Having no prior exposure, this is possibly the pinnacle of 8-bit art and chiptunes. I am awestruck.

Hello Clock Crew.
It's been a while since I have posted, and while I am trying to get my post count up, life intervenes on a pretty much constant basis. However, in between installing dish network systems 14+ hours a day (meaning on my day off), I have been making an effort to learn more about this remarkable little tool. As someone who wants to learn to make games primarily and other things second, I'm very interested in it. However, the textbook I'm using seems to be very lacking, and as a result, I am kind of in a rut. I am focusing on 2d games at the moment, as honestly, I don't want to move on to 3d until I feel confident in using the framework (learning the intricacies of the classes like the vectors, how to best utilize the draw() and update() functions, content pipeline, getting those soundbanks and wavebanks to work properly, learning more about how collision detection works, and many things like this. ). Basically, I'm looking for someone who wouldn't mind me asking a bunch of stupid questions. Also known as a mentor. In all seriousness, I've been working very hard on learning this, I have very much a working knowledge of how C# works (syntax, classes, member access, using directives, namespaces, etc.) Here's a brief list of what I know as it comes to XNA:

1.) Most ways to declare spritebatch objects (Need some clarification on members)

2.) the basics of the Content Pipeline

3.) Sound cues and playing music loaded straight from the pipeline (mediaplayer class)

4.) Basic (extremely) collision detection

5.) Input (The easy part, I suppose)

What I am looking to learn is as follows in no particular order:

1.) Basics of animated sprites (Things like swinging a sword, firing a laser, etc)

2.) More advanced collision detection basics (Making the sword / beam do damage)

3.) This is a long one, related to lasers etc. What I am looking to make for kind of a stepping off point is an asteroids clone. Nothing in the form of complex art or anything. I'm sure I can figure out most of it. What I can't wrap my head around yet in this application is firstly how to make the laser beam load from the front of the ship, and proceed to the edge unless it hits something. I have the pseudocode for such an action, but the actual code escapes me. Secondly, I can't seem to understand how to make the asteroids subdivide, would I delete that object and load 2 separate objects in it's place? and if so how would I put that into update()? And thirdly, How does a score system work, so it can be displayed on a screen? Are there open source spritefonts out there, like for example in a big database like findsounds? That actually encompasses my huge and crushing questions. I hope someone wouldn't mind helping. Thanks in advance.

Quote from: Hazard Clock;1816781

The man has DK64, cut him some slack.

Only one furry in Japan? They must be undercover, preparing their invasion.

That was it, thanks a bundle.

Is there still an open source sound library online for various sound effects? I remember there used to be a simply massive one in 2007 when I last dusted off flash, but I can't remember what it was called and I don't even know if it's still around.

Skittles commercials are known to be funny, but this one is the best I have ever seen.

We have reached some kind of Thread Title Singularity... I can't break free, Cap'n... We're going in!

Quote from: Insomnia;1812643We should make a thread where we talk about titling the thread where we talk about thread topics.

Ow... Oooowww... That hurt my brain.

Quote from: EnglishClock;1812556This isn't completely true. There is less of an incentive to make cartoons compared to how things have been prior, but people are still making them and occassionally there is even a good one.

The CC taught me how to animate, it even taught Munglai how to animate, and countless more of us.  

i think the clock crew's problem most of the time is the unwillingness to move away from the clock-for-a-face concept even for a single animation. dlc, i agree how it can be a weight that restricts from the artists' real potential, but only really when we consider it mandatory. In that case, it becomes a crutch. Otherwise, there are people who manage to keep it fresh. We should be a group of artists which chooses to collaborate, self-improve, and share work with one another, rather than one which feels obliged to use pre-existing concepts and gags.

The clock crew we knew almost a decade ago is obviously dead. This is not neccessarily a bad thing. Everything changes over time and if we were playing our cards right we would have progressed into something better than what we were.

Newgrounds is slowly dying, and we've relied on it all this time as a life source. We currently don't host any of our cartoons on our website. It's unfortunate that in this point in time, anything we make fades away after not so long. most of us know we need to be more independant and see things from a bigger perspective than just newgrounds

From what I see from my long hiatus is that we've been rapidly declining, and the site redesign just makes the site feel so much smaller. I once got endless enjoyment from browsing the debate thread (where you were reminded that if you lost you would likely be banned), the medical help thread, and the writing thread. There was Coal's mentorship thing, among other things. It seems that at some point, interest has been lost in continuing these things. And yes, sadly NG is dying, but it has been for years. We, however, weren't dying. Our members were making videos, making posts, and being sociable. At the point when I joined, CBM was long gone, most (if not all) of the originals were gone, I think Leek was the leader, but everything seemed to work. I'm not too sure how this can be remedied, but I'm willing to help. Ciao for now.

Quote from: SherClockHolmes;1812558To carry on what Loki said each pointer is an edge to the next node.

For example I would probably set up something like so,

class Node {
public:
   Node();
   Node(Node* n);
   void setNode(Node *n);
   Node* getNode();
private:
   Node* n;
};

In the .cpp file you would have n equal the next pointer to the node you want in your list. The class can always be modified for the data you want to store. Does that help answer your question?

Yes Thank you very much! Also, about STL, I do have a question about it, I heard it can slow down a program to an incredible degree, because using one container loads the whole STL. If it doesn't really slow down a program too much, then I fully agree. I've just been really... stuck lately on it. It's frustrating really. Thanks for your responses.

Quote from: Vuvuzela;1812395i think macs are an okay computer, but why do they cost so FUCKING much?

Macs cost so much because they area closed equipment standard. Mac parts only work with macs, and as such, they are far more streamlined than your average PC. Macs are also built, because they can't be user-upgraded, so that they won't be completely obsolete in 6 months, so a lot of engineering goes into that, and as such, a lot of consumer cost. The only reason I personally don't like Macs is their file system, hardware-wise they're amazing.

Assuming that macs do in fact function as computers, no. An additional 1.3 million cycles per second is child's play compared to other things, such as smoothness of operation. I'll admit, I am a PC person, but working on macs for my job (Wildblue technician), it seems like your aluminum machine is still by fat the better choice.

Plus aluminum looks so much better than white.

Just sayin.

Quote from: SoBe Clock;1812378Why is buying portal shameful? It's a great game.

Because I waited several years to get it. I agree, is a great game, especially given that the only characterization in it is pretty much for GLaDOS. And it's very entertaining to replay to find everything as well.

Quote from: The Cancer Clock;1812352Nice. I don't personally watch Cable or anything, but I know that this could be super useful. Teach me how to steal this stuff.

Lol actually that's nearly impossible anymore, I'm afraid. I know Dish uses a daily rotating encryption that's downloaded to all receivers at 3am. I am, however, ironically in the same boat as you. The only tv I watch is at either customer's houses or my girlfriend's house. Puts me in a bit of a pickle when someone asks me what channel everything's on.

Edit: What in the hell happened when I typed "my girlfriend? It seems.... odd.

Even though it's kind of shameful to admit, I just bought Portal. What an awesome way to spend 15 bucks.

I learned a while back how to make linked lists etc in C++. Now I'm getting back into it, and I can't seem to remember how to do it. I was using structs before, one for the entire node, and one for the data payload, with a named typedef of that payload type nested inside the node. I cant' for the life of me though seem to remember the most important part: storing the address of that node and the next node in the struct. Also, would a class be better for this, with virtual functions etc should I say want to make this into stacks, queues, binary trees etc? I can post code if requested, but it will take a bit to dig it up.

Quote from: Zen Micro Clock;1812341Welcome back! I don't remember you at all but hopefully you stick around for a bit.

Plan to this time. Not going to burn myself out trying to teach myself flash like I did last time. I think I remember you a bit, your name rings a bell, but I have a very good and long memory, so that doesn't mean much. Thanks for your welcoming gesture.

Also, just in case it comes up, I'm willing to save anyone with Dish or Wildblue a tech visit by helping troubleshoot. Worst it could do is save you $15-$95 bucks. 75% of tech visits can be solved in the home. Just throwing that out there, since it is what I do for a living.

Hey Lump. I actually remember you from waaaay back then. I've changed usernames since, went by Lemonade first time around, as you can see from my way out of date avatar. And Poptart, do remember please that there is more than one way to skin a cat, try experimentation to find which is right for you. Only then can you find true happiness.

Hello clockcrew.cc . My name is Flask, and I used to do a lot of lurking here. I left for whatever reason, and just never came back. I'm a lot different now though, but to avoid dreaded nooblet status, I logged on to my old account, almost 4 years after I created it. Glad do see Tiem is back up and running, and a lot of good things seem to have happened since I've been gone. A bit about me, I'm a Dish Network tech, very busy, I spend my free time between programming and hanging out with people. That and gaming. I know a bit of C++. and C#, and am willing to learn Actionscript, however I don't have the money to purchase a copy of flash at the moment. Mostly, I'm here to hang out, write, and learn. I would like to actually become a Clockfriend rather than keeping the Clock status. Well, that's all for tonight, see you all around.