Category Archives: Feldman Project

Phil 5.22.13

8:00 – 12:00, 3:00 – 4:00 SR

  • Backup.
  • ISSO Meeting – 8210 Dorsey Run Road, Jessup, MD
  • More resume variants
  • Meeting with Brad, our Program Manager.

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch with Greg

1:30 – 3:00 FP

  • Work on Audio3d class
  • It appears that you *have* to include <xact3.h> before <xact3d3.h>. It seems to be tied up with <x3daudio.h>, which is declared before <xact3.h> in <xact3d3.h>. If I reverse the order of those calls, no error messages. otherwise I get the following (included for the next poor soul who pastes this errot in Google):
    • 1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(6361): error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'ContextRecord'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(6361): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(6361): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(12983): error C2065: 'PCONTEXT' : undeclared identifier
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(12984): error C2146: syntax error : missing ')' before identifier 'ContextRecord'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(12984): warning C4229: anachronism used : modifiers on data are ignored
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(12984): error C2182: 'RtlCaptureContext' : illegal use of type 'void'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(12984): error C2491: 'RtlCaptureContext' : definition of dllimport data not allowed
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(12984): error C2059: syntax error : ')'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(13372): error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '__stdcall'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(13372): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(13376): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(14982): error C3861: '__readfsdword': identifier not found
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(1048): error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'LPCONTEXT'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(1048): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(1048): error C2378: 'PCONTEXT' : redefinition; symbol cannot be overloaded with a typedef
      1>          c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winnt.h(13372) : see declaration of 'PCONTEXT'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(1048): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(3610): error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'PCONTEXT'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(4449): error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'LPCONTEXT'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(4457): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(4457): error C2143: syntax error : missing ',' before '*'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(15112): error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '__stdcall'
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(15112): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
      1>c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sdks\windows\v7.0a\include\winbase.h(15116): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
  • And this is one of the reasons the Microsoft drives me so crazy…
  • …..and I got sucked into a meeting so that looks like it for the day.

Phil 5.21.13

8:00 – 1:00 SR

  • Backups
  • Deployed the new FA and RA for the first time. Had to make some changes to the DB to support. FA runs just fine, but there is a query problem in RA. Current bugs are:
    • When Update is clicked and not all fields are filledin, we might what to pop up a dialog box saying that they are not all filled in but allowing for a save.
    • Add tooltips to buttons. In particular, we need to be clear about what saves and what cnacels without saving.
    • Add a “Select All” to the SQL error dialog, now that we have QUERIES FROM HELL.
    • RA error string: com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.MySQLSyntaxErrorExceptio: Unknown column ‘c.appropriation’ in ‘where clause’.
  • Cleaned up the blog a bit to accommodate FA and RA.
  • Had an interesting talk with Dimitri about his Master’s program. Thought for the day. What if access to a system was based on an Eliza-like conversation with the computer. There would be an initial “get acquainted” session, and then the “login” conversation would be shorter.
    • Store key patterns as well as the words.
    • Use a plagerism test to look for cut-and-paste replies from recorded sessions
    • Login discussions could be like Capchas in that they could be half test, half learning.

2:00 – 4:00 FP

  • I thought this tutorial would be the best way to get positional information, but it appears to be stale. The New Way seems to be this.
  • Close, but it’s actually part of the Windows API now?
  • Nope that’s C#. Still looking. Since I have xact3.h working, trying to stay in this space…
  • Ok, for tomorrow, I start writing a 3D version of Audio.h and then try calling that from the ConsoleSoundApp.

8:00 – 10:30 SR

  • Backups
  • I got an email saying the current Tomcat server is out of date, but I can’t find an actual ticket. Maybe it will show up later?
  • While poking around throug codeproject, I came upon an article for JavaScript game development that used a library called “ease”. Looks interesting…

ease.js is a Classical Object-Oriented framework for JavaScript, intended to eliminate boilerplate code and “ease” the transition into JavaScript from other Object-Oriented languages. Features include:

Download v0.1.1

(Released: 19 Jan 2013)

ease.js is a framework, not a compiler. It may be used wherever JavaScript may be used, including with other compilers/parsers. ease.js also provides support for older, pre-ES5 environments by gracefully degrading features (such as visibility support), but remaining functionally consistent.

10:30 – 4:00 FP

Looks like everything is working in the proof of concept! Here’s the code:

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <Windows.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include "audio.h"

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
	int keyIn;
	HRESULT hr;                 // standard return type
	LPTSTR buf;
	LPTSTR targetDir = "C:\\Programming 2D Games in DirectX 11\\Chapter 7 - Sound\\ConsoleSound\\ConsoleSound\\ConsoleSound";
	Audio *audio = new Audio();

	SetCurrentDirectory(targetDir);
	buf = (LPTSTR)calloc(256, sizeof(char));
	GetCurrentDirectory(256, buf);
	printf("Current dir: '%s'\n", buf);
	if (*WAVE_BANK != '' && *SOUND_BANK != '')  // if sound files defined
	{
		if( FAILED( hr = audio->initialize() ) )
		{
			if( hr == HRESULT_FROM_WIN32( ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND ) ){
				printf("Failed to initialize sound system because media file not found.\n");
				printf("hit return to exit\n");
				getchar();
				return -1;
			}
			else{
				printf("Failed to initialize sound system.\n");
				printf("hit return to exit\n");
				getchar();
				return -1;
			}
		}
	}

	printf("Type 'x' to quit, 1, 2, or 3 for sounds.\n");
	bool doit = true;
	while(doit){
		if(kbhit()){
			keyIn = getch();

			printf("key = %c\n", keyIn);
			switch(keyIn){
			case 'x' : doit = false; 
				break;
			case '1' : audio->playCue(BEEP1);                  // play sound
				break;
			case '2' : audio->playCue(BEEP2);                  // play sound
				break;
			case '3' : audio->playCue(BEEP3);                  // play sound
				break;
			}
		}
		audio->run();                       // perform periodic sound engine tasks
		Sleep(100);
	}
	SAFE_DELETE(audio);

	printf("hit return to exit");
	getchar();
	return 0;
	}

Tomorrow, we’ll try to add positional sound.

Phil 5.17.13

8:00 – 11:00 SR

  • It turns out that I had forgotten to change the conf/server.xml file in addition to the java startup arguments. The keystore.jks file needs to be referenced in the <Connector keystoreFile=””/> element.
  • Backups
  • Talked schedule with Dong. Maybe a deployment Tuesday?

11:00 – 4:00 FP

  • Imported the sound example code into MSVC and successfully compiled. 
  • And runs! With sound!
  •  withSound
  • Next we try to put the audio class into a console app (main as opposed to winmain) and see if that can be made to work.
  • That went pretty smoothly. I had to add the DirectX “include” directories, add stdafx.h to the audio.cpp file and cast some char* to LPWSTR. The next step is to fill out the main() so that the audio is initialized and then run a loop to send different audio commands. A good task for Monday.

Phil 5.16.13

8:00 – 11:00 SR

  • Well, the cert is right on the production box, but there is something wrong with the test box. And of course that’s a signal for everything else to break. My mouse went into “crawl” mode, and I had to log out of everything and restart my desktop box.
  • And the cert webpage is down, so I can’t see if they revoked the wrong cert. I guess I’ll try tomorrow. It’s accessible through Firefox, and it’s only the integration server, so no panic. Grumble.
  • Lenny’s list of bugs:
    • Projects created for the test were 209 with child projects 210 and 211
    • Req type does not have all the different requisition types. The list should be EA, EAO, MIPR, REQ and RTA.
    • Cannot save requisition unless all date fields are completed, which will not be known when requisitions are added
    • Tried to duplicate a project and received the following error message: Error occurred duplicating project – please check server logs
    • When a project was copied the Project Budget Info was only partially copied over. Budget Center Name, FACTS PE and Sub-budget Center Name were not copied over
    • When a project is saved the Budget is changed back to zero. After re-entering the budget and updating the project it is saved properly
    • When a Sub Project was added the Total Project Budget Information was replaced by the Sub Project Budget information and the Sub Projects Budget information for 2013 is blank but the total is correct.
    • When clicking on the Edit button under Project Budget Info after having selected the proper choices the fields are not defaulting to the previously selected choices.
    • After saving Project Budget Info the FACTS PE appears as undefined instead of the option that was selected. After adding a second Sub Project, the Sub Project’s Budget field is populated incorrectly. It should be the total of the Budgets from each of the Sub Projects.
      • Also, the Allocated, Funded, and Un-Funded fields are zero instead of the correct amounts.
      • The Total Line Budget appears as the Total Line Budget from the parent project
      • The Allocated, Funded and Un-Funded are zero instead of the correct amounts.
    • I was able to upload the COGNOS data pull but there are issues with it.
      • There are multiple entries for most Req IDs and these were supposed to be consolidated into one line (is that true? Phil).
      • The Committed amount is incorrect.
      • The Obligated Amount is missing.
      • The Expensed Amount is incorrect
      • The Committed Date is missing.
      • The Obligation Date is correct, but the Expensed date should pull the most recent Expensed Date but is picking the first.
    • On the Project Management screen the Total Budget and Total Allocated are not Correct.

FP

  • Copied the OpenAL SDK out of the ProgramFiles(x86) directory where the installer put it and put it in my menagerie of API test code
  • Converted the MSVC 2005 project to 2010
  • Tried to compile, but the target names didn’t match. Adjusted the output name in the Properties->Configuration Properties->Linker->General->Output File field from PlayMultiChannelWin32.exe to PlayMultiChannel.exe. 
  • Compiled and ran in debug mode, but got the same problem where the audio is going to the 3 front speakers.
  • Since all else has failed, I’m going to RTFM. In OpenAL 1.1 SDK/docs is a collection of documents. Going to start with the OpenAL Programmer’s Guide.
  • So this is really weird. I’m looking through the code to see how the channels are activated, and there doesn’t seem to be anything explicit. But I do find where the wav files are stored. Listening to these samples in windows media player, the correct Dolby channels are selected for 5.1 and 7.1. It seems as though OpenAl is flattening the information to the front three channels. Wile poking around on the OpenAL website, I came across the following regarding Vista:
    • With Microsoft’s decision to remove the audio hardware layer in Windows Vista, legacy DirectSound 3D games will no longer use hardware 3D algorithms for audio spatialization. Instead they will have to rely upon the new Microsoft software mixer that is built into Windows Vista. This new software mixer will give the users basic audio support for their old Direct Sound games but since it has no hardware layer, all EAX® effects will be lost, and no individual per-voice processing can be performed using dedicated hardware processing.
    • I think I’m getting “basic” audio support. This explains why the codebase has not been touched since 2008 or so. Looks like a dead end.
  • Moving along, it’s time to try DirectX. The samples I can find online don’t really thrill me, but looking at books on Amazon, I found Programming 2D Games (P2DG), which has a nice section on sound. It’s now sitting in my Kindle Library. Let’s see how that goes.
  • Downloading the DirectX SDK. All 572 MB of it. Last updated in 2010. Why is this making me nervous?
  • Ran the DirectX installer, which blew up, but seems to have installed all the components, and the demos run. The demo games do generate Dolby 7.1 as well, so that’s progress…
  • Following the steps in Chapter 7 (Sound) in P2DG. XACT opened up just fine. Importing wav files from the OpenAL media directory. Interestingly, some .wav files choked as “unrecognizable” Don’t know why…
    xactError
  • Got the sounds imported and playing in XACT and the Audio Console. And considering how much stuff didn’t work today, That’s enough progress to leave on a high note.

Phil 5.15.13

8:00 – 1:00 SR

  • Backups.
  • Some back and forth about revoking my old certs. It will turn off the annoying emails, so I confirmed the request as long as it doesn’t affect my new, shiny certs.

FP

  • Need to send iRevolution white paper to Shawn, and a link to this blog.
  • Need to put together a schedule for my “Summer of Code”
  • Still no extension cord (Whee! It came in after lunch!).
  • There is a multichannel test binary that you can run. (C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenAL 1.1 SDK\samples\bin\win64\PlayMultiChannelWin64.exe). It should run

    front left, center, front right, rear right, rear left, and subwoofer.

    Instead, it’s running

    front left, front right, and center.

    I’ve verified that all eight speakers are working in the test app that comes with the drivers. I’ve also verified that the sound is correctly sent using the Control Panel Sound->configure tool. So I’m not sure if it’s OpenAl or something else. Ah well. That’s for tomorrow.

Phil 5.14.13

8:00 – 1:30 SR

  • Backups. Added a line in the script for the PPM enhanced db
  • Started the paperwork to mark the old certs as superseded. Here’s hoping I did that right!
  • General mucking about getting integrated with the Novetta portal. The IE browser plugin doesn’t work. But Firefox does. Switching over.

1:30 – 4:00 FP

  • Starting to walk through the OpenAL source code
  • Meeting with Shawn this afternoon or Thursday
    • Discussed various FP concepts. Of the concepts, iRevolution seems to be the best fit with the IRAD dept. There was also some discussion about building a data visualization capability.

Phil 1.25.13

7:30 – 1:30 ESSO

  • Meeting with Lenny, Carla, Tangie and Tom(?). We walked through their list of items thatneed to be modeled. Looks pretty straightforward
  • Backups
  • JavaScript

1:30 – 3:30 FP

  • Wrote up the Synthetic User proposal for David and Samir.

Phil 1.15.12

8:00 – 10:00 ESSO

  • The production server wasn’t accessible for some reason today. Tomcat was running, and if I went to 127.0.0.1 on the server, things came up just fine. Fixed by restarting the server. Weird.
  • Backups
  • A really useful  blog with some tips and code snippets which you may undoubtedly need while coding in ADF.

10:00 – 2:30 OH

  • Visit with Samir Nanavati to discuss feldman project. Nice meeting. *Terrible* traffic. It took 90 minutes to get to Tysons, and about 70 minutes to get back, for an 11:00 meeting. Oh yeah, and there was no one manning the full service booth on the toll road on the way back, so being a nice little drone, I paid by calling the posted number (FastPass). $1.00 toll, $6.00 handling charge. Then, after they took my money, they forwarded me to the toll road authority so that I could complain about the absence of a worker. I was then told that I should have run the toll. Awesome.

2:30 – 5:00 ESSO

  • Tried to follow along with the ADF videos, but the components aren’t there. Well, they are kind of there, but have changed since the video was made. As a result, I made some progress, and can build things that look kind of reasonable, but they are not launchable. Don’t know why. So, I’m going to flail at something new tomorrow: ADF Hello World Tutorial

Phil 1.7.13

8:00 – 3:00 ESSO

  • Backups. The now “non-merged” overdue table makes things go much faster.
  • Verified that Tangie and Carla have accounts on the Data Visualization tool.
  • Accepted a meeting invitation for Friday at 7:30. Ow.
  • Looking into doing FA in JDeveloper
    • Oracle database still works. Yay. The only way to get to the admin page appears to be through the start menu. Looks like it’s time to read some Oracle DB documentation.
    • Per the help, getting SQL Developer. Documentation is here. And it’s running, and connecting to the 11_Express DB. Woohoo!
    • OK, now that everything is back together, figuring out where I was the last time I was here (Oracle JDeveloper 11g Release 2 (11.1.2) Tutorials).

3:00 – 4:00- Orientation

Phil 1.4.13

8:00 – 4:00 ESSO

  • Backups,
  • Fixed a bug in the ingest for overdue projects. It was merging rather than replacing. Huge! Files!
  • Deployed new version of PA. Still a bug with dates WRT incomplete projects.
  • Loooooooooong meeting with Tangie, Carla, Lenny, Chris, Dong and I. Dong is adding the action items to the req’s page.
    • May start with some new tools – a Financial Assistant (FA) app that will allow creation and editing of budget center information, and Program Manager Assistant (PMA) that will allow for streamlined management of projects.
    • I think we should do this in JDeveloper or GWT.
  • Some WCC getting acquainted emails and such.

4:00 – 5:00 FP.

  • Cleaned up code while figuring things out.
  • Added a new effect callback, which went in cleanly. Looking into how to have multiple effects.

Phil 1.2.13

8:00 – 3:00

  • Backed up
  • Got admin privileges on my development box, so I can try a variety of flash players to see what gives with the old version of PPM
  • Working on figuring out what timesheet and what charge number to use.
  • Also working on getting the security videos to download. Done. Need to sign and send off the form
  • Worked on the design of the new Ingest Manager / Scripting IDE. Req’s here.
  • Long chat with Jessie about Novetta/FGM/White Cliffs.

3:00 – 4:00 FP

  • Changing HelloHapticDevice2 to classes. Need to figure out how to do C++ callbacks inside of classes again.
  • Ran into some odd problems that were fixed by moving all the shared .h files to stdafx.h and just including that. The static callback is set and compiling. Tomorrow we’ll try firing it.

Phil 12.31.12

8:00 – 12:00 ESSO

  • Deployed a new version of PPM that seems to be working much better than the old version
  • Backups. Slow, but at least I can get on the server
  • Security training.

12:00 – 4:00 FP

  • Switched over to the HD command-line examples to see what’s actually going on. Code is better commented, and seems to run better. There aren’t any peculiar error messages, at least, and no GLUT.
  • Looking through HelloHapticDevice.
  • Got a copy of the project built with MSVC working (i.e. with stdafx, etc.) I had to move a copy of msvcrtd.lib to the lib folder that was explicitly included. Otherwise, here are screenshots of the various properties (Note the Active(DebugAcademicEdition) configuration at the top of the dialog:

C++_General
C++_Optimization
C++_CodeGen

Link_General
Link_Input

  • And that’s it for 2012.

Phil 12.28.12

8:00 – 12:00 ESSO

  • Walked through some bugs with Lenny.
  • Attempted to back up but the connection with PuTTY was way slow. It seems to be a known problem, so I’ll wait until Monday to try again.
  • Helped Brian out with some JavaScript/HTML that handles collapsing tables. The code was not written well to educate.

12:00 – 4:00 FP

  • Got the HLAPI demonstration code compiled, though some things run and some things don’t. I get errors like “Haptics failed to initialize”. Still, “HelloSphere” works, which is enough to get the hang of things.
  • Hmm. Looks like it’s written for OGL 1.x?
  • Still, pretty cool. I’ve got a rotating cube with appropriate forces:

  • Also a teapot. So arbitrary geometry seems fine.
  • Still, I don’t like this:
	// Start a new haptic shape.  Use the feedback buffer to capture OpenGL 
	// geometry for haptic rendering.
	hlBeginShape(HL_SHAPE_FEEDBACK_BUFFER, gSphereShapeId);
  • That does mean OGL 1.x. No feedback buffer in OGL 3.0 or greater. That means this library probably won’t be all that useful.

Phil 12.27.12

8:00 – 12:00 ESSO

  • Backups, plus some coordination with the Pit Crew.
  • Dong’s pass has been renewed.
  • Meetings

12:00 – 4:00 FP

  • Got the power supply for the Phantom
  • Installing drivers from here
    • Following directions here
    • Which requires updating root certificates here

Yay!

  • Starting on the OpenHaptics Programmer’s Guide. And playing around with the demos a bit.