nCraft (3D minecraft-like game for the nspire)

[alberthrocks]

I guess (I said "I guess", not "I know") it would be like raycasting. You must determine which cubes are hidden by others (not to draw) and which cubes are too far (not to draw) with imaginary rays you project everywhere, then you draw the remaining cubes, only the ones the character can see.

I was just about to say that
The algorithms for doing such a thing are complex, but if implemented properly - that is, you strike a balance between "raytracing" and actually rendering the landscape - you can achieve a nice speed on the Nspire, possibly enough to add alpha and physical effects!

I would suggest reading about scanline rendering - it's supposedly a faster method of rendering 3D objects. You only sacrifice quality, which isn't an issue here if you are planning to implement Minecraft

[Chockosta]

But... The Nspire screen is huge.
When I wondered about raycasting, I realised that the screen contains 320*240=76800 pixels.
Thats definitely too much.

Scanline rendering seems interesting, I'm going to search informations about it.
(But it's hard because I can't find French articles about it and I don't understand English well enough )

[Chockosta]

I think I'll give up with this project, since TI blocked ndless
It would be useless to spend time for this if nobody will use it...
Sorry.

Why can't TI understand that it won't annoy them to allow 3rd party native code ?

[Lionel Debroux]

And another one down, congratulations TI...

[Hayleia]

I think I'll give up with this project, since TI blocked ndless
It would be useless to spend time for this if nobody will use it...
Sorry.

Why can't TI understand that it won't annoy them to allow 3rd party native code ?

I can't force you to continue but I think that continuing would be a good idea. It would show TI that developpment using Ndless 3.1 has always been about games, and not cheating.

[Chockosta]

It seems that TI can't understand anything from the community.
Two months later, new Nspires will come with OS 3.2. A few months later, nobody will have OS 3.1.
I guess that TI won.

And now, I just don't know what to do. I don't want to quit calculator programming, but I hate TI's actions.
Unfortunately, no calculator is as good as the Nspire. So I'm really confused.

[Lionel Debroux]

I'd say that you should take a short break, in order to refresh your mind, and then, keep working and learning on the projects you like

[lkj]

Some people like me won't update to 3.2 until a new ndless comes out, but unfortunately most people have to or like the new lua too much for not using it
TI's strategy to give us a better lua so that most people don't want native code anymore seems to succeed.

[Hayleia]

It seems that TI can't understand anything from the community.
Two months later, new Nspires will come with OS 3.2. A few months later, nobody will have OS 3.1.
I guess that TI won.

First of all, all of those who have Ndless 3.1 will keep the OS 3.1 (except one or two people), even years after (except if the second point becomes reality).
Secondly, OS 3.2 blocks Ndless 3.1 but maybe Ndless 3.2 would come, and your work would not be useless.
Thirdly, TI didn't win since there is no war (or I missed something).

And now, I just don't know what to do. I don't want to quit calculator programming, but I hate TI's actions.
Unfortunately, no calculator is as good as the Nspire. So I'm really confused.

I have a stupid answer: Join the Ndless team ?

edit: Why do people keep ninja'ing me

TI's strategy to give us a better lua so that most people don't want native code anymore seems to succeed.

They need to work a lot to make an interpreted language run Doom and various emulators.

[Chockosta]

I think you're right.
I should stop calculator programming for two or three weeks, maybe more...

I will still be around here, though.

[GB]

It seems that TI can't understand anything from the community.
Two months later, new Nspires will come with OS 3.2. A few months later, nobody will have OS 3.1.
I guess that TI won.

And now, I just don't know what to do. I don't want to quit calculator programming, but I hate TI's actions.
Unfortunately, no calculator is as good as the Nspire. So I'm really confused.

Don't forget about the Casio Prizm! Casio has no plans on locking down their calculators.

[Chockosta]

Well, it seems quite inferior to the Nspire...

- No CAS
- Slower
- No ABC keybord (I hate the alpha key)
- No way to program fast programs on-calc
- No mouse
- You have to find each function in the catalog/in a menu
- A huge font

Some people may prefer it, but I don't think I would.

[ExtendeD]

I think I'll give up with this project, since TI blocked ndless
It would be useless to spend time for this if nobody will use it...
Sorry.

Why can't TI understand that it won't annoy them to allow 3rd party native code ?

Chockosta, please think twice before making such a decision:

 * TI blocking Ndless is not new. Even Ndless v1.1 relied on half a dozen flaws that were all fixed in the next release. Adriweb's exchange with Melendy doesn't tell us much except that they are keeping their initial strategy. Nothing surprising.
 * There have been an update of Ndless for nearly every OS version released by TI. I see no reason why there wouldn't be one for v3.2.
 * I'm really sorry for the delay of Ndless v3.1 release, caused by different reasons (personal issues, wrong initial design choices and CX compatibility). Updating Ndless is a community effort, the more people behind it the faster the releases are updated. Ndless is Open Source for this reason. Don't hesitate to share suggestions or patches if you have any ideas.

The maintenance of Ndless and its SDK directly depends on how it is used by developers. I'll personaly stop any work if Ndless isn't used anymore. So please don't make the community collapse from within and keep up the good work!

[Chockosta]

@Hayleia :
Oh, I'm really sorry, I didn't see your post !

I have a stupid answer: Join the Ndless team ?

I would like to help them, but this is totally out of my programming capacities. I'm just a little programmer who makes games with a SDK. Moreover, I don't think I have enough free time.

@ExtendeD :
I understand your point.
But it's quite frustrating to create programs for the Nspire, while TI does everything to block it. I know it has always been like that, but it's sad to realise it.
Moreover, it seems that TI secures more and more their OSes, so I think that ndless 3.2 won't be here before a while, despite your amazing work.


Anyway, I thought a lot about this last night, and it would be stupid to stop calculator programming.
I might not stop this project, but it is paused for sure (for at least one week).
I still feel discouraged, but I do want to help the community, and it seems that giving up isn't the right thing to do.

[Nick]

Anyway, I thought a lot about this last night, and it would be stupid to stop calculator programming.
I might not stop this project, but it is paused for sure (for at least one week).
I still feel discouraged, but I do want to help the community, and it seems that giving up isn't the right thing to do.

That's the way you should speak, i like that
well, sometimes it's best to just quit for a short term, since being programming all the time isn't that fun too (after a while)

good luck, and i hope everything will come all right (which will i think)