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After what seems like an eternity away the Bear is BACK. Hurrah!
(The audience goes wild)
- Much ado with the tinned applause and cheering effect. "Divers alarums" as per Shakespeare -

Miss me? Surely the ol' forums weren't quite the same without the hirsute hibernating lunch hamper and jam sandwich obsessed one's unique blend of humour and surrealistic anecdotal commentary?

Your favourite correspondent shall not fully divulge his perambulations over the past 8 weeks. Suffice to say that he has returned to Britain's green and pleasant EU sanitary standard approved shores from exile in da Kong. Amongst all the partying there has been a trip to Spain and a trip to London. Verily there shall be further trips to London and to Italy in the near future. But that is not to say that in all this merry making he has not been busy. Oh yes. Apart from setting up the world's first bear pressure group (Bears are people too!) to lobby for equal rights for bears and a better quality of jam sandwiches he has spent quite some time on DB Pro related things.

First up, people may remember the proposed Guide to Vector Maths and DB Pro's vector maths commands for the community. Well the good news is that save for a bit of polishing here and there this is all but complete. As with every story, it has grown larger in the telling. Its gone from the original concept of being a few web pages long to being in excess of 60 webpages. It includes diagrams, simple explanations, really bad humour and over 33 fully commented example programs demonstrating the use of all the vector math commands in DB Pro. By the time someone has finished reading it they should have gone from nary having a clue about vector maths to possessing a detailed understanding of vector maths and how the applicable DB Pro commands work. Whoa!

But at this fateful juncture I must needs issue two cri de coeur.

First, I don't have a website myself and desperately need some kindly soul to agree to host all these pages for me. We're talking somewhere in the region of 1.5 to 2 megs and what I'm proposing is that if someone will come forward then sometime late next week when I am back from London again I'll copy the whole website onto a CD and post it to them. There won't be any other work involved as all the pages are complete. Its just a matter of hosting them. In terms of putative hosters, the Guide has taken me a good while to put together so I'm only really interested in entrusting it to a forum regulars who I know such as the mods and the other regular posters. If I don't know you (by which I mean I don't recognise your name/avatar and/or we haven't corresponded in these fori), thanks for any offer to host it but I won't be taking it up. My hugest thanks in advance to anyone who does offer. PS: Please don't post along the lines of "why not get yourself a website?" There are reasons why this is impossible, not least the fact that until late June I don't have a proper connection to the Internet - don't ASK where I am posting this post from as its a very long and boring story.

Secondly, in addition to my 33 example programs I'd like to include ChipOne's example of the catmullrom commands and Hamish McHaggis' recently posted example of the hermite spline commands as both example programs are excellent. My pages say who wrote both examples and I'm hoping that as they are fully accredited and, indeed, praised, Hamish and ChipOne will agree to these examples being included in the Guide? Please can Hamish and ChipOne let me know if they are happy with this by posting in this thread below.

Next, before I left the forums in mid/late April I read quite a few moaning posts along the lines of "you can't write a complete game in DB Pro". Me, I reckon this is as wrongheaded as wrongheaded can get. So to debunk it I decided to write a complete game and, just for good measure, to write a complete game that requires no external media. The result of this particular brand of madness is a complete 3D version of the strategy game Reversi. I'm going to post all 2800 odd lines of it into the program announcements forum in a moment so you can compile it and play it yourselves. It boasts:

1. no external media at all;
2. three different board colours, two of which are violently sickening to the eyes;
3. three game modes: human v human, human v computer and computer v computer; and
4. detailed comments in the code explaining what the bejesus is going on.

Why not check it out?

Finally in all this activity described above I've spotted 3 more DB Pro bugs. One is a major clanger. I'll post them into the bugs forum in a moment.

So thats my news completed. I hope you've all been well and have been prospering. I've read the latest newsletter and have gotten excited by the new terrain commands but apart from that I've not been able to read the forums for the past 8 weeks so I thought before I bounced off I ought to just ask if there has been any further news about U6?

Cheerio!

Philip

Welcome back Philip.

I might be able to help you with webhosting. I'm currently in the process of creating my website for www.kentaree-studios.com (I am nearly finished my college exams, and after that I'll have lots of time), and I was already planning a series of tutorials for DBP to decorate the site. I have practically unlimited webspace and bandwidth, so that shouldnt be a problem. If you're interested please contact me at kentaree@kentaree-studios.com

Well if it isn't our favourite bear!

I've been waiting for that vector tutorial (or bible like you make it sound) since you left, glad to hear it's very close to being fully completed. Can't wait to get reading and laughing at your horrible, horrible jokes. I'm sure someone will have some webspace for you so I don't think that will be a problem.

TCA only just started planning the convention (just yesterday actually) so I think everyone's still sketchy on the details but it looks to be at the same place as last years and will be on the 28th and 29th of October. Read more about it in the stickied thread in this forum, and make sure to ignore my spamming.

Unfortunately U6 news is still lacking, Mike did an interview a few days ago but there wasn't really anything 'definite' in it.

Oooohhhhh vector bible! cant wait, im kinda lacking in that area

Go Bear! get those jam sandwiches up to EU standards! I prefere TACOS!!!!

Ah, the uncanny jokes of our most favourite hibernating, Picnic stealing Bear... What a good thing it is to hear that you've returned

I'm happy to host your tutorials for you. I'm regular too
But, you don't have to let me host them, and I fear that you will say no anyway, lol.

Glad to have you back Philip

Jess.

PS, I *would* send you an email, but it isn't listed, so here's my addy, sweet_prozack@hotmail.com

Hello! Long time, no see

Good to have you back....

glad to see you back, Bear. Here's a jam sandwich !

Good to see yea back philip. Wondered where yea had gone . Welcome back.

I've got a bit of web space if you need it...

welcome back Mr Bear,

I was waiting for your vector tutorial, and I was wonder weather your reverted back to a below-average bear .

Welcome back! *hides all traces of pic-a-nic baskets*

Thanks to you all for your offers! I'm grateful to you all! I'm overwhelmed as I actually doubted that anyone would offer. This is just yet another example of the very warm, friendly and helpful community we all have - its great!

I think the only fair way of picking one offer over another is to go with first come first served so, Kentaree, I'll drop you an email in a bit asking for your postal address. Then the CD will be in the post sometime mid to late next week just as soon as I get back from London.

Thanks again!

Philip

[ UPDATE ]

@Kentaree, I've just sent you a short email - the Guide is on its way to you. Thanks again for everything.

@All - I promised last week that by the end of this week, after I got back from London, the Guide would be complete.

Well the good news is that, as promised, its now complete and its gone to press (by which I mean its being posted to Kentaree).

I won't be around next week as I'm in Italy nor, for that matter, will I be around much the week after as I've got a number of chores and things to sort out. However, in my absence, look out for an announcement from Kentaree once the Guide is published.

If anyone has any comments on the Guide after they've read it, apart from about the lame humour in it, please do post them to these forums. I can then read them when I get back (which will be about 21 June). Incidentally, after I get back, I may add further material to it if I receive any specific requests for additional material.

In the meantime: may the force be with you.

Cheers all

Philip

Postscript:

At the time of going to press (i.e. today) I suddenly got ambitious and decided to add to the Guide a further two practical examples of how to use vectors in games. These two additional examples will show the reader how to make a 3D space radar (a la Elite) and how to create a target lead indicator (as you see on the HUDs of fighters) using vectors. Because these are both last minute ideas I haven't been able to include them in the version of the Guide which is winging its way to Ireland but I'll aim to add them in after I get from Italy.

Philip

Wooo! Welcome back hombre!