my little blog
I’m working on a little rts-game.
The idea for now:
You got a grid 5×5 with “fields” that can be bought and built into a base. Each base contains farms, food, soldiers, cannons. Farms give food for the soldiers, food can also be sold which is the main income atm. There are also citizens, which generate income from each field.
Give it a try and see if you can beat the AI.
In this tutorial I’ll try to show you how to easily tell an arduino what to do from a C# program using serial communication. The only thing the C# program does is send a byte to the arduino, and the arduino program will then set pin 13 to HIGH or LOW.
Lets start with the C# sourcecode, it’s written in C# Express 2010 which you can download for free here. Get the C# project files:
Download CSharpEasySerialSource.zip
I tried to comment the code so that it should explain most of the stuff going on. But it’s pretty basic, you select the current comport then hit Connect. If you selected the correct port that the arduino is using it should now be connected. The textbox only takes numbers, writing text there will only result in it being converted to bytes.
When you click Send it will try to send the contents of the textbox to the arduino. In my example code I used “0” and “1” for turning off an on the LED. Lets look at the Ardunio example:
What the program does it’s listening on the serial port. And when it receives a “1” pin 13 goes HIGH, and if it receives “0” it goes LOW. Pin 13 is in most cases a LED thats on the arduino board, so you only need a bare arduino to test it. And if you don’t know any C# and just want to use the program to control a arduino I’ve created a zip file containing only the .exe file for the program:
My new project, is a simple led-strip which shows CPU load. 9 led’s are used for this, could have used more but my tiny breadboard couldn’t hold more. Anyhow, it uses serial communication to receive how much the totalcpu usage is. For this you need a C# program running on your computer, it just sends a value from 0-100. And the Arduino reacts and lights up leds accordingly to how much load your CPU got.
I will not go into how you make the program in C#, therefore I’m uploading the .exe here for you to download. I’ll also include the source-code for it.
What you need?
1x Arduino
9x LEDs
Some wires
1. Wire it all up like in this Fritzing picture.
2. Load up the Arduino with the following program.
3. Download the C# program here.
When you start the .exe file, you only need to select which Com port the Arduino is using. And the click connect, and then it should start communicating with the Arduino. And show cpu load.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecbdUhiOWes&w=425&h=344]
PS. If you got any questions etc, please take it in my forums post here.
My latest small app, the easy timer. It’s a simple timer application, with alarm sound when the time runs out. Can be minimized to tray, and pops up when times over.
But it got a advanced set of extra features:
* No pop up from tray, stays hidden even after time runs out.
* Mute, alarm makes no sound. Nice for starting apps.
* Close after alarm is over, also nice when starting apps or such.
* No installation at all, just unzip and use. Portable and small.
Custom Launch:
Here you can specify what file to open when time runs out, can be used as a custom alarm sound if you select Mute Alarm, and points to a wav file. Or it can open a certain application. Endless possibilities.
Launch a web address:
Opens a web address of your choice when the time runs out. This could be anything from a web page you need to check when time runs out or just for fun at a friends computer showing up something funny or nasty tongue.gif
But the basic feature is for making stuff in the stove, pizza, baguette etc.
And as always, it’s freeware.
Yes, finally 0.3 version is ready. It’s been quite a long time since any updates about lifebiz, cause islandbiz took at the time. Anyhow, version 0.3 contains many new features and fixes.
Also the GUI took some refurbishing, and I believe it’s better than before. One of the great new features is the fridge/storage. As before when you bought a Bread he ate it at the same time. That doesn’t happen now, you buy it and it’s stored in the fridge, so that you can choose when you’d like to eat it.
The game is now paused while you visit hospitals, cars hops, grocery stores etc. Anyhow, just download and try it. As always it’s freeware.
0.3 Changelog:
+ Ability to buy, repair, upgrade and sell cars.
+ More features to the health, transplants, more pills etc.
+ Features a more floating stocks calculation.
+ Ability to purchase and rent out properties.
+ Better food system, you now buy food. And its stored in the main screen
and you choose to eat it when you want to.
+ Can develop alcoholism, the AI then drinks by itself if there are vodka, wine etc in storage.
+ Can develop nicotine-abuse, same as with alcohol.
+ Interest is now shown in the bank.
+ Some bugs removed.
+++++ Several other small things.
Category : Freeware Games, IslandBis, Windows
The new followup to IslandBis(z)1 haven been under development for quite a time now. And it’s time to release it.
It’s a quite advanced Island simulator/tycoon game where you control almost every aspect of it. You set the taxes, the car taxes. You build factories and research centers to produce and research new technology. Cause some day a deadly pandemic outbreak might happen.
As posted in previous post it simulates many different things, that all makes this game be more “alive”.
What are you waiting for? Download it and try 🙂 It’s totally free!
Also, you might need .NET Framework 3.5. Get it from microsoft.
The new followup to IslandBis(z)1 haven been under development for quite a time now. And I’m getting ready for a release. Currently the Beta is under testing.
The game itself features most of what IslandBis1 was, and much much more. It’s not only a simulation of the island but it simulates each and every person living on the island, down to how happy they are and if they own a car.
It means that every single citizen got their own set of features, and needs. A floating economy based on income from citizens, and there are several adjustments available trough the interface. A short list of what will be simulated/calculated within each citizen.
– Food, they eat food to heal, and it costs money.
– Cash, they all got their own economy(also different income classes).
– Health, yep they can get sick. Virus/disease or just getting old.
– Age, well it explains itself
– Male of Female, pretty basic feature.
– Thoughts, they will react to tax adjusting. Government spending etc.
– Happiness.
– Things to spend money on, home, car etc. This will affect happiness and income.
– If they are working or not, also different types of income.
I’ve also put in a research center, where you can hire/fire scientists to research new techs for your island. Improvement of pollution removal, health, food etc. And there is also a scenario feature, where you can challenge yourself.
This new game is a total remake of what IslandBiz 1 should have been 
Anyhow, some screen shots?
Yepp, once again I got a new release of this keypresser.
Current & new Features:
NEW, Backspace & Arrows up down etc. Also Alt + F4 is now possible.
NEW, Option menu.
NEW, Click sound (can be turned on/off)
NEW, You can now hide it from taskbar.
Many different intervals for buttons to be clicked.
Custom buttons, lets you write you’re own button combination to be pressed.
Default buttons, like enter, page up etc.
Minimize to tray, hides it while running if you want.
Also logs how many key presses made.
Delayed start.
F1-F12 and more predefined buttons.
Of course it’s freeware, and you might download and share it as much as you want.
0.21 is ready! Altho 0.2 has been out on the Osirisgames forum for a while. 0.21 is just a bunch of fixes from 0.2. But I’ll list the full changelog from 0.1 to 0.2 now:
### 0.2 & 0.21 Changelog ###
Added Show Values, so that happiness etc has numerick values too.
Added more toughts, when in pain etc.
Added Hospital.
Added some health issues.
Added Vitamins & AntiDepressant pills.
Added Body-Organ-Simulator.
Added Beer at the local Grocery Store.
Added a shopping mall. Currently only a liqueor store. And a discount drugs store 😛
Added a Casino, think you’re lucky?
Added deathreason is now written in the toughts textbox.
Added low-happiness warning blinker.
Adjusted Food, food is more food.
Adjusted workout to be more effective.
Cleaned up alot of code to be more effective.
Now off to work on IslandBiz 2 😀
.NET Framework 3.5 is required (not sure if you can run it on 2.0):
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