Hex-grid map programming

It looks like I might need a hex-grid map for an upcoming project. Here is the best programming reference I found so far.

OpenAL

Since my last post was about open-source audio compression, it is befitting that this post is for an open-source audio lib, OpenAL.

Vorbis audio format

Ogg Vorbis is an audio compression format with open source encoders and decoders.  Might be useful someday.

Rescue on Fractalus designer David Fox

Here is an interview with David Fox who designed (and programmed portions of) Rescue on Fractalus, a game that many of us “old timers” will recall as the first game that actually frightened us.

My brother and I were discussing this game recently, since someone had sent him a .gif of the alien-smashing-the-windshield animation.  There’s some interesting stuff in the interview…like how pirated versions of the game (with pre-release titles like “Behind Jaggi Lines”) leaked about a year before the game actually reached store shelves.

Texture atlases

Here is a good article on texture atlases, which are large textures that pack together many small textures, reducing the number of context switches during rendering. The article covers the principles, the downsides (e.g., texture tiling is not possible), and techniques to help automate atlas creation.

zziplib

I just found the zziplib zip-file library on SourceForge.  It has some nice features, like searching both a physical directory structure and a zip file.  The physical contents has priority over the zip file.  That can be very useful during product development.

Bugzilla

A week or two ago, I was discussing bug-tracking software with my coworkers, and today I stumbled across Bugzilla.  I haven't evaluated it yet, but it looks promising.

Open Source Initiative

The Open Source Initiative provides an open source certification program (similar to various commercial certifications) for products that meet certain open source criteria.  Of special interest on this site is the list of Open Source Licenses.  A colleague of mine was recently asking about licenses, and this would have been useful at the time.

2D game programming links

Lately, my interest in casual games has increased, so I thought it might be worthwhile to investigate currently available 2D graphics options.

Here are some DirectX options. It seems that there isn't a straightforward "blit" operation available since DirectX 8. To do traditional DirectDraw blits, you need to return to DirectX 7.

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1972.asp

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1434.asp

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010629/geczy_01.htm

In addition to the traditional DirectX approach, it is probably a good idea to investigate alternatives, like Pop Cap's open source development platform and wild tangent SDKs.

http://developer.popcap.com/

http://www.wildtangent.com/default.asp?pageID=developer_main

And here's torque's 2D gamebuilder:

http://www.garagegames.com/products/browse/t2d/

Ah…I've found another, SDL (in addition to 2D support, has 3D support + input/sound facilities, etc)

http://www.libsdl.org/index.php