So as I said with previous entries, JT is working on making an all encompassing test for file types. Essentially the test will allow us to run all of our previous tests from one executable file. While he does that, I am moving on to trying to create a test that will allow us to test various different animation styles. What I mean by this, is we will be comparing having each frame as a separate image, multiple different types of sprite sheets, etc. Our goal is to know not only which image format ...

Greece just scored its second ever goal in the World Cup; thanks to RIT's impressive hospitality I enjoyed watching this historical event happen on a screen taller than myself while sitting ten feet away. Today begins the production of the last test before we the art team move into animation territory; I'm running benchmarks on how quickly the system responds when loading sprites with pygame to compare the information to our tests of a similar type where we used pygame's image class. Exciting ...

Yesterday I developed the new battleengine further, and fixed a bug on trac pertaining to clearing text. The ticket can be found here https://fedorahoste d.org/fortune_hunter/ticket/21 and the git commit is here http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=fortune_hu nter.git;a=commit;h=f5bf0bb... . Today I've been looking at what needs to be d ...

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 ...