Posts Tagged ‘Game Programming’
These posts are related to game programming.
Using static variables in Unity3D
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Programming
This post explains how to use static variables when programming scripts for the Unity3D engine. The example scripts in this post are written in C#, but the same guidelines apply for JavaScript.
Before delving deeper into the subject, it goes without saying that static variables should be avoided at all costs, for a great number of reasons that can be easily be found on the internet. It’s better to use a Singleton creational pattern in most cases. with that in mind, here’s a short definition of static variables: they are variables that belong to a class, and not the objects the class creates. This means that static variables retain the same value, regardless of the object from a given class. Another characteristic is that, as long as the class is in the memory, they are still valid references. Static variables are initialized by the compiler right before the class creation, and before any other variables or methods. But what does it mean for Unity3D scripts?
Game Programming Basics: Creating a FPS counter
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Programming
Sometimes, while creating a game, a programmer realizes that he/she needs to make sure if some part of the code is running fast enough, before adding more things that could cause the game to slowdown. To properly measure a game’s performance, there is the need to program a FPS (frames per second) counter. As the name suggests, it will count the number of frames that where rendered at the period of one second.
This is an essential information when creating games, as it will serve as a strong indicator to measure the performance impact of a recently added element to the game.
Unity3D: Programming a machine gun – Part 2
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Featured, Programming
This is the second and last post of this series that explains how to code a machine gun in Unity3D. The first post explained how to make the automatic firing mechanism, and this one will focus on how to set-up the machine gun, the bullet and explain the code that makes it all work. Also, a Unity3D project with all the source code discussed on the series is available for download at the end of the post.
So, let’s start by setting the machine gun. The 3D model of the gun can be any one, you don’t even have to create a 3D model at all, it is possible to use Unity3D’s cubes and other primitives. The only thing that one must know is that the muzzle of the gun must be a completely separate element. This is crucial when making the gun at an external 3D modeling application such as 3D Studio Max, Blender or XSI. (more…)
Unity3D: Programming a machine gun – Part 1
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Programming
This is the first of two posts that will explain how to program a machine gun at the Unity3D game engine. This post will focus on coding the element that defines a weapon of this type: continuous automatic firing. It will show two different ways to achieve this behavior: one based on the Invoke() method call, and the other based on Unity3D’s coroutines. As any other post series in this website, a Unity3D project with all the source code will be available at the last post of the series.
All code in this post will be in C#, but for those who don’t use it, a JavaScript version of the code will be available for download at the end of the post.
Game Programming Basics: Moving an element
Posted by Dimitri | Filed under Programming
This post explains some of the most basic game programming techniques: how to move elements on the screen. If you already know this, please skip it, or add something to this post in the comments. Since these lines of codes are trivial to game programming, it may be one of the reasons why it is so hard to find a post or a website explaining them. The code presented on this post isn’t the only way to move objects in a game and certainly there is a lot more information out there. The intention of this post is to serve as a starting point.