RE: Texture mapping (and something else)

[Erik <br0ke@math.smsu.edu>]

On 05-Nov-99 Jan Ekholm wrote:
> On Fri, 5 Nov 1999, Gareth Noyce wrote:
> 
>>> I'd certainly contribute to a project that had enough serious 
>>> people on it
>>> to solve the problem for real.
>>
>>I look forward to seeing something happen then! ;-)
> 
> Problems with projects that start as 'team-projects' tend to be that they
> never get anything done. Just a lot of discussion, but no usable code.
> Someone has to start a project and really do some planning, designing,
> documentation and coding, and others will then join if the project is
> feasible. I think it would be quite fun to participate in something (read:
> I've too much spare time...), but maybe not as the one who starts
> something.

most team projects fail. Most single developer projects fail. The difference is
the single developer projects start as q&d basement hacks, if they fail, they
were never heard of and essentially never existed. Team code, however, has
public mention before code is started, so even if they have the same failure
rate, a larger percentage of team effort is seen as vaporware. I've found that
when ppl are involved, there'll usually be at least one industrious person who
immediately (if prematurely) belts out some code. My experience is extremely
limited, tho :) 

It's fun to participate in a project that's good and getting better. It's
almost garunteed success. "Gee, this app is hot, and it's gonna be big, I'll do
something lame to get my name on the authors file and pretend like I made a
major contribution" <-- been there, done that :(

> 
> Conclusion: too many projects that get designed to be done by non-local
> teams (i.e. people that can't see eachother easily) don't have good
> success rates. Gimp started out as a 2-person thing, and others joined
> later as it had got well udnerway and was usable.
> 

non local teams get much more public documentation, so their failure rates are
more obvious. This failure rate exists on local teams and individuals, too.
It's nice to be able to sit down and hand wave and write on a whiteboard and
draw sketches, but it usually breaks down to hanging out and of course 'real
life' taking precedence. I'd imagine the failure rates for team projects (local
or remote) are about equal, and individually initiated projects is probably a
lot higher (no commitment, no one else depending on your code, the only person
ya let down is yourself, and you'll understand, really... :)

> And now for something completely different....
> 
> Are there any people on this list that are interested in discussing
> strategy-games? The emphasis nowadays is a bit too much on 3D-games witgh
> pretty gfx. I'd like to try (again) to make a simpl Empire-clone or
> something resembling the old Civil War-series that SSI had 15 years ago.
> Has anyone else has similar ideas? It would be nice to discuss and
> exchange ideas and experience. I've over the years worked on N versions of
> Empire, and every version gets a little closer to getting ready, but then
> my energy and/or knowledge has stopped me from finishing it. Now I
> _should_ have the technical knowledge to pull something like that off, but
> it would be fun to discuss gameplay etc.
> 

in reading minutes from 'developer roundtables' and articles here and there, it
seems that a lot of developers know that everyone gots the gfx and they won't
do anything radical, the emphasis seems to have shifted to AI's. The smarter
the 'monster', the more enthralling the game. RTS games emphasize things likes
best path algorithms, flocking, etc. Even FPS games are getting 'smarter', the
ai's in UTDemo are unnervingly "smart", it's a pleasure to fight these bots for
hours whereas fighting bots in quake gets boring pretty quick. Good application
of sciences like fuzzy logic and concepts like team efforts can make "just
another game" very outstanding :) I appreciate AI technologies, even if my
understanding is minimal, and I like to talk (mebbe I just like to hear my
voice, mebbe I just like to argue. Allz I know is I have fun making big huge
emails to piss everyone off)

> ---------------------+------------------------------------------------------
>  Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |    CS at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
>     Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, no-one hears you scream
> 
> 
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        -Erik <br0ke@math.smsu.edu> [http://math.smsu.edu/~br0ke]

The opinions expressed by me are not necessarily opinions. In all
probability, they are random rambling, and to be ignored. Failure to ignore
may result in severe boredom or confusion. Shake well before opening. Keep
Refrigerated.