Unity3DStudent Challenge #1 - Solved!

I recently stumbled across a great web site for learning about the Unity 3D game development environment.  The site is called Unity3DStudent and the URL is http://www.unity3dstudent.com/.  This site has short video tutorials and accompanying programming challenges to help new developers come up to speed quickly with Unity.  I really like the format and look forward to more content from the author in the future.

I saw that some people were posting on the Unity3DStudent site that they had some questions about solving the first programming challenge, so I decided to tackle the problem and make a video of the solution.  I have uploaded the video to Vimeo here:  http://vimeo.com/18833048

This video demonstrates how to use Unity to create a cube that is thrown into a wall. When the cube hits the wall a sound is played and the wall is destroyed.

Concepts demonstrated: Adding a force to a rigid body object, collision detection, destroying objects.

This is my first ever video and it could certainly be better, but overall I was surprised at how easy it was to learn Camtasia, which is a really awesome screen recording software application.  I still need to find the best video settings for Vimeo...the resolution was a bit choppy in spots, but it will just require a bit of experimentation to tweak things just right.

I plan to create a similar video demonstrating the solution to programming challenge #2 in the near future.

Peace out,
Tim

My first blog post!

Welcome to my first ever blog entry.  Yeah, I know, just what the world needs...another blow-hard piping off to the world.  I have to admit that I've had this blog sitting out in cyberspace for almost a year, and haven't been able to make myself post.  After reading countless blogs from people talking about totally worthless minutia such as when they last curled their hair or how their dog scoots its butt across the carpet when it has worms, I just couldn't get over the narcissistic feeling I would get every time I sat down to make a blog entry.

Over the last few years, I have become very interested and involved in my two of my favorite things in the world:  Adventure Racing and Game Development.  I am by no means an expert in either of these disciplines, but I have benefited greatly along the way from people who have been kind enough to share their knowledge with me.  So, I have decided to attempt to repay the debt by sharing whatever tiny bit of knowledge I actually have stored in my pea-brain with others.

My current plans for this blog (subject to change at my whim) are:

• To discuss game development topics...anything from programming tips and tricks using Unity 3D, to game design, to creating 2D/3D game assets, to art
• To blab about adventure racing...my race experiences and what I have learned from them, race strategies, training and diet tips, dealing with sleep deprivation, nutrition, etc.
• To talk about playing the electric guitar...yes, I "play" the guitar.  After 20 years I still suck, but damn is it fun!
• An occasional random thought or two

What I will NEVER post about:

• Minutia about my personal life
• What I look like naked
• The air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow
• Goat skin chaps

If any of this sounds remotely interesting to you, then by all means stop by once in a while...I look forward to hearing from you.

Welcome to the Life and Times of Tim!