Software Development on Ivan Hawkes

Matrices, Vectors, Quaternions and CryEngine 3

Sat, 21 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This article will introduce you to matrices, vectors and quaternions and how you can use them for programming games using the CryEngine SDK. You will only need a basic understanding of mathematics, beginner level c++ and a general knowledge of the CryEngine SDK; in particular, the gamesdk.dll code which is written in c++.

CryEngine 3 System Event Dispatcher

Sat, 15 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this week I wrote about CryEngine listener classes in a brief overview. I intimated that they are an excellent way to write code against the CryEngine SDK and today I want to go into more depth.

Introducing CryEngine 3 Event Listeners

Fri, 07 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In this article I will introduce you to event handling within CryEngine 3 and give a brief overview of the many listeners you can utilise within your project.

Adding New Actions to CryEngine 3 FreeSDK

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This tutorial will help you add new actions into CryEngine 3 FreeSDK projects without needing to make any changes to the base code provided by CryTek.

How I Learned to Love Go (Language) And Stop Worrying

Sat, 12 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a new love in my life, and she’s petite, versatile, responsive and modern - it’s the language, Go. I’m still in the honeymoon stage, getting to know the ways she likes to play and the things she can do for me, but I can tell you now - it’s going to be a long romance.

The REST API Design Handbook

Sat, 12 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a lot of confusion and disagreement about what makes for a RESTful design.

How to Make .PAK Files With Your Assets

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Something that doesn’t seem to receive much coverage is what to do with all your awesome assets once you’ve made your game. You’re going to need to ship them to end users, and the best way is within a .PAK file.

Building A Cheap Motion Capture Studio

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A while back I became interested in motion capture as a means to easily get basic animations into the game I am working on. Using reasonably priced software from Brekel and a cheap Microsoft Xbox Kinect camera you have the beginnings of a motion capture setup.

Dealing With The Difficulty

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been working on my pet project for almost five months now and I must admit that some parts of the project are easier than others. I don’t actually get a choice about which parts I will try and deal with, but I do get a choice about the order in which it happens.

Creating Interesting Terrain

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

At first blush terrain might seem like a fairly easy thing to be able to create, and at it’s simplest it might well be. Toss a few mountains about, some rolling hills, a valley or two, a little water, and you’re done - or are you?

Overcoming Inertia

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks have passed with very little development occurring. I have hit that most dangerous of problems, the lack of inertia.

Sunset Oasis

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

My first effort towards building a CTF style game went a little awry. I tried tinkering with the gameplay parameters and added in extra elements and came up with a hybrid that might be interesting when I get back to it. My big mistake though was to create a landmass about 8 times bigger than was really needed. Even using much of it for ocean, I was still left with these way too large spaces for the tight gameplay I wanted.

CryEngine3 and UDK3

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been playing games for over 30 years now and I’ve seen them progress from simple text based games through all the iterations to give us the amazing looking games we have today. I have at times written my own games; most were very simple - due to the nature of the machines at the time.