Well not quite, its a cut down version restoring the old model A brand. But still nice, only 512MB though, so a bit limiting as a game machine.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-pro...3-model-a/

Whats much more interesting is the confirmation that the next Raspberry will indeed be a new system, I can't wait to hear about that, but I'm sure we'll find out in March 2019.

So, I'm trying to work through the KamaKazi Base InvaderStart code and ran into a few issues.

The first thing is that there was a switch from using Objects to GameObject.  The book mentions that Game Objects Classes from the previous example, but there was only an Objects class.  

The describes adding the code for Star.h and Star.cpp, however part of that code includes using Rand but this is not defined anywhere in the project so the IDE/Compiler complains.  I added this to GameObjects.h since it was in Objects previously.  I hope this is okay.

Also, in GameObject.cpp OBJID is assigned the value of NumberOfObjectsCreated++ however with Eclipse and the GNU Linker  with c++11 I am getting an undefined reference for 'GameObjects::NumberOfObjectsCreated.   After some Googling, I found I had to add the following initialization code at the top of GameObject.cpp.

   int GameObject::NumberOfObjectsCreated = 0;

This eliminated the Linker error.

After this and adding the code for Star, I am still not getting stars to show when the code is run as is mentioned on page 126.

While we all wait for the Raspberry Pi4 which, if it exists won't be announced until Pi Day   (14th March)
A possible contender for best SBC ever, has come up, and almost immediately gone down in my estimations.



the Rock Pi 4,  visible at  http://rockpi.org/

Looks like a total beast of a machine, a Raspberry config but based on a Rockchip 3399..... that's a beast...

At first glance I was salivating, I'm already falling in love with my T4 and Neo4 from Friendlyarm, and a $39 RK3399 equiped chip with full ports is a bargain. 
But nothing about the company behind the launch of this newcomer inspires me, its touted in the press releases as costing $39 up...nope, after a few days of being unable to find a retail supplier, it turns out the base price is closer to 68euros, excluding postage, or heat sinks that almost certainly will be needed for an RK3399.

So its going to be around twice the price of a 3B+, but  you will get about twice the power in theory, the hexacore RK3999 is extremely fast and smooth to use, and the GPU is also wonderful, though I have fears about the drivers not being fully implemented yet.

In short this is a sexy beast, but it looks like they announced it a couple of weeks too early. The sites are basic , the retail is non existent, and no idea what the final cost is going to be. And who knows how effective performance really is until we see an OS running.

Its locked itself into its own drawer of shame, but I'll check back in a month or so to see if they've got the price, the supply, and most important the software under control

So far I've been using TinyObjLoader and my own MD2 and MD5 loaders, to load static and animated models, all of which work fine. But its fair to say finding models in those formats is a tad tricky. but we need to be able to cope with more modern systems and trust in our artists/modellers to produce models which are low tech enough to use. But they need to be able to save out in modern formats, which means FBX, 3DS, Blend, collada etc.

For that we need a modern and reliable import system!


So I've been having a bit of a tinker with Assimp and creating an intermediate flexible mesh class, which willl allow me to load various model types including the all powerful (but massive overkill for a Raspberry) FBX...Assimp is available in source and lib format, I am usiing the libassimp-dev lib which can be apt-get 'd on Raspberries and most other Linux os.

My initial tests are pretty good, but I need to work on it a bit more before I can release a fully working (at least with certain formats) system.

if anyone one has any advice/info on using libassimp-dev please let me know

On page 88 of  the book it describes creating an Objects class in a file but it does not state that a Objects.h needs to be created nor does it mention the Objects.cpp file. However, this and the associated Objects.cpp is already in the InvaderStart.zip BasicInvaders project.

Another issue is that on page 90, the description for the code that goes into Shooter.cpp shows it inheriting from Objects by passing f and fh to an Objects constructor but there is no associated constructor in the Objects files from BasicInvaders project.   The Invader project from InvaderFin.zip does however have the proper Objects constructor "Objects(char*, MyFiles*)" needed to run the code from the book.

Looks like the Raspberry Pi folks are launching a magazine dedicated to Indie Game Dev. 
Looks interesting.

https://wireframe.raspberrypi.org/

So, bring up the Scratchpadgames.net forums site, Firefox is showing "Connection is Not Secure" 

I guess Chromium is showing the same thing. 

Did something happen to the site?

And what a monster it is, we were all expecting the new N2 to be unveiled soon, but no, out of the blue they've only gone and announced the all new entierly unexpected Odroid H2

And...its an intel chip, a quad core Celeron not too far from the Up Core I have...

Unusually for an SBC it won't come with Ram (unless you buy it) it takes Sodim's as used in laptops. 

No details yet on price, it might be too much, but its interesting to see that Hardkernel are moving into Intel chips, they are generally far more powerful than any ARM, but of course gobble amps in the process.

If its under $100 I'll certainly buy one to try out but it really offers me nothing I can't do on my PC, so not quite sure what the point of this, other than a very low cost all in one pocket computer.. We shall see in a month or so.
If it takes off, I guess I will need to write a book on coding on full OpenGL to support it.

Yes, those lovely people at FriendlyArm are sending me one of thier little Rockchip beasts. I love the T4, and its basically the same chipset with less bits attached, so very much looking forward to seeing this in action.

Course I still don't think the drivers on the RK chip are fully working but in time we'll see how they work out.

I've seen and worked through some examples of running SDL and SMFL on something like a Raspberry Pi so I was wondering if there is an advantage of using OpenGL ES over these graphic options.  Recently I heard a podcast where the guest was talking about using SDL for the interface development they were working on. It seemed like an interesting option. 

Any thoughts on these?