We've had a short break since the last marketing ploy of this type has come up.
Same old story, get the world riled up about "filesharing" with your movie name attached (especially if it didn't do too well at the box office), and then the reap the mediocre profit from the free publicity.
I'm unsure of the US laws, but I understand the law here in the UK protects the loss of property for a certain amount of time, or at least until the owner considers it abandoned.
I quote from John Spencer, professor of law at Cambridge University, "If you find something in the street, the law says you have more right to it than everyone else - except the owner. If the true owner doesn't turn up, you can take ownership." from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8129534.stm
Had this occured in the UK, if there was proof that someone left the phone there on purpose to be found, then there is no case against. On the other hand if it was genuinely lost, then the finder had no right to sell it.
Out of curiosity, is there anything I'm not legally allowed to draw?
I'm not a muslim and therefore consider myself to be allowed to draw Mohammed, infact I just did in GIMP (not MSpaint as I didnt want to offend Linux fundamentalists) Do not click if offended by shocking religious imagery http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1287/mohow.jpg
So is there anything I can't draw on a piece of paper (without any words in any language) ?
Exactly. The article even states that "In effect, you're probably not going to get buildings collapsing, a la Bad Company, because the engine relies on the structural integrity of larger objects.".
So not only not as much destrction as Crysis, but "structural integrity of larger objects" means indestructable, so really nothing new here.
It's on slashdot because it's A) it's technically porn but B) most importantly it's made by a woman; something that doesn't exist on the internet and therefore is a curiosity.
Without trying to ignite the piracy argument, the recent game Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC version outsold both the ps3 and the 360 versions (not combined) and has had, from launch, approximately double the concurrent online players of either console platforms.
However, the game was developed primarily for the consoles, which is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it supports dx9 level hardware for people on winXP / older gfx cards, on the other hand you have memory and other restrictions, especially on the 360.
I personally hope that the sales of BC2 signals a moderate change in the way games are developed.
That said, there's always a little niggle or stupid new drm feature that overclouds any new PC release.
No, the problem doesn't scale, it becomes less obvious at lower framerates. Using a third party program to cap with vsync at 30 fps and the problem is not noticeable as the physics are in sync with each rendered frame, although PC gaming can feel a bit jerky or at least cause headaches at under 40-50 fps so it's not an ideal solution.
The reason it really doesn't make sense to me is that ever other game I've played, especially using the engine Bioshock uses, there is no physics cap at all, and there doesn't need to be.
Of course. On the 360 the game was capped at 30fps by default, so the problem wasn't evident. The fps cap I beleive could be removed, but the frame rate wouldnt jump so high for the physics cap to be noticeable.
This video demonstrates the problem, although not quite as clearly as when our in game as this would be a circa 25fps video, but the problem is there. Note the smooth surrounding but jerky ragdoll.
Also here is the original thread on the 2K (bioshock dev) forums, dating back to 2007, with posts sporadically from the past three ears. Obviously all avenues of vsync and config tweaks were explored, but 2k never responded to or patched the issue.
Shortly after the first patch came out, people were baffled as to why it wasn't fixed. The engine remains hard coded to the 30 fps physics cap, which makes little or no sense considering the engine is perfectly capable of standard physics implementation, as shown with the many other unreal engine based games.
Are the physics once again inexplicably capped at 30fps?
Something that was never explained by the devs about Bioshock 1, was the 30 frames per second physics cap.
There was / is literally no way around it, and for those who haven't played it on PC, having a game run at 50-60 fps and the physics much lower, it's an annoying and immersion breaking error.
They got rid of the car that you drove around in ME1 for just that reason. The side quests are a lot more diverse and unique, and add to the whole immersion.
That said I did miss the mkv (if that's what the vehicle was called) as it made the scale of the game feel larger. In ME2 they have cut a few corners when it comes to large maps and higher res textures for some reason, but the game on the whole does feel better than the first.
When I first saw this "Natal" thing, I was confused, and I still am. Unlike the Playstation 3 controller announced around the same time which was a bulb on a stick that controls things on screen when you move it, I remain clueless about what Natal actually does.
The marketing video when it was announced was a human having a scripted embarrasing conversation with a computer animation http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8077369.stm (second video on the article)
Are there any videos of Natal doing something obviously interesting?
I have a similar setup, I have this on a piece of paper in my wallet
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
and I simply remember which letter my password starts with, and then what letter comes second etc.
For example, if my password was SLASHDOT, I would start by remembering the first letter, which is S, then remember the second letter, which is L, and I continue remembering until I have completed the password.
As others have said, current "business models" just don't allow for the dedicated server approach, mainly because the suits seem to think that change is always a good thing.
Without dedicated servers and forced authentication (which is why I don't understand the borderlands / operation flashpoint DR business model of no auth, p2p multiplayer) "downloadable content" can be charged for with ease.
My point is, one of the most popular ever FPS games using the dedicated server setup is Counterstrike, a game which is 10 years old and started life as a free modification of a commercial game. The game and it's remake still sell, and the worldwide dedicated server business is huge.
The big publishers now just want control of the whole darn kaboodle, and while it doesn't prolong the life of the game, it nets revenue in a way that at the very most makes the suits feel good about themselves. Big publishers aren't about gamers, they really are just about the cash.
Agreeing with jofny, and it's a shame I can't mod you up over 5. If only 1 for each poncey "community officer" I see walking up the main road in my village every Wednesday.
Eyeing my coop shopping bad up are ya? Just to make it look like your worth something? Fuckin thought police in hi-vis vests.
Most of the time in the UK we end up with the raw side of the deal. The great announcement of two-nine-nine from Sony (ps3 reduction) is a case in point. USA: $299, Europe: 299 Euro (can't be bothered to find the euro key), Japan: 2.99 billion billion yen, here in England: who knows, but you can bet your bottom dollar it will be more than retail in dollars.
So, my point being, there's really nothing the consumer can do about this, except for not buy the product ala Vista. Baby.
Slashdot Mirror
We've had a short break since the last marketing ploy of this type has come up.
Same old story, get the world riled up about "filesharing" with your movie name attached (especially if it didn't do too well at the box office), and then the reap the mediocre profit from the free publicity.
Could you elaborate?
In that entanglement is the very basis of quantum communication, I'd say it has a fair bit to do with it.
I'm unsure of the US laws, but I understand the law here in the UK protects the loss of property for a certain amount of time, or at least until the owner considers it abandoned.
I quote from John Spencer, professor of law at Cambridge University, "If you find something in the street, the law says you have more right to it than everyone else - except the owner. If the true owner doesn't turn up, you can take ownership." from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8129534.stm
Had this occured in the UK, if there was proof that someone left the phone there on purpose to be found, then there is no case against. On the other hand if it was genuinely lost, then the finder had no right to sell it.
Out of curiosity, is there anything I'm not legally allowed to draw?
I'm not a muslim and therefore consider myself to be allowed to draw Mohammed, infact I just did in GIMP (not MSpaint as I didnt want to offend Linux fundamentalists)
Do not click if offended by shocking religious imagery http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1287/mohow.jpg
So is there anything I can't draw on a piece of paper (without any words in any language) ?
Exactly. The article even states that "In effect, you're probably not going to get buildings collapsing, a la Bad Company, because the engine relies on the structural integrity of larger objects.".
So not only not as much destrction as Crysis, but "structural integrity of larger objects" means indestructable, so really nothing new here.
Do you get a free Belkin 54g with your MBA?
It's on slashdot because it's A) it's technically porn but B) most importantly it's made by a woman; something that doesn't exist on the internet and therefore is a curiosity.
Without trying to ignite the piracy argument, the recent game Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC version outsold both the ps3 and the 360 versions (not combined) and has had, from launch, approximately double the concurrent online players of either console platforms.
http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2010/03/18/battlefield-bad-company-2-sets-pace-to-become-the-top-selling-title-for-march-2010.aspx
However, the game was developed primarily for the consoles, which is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it supports dx9 level hardware for people on winXP / older gfx cards, on the other hand you have memory and other restrictions, especially on the 360.
I personally hope that the sales of BC2 signals a moderate change in the way games are developed.
That said, there's always a little niggle or stupid new drm feature that overclouds any new PC release.
Queen Mariposa Botnet of Spain has been beheaded, I declare an international day of mourning.
Totally agree, RE4 has to be the shining example. I'd played the game through on PS2, picked up a copy for PC and was completely baffled by it.
They did eventually sort of fix it, but in it's original form RE4 was definitely the mother of the bad ports, and a taste of things to come.
No mouse support on a pc shooter is just crazy.
No, the problem doesn't scale, it becomes less obvious at lower framerates. Using a third party program to cap with vsync at 30 fps and the problem is not noticeable as the physics are in sync with each rendered frame, although PC gaming can feel a bit jerky or at least cause headaches at under 40-50 fps so it's not an ideal solution.
The reason it really doesn't make sense to me is that ever other game I've played, especially using the engine Bioshock uses, there is no physics cap at all, and there doesn't need to be.
Of course. On the 360 the game was capped at 30fps by default, so the problem wasn't evident. The fps cap I beleive could be removed, but the frame rate wouldnt jump so high for the physics cap to be noticeable.
This video demonstrates the problem, although not quite as clearly as when our in game as this would be a circa 25fps video, but the problem is there. Note the smooth surrounding but jerky ragdoll.
Also here is the original thread on the 2K (bioshock dev) forums, dating back to 2007, with posts sporadically from the past three ears. Obviously all avenues of vsync and config tweaks were explored, but 2k never responded to or patched the issue.
Shortly after the first patch came out, people were baffled as to why it wasn't fixed. The engine remains hard coded to the 30 fps physics cap, which makes little or no sense considering the engine is perfectly capable of standard physics implementation, as shown with the many other unreal engine based games.
Are the physics once again inexplicably capped at 30fps?
Something that was never explained by the devs about Bioshock 1, was the 30 frames per second physics cap.
There was / is literally no way around it, and for those who haven't played it on PC, having a game run at 50-60 fps and the physics much lower, it's an annoying and immersion breaking error.
They got rid of the car that you drove around in ME1 for just that reason. The side quests are a lot more diverse and unique, and add to the whole immersion.
That said I did miss the mkv (if that's what the vehicle was called) as it made the scale of the game feel larger. In ME2 they have cut a few corners when it comes to large maps and higher res textures for some reason, but the game on the whole does feel better than the first.
Kudos to you good sir.
When I first saw this "Natal" thing, I was confused, and I still am. Unlike the Playstation 3 controller announced around the same time which was a bulb on a stick that controls things on screen when you move it, I remain clueless about what Natal actually does.
The marketing video when it was announced was a human having a scripted embarrasing conversation with a computer animation http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8077369.stm (second video on the article)
Are there any videos of Natal doing something obviously interesting?
I have a similar setup, I have this on a piece of paper in my wallet
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
and I simply remember which letter my password starts with, and then what letter comes second etc.
For example, if my password was SLASHDOT, I would start by remembering the first letter, which is S, then remember the second letter, which is L, and I continue remembering until I have completed the password.
As others have said, current "business models" just don't allow for the dedicated server approach, mainly because the suits seem to think that change is always a good thing.
Without dedicated servers and forced authentication (which is why I don't understand the borderlands / operation flashpoint DR business model of no auth, p2p multiplayer) "downloadable content" can be charged for with ease.
My point is, one of the most popular ever FPS games using the dedicated server setup is Counterstrike, a game which is 10 years old and started life as a free modification of a commercial game. The game and it's remake still sell, and the worldwide dedicated server business is huge.
The big publishers now just want control of the whole darn kaboodle, and while it doesn't prolong the life of the game, it nets revenue in a way that at the very most makes the suits feel good about themselves. Big publishers aren't about gamers, they really are just about the cash.
aka an iphone strapped to a cardboard box.
I bet you would (or wouldn't) care if he didn't want to not work for no company that doesn't hire those who don't code in their spare time
This is actually for private sector only, not every camera in England. That would be against the data protection act.
If this site had access to public cameras, it would actually be illegal to sign up to.
Agreeing with jofny, and it's a shame I can't mod you up over 5. If only 1 for each poncey "community officer" I see walking up the main road in my village every Wednesday.
Eyeing my coop shopping bad up are ya? Just to make it look like your worth something? Fuckin thought police in hi-vis vests.
True, but this is actually the best use of Autotune I've heard yet, amatuer and professional alike.
It would perhaps give a new meaning to the red rings of death.
Most of the time in the UK we end up with the raw side of the deal. The great announcement of two-nine-nine from Sony (ps3 reduction) is a case in point. USA: $299, Europe: 299 Euro (can't be bothered to find the euro key), Japan: 2.99 billion billion yen, here in England: who knows, but you can bet your bottom dollar it will be more than retail in dollars.
So, my point being, there's really nothing the consumer can do about this, except for not buy the product ala Vista. Baby.