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ipod touch review
The authors of the OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide have created Xcode projects for all the code provided in the book. This makes the book a lot more interesting from the perspective of an iPhone developer. Anyone read this book and have an opinion on it?If you download the sample code for the iPhone 3Gs, make sure you grab the build instructions, as it's a little more complex than just opening Xcode and pressing ...
Selasa, 30 Juni 2009
Beginning iPhone 3 Development
Well, I guess it's okay to talk about this since it's on Amazon, Dave and I have completely updated and revised Beginning iPhone Development for the 3.0 SDK.Now, the question some people likely have is, "should I buy the new version." Let me be honest with you: For many of you the answer is definitely "no". While Dave and I certainly would appreciate you buying the new edition, there's not a lot of truly new material, and we don't want anyone buying the book under false pretenses. We've incorporated the errata and clarified some of the conceptual material based on feedback from readers and on having had another year of working with the iPhone...
Sabtu, 27 Juni 2009
Terminator Salvation
iTunes LinkTerminator Salvation is a shooter game by Gameloft. $4.99 I have never been a fan of the Terminator movies, finding them boring and in the same trash can as Star Trek. I will grant the movie the fact that it has a storyline perfect for a shooting type game, and Gameloft has taken on the challenge of bringing this movie franchise to the big touch screen! Terminator Salvation plays very similarly to another successful Gameloft game: Brothers In Arms, with the same style of gameplay but improved graphics and controls. The game stays somewhat true to the movie storyline with features in both versions that you can relate to, for example...
Jumat, 26 Juni 2009
YouTube: 400% Daily Increase in Mobile Uploads since 3Gs
The YouTube Blog is reporting that there has been a 400% increase per day in mobile uploads to their service since the iPhone 3Gs became available. If you read my earlier post, you know that video upload was the first new feature to really grab my interest (and unexpectedly so), so I feel a little vindicated and less weird.via via Daring Fireb...
Rabu, 24 Juni 2009
Blender Export Script
I've revised the Blender Objective-C Export Script. It was a relatively minor change - I was calculating the vertex normals based on the face normals, which was unnecessary work since Blender keeps track of vertex normals as well. On larger models, this version should perform better than the original version since it doesn't have to calculate vertex normals by looping through all vertices on all faces looking for match...
Empty OpenGL ES Application Project Template Updated for 3.0
I have updated my OpenGL ES Xcode project to work with SDK 3.0. You can find the new version right here. This new version is actually a rewrite from the ground up, and it fixes several issues that the old one had, including the problem where the controller wasn't receiving touch events and, of course, the fact that it didn't work on 3.0. It also includes more OpenGL-related convenience functions, and a class that makes it easier to do texture mappi...
Using 3D Models from Blender in OpenGL ES
One question I get asked a lot is "how do I load 3D models into OpenGL ES?".Of course, the answer to that isn't a simple one. If you followed my my earlier posts on importing Wavefront OBJ files, you're probably aware of that already. There are many file formats, and none of them are ideal for loading into a resource-constrained device like the iPhone.Apple recommends that 3D objects be stored in header files as static arrays. This obviates the need to do any loading or transforming or conversion at all. But… there's not really any easy way to create those header files from within 3D software packages.Well, there is one way now. The open source...
Senin, 22 Juni 2009
Mobile Orchard Two Day iPhone Training Class
Dan Grigsby, the founder of Mobile Orchard, just wrote to let me know that he has started offering two-day iPhone programming workshops targeted at developers coming from other platforms like Java and .Net. The workshops are intensive and very hands-on. Over the course of the workshop, Dan walks you through developing seven complete applications and covers many of the core iPhone technologies, including several that are new with the 3.0 SDK such as Core Data.There are upcoming workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Seattle area, with more to come in the future.Dan has been nice enough to offer a $200 discount on the workshop to my readers. You can get this discount by entering the discount code "jeff". Dan has also authored a great series of tutorials that you might want to check...
A Weekend with the 3Gs
Okay, I've now had my iPhone 3Gs for a few days. My wife's out of town, so I'm on single-parent duty right now, which means I haven't gotten a chance to play with the phone as a developer yet, but I did get quite a bit of time with the phone as a user. I'm still feeling really positive about my purchase. On the surface, the revision from the 3G to the 3Gs doesn't seem that dramatic - same form factor, same operating system. But, in terms of user experience, the difference is huge.The feature that has impressed me the most is not one that I thought it would be. The ability to take videos is huge, and I didn't really realize how huge until I had a 3Gs in my pocket. The quality of the video is pretty darn decent, and the tap-to-focus works really well. It also adjusts the light-metering based...
Sabtu, 20 Juni 2009
Castle Conflict
iTunes LinkCastle Conflict is a castle defense game by Broken Kings. $0.99Games like Defend Your Castle are really successful on the PC for their simple use of throwing away stick people coming to attack your castle. Both this game and a spin-off called StickWars have reaped the benefits of the App Store, with StickWars being the No.1 game for a long time before being dethroned by the useless Moron Test. Castle Conflict adds in another castle and adds a bit of action in between. The game is a lot of fun, but once you have mastered how to win, it doesn't really give you any reason to continue returning to play. The unique style of play is great,...
Willpower Fail
After posting yesterday that I was going to be responsible and wait a few weeks before getting a iPhone 3Gs, I ended up running out and getting one this morning when I found out the nearest Apple store had some still in stock. I got a 32 gig black model. I haven't used it much, but first impressions are pretty fabulous. Video looks good, touch-to-focus works really well, camera does much better in low-light, and sound quality seems to be better. But the biggest difference you notice is how snappy everything is. Apps launch faster, the keyboard responds quicker and never hiccups.I'll post my full impressions after I've had a day or two to play with it, but I'm really excited to see what people do with this new hardware. I think we're going to see some awesome games and other programs before...
Jumat, 19 Juni 2009
OpenGL ES 2 Shaders
Looking for a good starting place for creating shaders for the new OpenGL ES 2.0 available on the iPhone 3Gs? The orange book has an online home that's well worth looking at. The Orange Book (the current version of which actually has more purple than orange) is the official book on the shading language. If you're thinking of writing shaders, this is the first resource you should get. The official site has example shaders and links plus errata, so you might want to bookmark it.You should also check out this page, which has lots of shader resources, including a zip full of shaders that you can use.Lastly, in the Developer folder on your hard drive, in /Applications/Graphics Tools, there's a program called OpenGL Shader Builder that you might want to check o...
Upgrading etc.
Sorry for the quiet week. Been suffering from the post-WWDC blues, a combination of being massively behind on my workload and massively tired. I have updated several of my iPhone projects that don't work after upgrading to 3.0 so that they do, including a completely new version of the OpenGL ES Xcode template. The only problem is, I did all the udpating on a pre-release version of Xcode under Snow Leopard. I need to find some time to install the release version of SDK3 and "downgrade" the Xcode projects before I can post them without violating the NDA.The next two installments of the OpenGL ES from the Ground Up series are, tentatively, drawing text and hit testing, although I may push those off and insert a OpenGL ES 2.0-specific posting in there first, because I know a lot of people are...
The VOID
iTunes LinkThe VOID is a space shooter game by Alexander Wayne. $2.99[This is a modified post by TheAppEra]When I first saw this game I was thinking it was going to be a total disappointment. Looking at the game I thought it would turn out to be a bad Galaxy on Fire look-a-like. I ended up eating my words as this is a great top down shooter with an incredible amount of content.This is safe to say one of the best hidden gems on the App Store. Before James came to me with this I haven't even heard a single tweet or mention of The Void, and upon looking at the screenshots I was thinking it was going to be a failure. I was thinking a a space shooter...
Rabu, 17 Juni 2009
iPhone 3.0 OS upgrade video
Here's the link.Get copy and paste, stereo bluetooth, landscape keyboard, peer to peer gaming and more. SVVideo presentationAp...
iPod Touch 3.0 OS upgrade video
Here's the link.Get copy and paste, stereo bluetooth, landscape keyboard, peer to peer gaming and more. SVVideo presentationApple...
The Sims 3
iTunes LinkThe Sims 3 is a simulation game by Electronic Arts. $9.99[A Modified post from TheAppEra]The Sims 3 has been well awaited on the App Store with amazing hype. The game has had the best release ever on the App Store, skyrocketing to the No.1 top paid app in less than 24 hours priced at the premium price of $9.99. Is the game worth the price? After a few seconds in the game I could safely say Yes!I bought the original Sims on the PC with all of the expansion packs and would play it for hours on end. As my computer was only capable of handling one Sims game, I wasn't able to buy and play Sims 2. My first impressions of The Sims 3 were...
Sabtu, 13 Juni 2009
An Amazing WWDC
Well, WWDC ended yesterday. I'm a little sad about that, though I am looking forward to getting home to my wife and kids. I miss them quite a lot. I find it hard to believe that I used to travel as much as I did. I'm not sure how I handled doing that as long as I did. Right now, I'm waiting at my hotel in San Francisco until it's time to go to the airport. My brain's not yet quite awake enough to write code, so I thought I'd finally get around to doing a short post about the week. I had the best intentions of doing some status updates during the week, but time was a scarce commodity this week, and many of the nights I got less than four hours...
Selasa, 09 Juni 2009
New iPhone 3 GS: guided tour
The new iPhone is out: runs applications faster (about twice as fast), connects to broadband faster (HSDPA), 3.2 MP camera and does video.Tell us which applications you use and would like to see. SViPhone 3 GS guided tourApple WWDC 2009 Keynote addr...
Minggu, 07 Juni 2009
OpenGL ES from the Ground Up Part 8: Interleaving Vertex Data
Technote 2230 makes many suggestions for improving the performance of your iPhone apps that use OpenGL ES. You're now far enough along in your understanding of OpenGL ES that you should read it. No, really. Go read it, I'll wait.Okay, done? Under the section titled Optimizing Vertex Data, there's a somewhat cryptic recommendation to "submit strip-ordered indexed triangles with per vertex data interleaved". When Apple makes a recommendation, they usually have a good reason for it, so let's look at how we comply with this one.First of all, let's look at what it means. Let's break it down:Strip Ordered: In other words, if your model has adjacent...
