Herzog Zwei rocks, and I still occasionally play it. It's kind of strange that no one has taken the concept further. To play as a unit instead of using a mouse is ingenious. And would fit perfectly on today's TV consoles as well. Sounds like a nice little XNA project to me.
I see some people here mentioning the number of different GNU Linux distros, as well as the number of different package managers.
Why do most people consider all the different GNU Linux distros to be the same OS, just because they share the same kernel? And fail to execute the same view when it comes to Windows. In my opinion, each Linux distribution is an OS on its own merit, and should be treated as such. Porting applications to "GNU Linux" might be a tough cookie, but porting applications to a specific distro and version is not.
As for things that needs fixing, get the audio fixed already. The OSS API is horrible, ALSA has its own share of issues, while PulseAudio is laughable. Jack works fine if you need low-latency, but isn't what I would call painless to use. It would have been great if, you know, more than one application could have access to the audio board simultaneously?
The technique of using eight directional sprites like in Star Control, has nothing to do with 2D vs 3D. What you suggest as superior smooth rotation, is just 2D vector and matrix transformations applied to either texture coordinates or the vertices themselves. Where the vertices for simple sprites can be just four points to define a quadrilateral. Even the old SNES supports proper individual rotation of sprites.
Just because you use transformations and/or a polygon rasterizer doesn't mean that your game is "3D".
Beats me how you got modded Insightful.
Let's hope they will leave the cellphone feature out of this one. In GTA IV, you get girlfriends, friends and "business associates" as the story evolves. They get added to the contact list on your cellphone, which the main character brings with him at all times. Occasionally, friends will call you to hang out, in which case you take them bowling, drinking, playing eight-ball, darts or other minigames.
The problem is that occasionally in Rockstar terms means every goddamn 10 minutes! It's so annoying I've just played GTA IV for four hours and then left it. To make matters worse, you get penalty points if you hang up on them.
I've been following this Elite/WC Privateer'ish game for a couple of years: http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php Everything in the game except ship models and station models is procedurally generated. You can take off and land at planets seamlessly. There is no content loading. The combat prototype is plenty of fun. Makes me miss Elite.
And I thought our (norwegian) politicians were naive..
By the way, the seconds article (yes I RTFAed) mentioned that Australia doesn't have freedom of speech in the Constitution. Is that correct?
It's far from dead. The Half-Life MOD Natural-Selection is very much alive.
And Charlie Cleveland aka 'Flayra' announced the upcoming sequel about two years ago.
You can read about the undergoing development of NS2 here
Stop splitting people into groups as "customers" and "pirates". A lot of people are both. And though it's wrong to claim that every downloaded copy is a lost sale, a lot of "pirates" are potential customers. My reason for downloading content illegally is a try-before-by scheme, when no demonstration is readily available. Games and movies cost a fortune here in Norway, and I want to make sure that new media I buy meets a certain quality, replay value and longevity (longevity means NO DRM). I *always* buy and support the products I like. What I don't like gets quickly erased. My DVD collection consists of about 300 DVDs. If this suddenly wasn't possibly anymore, I would probably buy two movies and/or games a year instead of five per month. This makes me wonder: Is my argument flawed? And is 100% control over distribution more important to authors than more sales? Make me wonder how far they'll take their principles.
In any event, I don't pirate PC games anymore. After I got my Xbox 360, I fell in love with XBLA. New games are released every Wednesday, and the demos usually reflect the full version pretty accurately. I'm worried what will happen with my games when Microsoft decides to discontinue the service though.
Because the drugs themselves are illegal to own, and their effects can make you a danger to others. Your body is yours, and noone elses to control; and if you take a picture of yourself and willfully give it to someone, who the hell can argue? Child porn is about minors getting exploited or forced to do sexual activities. I could definately understand that distribution of such a picture is against the law, but to punish the teenager/child him/herself? That's just crazy.
..that the G8 meeting finally will take up serious topics like software piracy, instead of trivial problems like war, weapon export control, trafficing, hunger, spread of HIV and global warming.
bullshit. What ISPs need to do, is to stop lying to their customers. As a lot of people here have allready mentioned, they advertise internet access subscriptions with guaranteed speeds, unlimited access, guaranteed uptime, and so on. And then they have the balls to whine when some users actually use the features *as is was advertised*. I mean, come on. What a bunch of fucking hypocrites.
If your hardware/infrastructure can't handle the bandwidth or the number of connections you advertise, then don't offer the service. It's like if a car rental company had 100 customers on a day-to-day basis, but only 4 cars to lend out. It's hilarious.
how the American patent system affects us in foreign countries.
Say, if I sell my software online, can software patents granted in the US lock me out of the American market?
Yeah, I love LEGO technic as a kid. I had a clusterfuck of bricks, as well as 4 motors.
I used to make different mechs and belt-vehicles to scare the bejesus out of my two cats.
I would still be building if I could find it. I lost it all when I moved in 1994:-\
What I love about raytracers, is that a lot of concepts like shadowing, lighting and refraction falls naturally in how the algorithm works. It is fun to code. Nothing stops you from using dot3 maps, specular maps and the like in a raytracer though. By computing the barycentric coordinate for the triangle you hit, you can interpolate data between the vertices, like texture coordinates and vertex colours. (if you really need that) And it is actually the rasterizers that depend on high polygon counts; not the other way around. By increasing or decreasing the vertex count, rasterizers can adjust the accuracy of the data interpolated between vertices. ** This is why smooth shading looks like shit on low-poly meshes. Raytracers rely on this at all, since the pixels are totally independent from eachother. Also, any primitive that can defined as a parametric equation, can also be presented directly instead of using triangles.
** I have to admit, the use of normal maps solves this to some extent.
If I knew what a.bat and.exe file was back in 1990 (I was six), then surely a 13-year old nowadays would understand it, when explained. The Windows PE-format can contain what is called "resources", that could be customized icons and bitmaps. That in addition to not showing the file type is a pretty foolproof way to disguise an application as a file. Also, with the extension hidden, you can't change the file type either. It is a real pain in the neck if you for instance want to rename a C source file into a C++ source file.
I assume most slashdotters know this, but here is the sollution to make those file extensions visible: Open a folder, then from the main menu, choose tools->folder options, and press the view tab. In XP, I usually disable "simple networking", "hide file extensions for known file types", "hide protected operative system files", and turn on "show hidden files and folders".
Even if Microsoft don't change this standard behavior, they could at least make these settings easier to find.
Think of this for a while: There is no such thing as a "model artist". Everyone are bound to have different goals, and Blender tries to apply to everyone. This is what I believe is its biggest flaw. You have people doing still renders and animation renders, as well as artists modelling meshes for other applications, who are not even interested in the Blender renderer at all. Or at least not interested in the settings outside OpenGL, like the raytracer settings. With all these features, and with the goal to please everyone, of course the GUI gets bloated. If they somehow got their features split up, I think more people would find Blender easier to use. Also, a way to bind your own shortcuts would help. What I miss, is an editor specifically made for modelling meshes for games, with proper bone and shader support. As I mentioned earlier, people modelling game meshes do not care about advanced renderers inside the editor itself. They want the renderer to be able to mimic their game engine.
By the way, what's up with how Blender does bone animation? I haven't used envelopes or vertex painting that much, but from my experience they are either useless or a total pain to get right. Armatures only work with a radius, so often you get too many or too few vertices inside the armature influence. Vertex painting seems very counter-intuitive to me when I don't want weighting. I just want to bind a vertex to a particular bone.
I love Eclipse CDT, but in terms of auto-completion speed, it doesn't even compare to Visual Studio (yet). While Visual Studio Express instantly evaluates The . -> and:: operators, Eclipse CDT v3.2.2 uses between 10 to 15 seconds. It has been like this as long as I can remember. Also, the indexer triggers on a lot of weird things, like the operators >> and >, and even freezes when it encounters a new identifier name. I'm using good old Vim until this is sorted out. Eclipse is great, so it's sad that this feature alone ruins everything. It's impossible to get work done, when the IDE freezes every other line for 10 seconds.
If anyone knows how I successfully can disable the indexer, please let me know. Neither the option in the project settings, nor the option in the preferences work.
Slashdot Mirror
http://stupidfilter.org/
Works for me.
Freeciv (Free and open version of Civilization) : http://freeciv.wikia.com/
OpenTyrian (Free and open version of Tyrian) : http://code.google.com/p/opentyrian/
The Ur-Quan Masters (Star Control 2) : http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
Oolite (loosely based on Elite) : http://www.oolite.org/
Command and Conquer 1 : http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/commandconquer/download_6178099.html?tag=other-user-related-content;4
Herzog Zwei rocks, and I still occasionally play it. It's kind of strange that no one has taken the concept further. To play as a unit instead of using a mouse is ingenious. And would fit perfectly on today's TV consoles as well. Sounds like a nice little XNA project to me.
Cry me a river..
I see some people here mentioning the number of different GNU Linux distros, as well as the number of different package managers.
Why do most people consider all the different GNU Linux distros to be the same OS, just because they share the same kernel? And fail to execute the same view when it comes to Windows. In my opinion, each Linux distribution is an OS on its own merit, and should be treated as such. Porting applications to "GNU Linux" might be a tough cookie, but porting applications to a specific distro and version is not.
As for things that needs fixing, get the audio fixed already. The OSS API is horrible, ALSA has its own share of issues, while PulseAudio is laughable.
Jack works fine if you need low-latency, but isn't what I would call painless to use. It would have been great if, you know, more than one application could have access to the audio board simultaneously?
The technique of using eight directional sprites like in Star Control, has nothing to do with 2D vs 3D. What you suggest as superior smooth rotation, is just 2D vector and matrix transformations applied to either texture coordinates or the vertices themselves. Where the vertices for simple sprites can be just four points to define a quadrilateral. Even the old SNES supports proper individual rotation of sprites.
Just because you use transformations and/or a polygon rasterizer doesn't mean that your game is "3D".
Beats me how you got modded Insightful.
Let's hope they will leave the cellphone feature out of this one. In GTA IV, you get girlfriends, friends and "business associates" as the story evolves. They get added to the contact list on your cellphone, which the main character brings with him at all times. Occasionally, friends will call you to hang out, in which case you take them bowling, drinking, playing eight-ball, darts or other minigames.
The problem is that occasionally in Rockstar terms means every goddamn 10 minutes! It's so annoying I've just played GTA IV for four hours and then left it. To make matters worse, you get penalty points if you hang up on them.
I've been following this Elite/WC Privateer'ish game for a couple of years: http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php
Everything in the game except ship models and station models is procedurally generated. You can take off and land at planets seamlessly. There is no content loading.
The combat prototype is plenty of fun. Makes me miss Elite.
And I thought our (norwegian) politicians were naive..
By the way, the seconds article (yes I RTFAed) mentioned that Australia doesn't have freedom of speech in the Constitution. Is that correct?
It's far from dead. The Half-Life MOD Natural-Selection is very much alive.
:-)
And Charlie Cleveland aka 'Flayra' announced the upcoming sequel about two years ago.
You can read about the undergoing development of NS2 here
Very fun game indeed
Stop splitting people into groups as "customers" and "pirates". A lot of people are both. And though it's wrong to claim that every downloaded copy is a lost sale, a lot of "pirates" are potential customers.
My reason for downloading content illegally is a try-before-by scheme, when no demonstration is readily available. Games and movies cost a fortune here in Norway, and I want to make sure that new media I buy meets a certain quality, replay value and longevity (longevity means NO DRM). I *always* buy and support the products I like. What I don't like gets quickly erased. My DVD collection consists of about 300 DVDs.
If this suddenly wasn't possibly anymore, I would probably buy two movies and/or games a year instead of five per month. This makes me wonder: Is my argument flawed? And is 100% control over distribution more important to authors than more sales? Make me wonder how far they'll take their principles.
In any event, I don't pirate PC games anymore. After I got my Xbox 360, I fell in love with XBLA. New games are released every Wednesday, and the demos usually reflect the full version pretty accurately. I'm worried what will happen with my games when Microsoft decides to discontinue the service though.
Because the drugs themselves are illegal to own, and their effects can make you a danger to others.
Your body is yours, and noone elses to control; and if you take a picture of yourself and willfully give it to someone, who the hell can argue?
Child porn is about minors getting exploited or forced to do sexual activities.
I could definately understand that distribution of such a picture is against the law,
but to punish the teenager/child him/herself? That's just crazy.
Brasseye rules: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7jVnrfoZD8
Will his "victims" get their money back and their cases reopened, if this is supported by the court's evidence?
..that the G8 meeting finally will take up serious topics like software piracy, instead of trivial problems like war, weapon export control, trafficing, hunger, spread of HIV and global warming.
bullshit. What ISPs need to do, is to stop lying to their customers.
As a lot of people here have allready mentioned, they advertise internet access subscriptions
with guaranteed speeds, unlimited access, guaranteed uptime, and so on.
And then they have the balls to whine when some users actually use the features *as is was advertised*.
I mean, come on. What a bunch of fucking hypocrites.
If your hardware/infrastructure can't handle the bandwidth or the number of connections you advertise,
then don't offer the service. It's like if a car rental company had 100 customers on a day-to-day basis, but only 4 cars to lend out. It's hilarious.
how the American patent system affects us in foreign countries. Say, if I sell my software online, can software patents granted in the US lock me out of the American market?
Yeah, I love LEGO technic as a kid. I had a clusterfuck of bricks, as well as 4 motors. I used to make different mechs and belt-vehicles to scare the bejesus out of my two cats. I would still be building if I could find it. I lost it all when I moved in 1994 :-\
Windows 95, no doubt.
What I love about raytracers, is that a lot of concepts like shadowing, lighting and refraction falls naturally in how the algorithm works. It is fun to code.
Nothing stops you from using dot3 maps, specular maps and the like in a raytracer though. By computing the barycentric coordinate for the triangle you hit, you can interpolate data between the vertices, like texture coordinates and vertex colours. (if you really need that)
And it is actually the rasterizers that depend on high polygon counts; not the other way around. By increasing or decreasing the vertex count, rasterizers can adjust the accuracy of the data interpolated between vertices. ** This is why smooth shading looks like shit on low-poly meshes. Raytracers rely on this at all, since the pixels are totally independent from eachother. Also, any primitive that can defined as a parametric equation, can also be presented directly instead of using triangles.
** I have to admit, the use of normal maps solves this to some extent.
If I knew what a .bat and .exe file was back in 1990 (I was six), then surely a 13-year old nowadays would understand it, when explained.
The Windows PE-format can contain what is called "resources", that could be customized icons and bitmaps. That in addition to not showing the file type is a pretty foolproof way to disguise an application as a file. Also, with the extension hidden, you can't change the file type either. It is a real pain in the neck if you for instance want to rename a C source file into a C++ source file.
I assume most slashdotters know this, but here is the sollution to make those file extensions visible:
Open a folder, then from the main menu, choose tools->folder options, and press the view tab.
In XP, I usually disable "simple networking", "hide file extensions for known file types", "hide protected operative system files", and turn on "show hidden files and folders".
Even if Microsoft don't change this standard behavior, they could at least make these settings easier to find.
Think of this for a while: There is no such thing as a "model artist". Everyone are bound to have different goals,
and Blender tries to apply to everyone. This is what I believe is its biggest flaw.
You have people doing still renders and animation renders, as well as artists modelling meshes for other applications, who are not even interested in the Blender renderer at all. Or at least not interested in the settings outside OpenGL, like the raytracer settings.
With all these features, and with the goal to please everyone, of course the GUI gets bloated. If they somehow got their features split up, I think more people would find Blender easier to use. Also, a way to bind your own shortcuts would help.
What I miss, is an editor specifically made for modelling meshes for games, with proper bone and shader support. As I mentioned earlier, people modelling game meshes do not care about advanced renderers inside the editor itself. They want the renderer to be able to mimic their game engine.
By the way, what's up with how Blender does bone animation?
I haven't used envelopes or vertex painting that much, but from my experience they are either useless or a total pain to get right.
Armatures only work with a radius, so often you get too many or too few vertices inside the armature influence.
Vertex painting seems very counter-intuitive to me when I don't want weighting. I just want to bind a vertex to a particular bone.
I need more power!
A move instead of the e-mails? Probably one of MediaDefender's decoy torrents
I love Eclipse CDT, but in terms of auto-completion speed, it doesn't even compare to Visual Studio (yet). While Visual Studio Express instantly evaluates The . -> and :: operators, Eclipse CDT v3.2.2 uses between 10 to 15 seconds. It has been like this as long as I can remember. Also, the indexer triggers on a lot of weird things, like the operators >> and >, and even freezes when it encounters a new identifier name.
I'm using good old Vim until this is sorted out.
Eclipse is great, so it's sad that this feature alone ruins everything. It's impossible to get work done, when the IDE freezes every other line for 10 seconds.
If anyone knows how I successfully can disable the indexer, please let me know. Neither the option in the project settings, nor the option in the preferences work.