I've been messing around with the GNU Image Manipulation Program(GIMP) for a couple of days now and am getting the hang of the spandex MOFO. It took me a few days to get up to speed with the interface and locate familiar menu options. This involved reading the first three chapters of Grokking the GIMP.

All I can say is that this book is boring beyond belief. Fair play to the author for making it free and all but man is it dull. So what are my thoughts on GIMP so far? The interface has gotten better because the menus are now less complex, easier to navigate, and more like the menus in other programs, but, there are still niggles that persist such as not being able to preview filters/effects in the live window. This means to check out a filter you have to apply it, undo it (if it's not correct), and go through three layers of menu to run the filter again. There is a shortcut but this functionality is a must in all graphic editors.

So what's the verdict? After three chapters I am able to do what I can do in Paint Shop Pro(PSP) however I am unsure of my ability to figure out new things in GIMP as I would in PSP. Also the single document interface is quite annoying. I can see how it would work in a window manager with multiple desktops but on MS Windows it just means you have to go hunting for the dialogs everytime you want to do something (if you have more then GIMP open).

I don't know if I should continue with GIMP and learn new skills or if I am happy enough to just mess around with what I have. I mean do I really need to be uber elite and learn to improve the tonal range of my photographs or can I just use textures I scavenge on the internet? I think I'll bang away at it for another while and see what happens.

Although in comparison the amount of time it took me to learn to use (i.e. figure out) PSP on my own is no doubt much more then the few hours it took to get up to the same level in GIMP but is it a good thing that I couldn't just apply my knowledge from PSP into GIMP or that I could learn it so quickly (with a book)?!

You know this journal is pretty fucking boring. Why did I write it?

p.s. I came across a web site called PortableApps.com where they have lots of applications which can be run direct from USB keys. How freaking awesome is that?

P.P.S. I promise that the next worklog entry will be more entertaining then a barrel of knives and thai prostitutes smothered in hot sauce. Also, you can count on more cursing you fucks.

(Posted on October, 24th 2006, 21:31)
7 comments

After the failure of going underground with the KGB the worklog is back on the 'soup.

So what progress has been made since the last update? Pretty much nothing. I had to take a break due to health problems but I'm going to try build back up the work load again.

Currently I've worked through 7 or so beginners tutorials , 2 intermediate tutorials and read the manual or guide several times. I still find Ogre3D to be a bit confusing to say the least. Maybe it's the tutorials hiding too much information from me or the fact that I can't seem to just edit a scene and load models and then bounce them around. I wont let this stop me.

In order to help with Ogre3D and speed up learning I've ordered a book titled Pro OGRE 3D Programming written by Gregory Junker (there is a sample chapter available on the Apress web site). I read the sample chapter and it seems the ideal (and only) book to learn Ogre3d for experienced programmers. So I will hopefully make some simple games a la pong, tetris et al with this book's aid.

Another thing slowing me down and generally annoying is my lack of knowledge on Visual C++(VC++) and it's compiler options, this is nothing that time and experience will fix. One thing I find annoying is the stupidly slow compilation speed of VC++. I'd like to find a syntax check option or a speedy (maybe bloated) build option. I think I need to turn on precompiled headers to speed up the process but I have no idea where to start doing this.

I'm relatively happy with the progess on the coding side and have decided the artistic side of my skills need some working on. To this end I have chosen to try and tame graphic editing through the GNU Image Manipulation Program(GIMP) and wrestle 3D editing into submission with Blender3D. So I will also document my trials and tribulations with these pieces of kit.

So far I am stepping through the Blender 3D: Noob to Pro tutorials and it has been quite straight forward.

One thing of note is that the Blender interface isn't that bad once you start getting to know it. This is one of the major hurdles for Blender3D but I feel people are missing the bigger picture. You had to learn to use the interface of other software at some stage so what is the big deal about learning this one? Is a nice interface really worth thousands of euros?

GIMP is another piece of software with an alien interface. I haven't done much work with this but I had a quick glance through Grokking the GIMP. I did try out GIMPShop which is meant to be GIMP with a similar look to Adobe Photoshop(PS) thus allowing you to use the millions of tutorials for PS in GIMP. However I don't know PS so applying my knowledge of PS to GIMP isn't of any benefit and sources note that GIMPshop isn't as well supported as GIMP so vanilla GIMP won the day.

To recap; the goal here is to learn techniques with these items of software that I can apply to any other packages and as a by product 0xCODE something freaking awesome.

Hopefully next time I'll post something a little shorter and maybe some screenshots of one thing or another i.e. je moeder.

P.S. If you haven't noticed I am rather fond of using Free and Open Source Software(FOSS) over proprietary solutions so if you can think of anything worth trying out or using please spit your suggestion in my direction.

(Posted on October, 16th 2006, 21:28)
6 comments

This work log is going underground with the KGB on basecamp.

(Posted on June, 25th 2006, 19:59)
3 comments

After formatting my laptop several times I think i have it running as smooth as I can. So now I'm back to the 3D'ing.


I got a copy of Visual Studio 2005 and have dropped Irrlicht in favour of Ogre3D. It's a bit more of a top down learning process but I seem to be getting more out of the Ogre3D tutorials then the Irrlicht ones.

Everything in Ogre3D seems straight forward and makes sense to me. The name conventions are good. There are also loads of documentation.

Also the code completion on Visual Studio is excellent.


Next I might peek ahead and look at some other libraries. The Ogre3D input is meant to be pretty crap and I need something for physics. Choices, choices, choices.

Does anyone else find Visual C++ abysmally slow to compile? I heard rumours of it being the fastest compiler. Such lies.

(Posted on June, 6th 2006, 14:17)
4 comments

So nothing intresting achieved yet and I still don't really understand the basics.

Why don't people make tutorials like we had on div-arena?
I mean even though I had no idea what I was doing having my own shooter going was great and then I could modify that and learn new things. Not to mention all the examples u got they were cool also. These tutorials don't show you how to make a game but merely how to use the Irrlicht engine. I was reading the Ogre3D documentation and I might start using that instead it seems more co-ordinated and better documented.

I've laid off the 3D shit for a while I'm too busy at work and formatted my Laptop. So no more 3D till this fucking beaut' is running smooth as babe's bottom.

Also I'm dropping Dev-C++ in favour of code::blocks. however the code completiion seemed a bit shit. I'll come back with more about this. I want an integrated debugger, code completion, and code templates. I feel that maybe Visual C++ might be the only solution unless someone out there can suggest otherwise.

(Posted on May, 21st 2006, 16:41)
2 comments