The most amazing part of TF2 is not in the new art, graphics, map design, and certainly not the class based system, or UI... the real achievement is in how they chose to balance each class. Balancing like the different speeds of characters, the speeds of each weapon projectile, reload times, clip size, max ammo, critical hits (breaks up the monotonous turtling that is inevitable from good defense teams), uber charge.
I mean every weapon is not new (see Q1 TF mod, weapons factory, TF mod for every freaking FPS game since Q1 lol). Every class is not new (see original TF mod). So really the most amazing thing is the fact that they managed to make it balanced... each class is playable! That is realllly hard to do when there are NINE classes... no other game really has NINE classes. There are soo many permutations that you have to think about.
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I think the second biggest change in TF2 would have to be: no grenades. Wow. That is another huge change.
Thinking back on all the TF I've played... ya grenades really destroyed a lot of the fun. The developers put it best when they say 'grenades didn't really add to the experience' and 'grenades took away a lot of the unique class differences' and my opinion is they were too often used for spamming. By the way I paraphrased the developer's comments.
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I bet money that this game will be unrivaled as far as multiplayer experiences go for at least 2 to 5 years. And it'll probably be around with serious tourneys for at least 5 to 7 years.
1.) Get a router hooked up to broadband in a different location. Then make a get some fancy RF antenna equipment ( antennas / parabolic dishes / 2.4 GHz amplifiers ) and point the antennas at each other. *abracadbra* you now have a point to point ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_Wi-Fi ) connection with broadband =).
2.) Get unlimited data rate plan with wireless company X. ( Although you will have to restrict your usage because they strongly dislike actually using your unlimited data rate plan as if it were unlimited... (they dislike it much more than broadband... MUCH more.))
3.) Go into your utility closet. Take out your TI SDK development kit (hopefully you have the TI 6416 so you can handle a high data rate wireless signal). Use your spectrum analyzer to find a wireless network... like a satellite. Code up your own wireless demod / mod... or modem. *abracadbra* you are now piggy backing off of some guy's satellite network =)!
releases ANOTHER newer faster processor two weeks later... effectively kicking AMD in the groin AGAIN.
FYI,one way to compute 3d brain models from MRIs..
on
A 3-D View of the Brain
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· Score: 2, Interesting
is done through the application of 'level sets' its pretty fun stuff to study. There are some cool videos of level set stuff like this one: http://graphics.stanford.edu/~fedkiw/animations/wa ter_oil.avi . And the application of level sets is very broad.
I've only dabbled in Level Sets but I am very tempted to do a Master's thesis on it =P.
I am a DSP programmer, which basically means that all the stuff I code are mathematical formulas transformed into C code. I mention DSP because writing DSP algorithms forces the programmer to know his math really well... enough so that he can distill the complex math into an efficient C code implementation.
I remember trying to get my specific algorithm to run under 500 micro seconds and the best I could get was like 10000 micro seconds. My coworker who looked at the underlying math equations for my code easily saw a better solution just by looking at the math equations for 5 minutes. After I changed my code to suit the new math equation I got my code to run at 280 micro seconds.
The whole point of this example: When you approach the solution from a mathematical viewpoint, the mathematical viewpoint lets you see more clearly how to optimize an algorithm. In my case, I got lost looking at the C code and missed the elegant mathematical solution because I did not look at the math equations. So I ended up not being able to "distill the complex math into an efficient C code implementation" to find the elegant solution.
In my case the elegant-math-derived-solution was about 35 times faster (10000 / 280) than the original solution I had come up with.
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Bottom line: The syntax and complex notations used for math equations lets you look at a problem from a much higher level of abstraction and this higher level of abstraction is much more conducive to seeing the elegant best solution (solutions that improve your algorithm by an orders of magnitude rather than solutions that improve your algorithm by some linear constant).
p.s. if you were wondering what I was working on --> the function was a GMSK modulator ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMSK ) for a transmitter.
As long as the Ubuntu community keeps doing what it does and has the same culture / standards I don't think Dell will hurt the Ubuntu community. However, I imagine the Ubuntu community will have a hard time ignoring an 800 pound gorilla (Dell) when it is kicking and screaming in their living room. (Not to mention the more insidious ways of Dell leveraging its resources, but thats a whole 'nother can of worms for another thread.)
Most programming problems that have been worth while to attack for me have been extremely vague. These vague problems require you to look at numerous different solutions that you won't be covered by in class material.
Most CS students fear these kind of assignments and hesitate to attack them. I would urge you to instead train yourself to enjoy learning new things. Once you get good at that you will be a more fearless programmer who doesn't fear: learning a new programming language, getting handed someone's spaghetti code that is 10,000 lines long and has functions that are 1000 lines long.
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The first priority of your coding should be that it is readable by humans (emphasis on maintainability).
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Most likely you will start with java or something else high level. But don't let that first language you use box you into only using it. Other languages have their uses. C is still the golden standard for embedded systems / DSP. Matlab is still the golden standard for prototyping / winning lots of million dollar DoD contracts.
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The most amazing part of TF2 is not in the new art, graphics, map design, and certainly not the class based system, or UI... the real achievement is in how they chose to balance each class. Balancing like the different speeds of characters, the speeds of each weapon projectile, reload times, clip size, max ammo, critical hits (breaks up the monotonous turtling that is inevitable from good defense teams), uber charge. I mean every weapon is not new (see Q1 TF mod, weapons factory, TF mod for every freaking FPS game since Q1 lol). Every class is not new (see original TF mod). So really the most amazing thing is the fact that they managed to make it balanced... each class is playable! That is realllly hard to do when there are NINE classes... no other game really has NINE classes. There are soo many permutations that you have to think about. ----- I think the second biggest change in TF2 would have to be: no grenades. Wow. That is another huge change. Thinking back on all the TF I've played... ya grenades really destroyed a lot of the fun. The developers put it best when they say 'grenades didn't really add to the experience' and 'grenades took away a lot of the unique class differences' and my opinion is they were too often used for spamming. By the way I paraphrased the developer's comments. ----- I bet money that this game will be unrivaled as far as multiplayer experiences go for at least 2 to 5 years. And it'll probably be around with serious tourneys for at least 5 to 7 years.
1.) Get a router hooked up to broadband in a different location. Then make a get some fancy RF antenna equipment ( antennas / parabolic dishes / 2.4 GHz amplifiers ) and point the antennas at each other. *abracadbra* you now have a point to point ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_Wi-Fi ) connection with broadband =). 2.) Get unlimited data rate plan with wireless company X. ( Although you will have to restrict your usage because they strongly dislike actually using your unlimited data rate plan as if it were unlimited... (they dislike it much more than broadband... MUCH more.)) 3.) Go into your utility closet. Take out your TI SDK development kit (hopefully you have the TI 6416 so you can handle a high data rate wireless signal). Use your spectrum analyzer to find a wireless network ... like a satellite. Code up your own wireless demod / mod ... or modem. *abracadbra* you are now piggy backing off of some guy's satellite network =)!
releases ANOTHER newer faster processor two weeks later ... effectively kicking AMD in the groin AGAIN.
is done through the application of 'level sets' its pretty fun stuff to study. There are some cool videos of level set stuff like this one: http://graphics.stanford.edu/~fedkiw/animations/wa ter_oil.avi . And the application of level sets is very broad.
I've only dabbled in Level Sets but I am very tempted to do a Master's thesis on it =P.
This just in: cool sounding research gets more money than useful research!!!
I am a DSP programmer, which basically means that all the stuff I code are mathematical formulas transformed into C code. I mention DSP because writing DSP algorithms forces the programmer to know his math really well... enough so that he can distill the complex math into an efficient C code implementation.
I remember trying to get my specific algorithm to run under 500 micro seconds and the best I could get was like 10000 micro seconds. My coworker who looked at the underlying math equations for my code easily saw a better solution just by looking at the math equations for 5 minutes. After I changed my code to suit the new math equation I got my code to run at 280 micro seconds.
The whole point of this example:
When you approach the solution from a mathematical viewpoint, the mathematical viewpoint lets you see more clearly how to optimize an algorithm. In my case, I got lost looking at the C code and missed the elegant mathematical solution because I did not look at the math equations. So I ended up not being able to "distill the complex math into an efficient C code implementation" to find the elegant solution.
In my case the elegant-math-derived-solution was about 35 times faster (10000 / 280) than the original solution I had come up with.
-----
Bottom line: The syntax and complex notations used for math equations lets you look at a problem from a much higher level of abstraction and this higher level of abstraction is much more conducive to seeing the elegant best solution (solutions that improve your algorithm by an orders of magnitude rather than solutions that improve your algorithm by some linear constant).
p.s. if you were wondering what I was working on --> the function was a GMSK modulator ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMSK ) for a transmitter.
As long as the Ubuntu community keeps doing what it does and has the same culture / standards I don't think Dell will hurt the Ubuntu community. However, I imagine the Ubuntu community will have a hard time ignoring an 800 pound gorilla (Dell) when it is kicking and screaming in their living room. (Not to mention the more insidious ways of Dell leveraging its resources, but thats a whole 'nother can of worms for another thread.)
Most programming problems that have been worth while to attack for me have been extremely vague. These vague problems require you to look at numerous different solutions that you won't be covered by in class material. Most CS students fear these kind of assignments and hesitate to attack them. I would urge you to instead train yourself to enjoy learning new things. Once you get good at that you will be a more fearless programmer who doesn't fear: learning a new programming language, getting handed someone's spaghetti code that is 10,000 lines long and has functions that are 1000 lines long. ---- The first priority of your coding should be that it is readable by humans (emphasis on maintainability). ---- Most likely you will start with java or something else high level. But don't let that first language you use box you into only using it. Other languages have their uses. C is still the golden standard for embedded systems / DSP. Matlab is still the golden standard for prototyping / winning lots of million dollar DoD contracts.