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ipod touch review
Had to re-tile a large image, so spent a bit of time converting tile cutter to use NSOperationQueue. After a little playing, I opted for one operation per row, which seems to give the best all-around performance for the widest variety of images. You can download the latest version from here, or pull the source from GitHub.For those of you having trouble running the application, I've also added i386 to the supported architectures. Because of my use of blocks, Snow Leopard is required to run the a...
Sabtu, 30 Oktober 2010
Jumat, 29 Oktober 2010
OpenGL ES 2.0 for iOS, Chapter 3 - Fundamentals of 3D Programming
Before we start writing code, we need to go over some of the basics concept and algorithms used in 3D programming. Essentially, we need to make sure we're all speaking the same language. In this chapter, we're going to discuss some of the most basic and fundamental concepts underlying the use of OpenGL ES 2.0, as well as some of the data structures and algorithms that we'll need to create and manipulate virtual three-dimensional objects. We'll talk about what vertices, vectors, polygons, and colors are and how they are represented in OpenGL ES.We'll also look at some of the math that you'll need to perform on each of them. The math involved in...
Kamis, 28 Oktober 2010
OpenGL ES 2.0 for iOS Chapter 2 - Meet OpenGL ES
Before we actually start working with OpenGLS, let's take a few minutes to talk about its history. The evolution of OpenGL has greatly affected the architecture and the design of the library. As a result, it's worth investing a few minutes to understand where it comes from; it will help you to use it better. If you've primarily or only worked in object-oriented programming languages like Objective-C and Java, OpenGL ES can seem a little strange and even old-fashioned since it is a procedural API, not an object-oriented one.In the Beginning, There Was IRIS GLIn 1981, a company called Silicon Graphics, Inc. (often referred to by their initials, SGI) was founded and started making high-end 3D graphic workstations. All of the early models of SGI machines were given the name “IRIS” along with a...
OpenGL ES 2.0 for iOS, Chapter 1 - Introduction
It is not an exaggeration to say that the iPhone SDK and the App Store have forever changed the way that mobile applications are developed and sold. By building the iPhone SDK on the foundation laid by NeXT with NextSTEP, which later became Apple's Cocoa framework for developing desktop applications, Apple was able to provide third-party developers of their new mobile platform with tools and some APIs that already had the benefit of over 20 years of use, testing, and documentation. Although iOS, of course, contains a great amount of new code designed specifically to handle the needs of a touch-based, mobile computing platform, many of the classes that implement fundamental behavior in the iOS SDK have been in regular use since the late 1980s; that code is extraordinarily robust and thoroughly...
Lifting the Skirt
MartianCraft has received a surge of requests for quotes and proposals in the several weeks. A disturbing trend that I've been noticing in some of these proposals is that more and more of the people who contact us are wanting us to sign NDAs before they'll lift their skirts even a little. Often, we can't get the most basic information about a project, not even things like ballpark budget, timeline, or type of application until we've signed an NDA, often a pro-forma NDA that was downloaded from the web.The last thing any reputable iOS dev shop is interested in doing is stealing your idea. First of all, it would destroy our business if we did that. NDA or not, it would be unethical. This is what we do for a living. If we were to steal an idea and publish it as our own, word would get out and...
Update on OpenGL ES 2.0
My editor at the Pragmatic Programmers has informed me that I will be able to post the chapters of my OpenGL ES blog once the cancellation is complete. I have nothing but great things to say about my experience with the folks there. Good people all around. If you get a chance to write for them, you'd be foolish to pass up the opportunity.So, once my cancellation letter arrives, I will begin prepping chapters for posting. I still don't have much in the way of free, so I wouldn't expect more than a chapter a week. I have to scrub the content both for copy edits and for potential NDA violations and then convert from DocBook to HT...
iOS Secret Meeting
There have been reports lately of Apple holding a secret conference for iOS developers. Now, let me just state up front so there's no misunderstanding: Other than the normal news outlets, I haven't heard any information about such a conference - I'm certainly not invited if there is such a thing going on. This post is just conjecture on my part.But I'm not sure why this is news. Apple constantly has strategically important developers (and other partners, like wireless carriers) out to Cupertino to work on future product announcements and to be informed about future products. It certainly shouldn't be news to anyone that the people who get up on stage with Steve at keynotes and presentations (plus everybody involved behind the scenes) knew ahead of time that they would be doing so.If you follow...
OpenGL ES 2.0 Book
I've been getting a lot of questions lately about the status of my OpenGL ES 2.0 book for PragProg. What I've been telling people is: "it's about half done but I have no idea when I'll be able to finish it". To say I've been busy lately would be an understatement of epic proportions. As a part-owner of a business in its first year, being too busy is a great problem to have, but it does take its tolls in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways.When you combine how busy I am with the fact that I've been completely unable to get even ballpark information about when Xcode 4 will go GM (the book is heavily based on Xcode 4), it means I simply cannot nail down a production schedule for the book. Even if I had time to finish the book right now, it can't be published until the Xcode 4 NDA drops. It also...
Selasa, 19 Oktober 2010
Tile Cutter Updated
Today, I released a new version of Tile Cutter. This is just a bug-fix release; the changes have been pushed to GitH...
OpenGL ES iOS
I've created a new public project on GitHub for classes, scripts, and projects related to OpenGL ES programming on the iPhone. I'll be slowly consolidating all of my OpenGL ES code snippets, utilities, and sample projects except for the particle generator (which has its own repository) into this location. Right now, all it has is:Blender export script for Objective-C for Blender 2.49aBlender export script for Objective-C for Blender 2.5+My old OpenGL ES Xcode project template for OpenGL ES 1.1A fairly simple OpenGL ES 1.1 Xcode projectA fairly simple OpenGL ES 2.0 xcode projectA few OpenGL ES-related categories and classesMy old Wavefront OBJ file loaderI'm happy to accept back changes as well as additio...
Kamis, 14 Oktober 2010
Outlets, Cocoa vs. Cocoa Touch
I almost always follow Apple's lead on Cocoa and Cocoa Touch conventions. I figure that by the time outside developers like me see something for the first time, Apple engineers have been living with that thing for many months, so they've likely got a much better idea than I do about the best way to use that new thing.But, after spending time with their stuff, sometimes — not often, but sometimes — I disagree with what appears to be Apple's recommended "best practice" for doing something. I think I've come to the decision that the IBOutlet behavior in iOS is one of these areas.If you look at Apple's documentation snippets and sample code, you find that they almost always retain IBOutlet properties, like:#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>@interface FooView : UIView {}@synthesize (nonatomic,...
