Does anyone know what the function of the X/Y/Z drives are in the xbox?
If you said disk cache/swap space you'd be correct. Not all of the 10GB on the default xbox HDD is available to the user. Without looking at exact figures you cough up about a 1GB to the C drive for OS related stuff and about 1.5GB to the X/Y/Z drives. The default user drive is ~5GB for saves and whatever else an unmodded xbox holds there. Then there is 2GB of unformatted space (unformatted due to the original HDD size of the xbox being 8GB).
I'm not entirely sure why they'd want to deny developers the use of swap space. The only reasons I can think of from their standpoint is that they want to get people to pay extra money. It's ridiculous to think they are doing this for cost cutting reasons because buying the amount of HDDs in bulk a Sony or Microsoft is going to buy they're probably able to get 20GB HDDs for $5-10 per unit. The high price points on these boxes is probably due to paying IBM/ATI/NVIDIA's R&D fees more than anything else. Making prototypes and molds is what costs money not fabrication in existing assembly lines.
Even though the specs on these next-gen boxes seem outrageous. I think Sony would be doing a huge disservice to developers (and gamers) by not providing that HDD swap area as a default. It seems like Sony is ignoring the good parts of the XBox much like Nintendo ignored the good parts of their competition (and started losing share to Sega [Genesis] then almost the whole market to Sony [PS]). Microsoft isn't building the spec superior box this time out (in order to beat Sony to market), but defaulting to an HDD (and if you think they are going to offer non-HDD models as has been posted here then you need to consider the OS being used is Win2K based [as is the original XBox] and probably weighs over 1GB AND Xbox Live software needs to live somewhere writable since it's always being updated thus the box needs the HDD in order to live) will only help them take market share in the long run.
At least the images presented in the article do not constitute are, but graphic design. It's like instant Create-A-Logo.
What does this algorithm offer contemporary art that it didn't have before? Nothing. At some point it would be nice if computers could generate something to pass as art, but no art critic will ever let it happen without a fight.
And for those of you using Duchamp's R Mudd Urinal as a basis for comparing what is art or not should step back into the 21st century. That piece was conceptualized and made about 80 years ago and if you take a contemporary art history class there is really no argument about it's status, place, or influence. Comparing the urinal to this Logo design prog would be like saying well "if COBOL is a programming language then so is kanji."
Java is probably your best bet for your requirements. If you go with Java and Netbeans you've got a cross-platform IDE as well (I use it [NB3.6] as my Java IDE [it may be a bit of a memory hog, but I don't know much about Eclipse to recommend it]). Other posts mention the benefits so I won't get all preachy about Java other than to say if you google something like "java game programming" you can find a wealth of examples and articles.
What most everyone is saying here (and what I just hinted at) is do not re-invent the wheel! Most programmers borrow or adapt source code to their liking and this is all acceptable as long as it falls in the realm of public domain or doesn't have some license issue.
Good luck! Keep it simple and don't get too ambitious. Your deadline will find you a lot sooner than you think.
GameRankings.com doesn't include many games pre-1998, but Alone in the Dark (early 90's) made it? In the mid to late 80's Interplay (as a development studio distribution courtesy of the now much maligned EA) made some very good games that didn't make the top 10 ranked games list I culled.
Even though this article is now irrelevant and my post is off-topic here is a refresher on some Interplay games. They also had the Star Trek license for a while and made that ST:25th Anniversary adventure/puzzle type game that someone else already mentioned.
These results are culled from GameRankings.com
1. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn PC
2. Baldur's Gate
3. Fallout
4. FreeSpace 2
5. Planescape: Torment
6. Realms of the Haunting
7. Alone in the Dark
8. Icewind Dale: The Ultimate Collection
9. Sacrifice
10. Carmageddon
Maybe Interplay will pull an Activision in 10 years and be rescued by a game of Tony Hawk Pro Skater stature.
i get the point of the article, but as a person that makes car payments, car insurance payments, pays an inflated amount of money for fuel, and spends up most of my driving time in traffic i honestly don't see the point of any form of car racing. there is no reason to glorify an object (the automobile in its current form) anymore that is the main user of the most geo-politically volitile resource. why don't they figure out a way to replace the combustion engine or do something useful. going around in circles wasting gasoline/petrol is a WASTE. moreso than my daily commute. uneducated/unwealthy/unmotivated soldiers are dying in Iraq right now so these fluid dynamics problems have the fuel and to be solved.
my original post was a stab at humor.
obviously a failed attempt.
as an american if this were NASCAR it would have made more sense. (that was sarcasm as was the whole original post.)
so someone finally built a machine to handle doom3 full detail?
is it just me or is this overkill? TB's of memory and storage? for F1 racing? did I miss something?
with another couple TB's this thing will be able to predict David Beckham's hairstyle in 2006 or analyze Barry Bond's drug test samples effectively. now there's something to put computing power towards.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone know what the function of the X/Y/Z drives are in the xbox?
If you said disk cache/swap space you'd be correct. Not all of the 10GB on the default xbox HDD is available to the user. Without looking at exact figures you cough up about a 1GB to the C drive for OS related stuff and about 1.5GB to the X/Y/Z drives. The default user drive is ~5GB for saves and whatever else an unmodded xbox holds there. Then there is 2GB of unformatted space (unformatted due to the original HDD size of the xbox being 8GB).
I'm not entirely sure why they'd want to deny developers the use of swap space. The only reasons I can think of from their standpoint is that they want to get people to pay extra money. It's ridiculous to think they are doing this for cost cutting reasons because buying the amount of HDDs in bulk a Sony or Microsoft is going to buy they're probably able to get 20GB HDDs for $5-10 per unit. The high price points on these boxes is probably due to paying IBM/ATI/NVIDIA's R&D fees more than anything else. Making prototypes and molds is what costs money not fabrication in existing assembly lines.
Even though the specs on these next-gen boxes seem outrageous. I think Sony would be doing a huge disservice to developers (and gamers) by not providing that HDD swap area as a default. It seems like Sony is ignoring the good parts of the XBox much like Nintendo ignored the good parts of their competition (and started losing share to Sega [Genesis] then almost the whole market to Sony [PS]). Microsoft isn't building the spec superior box this time out (in order to beat Sony to market), but defaulting to an HDD (and if you think they are going to offer non-HDD models as has been posted here then you need to consider the OS being used is Win2K based [as is the original XBox] and probably weighs over 1GB AND Xbox Live software needs to live somewhere writable since it's always being updated thus the box needs the HDD in order to live) will only help them take market share in the long run.
"Body Talk" makes this thing go "Round and Round" huh?
At least the images presented in the article do not constitute are, but graphic design. It's like instant Create-A-Logo.
What does this algorithm offer contemporary art that it didn't have before? Nothing. At some point it would be nice if computers could generate something to pass as art, but no art critic will ever let it happen without a fight.
And for those of you using Duchamp's R Mudd Urinal as a basis for comparing what is art or not should step back into the 21st century. That piece was conceptualized and made about 80 years ago and if you take a contemporary art history class there is really no argument about it's status, place, or influence. Comparing the urinal to this Logo design prog would be like saying well "if COBOL is a programming language then so is kanji."
Java is probably your best bet for your requirements. If you go with Java and Netbeans you've got a cross-platform IDE as well (I use it [NB3.6] as my Java IDE [it may be a bit of a memory hog, but I don't know much about Eclipse to recommend it]). Other posts mention the benefits so I won't get all preachy about Java other than to say if you google something like "java game programming" you can find a wealth of examples and articles.
What most everyone is saying here (and what I just hinted at) is do not re-invent the wheel! Most programmers borrow or adapt source code to their liking and this is all acceptable as long as it falls in the realm of public domain or doesn't have some license issue.
Good luck! Keep it simple and don't get too ambitious. Your deadline will find you a lot sooner than you think.
Lynx! Can you say ASCII art porn revival?
GameRankings.com doesn't include many games pre-1998, but Alone in the Dark (early 90's) made it? In the mid to late 80's Interplay (as a development studio distribution courtesy of the now much maligned EA) made some very good games that didn't make the top 10 ranked games list I culled.
Developed by Interplay but distributed by EA back when they had those mini-album cover packages.
I believe Starflight I&II were Interplay developed EA distributed as well.
Even though this article is now irrelevant and my post is off-topic here is a refresher on some Interplay games. They also had the Star Trek license for a while and made that ST:25th Anniversary adventure/puzzle type game that someone else already mentioned.
These results are culled from GameRankings.com
1. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn PC
2. Baldur's Gate
3. Fallout
4. FreeSpace 2
5. Planescape: Torment
6. Realms of the Haunting
7. Alone in the Dark
8. Icewind Dale: The Ultimate Collection
9. Sacrifice
10. Carmageddon
Maybe Interplay will pull an Activision in 10 years and be rescued by a game of Tony Hawk Pro Skater stature.
The FTC are defining "puns" next.
Maybe.
and this is F1 racing?
i get the point of the article, but as a person that makes car payments, car insurance payments, pays an inflated amount of money for fuel, and spends up most of my driving time in traffic i honestly don't see the point of any form of car racing. there is no reason to glorify an object (the automobile in its current form) anymore that is the main user of the most geo-politically volitile resource. why don't they figure out a way to replace the combustion engine or do something useful. going around in circles wasting gasoline/petrol is a WASTE. moreso than my daily commute. uneducated/unwealthy/unmotivated soldiers are dying in Iraq right now so these fluid dynamics problems have the fuel and to be solved.
my original post was a stab at humor.
obviously a failed attempt.
as an american if this were NASCAR it would have made more sense. (that was sarcasm as was the whole original post.)
so someone finally built a machine to handle doom3 full detail? is it just me or is this overkill? TB's of memory and storage? for F1 racing? did I miss something? with another couple TB's this thing will be able to predict David Beckham's hairstyle in 2006 or analyze Barry Bond's drug test samples effectively. now there's something to put computing power towards.