TAGENIGMA LLC – Page 127 – The Development Blog of Tim Graupmann

You
can use Visual C++ Express to build powerful .NET Framework
applications immediately after installation. In order to use Visual C++
Express to build Win32 applications, you’ll need to take just a few
more steps. I’ll list the steps necessary for building Win32
applications using Visual C++ Express.

Step 1: Install Visual C++ Express.

If you haven’t done so already, install Visual C++ Express.

Step 2: Install the Microsoft Platform SDK.

Install the Platform SDK over the Web from the Download Center. Follow the instructions and install the SDK for the x86 platform.

Step 3: Update the Visual C++ directories in the Projects and Solutions section in the Options dialog box.

Add the paths to the appropriate subsection:

Executable files: C:Program FilesMicrosoft Platform SDKBin

Include files: C:Program FilesMicrosoft Platform SDKinclude

Library files: C:Program FilesMicrosoft Platform SDKlib

Note: Alternatively, you can update the Visual C++ Directories by modifying the
VCProjectEngine.dll.express.config file located in the vcvcpackages subdirectory of the Visual C++
Express install location. Please make sure that you also delete the file “vccomponents.dat” located in the
“%USERPROFILE%Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftVCExpress8.0” if it exists before restarting
Visual C++ Express Edition.

Step 4: Update the corewin_express.vsprops file.

One
more step is needed to make the Win32 template work in Visual C++
Express. You need to edit the corewin_express.vsprops file (found in
C:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual Studio 8VCVCProjectDefaults) and

Change the string that reads:

AdditionalDependencies=”kernel32.lib” to

AdditionalDependencies=”kernel32.lib
user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib
ole32.lib oleaut32.lib uuid.lib”

Step 5: Generate and build a Win32 application to test your paths.

In
Visual C++ Express, the Win32 Windows Application type is disabled in
the Win32 Application Wizard. To enable that type, you need to edit the
file AppSettings.htm file located in the folder
Â“%ProgramFiles%Microsoft Visual Studio
8VCVCWizardsAppWizGenericApplicationhtml1033″.

In a text editor comment out lines 441 – 444 by putting a // in front of them as shown here:

// WIN_APP.disabled = true;
// WIN_APP_LABEL.disabled = true;

// DLL_APP.disabled = true;
// DLL_APP_LABEL.disabled = true;

Save and close the file and open Visual C++ Express.

From
the File menu, click New Project. In the New Project dialog box, expand
the Visual C++ node in the Product Types tree and then click Win32.
Click on the Win32 Console Application template and then give your
project a name and click OK. In the Win32 Application Wizard dialog
box, make sure that Windows application is selected as the Application
type and the ATL is not selected. Click the Finish button to generate
the project.

As a final step, test your
project by clicking the Start button in the IDE or by pressing F5. Your
Win32 application should build and run.

ZBrush

Sector13 [Screenshot]

GCDF ships now have a new device called a micro-missile launcher. The device launches 9 concurrent missiles which activate 55 milliseconds appart to attack their targets. This is the Thunderbird.

View TGA Thumbnails in Windows Explorer

By default, Windows Explorer does not create thumbnails for TGA images. If you want thumbnails, there is [this handy plugin] available.

Only listen to music you like

[Pandora.com] is a new flash based music site that only plays music you like. Tune in to stations and skip songs you don’t like.

Good Amount of Snow in Monroe

Microsoft Coding4Fun

Tony posted an excellent article: [Controlling Your Computer with X10]. The project makes use of hardware, xml, and speech synthesis. Example source is available.

[MSDN Coding4fun] has a ton of other cool webcasts.

Especially [this webcast] at 22:13 which touches on Open Source. Quite motivational. Shows what happens to engineers after 28+ years. Also definitively shows the intent of the mouse, which is “the mouse should have as many buttons as can possibly be affixed to it.”

Ogre3D 1.0.6

[Ogre3D 1.0.6] was just released. The new Ogre has support for Visual Studio 2005.

ZBrush — ZMapper

[ZMapper] just released for [ZBrush].

ZBrush

Painted pre-existing models from the [Modo site]:

ZBrush

Painted pre-existing models from the [Modo site]:

ZBrush

Painted pre-existing models from the [Modo site]:

TagCMA Administration

I did some site cleanup this weekend. I moved the [TagCMA.com] site hosted by [HTTPME.com] over to [Sourceforge.net]. And setup a [TagCMA.com] redirect to the [TagElfFax.sourceforge.net ] project page. The images and database were transferred successfully. I had to dig through [Sourceforge documentation] to get this all working.

Snow in November

We got the first snow fall of this winter. Hopefully this year makes up for the past few.

ZBrush

Painted pre-existing models from the [Modo site]:

ZBrush

Painted pre-existing models from the [Modo site]:

Modo

ZBrush

Thread Performance of Modo

While watching the [Modo 201 Event] again, I found this slide interesting. It shows in this case, spawning 2 threads has better performance than 50-80 per CPU. The natural tendency for a developer is just spawn threads when performance is bad. “1 Thread” corresponds to a single processor server. “2 Threads” corresponds to a dual processor server. And “4 Threads” corresponds to a dual processor server with hyper-threading. In this graph of rendering times, the lower the number, the better.