By Daniel Gump.
Wednesday, 6. May 2009, 03:14:53
nintendo dsi, ds opera sdk, hullbreach online lite, twitter
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I've shifted my focus over the past few weeks to Nintendo DSi Browser software development. (Many of the projects also work in the older Nintendo DS Browsers.) Here's a summary:
Twiiter Lite:Members can now post twiits while on-the-go. Take your Nintendo DS or Nintendo DSi to any Wi-Fi hotspot, and continue twiiting like you have been from your Wii consoles!
http://twiiter.wiioperasdk.comDS Opera SDK:I've been running some tests of the Nintendo DSi Browser and posting the results at the DS Opera SDK website. Tests include canvas drawing, JavaScript object snooping, key input, UNICODE values, and more! I've also scaled down the old AJAX chatroom from HullBreach Online's Wii section so that it will work on the handheld.
http://dsoperasdk.comHullBreach Online Lite:I'm shrinking the HullBreach Online MMO RPG to fit the dual screen resolution and changing the Wii button interface to a fully touchscreen-based control scheme. Due to the crippled support of the canvas object on the Nintendo DSi Browser, I've opted to use nothing but standard HTML objects conntrolled by JavaScript. Layered images with scrolling background achieve graphics of space exploration. Although combat will initially be removed from the game, chatting, trading, missions, mining, and all the other features, will be present. I will announce when the game is ready to play and add new content to both version of HB Online. All character stats and missions carry seemlessly between the versions.
http://hullbreachonline.comAll these projects use the same member accounts. You can sign up at
http://hullbreachonline.com or
http://twiiter.wiioperasdk.com to take advantage of twiiting, chatting, gaming, and more!
By Daniel Gump.
Saturday, 21. February 2009, 15:42:56
mmorpg, wiimote, javascript, hullbreach
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Some of the code in
HullBreach Online has been refactored to pull some additional speed, but the big change is how graphics are displayed. Previously, everything in the pixel range (0,0)-(500,300) was drawn to a page-flipped canvas. It ran fine on a standard desktop computer but proved to be slow on a Wii. Now, the starfield background has been moved from within the canvas to a displaced CSS background, greatly increasing the speed. The overlay map used to be a section of the main canvas and was drawn as several translucent shapes. This has been changed to a separate canvas with a CSS opacity of 0.5 and solid shapes, allowing a little extra burst of speed in the game.
Overall, I'd estimate HullBreach Online may be running as much as 50% faster. Don't think it will stop there, though. I may move the planets and locations from the canvas to be IMG elements inside a clipping DIV (that's the same size as the canvas), depending no how much speed I can get. This would leave just the ships inside the canvas, where they will permanently reside, to allow the freedom of rotation.
To summarize:
- Faster code
- Faster graphics
- More speed coming
http://hullbreachonline.com
By Daniel Gump.
Tuesday, 29. April 2008, 15:55:32
opera, 3d, canvas, texture-mapping
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I’ve just finished adding triangle texture-mapping to the Draw class of the Wii Opera SDK and have placed a demo at
http://wiioperasdk.com/texturemap.html. Since the canvas object lacks support for 3D at the moment, I had to use some trickery by rotating the coordinate system then drawing horizontal scanlines, but it works fairly well, aside from some minor glitches. Don’t expect any high-speed fully 3D games to be playable in the Internet Channel, but it will make for some nice demos and simple animations.
EDIT:
The texture-mapping has been accelerated an estimated 20-fold by replacing the scanline drawing with Tangent128's transformation algorithms used in the 3D Globe widget. Now the Internet Channel will be able to display an estimated 500 textured triangles per second, adding greatly to the graphical possibilities!
By Daniel Gump.
Saturday, 19. April 2008, 22:36:53
sdk, demo, internet, html5
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Many of the Wii Opera SDK demos have been captured to video and placed on YouTube for those who cannot get online with the Wii and who have a Web browser that can't handle HTML5 standards (ex. Internet Explorer). The videos are under
http://www.youtube.com/breakdancecrew.
By Daniel Gump.
Sunday, 27. January 2008, 23:12:48
polygons, opera, channel, 3d
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Version 2 of the Wii Opera SDK has been released today, opening the door for Internet Channel homebrew programmers who wish to delve into 3D game design.The Wii Opera SDK is an unofficial JavaScript library at
http://hullbreachonline.com which has allowed developers to access all four Wii Remotes and unlock the power of the HTML canvas drawing object since mid-2007. Version 2 adds the ability to create 3D games with imported meshes, real-time lighting, explosions, backface culling, and more. In addition, the official website has opened a 3D Mesh Gallery where enthusiasts can create meshes and models of their own to be submitted for inclusion for use and ratings by others. These meshes can be created in 3D modelling programs like Milk Shape then converted for homebrew games.
Two new demos of the SDK in action are available for immediate viewing at
http://hullbreachonline.com/sdk/ripple.html and
http://hullbreachonline.com/sdk/shooting.html . Those wishing to create games using the Wii Opera SDK can download its components for free at
http://hullbreachonline.com/sdk.-- end --
By Daniel Gump.
Thursday, 17. January 2008, 20:20:20
opera, 3d, real-time, javascript
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Here's the first progress report on the Wii Opera SDK v2.0:Real-Time LightingThis determines the angle of a triangle's normal with respect to a given lightsource, then adjusting the RGB values proportionally. For speed, it does not raytrace or cast shadows.
ExplosionsThis moves all triangles a given distance along their normals, in effect exploding them from the object center.
Backface CullingThis removes triangles from the working-mesh if the normal vector is facing away from the viewer to save processing time.
Mesh LoadingThis loads a pre-made 3D mesh from an external file for instant use in graphics.
Set/Get PointsThese send triangles to a buffer and retrieve them from a buffer.
Move/Rotate/ScaleThese mesh-primitives are carry-overs from the Wii Opera SDK v1.0. This moves all triangles a given distance along their normals, in effect exploding them from the object center.
By Daniel Gump.
Saturday, 13. October 2007, 06:05:33
wii, faster, internet, sdk
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Many people have been complaining about minor issues of the new Opera (Internet Channel) update for the Wii. Yet, I see this as the most important update yet. After numerous tests, I have found much more speed and stability of Javascript and the canvas object. Previously, very intensive graphics (from a Javascript standpoint) would frequently crash or hang the Internet Channel, but not that no longer seems to be an issue. Also, the canvas object appears to render about 3x faster, making texture-mapping much more useful in Internet gaming.
WIDGETIZE