Rawring Penguin Productions

thedailywhat: Internet Blackout of the Day: The Great Wikipedia...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:03:08 -0500

Internet Blackout of the Day: The Great Wikipedia Blackout of 2012 has begun.

Reddit, TwitPic, Mozilla, Mojang, and thousands of others will soon follow suit. The Internet is officially on strike! Why? Because the House and Senate are conspiring with the entertainment industry to break the Internet.

Make no mistake: SOPA has not been shelved. And a vote on PIPA is just around the corner. Luckily, hundreds of companies, charities, and notable individuals with strong moral character have joined forces to stop these dangerous Big Brother bills from moving forward.

The fight is far from over, but hopefully today’s blackout will help bring this important matter to the attention of folks who rely on the Internet for entertainment and education, but have so far remained oblivious to SOPA and PIPA and their harmful consequences.

If you absolutely must scab, here are a few useful links:

Five ways to survive the Wikipedia Blackout.

Wikipedia Blackout: Survive with these 12 alternatives.

#altwiki: A collaborative crowd-sourcing alternative to Wikipedia.

How to access Wikipedia during the blackout.

[wikipedia.]

IncrediBots is with them on the protest!

IncrediBots.com is joining the SOPA/PIPA blackout protest!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:20:07 -0500

Big websites and companies like Google and Wikipedia are going to have their websites blacked out on January 18 from 8am to 8pm (EST) to demonstrate how it would be like if our everyday websites were inaccessible. If you have a website or a blog, join us!

Help stop censorship.

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:32:47 -0500

Help stop censorship.

So instead of working on the ComboBox code for my game,...

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:42:00 -0400

So instead of working on the ComboBox code for my game, I’ve been doing this.

Adding more ground types with an expandable structure.

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 03:50:35 -0400

I started adding more ground types for IncrediBots 3. I originally did not mean to do this, but the structure I created for the ground types is easily expandable, or at least only require to add a little bit of more code so users can add their own ground types by loading an external file (so, sort of a plugin).

It’s not a custom sandbox ground yet where you can create your own sandbox ground in-game, but that’s definitely a feature in the future.

I really need to start making the graphics for the combobox (the dropdown thingy) so I can finally get onto making a color/appearance panel and the “Customize Sandbox” window (both of which would need the dropdown choices menu).

Just implemented a replay system for IB3

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:44:40 -0400

So, yes, I implemented a replay system for IB3. It’s similar to that of IB1’s (with the 5-second periodical recording and synchronization).

While IB1 recorded and synchronized positions and angles of bodies, IB3 will record not only positions and angles of bodies, but also the linear and angular velocities of each body. This SHOULD eliminate any accumulated jittering (apparent out-of-sync) in the playback across computers with different types of processors (processor architectures, to be exact). This also holds a couple of advantages over IB2’s replay system.

In short, IB3’s replay system will have minimal jittering, which will only be limited to the 5-second sync intervals and will not accumulate, and smaller file sizes and export codes. It will also won’t have some of the odd behaviors in the playback of IB2’s replays.

More detail ahead.

So, there are a couple of things that needs to be understood to fully understand why jittering occurs in IB1 and the reasons for IB2’s replay system (as well as how it works).

The first thing to understand is the differences between computer processor architectures; namely, AMD and Intel processors, the two most commonly used processors in consumer and commercial computers). There are entire textbooks on the topic of processor architectures, but the concept to understand is how processors perform math operations for floating point calculations.

The second thing to know is the differences between floating point and fixed point. These are types of single-value storage in the memory of computers. The differences between these types is that floating point provides a much larger range than fixed points due to the fact that floating point uses a computer version of the scientific notation to store the number, while fixed point stores a very limited number of digits and a number as to where the decimal point is located. So fixed point is very limited in range and are usually not precise enough for a lot of things.

Now, the downside to floating point is that it is calculated differently between processor architectures. The differences only exist with extremely precise numbers (numbers with something like 20 digits past the decimal point). In most cases, this difference is not significant enough for most computer operations and programs, but the difference is enough for something that needs that sort of precision, like a physics simulation.

These differences usually only exist in certain math functions like sine and square root. Being a physics engine, Box2D uses a lot of these math functions for its calculations. These minute differences are enough so that there are some differences in how a simulation will turn out in the long run, especially with Rube Goldberg machines that require exact places, speed, and rotation in order for the machine to finish successfully.

Fixed point arithmetic is deterministic because the math operations are performed exactly the same way between processor architectures. So why don’t we use fixed points rather than floating points? As a Flash game, we can’t. Like Java, Flash applications need a Flash plugin to run, and all Flash plugins use floating points. So we are stuck with replay simulations that may not run the exact same way between computers.

Ryan Clark (the original developer of IncrediBots) had the misfortune of experiencing this lack of determinism first hand with the replay system in IB1.

IB1’s replay system records the positions and angles of all the bodies every 5 seconds in a live simulation, and synchronizes with the recorded positions and angles in a playback of the replay. This is enough for a lot of replays, but it is not enough for complicated Rube Goldberg machines that require precise movements, robots with fast movements, or long replays that depend heavily on physics. In these moments, accumulated jittering occurs, where no matter how many times the playback synchronizes, the replay won’t look the same way it was originally played (i.e. precise Rube Goldberg machines not working all the way).

IB2’s replay system is largely different from IB1’s replays. The second replay system records the positions and angles every three frames, or 1/10th of a second during a live simulation. Before playback of the replay, IB2 uses a couple of algorithms to sort of “fill in” the frames between the recorded frames. This solves the jittering problem, but because of the calculations for the calculated frames, it displayed odd behaviors with sudden moving bodies (which caused a sort of “sway” before going fast) and fast rotations (which caused an odd displacement…notorious in non-perfectly balanced wheels). Also, the very frequent recording for the replay also resulted in some very large files and export codes (long replays sometimes gauged at 15MB in file size).

The new IB3 replay system goes back to the occasional recording and synchronization of IB1’s. The main difference: not only does it record the positions and angles, but it also records the linear velocities (speed and direction) and the angular velocities (rotational speed) of each body. The problem with the first replay system was that when the bodies are synchronized during playback, it moves and rotates the bodies, but the original velocities are still in place.

So, for example, a ball in a Rube Goldberg machine didn’t make an exact-size hole and instead bounces off in another direction. When it’s time to synchronize, the ball is moved to where it was supposed to be, but it’s still moving in the other direction because the original velocities were kept in place. This is an extreme case of jittering, but the accumulation of small differences in direction and speed can throw the whole replay off eventually.

Recording the linear and angular velocities should keep jittering to a minimum and should nicely continue the replay after each synchronization. This won’t prevent a single extreme case of jittering like the example I used above, but after the synchronization, it should continue fine so it won’t throw the rest of the replay off. Returning to the occasional recording and synchronizing also significantly reduces the size of files and export codes.

So, hopefully, the new replay system will work fine once IB3 is released for the public!

So I finally publicly announced that I've been developing IncrediBots 3! I can finally talk about it in Twitter and Tumblr.

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:41:56 -0400

Yay!

I am presenting my online Flash game, IncrediBots, at MineCon 2011 in Las Vegas on November 18-19! (Minecraft Convention)

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:32:48 -0400

Yar! I will have a 30-minute segment to present and talk about my game, IncrediBots, and showcasing the newest version of the game.

Over 9000 subscribers!?

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 02:50:00 -0400

Since my YouTube channel was the direct result to the start of my web designing path (outside of Geocities), this is an appropriate place to talk about it. x]

You may ask, how did my YouTube channel directly resulted in the start of my web designing path? Here’s the story.

Back in 2002, when I found this free (but watermarked) frame-by-frame animator, I was just blown away. I mainly used it for banners for my now-extinct “It’s That RCT2 Site” website. Of course I didn’t like the watermark whatsoever but that’s what I had.

I was looking for a good animating program back in the summer of 2007 because I was bored and wanted to get back into some form of animating. I found the program called Pivot Stick Figure Animator (made by Peter Bone), and started playing with it. Having had some skill with frame-by-frame animation and the ease of use of the program, I quickly became attached to it (and quickly became quite skilled at it).

I searched on YouTube to see if there were any animations made by the program, and indeed there were. The first one I saw was PivotMasterDX’s “Stick Figures on Crack 3”, and ensued the laughter and replaying the video multiple times. I watched the previous Stick Figures on Crack videos, but that specific video was responsible for the start of my stick figure videos.

So, I started making random short animation skits in hope to make my first video as funny as Stick Figures on Crack 3. Of course I believed that was a long shot since I’m trying to make my first stick figure video to be as funny as the 3rd (and of course nothing can replace the Stick Figures on Crack series), but I felt I was skilled enough to make decent animations and be funny.

Then, on July 7, 2007, I compiled together my animations and posted “Stick em Up (Pivot Stick Figures animation)” on YouTube. Because of tags and the name (and of course the apparent hilarity of the video), my video quickly became a hit. Suddenly, I had subscribers, fans, and people who posted my video and claimed it was theirs.

From starting to look for a good animation program to the posting of the first video, that entire timespan was just less than a month. Then a week and a half after, I posted another video, “Stick em Down (Pivot Stick Figure animation)”. The number of subscribers and fans only grew faster. I took this as an opportunity to make a legitimate website as a sort of place where my fans can go to for new updates and other things. I didn’t want to use Geocities for this, and I felt that I know enough HTML to make a website from scratch. The first version of the website wasn’t at all good in any way, but it was a website that I made completely from scratch for the first time. And I knew I wanted to make it better.

That was the beginning of my web designing path.

So, relating to the title of the post, my YouTube channel (username “jayther”) now has over 9000 subscribers (9232 to be exact, as of the time I post this). I know that my highest viewed videos are responsible for this (first stick figure video now has 2.2 million views, second has 1.1 million views), but I’m still quite surprised that people are still subscribing to my channel, despite the fact that I haven’t posted a new video in two years.

Updates on IB and Project Legato

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:15:10 -0400

IncrediBots 2: Jaybit Edition ( http://incredibots.com ) is now version 2.32.2. There were two bug fix updates, one of which is a bandwidth-usage improvement, since the new replays beefed up the game file size by a lot. More info on what was fixed in the development log: http://incredibots.com/if/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9

I will be working on v2.33 soon enough. I’ve been really busy lately.

Project Legato is still in its early stages of development, but what I have now is very promising. It has a very nice menu structure/animation. The “items” code structure has started but not yet finished. It works with what I have so far, though. Also, I’ve switched from using Box2D’s debug draw class to my own draw class so I have a bit more control and flexibility on what I can draw on the game screen.

I'm forgetting about this blog. -[

Sun, 01 May 2011 01:06:00 -0400

There’s no reason why I’m forgetting other than the simple fact that I forgot. Considering this is part of my web design website, I should remember to post here more often.

There are a few things that happened since the last post: New IncrediBots update, The acquiring of the IncrediBots domains and trademark, new main menu background replays in IncrediBots 2: Jaybit Edition, and Project Legato.

There is a new update for IncrediBots 2: Jaybit Edition (actually, there’s already been a previous new version since last post but ah well). Version 2.32 mostly has some useful tools for building bots, including (but not only) the ability to edit multiple shapes and joints and a few triangle-related tools. Like the few past versions, this update also has a bunch of bug fixes, fixing some old bugs since the old IB days and new bugs in or caused by the new features I added.

Follow the link for the game! http://incredibots.com/

I officially own the IncrediBots trademark and the six domains. Which means, I officially own the game in the legal sense. We now have the domains as well, so we switched our domain to IncrediBots.com (and changed the sites name from IncrediFriends to IncrediBots), since the website really is the official website and forums for the game. Yay!

I had a contest running in the forums for new main menu background replays. Since Lojyk’s (amazing) replay causes some lag on some computers (which is unfortunate since just getting to the main menu pushes some computers’ limits), we needed an option for an alternate set of “low quality” replays (which means, replays that do not lag less-fortunate computers). So now, with the contest done and the replays embedded in the game, there’s an option for “LQ replays” to be played when opening the game instead of Lojyk’s intensive replay. Congratulations and thank you, winners!

Last but not least, Project Legato. This will be a project I will be working along side IncrediBots. There’s not too much to say about it yet because honestly it’s still early in its development. But the general goal is that this project will be mainly focused for an older audience (17+), and hopefully prove to be useful in jobs. And it’s in Flash. Using the latest version of Box2D.

Oops I forgot to update.

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:42:05 -0500

So far I was able to add in the ability to change friction and restitution. I also added the ability to make perfect squares by holding shift when you’re making a rectangle.

I know there will be people complaining how changing friction does not have a lot of effect, so I will point out one thing: the actual friction is calculated between the two colliding shapes’ friction values. The sandbox default ground is the default friction (11). So the friction will be very apparent if both shapes have the same friction values. It’s not exactly the average between the two friction values, but for small differences in friction values, it’s safe to average it out in your head.

As for restitution, the resulting restitution between two shapes is the highest restitution value of the two shapes. So if changing the restitution of one shape doesn’t seem to have an effect, it’s because the other shape has a higher restitution.

Both the friction and restitution are calculated within Box2D, not the IB Jaybit version.

I also did a couple of bug fixes (nothing critical).

I’ve somewhat started to make triggers (I won’t mention what and how exactly), but I’m having problems finding space in the side panel for the moment. x]

IncrediBots Jaybit Edition: Versions 1.20 and 2.30 are out!

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:25:28 -0500

Yes! After a long month of programming, testing, fixing, and more testing, it is finally out!

Yay!

http://incredifriends.com/if/game.php

So everything is ready!

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:30:06 -0500

Just need to put everything in order, zip the appropriate folders, assign the release notes appropriately, and yeah! Hopefully I’ll be able to upload them and edit the necessary links and pages. Oh, and viewing featured/uploaded bots on the IncrediFriends website will be updated as well.

Oh, by the way: this is the last time I’ll be updating IncrediBots 1. I will essentially abandon all updates on IncrediBots 1 (any bugs I will still fix if there are any). IncrediBots 2 is the new game, and there is no reason to go back to IncrediBots 1, especially when I add the features I’ve been planning for the next major update (not this upcoming one I’m going to upload real soon, but the one after).

Hm, more frequent posts?

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 01:53:58 -0500

I’m thinking of doing something similar to that of Notch’s Twitter-happy updates and post updates of my progress of, well, anything.

Currently, I’ve been working on a Jaybit version (IncrediFriends) of IncrediBots. Nothing’s really new on the actual physics portion of the game, but rather how the robots, replays, and challenges will be handled (because currently, it’s only by exporting the bots into code, then people will have to copy and paste it into a file or something).

Also, some database interactivity will also happen. So yeah rawr.

New IncrediBots Jaybit versions are almost ready!

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:50:30 -0500

Yup, they’re almost ready. Packed with new features concerning how bots are saved and loaded. <]

The IncrediFriends website that I (along with several other...

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 03:56:37 -0500

The IncrediFriends website that I (along with several other admins) have been managing got a huge surge of users when IncrediBots closed and started redirecting to our website. As you can see in the picture, the bandwidth usage has significantly gone up.

In other news, I was able to figure out how to compile the open-source IncrediBots files (and have already changed a few stuff around to make sure it does work). The game has a lot of files! Some of these files have ridiculously huge number of lines (one of them has almost 5000 lines!). It’s fairly easy to read though, as a lot of things are modular. Thanks IncrediBots team for making it readable from the beginning! x]

Two Days before IncrediBots site shuts down.

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:56:51 -0500

And we’re already having some problems with a buggy server, so we made a motion to move the server to a less buggy one. Hopefully the switch will make those errors go away, as well as handling a huge surge of users in two days.

I still believe we’ll need a bigger bandwidth, so when I see the bandwidth usage jump, I’ll request for one. Meow.

BUT, onto other news...

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:08:43 -0400

IncrediBots, a game I started playing since November 2008 (and I’m one of the game’s forums administrators since, uh, a while) is now shutting down, both its games (IncrediBots 1 and IncrediBots 2) and its forums. It’s a sad story.

But, the game is being released as open source! This means that anyone can download it and play it for free, as well as make their own modifications and upload it wherever and even make money off of it without legal repercussions (as long as they’re not charging for the original unmodified game). And right now, people can export their bots (which spits out text code) so they can save the bots on their own computer, and be able to import the code for now AND when the game becomes open source.

The forums administrators have prepared for this moment (though not as early as we have thought) because of how the current owner (Big Fish Games) of the game was like. Bif Fish Games have been wanting to get rid of the game, but couldn’t find any buyers that didn’t get scared of its liabilities (games and forums have a bunch of kids under 13 playing and posting plus some other stuff).

Anyway, the administrators have prepared a backup forums, and we are getting ready for the day the game becomes open source. We already have a kind of system that stores user’s bots (for now, featured bots are being transferred and people can view and copy the bot code). I, along with another administrator, are planning to apply our own modifications and updates.

There’s yet a lot of work to be done before the shut down of IncrediBots (probably around November 20), so yeah. Lots of work!

And no pay! x] That’s how much I love the game and its community. -D

Hmph.

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:55:31 -0400

So the Bay Area StarCraft website is shut down because that branch of the company is shutting down. Hmph. 20 hours of work over 3 weeks and then gone 2 weeks after. RAWR.

I’ll probably upload the sample site on my website. Because I’m damn proud of that webste! >[