Monday, April 25, 2016

"Just don't crash" is now available for iOS

Although I have developed other games before, this is my first game on the App Store! Developing this game was not something that I was planning, but rather something that just happened. I was given four days to develop a racing game using HTML Canvas and Javascript for a job interview, and this is what I have developed:






Unfortunately I was not hired, and I was told that I should not publish the source code of the game, because the company might ask other candidates to build similar games. So, I have decided to port it to iOS, and this is the result:






I also had to replace some of the game assets that were probably not free to use, but the game still has the same dynamic.

About the game

This game has only one rule: don't crash. There is no winning, you will eventually crash. However, the main goal is to go as far as you can without crashing. You can download it for free on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch: App Store, but be warned, this game is difficult and really addictive!

Just don't crash will soon be available for the Apple TV as well.







P. S: I would like to thank OpenGameArt and its community, most the game's assets came from that website.

EDIT: Video:


Thursday, March 24, 2016

HoloViewer App

I have been developing a new app that uses the same "Hologram" concept that I used on HoloGlobo last year. It will be available on the Apple App Store soon!

With this app you will be able to easily turn your favourites 3D models into "holograms", watch the video below to see how it works:


EDIT: HoloViewer is now available on the App Store! Download

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Weekend project: Apple Watch as a TV Remote (using Arduino, ESP8266 and Infrared LED)

Have you ever thought about using your Apple Watch to control your TV (and potentially other home appliances)? Well I have, and this is what I built this weekend:


Arduino Due + ESP8266 + IR LED
(I could have programmed the ESP8266 directly and used one of its GPIOs to control the IR LED, instead of using an Arduino)

Apple Watch

Interested? Check out the Arduino sketch below, or go to GitHub to download this demo project.

/*
 * Arduino Due + ESP8266 + IR emitter
 *
 * created by Fabio de Albuquerque Dela Antonio
 * based on this example: http://allaboutee.com/2014/12/30/esp8266-and-arduino-webserver/
 */

/* Uses Arduino-IRremote-Due (https://github.com/enternoescape/Arduino-IRremote-Due) */
#include <IRremote2.h>

/* IR LED on pin 7 */
IRsend irsend;

#define DEBUG true

/* Uses Serial1 for the ESP8266 */
#define esp8266 Serial1

void setup() {

  Serial.begin(115200);

  /* Using 115200 as the baud rate, yours may be different */
  esp8266.begin(115200);

  sendData("AT+RST\r\n",2000,DEBUG);

  /* AP mode, you'll need to connect to the ESP8266 AP to communicate with it */
  sendData("AT+CWMODE=2\r\n",1000,DEBUG);

  sendData("AT+CIFSR\r\n",1000,DEBUG);
  sendData("AT+CIPMUX=1\r\n",1000,DEBUG);

  /* TCP/IP server on port 1337 (192.168.4.1 is the IP usually) */
  sendData("AT+CIPSERVER=1,1337\r\n",1000,DEBUG);
}

void loop() {

  if(esp8266.available()) {
   
    if(esp8266.find("+IPD,")) {

      delay(1000);
      char buffer[128];
   
      memset(buffer, 0, 128);
      esp8266.readBytesUntil(',', buffer, 128);
      int connectionId = atoi(buffer);

      memset(buffer, 0, 128);
      esp8266.readBytesUntil(':', buffer, 128);
      int length = atoi(buffer);

      memset(buffer, 0, 128);
      sprintf(buffer, "Connection: %d Length: %d", connectionId, length);
      Serial.println(buffer);
   
      memset(buffer, 0, 128);
      esp8266.readBytesUntil('(', buffer, 128);
      Serial.print("Command: ");
      Serial.println(buffer);

      /* sendIR(<code>) command */
      if(strcmp(buffer, "sendIR") == 0) {

        memset(buffer, 0, 128);
        esp8266.readBytesUntil(')', buffer, 128);
        unsigned long value = strtoul(buffer, NULL, 10);

        memset(buffer, 0, 128);
        sprintf(buffer, "OK IR %lu", value);
        Serial.println(buffer);

        /* Send this code to the IR emitter */
        irsend.sendSamsung(value, 32);

        sendConnection(connectionId, buffer);
        closeConnection(connectionId);
      }

      else {

        Serial.println("Unknown command");

        sendConnection(connectionId, "ERROR");
        closeConnection(connectionId);
      }
    }
  }
}

String sendData(String command, const int timeout, boolean debug) {

  String response = "";
  esp8266.print(command);
  long int time = millis();

  while((time+timeout) > millis()) {
    while(esp8266.available()) {
   
      char c = esp8266.read();
      response+=c;
    }
  }

  if(debug) {
    Serial.print(response);
  }

  return response;
}

void sendConnection(int connectionId, char * string) {

  char buffer[128];
  memset(buffer, 0, 128);
  sprintf(buffer, "AT+CIPSEND=%d,%d\r\n", connectionId, strlen(string));
  sendData(String(buffer), 1000, DEBUG);
  sendData(String(string), 1000, DEBUG);
}

void closeConnection(int connectionId) {

  char buffer[128];
  memset(buffer, 0, 128);
  sprintf(buffer, "AT+CIPCLOSE=%d\r\n", connectionId);
  sendData(String(buffer), 1000, DEBUG);
}


Sunday, January 31, 2016

New inSPorte


In 2013, my friends and I developed an app during the first São Paulo Bus Hackathon  and now, after a few years, we will finally release a commercial (but 100% free) version of this app for iOS and Android!

With inSPorte you will be able to track all your buses in real time, besides that you will also be able to evaluate these buses, thus helping improve the public transit system!

You will be able to track your buses using your watch


So, if you live in São Paulo and use the public transit system of the city, you might consider downloading our app!

http://insporte.com.br/ (in Portuguese)

Monday, January 11, 2016

OpenGL and Arduino, will it blend?

I was working with Arduino recently and I thought: can this small ATMega328 run some 3D graphics? I realized that there are some projects about that, some of them are really good actually, and that was enough to get me inspired to try my own micro-project. So I thought, why not port OpenGL for Arduino? Let's see what a 16 Mhz 8-bit micro-controller can do.

And this is the result:

Cubes are easy!

STL models don't look so nice...

By the way, you got it right, that's the same display used on the old Nokias! As you can see, I didn't have a fancy LCD colour display, but for this demo that one is good enough!

It is not hard to see that most of OpenGL's features are missing. It has no backface culling, no frustum culling, no colours, no depth/z buffer,  no textures, no lighting, no shading, no shaders, etc...

Although limited, you can use this Arduino library to port some really basic 2D and 3D OpenGL programs to Arduino. You could even try to build a small game! But don't get too excited, you only have 32kb of program memory and 2kb of RAM (most of that already used by the library itself). You'll probably only be able to fit one low poly 3D model and nothing else.

Still want to try it? GitHub