James Battersby

News

March 2010

Posted: 27th March 2010

The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur which probably explains why I haven't posted in a while. A fair few things have happened but I've been preoccupied with living on my own in a big house as my parents are away on a cruise in the Caribbean. The only company I have at the moment is my elderly cat who has a habit of getting under my feet for most of the day which is incredibly infuriating especially whilst trying to cook dinner. He also craps a lot so there is the weekly ritual of emptying his litter tray on the weekends (most unpleasant).

In an attempt to escape this predicament I have been climbing a lot recently. Every Wednesday is spent at the Edge with the Sheffield Hallam Club and for the last two weeks we (Will Ceuppens, Jamie Shaw and I) have been popping over to the Foundry on Friday mornings to try something different. The added practice is clearly paying dividends as I am getting considerably more confident and, I think, skillful (I pretty comfortable completed a 6b+ top roping last week and lead climbing is not as big of a deal as it used to be). For my birthday last month I was given £200 with the explicit instructions of spending it on something and to not let it sit in my account as beer money. As a result I bought myself some new boots (Scarpa Force) as my current (Scarpa Vantage), whilst extremely comfortable, I think are perhaps too big or have stretched - as a result I'm not connecting with the wall or rock as well as I would like. The new ones pinch a bit but they are already conforming to my foot shape and they feel great. I also bought myself a bouldering mat (Metolius Stomp) and a book on bouldering in my area (Peak District: Bouldering - Rupert Davies & Jon Barton). This will now allow me to take advantage of the climbing areas very close to me and give me an excuse to go outside on the weekends. Hopefully soon enough I'll have improved by bouldering and consequently my technical climbing skill dramatically. I was planning to go bouldering today at Burbage South but I seem to have done something to my elbow yesterday at the Foundry - weirdly enough it was a strange blesssing as I realised I would have double booked myself as another friend had offered roped climbing in another (nearby) area. As such, no climbing today but provided my elbow has recovered by tomorrow I'll try out the new mat at Burbage (I want to start ticking off the problems as soon as possible)!

We have now submitted our applications to Dare to be Digital. I am part of a team called Heavenly Duck Studios (the name came from six clicks on a random name generator) and we are pitching a game called Ark!, an Xbox 360 game with a twist on the traditional tower defense game. We should hear early next week if we are to attend a selection event in Wolverhampton at the end of April after which they will decide whether or not we are going to Dundee in the summer. Exciting times all round!

As a result of our concentrated efforts on the above competition university work has been somewhat kicked in the head for the time being. Thats not to say I haven't done any work: I just haven't been able to give it my total focus. Our management module has been put on a short hold as our (very lucky) lecturer went off to attend GDC in San Francisco. In multi-processing we've been grappling with SIMD and most recently had a go with the transputer language occam which seemed surprisingly simple. My flocking application has received the most attention thus far - I have created an application which allows the user to toggle certain behavioural rules and observe the effects. I am currently working on an additional program that demonstrates a predator and prey situation - I should hopefully be able to have something to show at the end of the weekend. I've also been teaching myself a bit of XNA when the time allows - very simple in comparison to what I am normally doing.

Finally as Easter approaches the university is halted for a two week holiday. Rather than make use of the two weeks off my former employer (Rare Creative Group) have asked me to do some freelance work during this time - certainly makes the recent climbing purchases more pleasant to enjoy. Met with them yesterday for a quick catch up and explanation as to what I'm working on.

February 2010 Update

Posted: 26th February 2010

I thought I should post an article based on what I am currently involved in which individually don't amount to a separate article themselves. This will cover what I am currently studying, my climbing activities and anything else that springs to mind.

University: Management of Entertainment Software

This is quite an interesting module where we look at the typical Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) including pre-production, production and post-production, understanding the various different roles in the gaming industry. We are currently looking at the pre-production stage and on Monday we are required to present a revised schedule for a case study of a struggling studio. I find it interesting because amongst my many dreamy ambitions in life is to set up a gaming studio of sorts but since I have no entrepreneurial experience this has been always been a major concern for me: where do I start and how does it work? Who knows, this may be the ammunition I need!

University: Special Techniques for Graphics and Animation

This has been a bit of peculiar module so far. We have been tasked to submit an application that covers any one of the following: static and interactive ray tracing, shadow mapping, motion hierarchy and flocking techniques. I have opted for the latter as this closely resembles a form of emergent behaviour, a small part of Artificial Intelligence (which I am interested in) and it also provides a good amount of research to be done. I'm not aware of anybody else on my course attempting this so I should hopefully provide something new!

University: Multiprocessing and Parallel Systems

Possibly one of the most confusing modules so far where we look at ways of optimizing applications by making use of multiple cores on any machine. So far we have covered the use OpenMP and Intel SSE and we have been given an assignment which looks at the way we can compare different techniques of parallelism, specifically the use of parallel sections and fors in OpenMP. Probably my least favourite module but given that almost all gaming platforms have multiple cores it is certainly not one to be ignored!

Dare To Be Digital

We were all sent an e-mail recently notifying us about the Dare To Be Digital competition being held by the University of Dundee where teams of gaming students get together to develop and "launch" a game over a 10 week period. This definitely looks like a lot of fun and a good change to gain some valuable experience. If it allows me to submit the final product (provided we're picked) for upcoming group module (Integrated Design) then I'd be more than keen to apply. Just need to get a team together to do it!

Climbing

I have finally learned to lead climb and I thoroughly enjoy it. It seems to have improved my technique dramatically (probably because I have to concentrate more). I've also spent a session at the climbing works which is an amazing bouldering (only) venue and I have even been on outdoor trip to Bamford which was enjoyable despite the cold weather (we were quite lucky in retrospect as it snowed heavily the following day). I am also enrolled on a 2 day course that will teach me how to set up ropes outside that should hopefully grant the freedom to climb anywhere (provided I have the equipment).

Birthday

It was my birthday a couple of days ago which I will be celebrating tomorrow (due to the fact I had a 9am lecture on the 25th). Thank you all for the well wishes and the presents I received, including the Band of Brothers Blu-ray boxset!

Returned from Les Arcs

Posted: 31st January 2010

I have now returned from Les Arcs, thankfully with only a strong cold which I seemed to have picked up from someone. Its certainly pleasant that my legs aren't aching likely they normally do after this kind of holiday, my technique must be improving. I apologise for not updating via Twitter but there were crossed wires between Barclays and Vodafone meaning that I couldn't top up my phone at all during my stay in France (well, I could have bought an international top-up card but I thought it wou'dn't be worth it). I have uploaded the best photos from the holiday (taken with my new Panasonic Lumix F515 (which is very good by the way)).

As for whats coming up next - I need to catch up on the lectures I missed from the last week, finish a report and will probably be going climbing at Stanage Edge next Sunday. Looking forward to it all!

Skiing

Posted: 20th January 2010

I will be skiing in the Alps (Les Arcs 1800) from Friday 22nd till Saturday 30th via a 16 hour coach journey. This is a well deserved (in my opinion) holiday courtesy of the Sheffield Hallam Ski & Snowboard Club. As such I will be out of contact but rest assured I will more than likely be taking a lot of photos. If possible I will keep you up to date via Twitter but no promises.  See you soon!

Releases for 2010

Posted: 6th January 2010

As I am currently enrolled on a course which is primarily about building a portfolio for prospective employers in the gaming industry I thought I should list the projects that I either definitely will or intend to work on this year (some may have started last year). These projects will be assessed and/or will appear on this site in due course. So without further ado and in no particular order:

• Assembly programming on the Gamecube (which translates onto the Wii, XBox360 and PS3) - completed
  
• Fireworks using particle systems in DirectX - completed
  
• The Adventures of Professor Photon: Lost in Time (Prototype) - completed
• Moka - a Java version of the Steam client
• Suduko (Java and/or C++)
• 3D Towers of Hanoi (Java and/or C++)
  
• Draughts/Chess (Java and/or C++)
• Multiplayer Pacman (Java and/or C++)
• Space Invaders (Java and/or C++)
• Lego Firestation (C++) - in progress
  
• Robo Escape (Unity/Unreal Engine)
• 2D Platformer based on Simon's Cat (Java and/or C++)
• 1st Person Tetris 3D
  

This list will change because there are three more modules to go (each with either one or two assignments to do), another group project and then my individual research project (the last two I'm really looking forward to).  The first four in the list are most likely to be done first partly because the first three have to be done very soon and the fourth because I think its a really good idea. I would like to add an AI problem in this list too but I need to think of a decent problem to tackle.  Any suggestions would be most welcome.

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