I was in the Rideau Centre, a large shopping mall in downtown Ottawa. Everyone's first thought that the new convention centre, which under construction and attached to the mall, had suffered some kind of construction mishap and was falling down, maybe bringing the rest of the building with it.
The shaking wasn't too intense, but it was strong enough to make everyone think that leaving the building would be a very good idea. The mall was quite busy but to everyone's credit, there was no panic; just sort of a general consensus that we'd all better head outside ASAP until we know what's going on.
I know it was a relatively weak earthquake, but when you're in a big building and you see everything moving back and forth, getting out of there until you've had time to assess the situation seems like a pretty reasonable thing to do.
Actually, it used to be Revenue Canada. Then they combined it with Canada Customs to form the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA). Then they realized it didn't make much sense, and they were once again separated, so now we have the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
The ROTT engine initially started out as the Wolf3D engine. The Wolf3D engine was a REAL mode engine rather than a PROTECTED mode engine like Doom. My first task was to rewrite the engine so that it was a PROTECTED mode engine. Once this was done, ROTT could take advantage of linear memory and access to high memory without using EMS or XMS (remember those?) Wolf3D also generated all the code necessary in memory to scale a 64 high textured line from 1 pixel to the maximum scaled size which was about 300-400. This took up a bit of memory, and while it was an amazing innovation for 286's (it allowed WOLF3D to be as fast as it was) it didn't make a lot of sense for the 486. I took that stuff out and then had to convert the renderer from 286 assembly to protected mode assembly. John Carmack gave me a little piece of code which turned out to be the assembly inner loop for Doom. ROTT, it turns out uses the same scaling routines as found in Doom (who would have thought). Apogee also signed a deal with id that would allow us to put floor and ceiling code in ROTT. Once this was done the game really took on a whole new look.
The conversion from REAL mode to PROTECTED mode required a complete rewrite of almost every subsystem in Wolf3D which in the end made the ROTT engine VERY different from the Wolf3D engine. One of the subsystems which had to be re-written was the sound system. That is where Jim Dose came in. He wrote an amazing sound system outside of Apogee/3D Realms that would later be used in all of Apogee's products. Once he was near completion he was brought on to the ROTT team and helped finish up the game (he created RANDROTT among other things).
After the initial hard stuff was completed the ROTT engine turned more and more into a bastard child as features were added like room over room and transparency which were clearly never intended for an engine like ROTT's. The finished product is by no means an engineering marvel but had a certain charm to it.
Here are some of the things that are in the ROTT engine:
Multi level orthogonally based levels. Room over room (sort of). Transparency. Textured Floors and Ceilings. Dynamic Lighting. FLIC support (although we never had any in the game). CINEMATIC engine (also never used. The ending sequence is scripted but doesn't utilize the cool shit developed before hand). 11 player network support. Masked Walls (Textures with holes in them). Moving Walls. Stairs (sort of).
That's great, if you can RTFM and understand what it's trying to tell you.
The problem is, some people don't understand how to edit configuration files. I think Mandrake ends up being easier for people who have never been exposed to anything other than a Windows GUI.
If you manage to jam a GeforceFX into a PCI slot, good luck getting it working.:)
It takes up the AGP slot that it goes in, and uses the space of one of your PCI slots. So you lose one PCI slot, which sucks, but for most users it isn't an issue.
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I was in the Rideau Centre, a large shopping mall in downtown Ottawa. Everyone's first thought that the new convention centre, which under construction and attached to the mall, had suffered some kind of construction mishap and was falling down, maybe bringing the rest of the building with it. The shaking wasn't too intense, but it was strong enough to make everyone think that leaving the building would be a very good idea. The mall was quite busy but to everyone's credit, there was no panic; just sort of a general consensus that we'd all better head outside ASAP until we know what's going on. I know it was a relatively weak earthquake, but when you're in a big building and you see everything moving back and forth, getting out of there until you've had time to assess the situation seems like a pretty reasonable thing to do.
at least the Democrats don't have to worry about hearing the words "Senator Palin".
...unless she appoints her husband.
Actually, it used to be Revenue Canada. Then they combined it with Canada Customs to form the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA). Then they realized it didn't make much sense, and they were once again separated, so now we have the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
It's called Icefire. It's a techno-thriller. I picked it up not knowing what to expect, and ended up being pleasantly surprised.
/ qid=1104358254/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/701-9027329-3 461903
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671014021
Actually, in the case of an ASROC (anti-submarine rocket), that's exactly how it works. It's basically a missile with a torpedo attached to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASROC
Just north of Toronto, Aurora Cable is offering 9Mbps for $45 a month. Not a bad deal at all. :)
http://www.aci.on.ca
from http://www.classicgaming.com/rott/hell/
The ROTT engine initially started out as the Wolf3D engine. The Wolf3D engine was a REAL mode engine rather than a PROTECTED mode engine like Doom. My first task was to rewrite the engine so that it was a PROTECTED mode engine. Once this was done, ROTT could take advantage of linear memory and access to high memory without using EMS or XMS (remember those?) Wolf3D also generated all the code necessary in memory to scale a 64 high textured line from 1 pixel to the maximum scaled size which was about 300-400. This took up a bit of memory, and while it was an amazing innovation for 286's (it allowed WOLF3D to be as fast as it was) it didn't make a lot of sense for the 486. I took that stuff out and then had to convert the renderer from 286 assembly to protected mode assembly. John Carmack gave me a little piece of code which turned out to be the assembly inner loop for Doom. ROTT, it turns out uses the same scaling routines as found in Doom (who would have thought). Apogee also signed a deal with id that would allow us to put floor and ceiling code in ROTT. Once this was done the game really took on a whole new look.
The conversion from REAL mode to PROTECTED mode required a complete rewrite of almost every subsystem in Wolf3D which in the end made the ROTT engine VERY different from the Wolf3D engine. One of the subsystems which had to be re-written was the sound system. That is where Jim Dose came in. He wrote an amazing sound system outside of Apogee/3D Realms that would later be used in all of Apogee's products. Once he was near completion he was brought on to the ROTT team and helped finish up the game (he created RANDROTT among other things).
After the initial hard stuff was completed the ROTT engine turned more and more into a bastard child as features were added like room over room and transparency which were clearly never intended for an engine like ROTT's. The finished product is by no means an engineering marvel but had a certain charm to it.
Here are some of the things that are in the ROTT engine:
Multi level orthogonally based levels.
Room over room (sort of).
Transparency.
Textured Floors and Ceilings.
Dynamic Lighting.
FLIC support (although we never had any in the game).
CINEMATIC engine (also never used. The ending sequence is scripted but doesn't utilize the cool shit developed before hand).
11 player network support.
Masked Walls (Textures with holes in them).
Moving Walls.
Stairs (sort of).
That's great, if you can RTFM and understand what it's trying to tell you. The problem is, some people don't understand how to edit configuration files. I think Mandrake ends up being easier for people who have never been exposed to anything other than a Windows GUI.
If you manage to jam a GeforceFX into a PCI slot, good luck getting it working. :)
It takes up the AGP slot that it goes in, and uses the space of one of your PCI slots. So you lose one PCI slot, which sucks, but for most users it isn't an issue.
Fact: *BSD is dying Fact: So is this joke.