Peripheral Chaos

this semester was the first whereby i actually did CM-ish modules for the first time in 3 years! all these while my modules were just computer science or math etc.

one of the modules required us to build a game using Unity and it was rather rewarding since people can actually play our end product!

so our game is called Peripheral Chaos. it is a sci-fi FPS against robots.

the starting scene of Peripheral Chaos

for more details, go to the game's page!

http://peripheralchaos.wordpress.com/

to download the exe:

http://peripheralchaos.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/download-peripheral-chaos/

please try it out and tell me what you think!

when we first started, we planned to implement both Campaign mode and Multi-player mode but with 6 weeks and 4 other modules, we decided to fully focus on Campaign mode. Multi-player might be something in the future? i'm not too sure. hahaha. there was a map created that was modeled after com1 but since that was for the Multi-player mode, it never saw the light of day. ( >.< )ノ still it was rather fun modeling it i guess.

during the showcase, each group did their presentation and the games i really liked were Elite6 and Heresy of Set. check out their videos below!

elite6, a RTS by Monochrome

heresy of set, a tower defense game with Egyptian themes. rick modeled every damn model in this game. insanity. ( >.< )ノ

not sure if their games are up for dl but if they are, go try it out! fun stuffff.

(￣▽￣)ノ byebye

Learning Blender in a crunch

while taking cs4342, to be honest i learnt everything about Blender from Youtube to complete my assignments. perhaps the teaching styles didn't match, but i didn't feel that labs were helpful at all.

get Blender here: http://www.blender.org/

so after prowling Youtube for hours to learn from scratch what Blender is and such, I have compiled a list of Youtube tutorials for Blender which i found were succinct and great! i can be impatient so these videos are mostly shorter than 20mins.

first up, cgboorman is awesome to the max! ♥ he has a series of tutorials covering various topics and they are all clear and easy to follow.

check out his channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/cgboorman

Character UV mapping by cgboorman:

Simple Animation by TheMrGoman:

Modelling a human by RivenPhoenix:

Animating paths by ianscott888:

Export animation by Daniel Kreuter:

Blender also has a video editing function which is very easy to use with it's drag and drop function.

and this is how i survived my 3d modelling module assignments. with the power of Youtube! i'm not good at it but at least i could scrape pass i guess. (T▽T)

nice songs always help make modelling less tedious:

she is ♥

(￣▽￣)ノ byebye

GLASS BOTTLE

the thought of living in a glass bottle.

there is quite a bit on my mind these days. the dynamics of relationships, the stress from work, the returns on efforts.

it is week 13 and yet i am still rushing to meet deadlines. and these modules with crazy shit load of assignments end up with still kind of a large percentage for finals. after rushing to complete my assignments, normally i am too brain dead to really continue absorbing/revision. so i end up here typing rubbish or checking emails for work.

then again, i am too brain dead to reply coherently so i shall leave it tomorrow.

making mistakes at work now is just uncalled for. and reflects horridly too.

anyhows, a random thought occurred to me yesterday.

i feel like i am living in this glass bottle. sure it is not all smooth sailing, but my problems are not that huge. although i whine like fuck, i know that they are manageable and dude, seriously they are not that huge a deal. plus i have friends who put up with all my shit. hahaha. so while i am living a protected life, i know just how easily it can be smashed. this was always in the back of my head, but it keeps hounding me rather badly these few days.

i have this gut feeling that something catastrophic will happen soon and shatter this bottle. and i am not sure if i can deal with it. it is like peace waiting to be broken.

this song makes me feel all nuah.

shall camp even more productively at com tomorrow. shockingly, it HAD been productive in the basement. managed to finish my cs2105 assignment. with help from the manchurian prince. hahaha. i attribute the productiveness to the fact that there is less human traffic milling pass so less distractions?

(￣▽￣)ノ byebye

NUS OPEN HOUSE 2012

today i went to help out at the NUS Open House for computing. i've never been one for open houses as i thought if i did want to go to a certain place, just read up, and sign up for it. whatever happens, happens. (￣(ｴ)￣)ﾉ the first time i ever did go to an open house was when i was choosing university courses and even then it was more of a mini excursion with my brother. we hit only the computing booth and hall booth. nothing else. though i did the suaku walk about campus thing excitedly. hahaha.

so my duties today were to stand about the booth with an ipad and answer questions about life in computing. the curriculum, the job prospects, small talk etc.

the most common questions were:

"which is better, SMU IS or NUS IS?"

"what is the difference between computing and engineering?"

"what is the difference between computer science and computer engineering?"

"what are the job prospects?"

weeeellll...i would be inclined to say NUS since it is my school afterall and also, i've not studied in SMU so i can't really comment about it can i? even then, experiences varies. so i tried my best to be objective. cause i wouldn't want someone to come in and get something else from what i told them right. bad karma. what if they enter, realize they hate it. and since i will still be around in school, they voodoo me or some shit for their suffering. hahahaha. (￣(ｴ)￣)ﾉ

so there were a few incidences which made me ponder today.

firstly, a guy got accepted into NTU ADM and was thinking of Digipen. but he was also considering NUS CM cause of the brand name and truth be told, there exists a safety net of sorts(despite the recent slew of scandals and such) here, provided you don't fail out of school. his first question was if NUS CM offers what he wants(which is art intensive and sounds more of the bachelor of fine arts in Digipen) so i thought, that was what i thought CM offered too. but after a lengthy talk(about 30mins!!!), i guess he realized it wasn't what he wanted afterall. although open house is for recruitment, i feel that letting them make informed choices is way more important. else, the voodoo thing might really happen. and the thing is, right after asking if i was in CM, his immediate response was, "i heard CM is closing down next year". i was like "uhmm...nothing is finalized nor official. it's hearsay." -smiles smiles beams- OMGSIGHSTABSSTABSSTABS. that's what i'm hoping too my dear friend!!! i hope he has a good life in wherever he chooses to go. though he might just come here afterall. or his friend might come to the IS here. meh.

the second ponder-inspiring incidence was parents who wander about the Open house without kids in tow. so who is choosing what they want to study? the parents, or the kids themselves. and there were also parents with kids who aren't even old enough for A levels asking questions. dafuq man. when i was explaining about the requirements eg H2 Math, the poor girl was like puzzled about what H2 is. point is, if you don't know what H2 is or any of its equivalence, you're too young bro. maybe they are deciding if NUS isn't their choice, which overseas university to pack the kids to and thus the need for time to save monies. hehh. (￣(ｴ)￣)ﾉ

the third thing i found out today was, talking to people from 9am to 6pm at a rather loud voice is hard. talking to tall people from 9am to 6pm at a rather loud voice is even worse. its the tilt of the neck and the fact that you're looking up the whole time. god my back, neck, throat and feet are all aching now. i guess i never realized how short i really am till today. when all the people i spoke to were taller than me. by a whole lot. like a whole 15+cm lot. sigh. BUT. it's a rare occurrence. since i hobble about in heels most of the time so im a fake height of 165cm on normal days. hahahaha. ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ

and the last thing is about work ethics. how can some people just disappear for no utter reason during peak period. do they not realize how bad it reflects on when we are stretched so thin and people have to wait for like 5+ mins to ask a single question? if you poof during non peak it's fine since there isn't much traffic present. but seriously. have a sense of responsibility please. it's not even a 5 min toilet break which i find reasonable. it's just a disappearance. uninformed at that. if you do have other duties which you can't walk away from, then don't sign up for this. it's not fair for those who have to cover your asses.

so this is the end of a lengthy rambling post and off to work i am again. just had to take a break from school reports. le dramatic sigh.

(￣▽￣)ノ byebye

6 signs i'm turning into a computing student(and thinly veiled grievances)

6 SIGNS I'M EVOLVING (and thinly veiled grievances)

(Disclaimer: from the perspective of me just cause some people are anal like that.)

1. ReadMe.txt

oh god. THIS. this is when i realized ive sunk so deep. in the past, i would just text or email the people relevant to the changes. so it was a chunk of text too. but you know you're converted when you actually take 5seconds to open notepad, type everything, and enclose it in a readMe.txt.

2. Ability to turn caffeine into magical things

in the past, when i drank coffee, it reincarnates itself as sleepless nights. now, when i drink coffee, it either turns into code and eventually binary. though mostly it still comes out as drawings and unproductive nights. hahaha. its really magical. really. and somehow your body gains even more super powers with it. its like we found the HP and MP potions of the world. somehow people from other places haven't seem to find/realize its potential. either that or its the copious amount of this elixir i drink.

3. Fixed width fonts

i'm attributing this to my likeness of neat, evenly spaced things. apparently it stemmed more from staring at eclipse rather than my ocd. but to be fair, i dont stare at eclipse a lot. though the ascii art phase did make me appreciate them more. hehh.

4. Boasting of linguistic rights

"Hi, i'm blablah and i know 10 languages. English, Chinese, Japanese, Java, Scheme, C++, PHP, Perl, Python and C."

yuppp. this needs no further explanation. but how good you are at the language is another story. hahaha. OMELETTE DU FROMAGE.

5. Different set of vocabulary

when you say things with like-minded people who understands your references and terms. THEN you port it over to people from outside soc and you're met with "wts are you talking" or "are you retarded" stares. oh wells. worst is when you laugh incontrollably at the joke only you understood. meh. maybe its the humor.

6. People approach you like a IT helpdesk

"My laptop died!" "ohkay. i offer you my condolensces." like seriously. maybe you assume i can help but seriously. how am i suppose to know. they don't teach us to be technicians in soc i'm afraid. it's computer science. not computer fixing. maybe they expose us to computer problems or it's an interest based thing. but i for one, depend on my own technical services helpline called the Elder Brother hotline. .

and the best ive heard thus far "JACQ, IVE SPILT MILO ON MY LAPTOP". dafuq am i supposed to do.! reverse time with hermione's time-turner and save you from spilling milo.?!

this calls for common sense to put your drink AWAY from your laptop. not computer science knowledge.

(￣▽￣)ノ byebye