Maybe some of you will find it useful as the software is very advanced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soft.Lab announced the release of dynamo, software for the calculation of generic sections, for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

dinamo calculates other than all inertial parameters (mass gravity center, inertial moments, etc.), the shear centre and the shear and torsion factors for generic cross-sections that are connected, but are free from detached cross-sections (typically cross-sections made from steel), whose surroundings (external and internal) are in staggered lines. 

Some features of dinamo:

- Determinates, for a generic section, some structural analysis parameter including:
 
 + Gravity centre and all inertial parameters
 + Shear centre, shear factors and torsional factors
 + Calculates and shows cross section torsional displacement
 + Calculates and diagrams tangential tensions
 + Calculates and diagrams ideal sigma

dinamo work in a complete environment that allow the modeling of the sections by using an integrated 2D CAD which offer some advanced tools like boolean operations and complex editing. Thousands of predefined industry standard sections are included.

dinamo® for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux: http://www.soft.lab.it/en/products/dinamo.html

 

 

AdMob and Native Activity

So, you ported your shining free game/app to Android by using the NDK and now you are stuck: AdMob do not work in your pure native activity application. Panic.

I was facing this issue as well when I decided to put uFall in the ads realm (it was a paid game). Tragic but not fatal. This is what I did to show AdMob in a pure (mixed to the end) native activity.

The mix

Yes, the mix. If you want to use Java things in your native code put away the JNI callback interface for a moment. There is a more clean solution. I want to call to JNI directly from C/C++, not by using callbacks.

For the entire thing I used the command line tools (ndk-build, ant) but I think that making all this working with Eclipse or Android Studio will be easy enough.

This little tutorial assume that you copied the AdMob's jar file to your libs project directory. (See the AdMob SDK for more info).

Step 1

You'll need to Add a Java native activity subclass that will instantiate your native one

Create a new .java (text file) file to your project directory (Change youractivityname with a name of your choice, it will be used in the manifest too):

android

    src

       com

           yourcompany

                 yourapp

                      youractivityname.java

Now open youractivityname.java with your favorite text editor and edit it:

package com.yourcompany. youractivityname;

import android.app.NativeActivity;

import android.widget.PopupWindow;

… (Other imports here)

import com.google.ads.*;

public class youractivityname extends NativeActivity

{

AdView adView;

PopupWindow popUp;

youractivityname _activity;

LinearLayout layout;

LinearLayout mainLayout;

boolean adsinited = false;

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

// Make your custom init here

getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);

_activity = this;

// Create our ad view here

adView = new AdView(_activity, AdSize.BANNER, "changethiswithyouradmobid");

}

// Our popup window, you will call it from your C/C++ code later

 public void showAdPopup()

 {

if(adsinited)

{

return;

}

if(adView!=null)  {

_activity.runOnUiThread(new Runnable()  {

@Override

public void run()  {

adsinited = true;

// Out popup window

popUp = new PopupWindow(_activity);

// This is the minimum size for AdMob, we need to set this in case our target device run at 320x480 resolution (Otherwise no ad will be shown, see the padding kill below)

popUp.setWidth(320);

popUp.setHeight(50);

popUp.setWindowLayoutMode(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

popUp.setClippingEnabled(false);

layout = new LinearLayout(_activity);

mainLayout = new LinearLayout(_activity);

// The layout system for the PopupWindow will kill some pixels due to margins/paddings etc… (No way to remove it), so padd it to adjust

layout.setPadding(-5, -5, -5, -5);

       MarginLayoutParams params = new MarginLayoutParams(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

params.setMargins(0, 0, 0, 0);

layout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);

layout.addView(adView, params);

popUp.setContentView(layout);

_activity.setContentView(mainLayout, params);

AdRequest adRequest = new AdRequest();

// Enable this if your are testing AdMob, otherwise you'll risk to be banned!

//adRequest.addTestDevice(AdRequest.TEST_EMULATOR);

_activity.adView.loadAd(adRequest);

// Show our popup window

popUp.showAtLocation(mainLayout, Gravity.BOTTOM, 0, 0);

popUp.update();

}});

}

}

// Do some cleanup

  @Override

  public void onDestroy() {

    if (adView != null) {

      adView.destroy();

    }

    super.onDestroy();

  }

}

Step 2

Modify your manifest to override your NativeActivity

Open your AndroidManifest.xml and edit it  (Again, change youractivityname with a name of your choice that match the one in the class we made above):

// Original native activity 

<activity android:name="android.app.NativeActivity"

// Your new activity

<activity android:name=".youractivityname"

This is to tell to the build system that we want to use a custom native activity class instead of the app.NativeActivity one.

Step 3

Calling setupAds from your C/C++ code

This is the clue. It is time to call our ads show. Before we proceed keep in mind this: Never call this function in an onCreate callback. You have to call this code 'after' your whole native window is created. Personally I call it when my game (native, C) window is ready to be shown:

#include <jni.h>

#include <android_native_app_glue.h>

// Somewhere you defined this...

extern struct android_app *__gandroidapp__;

#endif

void showAds()

{

   // Get the android application's activity.

    ANativeActivity* activity = __gandroidapp__->activity;

    JavaVM* jvm = __gandroidapp__->activity->vm;

    JNIEnv* env = NULL;

    (*jvm)->GetEnv(jvm, (void **)&env, JNI_VERSION_1_6);

    jint res = (*jvm)->AttachCurrentThread(jvm, &env, NULL);

    if (res == JNI_ERR)

    {

      // Failed to retrieve JVM environment

        return; 

    }

    jclass clazz = (*env)->GetObjectClass(env, activity->clazz);

    jmethodID methodID = (*env)->GetMethodID(env, clazz, "showAdPopup", "()V");

    (*env)->CallVoidMethod(env, activity->clazz, methodID);

    (*jvm)->DetachCurrentThread(jvm);

}

That's all. Your AdView will show up, otherwise feel free to leave some comments below. I will be glad to help.

If you are curious to see how the ADS will perform in your app/game just download uFall, it is free, of course:

uFall for Android

Best Regards

Speaking of great/production proven Open Source Software. This short's VFXs were made entirely with Blender. And the story is cute too. Great work, Blender Foundation!

 

Soft.Lab announced the immediate availability of it's flagship product IperSpace Max as a Personal Edition. This version is completely FREE and can be used for personal things.

IperSpace Max is a software suite for engineers in the field of structural modeling and calculus using FEM analysis.

IperSpace Max PE is available natively for Windows, Max OS X and Linux and can be downloaded here:

http://bit.ly/w5h9Cz

According to the report from NASA, UARS satellite will falls down on earth September 23, 2011. It also seems that the satellite will be not destroyed completely in the fall and then leaving (although extremely rare) the various components that may damage or injury. Currently it is not yet possible to determine where the satellite debris impacts but NASA will continue to keep us updated as the date of the fall is approaching.

UARS artist concept - Copyright NASA

It should be noted that during the course of history such a fatal event never happens (Or at the least no one was reported/confirmed). However, be careful September 23 and occasionally glance at the sky, you never know!

The little story and the vault

 

It was a long time ago when I wrote a first basic article about our indies developer experience on the App Store.

It is globally accepted that for an indie developer the most hard and crucial part for an iOS (Or other OS) app/game developing adventure is: Exposure. Yes, because generally an indie developer (be it an individual or a little company) rely, most of the time, on little budget and low popularity.

So what to do?

The IDRTG (Indie Developers Re-Tweet Group)

There are many initiatives out of there, but one of the most prominent and new is the one proposed by our good friend @innovatty: The IDRTG

The IDRTG is just an idea, and like every other ideas it may or may not work for you. The concept is the classic one but tailored for us: The more you tweets, the more you'll get retweeted. There's a page full of help here: IDRTG Help Page.

I was one of the first joining this twitter list and I'm pretty glad to see it growing so fast day by day. This mean only one thing: Indie developers can help each others by sharing they'r announcements and get more visibility.

 

Still here? Don't loose your time reading this poor blog, head on here and join the IDRTG now!

 

Hard days are coming, but nothing is lost. As usual.

Kudos to everyone, and feel free to leave your comment.

 

'It's all about cores'. This demo from NVidia will speak itself:

 

 

The demo is pretty impressive. It seems that this new technology will have a big impact on the mobile market. Are we ready?

 

From the NVidia blog:

 

'Given that dual-core processors are already on market, you might be wondering how Project Kal-El’s quad-core technology will improve the mobile experience. Rather than try to explain it, we’ve put together a hands-on demo to give you a sneak peek at the new capabilities coming to superphones and tablets later this year.'
 

You can watch the original article on the NVidia blog site

It was around the 1999 when all started. Realcloth was a fresh new technology for the time but for some reasons it never seen the light of a public release.

 

 

After many years of crunching around it's successor is ready to give you some help in your 3D world. Welcome, DynAtomic.

 

All this was possible thanks to the wonderful Realsoft3D's people. Thanks again guys.

Promo codes!

 

 

The next BIG 1.2 uFall's update is quite ready and to celebrate it we are giving away a bunch of promo codes for the current 1.1.5 version!:

 

This codes can be used to grab the full commercial version for FREE from the iTunes App Store.

 

Please report grabbed promos below.

 

XAHY3K7RERNA
PWP73LA6FFY9
EMJK6X6KWHFA
TWW7EJJJHYRM
H6TNN47PN4T7
RFLAYPFYN6XN
W9FEENXRXXYA
T364EMTAYEE3
9W64KPYMF9MA
EHWFFX3KMWJ7
NFT6KMNL7T3P
HY3T3XW7A7P6

 

uFall Trailer

 

More informations on uFall here.

 

Have fun!