Fractals on Paper

06Jul09

As requested, here are my printed fractal pictures.
Please click to enlarge!

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Graphics   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Fractals, Mandelbrot, Pictures

New Release of Zelda – Black Crown: Updater!

30Jun09

And another update to my Zelda fan-game. Besides many new items, a new boss and more – the greatest new addition is an Updater / Patcher which allows you to get the very latest version without re-downloading the full game. Enjoy!

Installer: http://tick.federrot.at/zelda/beta/TheLegendOfZelda_BlackCrown.msi
Stand Alone: http://tick.federrot.at/zelda/beta/TheLegendOfZelda_BlackCrown.zip

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For the people that are interested how I’ve implemented the Updater / Patcher:
When I decide to release a new version I run custom “Release Packager Tool”.

This tool creates, amongst other things, a manifest file that stores the date and time every file of the game has been modified. This manifest, including, all other files is then uploaded to my webspace. Now when you start the Updater / Patcher it downloads that manifest file and checks what other files need be updated by downloading them too.

To make the patcher itself update-able I am using a stub executable that runs the actual patcher executable in a separate AppDomain. That AppDomain has Shadow Copying of Files enabled. ShadowCopyFiles = “true” has the effect that the assembly and its dependencies are copied into a temporary folder upon execution -> as such the original patcher files are not locked and can be replaced.

    var domainSetup = new AppDomainSetup() { 
        ShadowCopyFiles = “true”
    };

    var domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain(
        “Update Domain”,
        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.Evidence,
        domainSetup
    );

    domain.ExecuteAssembly( updaterAssembly );

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Games, The Legend of Zelda: Black Crown   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Black Crown, C#, Game, Game Development, Patcher, The Legend of Zelda, XNA, Zelda

TLOZ-BC updated: SETS and more..

08Jun09

And once again I’ve released a new version of my action hack & slash game.
The greatest new addition is.. SET ITEMS – read the patch notes for further changes.

Use the installer if you play the game for the very first time.
It will make sure that you’ve got all required prerequisites.

Installer: http://tick.federrot.at/zelda/beta/TheLegendOfZelda_BlackCrown.msi
Stand Alone: http://tick.federrot.at/zelda/beta/TheLegendOfZelda_BlackCrown.zip

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Games, The Legend of Zelda: Black Crown, XNA Framework   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: .net, Black Crown, C#, Game, Game Development, hack & slash, The Legend of Zelda, XNA, Zelda

.. and has been updated.

30May09

I’ve just released a new version of my action hack & slash game.
Use the installer if you play the game for the very first time.
It will make sure that you’ve got all required prerequisites.

Installer: http://tick.federrot.at/zelda/beta/TheLegendOfZelda_BlackCrown.msi
Stand Alone: http://tick.federrot.at/zelda/beta/TheLegendOfZelda_BlackCrown.zip

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Games, The Legend of Zelda: Black Crown, Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Black Crown, Game, hack & slash, The Legend of Zelda, XNA, Zelda

The legend begins …

17May09

The legend begins … a new hero is born …
This is the first public beta release of my hack & slash fan-RPG
The Legend of Zelda – Black Crow; that comes with an installer.

I’d love to hear any feedback and/or constructive critism. Have fun!
:)

DOWNLOAD INSTALLER HERE

Filed under: Games, The Legend of Zelda: Black Crown, XNA Framework   |  3 Comments
Tags: Black Crown, C#, fan game, Game, Game Development, hack & slash, The Legend of Zelda, XNA, Zelda

John Conway’s Game of Life

09Mar09

The Game of Life in Silverlight 2

http://tick.federrot.at/gameoflife/gol.html

The Game of Life is another Cellular Automata. This automata consists of a two-dimensional grid of cells. By following simple rules interesting behaviour can emerge.

The default rules are as followed:

1. Any live (black) cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by needs caused by underpopulation.
2. Any live (black) cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
3. Any dead (white) cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes an live cell.

My implementation of Conway’s Game of Life allows you to add well known starting conditions which emerge into self-repeating (oscillating), chaotic and/or self-destructive patterns. You can also toggle the state of any cell by simply clicking it.

I’d be happy to post the Source Code if anyone is interested.

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway’s_Game_of_Life

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Graphics, Silverlight   |  2 Comments

Cellular Automata

04Dec08

http://tick.federrot.at/automata/automata.html

A cellular automata consists of a grid of cells, with each cell having a number of states. The cells of the simple automata, that I’ve implemented in Silverlight, can have one of two states: On (Black) or Off (White).

Each row in the grid represents one generation (in this automata).
The state of a row depends on the state of the previous row, and so on.

A simple rule is used to generate the state of each cell of a row:
For each entry in the row we take the (N – 1th, Nth, N + 1th) cell triple
in the previous row.

Now we take this triple and use a lookup table to get the state of the entry.
Here are the lookup tables for two of the most famous patterns:

Rule 30 cellular automaton lookup table:

current pattern	111	110	101	100	011	010	001	000
new state for center cell	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	0

Rule 110 cellular automaton lookup table:

current pattern	111	110	101	100	011	010	001	000
new state for center cell	0	1	1	0	1	1	1	0

See the Wikipedia entry for more information.

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Graphics, Silverlight, Uncategorized   |  2 Comments
Tags: Cellular Automata, Silverlight

the hyper cube | imagine the 4th dimension

01Nov08

Today I’ve met a poor little cube. He lives in 4 dimensional space. Because of that we won’t ever be able to see him in his true glory. How sad!

And as such he decided to dance for us, allowing us to imagine his life in the 4th dimension. Can you? 

Filed under: Fun Stuff, Graphics, XNA Framework   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Hyper Cube, Music, Video, XNA

What a great week!

28Oct08

Whee! I’ve updated all of my Silverlight and .net applications that I’ve posted!
Just to remind you, It is PDC week – the biggest developer event of the year!
I’m having a blast watching all the new videos at Channel 9 and the live stream.

They have shown some great new innovations on PDC so far.
You can find out what is new in C# 4.0 here.
Dynamic languages are going to be first class citizens in .net 4! Whee!

And… another great announcement:
The public beta of The Legend of Zelda: Black Crown is going public this week,
hopefully one day after the release of Microsoft’s XNA3.

Just to show off my (updated) Super Shapes application,
you can find information about the it here:
 

[ Super Shapes | a WPF application ]

- download here
- original posting here

  

Filed under: Super Shapes, The Legend of Zelda: Black Crown, Windows Presentation Foundation   |  2 Comments
Tags: PDC, Super Shapes, SuperShapes updated, The Legend of Zelda: Black Crown

InvTetris for Silverlight 2 updated!

17Oct08

http://tick.federrot.at/tetris/tetris.html

I’ve updated my Inverse-Space Two-Player Silverlight-2 tetris game.
It now features three game modi, customizeable controls and
uses the final of Silverlight 2.

Just to remind you, this is how it looks like:

InvTetris

Filed under: Games, Silverlight   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Black & White, Game, InvTetris, Silverlight 2, Tetris