"You can liken it to getting a "super-sized" meal at mcdonald's only to find that the extra fries were hidden in a false bottom in the fry box all along. "
Either way, McDonald's still went through extra expense to make those extra fries whether you paid for them or not.
Depends. Can Java talk to 3D cards? If not, then the answer is no.
If Java were to develop a cross platform version of DirectX, then the answer would be eventually yes. I'm not just talking 3D here, so spare me the "OpenGL already exists" rebuttals. That's only one piece of the puzzle. There also needs to be the equivalent of DirectSound, DirectPlay, and another Direct component that I'm having difficulty remembering of right now.
That's a really ambitious task. But, on the other hand, it'd be really hard to want to develop using DirectX if the Java equivalent does the job and requires little to no porting in order to support other platforms such as Linux or even Mac.
" I don't see the art of physically writing going away anytime soon."
I don't see how it could. If people can read it and type it, then what's stopping them from drawing the symbols? Nothing. Don't believe me? Ask anybody to draw any of the symbols (@ * ^ #) that aren't commonly used in written language.
... this is just another blatant tar and feathering for MS? I might have taken this article more seriously if it was made out like the game felt incomplete without those levels.
Sorry, no sympathy here. Non XBOX-Live subscribers wouldn't have gotten the levels anyway if the maps weren't on the disc. Pardon them for saving you the download time.
"I am dying for full PNG support in all major browsers... the 256 levels of transparency alone make it worth while! "
I'd like to take that a step further. I'd like for support of various transparency modes. For example, I'd like Photoshop's 'Screen' transparency mode for adding stuff like glows. Basically, it mimicks taking two projectors and pointing them at the same screen. Ugly example, but if I wanted to composite a lens flare on top of a page, screen transparency would be the way to do it.
Some of you may be asking 'why?', and I doubt I'd be able to convince you that it's vital. However, I'm an artist, and I love having every tool at my disposal. If I were to create a website that was supposed to look spooky or etherial, that type of transparency would be very useful to me.
"So you see nothing wrong at all with a customer reserving a seat on multiple airlines for days on end, possibly preventing each airline from making a legitimate sale..."
"a. is unlikely. How can anyone hate free software?"
How can anyone hate loud-mouthed zealots?
"b. Linux machines can be counted in the millions."
On the desktop where it's a lot easier to hack a computer with a human running it? I doubt it.
"Free software is more diverse, of better quality and is universally loved. "
Free software is no less vulnerable to attacks by creative thinkers than any other piece of software. If anything free software is easier to exploit. Nobody's defending MS here, but it isn't hard to exploit software that's being built in bits and pieces.
"How strange. As I come from the UNIX world I've always thought the exact opposite: Linux is a well written UNIX and Windows is the cheap imitation that is *still* playing catchup. I feel dirty when I have to use Windows; especially when I'm forced to use beta-quality Microsoft software like their "Microsoft Cluster" crap (which is broken beyond all imagination). "
He's talking about the cockpit, you're talking about the engine.
"Except that one near the end of Vice City where you had no choice of car, your opponent drives an invincible car that is twice as fast as yours, and starting the race automatically gives you a wanted level of 2. I think it was called 'driver', or something stupid."
Well gee. Imagine playing a mission where you had to be skilled at the wheel as opposed to being skilled at stealing a fast car. I had difficulty with that mission, but it was quite satisfying when I won.
"It doesn't help that the game crashes and locks up constantly, but I'm willing to look past that."
Does it? I've been running Vice City on two different computers, not a prob. I imagine you don't want me troubleshooting your computer, but I would suggest that maybe there's something wrong there. (Unless I just happen to have the desktop and laptop machines that that GTA was developed on...)
Of course, if it doesn't run on Linux, I won't play it anyway --hehe
I won't go to Hawaii until I can drive there.
Re:Bunch of nice people work there
on
A Tour of Pixar
·
· Score: 1
"I'm a decent artist. It's 50% talent, 50% work. I've found I have a cartoonist style, but I can't do still life. No matter how hard I try, I know guys who could beat me when they were in junior high school."
Whoopee, they figured it out before you did. That's not something that was given to them at birth it was a skill they arrived at at some point. Drawing is the ability to decompose an image down to a series of lines and plotting them out on paper. It's not easy. Spatial relationships have to be recognized etc. Those guys may have a better spatial recognition, that doesn't necessarily mean they're born with talent to draw as a result of that ability.
In any case, the point is as long as you think you can't, you can't. I hate to sound After School Special here, but it's true. Though I agree people can have forms of learning disabilities that make their struggle much harder, I don't believe that people just can't do stuff. I should know. I've climbed from being a terrible artist to one that's not half bad. This project didn't happen until I sat down and learned the various things I needed to learn until I could arrive at that point. It was all a matter of breaking it down into a ton of little tasks.
Re:Losing between $3-4B a year???
on
A Tour of Pixar
·
· Score: 1
"You have to admit that $3 billion loss is far more impressive a figure than a more factual $150M loss since that's about what they swallow on a big budget movie flop."
What bothers me is that the movie industry doesn't seem to recognize that it is a service industry. It doesn't just make products like sprockets or something, they provide entertainment. For this reason, they have a rich set of tools to prevent piracy from destroying their business. They don't need to place security guards in theaters. Instead, that money could go towards making theaters more interesting to go to. For example, lower the cost of food. Provide a headphone jack for each seat. Provide a 15 minute warm-up comedy act. Heck I don't care. Limiting piracy is not increasing profits.
You know, it's kind of amusing really. Jackass Valenti tried to defend the DMCA by saying "Nobody would criticize oil companies for putting stronger locks on their gas tanks if people started making their own keys." (Note: that's an interpreted quote, it's not literal or verbatim.) I don't think he realizes that people steal gas all the time. Driveoffs are a regular occurance. Do gas stations respond by placing guards around each pump? Nope. Who'd go to a gas station with security procedures and guards at every corner? Gas stations don't do this (nor do oil companies require it) because they are a service industry. Make the customer glad to shop there.
Anyway, I've ranted enough. I'm just sick of inflated piracy numbers. Don't punish your good customers over something a bad customer does.
Re:Wait wait wait wait wait...
on
A Tour of Pixar
·
· Score: 1
"However, my point is that just throwing more processors at a problem creates niether an elegant solution nor usualy a solution at all."
You'd be surprised. If all the processors share the same memory, then you're not limited to that 100-megabit bottleneck into the machine. Remember, we're not necessarily talking about multi-threaded rendering here, rather paralellized rendering. You can have 8 computers or 8 processors rendering the same scene. With the 8 computers, you have to send all the textures and geometry down (we're not talking small-beans here) to each machine. On the 8 processor machine, that only has to be sent down once. Then, the octo machine can render frames 1-8 with each processor chewing on one frame.
That's just an example of how it could work. I'm not sure how it's done in practice. Just wanted to point out that having a bunch of single processor machines wouldn't be much more elegant, they have a seperate set of problems.
Slashdot Mirror
"You can liken it to getting a "super-sized" meal at mcdonald's only to find that the extra fries were hidden in a false bottom in the fry box all along. "
Either way, McDonald's still went through extra expense to make those extra fries whether you paid for them or not.
"Seven year-old games that you can watch but not even play? If that's the future, thanks but no thanks."
He's right. We'd be doing cartwheels if they'd ported Duke Nukem to it.
"Could this be the future of games on Linux?"
Depends. Can Java talk to 3D cards? If not, then the answer is no.
If Java were to develop a cross platform version of DirectX, then the answer would be eventually yes. I'm not just talking 3D here, so spare me the "OpenGL already exists" rebuttals. That's only one piece of the puzzle. There also needs to be the equivalent of DirectSound, DirectPlay, and another Direct component that I'm having difficulty remembering of right now.
That's a really ambitious task. But, on the other hand, it'd be really hard to want to develop using DirectX if the Java equivalent does the job and requires little to no porting in order to support other platforms such as Linux or even Mac.
" I don't see the art of physically writing going away anytime soon."
I don't see how it could. If people can read it and type it, then what's stopping them from drawing the symbols? Nothing. Don't believe me? Ask anybody to draw any of the symbols (@ * ^ #) that aren't commonly used in written language.
... this is just another blatant tar and feathering for MS? I might have taken this article more seriously if it was made out like the game felt incomplete without those levels.
Sorry, no sympathy here. Non XBOX-Live subscribers wouldn't have gotten the levels anyway if the maps weren't on the disc. Pardon them for saving you the download time.
"I am dying for full PNG support in all major browsers... the 256 levels of transparency alone make it worth while! "
I'd like to take that a step further. I'd like for support of various transparency modes. For example, I'd like Photoshop's 'Screen' transparency mode for adding stuff like glows. Basically, it mimicks taking two projectors and pointing them at the same screen. Ugly example, but if I wanted to composite a lens flare on top of a page, screen transparency would be the way to do it.
Some of you may be asking 'why?', and I doubt I'd be able to convince you that it's vital. However, I'm an artist, and I love having every tool at my disposal. If I were to create a website that was supposed to look spooky or etherial, that type of transparency would be very useful to me.
Don't worry, I meta-modded it unfair.
"So you see nothing wrong at all with a customer reserving a seat on multiple airlines for days on end, possibly preventing each airline from making a legitimate sale..."
What... you've never heard of overbooking?
"In other news...if you knock your house down it won't get robbed."
Yeah because suddenly the internet stops working when you turn off JavaScript.
"Unsubstantiated rumors are news as long as they're against MS."
I was thinking the same thing when this article was published.
"a. is unlikely. How can anyone hate free software?"
How can anyone hate loud-mouthed zealots?
"b. Linux machines can be counted in the millions."
On the desktop where it's a lot easier to hack a computer with a human running it? I doubt it.
"Free software is more diverse, of better quality and is universally loved. "
Free software is no less vulnerable to attacks by creative thinkers than any other piece of software. If anything free software is easier to exploit. Nobody's defending MS here, but it isn't hard to exploit software that's being built in bits and pieces.
"Do you run a half-assed pr0n site, act like a fucktard on /., and slag off free operating systems every chance you get?"
Who's running a pr0n site?
"Quick, get your patch here [redhat.com] "
Awww. Flamebait? C'mon, it was funny! I'm sick of the usual anti-MS jokes, but even I smiled at this one.
"Do you read PC Gamer?"
"No, I run Linux."
"Quick, get your patch here"
Crap. It broke my machine. I can't play GTA anymore!
"A worm spreads by itself. A virus requires a human to do something stupid, like click on an attachment. "
I had a coughing attack and gave my girlfriend a worm once.
"It's frustrating how many viruses Windows keeps getting slammed with."
Just wait until:
a.) Everybody decides to hate Linus.
b.) Linux machines can be counted in the millions.
The safest platform to be on is the obscure one with few people using it.
"How strange. As I come from the UNIX world I've always thought the exact opposite: Linux is a well written UNIX and Windows is the cheap imitation that is *still* playing catchup. I feel dirty when I have to use Windows; especially when I'm forced to use beta-quality Microsoft software like their "Microsoft Cluster" crap (which is broken beyond all imagination). "
He's talking about the cockpit, you're talking about the engine.
... that Apple's servers will survive this Slashdotting?
"You're welcome to troubleshoot my PS2 all you want."
;)
Ah, reminds me of the first run of PSOnes. Maybe you should turn the machine upside down.
"Except that one near the end of Vice City where you had no choice of car, your opponent drives an invincible car that is twice as fast as yours, and starting the race automatically gives you a wanted level of 2. I think it was called 'driver', or something stupid."
Well gee. Imagine playing a mission where you had to be skilled at the wheel as opposed to being skilled at stealing a fast car. I had difficulty with that mission, but it was quite satisfying when I won.
"It doesn't help that the game crashes and locks up constantly, but I'm willing to look past that."
Does it? I've been running Vice City on two different computers, not a prob. I imagine you don't want me troubleshooting your computer, but I would suggest that maybe there's something wrong there. (Unless I just happen to have the desktop and laptop machines that that GTA was developed on...)
I won't go to Hawaii until I can drive there.
"I'm a decent artist. It's 50% talent, 50% work. I've found I have a cartoonist style, but I can't do still life. No matter how hard I try, I know guys who could beat me when they were in junior high school."
Whoopee, they figured it out before you did. That's not something that was given to them at birth it was a skill they arrived at at some point. Drawing is the ability to decompose an image down to a series of lines and plotting them out on paper. It's not easy. Spatial relationships have to be recognized etc. Those guys may have a better spatial recognition, that doesn't necessarily mean they're born with talent to draw as a result of that ability.
In any case, the point is as long as you think you can't, you can't. I hate to sound After School Special here, but it's true. Though I agree people can have forms of learning disabilities that make their struggle much harder, I don't believe that people just can't do stuff. I should know. I've climbed from being a terrible artist to one that's not half bad. This project didn't happen until I sat down and learned the various things I needed to learn until I could arrive at that point. It was all a matter of breaking it down into a ton of little tasks.
"You have to admit that $3 billion loss is far more impressive a figure than a more factual $150M loss since that's about what they swallow on a big budget movie flop."
What bothers me is that the movie industry doesn't seem to recognize that it is a service industry. It doesn't just make products like sprockets or something, they provide entertainment. For this reason, they have a rich set of tools to prevent piracy from destroying their business. They don't need to place security guards in theaters. Instead, that money could go towards making theaters more interesting to go to. For example, lower the cost of food. Provide a headphone jack for each seat. Provide a 15 minute warm-up comedy act. Heck I don't care. Limiting piracy is not increasing profits.
You know, it's kind of amusing really. Jackass Valenti tried to defend the DMCA by saying "Nobody would criticize oil companies for putting stronger locks on their gas tanks if people started making their own keys." (Note: that's an interpreted quote, it's not literal or verbatim.) I don't think he realizes that people steal gas all the time. Driveoffs are a regular occurance. Do gas stations respond by placing guards around each pump? Nope. Who'd go to a gas station with security procedures and guards at every corner? Gas stations don't do this (nor do oil companies require it) because they are a service industry. Make the customer glad to shop there.
Anyway, I've ranted enough. I'm just sick of inflated piracy numbers. Don't punish your good customers over something a bad customer does.
"However, my point is that just throwing more processors at a problem creates niether an elegant solution nor usualy a solution at all."
You'd be surprised. If all the processors share the same memory, then you're not limited to that 100-megabit bottleneck into the machine. Remember, we're not necessarily talking about multi-threaded rendering here, rather paralellized rendering. You can have 8 computers or 8 processors rendering the same scene. With the 8 computers, you have to send all the textures and geometry down (we're not talking small-beans here) to each machine. On the 8 processor machine, that only has to be sent down once. Then, the octo machine can render frames 1-8 with each processor chewing on one frame.
That's just an example of how it could work. I'm not sure how it's done in practice. Just wanted to point out that having a bunch of single processor machines wouldn't be much more elegant, they have a seperate set of problems.