I definitely do not have the hardware to run the actual demo (Athlon 2400+, Radeon 9100, 768 PC2700), so I watched the video. Does the actual tech demo look better than the video clip? If not, then I'm really not impressed. The water, explosion, and facial animation effects were terrible! The animation was forced and clearly artificial. Did anyone else notice the rings left by the jetski? Is that supposed to look like waves and or the wake? Not impressed.
Speaking of impulse buys based on just a character, anyone play "Mario is Missing"? My brother and I bought that at Kay-Bee Toys when I was in the fourth grade. We got it home, and played it for about five minutes before we were back in the car with my mom taking us back to the mall. Of course, they had a "We're Sorry this Game Sucks Ass, but No, You Still Cannot Return It" policy. What a major waste of my hard-earned allowance!
this simply won't work if it's targeted at 8-14 year olds
No, but it will work if it's targeted at 5-11 year olds. Never underestimate the amount of money that parents are willing to spend to make their children happy.
Personally, I enjoyed FF: The Spirits Within. Own it on DVD in fact. It's a fairly trite plot, but I like shiny things and that movie certainly had lots of them.
I don't have actual statistics (bad, I know) to back this up, but the bulk of Microsoft's, Intel's, Mitsumi's, etc. transactions are B2B. End-user, home sales (for gaming and otherwise) are small potatoes compared to site-licensing contracts with large corporations. Also, I worked at a Mac-only retailer for awhile. The owner decided to start selling games to attract more customers. Number of games sold in six months = 0. Yes, folks, the Mac gaming community is thriving. And we didn't carry things like "Backyard Baseball" and "Clifford gets Mange," no these were titles like "Halo," "Unreal Tournament," "The Sims," and "4x4 Evo." I hate to break it to you, but I think gaming is the last thing on Apple's collective mind (anyone remember the @mark?)
"Wow! It must be some hidden feature that Nintendo will release an add-on for!"
And your blender is sending "special messages" to your TV everytime you turn it on. I wonder if KitchenAid is going to release an add-on so you can watch your blending live on television?
Why Doom? WHy is that the one game people remember? If I'm not mistaken, Castle Wolfenstein was released prior to Doom (please, correct me if I'm wrong). Maybe it's just me, but I would vote for CW way ahead of Doom.
Also, Halo definitely does not deserve to be in the same category as Mario or Sonic. And where's Tetris?
I love Steam! Here's why:
1. I don't have to drive to the store, which may or may not be sold out.
2. I don't have to wait in line to pay at said store.
3. I don't have to deal with uninformed employees, "HL2? Hmmm...we have Halo 2? Is that what you were looking for?"
4. I don't have to worry about scratched CDs (some may argue that you have to worry about a crashed HD)
5. It lets me pay Valve directly and saves me $5 in the process.
6. It's easy to use.
So, no, you're not alone.
Several things that I have done: 1. Update Catalyst drivers from ATI (this might be a part of step 2) http://www.atitech.com/support/driver.html 2. Go through IGN.com's HL2 Optimization guide http://gear.ign.com/articles/554/554744p1.html?fro mint=1 3. Make sure your OS, mouse, monitor, and sound drivers are all up to date. If I'm not mistaken, there's an AMD CPU driver update for WinXP. 4. Use the following settings (Options -> Video -> Advanced)
- 800 x 600 resolution
- Model Detail - High
- Antialiasing - None
- Texture Detail - High
- Filtering Mode - Trilinear
- Water Detail - Simple Reflection
- Shader Detail - High
- Shadow Detail - High
- Wait for Vertical Sync. - Disabled 5. Turn off any tool bar helpers you're not using (i.e. Gmail Notifier, Weatherbug, Quicktime, Winamp, etc.)
Sure, it won't look as pretty as it would on a P4 3.2 Ghz w/ 1 Gig of Corsair RAM and a Radeon X800 XT (oh, and a SATA drive wouldn't hurt), but it runs just as smoothly (except for the commonly reported "hiccups" that seem to affect people across the board) as it does on most other machines. Hope this helps!
Oh, and yes, it plays HL2 beautifully. 60+ frames per second, with most of the bells and whistles turned on. The processor runs a little hot (btw, anyone know why GTA: VC, HL2, and other games would make my Athlon XP 2400+ spike to 50+ degrees? I'm using an Antec Sonata Case with a LanBoy power supply and a Zalman CNPS6000-Cu heatsink/fan combo. I dust it out regularly.), but the game runs fine.
Yep, there are those of us who still play games on "lower-end" machines. Yeah, my clanky old dust bin (Athlon 2400+, 768 MB PC2700, Radeon 9100) is a real pain to get running, what with the cranking and smoke and all, but once she gets purrin' she'll run for a solid couple hours on one tank o' diesel.
So, do you get to slowly pay down the $40,000 in student loans over the next 30 years of your Sim's life? Also, when do we get The Sims 2: Midlife Crisis and The Sims 2: The Retirement Years (but you can't really retire because your employer just went bankrupt and took your 401(k) with them)? No, I'm not middle-aged, but I think it's funny that EA is convincing millions of people that managing someone else's life is more fulfilling than managing their own.
Scary. However, it's amazing what people with actual working brains can accomplish. It seems to me that the general public thinks that their cell phones (and laptops, cameras, etc.) are invented and built by a hyper-intelligent race of space aliens whose technology we cannot begin to comprehend. In reality, this stuff is made by Bob who lives across the street and his friend Chuck. Human beings create this stuff, so the know how to do so is not beyond a large majority of the public (at least in developed nations). Really, how stupid does the governing body think people are? Okay, don't answer that question.
I somewhat agree with your comments, however, you're missing a very important point: there are very few entry-level programming jobs. No one wants a college grad with no experience to work as a software design lead, IT manager, or network system architect.
"there are plenty of jobs for people with experience and know-how"
Exactly! But what about those of us who are just starting out who have a four year CS degree and maybe one or two years of experience? You know why there are plenty of jobs for people with experience? (1)No one is willing to take a chance on a new programmer. (2)Those who have experience have jobs, that's why they have experience.
Actually, there is. Clicking in the little checkbox marked "Keep mini player on top of all other windows" will keep it on top as long as you use the mini player (which also displays what song is playing). It's under Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced tab. Activate the mini player by selecting "Mini player" from the Advanced menu or by pressing CTRL + M.
iTunes 4.7
Right, and become another AOL. See, it didn't work for AOL and it probably wouldn't work for Google.
Re:pffft ... FPS on a console
on
Halo 2 Released
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Give credit where credit is due...Microsoft does not make Halo. Bungie makes Halo. Microsoft bought Bungie. I like Bungie; I dislike Microsoft very much. Halo was nearly finished for the Macintosh http://www.macworld.com/1999/07/bc/18halo/(I believe this was going to be an exclusive Mac-only title, but I'm not sure) when Bungie was bought by Microsoft. If you want to really know where Halo got its start, you need to buy a Mac and find a copy of Marathon (not Marathon II or III), the original.
Oh, and why did they make the adapter PS/2 only? Why not USB? Can the controller ports on the Xbox not handle a conversion from USB (I would think they would be able to)?
Okay, a few problems with Firefox:
1.) some ad banners cause it to crash...hard (specifically interactive ads like Intel's new ones with the magnifying glass and Absolut Raspberry ads with the stupid color changing "confetti")
2.) http://www.ign.com/ does not load completely and just gives me broken Quictime logos.
Who else has experienced these problems and what have you done to fix them?
Slashdot Mirror
I definitely do not have the hardware to run the actual demo (Athlon 2400+, Radeon 9100, 768 PC2700), so I watched the video. Does the actual tech demo look better than the video clip? If not, then I'm really not impressed. The water, explosion, and facial animation effects were terrible! The animation was forced and clearly artificial. Did anyone else notice the rings left by the jetski? Is that supposed to look like waves and or the wake? Not impressed.
Speaking of impulse buys based on just a character, anyone play "Mario is Missing"? My brother and I bought that at Kay-Bee Toys when I was in the fourth grade. We got it home, and played it for about five minutes before we were back in the car with my mom taking us back to the mall. Of course, they had a "We're Sorry this Game Sucks Ass, but No, You Still Cannot Return It" policy. What a major waste of my hard-earned allowance!
Done.
this simply won't work if it's targeted at 8-14 year olds No, but it will work if it's targeted at 5-11 year olds. Never underestimate the amount of money that parents are willing to spend to make their children happy.
Personally, I enjoyed FF: The Spirits Within. Own it on DVD in fact. It's a fairly trite plot, but I like shiny things and that movie certainly had lots of them.
Yeah, I'm not really following you there. None of those game-to-cartoon spinoffs did a whole lot to revolutionize the cartoon industry.
I don't have actual statistics (bad, I know) to back this up, but the bulk of Microsoft's, Intel's, Mitsumi's, etc. transactions are B2B. End-user, home sales (for gaming and otherwise) are small potatoes compared to site-licensing contracts with large corporations. Also, I worked at a Mac-only retailer for awhile. The owner decided to start selling games to attract more customers. Number of games sold in six months = 0. Yes, folks, the Mac gaming community is thriving. And we didn't carry things like "Backyard Baseball" and "Clifford gets Mange," no these were titles like "Halo," "Unreal Tournament," "The Sims," and "4x4 Evo." I hate to break it to you, but I think gaming is the last thing on Apple's collective mind (anyone remember the @mark?)
"Wow! It must be some hidden feature that Nintendo will release an add-on for!" And your blender is sending "special messages" to your TV everytime you turn it on. I wonder if KitchenAid is going to release an add-on so you can watch your blending live on television?
Problem is, it's already been done. We just choose not to use it.
Even juggernauts have limited resources (not The Juggernaut http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/j/jugge rnaut.htm) He seems to be okay in the resources department.
Why Doom? WHy is that the one game people remember? If I'm not mistaken, Castle Wolfenstein was released prior to Doom (please, correct me if I'm wrong). Maybe it's just me, but I would vote for CW way ahead of Doom. Also, Halo definitely does not deserve to be in the same category as Mario or Sonic. And where's Tetris?
I love Steam! Here's why: 1. I don't have to drive to the store, which may or may not be sold out. 2. I don't have to wait in line to pay at said store. 3. I don't have to deal with uninformed employees, "HL2? Hmmm...we have Halo 2? Is that what you were looking for?" 4. I don't have to worry about scratched CDs (some may argue that you have to worry about a crashed HD) 5. It lets me pay Valve directly and saves me $5 in the process. 6. It's easy to use. So, no, you're not alone.
Several things that I have done:o mint=1
1. Update Catalyst drivers from ATI (this might be a part of step 2)
http://www.atitech.com/support/driver.html
2. Go through IGN.com's HL2 Optimization guide
http://gear.ign.com/articles/554/554744p1.html?fr
3. Make sure your OS, mouse, monitor, and sound drivers are all up to date. If I'm not mistaken, there's an AMD CPU driver update for WinXP.
4. Use the following settings (Options -> Video -> Advanced)
- 800 x 600 resolution
- Model Detail - High
- Antialiasing - None
- Texture Detail - High
- Filtering Mode - Trilinear
- Water Detail - Simple Reflection
- Shader Detail - High
- Shadow Detail - High
- Wait for Vertical Sync. - Disabled
5. Turn off any tool bar helpers you're not using (i.e. Gmail Notifier, Weatherbug, Quicktime, Winamp, etc.)
Sure, it won't look as pretty as it would on a P4 3.2 Ghz w/ 1 Gig of Corsair RAM and a Radeon X800 XT (oh, and a SATA drive wouldn't hurt), but it runs just as smoothly (except for the commonly reported "hiccups" that seem to affect people across the board) as it does on most other machines. Hope this helps!
Oh, and yes, it plays HL2 beautifully. 60+ frames per second, with most of the bells and whistles turned on. The processor runs a little hot (btw, anyone know why GTA: VC, HL2, and other games would make my Athlon XP 2400+ spike to 50+ degrees? I'm using an Antec Sonata Case with a LanBoy power supply and a Zalman CNPS6000-Cu heatsink/fan combo. I dust it out regularly.), but the game runs fine.
Yep, there are those of us who still play games on "lower-end" machines. Yeah, my clanky old dust bin (Athlon 2400+, 768 MB PC2700, Radeon 9100) is a real pain to get running, what with the cranking and smoke and all, but once she gets purrin' she'll run for a solid couple hours on one tank o' diesel.
So, do you get to slowly pay down the $40,000 in student loans over the next 30 years of your Sim's life? Also, when do we get The Sims 2: Midlife Crisis and The Sims 2: The Retirement Years (but you can't really retire because your employer just went bankrupt and took your 401(k) with them)? No, I'm not middle-aged, but I think it's funny that EA is convincing millions of people that managing someone else's life is more fulfilling than managing their own.
Scary. However, it's amazing what people with actual working brains can accomplish. It seems to me that the general public thinks that their cell phones (and laptops, cameras, etc.) are invented and built by a hyper-intelligent race of space aliens whose technology we cannot begin to comprehend. In reality, this stuff is made by Bob who lives across the street and his friend Chuck. Human beings create this stuff, so the know how to do so is not beyond a large majority of the public (at least in developed nations). Really, how stupid does the governing body think people are? Okay, don't answer that question.
All right, then, where do you live?
I somewhat agree with your comments, however, you're missing a very important point: there are very few entry-level programming jobs. No one wants a college grad with no experience to work as a software design lead, IT manager, or network system architect.
"there are plenty of jobs for people with experience and know-how"
Exactly! But what about those of us who are just starting out who have a four year CS degree and maybe one or two years of experience? You know why there are plenty of jobs for people with experience? (1)No one is willing to take a chance on a new programmer. (2)Those who have experience have jobs, that's why they have experience.
Actually, there is. Clicking in the little checkbox marked "Keep mini player on top of all other windows" will keep it on top as long as you use the mini player (which also displays what song is playing). It's under Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced tab. Activate the mini player by selecting "Mini player" from the Advanced menu or by pressing CTRL + M. iTunes 4.7
Right, and become another AOL. See, it didn't work for AOL and it probably wouldn't work for Google.
Give credit where credit is due...Microsoft does not make Halo. Bungie makes Halo. Microsoft bought Bungie. I like Bungie; I dislike Microsoft very much. Halo was nearly finished for the Macintosh http://www.macworld.com/1999/07/bc/18halo/(I believe this was going to be an exclusive Mac-only title, but I'm not sure) when Bungie was bought by Microsoft. If you want to really know where Halo got its start, you need to buy a Mac and find a copy of Marathon (not Marathon II or III), the original. Oh, and why did they make the adapter PS/2 only? Why not USB? Can the controller ports on the Xbox not handle a conversion from USB (I would think they would be able to)?
Okay, a few problems with Firefox: 1.) some ad banners cause it to crash...hard (specifically interactive ads like Intel's new ones with the magnifying glass and Absolut Raspberry ads with the stupid color changing "confetti") 2.) http://www.ign.com/ does not load completely and just gives me broken Quictime logos. Who else has experienced these problems and what have you done to fix them?
okay, here is the link: http://www.macobserver.com/gamingnews/2002/04/17.1 .shtml
Yep, here's the original announcement by Coderus. Again, it is intended for developers and not end users, but cool nonetheless