10 top tablets 2012 by HillsBoyZ

If you want to buy one tablet , just see next video make by HillsBoyZ:

I'm not agree with the first place iPad 2. Why ? You must see this:

New 3D Game - Mini Ninjas - Now Playable on Linux via Native Client

The 3D action game Mini Ninjas can now be played on Linux via Native Client.

You have four levels are free in game.

You can unlock more levels by purchasing Core points.

If you want to have very good frame rates with almost no lag use a better video card like : Geforce 9500GT , ATI HD 4650 .

Chromium B.S.U. with FX5500 NVIDIA video card.

Chromium B.S.U. is an arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter available on Windows, iPhone, PSP, Mac, Linux and numerous other UNIX-like operating systems.

It is a free software distributed under the Artistic License.

The original version of Chromium B.S.U. was designed in 2000 by Mark B. Allan and released under the Artistic License.

Since then it has received the contribution of numerous people in the open source community.

The gameplay is based on a player who plays the role of hero, shooting their way through a barrage of enemy forces.

The game is similar to 2D top-scrolling space shooters played in arcades.

Source wikipedia

# apt-get install chromium
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  chromium-bsu chromium-bsu-data libglc0 libglpng ttf-uralic
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  chromium chromium-bsu chromium-bsu-data libglc0 libglpng ttf-uralic
0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 412 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/2,152kB of archives.
After this operation, 4,166kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Let's see the game:

Project Skydive - 3D Engines

Skydive is a game developed as a student project at University of Skövde in Sweden. We are 17 students that for ten weeks together have made this game in Unreal Development Kit. The gameplay mechanics are completely physics based, i.e. the character is really flying. The mountain is super huge (actually 14000 times larger than the Unreal Tournament map dm_deck). The game features several game modes, two characters and splitscreen support for up to four players. The game is a PC game but is played played with an Xbox 360 controller.

On UDK website, we can see this:

If you are using UDK internally within your business and the application created using UDK is not distributed to a third party (i.e., someone who is not your employee or subcontractor), you are required to pay Epic an annual license fee of US$2,500 per installed UDK developer seat per year.

So what is my point.

To make something like this we can use an free and better 3D engine.

Like Ogre 3D, Irrlicht.

Read this if you don't trust in my opinion.

Python , OpenGL and cube map OpenGL ARB

Today I will show a simple script that uses the OpenGL ARB "Architecture Review Board". The result is show in the next image.

I use just one image file named 111.JPG for all cube images. Let's see the python script.

from OpenGL.GL import *
from OpenGL.GLU import *
from OpenGL.GLUT import *
from OpenGL.GL.ARB.texture_cube_map import *
import Image                
import sys
#after I import all module , I set some vars
angle    = 0.1
texture  = 0
#this var set the type of reflection
reflMode = GL_REFLECTION_MAP_ARB
#this load the texture 
def loadTexture ( fileName ):
    image  = Image.open ( fileName )
    width  = image.size [0]
    height = image.size [1]
    image  = image.tostring ( "raw", "RGBX", 0, -1 )
    
    texture = glGenTextures ( 1 )
    glBindTexture     ( GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture )   
    glPixelStorei     ( GL_UNPACK_ALIGNMENT,1 )
    glTexParameterf   ( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL_REPEAT )
    glTexParameterf   ( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL_REPEAT )
    glTexParameteri   ( GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER,GL_LINEAR )
    glTexParameteri   ( GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER,GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR )
    gluBuild2DMipmaps ( GL_TEXTURE_2D, 3, width, height, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, image )
    
    return texture
#this load a cube map of six images
def loadCubemap ( faces, path = ""  ):
    texture = glGenTextures ( 1 )
    target_map  = GL_TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_POSITIVE_X_ARB
    glBindTexture     ( GL_TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_ARB, texture )  
    glPixelStorei     ( GL_PACK_ALIGNMENT,1 )
    glTexParameteri   ( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S,     GL_REPEAT )
    glTexParameteri   ( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T,     GL_REPEAT )
    glTexParameteri   ( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR )
    glTexParameteri   ( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR )
    glEnable          ( GL_TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_ARB )
       
    for face in faces:
        if path != "":
            file = path + "/" + f
        else:
            file = face
        image  = Image.open ( file )
        width  = image.size [0]
        height = image.size [1]
        image  = image.tostring ( "raw", "RGBX", 0, -1 )
        gluBuild2DMipmaps ( target_map, 3, width, height, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, image )
        target_map = target_map + 1
    return texture
#this check if is working OpenGL ARB extension 
def extensionInit ():
    if not glInitTextureCubeMapARB ():
        print "ARB_texture_cubemap not working !"
        sys.exit ( 1 )
#this is default init of opengl 
def init ():
    glClearColor ( 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0 )
    glClearDepth ( 1.0 )                
    glDepthFunc  ( GL_LEQUAL )
    glEnable     ( GL_DEPTH_TEST )
    glHint       ( GL_POLYGON_SMOOTH_HINT,         GL_NICEST )
    glHint       ( GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT, GL_NICEST )
#this help us when resize the window
def reshape ( width, height ):
    glViewport     ( 0, 0, width, height )
    glMatrixMode   ( GL_PROJECTION )
    glLoadIdentity ()
    gluPerspective ( 55.0, float(width)/float (height), 1.0, 60.0 )
    glMatrixMode   ( GL_MODELVIEW )
    glLoadIdentity ()
    gluLookAt      ( 0.0, 6.0, 0.0, 4.0, -4.0, 4.0, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0 )

def display ():
    global texture, reflMode
    
    glClear   ( GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT )
    glEnable  ( GL_TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_ARB )
    glEnable  ( GL_TEXTURE_GEN_S )
    glEnable  ( GL_TEXTURE_GEN_T )
    glEnable  ( GL_TEXTURE_GEN_R )
    glTexGeni ( GL_S, GL_TEXTURE_GEN_MODE, reflMode )
    glTexGeni ( GL_T, GL_TEXTURE_GEN_MODE, reflMode )
    glTexGeni ( GL_R, GL_TEXTURE_GEN_MODE, reflMode )
    
    glBindTexture   ( GL_TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_ARB, texture )
    glPushMatrix    ()
    glTranslatef    ( 2, 2, 2 )
    glRotatef       ( angle,  0, 10, 0 )
    
    glutSolidTeapot ( 1.5 )
    
    glPopMatrix     ()
    glutSwapBuffers ()
#this test the keyboard
def keyPressed ( *args ):
    global reflMode
    
    key = args [0]
    if key == '\033':
        sys.exit ()
    elif key == 'n' or key == 'N':
        reflMode = GL_NORMAL_MAP_ARB
    elif key == 'r' or key == 'R':
        reflMode = GL_REFLECTION_MAP_ARB
#this will animate , is a idle function
def animate ():
    global angle
    
    angle  = 0.01 * glutGet ( GLUT_ELAPSED_TIME )
   
    glutPostRedisplay ()
#... and the main function
def main ():
    global texture
    
    glutInit               ( sys.argv )
    glutInitDisplayMode    ( GLUT_RGBA | GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_DEPTH )
    glutInitWindowSize     ( 600, 400 )
    glutInitWindowPosition ( 0, 0 )
    
    glutCreateWindow ( "ARB_texture_cubemap demo" )
    glutDisplayFunc  ( display )
    glutIdleFunc     ( animate )
    glutReshapeFunc  ( reshape )
    glutKeyboardFunc ( keyPressed )

    init          ()
    extensionInit ();
    
    texture = loadCubemap ( ( "111.JPG", "111.JPG", "111.JPG", "111.JPG", "111.JPG", "111.JPG" ), "" )
    print texture
    glutMainLoop()

print "Hit ESC key to quit."
main()

Overview of Blender 2.63 by blendercookie

This is a new video created by blendercookie about Blender 2.63 features.

Thank you for share us.

Blender 2.63 - new release

The Blender Foundation and online developer community is proud to present Blender 2.63.

This is the new release of Blender 3D team and it comes with very useful features.

One is Cycles Render Engine and it is still under development is still available since Blender 2.61.

If you use linux OS then requires glibc 2.7, includes Python 3.2 and FFmpeg.

If you want to learn more , try this online manual.

New version of NeoAxis Game Engine

It seems that a new release of NeoAxis 3D Game Engine for game developers to come these days.
You can read more here.
NeoAxis Group is pleased to announce that new version of its all-purpose 3D game engine NeoAxis 1.2 was released. 
New version features numerous enhancements in different areas, including new tools in Map Editor and Resource Editor, extended localization support, ability to directly import new 3D file formats, full support for Intel HD Graphics integrated video cards, new post-processing effects

CryENGINE 3 Free SDK

The official website announced:

Anyone can now download a full version of the best All-In-One Game Development Engine, for free and use it without charge for non-commercial game development. You can try out the fastest toolset for creating game worlds and use the power of CryENGINE 3 in your own games

I could not test it because it requires hardware requirements.

The minimum hardware resources are:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, AMD Athlon 64 X2 2GHz or better (a multi-core processor is strongly recommended)

• Memory: 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended)

• Video Card: nVidia 8800GT 512MB RAM, ATI 3850HD 512MB RAM or better (SM 3.0 minimum)

Bellow is a video, also you can find on internet.

New Format Makes Digital Superhero Books More Cinematic

Comic books lovers will be happy to hear that a new format will be available. This new format for digital comics will uses tricks like:

• dialogue box transitions
• blacked-out pages
• cinematic cuts 

You can read more about this here. You can see in the next video how this working:

News about the game Armagetron Advanced

The game Armagetron Advanced ports that part of the movie in the 3D game. The game can be play locally against the computer or human players. The multiplayer features gives you both LAN and Internet multiplayer options. Also you can play up to 16 players in multiplayer. You can read more about this game in this article here.

Update game : 0 A.D. Alpha 9 Ides of March

Wildfire Games, an international group of volunteer game developers, proudly announces the release of "0 A.D. Alpha 9 Ides of March", the ninth alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare. This alpha debuts the Roman faction, new combat and trade systems and more.

Top new features in this release:

• The Roman Republic faction, playable on custom scenarios and random map scripts--in single player and multiplayer, complete with a new art set, including new buildings, units, and ships.
  
• A new combat system that adds bonuses and weaknesses to each unit, like rock-paper-scissors (e.g. spearmen defeat melee cavalry, but are countered by skirmishers and cavalry archers).
  
• A brand new trading system, over land with traders trained from markets, and over sea with merchant ships built at the dock. Establish a trade route between two markets or docks, and your traders will gain resources for every trip made. You can choose which resource will be gained by a trader.
  
• Over a dozen new random map scripts by Spahbod, wraitii, and mmayfield45.
  
• New animations: Rowing oars for ships, rams, some catapults, traders, some animals.
  
• AI improvements: 0 A.D.'s default AI, qBot, has had a performance increase and had a serious bug fixed with the attack code.

Heaven DX11 Benchmark is Back

UNIGINE Corp. released today an improved version (3.0) of its renown Heaven DX11 Benchmark based on its proprietary UNIGINE™ engine. Great looking as ever and containing many technical improvements, it now runs on Mac and supports for variety of new hardware, including extended support for multi-monitor configurations.

"It's very inspiring that more and more hardware testing professionals as well as tech enthusiasts find Heaven Benchmark useful. Our technology platform is constantly growing and we can bring Heaven Benchmark to new platforms and new hardware", said Denis Shergin, CEO of UNIGINE Corp.

What's New? Added Mac OS X version compatible with 10.7+ (no tessellation). Added support for Intel HD 3000 GPU (no tessellation). Improved support for multi-monitor configurations. Added support for NVIDIA 3D Surround (multi-monitor stereo 3D). Enhanced NVIDIA 3D Vision support. New cross-platform launcher without .NET dependencies. Fixed Phoronix Test Suite compatibility issue. Fixed minor visual artifacts. Improved compatibility with Mesa drivers. Improved detection of new GPUs.

Read more here.