I've been working in enormous sized applications for a while now. I just want to work on something small and super fast to build. I've got a game engine project which is reasonably sized. I'm very willing to use that as the math / content / rendering platform. So I guess some ideas are: Build a physics engine to integrate into the engine, build an animation engine similar to morpheme, build some kind of simulator.. I dunno. I just want something with a pretty narrow focus, not necesarily a simple one. Any ideas? or alternatively, what are you people working on at the moment?

I'd suggest experimenting with some cool technology that you don't know. E.g. you don't know fluid simulation, then write a simple fluid simulator.

Also, make yourself a text file with ideas to do. Whenever you're working on something and have unrelated idea that you cant implement at the moment, write it down here, like time capsule. Then when you're stuck and don't sure what to do, read the list.

Make a simple raytracer which traces in the 4 dimensional space.

-ddn

Write a program that creates a variety of ideas to write fresh code with. ^.^

The fluid simulator is a great idea, I second it. Narrow focus, but very interesting even challenging.

Btw, if I may ask, what are those 'enormous sized applications'? When people mention apps of huge size, I'm always intrigued by what that could be :P

Quote: Original post by PCN
Write a program that creates a variety of ideas to write fresh code with. ^.^

This is probably my favorite suggestion.. I love writting pointless applications. Like one that randomly insults you, or one that randomly toggles your caps lock key... i guess random is just fun.

Mikeman:
Currently i'm working on a monster that records eddycurrent probe data. It has to manage the data, manage the location the data is coming from, and control robots to get the probe on location. A clean build takes an hour at least. An iteration takes about 10 minutes (mostly linking).

When it takes 10 minutes to build your app, you kind of loose your ambition. You get worked into a tiny hole and you try to stay inside that hole for fear of a massive rebuild. In other words you dont get to implement much architecture. Hopefully the architecture has been there and is designed with building quickly in mind. Unfortunately i think that part is the most fun. That's why i want to start something fresh.

I was thinking circuitry too. I want to make a tail light with integrated chasing turn signals. But there's quite a bit to it. I recently learned that you often use PWM to actually *increase* the intensity of the LED (rather than a constant current of the same power). The reduced duty cycle makes the LED more efficient, somehow this make the intensity brighter.