There is nothing more important to our species than being capable of leaving this planet and finding alternative, habitable planets...
This is why Nasa's manned space program needs to end.
It has been the most inefficient and grandstanding spectacle by a civilization since the pyramids. Nasa has repeatedly claimed that the technology developed from the outrageously expensive trips provide innovations in the commercial sector. While there is some truth to this, it is not comparable to the money spent.
Nasa's JPL has been an example of efficiency in regards to gathering information about the universe. The mars rovers and Phoenix have been resounding successes when cost vs. information gained is considered. Keeping a human being alive and safe while traveling through space is a huge waste of resources whether it be money, energy or intellect. Our current technology simply does not allow for that to be done efficiently.
Pump money into the JPL for more remote missions, Offer awards and loans to the private sector for space travel innovations and utilize the private sector for low orbit missions and maintenance. Offer an incentive and some really smart people will dig their heels in and solve the problem...
Obama's decision regarding the Constellation program was a smart one. We will go back to the Moon eventually. Going now will not significantly improve our understanding of how to get there, how to live there, or what resources are available. It would just be another brute force spectacle.
"The budget shifts priorities from going back to the moon to developing advanced technologies, including advanced propulsion research and climate research done at Marshall. It also proposes that NASA take on the development of a new heavy-lift rocket by developing improved rocket engines, materials and ways to fuel rockets in what are basically floating gas stations in space."
Sounds to me like they want to promote the development of an infrastructure that will allow for further expansion of our space travel capabilities. That seems to make a lot more sense than the "America! F*&% YEAH!" trip we had planned...
*CRUUUNCH*
WTF DUDE!... That was my hunting/gathering thesis paper. Watch where you're walking and what did I say about bringing your club inside the cave!
As stated by other posters, "film quality" is misleading. Primarily it refers to resolution and remember many cameras record at up to 4k, so the ability to render in real time at ultra-high res is definitely sought after.
Currently, the big push in 3d rendering is towards physically based raytrace or pathtrace rendering. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_tracing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_(graphics)
Physically based rendering produces a much more accurate representation of how light interacts with and between surfaces. It has always taken a long time to render using physically based techniques due to the huge amount of calculations necessary to produce a grain free image. This has changed somewhat recently with multi-core systems and with GPGPU languages such as CUDA and OpenCL we are about to experience a big and sudden increase in performance regarding these rendering technologies.
While this game looks great, the engine is by no means going to be capable of rendering scenes containing hundreds of millions of polygons, ultra-high res textures, physically accurate lighting and shaders, and high render resolution.
We are still pretty far away from real-time physically-based rendering, which is the direction film is currently headed.
So that would have to be what "Movie-Quality CGI" is defined as and this game does not live up to that definition.
With Prime 95 you can test your CPU, Memory or Both. It's a great tool to find out which piece of hardware is throwing errors. I use it for overclocking but have also used it to identify faulty pieces of memory.
I have moved my steam account folders between multiple computers. All I did was copy the steam folder in it's entirety"no small task depending how many games you have" and drop in whatever folder on your new computer. I actually find steam to be a very reasonable means to purchase content.
However, I still have some hangups.
My attitude is that steam and my computer are a console and that the games I have installed are the discs. I can't have steam logged in on multiple computers at once without going in to offline mode. If I have 10 games "purchasedf through steam" and 3 consoles "a pc with steam and games installed," I should be able to log into steam through as many computers as I want but only be able to play games that are not currently being played on other other consoles " a pc with steam installed" unless I purchase a second copy of the game. Currently they are still too restrictive. Also, regardless of retailer profit margins, I want to see that savings passed on to the consumer. If a game is significantly cheaper to distribute online I want to pay the corresponding price, I do not want to pay for the other people who go to Best Buy to pay for a boxed copy that had to be manufactured, shipped, and taxed locally.
Techspot
AMD has been working hard to develop Open Physics. Furthermore Bullet Physics has been shown running on Cuda. So that sounds to me like doom for physx...
Everyone is too hard on Microsoft. I share the many frustrations people have with their software, costs, and obtuse licensing. However, if Microsoft is going to help advance the development of cost effective flash based storage, I for one can't be critical.
I disagree with the whole "casual gamers" statement regarding the wii. Initially, when I learned of all the nextgen consoles I was only interested in the ps3. FOllowing this years e3, the pricing announcement for ps3 and the feature announcements for the wii, I have become fascinated by the wii. I've been playing computer games since before wolfenstein "the original," and consider myself a "Hardcore" gamer. Despite my shame regarding the term. This is the first system I intend to own since genesis as it offers true innovation to control structures, which in my opinion has been severely lacking in the gaming market for over 15 years... This non-casual gamers vote leans powerfully towards the wii.
Slashdot Mirror
There is nothing more important to our species than being capable of leaving this planet and finding alternative, habitable planets...
This is why Nasa's manned space program needs to end.
It has been the most inefficient and grandstanding spectacle by a civilization since the pyramids. Nasa has repeatedly claimed that the technology developed from the outrageously expensive trips provide innovations in the commercial sector. While there is some truth to this, it is not comparable to the money spent.
Nasa's JPL has been an example of efficiency in regards to gathering information about the universe. The mars rovers and Phoenix have been resounding successes when cost vs. information gained is considered. Keeping a human being alive and safe while traveling through space is a huge waste of resources whether it be money, energy or intellect. Our current technology simply does not allow for that to be done efficiently.
Pump money into the JPL for more remote missions, Offer awards and loans to the private sector for space travel innovations and utilize the private sector for low orbit missions and maintenance. Offer an incentive and some really smart people will dig their heels in and solve the problem...
Obama's decision regarding the Constellation program was a smart one. We will go back to the Moon eventually. Going now will not significantly improve our understanding of how to get there, how to live there, or what resources are available. It would just be another brute force spectacle.
"The budget shifts priorities from going back to the moon to developing advanced technologies, including advanced propulsion research and climate research done at Marshall. It also proposes that NASA take on the development of a new heavy-lift rocket by developing improved rocket engines, materials and ways to fuel rockets in what are basically floating gas stations in space."
Sounds to me like they want to promote the development of an infrastructure that will allow for further expansion of our space travel capabilities. That seems to make a lot more sense than the "America! F*&% YEAH!" trip we had planned...
*CRUUUNCH* WTF DUDE!... That was my hunting/gathering thesis paper. Watch where you're walking and what did I say about bringing your club inside the cave!
As stated by other posters, "film quality" is misleading. Primarily it refers to resolution and remember many cameras record at up to 4k, so the ability to render in real time at ultra-high res is definitely sought after.
Currently, the big push in 3d rendering is towards physically based raytrace or pathtrace rendering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_tracing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_(graphics)
Physically based rendering produces a much more accurate representation of how light interacts with and between surfaces. It has always taken a long time to render using physically based techniques due to the huge amount of calculations necessary to produce a grain free image. This has changed somewhat recently with multi-core systems and with GPGPU languages such as CUDA and OpenCL we are about to experience a big and sudden increase in performance regarding these rendering technologies.
While this game looks great, the engine is by no means going to be capable of rendering scenes containing hundreds of millions of polygons, ultra-high res textures, physically accurate lighting and shaders, and high render resolution. We are still pretty far away from real-time physically-based rendering, which is the direction film is currently headed. So that would have to be what "Movie-Quality CGI" is defined as and this game does not live up to that definition.
With Prime 95 you can test your CPU, Memory or Both. It's a great tool to find out which piece of hardware is throwing errors. I use it for overclocking but have also used it to identify faulty pieces of memory.
I have moved my steam account folders between multiple computers. All I did was copy the steam folder in it's entirety"no small task depending how many games you have" and drop in whatever folder on your new computer. I actually find steam to be a very reasonable means to purchase content. However, I still have some hangups. My attitude is that steam and my computer are a console and that the games I have installed are the discs. I can't have steam logged in on multiple computers at once without going in to offline mode. If I have 10 games "purchasedf through steam" and 3 consoles "a pc with steam and games installed," I should be able to log into steam through as many computers as I want but only be able to play games that are not currently being played on other other consoles " a pc with steam installed" unless I purchase a second copy of the game. Currently they are still too restrictive. Also, regardless of retailer profit margins, I want to see that savings passed on to the consumer. If a game is significantly cheaper to distribute online I want to pay the corresponding price, I do not want to pay for the other people who go to Best Buy to pay for a boxed copy that had to be manufactured, shipped, and taxed locally.
Techspot AMD has been working hard to develop Open Physics. Furthermore Bullet Physics has been shown running on Cuda. So that sounds to me like doom for physx...
Everyone is too hard on Microsoft. I share the many frustrations people have with their software, costs, and obtuse licensing. However, if Microsoft is going to help advance the development of cost effective flash based storage, I for one can't be critical.
I disagree with the whole "casual gamers" statement regarding the wii. Initially, when I learned of all the nextgen consoles I was only interested in the ps3. FOllowing this years e3, the pricing announcement for ps3 and the feature announcements for the wii, I have become fascinated by the wii. I've been playing computer games since before wolfenstein "the original," and consider myself a "Hardcore" gamer. Despite my shame regarding the term. This is the first system I intend to own since genesis as it offers true innovation to control structures, which in my opinion has been severely lacking in the gaming market for over 15 years... This non-casual gamers vote leans powerfully towards the wii.