Game Studies is a rapidly growing area of contemporary scholarship, yet volumes in the area have tended to focus on more general issues. With Playing with the Past, game studies is taken to the next level by offering a specific and detailed analysis of one area of digital game play -- the representation of history. The collection focuses on the ways in which gamers engage with, play with, recreate, subvert, reverse and direct the historical past, and what effect this has on the ways in which we go about constructing the present or imagining a future. What can World War Two strategy games teach us about the reality of this complex and multifaceted period? Do the possibilities of playing with the past change the way we understand history? If we embody a colonialist's perspective to conquer 'primitive' tribes in Colonization, does this privilege a distinct way of viewing history as benevolent intervention over imperialist expansion? The fusion of these two fields allows the editors to pose new questions about the ways in which gamers interact with their game worlds. Drawing these threads together, the collection concludes by asking whether digital games - which represent history or historical change - alter the way we, today, understand history itself.

This book provides an overview of recent developments and applications of the Land Use Scanner model, which has been used in spatial planning for well over a decade. Internationally recognized as among the best of its kind, this versatile model can be applied at a national level for trend extrapolation, scenario studies and optimization, yet can also be employed in a smaller-scale regional context, as demonstrated by the assortment of regional case studies included in the book. Alongside these practical examples from the Netherlands, readers will find discussion of more theoretical aspects of land-use models as well as an assessment of various studies that aim to develop the Land-Use Scanner model further.

Spanning the divide between the abstractions of land-use modelling and the imperatives of policy making, this is a cutting-edge account of the way in which the Land-Use Scanner approach is able to interrogate a spectrum of issues that range from climate change to transportation efficiency. Aimed at planners, researchers and policy makers who need to stay abreast of the latest advances in land-use modelling techniques in the context of planning practice, the book guides the reader through the applications supported by current instrumentation. It affords the opportunity for a wide readership to benefit from the extensive and acknowledged expertise of Dutch planners, who have originated a host of much-used models."

This first book in the series will describe the Net Generation as visual learners who thrive when surrounded with new technologies and whose needs can be met with the technological innovations. These new learners seek novel ways of studying, such as collaborating with peers, multitasking, as well as use of multimedia, the Internet, and other Information and Communication Technologies. Here we present mathematics as a contemporary subject that is engaging, exciting and enlightening in new ways. For example, in the distributed environment of cyber space, mathematics learners play games, watch presentations on YouTube, create Java applets of mathematics simulations and exchange thoughts over the Instant Messaging tool. How should mathematics education resonate with these learners and technological novelties that excite them?

Video segmentation is the most fundamental process for appropriate index ing and retrieval of video intervals. In general, video streams are composed 1 of shots delimited by physical shot boundaries. Substantial work has been done on how to detect such shot boundaries automatically (Arman et aI. , 1993) (Zhang et aI. , 1993) (Zhang et aI. , 1995) (Kobla et aI. , 1997). Through the inte gration of technologies such as image processing, speech/character recognition and natural language understanding, keywords can be extracted and associated with these shots for indexing (Wactlar et aI. , 1996). A single shot, however, rarely carries enough amount of information to be meaningful by itself. Usu ally, it is a semantically meaningful interval that most users are interested in re trieving. Generally, such meaningful intervals span several consecutive shots. There hardly exists any efficient and reliable technique, either automatic or manual, to identify all semantically meaningful intervals within a video stream. Works by (Smith and Davenport, 1992) (Oomoto and Tanaka, 1993) (Weiss et aI. , 1995) (Hjelsvold et aI. , 1996) suggest manually defining all such inter vals in the database in advance. However, even an hour long video may have an indefinite number of meaningful intervals. Moreover, video data is multi interpretative. Therefore, given a query, what is a meaningful interval to an annotator may not be meaningful to the user who issues the query. In practice, manual indexing of meaningful intervals is labour intensive and inadequate.

This revealing book is about software development, the developers themselves, and how their work is organized and managed. The latest original research from Australia, Europe, and the UK is used to examine the differences between the image and reality of work in this industry. Chapters also cover issues surrounding the management of 'knowledge work and workers' and professionals in order to expose some of the problems of the management of software development work and workers.

Exploring Digital Design takes a multi-disciplinary look at digital design research where digital design is embedded in a larger socio-cultural context. Working from socio-technical research areas such as Participatory Design (PD), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the book explores how humanities offer new insights into digital design, and discusses a variety of digital design research practices, methods, and theoretical approaches spanning established disciplinary borders. The aim of the book is to explore the diversity of contemporary digital design practices in which commonly shared aspects are interpreted and integrated into different disciplinary and interdisciplinary conversations. It is the conversations and explorations with humanities that further distinguish this book within digital design research. Illustrated with real examples from digital design research practices from a variety of research projects and from a broad range of contexts Exploring Digital Design offers a basis for understanding the disciplinary roots as well as the interdisciplinary dialogues in digital design research, providing theoretical, empirical, and methodological sources for understanding digital design research. The first half of the book Exploring Digital Design is authored as a multi-disciplinary approach to digital design research, and represents novel perspectives and analyses in this research. The contributors are Gunnar Liestol, Andrew Morrison and Christina Moertberg in addition to the editors. Although primarily written for researchers and graduate students, digital design practioners will also find the book useful. Overall, Exploring Digital Design provides an excellent introduction to, and resource for, research into digital design.

Design and develop sophisticated 2D games that are as much fun to make as they are to play. From particle effects and pathfinding to social integration and monetization, this complete tour of Apple's powerful suite of game technologies covers it all. Familiar with Swift but new to game development? No problem. Start with the basics and then layer in the complexity as you work your way through three exciting - and fully playable - games. In the end, you'll know everything you need to go off and create your own video game masterpiece for any Apple platform. Discover the power of Apple Game Frameworks, Xcode, and Swift by building three exciting games: Gloop Drop - a new twist on a classic arcade game, Val's Revenge - a roguelike dungeon crawler, and Hog - a social player vs. player mobile dice game. With Apple Game Frameworks, you can create high-performance, power-efficient games that work across all Apple platforms, including iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. In this book, you'll discover how to... Design and develop rich 2D gaming experiences using Apple's built-in game frameworks. Harness the power of SpriteKit using Xcode and Swift to create engaging player experiences. Use the visual Scene Editor to build complete scenes. Unleash the power of the Particle Editor to create amazing effects. Use GameplayKit to add advanced features to your games like pathfinding, artificial intelligence, and complex rule systems. Build larger, more complex worlds with tile maps and Xcode's visual Tile Map editor. Bring people together using GameKit and Game Center, Apple's social gaming network. Increase revenue with third-party banner ads and rewarded ads using Google AdMob (TM). Monetize your games with StoreKit and in-app purchases. So, grab your gear and get your game on - it's time to level up your skills. What You Need: macOS Mojave 10.14.6 or newer Xcode 11.3 or newer Basic knowledge of Swift 5.1.4 or newer

Dave Eberly's 3D Game Engine Design was the first professional guide to the essential concepts and algorithms of real-time 3D engines and quickly became a classic of game development. Dave's new book 3D Game Engine Architecture continues the tradition with a comprehensive look at the software engineering and programming of 3D engines. This book is a complete guide to the engineering process, starting with a walk-through of the graphics pipeline showing how to construct the core elements of 3D systems, including data structures, the math system, and the object system. Dave explains how to manage data with scene graphs, how to build rendering and camera systems, and how to handle level of detail, terrain, and animation. Advanced rendering effects such as vertex and pixel shaders are also covered as well as collision detection and physics systems. The book concludes with a discussion of application design, development tools, and coding standards for the source code of the new version of the Wild Magic engine included on the CD-ROM. Wild Magic is a commercial-quality game engine used by many companies and is a unique resource for the game development community.
*CD-ROM with the complete C++ source code for Wild Magic version 3, a commercial-quality game engine for Windows, Linux, and OS X.
*A comprehensive, practical guide to all the steps necessary to build professional-quality real-time simulations with just minimal mathematics required.
*Emphasizes the application of software engineering principles and describes the architecture of large libraries.

Economists are regularly confronted with results of quantitative economics research. Econometrics: Theory and Applications with EViews provides a broad introduction to quantitative economic methods, for example how models arise, their underlying assumptions and how estimates of parameters or other economic quantities are computed. The author combines econometric theory with practice by demonstrating its use with the software package EViews through extensive use of screen shots. The emphasis is on understanding how to select the right method of analysis for a given situation, and how to actually apply the theoretical methodology correctly. The EViews software package is available from 'Quantitive Micro Software'. Written for any undergraduate or postgraduate course in Econometrics.

In April 2021, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of 39 former Subpostmasters and ruled their prosecutions were an affront to the public conscience. They were just a few of the hundreds who had been prosecuted by the Post Office using IT evidence from an unreliable computer system called Horizon. When the Post Office became aware that Horizon didn't work properly, it covered it up. The Great Post Office Scandal is the story of how these innocent people had their lives ruined by a once-loved national institution and how, against overwhelming odds, they fought back to clear their names. Gripping, heart-breaking and enlightening, The Great Post Office Scandal should be read by everyone who wants to understand how this massive miscarriage of justice was allowed to happen.

This is a fully revised edition of the best-selling Introduction to Maple. The book presents the modern computer algebra system Maple, teaching the reader not only what can be done by Maple, but also how and why it can be done. The book also provides the necessary background for those who want the most of Maple or want to extend its built-in knowledge. Emphasis is on understanding the Maple system more than on factual knowledge of built-in possibilities. To this end, the book contains both elementary and more sophisticated examples as well as many exercises. The typical reader should have a background in mathematics at the intermediate level. Andre Heck began developing and teaching Maple courses at the University of Nijmegen in 1987. In 1989 he was appointed managing director of the CAN Expertise Center in Amsterdam. CAN, Computer Algebra in the Netherlands, stimulates and coordinates the use of computer algebra in education and research. In 1996 the CAN Expertise Center was integrated into the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam, into what became the AMSTEL Institute. The institute program focuses on the innovation of computer activities in mathematics and science education on all levels of education. The author is actively involved in the research and development aimed at the integrated computer learning environment Coach for mathematics and science education at secondary school level.

This book presents a broad review of state-of-the-art 3D video production technologies and applications. The text opens with a concise introduction to the field, before examining the design and calibration methods for multi-view camera systems, including practical implementation technologies. A range of algorithms are then described for producing 3D video from video data. A selection of 3D video applications are also demonstrated. Features: describes real-time synchronized multi-view video capture, and object tracking with a group of active cameras; discusses geometric and photometric camera calibration, and 3D video studio design with active cameras; examines 3D shape and motion reconstruction, texture mapping and image rendering, and lighting environment estimation; demonstrates attractive 3D visualization, visual contents analysis and editing, 3D body action analysis, and data compression; highlights the remaining challenges and the exciting avenues for future research in 3D video technology.

Weigh the past and seize your destiny-wherever the darkened path may lead-with The Sanctuary Tarot Deck and Guidebook, inspired by the mythos of Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo and its magic-infused world of Sanctuary. In this deluxe boxed set featuring 78 oversize cards and a 96-page guidebook, rekindle the traditions of those who threw bones, read tea leaves, and invoked the supernatural to light their path. With a team of artists led by Konstantin Vavilov and a comprehensive guidebook by Barbara Moore, this tarot set channels the beauty and terror of Sanctuary into an all-encompassing, visually stunning experience that holds the key to understanding-and embracing-your own inner demons.

The third book in CMP's new V.A.S.S.T. series produced in cooperation with the Sundance Media Group, Instant Sound Forge is a general guide to the operation of the application and a graphic "cookbook" of specific techniques for using Sound Forge to fix (hide mistakes) and sweeten (improve) audio. Sony's Sound Forge is a powerful mono and stereo digital audio recorder and editor that beginners and professionals use for audio production of radio, TV, music, video, animation, Web design, and multimedia. Novices can quickly achieve great results by gaining command of the basic recording and editing functions, while professionals will learn how to use the application's more sophisticated tools, advanced features, and shortcuts to streamline their workflow and achieve new audio heights.
This graphical 'cookbook' of specific techniques will help novices achieve great results quickly and professionals to streamline their workflow and achieve new audio heights.

This book presents recent developments is the field of human aspects in Ambient Intelligence. This field, and the associated workshop series, addresses multidisciplinary aspects of AmI with human-directed disciplines such as psychology, social science, neuroscience and biomedical sciences. The aim of the workshop series is to get researchers together from these human-directed disciplines or working on cross connections of AmI with these disciplines. The focus is on the use of knowledge from these disciplines in AmI applications, in order to support humans in their daily living in medical, psychological and social respects. The book plays important role to get modellers in the psychological, neurological, social or biomedical disciplines interested in AmI as a high-potential application area for their models. From the other side, the book may make researchers in Computer Science and Artificial and Ambient Intelligence more aware of the possibilities to incorporate more substantial knowledge from the psychological, neurological, social and biomedical disciplines in AmI architectures and applications.

This book illustrates the current work of leading multilevel modeling (MLM) researchers from around the world.

The book's goal is to critically examine the real problems that occur when trying to use MLMs in applied research, such as power, experimental design, and model violations. This presentation of cutting-edge work and statistical innovations in multilevel modeling includes topics such as growth modeling, repeated measures analysis, nonlinear modeling, outlier detection, and meta analysis.

This volume will be beneficial for researchers with advanced statistical training and extensive experience in applying multilevel models, especially in the areas of education; clinical intervention; social, developmental and health psychology, and other behavioral sciences; or as a supplement for an introductory graduate-level course.

Despite the spectacular breakthroughs of the semiconductor industry, the ability to design integrated circuits under stringent time-to-market requirements is lagging behind integration capacity, so far keeping pace with still valid Moorea (TM)s Law. The resulting gap is threatening with slowing down such a phenomenal growth. The design community believes that it is only by means of powerful CAD tools, design methodologies and even a design paradigm shift, that this design gap can be bridged. In this sense, reuse-based design is seen as a promising solution, and concepts such as IP Block, Virtual Component, and Design Reuse have become commonplace thanks to the significant advances in the digital arena. Unfortunately, the very nature of analog and mixed-signal (AMS) design a "more subtle, hierarchically loose, and handicraft-demandinga" has hindered a similar level of consensus and development.

Aiming at the core of the problem, Reuse Based Methodologies and Tools in the Design of Analog and Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuits presents a framework for the reuse-based design of AMS circuits. The framework is founded on three key elements: (1) a CAD-supported hierarchical design flow that facilitates the incorporation of AMS reusable blocks, reduces the overall design time, and expedites the management of increasing AMS design complexity; (2) a complete, clear definition of the AMS reusable block, structured into three separate facets or views: the behavioral, structural, and layout facets, the first two for top-down electrical synthesis and bottom-up verification, the latter used during bottom-up physical synthesis; (3) the design for reusability set of tools, methods, andguidelines that, relying on intensive parameterization as well as on design knowledge capture and encapsulation, allows to produce fully reusable AMS blocks.

Reuse Based Methodologies and Tools in the Design of Analog and Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuits features a very detailed, tutorial, and in-depth coverage of all issues and must-have properties of reusable AMS blocks, as well as a thorough description of the methods and tools necessary to implement them. For the first time, this has been done hierarchically, covering one by one the different stages of the design flow, allowing us to examine how the reusable block yields its benefits, both in design time and correct performance.

SAS Programming: The One-Day Course provides a concise introduction to the SAS programming language that gives readers not only a quick start in SAS programming, but also in the basic data manipulations and statistical summaries that are available through SAS. Unlike other introductory texts on the market, this is a pocket-sized reference that does not clutter the presentation of programming techniques by trying to teach statistical methods at the same time. Strong on explanations of how to carry out data manipulations that real-life data often call for, it also contains a short "workbook" appendix, complete with solutions. Datasets and the programming code are available to download from the Web.

Turn jumbles of numbers into graphics, insights, and answers with Excel With Microsoft Excel, you can, well, excel at data analysis. And Excel Data Analysis For Dummies can help, with clear and easy explanations of the mountain of features for creating, visualizing, and analyzing data. PivotTables, charts, what-if analysis, statistical functions--it's all in here, with examples and ideas for Excel users of all skill levels. This latest edition covers the most recent updates to Excel and Microsoft 365. You'll beef up your data skills and learn powerful techniques for turning numbers into knowledge. For students, researchers, and business professionals, Excel is the spreadsheet and data application of choice--and Dummies is the best choice for learning how to make those numbers sing. Learn how to use Excel's built-in data analysis features and write your own functions to explore patterns in your data Create striking charts and visualizations, and discover multiple ways to tell the stories hidden in the numbers Clean up large datasets and identify statistical operations that will answer your questions Perform financial calculations, database operations, and more--without leaving Excel Excel Data Analysis For Dummies is the go-to resource for Excel users who are looking for better ways to crunch the numbers.

The heart of any system that simulates the physical interaction between objects is collision detection-the ability to detect when two objects have come into contact. This system is also one of the most difficult aspects of a physical simulation to implement correctly, and invariably it is the main consumer of CPU cycles. Practitioners, new to the field or otherwise, quickly discover that the attempt to build a fast, accurate, and robust collision detection system takes them down a long path fraught with perils and pitfalls unlike most they have ever encountered. Without in-depth knowledge and understanding of the issues associated with engineering a collision detection system, the end of that path is an abyss that has swallowed many a good programmer!
Gino van den Bergen's new book is the story of his successful journey down that path. The outcome is his well-known collision detection system, the SOftware Library for Interference Detection (SOLID). Along the way, he covers the topics of vector algebra and geometry, the various geometric primitives of interest in a collision system, the powerful method of separating axes for the purposes of intersection testing, and the equally powerful Gilbert-Johnson-Keerthi (GJK) algorithm for computing the distance between convex objects. But this book provides much more than a good compendium of the ideas that go into building a collision system. The curse of practical computational geometry is floating-point arithmetic. Algorithms with straightforward implementations when using exact arithmetic can have catastrophic failures in a floating-point system. Specifically, intersection and distance algorithms implemented in a floating-point systemtend to fail exactly in the most important case in a collision system-when two objects are just touching. Great care must be taken to properly handle floating-point round off errors. Gino's ultimate accomplishment in this book is his presentation on how to correctly implement the GJK distance algorithm in the presence of single-precision floating-point arithmetic. And what better way to illustrate this than with a case study, the final chapter on the design and implementation of SOLID.
About the CD-ROM
The companion CD-ROM includes the full C++ source code of SOLID 3.5 as well as API documentation in HTML and PDF formats. Both single (32bit) and double (64bit) precision versions of the SOLID SDK plus example programs can be compiled for Linux platforms using GNU g++ version 2.95 to 3.3 and for Win32 platforms using Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 to 7.1. Use of the SOLID source code is governed by the terms of either the GNU GPL or the Trolltech QPL (see CD-ROM documentation for details).
About the Author
Gino van den Bergen is a game developer living and working in The Netherlands. He is the creator of SOLID and holds a Ph.D. in computing science from Eindhoven University of Technology. Gino implemented collision detection and physics in NaN Technologies' Blender, a creation suite for interactive 3D content.
*Explains the fundamental geometric and numerical concepts that underlie the key algorithms of collision detection.
*CD-ROM includes the full C++ source code of SOLID, a well-known library for collision detection, plus binaries and example programs for Win32.
*Discusses algorithms for commonly used primitive types, such as spheres, boxes, cylinders, cones, triangles, rays, and convex polyhedra.
*Presents techniques for accelerating collision detection for complex models and scenes.

In this book, veteran game developers, academics, journalists, and others provide their processes and experiences with level design. Each provides a unique perspective representing multiple steps of the process for interacting with and creating game levels - experiencing levels, designing levels, constructing levels, and testing levels. These diverse perspectives offer readers a window into the thought processes that result in memorable open game worlds, chilling horror environments, computer-generated levels, evocative soundscapes, and many other types of gamespaces. This collection invites readers into the minds of professional designers as they work and provides evergreen topics on level design and game criticism to inspire both new and veteran designers. Key Features: Learn about the processes of experienced developers and level designers in their own words Discover best-practices for creating levels for persuasive play and designing collaboratively Offers analysis methods for better understanding game worlds and how they function in response to gameplay Find your own preferred method of level design by learning the processes of multiple industry veterans

This book is a collection of extended papers based on presentations given during the SIMHYDRO 2014 conference, held in Sophia Antipolis in June 2014. It focuses on the modeling and simulation of fast hydraulic transients, on 3D modeling, and on uncertainties and multiphase flows. The book explores both the limitations and performance of current models and presents the latest developments based on new numerical schemes, high-performance computing, multiphysics and multiscale methods, and better interaction with field or scale model data. It addresses the interests of practitioners, stakeholders, researchers and engineers active in this field.