Week 35: 18th May - 22nd May: Final Push

Thats everything done and handed in. Now for the showcase.

Week 34: 11th May - 17th May: Focus Dissertation!!

Now the exam is finished with, I am hoping to get the dissertation completely finsihed all tweaks and everything for monday. Unfortunately I have not been able to send Dr Lucas a full first draft as they were not finished in time to send all at once. However, I have sent him the methodology as I said before and today I sent him the realated work section. Hopefully, they will be fine with not much to change. I already have comments back for the methodology section.

Week34: 11th May - 17th May: Dissertation and Maths

Well the Maths and AI exam is this week so the dissertation is taking a little backseat. However, so far the introduction, some of the lit review, the background and methodology sections have been done. The background knowledge and methodology sections were sent to Dr Lucas for a look over and I have some good notes back. As soon as the exam is over, I will be getting on with that. First thing I will do is finish the lit review so that I can send it to Lucas for a quick look over. After that, the plan is to fix the problems that have been highlighted and then get on with finishing it all.

Week 33: 4th May - 10th May: Video Demonstration

Below is the video demo of my application. It did not work in the presentation but I thought I would add it into here instead.

Of course if still hasn't worked but I will keep trying

Week 33: 4th May - 10th May: Presentation and More Work

This week, I had my presentation. Below is the slides of the presentation I gave on Tuesday.

The remainder of the week I have been writing the dissertation. So far there is 1500 odd words and everything else is planned out. Now its just a matter of writing. While remembering to sudy for the exam

Week 32: 27th April - 3rd May: Where I am now.

OK well, where to start???? The programming is done finally. Not as much as planned. Not as impressive as planned. Not as much techniques explored. However, it is at a good stage to hand in (hopefully). although it is fairly simple and unimpressive looking, I am very very proud of it as I have never been that confident on my programming yet, I completed the programming stage of this project near enough all by myself. The translation problem still exists, however, Dr Lucas got back to my email and told me that it needs to be wrapped up now and unless there is an obvious problem to the translation problem, I am just to leave it there.

On the dissertation side of things, progress is still slow however, some of it has been written. This week coming is the presentations and to say I am completely dreading it, is a massive understatement. I hate talking in front of people but I suppose it is an easy 10% of the module. Just hope I do not fail too badly. Soon, I will add the presentation slides on to this blog and perhaps my script.

Meanwhile, major work needs to be done to the dissertation and revision for the maths/AI exam will need to start soon.

Week 32: 27th April - 3rd May: Fun Programming Morning

Following my earlier list, I have completely so far two out of the three tasks.

• 10.43am - Finished first task- now the program resets the simulation with different rotated plane and the ball back at starting position.
• 10.56am - I have randomised the velocity of the ball to float values in between -5 and 5. the position was also randomised initially this way however, sometimes it was rendered below the plane and although this is easy enough to fix (i.e. place some restrictions) i decided that exactly (0, 10, 0) is the perfect coordinates for it as it will always hit the plane with a good couple of bounces at least. this may change once the translation comes into play. this is what is next on the to do list.
• 12.10pm - OK, the translation is set in the code however, I'm not sure whether to use it or not as the majority of times, the ball never hits the plane. I think I may have to speak to Dr Lucas about this at some point. I could place the initial position of the ball to be exactly 10 above the planes position or give the coordinates of the particle the same translation. Again, this could work, however, more adjustment is needed for the camera too. i shall try this now.
• 12.46pm - It is now mucking up the collision detection. Therefore, an email has been sent to Dr Lucas, updating him on my progress and the problem I have had today. He is not in today but hopefully I will get a reply tomorrow. It has been commented out in the code in the meantime. I have also added code to make sure that when the ball falls below -100 in the y axis, that it stops the simulation, puts the ball back to its original position and then starts the simulation again with new velocities.

Week 32: 27th April - 3rd May: Program

Yesterday (Wednesday), I spent all day trying to change the equation of the plane to a segment instead of an infinite plane. After many, many hours it was finally finished. It is a little better-sweet however, as all my work and trouble I had with the original equation was for (almost) nothing as it is now not needed at all.

I also changed the camera to the god camera I used for the terrain coursework last year, so that is was easy to view the scene no matter what angle the plane is at. Another thing to cross off the list is the user input to start the ball falling. The user can now start up the scene, manoeuvre the camera to the ideal position so that it can be seen and then press the space bar so that the ball begins to fall.

--

To do list for today(Thursday):

• restart scent with the press of a key
• translation of the plane
• randomise the velocity/starting position

Week 32: 27th April - 3rd May: Progamming Time (again!!!)

Again, the dissertation has been started but as of yet not the greatest amount has been done. Fingers crossed inspiration will come soon. In terms of the program, nothing has been done until today.

Today, I have fixed the problem with the radius of the ball. It was done by subtracting the radius from the initial position and then adding it to the coordinates given to the draw function.

Week 31: 20th April - 26th April: Update

So far the dissertation is not going so great. the AI is done(finished that last Tuesday) however, since writing that report I have been completely stuck trying to start the dissertation. I think I need small break just to regather my thoughts.

On another note, my program is also needing work. nothing has been done to it over the last few weeks at all. the following is a list of what I think needs to be done at some point in the near future:

• Camera (maybe)
• Radius if sphere accounted for at collision detection stage
• User input to start/restart the ball falling
• Plane segment equation
• Translation of the plane (maybe)

Week 31: 20th April - 26th April: Dissertation So far.....

The update is that AI is finally finished and therefore today marks the beginning of the full dissertation write-up. I can now completely concentrate on the dissertation which will really help me as I find it better to concentrate on one thing at a time and i can get the write up done in a number of weeks. The plan is to have the dissertation draft ready to send to Dr Lucas in two weeks time. I will then focus on the presentation and the maths exam will fixing and tweaking the dissertation. Hopefully, if stuck to and without any big problems encountered along the way, the dissertation will be finished at least about half a week before the hand-in due date. Fingers crossed of course.

Week 30: 13th April - 19th April: Time is Ticking!!

Time is truly running away from me. I have so much work still to do especially for the dissertation however, not much is getting done at the moment due to the fact (mentioned below) that AI coursework hand-in is becoming ever closer. I am getting bits of the dissertation done but i am not happy with any of it yet. I really really need to get on with writing the dissertation properly instead of having lots of notes and plans about it everywhere. In respect to the programming absolutely nothing new has been done and nothing will be done until AI is finished as not much more is required so it has become lower in priority. Below are some of the notes and plans done for the dissertation so far.

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1. Introduction

1.1 What it is about

1.2 Why it is being done

1.3 briefly how it was done

1.4 Research Question

1.5 Goal

1.6 Dissertation overview/structure

-----

2. Related Work

2.1 Game Physics

2.2 Present Focus of Physics in Games

2.3 Importance of Realistic Physics

2.4 Collisions in the 3D Game World

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3. Background Theory

3.1 Equation of a 3D plane

3.2 Impact on the Plane

3.3 Euler Integration Method

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4. Methodology

4.1 Foreseeable Problems

4.2 Simulating the Surface

4.3 Collision and Rebound

4.4 Gravity and Friction

4.5 Final Scene

-----

5. Results

-----

6. Discussion

-----

7. Conclusion

7.1 Does it answer the research question

7.2 Initial Concept to Final Simulation

7.3 Applications of Simulation

7.4 Future Work

Week 29: 6th April - 12th April: Week in Review

Since the Easter holidays have started there has not been a lot of work done on the programming side of the honours project. Focus has had to divert to other coursework that is beginning to pile up. Therefore this week has not seen any new work or progress.

Plan (to do while completing the AI coursework):

• Rewrite plan for dissertation and the notes
• Look over the work involved in changing the plane equation to a plane segment

Week 28: 30th March - 5th April: Done it!!

Well thank god something actually worked for once! It is finally working with a proper bounce. I changed the method of how I calculated the plane equation and it worked straight away.

-

---

Next Step: look at changing it into a plane segment instead of infinate plane.

Week 28: 30th march - 5th April: Problems Problems Problems!

I think I spoke too soon!!! It does not work!! It is back to working every now and again. Although the test that put the particle at different x and z values above the flat plane has resulted correctly. The only possible problem left that I can see may be the equation of the plane itself as it is the only thing I can think of that will change every time the program renders that will result in different outcomes each time.

Time to try that!!!!

Week 28: 30th march - 5th April: Progress Meeting

Today I had the very last Progress Meeting with Dr Ozveren (shown below):

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Progress

-

Particle is falling perfectly and the calculations seem to be working correctly.

-

Next Step

-

To make the particle slide properly and fall after it leaves the plane. I may need to change the plane equation as it is for an infinite plane and with my current collision detection this means that the particle will never leave the plane. There the equation needs to be of a plane segment. Another possible step is to add more particles bouncing together and perhaps adding friction.

-

Problems

-

Was only bouncing correctly every now and again and this was due to a mix up with a letter! Absolute value does not work either but I do not think I will need it.

-

Dissertation

-

Underway - progress is slow but it will pick up once the programming is done which should be soon hopefully.

-

Changes

-

I have to just focus on this stage done - nearly is. Add more particles to the system although I need to run this past Dr Lucas to see if it is a possible option.

Week 28: 30th March - 5th April: Meeting and Possible Solution to Problem

Over the weekend, I have had problems with the bounce of the particle working correctly. Sometimes it would work and other times it seems to fail and either not hit the plane and bounce anyway, go through the plane and then bounce or even collide with the plane and then just move to a completely new position entirely. I was a little stumped by this and so tried to work out what could be causing the problem. I tried bouncing the ball on a flat plane and it worked. I then moved the x coordinate of the particle keeping all other coordinates constant, and this was perfectly correct also. The same was done for the y coordinate. It was fine. Last but not least was the z coordinate and it surprisingly did not work. There was nothing obvious in the code that could be causing this so I decided to investigate further. I then tried the plane rotations individually with the particle in its original position. All but the x rotation worked this time. Considering that the y and z rotations worked fine, I decided to use them both together as I thought if they are both correct then the concatenation of both of them will be correct also. This was not the case. This left me completely confused so I left it alone until today as I had my meeting with Dr Lucas.

When this was explained to Dr Lucas, he was very confused also. He asked me about my collision detection and if I was using the absolute value which I thought I was but turns out I am not. I got him to explain in to me again and he went over a few other things that I needed to look at just in case they were causing the problem. Once I got a chance to look at the problem today, I did all of this although I did get very confused with the absolute value and how I could use that for the collision detection. I emailed Dr Lucas again and he made his way down to the labs to help. We worked out the collision detection but if failed to work in this new method. We spent a while looking over the code and he had to leave before the problem was fixed. He just left it to me to debug the program to see where it might be failing. While he was helping however, Dr Lucas stumbled across a umber of little mistakes in my code which I fixed but of course could not check as the particle was not colliding correctly. Therefore, I decided to revert back to the collision detection I had before Dr Lucas helped for the time being as it worked and change the small mistakes that he had found to see if it would make a difference to my original problem. It seems to work correctly this way and so I have decided that I will spend the rest of today and most of tomorrow to see if I can get the absolute value working in the collision detection and if not I think I will just stick to the collision detection I had originally.

Week 27: 23rd March - 29th March: Weekend Progress

The last few days have been very bitter sweet. While all the problems were fixed and the new motion was implemented, I did encounter more problems along the way. I eventually got the correct motion, or so I thought. At this point in time, the particle bounces correctly every now and again. So far I do not see a pattern in the problems. I did try each rotation individually and it seems that for the x rotation and the y rotation of the plane, there seemed to be no problems. However, the z rotation did not work. I then tried the concatenation of the x and y rotation which in theory should be fine as the x and y rotations work individually. This was not the case however. I then tried the position of the coordinate itself by making the plane flat. The bounce worked correctly again for changes in the x and y coordinates. Again, the z coordinate when changed, caused the particle to move to a position quite a bit below the plane. So far, I am completely confused as to what the problem could be as the results at the moment are varied. I have a meeting with Dr Lucas tomorrow and so I will have a talk to him about what the problem could be. So stay tuned.

Next steps (once the problem I have just now is fixed) is to make the particle slide down the plane once it has stopped bouncing, to make the particle fall under gravity once it leaves the planes surface and to make the particle fall with a velocity falling at an angle.

Week 27: 23rd March - 29th March: Help

Over the last couple of days, I have had trouble with the programming of the project. There have been a number of problems encountered and so I decided to ask Dr Lucas for help. The first problem was with the collision detection. When the particle was falling and it hit the plane, it passed right through the plane. I had the collision detection set as checking whether the particle lay on the plane by putting the coordinates into the plane equation and if it equals zero then collision happens. However, as Dr Lucas pointed out, the particle moves under time and so moves under small increments of position and so it may not hit exactly on the plane. Therefore, I have to allow for some error below the plane. Another problem I had was that I was not sure whether the impact equation (ie. V = U - (1+E)(1-F)(U.uNormal)uNormal) was implemented correctly. I found out I was doing the cross product for U.uNormal instead of the dot product. I was also confused about the derivation of the angle at which the particle rebounded. I did not know whether this would be found simultaneously as the position and velocity or the rebound is found or whether it would need to be calculated with perhaps the equation a.b = abcos(angle). As I had not implemented the parabolic making equations yet, I was not to sure. Dr Lucas explained that the equations after the impact would describe the correct bounce of motion. After all this, I felt a lot better and I set off to fix the problems and implement the new equations.

Week 27: 23rd March - 29th March: Progress Report

Although I did not attend this meeting in person as I am ill, I have attached my progress report.

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Progress

Rotation is completely fixed and the particle is falling under gravity correctly (i think)

-

Next Step

Make it collide with the plane as the detection is not working as of yet

-

Dissertation

Still slow in this area however, work is being done to it as much as possible.

-

Problems

Collision detection going to see my supervisor as soon as possible.

Week 26: 16th March - 22nd March: Week in Review

So far, the program has the particle falling properly (i.e. gets faster as it falls, starts from rest etc.) At the moment, I am working on the collision detection and then the resulting motion following that collision.

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Below are reference links to some of the resources I have used recently:

• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2904/advanced_character_physics.php?print=1 (19th March)
• http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo/elias/models/m_fall.htm (19th March)
• http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo/elias/models/m_bounce.htm (19th March)
• http://www.cppreference.com/wiki/c/other/srand (15th March)
• http://www.cprogramming.com/fod/srand.html (15th March)
• http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/000095399/functions/rand.html (15th March)
• http://bishopw.loni.ucla.edu/air5/homogeneous.html (11th March)

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I forgot to add a post last Tuesday about my most recent progress meeting therefore I have attached it below

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Progress
not much done since the last time. Sorted the rotation, added matrix/vector class for all my calculations to come. Particle is falling under gravity, bouncing of the surface not correctly as of yet. Not done full testing as to why this is so.
-
Next Step
Fix problems. Make the particle move correctly (like parabola). Got equations/theory from
meeting with Dr Lucas.
-
Dissertation
This is still in the early stages as I am on the Literature Review.
-
Problems
Rotation - matrix addition
-
Changes
Talked to Dr Lucas who said that getting this stage done will have to be the focus now.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While at the progress meeting, we were given the dates for some of the hand-ins, shown below:
Presentations - 5th/6th May - marked by Dr Ozveren and Dr Lucas
Dissertation - 20th May - Dr Lucas and Dr Paris
Showcase - 22nd May - not officially marked but could be used as decider
Execution of the project - Lucas and moderated by Ozveren

Week 26: 16th March - 22nd March: Meeting

The meeting today was productive. I did not have a program to show Dr Lucas but I did let him know what had been done. The plane now rotates correctly. I did have a problem over the weekend where the plane rotates correctly in the x axis but not in the y and z axes. I tested the calculations on paper and the numbers did not work out correctly. I found out later that the problem was that OpenGL calculates matrices by column major instead of row major which is done when written on paper. I need the bounce to work properly now. Dr Lucas and I have also talked about starting the writing of the dissertation and also the future of the programming. He has explained to me in detail the next stage of the program which is to make the particle bounce in a parabolic motion. Equations shown below:

-------

• XPosition = XVelocity x time
• YPosition = YVelocity x time
• ZPosition = ZVelocity x time

and

• Velocity = previous Velocity + (gravity x time)

--------

He also told me to now focus on just getting this stage done now and not to worry about the other stages yet. I may have to ask him at the next meeting whether or not this will affect my project at all i.e. grade etc. He also talked about how I must remember the other coursework and especially the exam as it is worth the same as the dissertation.

-----------

Plan:

• Start dissertation
• Finish stage one as soon as possible
• New Gantt Chart

Week 25: 9th March - 15th March: Group Meetings and Schedule

Today we had group meetings with Dr Ozveren to discuss our progress. Below is my progress report which I did in preparation for today's meeting. Included at the end is an up-to-date gantt chart.

Progress Report

INTRO:

My Project is entitled 'Realistic Modelling for Motion Involving Collisions with 3D Environments' and I am looking into how basic 3D movements can be simulated realistically and at what point the calculations need to be approximated so that processing speed is not compromised too much.

Project implementation has been broken down into four main areas. Stage 1 - point mass bouncing on an inclined plane. Stage 2 - point mass bouncing on a curved surface. Stage 3 - sphere colliding with an inclined plane. Stage 4 - sphere colliding with curved surface.

PROGRESS SUMMARY

So far, the project is still in its first stage although it is close to being finished. At the moment, there is an inclined plane in the scene with the point mass falling and bouncing off. to finish this stage, all that needs to be done is some more calculations and some extra calculations involving friction and bounciness. Once this is complete the project will proceed into the next stages. So far for the dissertation, the literature review has been started but it is not near completion as of yet.

PROBLEMS

The problems encountered so far have really come down to time. I have spent more time than expected working through how the maths can be put into OpenGL. It has also been made clear that I spend to much time bogged down on one tiny aspect of a calculation. e.g. I spent days working out what was wrong with the rotation of the plane in the x and z axes and this was completely unnecessary as it was not an important part of the project at all. Not to sure if I do that maybe to unconsciously avoid moving on to more tricky tasks. I have also spent time worrying about whether I am doing calculations correctly without just simply going to see my supervisor.

CHANGES

Looking at my original gantt chart, I should be starting stage 4, so it looks like I am miles behind. However, the original gantt chart does seem a little too optimistic and there was too much time scheduled for testing etc. which when I look at it now, can be done as I go along (and probably should be because then it will be clear what calculation is at fault.) A new gantt chart has been made, this time without time specified for extra work as I know now there will be no time for this (at least no time to do it well) so just need to focus on getting stages 1-4 done well.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

The project, at the moment is behind, however even though it has taken longer than expected to complete stage 1, most calculations will be repeated in the later stages so I do think it is best to take time now to get them right. Worst comes to worst, I may have to leave out stage 4 also, but this is not too big a problem. Learning from mistakes made already and what I know about myself and how it does take me longer to do things than others, I just need to focus on getting work done every day from now on.

Week 24: 2nd March - 8th March: Week in Review

Work done this week - I have gotten stuck into the plan and so far I have added a FPS and in turn I believe I know how to use the timer. Next on the list of to dos is to fix the rotation and add the matrix class. This will not only help with the rotation but also calculations later on.

Week 24: 2nd March - 8th March: Meeting

I had a meeting this morning with Dr Lucas. I showed him what I had, along with all the problems I have had. He agrees that the program needs a timer and he suggested that the rotation problem could be sorted using the equation set out in the formula booklet. He told me to just keep focused on getting the particle bouncing of the inclined smooth plane first and that I 'should not run before I can walk' as I tend to over-think things too much, which is a recurring bad habit of mine. He also walked me through the maths and physics behind the bounce again.

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Plan:

• Fix rotation by adding matrix class
• Add timing code
• Make particle fall under gravity
• Make the point into a line so easier to see
• Calculate resultant motion correctly

*Show Dr Lucas *

Week 23: 23rd February - 1st March: Weeks Progress

So far this week, I have a flat plane at an angle under user control for rotation about the x and z axes. However, there is no particle of mass as of yet!!!! I have found that I have spent days working (and worrying!) about this rotation which in the grand scheme of things, is a very small part of it.

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Added Post - Sunday 1st:

-

Very stressed at the moment as I have been having trouble with the rotations. It has therefore been decided that I must include a matrix class. The particle of mass has to be the next thing which is added as I need to get moving with this project now. I am also having trouble with this area too. I have realised that the the particle is not falling under gravity as I have no aspect of time involved in the code at the moment. Therefore I will need to look into this and perhaps add in a Frames Per Second (FPS) counter in the program too.

--

I am not looking forward to the meeting tomorrow as I do not have mush to show for the work I have done. At the moment, all I have is the particle of mass hitting the inclined plane and bouncing back up - no maths is really used. There will be a lot to talk about at the meeting tomorrow.

--

To Do:

• enter in matrix class
• enter in timer/time aspect
• enter in FPS
  

Week 23: 23rd February - 1st March: Weekend Progress

Over the weekend a have done quite a bit to the program. At my last meeting, I was told that the plane should be at an angle of some sort instead of flat and so this was something I needed to look at changing. Over the last week, I looked at rotating the plane and got it to rotate under user control. However, having looked at the code over the weekend, I realised that the rotation was not correct. What I have done so far is to simply draw the plane in OpenGL by drawing a quad. For this to happen, OpenGl needs 4 corner points. To calculate math equations needed for future work, the equation of the plane is also needed. This has been implemented well. Initially, I wanted the user to control the drawing of the plane completely by entering in 4 points in space and then the program would check if they were coplanar if not the last points would be altered to that they were coplanar. This was implemented but something i did not take into account was the fact that the point changed correctly and was coplanar but because the points signified the corner points the points need to set out a plane/quad. The plan was re thought again. The plane was therefore drawn flat on the xz plane and calculations were made to rotate the plane round the individual axes. The y axis was not taken into the calculations as all it would do would be to spin the plane. The rotations are not working correctly at the moment. They seem to be however, when I change the size of the angle it does not work the way I expected.

---------------------------------------------------

Below are some of the resources I have used recently:

http://jerome.jouvie.free.fr/OpenGL/Tutorial8.php (22nd)

http://jerome.jouvie.free.fr/OpenGL/Lessons?Lesson1.php (22nd)

http://www.math.washington.edu/~king/coursedir/m445w04/notes/vector/equations.htm (19th)

http://jtaylor1142001.net/calcjat/solutions/VCrossProduct/VCP4PtsCoplanar.htm (23rd)

http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/geometry/planeeq (22nd)

http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/clibrary/cmath/cos.html (24th)

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071218120853AAOs5dQ (24th)

Week 22: 16th February - 22nd February: Meeting

In the meeting with Dr Lucas this week, we talked about a number of things.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With regards to my progress on the project so far, I had the basic scene with a particle falling (seemingly) under gravity with what looked like the correct bounce off the flat. However, when I attempted to add in coefficient of friction and the coefficient of restitution of the bounce I somehow uncovered a bug which broke the program. Therefore, I was unable to show Dr Lucas my progress. I am however, not sure if what I have done is correct as I have seemed to predict the time and velocity and I do not think the equations made from then on are right and so it would have been beneficial to show Dr Lucas this and ask him for his opinion on what might be wrong. In reflection, I think I should have asked him anyway so that he knew I had potential problems.

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We also talked bout the weighting of the modules for the honours project and what we get marked on which was very helpful for me as I was very unsure about CS1001A and what was marked for it.

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Before the end of the meeting, I asked for feedback on the proposal to find out where I was marked down so that I can ensure that the same mistakes do not happen in the dissertation. Dr Lucas told me that I did not go into enough information about the subject, why it was a problem, evidence supporting this, the motivation behind doing the project and the background of my chosen area of research. I also had to make myself sound more positive and enthusiastic about the topic.

----

This meeting was extremely useful and I hope to meet with Dr Lucas before our next meeting to show him my program without the bug.

Week 22: 16th February - 22nd February: So Far..... and Next Steps

I stated in the last few blogs, that I wanted the first stage done and ready to show to Dr Lucas by tuesday. As usual, I have not reached my goal. Unfortunately, I have only the basic framework ready which contains the flat plane in the middle of the screen and the whole scene is lit with a basic camera available for user control of the scene.

I have looked over all the maths needed (I think!) for this first stage. The hard part comes when I try to implement this into code. I seem to take everything really literally and so something I find it difficult to get a good grasp on the best way to do things. This usually ends up with a lot of time spent on 'trial and error' so to speak and in turn this will be my biggest downfall as I do not have all the time in the world to complete this project and I really want to get onto the movement of a sphere in the environment.

Progress on the writing of the dissertation has also been non-existent. However, Dr Lucas has mentioned that I should not worry about it til March perhaps so I am, at the moment, trying to focus on the programming side of my project.

Next steps - well I am going to repeat myself here and say that I want the first stage done for next week but for today I need to get as much as possible done for tomorrow to show Dr Lucas.

I also need to ask Dr Lucas for some feedback on the proposal now that we have it back.

Week 21: 9th February - 15th February: Week Plan

Yesterday, I made a general timetable which I am going to try and stick to as best as possible. It is a timetable which fits in most of my activities for the week. It has all my classes, free time, and sectioned taime scheduled for honours project work as well as the rest of my modules. I also made a plan for this week it is as follows:

• have the first stage done (draft version) - stage one was to have a particle of mass bouncing on a flat surface
• note all equations I need for first stage
• work it all out on paper
• keep blogging
• keep updating log book

This will be done for next week hopefully and then it will mean I am on fairly the right time scale according to my gantt chart. I will look back over what I have done and review it.

Week 20: 2nd February - 8th February: Progress

In this weeks lecture, we discussed all the sections of the dissertation focusing on the literature review. I now have a solid basis to begin the literature review when it comes to writing it. It is a very importatn part of the dissertation and has to show a lot about the work you have done and so after it is written, I will go over some of the points that were given to us in the lecture to act as a check list before handing it in.
Note: must have a look at endnote at some point.

Plan:

• Must have a particle bouncing on a flat surface by a week on tuesday so that I can show/talk to Dr Lucas about it.
• Keep noting down each equation used, its source and its purpose for reference later

Week 20: 2nd February - 8th February: Meeting And Schedule

Unfortunately, (again!) not a lot was done last week as I was quite ill for the majority of it. I have to get back on schedule as I am very much behind on the work, especially the programming.

I had my second meeting with Dr Lucas today. He was told of how little I have done so far but he knows about the window layout and the research which has been done and is as always ongoing. I asked about when to start writing the dissertation. He said that it was better to start programming most of the project first so that they is something to base the wirting on. March time will probably be the best time to start thinking about the dissertation I think and so consentration is now being put on actually getting somewhere constructive with the programming.

Week 19: 26th January - 1st February: Week in Review

So far not a lot of programming has been done. I have the very basic OpenGL window set up and now I will have to sit down and really plan exactly what i will be doing and get a solid code structure set up so that the code can remain as neat and tidy and especially efficient.

The lecture this week spoke about the management of time and also gave us a website to look at:

www.grad.ac.uk

Must keep in mind:

• approx. only 9 hours a day that I can actually manage
• do the important things before they become urgent
• prioritise and plan

I have decided that I will plan each day the night before and the same for each week and at the end of each I will review what has been done and why etc.

This will probably be the best way for me to stick on track as it is something I am not good at.

Week 18: 19th January - 25th January: The Plan!!!!

I had my first meeting of the semester with Dr Lucas to discuss what needs to be done now. Its generally just work, work, work from now on to get as much of the programming done as possible. He told me that my proposal was quite good and said it had been marked and passed back to Dr Ozveren for him to put the marks up online for us to see. dr Lucas also gave me a mathematical formula sheet with some essential equations on some of the stuff i am looking into. It will come in handy im sure as all the equations on the sheet are needed at some point of my project. Plan for time inbetween now and the next meeting will be:

• programming!!!!
• constant planning!!!!

Holiday work........