How did this game ever reach the shelves though? In November 1998 the game was a year behind schedule and eight key team members, dubbed the "Ion Eight", walked out on the company. Surely that should have sent alarm bells ringing at Eidos that all was not well in the glass tower. I wouldn't advocate firing the personnel, instead why not take the talent and put them to work on other projects. After all, Ion Storm was also working on (in separate offices) Deus Ex and Anachronox. The fact that Daikatana was finished despite all the problems is a credit to John Romero's passion and drive for the project and I personally would like to see him return as a lead designer for PC games.
Finally though let us talk a bit about one of the most long awaited games ever, Duke Nukem Forever. As the saying goes, he who does not understand history is doomed to repeat it. And Duke Nukem looks a lot like Daikatana from where I sit. It has suffered huge delays. It has an ambitious design, probably unrealisable. It has a following whose hopes are so high that it could not possibly meet the expectation. Evidence of this point can be seen looking over the forums at 3D Realms website where one blind worshipper believed that once released Duke Nukem might destroy the games industry by raising the standard beyond everyone else. Has this fool been living in a dream world, has he not played some of the amazing games that have come out in the five years that Duke has been in development? Ironically 3D Realms made the decision way back in 1998 to switch to the Unreal engine to save time! How many other Unreal-powered games have been released since then?
I'm going to go further than 3D Realms are prepared to, and make an educated guess that it will be out by the end of the second quarter of 2003 or it will never see the light of day at all. How have I reached this conclusion? Well, given that the 3D Realms website contains no new information for that past two years about the game (and the movie/screenshots no longer cut the mustard) I base it on two premises. One, if it was going to be released for this Christmas we would have heard something, anything, about it by now. Two, if it is not out by the end of the second quarter 2003 then Doom 3 will be all too nigh on the horizon. And if the brief history of computer games has told us one thing it's that nobody can beat John Carmack on his own turf.
I would like to believe that Duke Nukem Forever, or the next Tomb Raider, will be great. That they'll make me eat my words. But when these games come out, all I'll be able to think about is how great Outcast 2 or Babylon 5 might have been. I suppose I have the better of the two worlds in this instance. In mine I can pretend that Outcast 2 was a monumental epic game that rivalled all before it. In Duke's, the game as always, will have the final say and all the hype and expectation will only add salt to the wound.
Now I've had my say, I'd like to hear your thoughts. What do you think of those pulling the strings in the games industry, are they making the right choices and the right games? What about Duke Nukem Forever, a destined failure, or potential ground-breaker 3D Realms suggest. Use the comments form below to vocalise and discuss.
Albert Brooks : "Nemo's father" Alexander Gould : "Nemo" Ellen DeGeneres : "Dory" Willem Dafoe : "Gill" Geoffrey Rush : Nigel the pelican Barry Humphreys : vegetarian great white shark
This technology is great for displaying text (and pictures of butterflies) but it is very bad for games.
Look at the description of how it works. The colour is determined by the distance between glass layer and the metal plate. Big gap = red. Small gap = blue.
This is fine for static images, but it means that it takes 5 times as long for a red pixel to change state as it does a blue one.
When you have a quickly moving image, the result in severe ghosting for red objects. White objects will leave a rainbow trail - red at the far end, blue near the object. Blue objects are relatively unaffected.
If you do use this for playing Quake 3, just make sure you're on the blue team.
Tomorrow we'll see a 'review' of the game based on this. We'll learn about all the expensive hardware upgrades we'll need (new processor, new video card, new box of kleenex), be treated to a 12 year old's insight into the mind of Mr Carmack, and be stunned by the fact that the AI sucks and the coloured lights are kind of pretty,
Say EchoStar carries 'Friends' and Hughes carries 'Who wants to be a millionaire'.
If they merge then I get both my favourite shows from 1 company; this is much easier for the TV viewer, they get more choice and it is probably cheaper too.
You would need to make sure that the 2 cables are exactly the same length. If they aren't then you'll run into two problems.
1) The obvious one; the signals will not arrive at the host computers or the disk at the same time. When the signal is going from the disk to the PC, this may not be a problem. When the signal is going from the PCs to the disk it is. If the difference introduces a delay of more than the time it takes to write 1 byte, then that information will be smeared across 2 bytes on the disk.
If you're saving pictures this will result in a blurred image (This is Joke! It will actually corrupt all files)
2) Less obvious, if the cables are different lengths then the signals may interfere when they meet at the controller. If a peak in the signal interferes with a trough in the other, then this will also result in incorrect data being written to the disk.
It would be similar to saying that you have to register -- and pay a fee -- simply because you wanted to have a yardsale
Not very similar; it is a matter of perception. With a yardsale is is painfully obvious to the buyer that this is an informal transaction between two individuals.
However, online, the buyer only has the website to go by. It is easy to create a very professional looking website but behind the scenes still be selling junk.
We need a... single language designed from the start to do things at a high level by default, but that let's you drill down to C-level where needed
Why do we need a single language to do this? You can build a large project using a number of languages right now. In fact, I suspect most projects use more than language.
If you have a single language that can be used for both high and low level stuff then it will either be crippled at one or both of these tasks by the demands placed on it by the other(s). Or it will be so fragmented that you might as well be learning more than one language anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
Because of the timezones, it still is Halloween where I am.
You can get it here. I shall try it now and then you'll have found 1 other person that has played it.
You hate me because pounds are a unit of force?
I respect your opinion, but I humbly submit that your logic - in this case - is slightly warped. Pounds being a unit of force wasn't my idea. Honest.
Why do games and their developers fail?
All Images
How did this game ever reach the shelves though? In November 1998 the game was a year behind schedule and eight key team members, dubbed the "Ion Eight", walked out on the company. Surely that should have sent alarm bells ringing at Eidos that all was not well in the glass tower. I wouldn't advocate firing the personnel, instead why not take the talent and put them to work on other projects. After all, Ion Storm was also working on (in separate offices) Deus Ex and Anachronox. The fact that Daikatana was finished despite all the problems is a credit to John Romero's passion and drive for the project and I personally would like to see him return as a lead designer for PC games.
Finally though let us talk a bit about one of the most long awaited games ever, Duke Nukem Forever. As the saying goes, he who does not understand history is doomed to repeat it. And Duke Nukem looks a lot like Daikatana from where I sit. It has suffered huge delays. It has an ambitious design, probably unrealisable. It has a following whose hopes are so high that it could not possibly meet the expectation. Evidence of this point can be seen looking over the forums at 3D Realms website where one blind worshipper believed that once released Duke Nukem might destroy the games industry by raising the standard beyond everyone else. Has this fool been living in a dream world, has he not played some of the amazing games that have come out in the five years that Duke has been in development? Ironically 3D Realms made the decision way back in 1998 to switch to the Unreal engine to save time! How many other Unreal-powered games have been released since then?
I'm going to go further than 3D Realms are prepared to, and make an educated guess that it will be out by the end of the second quarter of 2003 or it will never see the light of day at all. How have I reached this conclusion? Well, given that the 3D Realms website contains no new information for that past two years about the game (and the movie/screenshots no longer cut the mustard) I base it on two premises. One, if it was going to be released for this Christmas we would have heard something, anything, about it by now. Two, if it is not out by the end of the second quarter 2003 then Doom 3 will be all too nigh on the horizon. And if the brief history of computer games has told us one thing it's that nobody can beat John Carmack on his own turf.
I would like to believe that Duke Nukem Forever, or the next Tomb Raider, will be great. That they'll make me eat my words. But when these games come out, all I'll be able to think about is how great Outcast 2 or Babylon 5 might have been. I suppose I have the better of the two worlds in this instance. In mine I can pretend that Outcast 2 was a monumental epic game that rivalled all before it. In Duke's, the game as always, will have the final say and all the hype and expectation will only add salt to the wound.
Now I've had my say, I'd like to hear your thoughts. What do you think of those pulling the strings in the games industry, are they making the right choices and the right games? What about Duke Nukem Forever, a destined failure, or potential ground-breaker 3D Realms suggest. Use the comments form below to vocalise and discuss.
200,000 pounds? Nonsense - it is in space, therefore it is weightless.
Albert Brooks : "Nemo's father"
Alexander Gould : "Nemo"
Ellen DeGeneres : "Dory"
Willem Dafoe : "Gill"
Geoffrey Rush : Nigel the pelican
Barry Humphreys : vegetarian great white shark
This paper describes ways of doing the lighting underwater.
Anyone know how much this advances computer animation?
The under-water environment looks extremely well done; the colours, refraction, fading etc. look very realistic.
Have these been done before, or has Pixar invented lots of new stuff again?
It wasn't spelt 'incorrectly' it was spelt 'discretely'.
Ghost is a trademark of Paramount Pictures
You should do a trademark search at the patent and trademark office before releasing infringing software.
This technology is great for displaying text (and pictures of butterflies) but it is very bad for games.
Look at the description of how it works. The colour is determined by the distance between glass layer and the metal plate. Big gap = red. Small gap = blue.
This is fine for static images, but it means that it takes 5 times as long for a red pixel to change state as it does a blue one.
When you have a quickly moving image, the result in severe ghosting for red objects. White objects will leave a rainbow trail - red at the far end, blue near the object. Blue objects are relatively unaffected.
If you do use this for playing Quake 3, just make sure you're on the blue team.
Tomorrow we'll see a 'review' of the game based on this. We'll learn about all the expensive hardware upgrades we'll need (new processor, new video card, new box of kleenex), be treated to a 12 year old's insight into the mind of Mr Carmack, and be stunned by the fact that the AI sucks and the coloured lights are kind of pretty,
Surely a merger is good for consumers?
Say EchoStar carries 'Friends' and Hughes carries 'Who wants to be a millionaire'.
If they merge then I get both my favourite shows from 1 company; this is much easier for the TV viewer, they get more choice and it is probably cheaper too.
You would need to make sure that the 2 cables are exactly the same length. If they aren't then you'll run into two problems.
1) The obvious one; the signals will not arrive at the host computers or the disk at the same time. When the signal is going from the disk to the PC, this may not be a problem. When the signal is going from the PCs to the disk it is. If the difference introduces a delay of more than the time it takes to write 1 byte, then that information will be smeared across 2 bytes on the disk.
If you're saving pictures this will result in a blurred image (This is Joke! It will actually corrupt all files)
2) Less obvious, if the cables are different lengths then the signals may interfere when they meet at the controller. If a peak in the signal interferes with a trough in the other, then this will also result in incorrect data being written to the disk.
you break from Unix security flaws like: ....
... I can't do anything with my computer; and even if I could there's nothing I could do it to.
- The existence of a filesystem
- Having any individual have much real authority over the system
That sounds really bloody useful
If you don't mind, I'm off to assert my authority over some files now ( TieMeUp.Jpg doesn't know what is has coming!)
Are there any robots in Stargate? SciFi is only good when there's robots.
You want your alarm system to be visible; make the badguys think twice about breaking in.
If the alarm system consists of a toy; then the burglers are going to break in, trash the joint, then get shot when the cops turn up.
Blood is really hard to get out of shagpile!
Thank you, that makes sense.
but I bet it still manages to fuck up daylight savings time.
It's all very well the drive being able to read the data. Where do I get the 1100 filesystems needed to interpret it?
Are astronomers ever going to stop caring about new satellites? If so, when?
It is obvious that there is all sorts of stuff floating around the solar system, some of which is in orbit around other non-solar objects.
Does knowledge about a 21st moon of a remote planet really increase our understanding of anything?
It would be similar to saying that you have to register -- and pay a fee -- simply because you wanted to have a yardsale
Not very similar; it is a matter of perception. With a yardsale is is painfully obvious to the buyer that this is an informal transaction between two individuals.
However, online, the buyer only has the website to go by. It is easy to create a very professional looking website but behind the scenes still be selling junk.
Businesses have to register all over the world so that consumers' rights can be protected and taxes can be collected.
Why do Spanish commercial website owners feel that they are different?
you can't put it up to your ear
I bet you can.
We need a ... single language designed from the start to do things at a high level by default, but that let's you drill down to C-level where needed
Why do we need a single language to do this? You can build a large project using a number of languages right now. In fact, I suspect most projects use more than language.
If you have a single language that can be used for both high and low level stuff then it will either be crippled at one or both of these tasks by the demands placed on it by the other(s). Or it will be so fragmented that you might as well be learning more than one language anyway.