Standard Waterfall for a clearly set goal with specific purpose and function, unlikely to evolve, well known and specified.
Agile if you don't really know where you're going, trying various approaches to see which works, soft metrics like "it should be fun".
Cleanroom for short code for known and unchangeable specification, where bugs are not acceptable.
Waterfall is good for business apps. Cleanroom is great for embedded and mission-critical. Agile feels just like the right thing for gaming and entertainment.
Imagine writing a game like Zelda or Final Fantasy using Cleanroom methodology. I can't. Programming as art will produce awesome results, programming as science will get you nowhere. Now imagine a GSM base station programmed with each developer contributing some feature, and iteratively trying to get the job done more bug-free and more standard-compliant than the previous version...
The problem is in "Mongolian Clusterfuck" methodology, called "Agile" by managers who think "Mongolian Clusterfuck" isn't catchy enough.
Agile sets short reachable targets, and reiterates and modifies them upon reaching them. The cycle is 2-4 weeks.
Mongolian Clusterfuck is similar, but the cycle is 2-4 hours and the targets that haven't been reached are abandonned half-finished.
Agile has specs that accept modifications when the customer requests them. Mongolian Clusterfuck has specs that change every time your boss stops by.
Agile has daily meetings of what problems to solve and how. Mongolian Clusterfuck is "this is broken, leave whatever you're doing and fix it now."
Agile has one clear set of goals of a golden middle between performance, stability, portability, cost, time and maintainablity. Mongolian Clusterfuck has two. Simultaneously.
Game development is exceptionally prone to Mongolian Clusterfuck methodology. And then people who never knew Agile think it sucks bad.
Anonymous has not once outed one of their own to FBI for CP or such, finding that very entertaining. They are very pro-darwinian: if one who gets caught, it means he hadn't deserved to be one of them. Unless he fell on the line of duty; then he will be honored.
Did you think the arrest after publishing Palin's emails stopped anyone there?...actually, a new attack is in the works. Keep an ear open for news from Australia on 10th.
I'm not so sure. Call of Pripyat has health regen (which IS a an upgrade, but dirt cheap). It doesn't get in the way of gameplay and provides value comparable to the price: a Fifteen minutes to get from ~zero to max doesn't change results of battles and encounters.
Is rotating the images manually based on text so much view? In irfanview: [r][r][s][enter] Or are your clerks too stupid to recognize rotated text and need software to recognize it for them?
I dislike when games notch up only one factor with difficulty.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: CoP being a notorious guilty: enemy accuracy. I can still step into anomalies (they hurt more but still one medikit later I'm as good as new, and medikits are as dirt cheap as on "beginner"), I can shoot mutants just the same as before, I have 1 minute instead of 5 to hide from blowout what means I can't cross the whole map and finish the current mission at my leisure, but must run to one of few nearby hideouts within range. Artifacts are as common, as powerful and as expensive as usually. You get the same falling damage and radiation does the same zilch damage as usually. But enemies start getting uncanny headshots and you fall after 2 headshots from mostly any weapon, including automatic. Which means battles against humans ridiculously hard. But they are rare, few inbetween and easily avoidable, except maybe one. Some can be done with sniper gun which puts you safely away from danger. Some can be ended in one precise shot from rocket launcher....and so on.
They could have at least made bandits hostile by default on higher difficulties. You see a group of stalkers fight a group of bandits, and you loot the corpses of both sides while the last of each side finish each other up.
The difference is like complete ban on guns vs stashing your gun out of reach of children.
Ubuntu comes with apt built in, all you need is to open the terminal and type away. The big, friendly, easy app installer doesn't prevent you from doing it in any way.
The device I want differs maybe by 10% of significant details from what is already on the market. They are essential, they are showstoppers. I can change another 30% because they don't matter. But another 60% must stay or the device will be broken, useless. So I go into business and make a device that is 60% identical to $KNOWN_BRAND and 40% original, with 10% really revolutionary. Then $KNOWN_BRAND sues me to hell for violating their patents on that 60% of the device, force me to stop production and drive me out of business.
Still, if you modify your coffee maker so that it allows for any pre-ground coffee instead of only accepting dedicated inserts from the manufacturer, you won't get sued for circumventing protection devices, violating copyrights and AUP, and get thrown in jail for using wrong kind of coffee.
I'd say fuck it, let Apple lock it, and let people unlock it and enjoy. But Apple isn't satisfied with hardware sales revenue, it fights tooth and nail not to let you own what you bought from them, and wrench any control you might get from your hands.
There are the following factors: laziness vs boredom: save energy when not required, but don't waste it on overhead of inactivity if profit is achievable by reasonably low increase. curiosity vs caution: obtain new data deemed valuable, at reasonable cost/risk. The caveat is the value function, which must consider potential usefulness of the data, its availability and uniqueness.
You're missing the difference between running/emulating/duplicating and simulation.
You don't need to simulate every quark of every atom of a car body to have a reasonable car simulator game. You use a simplified model that approximates the reality to a degree that is defined in requirements of the project.
...when my connection is down. When I have the net, I usually surf the net. My connection isn't very good. I get outages once-twice a week. This is when I launch a game. I have the content offline, and I don't need the connection to enjoy it.
I'm not concerned with Ubisoft's move. I'll just make sure never to buy their originals. I'm pretty sure the cracks will remove the necessity for network connection. OTOH, I will keep purchasing games that don't require network connection to run.
In Wayne's Word, Wayne plays one generic riff. Instead of one specific riff from Stairway to Heaven, with the big sign "No playing 'Stairway to Heaven'" in the guitar store. Yep, the 8 or so notes were too much of a copyright issue and had to be scrapped.
Head-mounted - yes, that's essential. There is definitely no need for 1600x1200, netbook's 1024x600 x 2 eyes would be quite sufficient. This is not to replace desktop and home cinema, just to supplement it. As for input, fuck voice. Attach two small cameras on the sides, with most image captured in front for augmented reality feature, but add two tiny mirrors to sacrifice a small slice of the CCD for eyeball tracking. Fingers only for "clicking". Voice could be used instead of keyboard but it isn't nearly as essential - I think input interfaces like Dasher in connection with eyeball tracking could be faster and easier to use than voice.
Oh, and screw heavy helmets. Keep the glasses light and give them a wireless connection to a small brick you can carry in your pocket on on your belt, with decent CPU and battery. And possibly glasses compartment.
One more viable option in the age of fast wireless: give the glasses a thin client capacity over GSM to your home server. This way you carry only the I/O devices and a really simple (and power-efficient) CPU device.
No, we just make mistakes writing our Perl programs for automatic downloading stuff from MSDN. Like, download() unless success, and forget to set success=true;
Spirit is pretty much dead. It won't move, at best it may just serve as observation station.
But goddamnit, I'm impressed with Opportunity and NASA's ambition. In August 2008 they decided "We know Victoria well enough. So what's the next big step? Let's play it BIG. Endeavour crater. 22 kilometers diameter. 12 kilometers away. How long will it take? Oh, at current speed, some two years. Because maintaining current speed is an optimistic assumption, realistically some 4 years. So let's do it."
Currently Opportunity is about halfway to Endeavour and going strong. We should hear of it again in about 2 years when it gets there.
The original mission was planned for only 90 days. But NASA learned to think bigger:)
Slashdot Mirror
Right methodology for right use.
Standard Waterfall for a clearly set goal with specific purpose and function, unlikely to evolve, well known and specified.
Agile if you don't really know where you're going, trying various approaches to see which works, soft metrics like "it should be fun".
Cleanroom for short code for known and unchangeable specification, where bugs are not acceptable.
Waterfall is good for business apps. Cleanroom is great for embedded and mission-critical. Agile feels just like the right thing for gaming and entertainment.
Imagine writing a game like Zelda or Final Fantasy using Cleanroom methodology. I can't. Programming as art will produce awesome results, programming as science will get you nowhere. Now imagine a GSM base station programmed with each developer contributing some feature, and iteratively trying to get the job done more bug-free and more standard-compliant than the previous version...
The problem is not in "Agile" methodology.
The problem is in "Mongolian Clusterfuck" methodology, called "Agile" by managers who think "Mongolian Clusterfuck" isn't catchy enough.
Agile sets short reachable targets, and reiterates and modifies them upon reaching them. The cycle is 2-4 weeks.
Mongolian Clusterfuck is similar, but the cycle is 2-4 hours and the targets that haven't been reached are abandonned half-finished.
Agile has specs that accept modifications when the customer requests them. Mongolian Clusterfuck has specs that change every time your boss stops by.
Agile has daily meetings of what problems to solve and how. Mongolian Clusterfuck is "this is broken, leave whatever you're doing and fix it now."
Agile has one clear set of goals of a golden middle between performance, stability, portability, cost, time and maintainablity. Mongolian Clusterfuck has two. Simultaneously.
Game development is exceptionally prone to Mongolian Clusterfuck methodology. And then people who never knew Agile think it sucks bad.
are you kidding?
Anonymous has not once outed one of their own to FBI for CP or such, finding that very entertaining.
They are very pro-darwinian: if one who gets caught, it means he hadn't deserved to be one of them. Unless he fell on the line of duty; then he will be honored.
Did you think the arrest after publishing Palin's emails stopped anyone there? ...actually, a new attack is in the works. Keep an ear open for news from Australia on 10th.
...or 30s per setting up batch convert job using the same program?
I'm not so sure. Call of Pripyat has health regen (which IS a an upgrade, but dirt cheap). It doesn't get in the way of gameplay and provides value comparable to the price: a Fifteen minutes to get from ~zero to max doesn't change results of battles and encounters.
Is rotating the images manually based on text so much view?
In irfanview: [r][r][s][enter]
Or are your clerks too stupid to recognize rotated text and need software to recognize it for them?
I dislike when games notch up only one factor with difficulty.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: CoP being a notorious guilty: enemy accuracy. I can still step into anomalies (they hurt more but still one medikit later I'm as good as new, and medikits are as dirt cheap as on "beginner"), I can shoot mutants just the same as before, I have 1 minute instead of 5 to hide from blowout what means I can't cross the whole map and finish the current mission at my leisure, but must run to one of few nearby hideouts within range. Artifacts are as common, as powerful and as expensive as usually. You get the same falling damage and radiation does the same zilch damage as usually. But enemies start getting uncanny headshots and you fall after 2 headshots from mostly any weapon, including automatic. Which means battles against humans ridiculously hard. But they are rare, few inbetween and easily avoidable, except maybe one. Some can be done with sniper gun which puts you safely away from danger. Some can be ended in one precise shot from rocket launcher. ...and so on.
They could have at least made bandits hostile by default on higher difficulties. You see a group of stalkers fight a group of bandits, and you loot the corpses of both sides while the last of each side finish each other up.
Children of Dune was slow but acceptable.
God Emperor really could have been summed up in one chapter.
Well, I would pick getting stabbed with the .22
It's really poor as a hand to hand weapon, and not much better as projectile one.
Defenses
I like how Slashdot renders that headline.
Guess why G1 had no multitouch.
HTC offered Apple a lot of money for license on the patent. Aple said "no".
The difference is like complete ban on guns vs stashing your gun out of reach of children.
Ubuntu comes with apt built in, all you need is to open the terminal and type away. The big, friendly, easy app installer doesn't prevent you from doing it in any way.
The device I want differs maybe by 10% of significant details from what is already on the market. They are essential, they are showstoppers. I can change another 30% because they don't matter. But another 60% must stay or the device will be broken, useless.
So I go into business and make a device that is 60% identical to $KNOWN_BRAND and 40% original, with 10% really revolutionary. Then $KNOWN_BRAND sues me to hell for violating their patents on that 60% of the device, force me to stop production and drive me out of business.
Wake up, please.
Still, if you modify your coffee maker so that it allows for any pre-ground coffee instead of only accepting dedicated inserts from the manufacturer, you won't get sued for circumventing protection devices, violating copyrights and AUP, and get thrown in jail for using wrong kind of coffee.
I'd say fuck it, let Apple lock it, and let people unlock it and enjoy. But Apple isn't satisfied with hardware sales revenue, it fights tooth and nail not to let you own what you bought from them, and wrench any control you might get from your hands.
Not only.
There are the following factors:
laziness vs boredom: save energy when not required, but don't waste it on overhead of inactivity if profit is achievable by reasonably low increase.
curiosity vs caution: obtain new data deemed valuable, at reasonable cost/risk. The caveat is the value function, which must consider potential usefulness of the data, its availability and uniqueness.
You're missing the difference between running/emulating/duplicating and simulation.
You don't need to simulate every quark of every atom of a car body to have a reasonable car simulator game. You use a simplified model that approximates the reality to a degree that is defined in requirements of the project.
I demand the right to vote for all 5000 of my stick figure characters!
Remember when Amiga died in large part due to piracy, and all the gaming moved to PC?
Do you believe consoles won't become the next piracy wars platform once PC is out of the equation?
...when my connection is down.
When I have the net, I usually surf the net. My connection isn't very good. I get outages once-twice a week. This is when I launch a game. I have the content offline, and I don't need the connection to enjoy it.
I'm not concerned with Ubisoft's move. I'll just make sure never to buy their originals. I'm pretty sure the cracks will remove the necessity for network connection. OTOH, I will keep purchasing games that don't require network connection to run.
Eighty.
Eighty thousands, as another case shows.
In Wayne's Word, Wayne plays one generic riff. Instead of one specific riff from Stairway to Heaven, with the big sign "No playing 'Stairway to Heaven'" in the guitar store.
Yep, the 8 or so notes were too much of a copyright issue and had to be scrapped.
Head-mounted - yes, that's essential.
There is definitely no need for 1600x1200, netbook's 1024x600 x 2 eyes would be quite sufficient. This is not to replace desktop and home cinema, just to supplement it.
As for input, fuck voice. Attach two small cameras on the sides, with most image captured in front for augmented reality feature, but add two tiny mirrors to sacrifice a small slice of the CCD for eyeball tracking. Fingers only for "clicking". Voice could be used instead of keyboard but it isn't nearly as essential - I think input interfaces like Dasher in connection with eyeball tracking could be faster and easier to use than voice.
Oh, and screw heavy helmets. Keep the glasses light and give them a wireless connection to a small brick you can carry in your pocket on on your belt, with decent CPU and battery. And possibly glasses compartment.
One more viable option in the age of fast wireless: give the glasses a thin client capacity over GSM to your home server. This way you carry only the I/O devices and a really simple (and power-efficient) CPU device.
4,000 screens for population of China.
1,3bln / 4000 = 1 screen per about 330,000 people.
slashdotters should realize how limited the resource is.
No, we just make mistakes writing our Perl programs for automatic downloading stuff from MSDN. Like, download() unless success, and forget to set success=true;
Spirit is pretty much dead. It won't move, at best it may just serve as observation station.
But goddamnit, I'm impressed with Opportunity and NASA's ambition.
In August 2008 they decided "We know Victoria well enough. So what's the next big step? Let's play it BIG. Endeavour crater. 22 kilometers diameter. 12 kilometers away. How long will it take? Oh, at current speed, some two years. Because maintaining current speed is an optimistic assumption, realistically some 4 years. So let's do it."
Currently Opportunity is about halfway to Endeavour and going strong. We should hear of it again in about 2 years when it gets there.
The original mission was planned for only 90 days. But NASA learned to think bigger :)