|
That article has been waiting for years now. I needed a UI that worked together with a 3D rendering, even if the program was actually more UI centric than all about the rendering.
Hosting 3D rendering in a WinForm or WPF control always turned out to be a crude hack, plus the problem that this feels like two separate programs accidentally running in the same window without the needed degree of communication or coordination.
The other way around works better, as the UI becomes a part of the rendering engine. All 'game UIs' I got my hands on were too primitive to build a larger application on, not expandable or custonizable enough, or too expensive, or any combination of these.
So I wrote my own. With multithreading (especially for messaging, UI, rendering and data access), XAML to load scenes into the renderer, XAML to load UI themes and styles, XAML of course also to load the layout of the views, a still small but good set of controls and enormous portability. Believe it or not, but I started out with ASP.Net WebForms, went to WinForms + 3D hack, then WPF plus the 3D hack and finally, when 3D rendering does not want to come to the UI, I brought the UI to the 3D renderer. Due to the MVP pattern, I just had to rewrite the views every time. They are the only classes that are specific to the UI and the rest of the iceberg can stay as it is.
And yes, it also became multi platform because Mickeysoft killed XNA, which I used to get access to DirectX. It was revived as MonoGame, which now compiles for different platforms:
Quote: Cross-Platform
We currently support iOS, Android, MacOS, Linux, all Windows platforms, PS4, PSVita, Xbox One, and Switch with more platforms on the way.
Want to take a look? It's that video which I must have posted a thousand times by now: FoC UserClient[^]
That's also why I started to love Mickeysoft so much. They killed XNA because they wanted us all to come over to Win 8 and I don't like it very much when they stop me dead in my tracks. As I see it, Mickeysoft owes me a new Lamborghini and I will not even take a look at their crap until I have it. 
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
That story makes me think of a colleague who spent several months trying to get a GIS 3D WPF application working hosted inside a Winforms application, you can guess where it all ended: he never got it working without bugs 
|
|
|
|
|
The problem is that DirectX needs a Win32 window as a rendering target. WinForm controls are based on Win32 windows, so they can be used for that. Getting a rendering engine to run in a control opens many cans of worms in performance, thread synchronization and communication. That single control is a bottleneck in every respect.
WPF controls are not based on Win32, so you must open a separate window and make it pretend to belong to the UI. The result is almost funny, especially when you move the entire WPF form around and the Win32 window tries to catch up with it to get back into its position. It also can disappear behind the form. And you also get a similar bottleneck, this time with the object that represents the Win32 window.
In the end these are just hacks
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
If you like to try something new, maybe Dear ImGui
|
|
|
|
|
So the one task manager that was useful and worked mobile and desktop - Wunderlist - was purchased by the Borg (MS). I open my task list and am offered any update.. please login. To Wunderlist? to something random. It's the f***ing helicopter all over again...Microsoft and Helicopters Joke[^]
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
|
|
|
|
|
And here I expected a post on tennis...
|
|
|
|
|
...and when I read "task manager", I was expecting a post on alternatives like Sysinternal's Process Explorer. Turns out we're only talking about a to-do list.
Interesting how things can take on completely different meanings based on your technical level.
|
|
|
|
|
You just made my post on tennisplayers really sad! 
|
|
|
|
|
I'm more worried about helicopter pilots who have to resort to circling around buildings or get disoriented because of clouds.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
Nah ... they are just following Apple Maps navigation.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
Helicopters are mysterious and scary. This even happens to those who should know better[^]
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Age is just a number.
I'll be stumbling into 54 next month.
modified 7-Nov-19 23:57pm.
|
|
|
|
|
I don't think as long as you are passionate about to do the job and have required skill set. 
|
|
|
|
|
Give it a go, see how it goes! 
|
|
|
|
|
If you are talking about user level testing: The less you know about the inner workings (such as C++), the better tester you will be. One of my previous employers always hired students part time as testers: After half a year as a tester, they had learned how to operate the program the way it was intended to be operated - not all the crazy, senseless ways that real users do, causing the crash. So, after half a year, students rarely found more bugs. A new group of students did, though...
This is a variant of the "five year old test": Put your 5yo at the keyboard, telling him "Do whatever you want to make this program stop. If you can show daddy how to make it stop, you'll have an ice cream cone!" That technique can revel a lot of issues that cannot be detected in any other way!
This obviously primarily applies to robustness testing, and to some degree usability testing. (Much too easily, users/testers learn to forget about those things not available or not working as they should.) More formal testing, module testing, setting up automated or semi-automated test procedures etc. is a different matter, and it really doesn't make much difference whether the sofware is a game or an accounting system.
|
|
|
|
|
This is a variant of the "five year old test":
My first boss used his 2 Year old to test a thing I finished, found two bugs and covered by keyboard & mouse in (I hope) chocolate...
|
|
|
|
|
While most game players are younger, I know a few who are in their 40s-50s. I have no reason to assume that "old fartdom" would disqualify you.
Try it. The worst that you'll get is a rejection letter.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|
|
When smartphones started arriving, around 20 years ago, two of my 70+ yo friends were rather enervating: Every time I met them, they were eagerly showing me some new app that they had found to play around with, insisting that I'd be impressed with all the things they could do with it. I think those old graddaddies even where chasing Pokemons...
So, if you are the right kind (e.g. you make sure to find all the pokemons around the office building before entering it for the job interview), then go ahead!
|
|
|
|
|
A famous man on the internet once said:
"Just do it!"
Rules for the FOSW ![ ^]
MessageBox.Show(!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_signature)
? "This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + _signature
: "404-Signature not found");
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am sure there are still plenty of people out there who do discriminate on age, so it's hard to say on that part.
Having said that, if you talk the talk then even those with reservations can be persuaded to put them aside. Regardless of age though, you are going to need to fit the spec. Do you play modern games? I am not sure what types of games they test, but are they the types you play? etc.
Also, given it's a testing role, age may even work in your favour if they are smart enough to want to have a broad range of testers.
|
|
|
|
|
I play the "space shoot 'em up" games from the classic age like Galaga & R-Type (although the latter is a bit more recent than "classic"), and rhythm games like Rock Band.
|
|
|
|
|
Go for it! They need users at all levels.
(soon, you will be like me. I only need one movie)
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
|
|
|
|
|
theoldfool wrote: I only need one movie
If you live long enough, you won't need even that. 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
