny Rubin write of Groundhog Day

Give this a watch – it’s a really good reflection on the movie.

Removing the 60fps limit in Dead by Daylight

Removing the 60fps limit in Dead by Daylight

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Seems as games target more platforms, they limit frame rates to 60 for the console players. Dead by Daylight goes even further by not allowing you to change the setting in game. Ridiculous.

If you want to change vsync or frame limit then edit GameUserSettings.ini usually located in the hidden by default folder at:

C:\Users\UserNameGoesHere\AppData\Local\DeadByDaylight\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor

Change this line to whatever you want your max frame rate to be:
FrameRateLimit=144

While not required if you set the frame rate to be less than the refresh rate of your monitor, you can also to turn vsync off by changing this line to false:
bUseVsync=False

Save file. Play game.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/381210/discussions/0/1741106440032943073/

Dandy, the inspiration for Gauntlet

Dandy, the inspiration for Gauntlet

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I’ve met Ed Logg before, the programmer/creator behind the arcade classics Gauntlet and Gauntlet II and attended his GDC talk in 2012. (I was the one that asked him the question about those that could play forever at 42:53)

Logg was inspired by this Atari 8-bit game called Dandy, developed by John Howard Palevich as his undergrad thesis project at MIT. Some have suggested the ‘inspired by’ was a lot closer to ‘directly copied’, but it was resolved without lawsuit – Palevich got a free Gauntlet arcade system and is now listed with ‘special thanks’ in the credits.

Check out some of the gameplay from Dandy (below) and see how many similarities you see (4 play co-op, monster movement, etc)

For a little extra fun, check out Ed Logg’s first, unreleased, Atari game – called ‘Maze Runners’ and to see how he developed

How easy is it to film anywhere with any background?

How easy is it to film anywhere with any background?

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I love visiting the real-life places where my favorite films were shot. But very soon, that will be a thing of the past.

There probably isn’t a tv show on at the moment that doesn’t use at least a half-dozen of these tricks today. Check out how easy it is to create any scene with cheap, off the shelf computers and cameras

Setting up a Raspberry Pi-hole

Setting up a Raspberry Pi-hole

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Ad blockers such as uBlock Origin and Adblocker make the web usable – but are not available on every platform and not of the same quality.

Pi-hole is an Linux-based server setup that absorbs ads by filtering DNS requests. You set up the Pi-hole server on a simple Raspberry Pi, set your devices to use the pi-hole server to resolve DNS entries, and voila – any requests to ad sites are immediately and transparently absorbed.

This is far superior to ad block applications for a few reasons. First, because the websites doesn’t even know you’re using it, you will never get those annoying ‘disable adblock to continue’ messages. With a little extra work, you can make your wired/wireless router also run DNS requests through it so that all devices wifi connected phones/laptops/game systems/etc get free ad filtering.

I just set one up this weekend on a raspberry pi and it’s been interesting to play with so far. Pi-hole has been a bit too fiddly in the past, but seems to be working pretty well these days with a slick web interface and easy installation. So far, it has worked really well – but I do occasionally get a false positive and have to turn the filtering off. I’ll give it a few days and see if it grows on me.

Here’s the instructions I used: https://blog.cryptoaustralia.org.au/instructions-for-setting-up-pi-hole/

Changing the DNS for your Win10 system while still using DHCP:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-your-pcs-dns-settings-windows-10

Setting up SSH after install on your raspberry pi so you can access your pi hole via windows/putty/etc.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/ssh/

Here’s the parts list from Amazon:

Raspberry Pi 3 b+ Case, iUniker Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Transparent Case with Raspberry Pi Heatsink for Raspberry Pi 3B+, 3B, 2B – Access to All Ports (Clear) $5.68
Samsung 32GB 95MB/s (U1) MicroSDHC EVO Select Memory Card with Adapter (MB-ME32GA/AM) $7.49
Element14 Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Motherboard $36.97
iTrunk Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (B Plus) Power Supply, 5V 2.5A Extra Long 2M Micro USB Power Supply Charger Adapter for 2018 New Version Raspberry Pi $8.15
Google hand tracking now open source

Google hand tracking now open source

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Google has made its hand detection and tracking tech open-source, giving developers the opportunity to poke around in the tech’s code and see what makes it tick.

“We hope that providing this hand perception functionality to the wider research and development community will result in an emergence of creative use cases, stimulating new applications and new research avenues,” reads a blog post from the team.

That post over on the Google AI Blog dives into exactly how the tech works, and devs interested in getting a closer look at it can find the project over on Google’s Github repository.

Computers are for funny cat movies – even in 1968

Computers are for funny cat movies – even in 1968

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More than 40 years ago in 1968, a team led by Nikolai Nikolaevich Konstantinov created a mathematical model of the motion of a cat. The BESM-4 machine, executing a written program for solving ordinary differential equations, draws a cartoon cat. Each frame was physically printed using a standard desktop printer (using W’s to fill the drawing space), photographed, then put together into this simple animation.

Read more about it here (use google translate):
http://www.etudes.ru/ru/etudes/cat-animation/