And actually, isn't Direct3D getting less and less important these days? Think about it, as each generation of DX Shader Model comes out, more of the processing magic happens on the GPU. GPUs are continually getting more general purpose, where most of the stuff you're doing is just DMAing programs and vertex data over. You aren't tweaking "lights" anymore at the hardware layer, you're running programs on data. The more power and flexibilty put on user programmed layers, the simpler the driver gets to write where at some point its trivial to abstract Direct3d or whatever open source driver is doing the actual DMA.
Of course, that doesn't cover sound and input or anything, but it seems like when people say "it sucks porting DirectX" they're talking about Direct3D specifically.
Heh, I'm pretty sure they don't set the price. Once the publishers get their cut for pressing discs, how those boxes turn into $$$ is your problem. They of course have a suggested MSRP, but look at NFL 2k4 (5?) which sold for $20. They do have control over who they license to as a developer, so I could see them not giving out devkits to someone, but I don't know if 2d would be that big an issue. Little Big World is essentially 2d, right?
But the "quality control" isn't for "how fun a game is." There's no requirement that "the game is fun" in the list of stuff you have to pass to get certified by one of the big publishers. Basically, they're looking though a few categories of things:
a) You don't violate various trademarks of the publisher. b) Your game doesn't crash, drop out the sound, render at 2 frames a second, sit on a black screen for 2 minutes while loading, etc. c) Consistent UI experience d) Do bad things that would break the system or introduce security holes.
"Crap" has nothing to do with the content but the fact that you're delivering what could be considered a valid, working piece of software. Whether or not its any good to play is up to the market to decide.
Those are rarely direct advertisements. Generally they're the station advertizing some other program that's coming on next or some big event they're trying to rustle up support for. If it does have a product tie in its usually in conjunction with a sponsorship for a program, like "Doritos Presents Some New Show", "Ford Half-time Break", etc. I do agree its annoying and its probably because of perceived loss from Tivo users. I do actually prefer it though to an even worse trend of product placement.
Adverts on the screen won't ruin the narrative of a show, and they won't be there in the DVD. Having the characters pause for a second and talk about how cool their new car or gadget is is freaking terrible. I'd promise to watch one commercial a week on my tivo if they would stop that crap.
Oh, and on a funny note the Simpons movie makes fun of the overlay trend in the movie. I won't give it away, but it gave me a laugh:)
No one gives a crap about which format does what better. Honestly, in the context of playing movies and whatnot it really doesn't matter. I'm a pretty techy guy and I couldn't tell someone the difference between the two other than Blu-ray has more capacity, which doesn't affect movies that much (maybe a two disc HD-DVD set is one disc on Blu-Ray?) The winner here will be hybrid makers, as it won't matter who puts what out on which disc, it will play them all.
Right, because otherwise the servers would be flooded by people clamouring to see the latest GPL! But stick with the Apple story, it will make people feel better:) (Its not our fault, people just like dumb ol' apple, that's all!)
How would this be any different if Linux was top dog? I'm a bot net guy, I want to make a bot net, I'm going to cast the widest net possible. You think if Joe Sizpack was running Linux he _wouldn't_ click that file promising him "free smileys" or constantly keep his stuff up to date? And if the "bug" in question doesn't have admin privledges on a home system, who does? Try explaining the idea of "admin" and "user privledges" to someone who thinks a cd tray is a drink holder. Good luck!
In that case its best to email the project owner or the dev list announcing your intentions. If the people who run it are cool they'll take a little time to sketch out what needs to be done. If not, they're probably jerks and you might do well to find a better project to donate your time to.
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out It looked like deepfish was pretty alpha, but I like the idea of loading a page pretty much as an image and zooming in which opera doesn't have. (I'll definately agree its the best I've tried so far) I want to use the nice scroll wheel on the side and just have that fine tune zoom in on things. I'll check out picsel, thanks for the info.
And especially since I just got my 8525 for no cash down (they still stick you with that two year contract but try buying something without one these days!) I've been busy installing lots of 3rd party apps and am considering writing my own soon. Only thing that looks better on the iPhone is the internet browsing -- IE is awful and Opera (supposedly the best) doesn't really thrill me that much. But 3G plus google maps? Nice. Really cool stuff.
I'll agree to that. Sometimes the problem with BF is that its _too big_. 2142 lets you get back into combat in a few seconds, even if you spawn back at base. The ships are way easier to control, and Titans are way more fun than aircraft carriers or the like.
I think my point is you want some other dynamic in the game besides "leveling" and "obtain shiny objects". This might be "hold territory" or "role play", something that new players could do upon entering the game. Basically, if you want a huge game with partying and adventuring, you get get something like NWN or Oblivion and do a small party with friends or something. Those have good stories, character dev. and even an ending. The attraction of MMO's is the amount of people that are playing, which I feel means PvP (otherwise its just a single player game with some socialization and bragging about who has the highest level and shiniest object).
Not that I have any really good solutions, except maybe that I'd like to see the "BBS" model of games where you play "a game" with a massive amount of people (yes, I selected my username back when I was playing Tradewars 2002 again via telnet:). The game may take weeks or months, but it has an ending and once its over you start again. If you did that, people would have a "meta-identity" outside of their particular character and instance. They can grow that identity through playing games and interacting with people, but its not something you could (or would want to) sell and it may not be something you have to spend a good part of your waking life on. I feel like there's a lot of "massively multiplayer" modes out there that haven't been explored because people are too tied to the idea of building up a character and obtaining digital wealth as being the only way to have fun in a MMO.
The problem with these types of games is that in their effort to be "massive" they link everyone together in the same type of game with the same type of players. Associating "worth" with your character's stats and fake digital possesions has been the bane of these types of games (and even going back to some MUDs, Telearena, BBS, etc). You will get a good crop of obsessive "gotta have it all" type players, but it really alienates the casual type of player who might like to have access to the high-level content but doesn't have the same amount of time as everyone else. Now, you're saying, "well, that's fine, he'll just take longer to get there", but in a PvP world, you're behind the curve if you're not on all the time raiding with your guild. Really what they need to do is set up "weight classes" for players. Let some servers have time limits on the amount of stuff you can do per day - BBSs used to have thsi stuff out of necessity, but I think actually only allowing an hour or two online on a server would keep things fair and more interesting to casual players. People who want a more "immersive" experience can play on the "heavyweight" servers and spend as much time online as they want. Other things that could help would be adopting a more Eve like approach to skills where you earn them per day, but maybe tweaking it a bit so the power players can still level up by doing tasks, etc. I just think MMORPG makers need to think a bit more about the casual gamer who really doesn't want to spend all day online - 5-10 hours a week for busy people with jobs, families, other hobbies, etc. There's a lot of money to be made from subscriptions outside of the hardcore, powergamer scene.
Because, as the article states but the summary doesn't, its not a piracy measure - it looks like some wiseguys got funny and slipped it in as an easter egg. RTFA.
Correct, its not a free market, and relying on corporations (which do exist soley to make profits, unlike people) to share and play nicely with each other is a bit like wishing for everyone in the world to put down their guns and sing Kumbaya. Not going to happen. If patents didn't exist in _today's_ market (not the fictional utopian free market you've envisioned), then there would be no protection for inventors and smaller corporations from instantly losing to a big corporation with deep pockets, existing supply chains, manufacturing partners etc. That would lead to most likely _more_ secretive practices by companies trying to protect their secrets, where as the purpose of patents is that after the patent period (which is too long, IMHO), everyone can take advantage of the idea and design. I would actually be fine with software patents if they weren't obvious and the source code had to be published or kept in escrow by the patent office for the end of the patent period. Of course, this doesn't happen and you lead to bogus stuff like "one-click".
The patent process explicitly allows this though - if you design a better mousetrap than mine, or even improve on my existing design, thats a valid patent. It would be nice if Intel and AMD cooperated together. Just like when AT&T cooperated with itself on phone design. Back when it used to, you know, run everything. The really crappy thing is that the patent system used to protect _the little guy_. If I came up with a new idea for a cordless phone, and AT&T just snatched it up and ran with it, where was I then? Should of had more money! Patents used to mean protection for the smaller innovator in the face of a crowded market, not the rediculous legal bulwark system it is today.
Oh come on. "Non-obvious" doesn't mean the idea, it means the implementations. Until rediculous things like business method patents and such came along, a patent was always about _how_ you did something, not what you were doing. I can't patent "a car that flys!" but I can patent that nice anti-grav engine that makes my flying car go. So yes, its obvious we want to save power on wireless chips, but if you come up with some cool and unique way of doing it, then you get a patent so you can profit on your idea.
They're using a different technique to avoid needing line of sight or be harmful to humans (the article even mentions the microwave beaming, and how you can also use it to cook a chicken - not really something you'd want in the home powering up those speakers, is it?)
"How cute they lit a light bulb." Right. Its exactly the same because the end result is the same. That could go for pretty much any story here, right? Faster processor? "Bah, we were crunching numbers in the 50s. Whats the big deal here?"
Did you watch the video? The one you linked from doesn't have much to do with the other. One is showing a collage/scaling technology, the other is showing a browsing/organizational technology that ties in sets of photos of the same subject and merging them into the same dataset. Organizing them in 3 dimensional space is only one of the layouts, it doesn't seem to be so much about "making a model"
I would. FF has always been about the glitz, and if anyone is going to push the limits of the PS3 and HD/BluRay it will be Square. It would be hard to call any FF a "casual" game, so they've got a solid core of hardcore fans on the PS3 waiting for the next installment. Look for the PS3 version as the lead platform, with a solid port to the Wii. (Using the Wiimote might actually liven up some of the battles, and would be an easy and great way to add something to the game without redesigning it from scratch.)
You see that? You see that you MOTHERFUCKERS? You made the cookie monster cry! Cookie Monster! For shame! Add this to the long list of Bush attrocities...not the worst, not the last, but I never thought they would go this low. Jesus...
Slashdot Mirror
And actually, isn't Direct3D getting less and less important these days? Think about it, as each generation of DX Shader Model comes out, more of the processing magic happens on the GPU. GPUs are continually getting more general purpose, where most of the stuff you're doing is just DMAing programs and vertex data over. You aren't tweaking "lights" anymore at the hardware layer, you're running programs on data. The more power and flexibilty put on user programmed layers, the simpler the driver gets to write where at some point its trivial to abstract Direct3d or whatever open source driver is doing the actual DMA.
Of course, that doesn't cover sound and input or anything, but it seems like when people say "it sucks porting DirectX" they're talking about Direct3D specifically.
Heh, I'm pretty sure they don't set the price. Once the publishers get their cut for pressing discs, how those boxes turn into $$$ is your problem. They of course have a suggested MSRP, but look at NFL 2k4 (5?) which sold for $20. They do have control over who they license to as a developer, so I could see them not giving out devkits to someone, but I don't know if 2d would be that big an issue. Little Big World is essentially 2d, right?
But the "quality control" isn't for "how fun a game is." There's no requirement that "the game is fun" in the list of stuff you have to pass to get certified by one of the big publishers. Basically, they're looking though a few categories of things:
a) You don't violate various trademarks of the publisher.
b) Your game doesn't crash, drop out the sound, render at 2 frames a second, sit on a black screen for 2 minutes while loading, etc.
c) Consistent UI experience
d) Do bad things that would break the system or introduce security holes.
"Crap" has nothing to do with the content but the fact that you're delivering what could be considered a valid, working piece of software. Whether or not its any good to play is up to the market to decide.
Those are rarely direct advertisements. Generally they're the station advertizing some other program that's coming on next or some big event they're trying to rustle up support for. If it does have a product tie in its usually in conjunction with a sponsorship for a program, like "Doritos Presents Some New Show", "Ford Half-time Break", etc. I do agree its annoying and its probably because of perceived loss from Tivo users. I do actually prefer it though to an even worse trend of product placement.
:)
Adverts on the screen won't ruin the narrative of a show, and they won't be there in the DVD. Having the characters pause for a second and talk about how cool their new car or gadget is is freaking terrible. I'd promise to watch one commercial a week on my tivo if they would stop that crap.
Oh, and on a funny note the Simpons movie makes fun of the overlay trend in the movie. I won't give it away, but it gave me a laugh
But why do you have your hand off the mouse at all when you're browsing around video - ...
Oh.
Gross dude.
No one gives a crap about which format does what better. Honestly, in the context of playing movies and whatnot it really doesn't matter. I'm a pretty techy guy and I couldn't tell someone the difference between the two other than Blu-ray has more capacity, which doesn't affect movies that much (maybe a two disc HD-DVD set is one disc on Blu-Ray?) The winner here will be hybrid makers, as it won't matter who puts what out on which disc, it will play them all.
Right, because otherwise the servers would be flooded by people clamouring to see the latest GPL! But stick with the Apple story, it will make people feel better :) (Its not our fault, people just like dumb ol' apple, that's all!)
How would this be any different if Linux was top dog? I'm a bot net guy, I want to make a bot net, I'm going to cast the widest net possible. You think if Joe Sizpack was running Linux he _wouldn't_ click that file promising him "free smileys" or constantly keep his stuff up to date? And if the "bug" in question doesn't have admin privledges on a home system, who does? Try explaining the idea of "admin" and "user privledges" to someone who thinks a cd tray is a drink holder. Good luck!
In that case its best to email the project owner or the dev list announcing your intentions. If the people who run it are cool they'll take a little time to sketch out what needs to be done. If not, they're probably jerks and you might do well to find a better project to donate your time to.
The concept is fine, it's words like blog and blogosphere that are hate crimes against the English language.
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out It looked like deepfish was pretty alpha, but I like the idea of loading a page pretty much as an image and zooming in which opera doesn't have. (I'll definately agree its the best I've tried so far) I want to use the nice scroll wheel on the side and just have that fine tune zoom in on things. I'll check out picsel, thanks for the info.
Thanks, will check it out. This looks promising, but too bad they closed the beta. (And the tech looks pretty young too).
And especially since I just got my 8525 for no cash down (they still stick you with that two year contract but try buying something without one these days!) I've been busy installing lots of 3rd party apps and am considering writing my own soon. Only thing that looks better on the iPhone is the internet browsing -- IE is awful and Opera (supposedly the best) doesn't really thrill me that much. But 3G plus google maps? Nice. Really cool stuff.
I'll agree to that. Sometimes the problem with BF is that its _too big_. 2142 lets you get back into combat in a few seconds, even if you spawn back at base. The ships are way easier to control, and Titans are way more fun than aircraft carriers or the like.
I think my point is you want some other dynamic in the game besides "leveling" and "obtain shiny objects". This might be "hold territory" or "role play", something that new players could do upon entering the game. Basically, if you want a huge game with partying and adventuring, you get get something like NWN or Oblivion and do a small party with friends or something. Those have good stories, character dev. and even an ending. The attraction of MMO's is the amount of people that are playing, which I feel means PvP (otherwise its just a single player game with some socialization and bragging about who has the highest level and shiniest object).
:). The game may take weeks or months, but it has an ending and once its over you start again. If you did that, people would have a "meta-identity" outside of their particular character and instance. They can grow that identity through playing games and interacting with people, but its not something you could (or would want to) sell and it may not be something you have to spend a good part of your waking life on. I feel like there's a lot of "massively multiplayer" modes out there that haven't been explored because people are too tied to the idea of building up a character and obtaining digital wealth as being the only way to have fun in a MMO.
Not that I have any really good solutions, except maybe that I'd like to see the "BBS" model of games where you play "a game" with a massive amount of people (yes, I selected my username back when I was playing Tradewars 2002 again via telnet
The problem with these types of games is that in their effort to be "massive" they link everyone together in the same type of game with the same type of players. Associating "worth" with your character's stats and fake digital possesions has been the bane of these types of games (and even going back to some MUDs, Telearena, BBS, etc). You will get a good crop of obsessive "gotta have it all" type players, but it really alienates the casual type of player who might like to have access to the high-level content but doesn't have the same amount of time as everyone else. Now, you're saying, "well, that's fine, he'll just take longer to get there", but in a PvP world, you're behind the curve if you're not on all the time raiding with your guild. Really what they need to do is set up "weight classes" for players. Let some servers have time limits on the amount of stuff you can do per day - BBSs used to have thsi stuff out of necessity, but I think actually only allowing an hour or two online on a server would keep things fair and more interesting to casual players. People who want a more "immersive" experience can play on the "heavyweight" servers and spend as much time online as they want. Other things that could help would be adopting a more Eve like approach to skills where you earn them per day, but maybe tweaking it a bit so the power players can still level up by doing tasks, etc. I just think MMORPG makers need to think a bit more about the casual gamer who really doesn't want to spend all day online - 5-10 hours a week for busy people with jobs, families, other hobbies, etc. There's a lot of money to be made from subscriptions outside of the hardcore, powergamer scene.
Because, as the article states but the summary doesn't, its not a piracy measure - it looks like some wiseguys got funny and slipped it in as an easter egg. RTFA.
Well, if that happens it means most blogs would suddenly become at least a little bit interesting to read.
Correct, its not a free market, and relying on corporations (which do exist soley to make profits, unlike people) to share and play nicely with each other is a bit like wishing for everyone in the world to put down their guns and sing Kumbaya. Not going to happen. If patents didn't exist in _today's_ market (not the fictional utopian free market you've envisioned), then there would be no protection for inventors and smaller corporations from instantly losing to a big corporation with deep pockets, existing supply chains, manufacturing partners etc. That would lead to most likely _more_ secretive practices by companies trying to protect their secrets, where as the purpose of patents is that after the patent period (which is too long, IMHO), everyone can take advantage of the idea and design. I would actually be fine with software patents if they weren't obvious and the source code had to be published or kept in escrow by the patent office for the end of the patent period. Of course, this doesn't happen and you lead to bogus stuff like "one-click".
The patent process explicitly allows this though - if you design a better mousetrap than mine, or even improve on my existing design, thats a valid patent. It would be nice if Intel and AMD cooperated together. Just like when AT&T cooperated with itself on phone design. Back when it used to, you know, run everything. The really crappy thing is that the patent system used to protect _the little guy_. If I came up with a new idea for a cordless phone, and AT&T just snatched it up and ran with it, where was I then? Should of had more money! Patents used to mean protection for the smaller innovator in the face of a crowded market, not the rediculous legal bulwark system it is today.
Oh come on. "Non-obvious" doesn't mean the idea, it means the implementations. Until rediculous things like business method patents and such came along, a patent was always about _how_ you did something, not what you were doing. I can't patent "a car that flys!" but I can patent that nice anti-grav engine that makes my flying car go. So yes, its obvious we want to save power on wireless chips, but if you come up with some cool and unique way of doing it, then you get a patent so you can profit on your idea.
They're using a different technique to avoid needing line of sight or be harmful to humans (the article even mentions the microwave beaming, and how you can also use it to cook a chicken - not really something you'd want in the home powering up those speakers, is it?)
"How cute they lit a light bulb." Right. Its exactly the same because the end result is the same. That could go for pretty much any story here, right? Faster processor? "Bah, we were crunching numbers in the 50s. Whats the big deal here?"
Did you watch the video? The one you linked from doesn't have much to do with the other. One is showing a collage/scaling technology, the other is showing a browsing/organizational technology that ties in sets of photos of the same subject and merging them into the same dataset. Organizing them in 3 dimensional space is only one of the layouts, it doesn't seem to be so much about "making a model"
I would. FF has always been about the glitz, and if anyone is going to push the limits of the PS3 and HD/BluRay it will be Square. It would be hard to call any FF a "casual" game, so they've got a solid core of hardcore fans on the PS3 waiting for the next installment. Look for the PS3 version as the lead platform, with a solid port to the Wii. (Using the Wiimote might actually liven up some of the battles, and would be an easy and great way to add something to the game without redesigning it from scratch.)
"me wipes tear from my eye"
You see that? You see that you MOTHERFUCKERS? You made the cookie monster cry! Cookie Monster! For shame! Add this to the long list of Bush attrocities...not the worst, not the last, but I never thought they would go this low. Jesus...