THX Deep Note

Slashdot posted about The THX Sound, which details how the THX sound effect (affectionately known as "Deep Note") was created. Apparently, the guy wrote a 20,000 line C program to control an Audio Signal Processor (ASP). Sounds like way too much work by today's standards…but it was way back in '83 ! Wow, time sure flies. I wouldn't have guessed that THX was that old…

Pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs)

Here's a good article on PRNGs (specifically, the "LCG" variety).  My favorite is the 32 bit "super-duper" generator that simply multiplies the current value by 69069.  It's fast and also has one of the best distributions of the simple PRNGs.  Although this is not good enough for cryptography or scientific applications, it is just about perfect for games.

Gonna have to move my posts the hard way

It looks like I'm not going to have much luck moving my old posts to my new website by an automated method, so I'm going to start doing it by hand.  I hope I get the timestamps right…

SDL_pfont project kickoff

INTRO

If you haven't heard of it yet, SDL is a cross-platform 2D graphics library, which also includes a few other features, like mouse/keyboard input.

WHY MAKE ANOTHER SDL FONT SYSTEM?

There are many libraries that run on top of SDL. Among them are several font libraries. I have taken a look at all the ones I could find, but they seem to share the following drawbacks:

1. They include other libraries. Typically, they will at minimum require SDL_image , which then includes Zlib. It is also common to require some other special library (e.g., SDL_ttf requires FreeType).
2. The format is not very efficient to draw. Most font formats require pixel-by-pixel processing. It would be nice to just make one rectangular blit per glyph.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not criticizing these libraries. Several of them are very good at what they do, e.g., SDL_ttf is good at letting you write code that uses TrueType fonts quickly and easily. But there should be a better option for games programming, where simplicity and speed take precedence.

That is why I'm beginning work on SDL_pfont. It addresses both of the above issues by splitting the project into:

1. A simple proportional font rendering system.
2. A tool that processes a source image to produce a font.

I plan to release SDL_pfont as open source (assuming I feel comfortable with the resulting code). Here are the requirements I'd like SDL_pfont to meet:

FONT RENDERING SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• ANSI C interface
• Simple data structures
• Does not require any libraries except SDL (and a few standard C routines).
• Uses BMP format for texel data (since SDL supports BMP natively)
• Font is stored in a disk format matching the memory format

TOOL REQUIREMENTS

• ANSI C preferred (I might use some simple "C++ is better C" constructs).
• Command-line utility
• A plain-text configuration file defines the expected actions
• Process a source BMP image to produce:
  • An output image containing the font glyphs
  • An output file containing the font data (in the target's native format)

CONCLUSION

And, that's it for now. I'll post updates as the project continues.

WordPress ups and downs

WordPress.com went down today, which was a little spooky. Coincidentally, I had just done my first RSS backup last night. Now, the servers are back online and all appears to be well. Hats off to them for getting everything back into working order.

Trying to move posts to new blog

Since WordPress.com added the ability to host multiple blogs under one user account, I've decided to move John's Rambles to a new blog.  This blog (the one you're reading now) will live on as my "techie" game programming site.

Unfortunately, I don't know if there is a way to move posts from one WordPress.com blog to another, so I posted a support request.  I also found this related thread, but it's about moving data to a different host (instead of WordPress.com).

At the very least, I found out that I can use the RSS feeds to make backups, which is nice to know…I feel a lot better when I can make my own backups.

Free games!

"Gratis Gaming" is a list of free PC videogames.  Most of them are commercial games that have since been releassed into the public domain by their creators.  Others were free from the get-go.  In addition to the games themselves, the stories behind their public domain releases make an interesting read.

Batch file timestamp creation

I've been looking for a good way to generate timestamps in batch files. I created this sample (Windows XP/2000 only) based on a comment posted about an article appearing in Windows IT Pro magazine.

C Reference Guide

I found this C Reference Guide online while trying to determine if the keyword const is actually part of the 1990 ANSI C standard (apparently it is).  It looks reasonably complete and well organized.

Windoze power toys

There are some useful Windoze XP upgrades in Microsoft's Power Toys.  The Alt-Tab Replacement, Tweak UI, and Power Calculator seem like the most useful utilities.  Hopefully they don't bog down the system.  I'll post comments (or a follow-up) if I run into any problems.

FolderMatch

My brother recommend FolderMatch for syncronizing files between systems.  I'm gonna give it a try ASAP.

Curl

Curl is an open source command line utility that downloads files of many types using URL syntax (e.g., ftp://, https://, etc.).  There is also a code library version (libCurl).  It was mentioned by someone on the SDL mailing list.

FileZilla

I just tried out FileZilla, and…Me likes!  Free.  No installation (just run from directory of your choice).  No ugly banner ads.  It's the way an FTP GUI client should work.