Naive Ambitions

My god, the weather is quite depressing. It doesn't help that I was supposed to go on the Grouse Grind with a friend on mine sometime this weekend :'( waaahhhhh. I was looking forward to getting hot n sweaty.

Next weekend doesn't look much better either.

So I finished Math 221. The midterms could not have been any easier... but wow, that final could not have been any harder. My bum was not prepared for that, but I find some comfort knowing that there are many many people in this class who probably almost failed the course. Overall, it was definitely an interesting math course that required some different ways of thinking. Trying to visualize anything past the 3rd dimension isn't very nice, but the fact that we can calculate things with vectors in those spaces is quite fascinating. Makes we wonder if there's a sequel course of this.

And now I'll talk about all the cool things I want to do once I become a Master Programmer. They're probably not very realistic, but hey, dream big.

1) Develop an amazing third person animation system: I am still very disappointed at the quality of animations in video games at this day and age, and if anything I want to be able to develop a system for seamlessly merging hundreds of animations of different body parts together, utilizing inverse kinematics to keep the feet in place with scalable inertia values so that the character movements can be tailored to be quick and responsive, or realistic.

2) Develop a mindblowing video game AI system. I don't know what AI coders think of when they code for enemy behaviour in shooters or whatnot, but they're not focusing on the right things. Improving the experience the player has when playing should be the sole focus of the AI.; the player does not care whether or not enemy (or friendly, for that matter) perform intricate, complex manoeuvres when he's not looking. There should be a difference in behaviour when the enemies are in the player's direct line of sight and when they're not. In my humble opinion, the dumbest AI can appear to be extremely intelligent to the player as long as they execute stylish animations during combat.

3) Develop software that listens for particular clapping patterns, and performs a corresponding action. ex) I walk into my house after a tough day at work, I clap twice, sound system gets triggered and plays some 60s jazz songs. I clap thrice (is that a word?), crazy electro house begins to play. I would play different tunes depending on my mood. I'm pretty sure software like this exists everywhere, but I want to develop this one myself.

4) Team up with a mechanical engineer and make a cool sound system. Robotic arms attached to railings on the ceiling, with satellite speakers attached to the ends. A system of 2/3 cameras will detect the location and orientation of my face, and adjust the location of the speakers accordingly. As I walk around, the speakers will follow, providing the best sound experience wherever I am in the room.  MUAHAHAHAHA!

I will post more cool ideas I pull out of my ass later on.