Arts & Crafts – Mostly Crafts

A full year since my last post.  What a slacker.  Well, here’s some pictures of the past weekend’s crafts.

Using the Wiimote with Windows Phone 7 Emulator

So over the weekend I had the bright idea of using a Wiimote to simulate the accelerometer for Windows Phone 7 development.  I figured it couldn’t be that difficult, as WiimoteLib has been around a while now.  3 days later, I’ve finally managed to get that to work.  Through no small effort, either.

World War Toon: In Peer Review

So, it’s been a while since I made a post of any substance.  Blame it on the game I made for Dream Build Play: World War Toon.  I spent most of March cleaning it up to get it onto Xbox Live Indie Games, and it’s currently sitting in peer review (for any of you interested in reviewing it).

It’s a turn-based strategy game and its code is based largely off of the Geodesic Grid stuff I’ve posted here.  Once that gets through review, and I don’t have to worry about it constantly, I’ll be posting some more thoughts on the Geodesic Grid and how I used it.  So, if you want that stuff to come faster, help World War Toon pass peer review! ;-)

Delayed for DreamBuildPlay

My Geodesic Grid series is delayed until after DBP, as all of my spare time is going towards my DBP project at the moment.  I will finish this, just not until then.

Geodesic Grid – Part 3

Dual Polyhedron

In order to make our Geodesic Grid, we need to get the dual polyhedron form of our subdivided icosahedron.  In theory, it’s a fairly simple process.  Each vertex of the icosahedron corresponds to a cell (the planar face).  The cell is defined by its corners which are the positions of the center of each face in the icosahedron that adjoins the icosahedron vertex.

When that simple process is applied to every vertex of the subdivided icosahedron, we end up with the cells we need for our geodesic.

Geodesic Grid – Part 2

Where to start?

Well, the first thing we need to do is create an Icosahedron.  We need the vertices and the indices of the faces.  Finding the cartesian coordinates of the vertices is simple enough.  Once you’ve got the coordinates, you just need to use a little brain power to come up with the indices.

Geodesic Grid – Part 1

What is a Geodesic Grid?

Well, it is a shape made of hexagons and pentagons, like a Truncated Icosahedron.  However, the geodesic has as many faces as needed to make it as spherical as needed, like a Geodesic Dome.

What does it look like?

Something like this: