Getting Stuck

Sometimes it happens that we think we have a bug. We can spend so many hours on this bug only to discover that it wasn't a bug at all. Today or more accurately this afternoon i had one of these experiences. I am going to share this in hopes that it might just inspire others (and maybe myself) to not waste as much time as i did.

Here is a basic timeline
1. Afternoon starts at about 1:30pm and i am working on repacing some graphics. It is going well but i need more artwork from my artist.
2. Shortly after chatting with the artist i realised i can work on some difficulty circles. These items mark for everyone to see what level of difficulty you are playing at on the game in The Midway.
3. The code was very simple and i changed it out very easily for our new coding style. This will save memory and make it run faster, woohoo! a Double win! (love those)
4. Added the new smaller assets and code and busy testing it. (2:15pm)
5. The numbers on the circles look great, however the colors lok a lot muted. That is odd.
6. Spend 1 hour trying to figure out what i have done wrong. Did i alter the shader somehow to break the colors?
7. Went for a walk to ease the fact that i have found nothing at all to help me out and suggest what i am doing wrong.
8. 4pm and still looking at the models and textures. Decide it's time to go back and see what it looked like originally. but i go half way, including old stuff and some of my new stuff.
9. BAH! the colors still look muted. now to go the whole way back.
10. Discover it looks EXACTLY the same as the new version. ARGH! It is the lighting and the angle i was viewing it at.
11. So annoyed at having wasted several hours on something that was great. Now it is about 5pm or so. Grrrr

I wish in hindsight i had not refered to how my memory visualized the colors on the circles, and had instead gone and looked at a real live version. This would have saved me several hours of confused pain.

Good luck in your issues, real and imagined!

G'night