Build Where Is My .lib? Previously in another article [linking-libraries-on-windows] I tried to remember how to use shared libraries on Windows. Now I tried to build and ran into a minor obstacle. There in the build output directory is the .dll, but not .lib. Without it I can't use the
Random Notes Cross-Platform Data Archives Zipping up a directory is one of the easiest ways to back up data and transport them via flash storage or network. But unexpected things happen when you use different operating systems (Windows, Linux, and OS X) and come to find out that ZIP archives aren't always cross-
Game Notes Guacamelee! Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition is a fun game with a lot of personality and interesting mechanics. Puzzles There is a strong puzzle platforming element to this game, centered usually around one of the game mechanics that allows switching between the living and dead worlds with a button-press. Two
C/C++ Notes Working with Memory I have been fortunate enough to learn programming languages that allow me to manage my own memory. I think it is shocking that computer science introduction classes have stopped teaching C/C++ and pointers. This choice have robbed new graduates the opportunity of royally screwing up their first programs, and
Toys Rubik's Cube I used to like a page on WikiHow that taught me how to solve Rubik's cube. But the most recent edits made it much less useful, because the helpful diagrams for visualizing the algorithms are gone. Puzzling, since the original diagrams weren't all replaced with text
C/C++ Notes Variadic Templates From C++11 on, you can use variadic templates functions with the following syntax: template< typename T, typename... A > This, combined with function overloading (where the same named function taking different parameters) means we can design a class that operate on a list of different types of objects
C/C++ Notes ZeroMQ Subscribe-Publish Pattern Set up ZeroMQ subscribe-publish pattern, useful for selectively receive certain kind of events.
Game Notes Sunset Overdrive An Xbox One exclusive, Sunset Overdrive is one entertaining game that came bundled with my console. It is still installed and from time to time I still play this charming game. Transportation Mechanic The player character is definitely super-human, able to glide on water and dash forward mid-air.
Media Format WebP Image Format WebP [https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/] is a new image format from Google, which is using its ecosystem to push for adaptation. License and Source You can use libwebp to work with this format; source archive is available here [https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/download]. libwebp has a
C/C++ Notes Run Member Function in a Thread C++11 thread and Lambda function really beautifies code that works with threads. If I have a class MyObj with a member function DoWork(): class MyObj { public: void DoWork(); void Think(); }; It has always been relatively effortless to spawn a thread, but if you need data from the underlying class
C/C++ Notes Ranged-based for Loop With C++11, operating on data sets is easy to do with highly readable code, as long as the container supports iterators. For example when dealing std::map: for( auto item : items ) { // item.first is the key, and // item.second is the value cout << item.first <<
Toys User Interface for A Car Yesterday marked an important milestone for me as a driver. I finally replaced my trusted Honda Accord. I bought it in a hurry 3-days before I was to travel for business in 2004, and over the last 11 years it was reliable and easy to drive, required only the
Game Notes Hearthstone This is a turn-based free-to-play card game that involves two players competing against each other. It is extremely easy to pick up and enjoy, and it helps that the game and user interface is well-designed. What do I like? Cards By making virtual cards collectible and
Build CMake Macros, Linking, and Other Notes Previously I described using CMake for multi-platform builds [https://fzco.wackymango.net/cmake-for-multi-platform-builds/]; developing this kind of support makes CMake scripting more complex. To help manage this we can use macros and other techniques, described below. Macros You can write macros in CMake, store them
Game Notes Halo 5: Guardians Don't remember the last time I had such a hard time with a Halo game, but it took me nearly 24 hours to finish the game at highest difficulty, solo. What a terrible ending. Very disappointed with the story, too. It's a good thing that the
Build Linking Libraries on Windows I have been working on making a cross-platform engine, and wanted to dynamically link against all libraries. I encountered the following warning: warning LNK4098: defaultlib 'msvcrt.lib' conflicts with use of other libs; use /NODEFAULTLIB:library That sent me down a rabbit hole to learn about linking
Random Notes Never Take Away a Feature Without Saying Goodbye VMWare 12 and Ubunut 14, a tragic combination that exists to teach me an important lesson. With Ubuntu 14.04, setting up desktop environment in VMWare has been rather painful. In the past everything installs and runs, and all I needed to do was getting rid of Unity Desktop. Now
Build CMake for Multi-Platform Builds I want to develop an engine that will run on Windows, OS X, and Linux. This means having a build system that will build binaries for all those platforms also. Cross-platform development of this sort means dealing with platform-specific libraries and toolchain. It requires branching within build scripts
Random Notes Fridge and Freezer Temperature 35 degrees Fahrenheit for fridge and lowest possible temperature for freezer. References: Life Hacker [http://lifehacker.com/what-temperature-should-you-keep-your-refrigerator-set-533534221] and U.S. Food and Drug Administration [http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm253954.htm]. It does bother me a little that my
Build CMake I have had to use many different kinds of build tools and found CMake [https://cmake.org/] as my favorite. Sure, there are other cross-platform tools like Automake [https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/], Gradle [http://gradle.org/], and qmake [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qmake-manual.html]
Toys Macross Toy, Not As I Remembered My brother and I had this die-cast Macross VF-1 Valkyrie [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VF-1_Valkyrie] toy when we grew up. It was based on a cartoon that neither of us have ever watched until we got much older, but we knew just what to do
Game Notes Tomb Raider Just finished Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on Xbox One and it was a very enjoyable game. What have I learned? Camera Placement The camera switches between in-game cinematic and actual game play in real-time, and does a good job of panning to focus on point of interest without
Goals Mission Statement My ultimate goal is to perfect a portable software engine that provides easy access to graphics and technology so that users can build an ecosystem of applications quickly and experiment. Just like seeing work of artists or writers in galleries and libraries, or people building things out of LEGO [http:
News Hello World First post! Finally I am taking the first step in what I hope to be an exciting adventure of developing my own software. This blog will track my (lack of) progress and topics I find interesting: things I want to remember. I've been working as a software engineer
