Garry's Mod Last Project - Fancy Clock

Hello. So a while back I randomly stumbled across this piece of artwork on the net and thought it was a cool idea, so I decided to recreate it in Garry's Mod. Inpiration / idea from: The Clock Clock turns a wall of analog clocks into digital art Basically it is an array of analog clocks each displaying certains times in order to display a digital text of the actual time. Uses only E2 (holograms), takes server time and updates every minute. Uses almost no ops on idle, then jumps up to a few hundred when it is doing the animation of the hands ( lasts roughly 10 seconds). Looks cool in the centre of a server / map etc.. Here's a video:

Link to original submission thread with code:

http://www.wiremod.com/forum/finished-contraptions/34358-e2-clock-clocks.html

Work Time Logger

Hello, now that I'm pretty busy working full time, hobby projects are probably going to get a lot less attention. None the less I motivated myself to work on a new project this week which would help improve my workflow at GGG. I created a simple program that would allow me to clock in / clock out for logging my work hours. The program handles breaks, outputting to text file, outputting to excel file, emailing the final time-sheet, running on startup and contains both a small and large interface depending on your needs. I used VS2015 with C# Windows Forms to create it and had a lot of fun! C# is an incredibly easy language and allows you to skip the nitty gritty and get straight into coding the functionality. This is particularly noticeable with the toolbox, properties system and the hundreds of pre-setup classes handling almost anything you need. The only functionality I could not get from the vanilla C# classes was reading / writing to extended excel documents (.xlxs). For this I used NPOI which was very easy to setup and use. I definitely recommend C# as a good coding starter and entrance to writing Windows apps / programs.

Path of Exile, Hobby Projects

Been away for two weeks and have got a new job working with Grinding Gear Games developing Path of Exile. It has been extremely interesting so far and the more I learn, the better it gets! It is very exciting working on such an amazing and successful game right here in New Zealand.

Unfortunately though this means I have a lot less time to work on my hobby projects. The TrainZ project has been very rocky due to me being so undecided with what engine / framework to use and difficulties in regards to train tracks. Including simple, limited track pieces is quite boring and has been done a lot of times. With this project I really want to use Bezier curves in order to make fun and unique tracks though the levels. There is a reason why this hasn't been done much though; Dynamically generated Bezier curves for train track following is a very difficult system to get working correctly. I am learning more about how it has been done previously and improving my knowledge in regards to Bezier curves, splines and path following.