So today's Image Scaling test is complete and it gave us a whole lot of really good data. Basically we found out that scaling images within the code is definitely not a viable option. This means that if a developer wanted to make their program function in multiple resolutions, they would most likely need multiple image sets. With that in mind JT and I are currently thinking that GIFs are the most viable, all around, option. It has the smallest file size and has a very capable frame rate that is ...

So JT and I spent today making a new testing file that is specific to scalability testing. First we ditched JPGs, and 32 bit BMPs because they were having problems and were just overall not viable formats. Then we made versions of every remaining image format at 4 different resolutions, 1 set at the original resolution, 1 set at a resolution that was 2 times as large, 1 set at a resolution that was 4 times as large, and finally 1 set at a resolution that was 1.73 times as large so that if the fu ...

Today started out with a round of meetings and some time at POSSE. In the middle of all this, I got my first glimpse at the actual code for CIVX... exciting! With help from Luke, I edited the tabs demo to get bill information from the senate API, replacing the hard-coded text. The JSON data for bills by senator is strangely inconsistent depending on how the number of results per page, so I hope to figure that out soon. In any case, it makes the widget look that much more slick. :) ...

I spent the beginning of the day proofreading the CIVX documents that went out around 2 pm. Through collaboration between a bunch of people we're really pleased with the final product. Later on I spent some time getting familiar with the new battle engine code and began porting over more of our old engine to flesh out the new MAFH. Git commit can be found here: [http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=fortune_hunt er.git;a=commit;h=21acc1d...](http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=fortune_hunte r.git;a ...

Last week was a good run, resulting in a functional test application for animations under controlled processor loads which I fine-tuned over the weekend. We have been seeing BMPs come out ahead so far in terms of speedy load times, so we expect to be working on scalability with those and, if we can discover some way to implement them, SVGs as well. We'll see what the week had in store for us. Also, this blog feels like the Real World or some other reality TV show that convinced me to ritualisti ...

So it is the beginning of week 2. This week JT and I plan on finishing up the final test for the animation frame rates. In this final test we have multiple objects animating simultaneously and it auto-runs all of the different formats for us. This new version really simplifies the process and is pretty easy to add more functionality to. Once the test is complete we will move into testing scalability of images and the best ways to scale images. We don't currently know exactly how we will test sca ...

It's been a good first week here at FOSS. After spending a couple days getting everything set up with my computer (git, TurboGears, fedorahosted, etc etc), I started working on making a demo of the kind of widgets CIVX could use to display information, particularly for the New York state senate. I've been playing around with a jQuery tabs widget that's pretty sleek looking. After some struggling to get that working in TurboGears, I think it looks good so far, and will be really awesome once I l ...

So today JT and I ran tests on all of the various formats we had decided to look at, except SVGs, and we learned a lot of useful information we did not previously know. First and foremost we learned that bmp, while a larger format when it comes to file size, is easily the best for performance. It constantly performed almost two times better than every other format in every test. We also learned that when we used images with transparency, whether it was built- in with the format or rendered to lo ...

Today will be dedicated to proof reading the CIVX future list roadmap, and to documenting what has already been written for the game engine. Last night I was able to get linux working on my laptop and now the engine is running so development should be much easier. ...

Today I managed to get a semi-working mockup of a tabs widget that could be used to display information about NY state senators. Each collapsible tab contains a category of information such as bill sponsored by that senator, committees they are a member of, contact information, etc. Hopefully the coolest part of this will be a calendar widget embedded in one of the tabs, to store events relating to the senator. This part is not functional yet; right now I put up a very basic calendar as a placeh ...