Discrete Mathmatics

Well, my current semester is about to end I can not wait. Been a rough one with the holidays coming and for me, class never stops. My latest two classes were, well still are, Math233 which is Discrete Mathmatics. Now I know some of you may be asking "WHAT? In the name of all that is holy is Discrete Mathmatics?" I did the same when I first got in the class and also wondered what in the world does this have to do with making games?

 Has allot to do with games.

First off let me tell you what it is first. This type of math deals with logic, puzzles, and true false for the most part. It also teaches you how to find probabilities for certain types of problems. Something like I have 5 playing cards in a bag. 3 are blue and 2 are red. What is the probability I will draw out say 3 blue cards on the first try. True false deals with what it is. But taking a cenario like this. You come upon two island inhabitants. A says he is telling the truth when b is lying and b says we are both lyin when A is lying. Then you draw up a truth table with all the outcomes according to the statements.

So how does this tie into games. Well, take Bejewelled for example. This game is essentially a puzzle game. It drops jewels in a certain order at random in different combo's. This is most likely a matrix type of program to make the game board but there is some discrete math involved in this game. Puzzle games like mine sweeper or even tic tac toe.

Latest program assignment.

The latest assignment we had involved weighted graphs. This was done by using a 2D array and was fairly simple once you got the code out. A challenge non the less, putting the right way to do the math into a program has been one of the most challenging parts of my education. This is my last math class and I am extrememly excited about that. But most of all, I am excited for the fact that I am pulling an "A" right now. I tend to short change myself at times when it comes to my math classes of even my math skills. I would love to put sample code of the program but, it is a class assignment so I can not.

A previous program we had to do involved true false. We were givin two different cenarios of island inhabitants and had to make two different games that would take two user inputs for weather A was lying or telling the truth and same for B. Pretty simple really since you just had to do your T,F table and then just hard code in some simple if statements to meet the condition and so on. Nested if's that is. That one was allot of fun. So if anyone is looking to get into making games I suggest Discrete Mathmatics or, just take the GSP program course at Devry. The class is automatic and required. There are actually, about 6-8 math classes you have to take. Some need a C or better to pass. Plus, like me, I had to take some extra ones because of being out of school for such a long time. Math has been my life for the past 2 years. Ugh!. But it was geat learning again, Physics was by far, the toughest class I had.

In conclusion, Discrete Mathmatics plays a big role in game developement. Helps to teach you how to trouble shoot logical problems that are in everyday life really. Then also apply them to a game. I will also leave you with this and see who can answer it and give some examples. Eularian circuit, trail, and walk. What are they? We have all done these really and never knew it. Like connect the dots, walked on a trail etc. But what is the deffinition of a trail? IN discrete mathmatics it is pretty simple really.

A Eularian trail is you start at one point and end in a different one not repeating any of the other parts of the trail. So, you walk from point a to z and you do not repeat anything in between. There I did the easy one, there are more but I thought I would leave just some easy ones. Have fun!!