NxtGen Media - The Freeman View » tools

sfxr Audio Tool

freeman — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:12:36 +0000

I am not an audio guy by any stretch of the imagination. In learning Unity, I am finding that I have to wear a lot of hats. I’m a programmer, and even if not an expert in the other areas, I am finding that I still have to know enough to work with those that are. As for composing Music, I am just not going to touch it as I have my hands full with dealing with Blender. As for sound effects I can get away with the beep sound, but sometimes you just want to hear a sound that is in the ball park of what you intended. Somehow when your testing your laser cannon out, a beep just doesn’t do it justice. Enter, Dr. Peter’s sfxr utility.

Made in 2007 for a game dev competition for teams that did not have time to look for sounds in their mad rush to complete the game by the deadline. The utility allows you to choose from randomly generated sounds for pick-up, shooting, explosion, power-up, hit, jump, and select. You can also tweak the sound and export it to a .wav file. Not the highest quality, but it certainly beats the system beep sound and will give you an idea of what your effect could sound like.

DCF

Flash Platform Gaming Technology Center

freeman — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Adobe announces a site that will be dedicated to game development. With all the growth and change in the browser based gaming space over the past year, I am not surprised. Farmville consumes so many of my friends time it’s not even funny.

Adobe has made some good moves this year, and is in a very good position in terms of browser penetration. Flash has become a big part of the user web experience and has a good chance of becoming the platform of choice for interactive media on the web. Still, as I maintain my Flash skills, I also look to Unity3D simply because of the superior firepower.

Flash is a great all around development platform that keeps getting better, but the Flash player still needs a boost in performance for the gaming side. If Flash gets to the performance level of the Unity engine, Adobe wins big. It does appear that Adobe will eventually get the Flash player to the level of performance of Unity, but just how long that will be is the question. My guess is that with everything heating up the way it is in online gaming, it should be fairly soon.

Adobe Flash Platform Gaming Technology Center

Blender 2.5 Alpha Available

freeman — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:46:27 +0000

The Blender 2.5 alpha is out for testing. I have not been a fan of Blender in the past, but seeing as my favorite hobbyist 3D modeling software (Caligari Truespace) went belly up, I gotta start looking into something that will be around for the long haul. You can still download Truepsace from the what’s left of the Caligari site, but who knows how long that will be kept up? I’ve used Truespace since version 2.0. I also use it because it has a swf exporter plug-in, and works well in Windows 7, and for the moment it is free. That being said, who knows how long that will last? If nothing else happens to Truespace, I’m giving it two years of useful life, hence the reason I am looking at Blender.

Blender never really set well with me because the interface was so difficult to get used to. This new version is supposed to address the interface, and I am rather excited about giving it a shot. Up until the release of Unity Indie, 3D modeling was never really anything more to me than a hobby. With Truespace, I could design interfaces and export them to Flash, but that was pretty much it. For anything more powerful, I needed a 3D engine. Now, I have to get serious about 3D if I hope to produce quality work in Unity. Truly a game change is on. Could the days of the lone wolf developer be coming back? Very exciting days ahead.

A New Hope

freeman — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:57:36 +0000

I’ve been working with Unity3D for a few weeks now, and I am totally pumped. In fact, I am more than just pumped, I am inspired. I had no idea how long I have been waiting for this day to come, hell I did not think it was even possible and so quickly. It is like being in the desert with a limited amount of water, and coming upon an oasis with not just a spring, but a well of ice cold water. I had some idea of what I wanted from a development environment, but had no way of realizing it. Director and Flash were as close, as I could get to having an app that would allow me to produce the type of web media I was dreaming of, but fell short in way too many areas.

This move by Unity to make the indie version free was not only brilliant, but I am starting to believe that this could be the start of a new era in web media. A revolution if you will. The power that Unity has is simply immense when it comes to web. It supports 3D gaming now, but how much of a stretch would it be to add flex-like support to Unity? I mean seriously, it will be trivial for Unity to do 2D apps. I already know that as soon as I can save enough pennies I will be upgrading to the pro version for home. My boss was so impressed by the quality of Unity that our next projects are now all slated for Unity. Flash still has a place in our tool kit, but it may be losing its prominence very soon. It is truly a great time to be in web media.

Unity3d free?!!

freeman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:25:27 +0000

Last week, I sent DiamondTearz an email asking him was he still excited about Unity3D. I sent this, because I was considering buying it, despite my reservations about player penetration and such. He wrote me back that not only did he love it, but that the indie version was free.

Shocking? Absolutely. The few things that were holding me back from pursuing development were obviously player penetration, and not really wanting to spend $200 on a technology that I was not sure was going to be around for the long haul. With the $200 barrier gone, I would be crazy not to seriously begin developing with this engine. All I have to lose now is time, and I am betting that with the release of the indie version, player penetration is going to increase and Unity will be around for some time to come.

Excited? More than you can imagine. The little bit I played with Unity before, gave me the impression that this was huge, but I was just not ready to spend time with something else over my beloved Flash. Too many years in the development relationship with Flash, but god was I tempted. Now with this release, I see at the very least I can begin to realize prototypes and experiments that were simply not possible in Flash. I would often go home from a day of working in Flash, and work on games and experiments in Flash. Now I will be doing that ‘homework’ in Unity. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about a home project. Oh yeah, back in the days when I first started using Flash. This move by Unity was brilliant. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the industry as a result.

DCF

Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS)

freeman — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:17:35 +0000

I love to dabble in both graphics and audio, even if I’m only a novice. I have played with Acid and Fruity Loops, and really like them but could not justify getting the latest versions since money is tight and audio is not really where my development focus is. I have been on the lookout for an open source equivalent, and it looks like there is a good one now out.

Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS) is a cross platform tool similar to Fruity Loops. Has a good set of features, and is pretty quick to jump into and create something. Has great documentation, and is really stable. Best of all it is free. If you have the desire to dabble in the audio end, this is a great way to start. Check it out at:
LMMS
Also of Note:
ZynAddSubFX - a nice open source synthesizer (great for creating sound effects).
DCF

BigDump - Large Db importer

freeman — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:15:04 +0000

Ever have a situation where you export a MySQL database to move to another location, only to find that you can’t load it to the new location via phpmyadmin because of script timeout? You can always load the script from the command line, provided you have access to the command line and know the MySQL commands, but suppose you don’t have these abilities. Bigdump.php may be the answer for you.

Bigdump is a staggered MySQL dump importer. It allows for the import of large databases to be broken up into small task so the system does not time out. I’ve used it on a number of database imports with great success. Just load it to your web server, configure it for your database, and run. It really is a nice utility.

Check it out

DCF

Game Changers - HTML5

freeman — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:08:32 +0000

Ran into this on Seb Lee-Delisle’s blog showing what is possible with HTML5 canvas. The bar of what is possible in a browser and the available technologies one can do it in is definitely growing. Very impressive to say the least.

Simple 3D in HTML5 canvas

Flash and Flex Developer’s Magazine Goes Digital

freeman — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:15:28 +0000

When I first heard about this magazine, I was very interested. Problem was, I could not find it in my area, and I really did not have the desire or inclination to get a subscription. Now I hear that FFD Magazine is now a digital publication, and the magazine will be FREE! Such a great resource, and it’s free as in beer!

The Flash community is pretty vast and eclectic, so I imagine by going digital FFD obviously cuts the printing and distribution cost and most likely can make it on advertising because of their reach. Regardless, it is a great magazine with tips from industry experts, and is a great way to keep up with all that is going on with Flash and Flex. The old issues are already up.

Check it out at: www.ffdmag.com

-DCF

OpenSim

freeman — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:04:54 +0000

Lately, I have been working with OpenSimulator (OpenSim for short). OpenSim is an open source project dedicated to providing an open platform for the realization of virtual worlds. OpenSim is compatible with SecondLife and is in alpha phase of development, but looks pretty good. It is developed using Mono and runs on Linux, and Windows. My interest in it is because my company wants to get into virtual worlds. We had a few projects running in Second Life, and now my company want its own world. OpenSim looks like the ticket.

Another interest is that there is another virtual world project called RealXtend that is attempting to get Flash working within OpenSim. Second Life has scripting, but it is rather limited. Having the ability to use C# and Flash inside of a virtual world is very compelling.

So far I have gotten a test server up with OpenSim running and was able to get connected using the SecondLife Viewer and run around in the virtual world and it is pretty impressive. We were able to create some character animations, and load them right on the character just as you would in Second Life. So in essence, it’s like having your own version of Second Life for your personal use. Lots of work to do on it, but it looks promising at this early stage.

-DCF