You may also want to try mineral oil. I have it running in my rig and it works pretty well. Its a bit easier to come by, as you can get it at your local big-name farm supply store. Only problem is that, being oil, once it gets on something its really hard to clean off.
I think that one of the things holding MacOSX back is the fact that it has to be run on a Mac. While they are cool looking machines, they are typically slower and FAR more expensive then your $999 Dell or Gateway. Don't get me wrong, I think Macs are cool, but they are way too expensive for what they give you. Perhaps if they moved to x86 (or better yet, x86-64) and used their mad design skillz on the OS and housings (think iMac with a VIA EPIA board) they could get a little more market share.
Shouldn't all software be built with performance in mind? Personally, I think that many developers have taken a love to today's high speed CPUs as it allows them to practically ignore performance issues. While it is true that in some areas performance tweaking is still vital, such as server software and high-end gaming, it seems that most mundane software, such as office tools and other nominal is over bloated and slow. Granted, it isn't as important, perhaps, but its still annoying when on my Dual Athlon machine I have speed issues, like when moving my media player causes the movie to stall and skip. I still chuckle at the popularity of Phoenix, an apparently slimmed down and tweaked browser. Even with fewer features then Mozilla, it stands on its own just because its fast. Does anyone else feel that programming in general today has been sloppy and aimed more at getting more features then having a fast, stable program?
I have one 48X drive, so according to them I must have 48 CDR drives in my PC. Makes you wonder how I crammed them all in that mid tower case, doesn't it?
I got a pair of 15 min phone cards. These are of great use to me as I have a cell phone with plenty of anytime min and unlimited nights/ weekends and free long distance. I suppose I could wrap them and give them to family members, but only 15 min?? If they got them for $0.05/min, and that is probably on the high side, then they spent a whole buck and a half on me. Damn, I feel important now.
Though I haven't seen it myself, I have heard good things about Will's performance in Ali, which was a more serious movie then MIB, so he is able to break out of the comedy rutine. Though perhaps if "I, Robot" starred the other Will we all know and love, things would be much better.:)
That isn't really a good idea for me as I just got rid of my PalmV for this one. I would try to put linux on it as well, but I don't have a restore CD so if I mess up I'd have a nice $300 paperweight.
I get one all the time in a insurance program that says "Rating Error." But it won't tell what the actual error is, where it is, and you can't use any of the logs to figure out either!
This sounds pretty sweet. I do wonder if the cartridges would be refillable though. Changing them out and replacing them every other day could lead to a large pile of empty cans very quickly, even moreso if the technology catches on. While they are far better then dumping Li-ion batteries into landfills, refillible would still be better yet.
Sign it Brother! That is one reason I like work so much better then school. Work doesn't follow me home! Now, I CAN see where this would be useful for people who already do a lot of work from home, like my dad, but it isn't for me.
You may have missed the "important part" portion of the sentance. While being able to listen to nice surround sound in your office would be nice, its very very very far from being important. In today's economy I doubt if many corps have the cash to fling around to give everyone an office and surround sound, even if it is just the managers.
Great. There aren't even people on the moon and we are already turning it into a garbage dump. Though I suppose, on a better note, there will be plenty of little piles of ready to go sheet metal laying around from these crashes if we ever want to start building a lunar base.
Me too! Do I just start a company and give myself a loan that is not liable to me, but rather to the company? So, I take out a loan for $100,000 to me, switch it over to my company who's only asset is the pencil I purchaced with startup money, the feds take the pencil and I'm left with a free $100,000? How do these loans really work?
Is it just me or does/. seem to be posting an increasingly large number of case mod stories? Not that I mind cool little projects like this, but are they really newsworthy? Isn't this why there are sites like pimprig and HardOCP?
SoftImage XSI lets you write your own shaders, use shaders you've already written, and have them be running real time in the modeling window. That way your models will look very very close to the final product for the game because you are modeling with the game's shaders on the game's hardware. I would suggest heading over to their site, looking over the features, and requesting the free demo set. It even has video tutorials!
I wonder if it would be possible to get some questions submitted to a high ranking RIAA official from the Slashdot crowd. I for one would like to see some hard numbers on all the support they claim to be doing for the artists, amung many other questions I'm sure we can come up with. A nice direct line from the populace to the propagator free of flame mail, wild accusations, etc.
Four Star Video Heaven in Madison, WI, just off State Street, has a good selection of anime videos to rent, including a nice number of DVDs. 315 N Henry St. (608)255-1994
I agree that some day, we'll have the hardware to make nice, photorealistic animations real time. However, I fail to see how the "improv" idea spins in to this. To me, having nicer looking interactive characters in games, being able to see what my final render will look like in real time, being able to tweak that animation in photorealism in realtime would be great, but improv? CG characters doing random things? I don't think I'd want to see Who's Line is it Anyway? in CG rather then with Collin and Ryan.
Yes, but any fool can pay for a nice Duron machine and something like TrueSpace and still not break $3000. Yes, it may take a while to get the animations done, but you're going to get far better looking results on even this low end of hardware then from a "live" GeForce4 and its amazing what kind of work your PC can do while you're sleeping.
Even if you wanted think that this may be a cheaper way to do things, remember that you would still need to invest in all the motion capture equipment, and as far as I know it ain't cheap, thus negating the expense benifit of this idea. After all, letting the PC chew on frames only has the expense of time and power. Plus, if you have a fast enough machine to do all capturing in real time, why not give it even a few more hours to process a frame once the data has been captured to produce a FAR better result?
Personally, I have no idea why people would want to do this. Motion capture is indeed wonderful, but why would you want to waste all the great data on crappy, low poly models live when you could wait a couple weeks for the system to render something that looks far better from the same data? Yes, big name CG movies take a large amount of CPU power due to the complexity of the frames, but indie film makers probably don't have the time, money, or even talent to go to that level of detail.
I've made a few short animations that look good (to me at least), are fairly simple (though some have things like fog and volumetric lighting) but were made by me: one guy in his spare time on a Duron 700 which drew all the frames while I was sleeping or at work.
Slashdot Mirror
You may also want to try mineral oil. I have it running in my rig and it works pretty well. Its a bit easier to come by, as you can get it at your local big-name farm supply store. Only problem is that, being oil, once it gets on something its really hard to clean off.
Wow, and I even voted for this guy. Cool. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
I think that one of the things holding MacOSX back is the fact that it has to be run on a Mac. While they are cool looking machines, they are typically slower and FAR more expensive then your $999 Dell or Gateway. Don't get me wrong, I think Macs are cool, but they are way too expensive for what they give you. Perhaps if they moved to x86 (or better yet, x86-64) and used their mad design skillz on the OS and housings (think iMac with a VIA EPIA board) they could get a little more market share.
No kidding, I'd rather get a nice 17" LCD and a TV card for my PC. Add in a nice RF remote and POOF! LCD TV for less then $800.
Shouldn't all software be built with performance in mind? Personally, I think that many developers have taken a love to today's high speed CPUs as it allows them to practically ignore performance issues. While it is true that in some areas performance tweaking is still vital, such as server software and high-end gaming, it seems that most mundane software, such as office tools and other nominal is over bloated and slow. Granted, it isn't as important, perhaps, but its still annoying when on my Dual Athlon machine I have speed issues, like when moving my media player causes the movie to stall and skip. I still chuckle at the popularity of Phoenix, an apparently slimmed down and tweaked browser. Even with fewer features then Mozilla, it stands on its own just because its fast. Does anyone else feel that programming in general today has been sloppy and aimed more at getting more features then having a fast, stable program?
I have one 48X drive, so according to them I must have 48 CDR drives in my PC. Makes you wonder how I crammed them all in that mid tower case, doesn't it?
I got a pair of 15 min phone cards. These are of great use to me as I have a cell phone with plenty of anytime min and unlimited nights/ weekends and free long distance. I suppose I could wrap them and give them to family members, but only 15 min?? If they got them for $0.05/min, and that is probably on the high side, then they spent a whole buck and a half on me. Damn, I feel important now.
Though I haven't seen it myself, I have heard good things about Will's performance in Ali, which was a more serious movie then MIB, so he is able to break out of the comedy rutine. Though perhaps if "I, Robot" starred the other Will we all know and love, things would be much better. :)
That isn't really a good idea for me as I just got rid of my PalmV for this one. I would try to put linux on it as well, but I don't have a restore CD so if I mess up I'd have a nice $300 paperweight.
I think I can currently spare $20 for this.
Yay! You even used the right force term, as there is no such thing as centrifugal force. *sniff* I'm so proud.
I get one all the time in a insurance program that says "Rating Error." But it won't tell what the actual error is, where it is, and you can't use any of the logs to figure out either!
This sounds pretty sweet. I do wonder if the cartridges would be refillable though. Changing them out and replacing them every other day could lead to a large pile of empty cans very quickly, even moreso if the technology catches on. While they are far better then dumping Li-ion batteries into landfills, refillible would still be better yet.
Sign it Brother! That is one reason I like work so much better then school. Work doesn't follow me home! Now, I CAN see where this would be useful for people who already do a lot of work from home, like my dad, but it isn't for me.
You may have missed the "important part" portion of the sentance. While being able to listen to nice surround sound in your office would be nice, its very very very far from being important. In today's economy I doubt if many corps have the cash to fling around to give everyone an office and surround sound, even if it is just the managers.
Great. There aren't even people on the moon and we are already turning it into a garbage dump. Though I suppose, on a better note, there will be plenty of little piles of ready to go sheet metal laying around from these crashes if we ever want to start building a lunar base.
Hmmmmm, where can I move to where this isn't as big of a problem? Like the US but with smart, non-sleasy accountants.
Me too! Do I just start a company and give myself a loan that is not liable to me, but rather to the company? So, I take out a loan for $100,000 to me, switch it over to my company who's only asset is the pencil I purchaced with startup money, the feds take the pencil and I'm left with a free $100,000? How do these loans really work?
Is it just me or does /. seem to be posting an increasingly large number of case mod stories? Not that I mind cool little projects like this, but are they really newsworthy? Isn't this why there are sites like pimprig and HardOCP?
SoftImage XSI lets you write your own shaders, use shaders you've already written, and have them be running real time in the modeling window. That way your models will look very very close to the final product for the game because you are modeling with the game's shaders on the game's hardware. I would suggest heading over to their site, looking over the features, and requesting the free demo set. It even has video tutorials!
I wonder if it would be possible to get some questions submitted to a high ranking RIAA official from the Slashdot crowd. I for one would like to see some hard numbers on all the support they claim to be doing for the artists, amung many other questions I'm sure we can come up with. A nice direct line from the populace to the propagator free of flame mail, wild accusations, etc.
Four Star Video Heaven in Madison, WI, just off State Street, has a good selection of anime videos to rent, including a nice number of DVDs.
315 N Henry St. (608)255-1994
But I want to run it on my UltraSPARC damnit! Stupid mainstream hardware.
I agree that some day, we'll have the hardware to make nice, photorealistic animations real time. However, I fail to see how the "improv" idea spins in to this. To me, having nicer looking interactive characters in games, being able to see what my final render will look like in real time, being able to tweak that animation in photorealism in realtime would be great, but improv? CG characters doing random things? I don't think I'd want to see Who's Line is it Anyway? in CG rather then with Collin and Ryan.
Yes, but any fool can pay for a nice Duron machine and something like TrueSpace and still not break $3000. Yes, it may take a while to get the animations done, but you're going to get far better looking results on even this low end of hardware then from a "live" GeForce4 and its amazing what kind of work your PC can do while you're sleeping.
Even if you wanted think that this may be a cheaper way to do things, remember that you would still need to invest in all the motion capture equipment, and as far as I know it ain't cheap, thus negating the expense benifit of this idea. After all, letting the PC chew on frames only has the expense of time and power. Plus, if you have a fast enough machine to do all capturing in real time, why not give it even a few more hours to process a frame once the data has been captured to produce a FAR better result?
Personally, I have no idea why people would want to do this. Motion capture is indeed wonderful, but why would you want to waste all the great data on crappy, low poly models live when you could wait a couple weeks for the system to render something that looks far better from the same data? Yes, big name CG movies take a large amount of CPU power due to the complexity of the frames, but indie film makers probably don't have the time, money, or even talent to go to that level of detail.
I've made a few short animations that look good (to me at least), are fairly simple (though some have things like fog and volumetric lighting) but were made by me: one guy in his spare time on a Duron 700 which drew all the frames while I was sleeping or at work.