What are you working on? October 2015

[DarKSunrise]

this leads us to the conclusion that ads are fucking useless

[QUOTE=geel9;48865968]How can you possibly know if ads are unobtrusive if you have adblock[/QUOTE]

good point

[Geel]

[QUOTE=DarKSunrise;48865974]this leads us to the conclusion that ads are fucking useless[/QUOTE]

Which leads content creators to the conclusion that they either need to close up shop or directly monetize their websites.

While I'm lucky in that I can do the latter, many websites cannot.

[Nutcake]

[QUOTE=BackwardSpy;48865878]Give [url=http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdlib/strtol/]strtol[/url] a look instead.[/QUOTE]

[quote]If no valid conversion could be performed, a zero value is returned (0L).[/quote]

I seem to be missing something?

[Geel]

[QUOTE=nutcake;48865990]I seem to be missing something?[/QUOTE]

This is why you need exceptions in a typed language

Or just a reference to a bool or something

but still

[Nutcake]

Alright, got it working with sscanf.

[IMG]http://t42.imgup.net/ArgsC24234.png[/IMG]

[Asgard]

[QUOTE=geel9;48865968]That's the common knowledge. Hence, advertisements.

Of course, people don't want to view advertisements. Hence, adblock.

Of course, people still don't want to charge a fee for access to their websites. Hence, more intrusive advertisements to gain more money from those who do not block ads.

Of course, that spurs more people to install adblock...

[editline]9th October 2015[/editline]

How can you possibly know if ads are unobtrusive if you have adblock[/QUOTE]

I pay $12 a year for AskMrRobot, for the premium services it provides. It has a free service which functions just fine for day-to-day use, but if you want that little bit extra you pay $12 which lasts you a year. This I highly prefer over ads or paying to access a website or whatever.

Offer a service that people want and they'll pay for it

[Cold]

New things will pop up, like how every youtuber is on twitch, or they all do brand deals now.

[AwesomeX]

I decided to recreate my knife from scratch, because by the time I finished the first one, I had learned how I could do it again, but way better.
So I did just that, and I also learned a bit Sketchfab in the process, it's a really neat website for showing off models.

[B]Here's the new knoife.[/B] :sax:

[IMG_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/xNsp5jw.png[/IMG_thumb]

[url]https://sketchfab.com/models/627328b138b74c728fc7c6662ff8e545[/url]

[Tamschi]

[QUOTE=geel9;48865748]How do you guys feel about skin advertising (replacing the background of a homepage / other page of a website with an advertisement)? Obviously it's not preferred and most of you use adblock anyways.

I'm working on an ad deal with an advertising company and I'm considering my options. The CPM on these things is fucking ridiculous.[/QUOTE]

The ones that appear to cover only some of the space but are clickable everywhere are the worst, just after pop-ups.

Other than that I'd personally be able to ignore them though.
(I normally only block trackers and not ads, and I disable most blocking on sites I like.)

[editline]9th October 2015[/editline]

You could always give users the option: Either get ads (or an annoying empty space/request for support if they block them), or pay a little to use the website.

I'm pretty sure that option normally makes people oppose the normal advertising a bit less too, even if they don't pay to get rid of it.

[Map in a box]

I'm OK with ads as long as they aren't overdone(background ads are OK, bu don't make the whole background clickable, for instance)

[Karmah]

I hate advertisements. I will actively remove them whenever possible using whatever means I need to.

[Berkin]

[QUOTE=Karmah;48867556]I hate advertisements. I will actively remove them whenever possible using whatever means I need to.[/QUOTE]

They'll only compensate by shoving thousands of them through every available crevice of your house, Harry Potter style.

[Wats]

Thanks for the responses everyone. It's good to know I'm not alone in my reasoning - I think my original plan was to wait for a while then have a chat with my manager.

[B]Update[/B]: manager wasn't in today, but I had the opportunity to speak to some of the grads who joined last year - they basically explained that we pulled the short straw, and that the timing of us joining was just unfortunate enough to align with one of the largest, if not THE largest, pieces of grunt work the company has ever had to do. It's a horrible part of Software Engineering that someone has to do, and the grads are the cheapest people to put on the job. Still, they sympathised, and explained that it was not really a common situation. The grads also suggested talking to the manager, as the company is often quite receptive to complaints and really do strive to keep employees happy, so I have some hope. The company itself is great so I'm not planning on straight-up leaving - they have a lot of benefits, and the workplace is great. I think I'll take everyone's advice and talk to my manager. He's back on Monday so I'll wait until then to explain how I feel.

[QUOTE=BackwardSpy;48861295]That's bullshit. You need to politely explain to your manager how you feel about this and that you would like to be doing programming work with the actual dev team. You do have a say in this stuff, you don't have to do everything they say just because they hired you. And, if I may say so, if they're not good enough to put you in the role you joined for, they're not good enough to work for full stop.
Job hunting sucks, but being stuck in a job with a company who is just going to use you like this sucks more.[/QUOTE]

Yeah agreed, I'll see what they say. They've apparently invested a lot in the new grads so I should hope they'll try to keep us happy. The other grads are happy doing the grunt work though, for some reason.

[QUOTE=krail9;48863214]wasn't it a red flag that they didn't care about programming experience? just sounds really wonky to me, especially as a grad program rather than an intern or something[/QUOTE]

Yeah it was definitely, but it was marketed as a quick training program before being released on to a job. I was basically assured that I would receive training and that I wouldn't be bored. It even still says that on their careers website, so I'll bring that up.

[Geel]

[QUOTE=Karmah;48867556]I hate advertisements. I will actively remove them whenever possible using whatever means I need to.[/QUOTE]

How do you propose content creators should be compensated?

[profan]

[QUOTE=geel9;48868180]How do you propose content creators should be compensated?[/QUOTE]

Not through malware-ridden trash, there's things like patreon for the forms of content which that suits.

There's also google's new "contributor" which lets you pay instead to remove ads (while still compensating creators).
While I don't think Google's solution is the best one, ads are definitely not the end-game.

[Geel]

[QUOTE=Profanwolf;48868208]Not through malware-ridden trash, there's things like patreon for the forms of content which that suits.

There's also google's new "contributor" which lets you pay instead to remove ads (while still compensating creators).
While I don't think Google's solution is the best one, ads are definitely not the end-game.[/QUOTE]

Websites have to either drive revenue passively through ads, have direct monetization methods (eg ecommerce), or force users to pay for significantly valuable features (read: usually the whole site). Asking users to pay optionally does not drive anywhere near the revenue a business needs to operate.

[Nabile]

[QUOTE=Profanwolf;48868208]Not through malware-ridden trash, there's things like patreon for the forms of content which that suits.[/QUOTE]

Text or unclickable static image banners (containing the ad's website link) would be the way to go.
They would be far more accepted, and remove those fears. No more annoying accidental clicks either; after all, you'd go out of your way to visit them if you were interested in their product in the first place.

That won't ever happen, though.

[profan]

[QUOTE=Nabile13;48868301]Text or unclickable static image banners (containing the ad's website link) would be the way to go.
They would be far more accepted, and remove those fears. No more annoying accidental clicks either; after all, you'd go out of your way to visit them if you were interested in their product in the first place.

That won't ever happen, though.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I wouldn't be so opposed to the idea of ads if advertisements were just that, just text/graphics with links, not like it is right now.

[QUOTE=geel9;48868255]Websites have to either drive revenue passively through ads, have direct monetization methods (eg ecommerce), or force users to pay for significantly valuable features (read: usually the whole site). Asking users to pay optionally does not drive anywhere near the revenue a business needs to operate.[/QUOTE]

I suppose I wasn't clear, but I'm not saying no to the very idea of advertisement, just intrusive advertising and potentially harmful such, so yes I agree.

Even if one could debate if "passive monetization" really is a good idea, because it devalues the experience that is there for its users.

[Geel]

[QUOTE=Profanwolf;48868331]
Even if one could debate if "passive monetization" really is a good idea, because it devalues the experience that is there for its users.[/QUOTE]

The experience that is given for free, you mean?

[Orki]

Hey guys, give it a rest

[backwardspy]

[QUOTE=nutcake;48865990]I seem to be missing something?[/QUOTE]
If the value it returns for endptr is the same as the address of the string you passed in, then it means it couldn't find a number to parse.

I see you've already fixed it using sscanf though, so I suppose this is no longer relevant!

[ChristopherB]

One optimistic potential future for supporting web content is micro-payments. Advertisers are only paying tiny sums of money (fractions of a penny?) per view so sites could easily exceed their current revenue by charging a penny per page/article/video. This pay-as-you-go model would completely eliminate ads for paying users and the most desirable content would get the most revenue.

Another path is bundling/subscriptions. E.g. Netflix, Hulu, etc. Pay a monthly fee for access to content bundles - this could work for networks of websites just as it works for existing streaming sites. Convenient and doesn't penalize excessive usage. You end up paying for loads of content you don't really care about so this is no better than the cable television we've been trying to move away from. The added danger with this is networks end up splitting up desirable content such that you end up having to subscribe to many different bundles.

Lastly, advertising could become more embedded in the content (on a technical and editorial level) such that ad-blockers can't distinguish between the two. Think product-placement, site-background ads, sponsored content.

[Enternode]

What the hell happened to the whole "what are you working on" part of the "what are you working on" thread?

I swear an entire page where only ~1/5 of the posts are even remotely related to programming is pretty bad.

[backwardspy]

[QUOTE=TeamEnternode;48868656]What the hell happened to the whole "what are you working on" part of the "what are you working on" thread?

I swear an entire page where only ~1/5 of the posts are even remotely related to programming is pretty bad.[/QUOTE]
This is basically the general programming chat and projects thread. The name is pretty much a legacy feature at this stage. :v:

[editline]10th October 2015[/editline]

Although I do see what you're getting at, a lot of this discussion isn't even programming related anymore.

[Johnny on Flame]

I love the current state of the thread tho. Lot's of good discussions about topics worth discussing.

[sp]Save for tabs/spaces discussions, everyone knows that tabs are superior anyways[/sp]

[Darkwater]

[QUOTE=JohnnyOnFlame;48868709]I love the current state of the thread tho. Lot's of good discussions about topics worth discussing.

[sp]Save for tabs/spaces discussions, everyone knows that tabs are superior anyways[/sp][/QUOTE]

ooooooooooooo you're a dangerous man

[thatbooisaspy]

After years of devastation, insanity, and war, I have finally gotten VAO's to work.

[img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357850863/ShareX/2015/10/2015-10-09_22-15-46.gif[/img]

[B]HALLELUJAH![/B]
Now to finally work on something more interesting than differently shaped ([I]suspiciously[/I]) green triangles to show i'm not a idiot when it comes to OpenGL!

Edit:
Hold on that, I forgot that assimp hates me to no end:
[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357850863/ShareX/2015/10/2015-10-09_22-29-58.png[/t]

Oh welp, time to recompile assimp, [I]again[/I].

Edit #2:
The evil green triangles have learned the magic of three dimensions!

[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357850863/ShareX/2015/10/2015-10-09_23-08-53.png[/t]

Also finally support for different models on different objects. Awesome!

[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357850863/ShareX/2015/10/2015-10-09_23-10-41.png[/t]

Also face rendering (no more ugly incomplete triangles!):
[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357850863/ShareX/2015/10/2015-10-09_23-18-19.png[/t]
Here is a unshaded Suzanne for reference (facing the wrong way):
[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357850863/ShareX/2015/10/2015-10-09_23-20-16.png[/t]
Also sorry for gunking up the thread, I'm a little bit excited since OpenGL development hasn't gone this smoothly for me in ages.

[fpro]

My getMousePosition method now can get the position relative to the camera. :v:

I'm slow...

[Karmah]

I haven't made a lot of progress as of yet. It would be a bit easier if I knew anyone who already implemented CSM's themselves, however it looks like a website I frequent that puts up OpenGL tutorials have a tutorial planned for it in the near future.

So I'm going to clean up my code tomorrow, and learn how to apply some poisson and pcf filtering to my shadows.

I've given myself a bit of a road map for the next things I'm going to implement. After finishing up all that I can for shadows (nearly done!) I will:
- Add an ambient occlusion pass (SSAO)
- Switch engine over to use vertex array objects (VAO's)
- Create new code for supporting components that will update over time

I want to eventually switch away from cubemap skyboxes, or at least ones with a pre-rendered stationary sky. I've started researching subsurface scattering, and I think I will couple that into a sky + sun component to create and use some sort of volumetric objects as clouds.
I believe once upon a time I saw someone make a post here in WAYWO, where they rendered a sky themselves which changed color based on the time of day; I eventually aim to do something like that. However, as a northerner I also know just how much the ambient sky color can change based on the time of year, and it would be neat if I could add in a few other factors to the lighting equation, such as the current map's degree of "tilt" relative to the sun (you know, how the earth wobbles during its orbit), or if it is extremely cold or warm.

I have a lot of thoughts and ideas floating around, and I'm quite eager to get started. However I still have a bunch of things to do before hand which totally sucks. At the very least, I am not void of motivation or ambition!

[thatbooisaspy]

[QUOTE=Karmah;48870437]I haven't made a lot of progress as of yet. It would be a bit easier if I knew anyone who already implemented CSM's themselves, however it looks like a website I frequent that puts up OpenGL tutorials have a tutorial planned for it in the near future.

So I'm going to clean up my code tomorrow, and learn how to apply some poisson and pcf filtering to my shadows.

I've given myself a bit of a road map for the next things I'm going to implement. After finishing up all that I can for shadows (nearly done!) I will:
- Add an ambient occlusion pass (SSAO)
- Switch engine over to use vertex array objects (VAO's)
- Create new code for supporting components that will update over time

I want to eventually switch away from cubemap skyboxes, or at least ones with a pre-rendered stationary sky. I've started researching subsurface scattering, and I think I will couple that into a sky + sun component to create and use some sort of volumetric objects as clouds.
I believe once upon a time I saw someone make a post here in WAYWO, where they rendered a sky themselves which changed color based on the time of day; I eventually aim to do something like that. However, as a northerner I also know just how much the ambient sky color can change based on the time of year, and it would be neat if I could add in a few other factors to the lighting equation, such as the current map's degree of "tilt" relative to the sun (you know, how the earth wobbles during its orbit), or if it is extremely cold or warm.

I have a lot of thoughts and ideas floating around, and I'm quite eager to get started. However I still have a bunch of things to do before hand which totally sucks. At the very least, I am not void of motivation or ambition![/QUOTE]

What's the difference between CSM (cascaded shadow maps) vs normal ones (i'm presuming just projected)? Do they just look prettier or have some of kind of performance advantage?

[B]Edit:[/B]
Quanternions r cool
Also scale
[vid]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357850863/ShareX/2015/10/2015-10-10_02-43-06.mp4[/vid]
I just love making stuff like this really simple when I do gameplay:

obj2->transform->scale -= glm::vec3(-0.1f);

Next step, input (and not a hundred state[SDL_SCANCODE_A]'s).