Re: Logic question...

Hi,



Regards, Ron AF Greve

http://moonlit.xs4all.nl

"Phlip" <phlipcpp@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:zQlLg.8487$q63.3167@newssvr13.news.prodigy.co m...
> Nathan Mates wrote:
>
>>>Only the OP should guess which group will provide the best answer.
>>
>> Posters are entitled to guess, true. But, correcting guesses is the
>> job of newsgroup regulars, and prefectly reasonable.
>
> The only topicality criteria relevant to a questioner is what newsgroup
> will provide the best question. Once we suggestion one, we can no longer
> declare whether an equally topical question belongs here or there. That
> was the context.
>
> When you offer another newsgroup, always reinforce that topicality is in
> the poster's best interests. The answer "your question is off topic here
> go away" doesn't increase the odds of useful participation.
I didn't see anyone say in this thread "your question is off topic here go
away"
I merely suggested a better newsgroup.

And yes if I quote from the FAQ "Ultimately this means your question must be
answerable by looking into the C++ language definition as determined by the
ISO/ANSI C++ Standard document, and by planned extensions and adjustments".
Well it isn't answerable by looking in the C++ language definition. So
basically the question is off topic. Yet you didn't see an OT in my header,
simply because I have better things to do than to police newsgroups. Besides
that if you look at my responses in the past you will notice that I try to
help whether OT or not OT.

I suggested a better newsgroup and thats all there is, the rest is a result
of your imagination, really.


>
> --
> Phlip
> http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand <-- NOT a blog!!!
>
>
Regards, Ron AF Greve.

Moonlit wrote:

> I merely suggested a better newsgroup.

I never said you didn't. However...

> And yes if I quote from the FAQ "Ultimately this means your question must
> be answerable by looking into the C++ language definition as determined by
> the ISO/ANSI C++ Standard document, and by planned extensions and
> adjustments". Well it isn't answerable by looking in the C++ language
> definition. So basically the question is off topic. Yet you didn't see an
> OT in my header, simply because I have better things to do than to police
> newsgroups. Besides that if you look at my responses in the past you will
> notice that I try to help whether OT or not OT.

Ultimately, the FAQ was written by a human, and it is not authoritative.

Ultimately, the term "ultimately" means "at the end of a chain of events".
So if I ask about the Class Factory Pattern, or MVC, or huffman compression,
and I ask in platform-neutral terms, then ultimately the exact answer will
depend on the C++ ISO Standard. Hence, by the criteria of the
non-authoritative FAQ, such questions are on-topic.

This newsgroup is not news:comp.std.c++ , and posters should always pick the
narrowest newsgroup for their questions. So questions that only relate to
interpretation of The Standard belong there, not here.

--
Phlip
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand <-- NOT a blog!!!

In article <44ff6e01$0$4516$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>, "Moonlit" <news
moonlit xs4all nl> says...

[ ... ]

> I didn't see anyone say in this thread "your question is off topic here go
> away"
> I merely suggested a better newsgroup.

I'm not even sure that's true -- at least to me, it seems that most of
the discussion has centered primarily around how to express his ideas in
C++, not so much about the fundamental design of the game itself. That
being the case, I think the questions are really more topical here --
though it may be that enough game programming is done in C++ that it
would also fit well there.

--
Later,
Jerry.

The universe is a figment of its own imagination.

Jerry Coffin wrote:
> In article <44ff6e01$0$4516$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>, "Moonlit" <news
> moonlit xs4all nl> says...
>
> [ ... ]
>
> > I didn't see anyone say in this thread "your question is off topic here go
> > away"
> > I merely suggested a better newsgroup.
>
> I'm not even sure that's true -- at least to me, it seems that most of
> the discussion has centered primarily around how to express his ideas in
> C++, not so much about the fundamental design of the game itself. That
> being the case, I think the questions are really more topical here --
> though it may be that enough game programming is done in C++ that it
> would also fit well there.
>
> --
> Later,
> Jerry.

Not the whole game but this function. I am not a profetional
programmer but I do the best I can. I am wrighting this conbat routine
and it seems very complex and I have trouble keeping track of what I am
doing. That is not good. I am wondering if there is an easier way to
do what I am doing. I have been adding to my game, what I am doing
appears to work.
>
> The universe is a figment of its own imagination.

Phlip wrote:
> Moonlit wrote:
>
> > I merely suggested a better newsgroup.
>
> I never said you didn't. However...
>
> > And yes if I quote from the FAQ "Ultimately this means your question must
> > be answerable by looking into the C++ language definition as determined by
> > the ISO/ANSI C++ Standard document, and by planned extensions and
> > adjustments". Well it isn't answerable by looking in the C++ language
> > definition. So basically the question is off topic. Yet you didn't see an
> > OT in my header, simply because I have better things to do than to police
> > newsgroups. Besides that if you look at my responses in the past you will
> > notice that I try to help whether OT or not OT.
>
> Ultimately, the FAQ was written by a human, and it is not authoritative.
>
> Ultimately, the term "ultimately" means "at the end of a chain of events".
> So if I ask about the Class Factory Pattern, or MVC, or huffman compression,
> and I ask in platform-neutral terms, then ultimately the exact answer will
> depend on the C++ ISO Standard. Hence, by the criteria of the
> non-authoritative FAQ, such questions are on-topic.
>
> This newsgroup is not news:comp.std.c++ , and posters should always pick the
> narrowest newsgroup for their questions. So questions that only relate to
> interpretation of The Standard belong there, not here.
>
> --
> Phlip
> http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand <-- NOT a blog!!!

I am just trying to write a game and I feel I am getting a bit over my
head but still being a hard head, I make it work and push on. I am
sure what most programmers do. The only way to get experience is to do
it. It is one thing to learn syntax but it is another to apply good
programming practice in large projects. What my problem is is that I
program in a vaccuum, I don't have people with more experience letting
me know that there are better ways to do what I am trying to do. So
what I do is put this stuff out there and hope some one who has seen
simmiliar problems can give me some advice. I have already gotten some
good advice for other parts of the program. I would like to get this
part done then the game will be complete and I can expand it or go back
and improve the code so that it is easier to expand. If somone would
like to see the whole program enki034@yahoo.com and I will send the
latests version program out.

In article <1157647712.833711.327570@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups. com>,
JoeC <enki034@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Not the whole game but this function. I am not a profetional
>programmer but I do the best I can. I am wrighting this conbat
>routine and it seems very complex and I have trouble keeping track
>of what I am doing. That is not good. I am wondering if there is
>an easier way to do what I am doing. I have been adding to my game,
>what I am doing appears to work.

Managing "who's where" is best separated from the "combat routine."
Most games have some code (and data structures) dedicated to keeping
track of units on the map. This means that units know where they are,
and the map manager also knows which units are where. If your map is
just a 2D array of a fixed, "reasonable" size (under a million
entries), you can just make a 2D array of entries, and each entry is
just a linked list of all units in that cell. If you're working on
PCs, just burn some memory upfront, and work on optimizing it later--
plenty of data structures exist to manage sparse datasets.

You should also separate out code to to map manager so that you can
say "find all units within radius R of point X,Y" and it'll go do that
for you. That's code for the map manager, not a "combat routine," as
you'll probably want your UI code to be able to do the same thing--
clicking on a square selects all units in that square, or shift-drag
selects all units in a user-specified rectangle. If you're going to
use the same kinds of functionality in multiple places, then break it
out to a common place.

Nathan Mates

--
<*> Nathan Mates - personal webpage http://www.visi.com/~nathan/
# Programmer at Pandemic Studios -- http://www.pandemicstudios.com/
# NOT speaking for Pandemic Studios. "Care not what the neighbors
# think. What are the facts, and to how many decimal places?" -R.A. Heinlein

Nathan Mates wrote:
> In article <1157647712.833711.327570@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups. com>,
> JoeC <enki034@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >Not the whole game but this function. I am not a profetional
> >programmer but I do the best I can. I am wrighting this conbat
> >routine and it seems very complex and I have trouble keeping track
> >of what I am doing. That is not good. I am wondering if there is
> >an easier way to do what I am doing. I have been adding to my game,
> >what I am doing appears to work.
>
> Managing "who's where" is best separated from the "combat routine."
> Most games have some code (and data structures) dedicated to keeping
> track of units on the map. This means that units know where they are,
> and the map manager also knows which units are where. If your map is
> just a 2D array of a fixed, "reasonable" size (under a million
> entries), you can just make a 2D array of entries, and each entry is
> just a linked list of all units in that cell. If you're working on
> PCs, just burn some memory upfront, and work on optimizing it later--
> plenty of data structures exist to manage sparse datasets.
>
> You should also separate out code to to map manager so that you can
> say "find all units within radius R of point X,Y" and it'll go do that
> for you. That's code for the map manager, not a "combat routine," as
> you'll probably want your UI code to be able to do the same thing--
> clicking on a square selects all units in that square, or shift-drag
> selects all units in a user-specified rectangle. If you're going to
> use the same kinds of functionality in multiple places, then break it
> out to a common place.
>
> Nathan Mates
>
> --

Thanks for the advice. I am not realy sure how to implement that into
my program. I would have to seem some kind of example of how to do
that. I hope my program is not too far along to impleent a map handler.

[Please trim irrelevant quotes from your posts!]

JoeC wrote:

> ...What my problem is is that I
> program in a vaccuum, I don't have people with more experience letting
> me know that there are better ways to do what I am trying to do.

Do you have any Users Groups near you? (or maybe a college?)

--
Phlip
http://www.greencheese.us/ZeekLand <-- NOT a blog!!!

In article <1157649279.821314.168810@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups. com>,
JoeC <enki034@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Managing "who's where" is best separated from the "combat routine."
>> Most games have some code (and data structures) dedicated to keeping
>> track of units on the map. This means that units know where they are,
>> and the map manager also knows which units are where. If your map is
>> just a 2D array of a fixed, "reasonable" size (under a million
>> entries), you can just make a 2D array of entries, and each entry is
>> just a linked list of all units in that cell. If you're working on
>> PCs, just burn some memory upfront, and work on optimizing it later--
>> plenty of data structures exist to manage sparse datasets.

>Thanks for the advice. I am not realy sure how to implement that
>into my program. I would have to seem some kind of example of how
>to do that. I hope my program is not too far along to impleent a
>map handler.

My description above is more or less what you need to do, written
out in English. Just turn it into code -- you need a 2D array of all
possible map locations (if the map is laid out like a chessboard of
discrete locations), and for each location, a list of what's in it.
When a unit moves, it removes itself from its old location, and adds
itself at the new location. Each of these things I've mentioned is a
short bit of code.

Think about how you'd do this for a chessboard (i.e. 8x8, but allow
multiple pieces per square), and extend that for your program.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates - personal webpage http://www.visi.com/~nathan/
# Programmer at Pandemic Studios -- http://www.pandemicstudios.com/
# NOT speaking for Pandemic Studios. "Care not what the neighbors
# think. What are the facts, and to how many decimal places?" -R.A. Heinlein

Phlip wrote:
> [Please trim irrelevant quotes from your posts!]
>
> JoeC wrote:
>
> > ...What my problem is is that I
> > program in a vaccuum, I don't have people with more experience letting
> > me know that there are better ways to do what I am trying to do.
>
> Do you have any Users Groups near you? (or maybe a college?)
>
Not that I am awaire of. I do live in a large city and I am sure there
are some here but I don't know how to find them.