This begs the question of how important actually knowing that the characters are CG is. When I first saw some still frames of Final Flight of the Osiris, I had to be *convinced* they were CGI images. One wonders how long it would have taken me to realize the truth had I watched the full video without prior knowledge that the characters weren't actors. (Or, for that matter, what would happen if a studio with Square-quality CGI and a strange sense of humor released a major picture without letting anyone in on the secret. It worked for the Crying Game, at least for a short time after release...)
The major reason the Hulk didn't look realistic was because he was 12 feet tall, 6 feet wide, and green. That's somewhat outside the subject of this article, which is extremely realistic and accurate humans. FF:TSW or the Matrix series are a much better example here.
A lot of movies have already realized this was a problem and moved further back on the realism scale, which is one reason Gollum looked like such a caricature, and why Pixar and Dreamworks don't even try to render photorealistic humans even though they obviously could if they wanted to (at least the modeling and surface appearance).
What seems to be going on is that as you progress from "does not look like a human" to "looks like a human" you have to pass through a "looks like a human corpse" region. The image of the face is perfect, but all sorts of subtle motions and colors are simply not present, a description which also fits the recently deceased to a T. We are naturally repelled by corpses, so the same reflex is triggered.
Re:Message from the Extreme Conclusions Club
on
RIP G4 PowerMac
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
It's just as much the fault of the makers of QPS, for failing to port their product to OS X for the entire 5 years that Apple has been saying that OS 9 is a dead end.
As far as I could tell, Pitch Black didn't really have a "universe". The sci-fi setting was just an excuse to get the characters in that situation and make an interesting monster. Not that that negatively impacts the movie in any way, of course.
There's only 1 other Xbox game with a bug of this calibre that I'm aware of: The original release of Splinter Cell 2 would crash if you let it search for network games for more than 10 seconds. I'm not sure how Ubi resolved this.
However, compare this to a typical PC game launch: Numerous problem reports ranging from people with older computers complaining about poor performance, people with modern cards and outdated drivers complaining about graphical glitches, people for whom the game doesn't work at all for a variety of reasons. A PC game shipping with *one* bug is just as rare as on a console, but at the other end of the spectrum entirely.
I don't think my cats would appreciate having a laptop plopped on top of them. And an angry cat is a far worse thing to have on your lap than a hot computer.
I can see reflections right now from a can of soda, a glass plate, 2 monitors, the mouse, the individual keys on the keyboard, and the side of my computer (all of it Apple hardware, so it has that smooth plastic finish), the spines of several dozen CDs, a framed painting, and my watch. The real world is still a vastly more complex place than a game engine.
Also, FWIW, there are more advanced (and expensive) forms of ray tracing that do involve tracing rays from light sources into the environment, to simulate effects like light bouncing off mirrors.
This is also why rumor sites tend to keep careful track of promotions and discounts from Apple, believing they are efforts to clear out inventories of older models in preparation for a new product launch.
You seem to be working from two false assumptions:
Everybody pirates.
There is nothing wrong with piracy.
From this, you conclude that we should resolve conflicts and unsustainable situations by changing everything except piracy. The problem here is really point 2- piracy is not defensible, it's just rampant because there is no way to stop it.
It's likely the XSN series will not be coming back at all, as MS has finally convinced EA to make games for XBL. If they port all their sports franchises, the Xbox would be a more attractive platform for sports gamers than MS could make it alone, and they must know that.
The idea in Second Life is that what you are paying for are resources of their servers (RAM, disk space, CPU cycles) which are permanently assigned to your account. In Second Life, unlike other MMORPGs, even when you're not logged in your possessions and property are being interacted with by other players and consuming computer time.
How much you are paying (there's a tiered subscription model, as well as a single-fee "visitor" plan which doesn't let you own property) determines how much of Linden's capacity you are allowed to use up. The fact that it appears for interaction as "land" isn't really important, any more than real-life real estate cares to exactly what purpose you put the area you own (within zoning laws).
The problem with resurrecting it on Cartoon Network is that Futurama's 2D-CG hybrid style is very, very expensive to produce (at least several million per episode). CN doesn't have that kind of money; just look at most of their homegrown shows. The only thing they've done that matches Futurama's quality is the Clone Wars cartoons, and that was a single half-hour of animation and almost certainly done with Lucas's financial backing.
It's not exactly "booting", but if you take a sleeping Apple notebook and wake it up, it'll usually be ready to use before you even get the lid all the way open. Re-establishing a wireless connection takes a few seconds, but local functionality all comes back on instantly.
Slashdot Mirror
It wouldn't be the first time Apple used an external PSU either- the Cube had a power brick because it wouldn't fit in the case.
This begs the question of how important actually knowing that the characters are CG is. When I first saw some still frames of Final Flight of the Osiris, I had to be *convinced* they were CGI images. One wonders how long it would have taken me to realize the truth had I watched the full video without prior knowledge that the characters weren't actors. (Or, for that matter, what would happen if a studio with Square-quality CGI and a strange sense of humor released a major picture without letting anyone in on the secret. It worked for the Crying Game, at least for a short time after release...)
The major reason the Hulk didn't look realistic was because he was 12 feet tall, 6 feet wide, and green. That's somewhat outside the subject of this article, which is extremely realistic and accurate humans. FF:TSW or the Matrix series are a much better example here.
A lot of movies have already realized this was a problem and moved further back on the realism scale, which is one reason Gollum looked like such a caricature, and why Pixar and Dreamworks don't even try to render photorealistic humans even though they obviously could if they wanted to (at least the modeling and surface appearance).
What seems to be going on is that as you progress from "does not look like a human" to "looks like a human" you have to pass through a "looks like a human corpse" region. The image of the face is perfect, but all sorts of subtle motions and colors are simply not present, a description which also fits the recently deceased to a T. We are naturally repelled by corpses, so the same reflex is triggered.
It's just as much the fault of the makers of QPS, for failing to port their product to OS X for the entire 5 years that Apple has been saying that OS 9 is a dead end.
As far as I could tell, Pitch Black didn't really have a "universe". The sci-fi setting was just an excuse to get the characters in that situation and make an interesting monster. Not that that negatively impacts the movie in any way, of course.
Semproni?!
OUT!
I already have 2 Macs and an Xbox, and a Windows PC doesn't offer a large enough advantage over that combination.
There's only 1 other Xbox game with a bug of this calibre that I'm aware of: The original release of Splinter Cell 2 would crash if you let it search for network games for more than 10 seconds. I'm not sure how Ubi resolved this.
However, compare this to a typical PC game launch: Numerous problem reports ranging from people with older computers complaining about poor performance, people with modern cards and outdated drivers complaining about graphical glitches, people for whom the game doesn't work at all for a variety of reasons. A PC game shipping with *one* bug is just as rare as on a console, but at the other end of the spectrum entirely.
I don't think my cats would appreciate having a laptop plopped on top of them. And an angry cat is a far worse thing to have on your lap than a hot computer.
I can see reflections right now from a can of soda, a glass plate, 2 monitors, the mouse, the individual keys on the keyboard, and the side of my computer (all of it Apple hardware, so it has that smooth plastic finish), the spines of several dozen CDs, a framed painting, and my watch. The real world is still a vastly more complex place than a game engine.
Also, FWIW, there are more advanced (and expensive) forms of ray tracing that do involve tracing rays from light sources into the environment, to simulate effects like light bouncing off mirrors.
The real-time curved reflective surfaces (true reflection, not cube mapping) and displacement surfaces currently cannot be done on 3D cards.
Beyond Good and Evil.
The fruit isn't trademarked; the use of the fruit to sell computers trademarked. Using it to sell anything else will not get you sued.
This is also why rumor sites tend to keep careful track of promotions and discounts from Apple, believing they are efforts to clear out inventories of older models in preparation for a new product launch.
Even better, cover the sensor with duct tape (i.e. lock it to a completely black image). It would be playable on any device "modded" in this fashion.
I'm pretty sure that 20-25% estimate is way high.
Where did you get a 256Mbps cable modem? Typical residental lines that I've seen top out around 3 or 4Mbps.
- Everybody pirates.
- There is nothing wrong with piracy.
From this, you conclude that we should resolve conflicts and unsustainable situations by changing everything except piracy. The problem here is really point 2- piracy is not defensible, it's just rampant because there is no way to stop it.It's likely the XSN series will not be coming back at all, as MS has finally convinced EA to make games for XBL. If they port all their sports franchises, the Xbox would be a more attractive platform for sports gamers than MS could make it alone, and they must know that.
The idea in Second Life is that what you are paying for are resources of their servers (RAM, disk space, CPU cycles) which are permanently assigned to your account. In Second Life, unlike other MMORPGs, even when you're not logged in your possessions and property are being interacted with by other players and consuming computer time.
How much you are paying (there's a tiered subscription model, as well as a single-fee "visitor" plan which doesn't let you own property) determines how much of Linden's capacity you are allowed to use up. The fact that it appears for interaction as "land" isn't really important, any more than real-life real estate cares to exactly what purpose you put the area you own (within zoning laws).
The problem with resurrecting it on Cartoon Network is that Futurama's 2D-CG hybrid style is very, very expensive to produce (at least several million per episode). CN doesn't have that kind of money; just look at most of their homegrown shows. The only thing they've done that matches Futurama's quality is the Clone Wars cartoons, and that was a single half-hour of animation and almost certainly done with Lucas's financial backing.
Even better- if you step through the dream on a DVD player, there really is a single 2 in there.
It's not exactly "booting", but if you take a sleeping Apple notebook and wake it up, it'll usually be ready to use before you even get the lid all the way open. Re-establishing a wireless connection takes a few seconds, but local functionality all comes back on instantly.