Last week I upgraded my IDE to Visual Studio 2012. I do not regret this decision one bit. Based on my experiences so far, I can safely say that I can stick with my opinion that Visual Studio is the one thing that Microsoft got very right.
I especially love the new Dark theme, which matches nicely with my chosen syntax color schemes and makes the program much less of an eyesore when working for many hours.
The upgrade took a full night, since I spent a lot of it refactoring my multiple libraries into one 'libnebulous', as well as recompiling all of my third party libraries using the new C++11 compiler which shipped with the program.
Now I am deep into the process of upgrading to DirectX 11, and I am starting to think it is going to take a long time. A very long time indeed.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Landing On Planets
This was a long time coming, mostly because I was so wrapped up in other features that I was neglecting the most important part of my game: the planets. There isn't much to look at yet, but here is a quick screenshot of my scout ship sitting on the surface:
That screenshot is in debug mode so there really isn't much to look at. Right now the planets are just featureless balls, but one of my next targets is terrain detail. But this progress still means a lot to me, as I've been wanting to do it for literally years. I was jumping up and down when I finally got it right.
There are a few things I'm planning on getting done which I have been putting off for far too long.
A small change, but still significant, is upgrading to Visual Studio 2012. I have been using 2008 for far longer than I should have, and it's about time. This upgrade will give me access to all of the shiny new features of C++11, and from what I hear the visual debugging tools for graphics applications are outstanding.
I will also be un-libifying the project. Right now I have 12 projects in my solution, 10 of which are libs for different aspects of the engine (scene, procedural stuff, sound, etc). There is absolutely no need for this, so I will be grouping all of the libs into one libnebulous, and leaving the 'client' and 'server' projects on their own.
The biggest change I will be making is upgrading from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11. I've seen a lot of amazing things done with 11, and I have been putting off upgrading simply because I learned on 9, and have been very afraid of losing my fixed-function pipeline because shaders are scary. I haven't done a lot of shader programming, but I guess it's about time I learned to get better considering they will open up so many new doors to me.
As always, one step forward, 10 steps back!
That screenshot is in debug mode so there really isn't much to look at. Right now the planets are just featureless balls, but one of my next targets is terrain detail. But this progress still means a lot to me, as I've been wanting to do it for literally years. I was jumping up and down when I finally got it right.
Backtrack: Engage
As excited as this has made me, I won't be able to push it further for a while because I am about to initiate a massive backtrack just in time for the holidays. This is pretty convenient because I've got a bit of time off from work coming up which I will be using coding instead of relaxing.
There are a few things I'm planning on getting done which I have been putting off for far too long.
A small change, but still significant, is upgrading to Visual Studio 2012. I have been using 2008 for far longer than I should have, and it's about time. This upgrade will give me access to all of the shiny new features of C++11, and from what I hear the visual debugging tools for graphics applications are outstanding.
I will also be un-libifying the project. Right now I have 12 projects in my solution, 10 of which are libs for different aspects of the engine (scene, procedural stuff, sound, etc). There is absolutely no need for this, so I will be grouping all of the libs into one libnebulous, and leaving the 'client' and 'server' projects on their own.
The biggest change I will be making is upgrading from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11. I've seen a lot of amazing things done with 11, and I have been putting off upgrading simply because I learned on 9, and have been very afraid of losing my fixed-function pipeline because shaders are scary. I haven't done a lot of shader programming, but I guess it's about time I learned to get better considering they will open up so many new doors to me.
As always, one step forward, 10 steps back!
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