So I decided to haul my lazy ass and continue working on BLARGH Text Editor. I've successfully ported my code to the new devkitARM release 24, and libnds 1.3.1.
Just get the file save/load working, and its already a full-fledged text editor. And now that there's some official sample code on how to get libfat working, it'll be easier for me.
Next major features needed are some unfinished text editing features (cut, copy, paste, search), and multiple text files opened via tabs. But I want to concentrate on file save/load first.
Unicode support would require me to create all those characters from foreign languages. I'd be willing to make ones for accented english letters, but that's about it. I sure as hell won't be doing all those Chinese characters. Perhaps the Japanese Kana letters, since I'm learning them, but definitely not the Chinese Kanji.
Dictionary lookup will perhaps be the last on the list.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Monday, July 21, 2008
Gunner Rifle Weapon
I finally decided on the gunner's rifle weapon. Not textured yet. He'll also have a pistol as a secondary weapon.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
BLARGH Text Editor File Save Dialog Box GUI
This is a mock-up concept of BLARGH's File Save GUI that I've made so far. It should work almost like a standard file browser program. While in the File Save GUI, the upper screen should still show the text editor, and you can still switch between other opened text files.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
wrist rot problem fixed
After a long time, I tried working on the gunner's wrist problem once more. I bothered downloading The Mancandy FAQ only to find out it didn't explain how the rigging in the wrist worked.
I tried searching in BlenderArtists and found a solution in a thread. It was this blend file in particular (made by doncuan) that gave me the idea. However, I did realize that I had modeled my character's mesh without giving forethought to wrist rotation. This other blend file (made by Vertex Pusher) demonstrates a much better forearm mesh designed to twist properly. I'll study it in detail when I make a new character.
I also modeled and rigged the gunner's weapon. Its not textured yet. After looking at it, I decided it looked too much like a fireman's hose, so I'm going to make a different model.
I tried searching in BlenderArtists and found a solution in a thread. It was this blend file in particular (made by doncuan) that gave me the idea. However, I did realize that I had modeled my character's mesh without giving forethought to wrist rotation. This other blend file (made by Vertex Pusher) demonstrates a much better forearm mesh designed to twist properly. I'll study it in detail when I make a new character.
I also modeled and rigged the gunner's weapon. Its not textured yet. After looking at it, I decided it looked too much like a fireman's hose, so I'm going to make a different model.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
The Girl in Byakkoya
Paprika
Movie - 90 minutes running time
Final Verdict: You know "The Cell"? The one with Jennifer Lopez? That sucks compared to this movie. If you haven't seen it, then this is the movie that you should have watched back in 2007.
Don't forget to download the ending theme music from http://www.teslakite.com/freemp3s/e/paprika/. Its been made free for personal use by the music artist. He wants you to read the license before downloading it.
The film was directed by Satoshi Kon, same guy who made Paranoia Agent. This film is his latest (released) work as of 2008.
Paprika was created by Yasutaka Tsutsui. It was originally a short story in a Japanese women's magazine, which he later turned into a full blown novel.
Unfortunately, http://www.radioclub.jp gives a 404 error.
And you need a DC mini to access it.
Movie - 90 minutes running time
Final Verdict: You know "The Cell"? The one with Jennifer Lopez? That sucks compared to this movie. If you haven't seen it, then this is the movie that you should have watched back in 2007.
Don't forget to download the ending theme music from http://www.teslakite.com/freemp3s/e/paprika/. Its been made free for personal use by the music artist. He wants you to read the license before downloading it.
The film was directed by Satoshi Kon, same guy who made Paranoia Agent. This film is his latest (released) work as of 2008.
Paprika was created by Yasutaka Tsutsui. It was originally a short story in a Japanese women's magazine, which he later turned into a full blown novel.
Unfortunately, http://www.radioclub.jp gives a 404 error.
And you need a DC mini to access it.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Kamen Rider Kiva
I watched Kamen Rider Kiva Episode 1 and I have to say, I had hoped it'd be something I could watch in earnest, but these shows are still mainly for kids. But since its only the first episode, I'm willing to watch more of it first.
BLARGH Text Editor is moving along at a slow pace, only a few bugfixes and refactoring being done right now. A lot of things being done under the hood.
In the meantime I am thinking of:
1This is odd though. The version of GCIDE from the GNU ftp server (latest version 0.46) is about 53 MB in size when uncompressed. In contrast, the version that comes in the StarDict website is 156 MB when uncompressed, about 103 MB bigger (about two-thirds bigger).
The stardict version reports its wordcount is 174,222 words (coming from the .ifo file). The version from the GNU ftp server reports its wordcount is 125,445 words (coming from a grep -c "<hw>" cide.*). The StarDict version has 48,777 more words. Its quite odd though that the additional 48,777 words would take up 103 MB (approx. 66% of the file size) while 125,445 words would take up only 53 MB (34% of the file size). So it probably means other than the addition of 48,777 more words, more content have been added to the old words.
Coming from the .ifo file, the stardict version was last modified in 2003, May 13 (most likely outdated information), while from the GNU ftp server, version 0.46 was last modified in 2002, April 15.
This is making me think that the GNU ftp server is probably outdated. A certain Linux dictionary reader software has a GCIDE version 0.48, released last 2007, December 20.
BLARGH Text Editor is moving along at a slow pace, only a few bugfixes and refactoring being done right now. A lot of things being done under the hood.
In the meantime I am thinking of:
- saving/loading files to/from a pc via wifi (using libdswifi, and perhaps somehow porting UFTP to ARM executable NDS code)
- additional on-screen keyboards: OPTI and Quikwrite
- dictionary lookup, using perhaps code from NewDictS. The GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English packaged in StartDict format is roughly 150 MB big when uncompressed1 (and NewDictS needs it uncompressed), so I want to improve it by compressing the .dict file in either QuickLZ or LZO.
1This is odd though. The version of GCIDE from the GNU ftp server (latest version 0.46) is about 53 MB in size when uncompressed. In contrast, the version that comes in the StarDict website is 156 MB when uncompressed, about 103 MB bigger (about two-thirds bigger).
The stardict version reports its wordcount is 174,222 words (coming from the .ifo file). The version from the GNU ftp server reports its wordcount is 125,445 words (coming from a grep -c "<hw>" cide.*). The StarDict version has 48,777 more words. Its quite odd though that the additional 48,777 words would take up 103 MB (approx. 66% of the file size) while 125,445 words would take up only 53 MB (34% of the file size). So it probably means other than the addition of 48,777 more words, more content have been added to the old words.
Coming from the .ifo file, the stardict version was last modified in 2003, May 13 (most likely outdated information), while from the GNU ftp server, version 0.46 was last modified in 2002, April 15.
This is making me think that the GNU ftp server is probably outdated. A certain Linux dictionary reader software has a GCIDE version 0.48, released last 2007, December 20.
Monday, April 21, 2008
ENTER LIL' SLUGGER
Paranoia Agent
TV Series - 13 episodes
Final Verdict: Riddled with symbolisms, this animé mini-series is not for people who don't like thinking.
Don't forget to read Nichi Bei Times article "Entertainment Re-oriented: Atomic Pop Pt. II: Hello Kitty and the Rape of Nanking" for more explanations on the symbolisms.
I think the most well thought-out stories are episodes 2 and 3 (The Golden Shoes, and Double Lips): fear of getting wrongly accused, and fear of losing self-control.
Taeko's story on the other hand, I would say the creation of her story was hurried up, or the presentation of it was summarized too much. Nevertheless, its depiction was just as dramatic as the other stories/episodes. She is presented as a victim of the events around her. Unlike other characters, she does not have any apparent flaw in her nature (Yuichi had delsuions of fame, Harumi had a split personality, Hirukawa was a hypocite, and so on..). But I like how when she wished to become nothing (something far-fetched, how can a person become "nothing"?), it resulted in her getting amnesia (ahh, makes more sense now).
Shonen Bat is a tulpa (synonymous to thoughtform), a tangible manifestation of mental energy, albeit in this case, he was created from the overall repressed negative feelings of the city's populace.
The first half of the story depicts him being a hero whose actions were misinterpreted by the people: saving individuals suffering from extreme emotional/mental breakdowns by hospitalizing them, lolz.
But really, there is some truth to that. It could be said that death grants a person the final, ultimate peace: since the worst thing that could possibly happen to you already happened (i.e. you died), then what's more to be worried about (with regards to yourself)?
That way of thinking, that feeling, was what Shonen Bat's victims experienced. Its as if God "pressed the reset button" for your whole life; you get a second chance (although you don't know its your second one).
In the later half of the story though, Shonen Bat's role turns into something more sadistic.
Since he is a tulpa, he is given form by what people perceive him to be. Rumors of Shonen Bat's indiscriminate assaults on whoever left people thinking "Would I be next?".
Rumors exagerate facts: "I heard he's not human.", turns into "I heard he's inhuman, like some monster.", which turns into "I heard he's a monster." And, well, since the word monster is simple enough to understand, it is also very ambiguous. People are left to their imagination as to how he really looks like, given the words "baseball bat", "inline skates", and "monster" as clues.
So people saw him as a monster, and since he is a tulpa, what people perceive him to be is what he becomes. And so, rather humorously, his appearance turned into something reminiscent of a run-of-the-mill Role-paying Game monster, which is what more or less people think him to be (typical of teenagers, since they play video games).
IMO I liked his original form better: a mad grinning boy who prefers to speak only on a monthly-basis and lets the baseball bat do the communication. It depicts more sadism than an RPG monster
Why did the storywriter shift the story this way? My guess is that, they want to resolve the story in a climactic struggle. They needed an obviously apparent antagonist.
Some may be perplexed why Mitsuhiro (the younger detective) suddenly turned into a weirdo who thinks he's a RPG hero. It makes sense, Shonen Bat, being what people perceive him to be, turned into a monster. What better way to fight him in equal terms than to step into that perception too? In fact, I think it was really the only way that had a fighting chance to defeat him (other than if his creator chose to uncreate him).
"The populace became angry and the society turned into anarchy because.. they ran out of stock for plushie toys?" I could remember that scene, a man in a business suit was pounding the door to the store screaming for that Maromi doll. I don't think this was another symbolism, it was really happening in the real world in that story. It supposedly represents the populace's dependency on dolls. I don't buy that. Lots of people don't care about Hello Kitty, nor even heard of it. I know Japan has dependencies on kawaii stuff (Nichi Bei Times article "Entertainment Re-oriented: Atomic Pop Pt. II: Hello Kitty and the Rape of Nanking" and The Escapist article "Hail to the Kitty"). But for people to turn into raving lunatics for it? I mean, I'd doubt you'd find a Japanese street gang sporting Hello Kitty keychains or a Hello Kitty AR-15 Rifle.
In western philosophy, growing up means "throwing away your old toys", a sort of rite-of-passage if you will, from young teenager to adulthood. On the other end, in Japanese culture, growing up means keeping what you have and simply adding more to them. Personally, I go somewhere in between, choosing to continually screen the old stuff through a filter: "Ok, this one, do I keep it?"
The storywriter should have made up a more reasonable cause for the anarchism (my guess is that they needed the setting of the world to be in anarchy for the final part of the story, as emphasis to the gravity of the situation).
The black ooze overrunning the whole city is fine (I think its the tulpa in an extremely unstable and saturated state), just.. they should have a better reason than out of stock plushie toys, or perhaps some other thing in conjunction with it.
TV Series - 13 episodes
Final Verdict: Riddled with symbolisms, this animé mini-series is not for people who don't like thinking.
Don't forget to read Nichi Bei Times article "Entertainment Re-oriented: Atomic Pop Pt. II: Hello Kitty and the Rape of Nanking" for more explanations on the symbolisms.
I think the most well thought-out stories are episodes 2 and 3 (The Golden Shoes, and Double Lips): fear of getting wrongly accused, and fear of losing self-control.
Taeko's story on the other hand, I would say the creation of her story was hurried up, or the presentation of it was summarized too much. Nevertheless, its depiction was just as dramatic as the other stories/episodes. She is presented as a victim of the events around her. Unlike other characters, she does not have any apparent flaw in her nature (Yuichi had delsuions of fame, Harumi had a split personality, Hirukawa was a hypocite, and so on..). But I like how when she wished to become nothing (something far-fetched, how can a person become "nothing"?), it resulted in her getting amnesia (ahh, makes more sense now).
Shonen Bat is a tulpa (synonymous to thoughtform), a tangible manifestation of mental energy, albeit in this case, he was created from the overall repressed negative feelings of the city's populace.
The first half of the story depicts him being a hero whose actions were misinterpreted by the people: saving individuals suffering from extreme emotional/mental breakdowns by hospitalizing them, lolz.
But really, there is some truth to that. It could be said that death grants a person the final, ultimate peace: since the worst thing that could possibly happen to you already happened (i.e. you died), then what's more to be worried about (with regards to yourself)?
That way of thinking, that feeling, was what Shonen Bat's victims experienced. Its as if God "pressed the reset button" for your whole life; you get a second chance (although you don't know its your second one).
In the later half of the story though, Shonen Bat's role turns into something more sadistic.
Since he is a tulpa, he is given form by what people perceive him to be. Rumors of Shonen Bat's indiscriminate assaults on whoever left people thinking "Would I be next?".
Rumors exagerate facts: "I heard he's not human.", turns into "I heard he's inhuman, like some monster.", which turns into "I heard he's a monster." And, well, since the word monster is simple enough to understand, it is also very ambiguous. People are left to their imagination as to how he really looks like, given the words "baseball bat", "inline skates", and "monster" as clues.
So people saw him as a monster, and since he is a tulpa, what people perceive him to be is what he becomes. And so, rather humorously, his appearance turned into something reminiscent of a run-of-the-mill Role-paying Game monster, which is what more or less people think him to be (typical of teenagers, since they play video games).
IMO I liked his original form better: a mad grinning boy who prefers to speak only on a monthly-basis and lets the baseball bat do the communication. It depicts more sadism than an RPG monster
Why did the storywriter shift the story this way? My guess is that, they want to resolve the story in a climactic struggle. They needed an obviously apparent antagonist.
Some may be perplexed why Mitsuhiro (the younger detective) suddenly turned into a weirdo who thinks he's a RPG hero. It makes sense, Shonen Bat, being what people perceive him to be, turned into a monster. What better way to fight him in equal terms than to step into that perception too? In fact, I think it was really the only way that had a fighting chance to defeat him (other than if his creator chose to uncreate him).
"The populace became angry and the society turned into anarchy because.. they ran out of stock for plushie toys?" I could remember that scene, a man in a business suit was pounding the door to the store screaming for that Maromi doll. I don't think this was another symbolism, it was really happening in the real world in that story. It supposedly represents the populace's dependency on dolls. I don't buy that. Lots of people don't care about Hello Kitty, nor even heard of it. I know Japan has dependencies on kawaii stuff (Nichi Bei Times article "Entertainment Re-oriented: Atomic Pop Pt. II: Hello Kitty and the Rape of Nanking" and The Escapist article "Hail to the Kitty"). But for people to turn into raving lunatics for it? I mean, I'd doubt you'd find a Japanese street gang sporting Hello Kitty keychains or a Hello Kitty AR-15 Rifle.
In western philosophy, growing up means "throwing away your old toys", a sort of rite-of-passage if you will, from young teenager to adulthood. On the other end, in Japanese culture, growing up means keeping what you have and simply adding more to them. Personally, I go somewhere in between, choosing to continually screen the old stuff through a filter: "Ok, this one, do I keep it?"
The storywriter should have made up a more reasonable cause for the anarchism (my guess is that they needed the setting of the world to be in anarchy for the final part of the story, as emphasis to the gravity of the situation).
The black ooze overrunning the whole city is fine (I think its the tulpa in an extremely unstable and saturated state), just.. they should have a better reason than out of stock plushie toys, or perhaps some other thing in conjunction with it.
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