Digital Cola!

BARSOOM

2012-03-04T11:27:00.000+11:00

John Carter, a Disney movie that’s to be shown in cinemas later this week, was a complete surprise to me. I’d never before heard of the series of novels it’s been based upon, and even though the trailer has been available online for months now, I didn’t even see the thing until a couple of weeks ago.

For the equally uninitiated, John Carter tells the story of a Civil War veteran (played by a rather buff Taylor Kitsch) who is inexplicably transported to Mars and reluctantly becomes embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet.

When watching the above trailer, any purveyor of fine sci-fi will straight away draw comparisons between this movie and both James Cameron’s Avatar and George Lucas’ Star Wars. But John Carter isn’t some recent attempt at plagiarism: it’s actually based on Edgar Rice Burrough’s A Princess of Mars, the first novel in the 11-volume Barsoom series, that was initially published in serialised form close to 100 years ago. The story is now old enough for its copyright to have expired, and so it has since been released into the public domain as part of Project Gutenberg, and may be downloaded for free.

But anyway, I have Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy to get through first. People keep telling me it’s well worth the read...

SONY

2012-03-03T08:34:00.000+11:00

This is Sony. A Staffy × Jack Russell, he was Sascha’s devoted companion until he passed away suddenly from cancer on Sunday, January 23, 2011, at the age of 73 dog years. He was a beautiful, content and loving dog. He is and will continue to be sorely missed, and although it is now over twelve months since his passing, I thought it appropriate to make tribute to him here on my blog today.

My partner and I called him “Sony” because later that night, after having brought him home from the pet store, we were sitting in front of our Sony television while struggling to agree on a name. I’m the first to admit it wasn’t exactly the cleverest of choices in names, but hey... I guess it could have been worse. We could have named him “Trinitron.” (And thankfully when Sascha joined our family a few years later, we didn’t settle on calling her “LG.”)

PALETTES OF DOOM

2012-02-19T09:38:00.003+11:00

The way DOOM looks is quite obviously a significant aspect of the game, and so this post will focus on some of the miscellaneous cosmetic changes that I’ve made to my upcoming source port.

CORRECTED GAMMA CORRECTION

DOOM has a palette of 256 different colours. Pressing the F11 key adjusts the gamma correction level, increasing the brightness of each colour. In the original DOOM engine, when the gamma correction is off (the default), the 128 colours in the first half of palette are still adjusted. This means that the true DOOM palette is never shown properly; screenshots taken differ from what is actually on the screen. This is most evident in the automap, where its background is never actually black like it should be, but slightly lighter. My source port corrects this slight problem.

SIMULATED SCANLINES

As you may have noticed in previous posts, each screenshot includes horizontal scanlines, reminiscent of those old CRT monitors that were so prevalent many years ago.

In my DOOM source port, when the screen’s resolution is sufficiently high, this retro effect is simulated by manually drawing translucent horizontal lines over the display.

PER-PIXEL TRANSLUCENCY

One feature that I’m particularly proud of having implemented is the per-pixel translucency of sprites. Translucency was introduced to the DOOM engine with the release of Raven Software’s Heretic, a game that made certain sprites fully translucent, and I’ve managed taken this technique somewhat further by applying it to only parts of certain sprites. For example, below is a tech lamp sprite in E1M1 with and without per-pixel translucency:

The colours needed to draw each pixel in such a sprite are taken from a 256 × 256 precalculated “tint table.” If the colour of a pixel falls within a certain range (in the above example, shades of yellow or white), the average between that colour and the colour of the pixel that would appear behind the sprite is found. Here’s the code that generates that tint table:

static byte *GenerateTintTable(byte *palette, int percent)

{

  byte *result;

  int x, y;

  result = (byte *)Z_Malloc(65536, PU_STATIC, NULL);

  for (y = 0; y < 256; ++y)

    if (iswhite[y] || isyellow[y])

      for (x = 0; x < 256; ++x)

      {

        byte *column1, *column2;

        int red, green, blue;

        column1 = palette + x * 3;

        column2 = palette + y * 3;

        red = ((int)column1[0] * percent + (int)column2[0] * (100 - percent)) / 100;

        green = ((int)column1[1] * percent + (int)column2[1] * (100 - percent)) / 100;

        blue = ((int)column1[2] * percent + (int)column2[2] * (100 - percent)) / 100;

        *(result + (x << 8) + y) = FindNearestColor(palette, red, green, blue);

      }

    else

      for (x = 0; x < 256; ++x)

        *(result + (x << 8) + y) = y;

  return result;

}

ALTERNATE PALETTES

I’m interested in further experimenting with the colours in DOOM. I feel that the transition from CRT to LCD monitors has left DOOM appear more “cartoony” than how I remember. There’s a patch WAD in the idgames archive by Sigvatr called PalPlus that replaces DOOM’s palette in an attempt to make it look better on modern LCD monitors. It does this by “increasing the contrast of luminance and colour saturation in DOOM’s PLAYPAL lump and remapping the COLORMAP lump based on the former under the constraints of exclusive palette index selection.”

The result is a palette that appears somewhat darker and more balanced, with more vibrant reds and smoother shadowing, and although it may not be to everyone’s taste (see the discussion on the Doomworld forums), coupled with the simulated scanlines I describe above, I feel it does a fine job of emulating how DOOM appeared on the CRT monitors of yore.

CARRYING THE FIRE

2012-02-08T17:36:00.000+11:00

The bleak, desolate scene that you see above is from the movie The Road, released in 2009 and starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee. But this post isn’t about that movie; it’s about the phenomenal book that it was based upon.

The Road is a novel by highly acclaimed American writer Cormac McCarthy. First published in 2006 it has among numerous other awards won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is an intimate tale of a father and his child ambling their way alone across a charred, post-apocalyptic America, scavenging for what little food remains and evading the predators that now prowl the landscape.

When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. His hand rose and fell softly with each precious breath. He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin and raised himself in the stinking robes and blankets and looked toward the east for any light but there was none. In the dream from which he’d wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. Until they stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly into the dark.

THE OPENING PARAGRAPH OF CORMAC McCARTHY’S THE ROAD

Sigh... I really wish I could write like that. I’m not even sure that I can adequately convey just how much I do treasure this book. The Road truly is a work of such harrowing beauty that you’ll struggle to put it down. I highly recommend it. The Road may be purchased in all good book stores. And several of the bad ones as well.

A DAY IN LA PEROUSE

2012-02-06T14:39:00.001+11:00

Last weekend I went with a group of friends to La Perouse in the northern headland of Botany Bay. After so many weeks of unrelenting, unseasonable rainfall, it was the perfect summer’s day that we were all beginning to think would never come. We enjoyed a barbecue by the overcrowded beach and then, feeling especially patriotic, made our way to the fort on Bare Island, and it was there that I took the opportunity to capture the moment. We just missed out on the last tour of the day within the fort itself, and what follows are a series of photographs that I took on approach to and at the base of the structure. The last photograph is of the door to the Barrack Tower that stands sentry about three hundred metres away.

THE MENU OF DOOM

2012-01-29T16:53:00.000+11:00

Work on my DOOM source port has been progressing quite well of late. In this third instalment I’ll be discussing the subtle yet extensive alterations I’ve made to DOOM’s menu system.

Menus can no longer be displayed while the game is paused, and vice versa.
Many elements of the menus are now better positioned.
Sounds are now played for certain menu actions where previously there were none.
All elements of the menus now have drop shadows.
The screen is now darkened slightly while a menu or centred message is displayed, or while the game is paused.
Pressing the ESC key while in a menu will now navigate to the previous menu, rather than cancelling out of the menu altogether. The ability to use the BACKSPACE key to do this has been removed.
Moving the mouse can no longer be used to navigate the menus. However, now the mouse wheel can be used.
Menu functions that are opened directly using one of the function keys can now be closed using the same key.
“PAUSED” is now displayed instead of “PAUSE” when the game is paused.

THE MAIN MENU

A pistol sound is now heard when a key is pressed to display the main menu while on the title screen or while a demo is being played.
A solitary black pixel has been removed from the top left corner of the title graphic in DOOM Shareware, DOOM Registered and The Ultimate DOOM.
The title graphic in Final DOOM – TNT: Evilution has been shifted to the right slightly.
“Save Game” can no longer be selected if no game is being played.
“Read This!” is no longer displayed. In DOOM Shareware, the ordering information screen that was shown contained information that is now out of date. In DOOM Registered and The Ultimate DOOM, the help screen was shown, which can now still be displayed during a game by pressing the F1 key.
Pressing the N key at the confirmation message displayed when “Quit Game” is selected, will now display the main menu again rather than exiting the menu entirely.

THE EPISODE MENU

A “NEW GAME” subtitle is now displayed to be consistent with the subtitle displayed in the subsequent skill level menu.
In DOOM Registered and The Ultimate DOOM, the last episode to be selected is now remembered between games.
In DOOM Registered and The Ultimate DOOM, once an episode is completed, the next one is automatically selected.
In DOOM Shareware, the first episode is now always initially selected.
In DOOM Shareware, pressing any key at the message displayed when selecting either the second or third episodes, will now display the ordering information screen rather than exiting the menu.

THE SKILL LEVEL MENU

Some missing pixels are now drawn at the bottom of the comma of the “Hey, not too rough.” skill level.
Now no confirmation message is displayed when the “Nightmare!” skill level is selected and the player is already playing a game using that skill level.
Pressing the N key at the confirmation message displayed when the “Nightmare!” skill level is selected, will now display the skill level menu again rather than exiting the menu entirely.
The last skill level to be selected is now remembered between games.
A sound is now played once the skill level is selected and the game begins.

THE LOAD & SAVE GAME MENUS

The “LOAD GAME” and “SAVE GAME” subtitles are now in uppercase, to be consistent with the options menu.
The save game slots are now slightly taller to better centre the save game descriptions.
The last save game to be selected is now remembered between games.
Selecting a game in the save game menu will now also preselect the same game in the load game menu, and vice versa.
The text caret in the save game menu now flashes and is vertical, rather than being static and horizontal.
Spaces are now allowed in the save game descriptions.
Empty save game descriptions are no longer allowed.
Save game descriptions may now be greater than 24 characters and be as wide as what can fit in each save game slot.

THE OPTIONS MENU

“End Game” can no longer be selected while no game is being played.
Pressing the N key at the confirmation message displayed when “End Game” is selected will now display the options menu again rather than exiting the menu entirely.
The “Messages” and “Graphic Detail” options may now be changed using the left and right cursor keys.
There’s now a space between the “Messages” and “Graphic Detail” options and their parameters.
Messages are now off by default.
The default screen size has been increased.
The screen size and mouse sensitivity sliders are now the same width.

THE SOUND VOLUME MENU

Some missing pixels are now drawn along the right hand edges of both “SFX Volume” and “Music Volume”.
The default SFX volume and music volume in the sound volume menu have been increased.

THE INFANTEER

2012-01-26T07:24:00.000+11:00

He is born to the earth; on the day he enlists

He is sentenced to life on the soil,

To march on it, crawl on it, dig in it, sprawl on it,

Sleep on it after his toil.

Be it sand, rock or ice, gravel, mud or red loam

He will fight on it bravely, will die,

And the crude little cross telling men of his loss

Will cry mutely to some foreign sky.

He’s the tired-looking man in the untidy garb,

Weatherbeaten, footsore with fatigue,

But his spirit is strong as he marches along

With his burdens for league upon league.

He attacks in the face of a murderous fire,

Crawling forward, attacking through mud.

When he breaks through the lines, over wire and mines

On the point of his bayonet is blood.

Should you meet him, untidy, begrimed and fatigued,

Don’t indulge in unwarranted mirth,

For the brave infanteer deserves more than your sneer,

He is truly the salt of the earth.

I’ve always loved this small arrangement of words, and have been holding onto it for a while now. If this blog had existed last Remembrance Day I would have posted it then, but today on Australia Day I feel it also has its place. It was written during World War II, and lifted from page 28 of the Australian War Memorial publication, Jungle Warfare, a series of hard-bound books published and distributed primarily by soldiers to their families back home in 1944. This poem entitled “The Infanteer” was penned by a digger known only by his nom de plume “A Gunner” and his Army Number NX70702. Although I’m not “pro-war” by any means, I still feel that we shouldn’t celebrate this great country of ours without at least acknowledging those who have fought for it. Have a very happy Australia Day!

THE TIME

2012-01-22T12:15:00.000+11:00

In 2009 I registered myself as a developer in Apple’s iOS Developer Program. Armed with my trusty iPhone 3G, a 15” aluminium MacBook and the Xcode IDE, I got started in creating my very first app. Called simply The Time, it was an exercise in minimalism and typography: a bedside alarm clock app that displayed the current time in words, such that:

00:00	“Midnight.”
12:00	“Midday.”
hh:00	“hh o’clock.”
hh:01 to hh:14	“mm minute(s) past hh.”
hh:15	“A quarter past hh.”
hh:16 to hh:29	“mm minutes past hh.”
hh:30	“Half past hh.”
hh:31 to hh:44	*“60 – mm* minutes to hh + 1.”**
hh:45	*“A quarter to hh + 1.”*
hh:46 to hh:59	*“60 – mm* minute(s) to hh + 1.”**

The text was displayed in the font Helvetica, small enough for the widest possible time to fit entirely on one line in the centre of the iOS device’s screen. In landscape mode, the text would be larger, as the screen is then wider. The text would fade onto and off of the screen as it was updated every minute.

The Time was to be “light sensitive.” I intended for it to have black text on a white background during the day, and white text on a black background at night, transitioning between the two states based on the sunrise and sunset at the iOS device’s current location.

Touching the screen would cause an i icon to be briefly displayed in the bottom right hand corner. To then touch that icon while it was visible would open the app’s settings menu. Seven different alarms — one for each day of the week — could be set from this menu. When setting an alarm, you would choose the time the alarm would sound and what sound would be played (either the default or a track from the iOS device’s music library). When the alarm sounded, it would continue until you either touched the screen or shook the device.

I never did end up getting the app to a state where I could have released it on the App Store, nor will I ever, and so I’ll put the small amount of Objective-C I wrote here into the public domain:

NSArray *numbers = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"midnight", @"one", @"two",

  @"three", @"four", @"five", @"six", @"seven", @"eight", @"nine", @"ten",

  @"eleven", @"midday", @"twelve", @"thirteen", @"fourteen", @"a quarter",

  @"sixteen", @"seventeen", @"eighteen", @"nineteen", @"twenty", @"twenty-one",

  @"twenty-two", @"twenty-three", @"twenty-four", @"twenty-five", @"twenty-six",

  @"twenty-seven", @"twenty-eight", @"twenty-nine", @"half"];

NSDate *date = [[NSDate alloc] init];

NSDateComponents *dateComponents = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];

int hour;

int minute;

NSString *time = [[NSString alloc] init];

NSString *preposition = [[NSString alloc] init];

    .

    .

    .

// Update the label with the current time in words.

- (void)updateTimeLabel {

  // Get the current time.

  date = [NSDate date];

  dateComponents = [gregorian components:NSHourCalendarUnit | NSMinuteCalendarUnit

    fromDate:date];

  hour = [dateComponents hour];

  minute = [dateComponents minute];

  // Construct the time in words.

  if (!minute)

    time = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@.",

      [numbers objectAtIndex: hour - 12 * (hour > 12)],

      (hour && hour != 12 ? @" o\222clock" : @"")];

  else {

    preposition = @"past";

    if (minute > 30) {

      preposition = @"to";

      if (++hour > 23)

        hour = 0;

      minute = 60 - minute;

    }

    time = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@ %@ %@.",

      [numbers objectAtIndex: minute + (minute > 11)],

      (minute % 15 ? (minute > 1 ? @" minutes" : @" minute") : @""),

      preposition,

      [numbers objectAtIndex: hour - 12 * (hour > 12)]];

  }

  // Update the label.

  [timeLabel setText:[time capitalizedString]];

}

    .

    .

    .

[release preposition];

[release time];

[release dateComponents];

[release date];

[release numbers];

With the release of Siri on the iPhone 4S, I’d take this app even further if it ever came to be. At this stage Siri doesn’t interface with third party apps, but if/when Apple releases an API that allows for this to happen, I could then envisage telling my iPhone to “set the alarm for half past seven on Monday morning” rather than having a settings menu in The Time. Minimal and intuitive, as I like it. And without the need for that menu, touching the screen could have Siri telling you the time instead.

MOONLIGHT

2012-01-21T10:50:00.000+11:00

And now for something completely different. Here’s my attempt at introducing a bit of culture into this blog of mine with a short musical interlude...

Clair de lune is the third and most famous movement of the Suite bergamasque, composed by Claude Debussy in the 1890s. Not that I really tend to listen to much of this genre at all, but Clair de lune would undoubtedly be my most favourite piece of classical music.

The rather effective visualisation in the above video is by the Music Animation Machine.

THE BARK SIDE

2012-01-20T08:40:00.000+11:00

Here’s one more photo of Sascha, my muse, this time doing her indifferent face. And because I love my dog, and I love Star Wars, I thought it appropriate to also include Volkswagen’s new Super Bowl ad, which is making the rounds on the interwebs at the moment. (I’m not entirely sure what the German car manufacturer has to do with either dogs or Star Wars, but hey, I guess it’s working: people are blogging about it.)

SOUL PUNK’D

2012-01-19T10:49:00.000+11:00

These days when I’m in my Dodge, guaranteed there’ll be one of only two CDs playing: and one of those is Soul Punk. Released in October 2011, it is American singer-songwriter Patrick Stump’s debut solo album. Patrick was the lead singer of Fall Out Boy, a band currently on an indefinite hiatus to “decompress,” and this first offering from him is a beautiful blend of 80s inspired electro R&B with a refreshing moral undercurrent. What I appreciate about Patrick as an artist is his complete dedication to his craft:

Patrick Stump played all the instruments on Soul Punk, including drums, bass, electric and acoustic guitars, piano, analog synths, percussion, trumpet, valve trombone, alto and tenor saxophones, mandolin, guitalele, and manipulating various found sounds and ambient noises. He also composed all the music, penned all the lyrics, produced the album and did absolutely everything by himself. He wanted to make an album that was entirely him and made it a mission statement. On the recording of Soul Punk, he used a Gretsch Stump-O-Matic signature guitar with white and silver stripes, a color change to the one he has played with Fall Out Boy. “When it comes to pop music, there’s this perception that all you have to do is press a button on your iPad, but I wanted to make it with love and put a lot into it. A lot of people asked, ‘Where did you get the drum sounds?’ I played them. ‘What synth plug-in was that?’ I played all the synths. ‘How’d you get that bass tone?’ It’s a bass. I really wanted to put in the effort, even if people might not notice.”

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Well, I noticed. Each track on Soul Punk is outstanding, but the one that has especially stood out for me is Spotlight. Long before the release of the album, Patrick offered Spotlight to be downloaded from his website in two different versions, Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia) and Spotlight (New Regrets). He couldn’t decide between the two and asked his fans to vote for which version should appear on the album. Although Oh Nostalgia was ahead in the poll, Patrick decided instead to put it on the EP, Truant Wave, saying the votes were too close and he felt as if “Oh Nostalgia basically needed its own record,” building the EP around it. Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia) is certainly my preferred version, and you can see its inspiring, uplifting music video below:

Thanks to my brother and his wife, I also had the absolute pleasure of seeing Patrick perform live while he headed Fall Out Boy at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in February 2009.

ON DIT

2012-01-18T10:46:00.000+11:00

On Dit (ISSN 0030-2333) is a free student newspaper funded by the Adelaide University Union. Founded in 1932, it’s one of the oldest student newspapers in Australia, and throughout the publication’s 80 long years of history it has established a solid reputation, both within the state of South Australia and nationally. It has seen contributions from such notables as Prime Minister Julia Gillard, South Australian Labor Party Senator and Minister Penny Wong, comedian Shaun Micallef, author Colin Thiele and South Australian Democrat Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja.

Almost fifteen years ago, while pursuing a Bachelor of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at the University of Adelaide’s North Terrace campus, I had the honour of contributing in my own small way to On Dit by writing three short book reviews. And for the sake of nostalgia, here they are:

A back catalogue of all issues on On Dit as far back as 1932 is available online in the University of Adelaide’s digital library, and more recent issues may be found at ondit.com.au.

LOOKIN' FOR LOVE IN ALDERAAN PLACES

2012-01-15T18:47:00.000+11:00

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was released almost 13 years ago, and next month will see its re-release in cinemas, post-converted into the third dimension. Meesa gonna admit, meesa no liken da prequel as much as those of the original trilogy for some reason, but still… it is Star Wars after all, and that’s more than enough for me! Don’t worry, George. You’ll get my money.

Set against the thrilling and exotic backdrop of a “galaxy far, far away,” Star Wars is perfectly suited to the immersive 3D theatrical experience, and Episode I delivers some of the Saga’s most stunning and spectacular sequences – from the Naboo invasion to the Tatooine Podraces to the climactic lightsaber battle between Darth Maul and the Jedi. Supervised by Industrial Light & Magic, the meticulous conversion is being done with utmost respect for the source material, and with a keen eye for both technological considerations and artistic intentions.

WWW.STARWARS.COM

Well, that certainly does sound encouraging! I’m also glad that, just like in the recent Blu-ray release, the puppet Yoda in Episode I will be replaced with a CG one to be consistent with Episodes II and III. I’m all for puppeteering, but really… that puppet in the original version was absolutely atrocious.

THE CHEATS OF DOOM

2012-01-15T11:12:00.001+11:00

One of my most favourite aspects of DOOM from when I was younger was its small collection of cheats, and so it certainly has been an area of focus for me in the source port I’ve been developing. This post lists in detail the changes I’ve made in relation to each of DOOM’s cheats.

THE IDBEHOLD CHEATS

These cheats can no longer be entered while the player is dead.
The message that’s displayed before entering the parameter of these cheats will stay on the screen until the parameter or another key is entered.
The message displayed is now underscored to indicate which parameters are valid.
The message displayed now shows “BSRK” for “berserk” rather than “STR”.
Power-ups toggled on using one of these cheats now won’t run out unless they’re toggled off again using the same cheat.
Power-ups can’t be picked up while they’ve been toggled on using one of these cheats.
When a power-up is toggled off by using one of these cheats, the screen will now flash in the same way it does when a power-up runs out normally.
The computer area map power-up can now also be toggled off by using the “IDBEHOLDA” cheat.
Using the “IDBEHOLDS” cheat will now cause the player to switch to their fists, mimicking the behaviour of when a berserk power-up is picked up.
If the player has an invulnerability power-up at the end of E1M8 by using the “IDBEHOLDV” cheat, then it will be removed so the level can end correctly.

THE IDCHOPPERS CHEAT

This cheat can no longer be entered while the player is dead.
The message displayed now includes quotation marks.
Fixing an apparent bug in the original source code, the player will now be given an invulnerability power-up to go with the chainsaw.
The player will now automatically switch to the chainsaw.
The invulnerability power-up will be cancelled if the player switches weapons.
If this cheat is entered a second time, the invulnerability power-up is cancelled, the chainsaw is taken away, and the player switches back to their previously selected weapon.
While the cheat is enabled, if the player picks up a new weapon, or ammo for a weapon that has previously run out of ammo, the player will switch to that weapon once the cheat is disabled.

THE IDCLEV CHEAT

The player’s current health, armour, weapons, ammo and any power-ups are now retained when using this cheat to change levels. (Refer to the DOOM Wiki for more information.)
Entering a “1” as one of the parameters of this cheat will no longer cause the player to switch to their fists. (Refer to the DOOM Wiki for more information.)
If this cheat is used while in the automap, the automap will now stay open once the new level has loaded.
Fixing a bug in the original source code, the message “CHANGING LEVEL...” is now displayed.
Entering “IDCLEV33” or “IDCLEV34” in DOOM II and Final DOOM will no longer crash the game.

THE IDCLIP & IDSPISPOPD CHEATS

These cheats can no longer be entered while the player is dead.
Items can now still be picked up while “no clipping mode” is on.

THE IDDQD CHEAT

When entering this cheat a second time, the player’s health will be restored to what it was prior to turning “degreelessness mode” on.
The player’s health won’t be changed to 100% if it’s already greater than 100%.
Any health that’s picked up while “degreelessness mode” is on isn’t added to the player’s health.
No blood is shown when the player is attacked.
The player is now immune to being telefragged.
If this cheat is entered while the player is dead, they will be resurrected at the position they died with 100% health and “degreelessness mode” on.
An evil face will no longer be displayed in the status bar if the player picks up a weapon they don’t already have, nor will a rampage face be displayed if they fire continuously, while “degreelessness mode” is on.

THE IDDT CHEAT

Secret walls are now yellow when this cheat is entered.
A thing triangle is no longer drawn over the player arrow when this cheat is entered twice.
The player arrow is now drawn over thing triangles.
The player arrow is now drawn slightly differently, preventing some lines from intersecting in some instances.
The gray lines drawn in the automap when this cheat is entered are now a slightly darker gray.

THE IDFA & IDKFA CHEATS

These cheats can no longer be entered while the player is dead.
When using either of these cheats in DOOM Shareware, the status bar now won’t be updated to indicate that the player was given the plasma rifle, the BFG 9000, or any energy cells, as they do not appear in the game.
When using these cheats the player is now also given a backpack, doubling the maximum amount of each type of ammo.
When using the “IDKFA” cheat, rather than always giving the player three skull keys, only those keycards or skull keys that can be picked up in the current level will be given to the player. If no keys are present in the current level, then the player won’t be given any. Also, the keycards or skull keys in the current level won’t be able to be picked up.
If the player didn’t have at least one of the weapons given to them by these cheats, their face in the status bar will now display an evil grin.
A bug has been fixed whereby the status bar would display an evil grin when an item was picked up after either the “IDFA” or “IDKFA” cheats were used. (Refer to the DOOM Wiki for more information.)
No message is displayed if the player already has all the weapons, ammo, and keycards or skull keys that these cheats give them.
If the player has their fists selected when entering either of these cheats, they will now automatically switch to the chainsaw. If they have the shotgun selected, in DOOM II the player will now automatically switch to the super shotgun if they didn’t have it already.

THE IDMUS CHEAT

Entering “IDMUS0y” and “IDMUSx0” in all DOOM games, “IDMUS21” to “IDMUS39” in DOOM Shareware, and “IDMUS00” in DOOM II and Final DOOM, will no longer crash the game. (Refer to the DOOM Wiki for more information.)
Entering “IDMUS41” to “IDMUS49” in The Ultimate DOOM will now play the music for those maps, and “IDMUS50” to “IDMUS53” will play the intermission, title, end game and victory music.
“IDMUS20” to “IDMUS22” will now play the intermission, title and victory music in DOOM Shareware, rather than “IDMUS40” to “IDMUS43”.
Entering the parameters of this cheat will no longer cause the player to switch weapons.
The end game music can no longer be played in DOOM Shareware with this cheat, because although the music does exist in DOOM1.WAD, it’s not played at any point during the game.
The “IMPOSSIBLE SELECTION” message is no longer displayed if this cheat’s parameters are invalid.
This cheat will no longer change the music if the music’s volume has been set to zero, or if music has been disabled using either the “–NOSOUND” or “–NOMUSIC” command-line parameters.
Entering this cheat for music that’s currently playing will now restart that music.
This cheat may now be used if the “Nightmare!” skill level has been selected.

THE IDMYPOS CHEAT

The values displayed by this cheat are now in decimal rather than hexadecimal.
The current Z-coordinate of the player is now also displayed.
The message displayed by this cheat won’t disappear from the screen, updating dynamically as the player moves about the level, until the cheat is entered again.
This cheat may now be used if the “Nightmare!” skill level has been selected.
When in the automap and “follow mode” is off, the angle and coordinates are updated to follow the crosshair.

And so there you have it! I’ll edit this post as I continue to make further changes to DOOM’s cheat system. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Although I have experimented with implementing completely new cheats (“massacre” and “no target mode” cheats for instance), I don’t want to lose sight of my original goal: and that is to enhance what’s already there rather than add extraneous code just for the sake of it. I want my DOOM to still be DOOM.

WHAT ARE YOU CAPABLE OF?

2012-01-12T12:43:00.000+11:00

There’s a new movie out early next month that tells the story of a group of young guys who somehow gain superpowers and then end up embracing their dark sides in the use of said powers. I guess the premise of this movie Chronicle is something that we can all relate to in some way. What would you do if you had these powers? During prior fits of road rage, I know I’d definitely have benefited from some telekinesis. And here’s the trailer:

What also attracts me to this movie, (from what I can ascertain from the trailer, at least), is the camera work. I’m a huge fan of other movies such as the Norwegian Trolljegeren, Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 and J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield, as each of them use this same mockumentary style shakey-cam. I find this technique to be quite an intimate and immersive method of storytelling, and that it conveys a level of immediacy that other styles often don’t. Similarly, this is perhaps why I consider FPS (first person shooters) to be my most favourite of genres in gaming.

THE ANGEL AND YOU AND ME

2012-01-11T15:35:00.000+11:00

The Angel and You (ISBN 978-0-9808283-0-6) is an e-book I both edited and published for the South Australian author, Ninti Priskin, in 2010. I also designed the e-book’s cover art and its accompanying website, www.theangelandyou.com.

The Angel and You is an enchanting, empowering work of fiction “wrapped in ribbons of truth.” Shanada, the Angel of Oracles, guides you “through eight teaching universes and their educational functions, each leading you higher in your infinite growth, teaching you the most amazing and wondrous concepts.”

For me, working on this project was an excellent experience in typography. I was able to use some of the more advanced features of Microsoft Word that I would have otherwise overlooked, and I strived for every one of those 176 pages to be pixel perfect. And although the subject matter wasn’t quite to my own personal tastes, I did take great care in editing the raw manuscript presented to me, and revelled in the many hours I invested towards producing the final PDF document.

Here’s a current screenshot of www.theangelandyou.com:

Developing the website for The Angel and You was another source of enjoyment for me, and it allowed me to hone more of my skills. Here’s a small amount of obfuscated jQuery code that I wrote to achieve a mouseover effect on the page:

<script type="text/javascript">

</script>

You can purchase The Angel and You for just AU$14.95 (incl. GST) by sending an e-mail to ninti@theangelandyou.com. Ninti is a lovely woman and would be more than happy to accommodate you. You can find out more about her e-book at www.theangelandyou.com.

DIGITAL COLA CLASSIC

2012-01-08T09:09:00.000+11:00

There are a couple of things that you need to know about me. Firstly, I’m a recovering Coke addict. Secondly, I’ve learnt that I can’t say “I’m a recovering Coke addict” to someone without also providing some context. And that is when I say “Coke,” I actually mean “Coca-Cola.”

The “Digital Cola” moniker that you see at the top of this blog of mine used to mean something else to me. Way back in 1999 I began development on a small project by that name, of which I would then proceed to obsessively fuss over for close to a decade. The following screenshot of www.digitalcola.com, circa March 2009, best describes what it was about:

All up it was 41,105 lines of code, and although Digital Cola was quite obviously of very little use to anyone whatsoever, (it was, after all, only an “experiment in programming and design”), I learned a great deal whilst developing it. What I’m especially pleased with—even now—are the trio of icons I had designed for the project:

One day Digital Cola caught the attention of The Coca-Cola Company all the way in Atlanta, Georgia. But not in a good way. In June 2007, I received the following cease and desist letter from their intellectual property lawyers in Australia:

Oh shit. But I wasn’t going to argue with them. Previously, the icons I had designed incorporated the “Dynamic Ribbon Device” in full, and the website included logos of each of the 15 Coca-Cola varieties that the program supported, so I changed all of that to what you see above, and made the already existing disclaimer stating that “Digital Cola is in no way affiliated with nor endorsed by The Coca-Cola Company” in BIG RED CAPS. Oh well. At least they were polite about it, both in the above letter and during my subsequent discussions over the phone and by e-mail with them.

If by chance you are interested, you may download the last build of Digital Cola I ever compiled back in March 2009 here, complete with source code.

HERP DERP

2012-01-06T07:22:00.000+11:00

Here’s yet another photo of my dog Sascha at her best, this time with some retro stylings from my iPhone 4 and the popular iOS app Instagram.

VANILLA PLANIFOLIA

2012-01-05T11:01:00.000+11:00

Here’s a small design that I created for Red Galah Promotions as part of an upcoming campaign.

THE AUTOMAP OF DOOM

2012-01-04T12:36:00.000+11:00

DOOM is a game that was first released close to 20 years ago by id Software, a game that got me and many others into first person shooters, and I’ve been playing it on and off ever since. About 12 months ago, after my move to Sydney, because DOOM’s source code is freely available under the GNU General Public License, and because even now the game is still fun to play, I began developing my very own version of the game. Programmed in C using Microsoft Visual C++ Express, and starting with Chocolate DOOM (an existing source port) as a base, my idea is to develop a version of the game that while retaining its classic look and feel in all its pixelated glory, fixes the many bugs, quirks and subtle inconsistencies of the original “Vanilla” DOOM. I also want to implement several new and essential features that appear in the more advanced ports (and some that don’t), but not to the point where the project would suffer from “feature bloat”, nor to compromise its nostalgic value.

One of the files from DOOM’s source that I’ve spent a very good amount of my time on is am_map.c, which contains the code for the game’s automap. I remember when I was younger, I would often press the TAB key and just play around for ages in the game solely in the automap, using a variety of cheats to discover secret areas I had neither a hope in hell nor the patience of finding otherwise.

I’ve completely rewritten the code that draws the lines in the automap. The original code drew them using Bresenham’s line algorithm and then clipped them to the screen using the Cohen-Sutherland algorithm, and I’ve used every trick and optimisation I could muster to get those lines into the automap even quicker. And in the spirit of open source, here’s some of my beautiful code:

  bool AM_clipMline(int *x0, int *y0, int *x1, int *y1)

  {

    enum

    {

      left   = 1,

      right  = 2,

      top    = 4,

      bottom = 8

    };

    register unsigned int outcode1 = 0;

    register unsigned int outcode2 = 0;

    *x0 = CXMTOF(*x0);

    if (*x0 < 0)

      outcode1 = left;

    else if (*x0 >= WIDTH)

      outcode1 = right;

    *x1 = CXMTOF(*x1);

    if (*x1 < 0)

      outcode2 = left;

    else if (*x1 >= WIDTH)

      outcode2 = right;

    if (outcode1 & outcode2)

      return false;

    *y0 = CYMTOF(*y0);

    if (*y0 < 0)

      outcode1 |= top;

    else if (*y0 >= HEIGHT)

      outcode1 |= bottom;

    *y1 = CYMTOF(*y1);

    if (*y1 < 0)

      outcode2 |= top;

    else if (*y1 >= HEIGHT)

      outcode2 |= bottom;

    clip = (outcode1 | outcode2);

    return !(outcode1 & outcode2);

  }

  __inline void PUTDOT_UNCLIPPED(int x, int y, byte *colour)

  {

    byte *dot = fb + x + y;

    *dot = *(*dot + colour);

  }

  __inline void PUTDOT_CLIPPED(int x, int y, byte *colour)

  {

    if ((unsigned)x < WIDTH && (unsigned)y < AREA)

    {

      byte *dot = fb + x + y;

      *dot = *(*dot + colour);

    }

  }

  void (*PUTDOT)(int x, int y, byte *colour);

  __inline void PUTDOT_INDEXED(int i, byte *colour)

  {

    byte *dot = fb + i;

    *dot = *(*dot + colour);

  }

  void AM_drawFline(int x0, int y0, int x1, int y1, byte *colour)

  {

    register int dx = x1 - x0;

    register int dy = y1 - y0;

    if (!dy)

    {

      // Horizontal line

      register int sx = SIGN(dx);

      y0 = OFFSETY(y0);

      x0 = MAX(y0, MIN(x0, RIGHT) + y0);

      x1 = MAX(y0, MIN(x1, RIGHT) + y0);

      PUTDOT_INDEXED(x0, colour);

      while (x0 != x1)

        PUTDOT_INDEXED(x0 += sx, colour);

      return;

    }

    else if (!dx)

    {

      // Vertical line

      register int sy = OFFSETY(SIGN(dy));

      y0 = MAX(x0, x0 + MIN(OFFSETY(y0), BOTTOM));

      y1 = MAX(x0, x0 + MIN(OFFSETY(y1), BOTTOM));

      PUTDOT_INDEXED(y0, colour);

      while (y0 != y1)

        PUTDOT_INDEXED(y0 += sy, colour);

      return;

    }

    else

    {

      register int sx = SIGN(dx);

      register int sy = OFFSETY(SIGN(dy));

      dx = ABS(dx);

      dy = ABS(dy);

      y0 = OFFSETY(y0);

      if (dx == dy)

      {

        // Diagonal line

        if (clip)

        {

          PUTDOT_CLIPPED(x0, y0, colour);

          while (x0 != x1)

            PUTDOT_CLIPPED(x0 += sx, y0 += sy, colour);

          return;

        }

        else

        {

          sx += sy;

          x0 += y0;

          x1 += OFFSETY(y1);

          PUTDOT_INDEXED(x0, colour);

          while (x0 != x1)

            PUTDOT_INDEXED(x0 += sx, colour);

          return;

        }

      }

      else

      {

        PUTDOT = (clip ? PUTDOT_CLIPPED : PUTDOT_UNCLIPPED);

        PUTDOT(x0, y0, colour);

        if (dx > dy)

        {

          // X-major line

          register int error = (dy <<= 1) - dx;

          dx <<= 1;

          while (x0 != x1)

          {

            register int mask = ~(error >> 31);

            PUTDOT(x0 += sx, y0 += (sy & mask), colour);

            error += dy - (dx & mask);

          }

          return;

        }

        else

        {

          // Y-major line

          register int error = (dx <<= 1) - dy;

          dy <<= 1;

          y1 = OFFSETY(y1);

          while (y0 != y1)

          {

            register int mask = ~(error >> 31);

            PUTDOT(x0 += (sx & mask), y0 += sy, colour);

            error += dx - (dy & mask);

          }

          return;

        }

      }

    }

  }

  void AM_drawMline(int x0, int y0, int x1, int y1, byte *colour)

  {

    if (AM_clipMline(&x0, &y0, &x1, &y1))

      AM_drawFline(x0, y0, x1, y1, colour);

  }

The amount of changes I’ve made to DOOM’s automap doesn’t end there. I’ve also implemented the following:

A bug has been fixed whereby the entire automap would shift slightly the first time it was displayed.
The lines in the automap now fade to black at the edges of the screen.
As indicated as being intended in the original source code, the crosshair is now an actual cross.
The crosshair is now translucent.
The crosshair is now only displayed when “follow mode” is off.
The position of the crosshair when “follow mode” is off is now remembered when leaving and then returning to the automap.
“Follow mode” is now on at the start of each level.
A bug has been fixed whereby the automap wasn’t centring correctly on the player in some instances.
Firing, opening and closing doors, selecting weapons, and turning left and right can no longer be done when in the automap while “follow mode” is off.
Walls newly visible to the player are now dynamically updated as they move around while “follow mode” is on.
The grid is now a darker gray.
A bug has been fixed whereby the leftmost and bottommost gridlines often weren’t being displayed.
Whether the grid is on or off is now remembered between games.
The map’s title has been shifted away from the edge of the automap slightly.
The map’s title is now translucent.
In DOOM II and Final DOOM, “LEVEL [x]x” has been changed to “MAPxx” in the map’s title.
The title of E3M7 is now displayed as “GATE TO LIMBO” instead of just “LIMBO”, to be consistent with the title displayed on the intermission screen.
The title of MAP11 in DOOM II is now displayed as “CIRCLE OF DEATH” instead of “‘O’ OF DESTRUCTION!”, to be consistent with the title displayed on the intermission screen.
The message that’s displayed when marks are cleared off the automap by pressing the C key is no longer displayed if there are no marks to clear.
Marks now start at “1” rather than “0”.
There’s now no limit to the number of marks that can be placed on the automap.
Marks can’t be placed on existing marks.
Marks can’t be placed when the player is dead.
Marks are now still drawn when partially off the screen.
Marks are now remembered when saving a game.
The crosshair, the player arrow and thing triangles are now drawn over marks.
The W, A, S and D keys can now be used to pan around the automap when “follow mode” is off.
The SHIFT and CAPSLOCK keys can now be used to pan faster around the automap.
The player arrow is now an actual white.
The player arrow in a multiplayer game when a player has a partial invisibility power-up now is a very dark gray rather than blue, flashes when the power-up starts to run out, and is only used when other players (and not the current player) have the power-up.
Diagonal walls that aren’t at a 45° angle are now drawn consistently, regardless of whether they are fully or only partially visible.
Walls are now drawn in an order of precedence based upon their colour, such that red walls overlap brown walls that overlap yellow walls.
Secrets are now drawn on the automap as they’re discovered.
Yellow walls are paler.
More types of teleporters are drawn in dark red.
The mouse wheel may now be used to zoom in and out.
The SHIFT and CAPSLOCK keys can now be used to zoom in and out faster.
The default zoom level is now the same for every map.
The zoom level is now restored to the default when the player dies and respawns, starts a new game while on the first level, or uses the “IDCLEVxy” cheat to restart the same level.
Whether the 0 key has or hasn’t been pressed to zoom out to the maximum possible level is now remembered when leaving and then returning to the automap.

I am extremely pleased with how this project is coming together, and will post more about it in the weeks and months to come. I still have a long ways to go and want to be sure it’s perfect before I release it to the public. I’m certain it’ll be out by Tuesday, December 10, 2013, DOOM’s 20th anniversary. Any ideas on what I can call this source port?

SASCHA AND THE MUTE

2012-01-03T11:58:00.000+11:00

Here’s another adorable photo that I’ve taken of my dog Sascha. I’m not sure where that toy is now. She does seem to be pretty fond of it, doesn’t she? It was one of the few toys that she’s had that she wasn’t scared of. Being a little bit “touched in the head,” so to speak, she’ll avoid anything that squeaks or makes other strange noises. This includes my housemate.

STONED DOG LAGER

2012-01-02T11:03:00.000+11:00

With a blistered hand, this morning I bottled 22 litres of my homebrewed Stoned Dog Lager into 30 × 740mL brown, polyethylene terephthalate bottles…

And now comes the most difficult part in this endeavour: the agonising, debilitating two week wait before I’m allowed to start sampling my creations… sigh… However, no sooner had I finished with this batch did I keep the production line going and start a new one! This time I’m brewing a Coopers Mexican Cerveza, which I’m hoping will turn out as good as a carton of Corona Extra. (Which I guess isn’t asking much. I’ve been told Corona is to people from Mexico as Fosters is to us in Australia.)

What are my chances? The ingredients for my Corona Falso are: 22L of Sydney tap water, a 1.7kg Mexican Cerveza Beer Kit (malted barley and hops concentrate), a Brew Enhancer 2 (500g of dextrose, 250g of maltodextrin and 250g of light dry malt) and 7g of yeast. And no preservatives. The mandatory wedge of lime comes later. And this time, avoiding a repeat of last week’s exploits, I actually read the instructions and placed the Krausen Kollar inside the fermenter! Am I learned, or what?!

MORE BAGGINSES!

2012-01-01T17:40:00.000+11:00

This December we’ll once again be granted the pleasure of returning to Middle Earth with the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first of two movies currently being filmed in New Zealand at 48 FPS, based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. And judging by this early trailer, it’s not going to disappoint either, looking as epic as the three Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson.

If you don’t mind some mild spoilage, I’d also recommend watching The Hobbit’s production diaries. Peter Jackson has always been forthcoming with these sort of videos, and with five of them already having been released, I find them invaluable.

TINFOIL HATS

2012-01-01T15:30:00.000+11:00

Since the world is meant to end this year… again… I thought it’d be nice to start off 2012 with a fluff piece about conspiracy theories. Actually, to be honest, I couldn’t give two shits about the theories themselves, but I certainly am curious about the motivations and psychology behind those who for whatever reason believe them.

I’ve had the frustrating misfortune of being associated with a couple of conspiracy theorists over the years, each at their own special level of fervour, and have struggled in dealing with their unrelenting irrationality. The above family moment is, of course, from the movie Signs, and although my inclusion here of tinfoil hats is somewhat predictable and clichéd, I think it does get my point across quite effectively: and that is that conspiracy theorists are so very worthy of ridicule.

A conspiracy theory is not even a theory, anyway, but a distorted sense of scepticism. The basic premise is to always distrust in the information provided by any official form of communication, be it the government or mainstream media, allegedly because they lie and/or conceal the truth. The problem with these people is that by not trusting any “reliable” media, they then by default accept absolutely any alternative information, however absurd. They care not for logic, common sense or empirical evidence. Major disasters, for instance, never occur as a matter of course or by accident. Bodies are still warm as these “truthers” froth at the mouth to desecrate the victims’ memories, loudly proclaiming such events as the result of secret government projects, aliens, impending asteroids, or whatever drivel they manage to concoct at the time. They have the inability to employ or even understand Occam’s Razor, and anyone who has the sheer audacity to disagree with them and point out the obvious, are called out as being naïve, bandied as “sheeple”.

Conspiracy theorists like to claim that they are “truthers” and that all they care for is uncovering the truth. The thing is, however, that they’re hypocrites. They accuse others of lying, but in order to “prove” their outlandish claims, they fabricate lies themselves. Not every one of them is a liar, of course. Some simply repeat what they’ve heard from others like parrots, without even hesitating to determine if what they are saying is true or not. I recall one of my “truther” acquaintances once confidently quoted an article from The Onion, where five seconds of research would have told him that it’s a well-known parody news site. And the rest of us are naïve?

Trying to rationalise with these people is proving pretty damn futile, and they only seem to be getting more prevalent. The best I can suggest is to just point and laugh. And with that rant over, I bid you a Happy New Year!

SASCHA!

2011-12-31T11:31:00.000+11:00

Last night I watched a documentary entitled Project Nim, which “tells the story of a chimpanzee taken from its mother at birth and raised like a human child by a family in a brownstone on the upper West Side in the 1970s”. I’m pretty clear on the distinction between chimps and dogs, but the movie really got me thinking about the close connection I have with my own beloved daughter Sascha, a five year old German Shepherd cross. She’s adorable. And almost as neurotic as her owner. This photo was taken a while ago using my iPhone 4 (my other baby) and tweaked slightly using PaintShop Pro X4.