Working on Artificial Intelligence in Racing Simulations again!

January 16, 2016

I have started working on the Artificial Intelligence in Racing Simulations project again, still using Live For Speed as the base physics simulation because it is fairly accurate and reasonably accessible. Here is a short recording of the artificial driver, Jared, driving at Fern Bay Club in the XRG. A fantasy car similar to a low powered rear-wheel drive sports car.

The second version/iteration of driving logic was written last year, March 2015, but my PC at the time was getting outdated and overloaded as it tried running everything it needed, plus AIRS logic could use some optimizations. I lost motivation after writing “Driving Logic version 2” (DLv2 for short), since it didn’t behave as well as I had hoped.

The driver got faster than DLv1, and learned Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off on Working on Artificial Intelligence in Racing Simulations again! | AIRS, Game Development, Racing Simulator | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

Goodbye to 2015

December 31, 2015

Looking Back

I have managed to lose the list of goals I set out for during 2015, my old racing team forum has now disappeared and all the information was lost. A bit unfortunate since my yearly goals have been kept there since 2009. I know that my financial goal for my student loans was not only met but exceeded! I failed at my writing and reading goals, although I did read a handful of books and wrote a lot of documentation for Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off on Goodbye to 2015 | Game Development, Outdoors/Hiking, Sim Racing | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

Ascending Roots

December 16, 2015

20151214201402_screenshotLudumDare is game jam or competition of sorts, though there are no rewards and winning isn’t about placing first. Thousands come together during a single weekend to create nearly 3000 games! I was joined by four other fine developers during the 34th LudumDare event and we together spent 72 hours creating a Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off on Ascending Roots | Game Development, LudumDare | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

ZoomCarWorld3 Renderer Updates

September 22, 2015

20150919_zcw3_line_colors

Ever since I ‘upgraded’ TurtleBrains to use the OpenGL 3.2 Core context, ZoomCarWorld3 has not been rendering. For awhile it would actually throw errors and crash, until all the legacy OpenGL causing those errors was disabled. Last weekend the mission was to Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off on ZoomCarWorld3 Renderer Updates | Game Development, Programming, Zoom Car World 3 | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

Building Monitor Stand

September 9, 2015

20150905_srs_01_beforeI’ve been racing with 22″ monitors (pictured above) for nearly 8 years now, The ol’ Acers held up fairly well, though power boards were replaced on two of them and recently one developed a dead line of green pixels. I had not realized, until very recently, that the virtual world had been Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off on Building Monitor Stand | Sim Racing | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

Hypothermia

September 4, 2015

In 2009 I hiked the Appalachian Trail, 2178 miles from Georgia to Maine.  During that time I got wet and I got cold.  Day after day, especially in the spring.  Starting March 29th, I woke to a frosty tent and a thermometer reading of 17° F.  What the HELL, I’m in Georgia!  Even with rain nearly every day, and temperatures in the 20s to 40s many days, I never got hypothermic.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  My girlfriend and I went to Seattle, and planned a weekend trip around Mother Mountain Loop.   We started very early in the morning with a visit to the ranger station to check in and get the wilderness pass, on the way to the station we got to see this amazing bridge that was high above the river below.

P1100027 P1100041

Then we drove another 45 minutes along a dirt forest service road, thanks rental car, to get to Mowich Lake which would be the start and end point for our journey.  The first day would be the longest day at 9 miles since the campsite at 7 miles in was reserved.  The temperature was in the Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off on Hypothermia | Outdoors/Hiking | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

Choosing A License

September 4, 2015

One of the most difficult decisions that keeps sliding back on the TurtleBrains todo list is picking a license.  It has been said that I’m being unrealistic, so perhaps I want too much, for wanting to get nominal proceeds back from my efforts.  I’ve been on http://choosealicense.com/ quite a bit and the two that stand out are MIT and GPLv3 for slightly different reasons.

MIT seems to be less restrictive to those that want to use TurtleBrains, they are not forced to disclose their code, and perhaps more programmers would give TurtleBrains a try.  But it also falls down in that programmers could ignore any closed/purchasable license that may allow me to retrieve any financial benefit, even minimally.

GPLv3 seems restrictive and possibly scares many from using TurtleBrains to begin with, and if nobody uses it why would anyone want to purchase the closed license?

Ultimately I’d like to see $25-50 for a project that plans to have an install base greater than 1000 users, and/or projects that are selling while using TurtleBrains.  I want this to be a minimal amount of money more like saying “thanks for giving my project a boost” and aimed at projects that have or are planning to make monies.

Which is why GPLv3 with a purchasable closed license has been on my mind, until someone was mentioning few would considering using TurtleBrains at that point.

Any opinions? Advice? Help!? It is appreciated.

Comments Off on Choosing A License | Game Development, Programming, TurtleBrains | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

Post-Mortem: Burden (LudumDare #33)

September 1, 2015

20150824_210646_burden

Burden follows a woman’s journey through her past, as she is chased by her traumatic and guilt-ridden memories of the plane crash that killed her family. She was the only survivor.

The game was made for LudumDare #33 as a Jam entry.  A team of three with less than 72 hours, Jeremy “mmango” Bell doing audio, Daniel “MechanicalLife” Akesson doing visuals and myself doing the programming. Read the rest of this entry »

Comments Off on Post-Mortem: Burden (LudumDare #33) | LudumDare, OneGameAMonth | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

#1HGJ Entry – Chess

July 4, 2015

chess_gameplay

 

Here is a game I made in a single hour for OneHourGameJam the theme, and thus title is: Chess

Chess (for Mac OS X)

Chess (for Windows)

Working on a game in an hour is a great way to learn the weaknesses about your development pipeline, be it in coding, art or audio.  The result is almost always a project that will get thrown away, seriously it took 60 minutes to make, but the experience is certain to teach you something and sharpen game development skills.

The game has nothing to do with the game of chess, or theme.  The plan was to have the blue squares become pawns and then have other pieces behind them, but 60 minutes was not enough time.

Comments Off on #1HGJ Entry – Chess | OneHourGameJam | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

#1HGJ Entry – Teamwork

June 13, 2015

teamwork

Here is a game I made in a single hour for OneHourGameJam the theme, and thus title is: Teamwork

Teamwork (for Mac OS X)

Teamwork (for Windows)

Working on a game in an hour is a great way to learn the weaknesses about your development pipeline, be it in coding, art or audio.  The result is almost always a project that will get thrown away, seriously it took 60 minutes to make, but the experience is certain to teach you something and sharpen game development skills.

Things learned during this hour:

  • Although the template_entity helped a lot, I need to make use of the Entity Behavior System better.
  • Fixed a bug with the EntityManager, which is always a benefit.
  • I believe a TileSystem, and appropriate entity behaviors could make richer experiences.

1 Comment | OneHourGameJam | Permalink
Posted by timbeaudet

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »