Most games list both recommended and minimum specs. The minimum specs are the ones you're complaining about, and you can compare the "Vista Capable" stickers to minimum. It's generally a given that the recommended specs are the ones you can expect a reasonable play experience from. Unless there are any "Vista Recommended" stickers, your comparison seems pointless.
No problem. Out of all of the stories I've only seen these images posted once, the rest of the time people have been posting the harmless looking Lite Brite pictures.
You're looking for the word "innovative", not "original". Blizzard doesn't lack for innovation, but they've been sticking to what they know, which is hardly being original.
How would a game like Hitman be rated? In optimal gameplay, you're "violent" for maybe 5 seconds out of a 15-30 minute mission. Does that make it under 1% violent, more child friendly than Pokemon?
If preparations to do violence counted, then Dig Dug should be near 100% violent, rather than the 67% they gave it. The whole purpose of the game is to blow the enemies up, as Hitman's purpose is to kill your target.
So what's the deal? Am I missing some other criteria in their judging system? From where I'm sitting, they're just looking foolish.
No, it's not. The placable two-way teleporter is still just a teleporter -- it just has to grab anything that touches it and flip it to the other side. If your engine is that, you can try to build a portal by catching absolutely EVERYTHING -- that is, you have a camera on the other side that maps to the portal's surface, maybe it's even some fancy shader that can somehow even look right as you change perspective, and of course any object that touches it gets flipped instantaneously to the other side.
I'm sorry, I was unclear in my reasoning: the concept behind a placeable two-way teleporter is very similar to a placeable two-way portal. It's much more difficult to implement the portal, but when the engine is designed around that whole concept -- as their college project was -- it's not such a big deal to program.
Now, if you're talking about engine difficulties, it's impressive that the Source engine can handle these teleporters with apparently little effort.
And from there, it's probably relatively easy to make them work for two parts of the same room, where you can see both ends of the portal and something half in each end simultaneously, or see your own head with the infinite fall. Well, it's hard, but nowhere near as hard as providing the same behavior for a game that had only teleporters, and no portals.
Another problem you'll run into with looking straight through the portal on itself is the dreaded Hall of Mirrors. Older engines will stop displaying after a certain draw distance, and since the portal chain stretches beyond that distance, you start getting graphical errors.
Again, impressive that the Source engine can handle it.
You may be right, that the QSG gun didn't create portals. Now that I think about it, I don't believe I could be half in one, it was either one side or the other.
However, I've done some mapping so I know what you're talking about. What you describe aren't portals in the same sense. They're static objects, just like the quake teleporters you mentioned. They're not user controlled and placeable anywhere.
The Unreal Forever QSG is the closest to this portal that I've seen. It's a small step from a placeable two-way teleporter to a placeable two-way portal. And I believe the only reason the QSG used a teleporter rather than a portal is engine limitations. The Unreal engine doesn't like portals that don't orient the same direction, so a portal couldn't pull off what was needed.
So my point still stands, it's been done before, but not nearly so polished.
It's actually been done in at least one instance, but nowhere near as nice. The original Unreal had a mod called Unreal Forever which had a quantum singularity generator. If you shot the wall in two different locations, you could pass through. However, objects and shots couldn't go through it the portal, and you couldn't see through it.
Whether it's an original idea or not, this portal implementation is definitely the most polished I've seen.
I'm sorry, but that movie really isn't appropriate for anybody. I liked the first, but the second was the worst movie I've ever seen. Well, until I started fast-forwarding and self-dubbing it.
Is that all? I could handle that curse, maybe I'll offer to loot the tomb for them.
The people who have to listen to me tunelessly whistling along day in and day out might be another story, though..
I just tried out Balloon Fight to refresh my memory. I wouldn't say they were exactly the same. Joust has one level, with minor variations. It's single player only. There are variations in how the enemies spawn. There are no "bonus stages". You ride an ostrich.
I'm not denying that Balloon Fight is based upon Joust. But while the basics may be quite similar, the details are significantly different. Drawing a comparison between games that have ripped off sprites or specific gameplay mechanics to one that's revamped the entire experience? That's just silly.
Why that much? It does nothing new, it's not even a laser, and frankly, it just looks plain ugly. I can pick up a Logitech G5 for the same price now, and it has all the features of this Fatal1ty mouse, plus it's a laser. I own a G5 and it's accurate on any surface, and it's a noticeable improvement from my now deceased optical mouse.
Really, I'm mystified. How do they hope to justify that price tag?
Thanks! This is just the information I needed, especially the IRC channels. The biggest difficulty I've run into is trying to convert Windows terms into Linux, and communicating what I need to know to Linux users. With more experience using the OS, the communications problem should go away.
I've made a low-budget game for Windows and have ported it to Mac OSX with little hassle. For Windows I have the MSDN and for OSX I have the Apple Developer Connection. What resources are available for Linux?
Slashdot Mirror
In that case, you'd select the buildings individually.
Nope, you're just getting old.
Most games list both recommended and minimum specs. The minimum specs are the ones you're complaining about, and you can compare the "Vista Capable" stickers to minimum. It's generally a given that the recommended specs are the ones you can expect a reasonable play experience from. Unless there are any "Vista Recommended" stickers, your comparison seems pointless.
No problem. Out of all of the stories I've only seen these images posted once, the rest of the time people have been posting the harmless looking Lite Brite pictures.
Those images fail to show the box at the bottom I can see how someone could mistake the crudely taped-up battery pack on one of those.
You're looking for the word "innovative", not "original". Blizzard doesn't lack for innovation, but they've been sticking to what they know, which is hardly being original.
Why didn't they just ask these guys how to do it?
Sounds like some good advice! Did anybody forward this to IGN?
How would a game like Hitman be rated? In optimal gameplay, you're "violent" for maybe 5 seconds out of a 15-30 minute mission. Does that make it under 1% violent, more child friendly than Pokemon? If preparations to do violence counted, then Dig Dug should be near 100% violent, rather than the 67% they gave it. The whole purpose of the game is to blow the enemies up, as Hitman's purpose is to kill your target. So what's the deal? Am I missing some other criteria in their judging system? From where I'm sitting, they're just looking foolish.
Now, if you're talking about engine difficulties, it's impressive that the Source engine can handle these teleporters with apparently little effort.
Another problem you'll run into with looking straight through the portal on itself is the dreaded Hall of Mirrors. Older engines will stop displaying after a certain draw distance, and since the portal chain stretches beyond that distance, you start getting graphical errors. Again, impressive that the Source engine can handle it.
You may be right, that the QSG gun didn't create portals. Now that I think about it, I don't believe I could be half in one, it was either one side or the other. However, I've done some mapping so I know what you're talking about. What you describe aren't portals in the same sense. They're static objects, just like the quake teleporters you mentioned. They're not user controlled and placeable anywhere. The Unreal Forever QSG is the closest to this portal that I've seen. It's a small step from a placeable two-way teleporter to a placeable two-way portal. And I believe the only reason the QSG used a teleporter rather than a portal is engine limitations. The Unreal engine doesn't like portals that don't orient the same direction, so a portal couldn't pull off what was needed. So my point still stands, it's been done before, but not nearly so polished.
It's actually been done in at least one instance, but nowhere near as nice. The original Unreal had a mod called Unreal Forever which had a quantum singularity generator. If you shot the wall in two different locations, you could pass through. However, objects and shots couldn't go through it the portal, and you couldn't see through it.
Whether it's an original idea or not, this portal implementation is definitely the most polished I've seen.
No, it's more like watching a 12 hour D&D session. With one player and one DM. Not terribly exciting, unless you're the one playing.
I'm sorry, but that movie really isn't appropriate for anybody. I liked the first, but the second was the worst movie I've ever seen. Well, until I started fast-forwarding and self-dubbing it.
Is that all? I could handle that curse, maybe I'll offer to loot the tomb for them. The people who have to listen to me tunelessly whistling along day in and day out might be another story, though..
I just tried out Balloon Fight to refresh my memory. I wouldn't say they were exactly the same. Joust has one level, with minor variations. It's single player only. There are variations in how the enemies spawn. There are no "bonus stages". You ride an ostrich. I'm not denying that Balloon Fight is based upon Joust. But while the basics may be quite similar, the details are significantly different. Drawing a comparison between games that have ripped off sprites or specific gameplay mechanics to one that's revamped the entire experience? That's just silly.
They made a few big stretches there. Balloon Fight and Joust? I'm surprised they didn't list Final Fantasy I and Dragon Warrior.
If this other article I found can be believed, the mouse is going to go for $49.
Why that much? It does nothing new, it's not even a laser, and frankly, it just looks plain ugly. I can pick up a Logitech G5 for the same price now, and it has all the features of this Fatal1ty mouse, plus it's a laser. I own a G5 and it's accurate on any surface, and it's a noticeable improvement from my now deceased optical mouse.
Really, I'm mystified. How do they hope to justify that price tag?
Thanks! This is just the information I needed, especially the IRC channels. The biggest difficulty I've run into is trying to convert Windows terms into Linux, and communicating what I need to know to Linux users. With more experience using the OS, the communications problem should go away.
I've made a low-budget game for Windows and have ported it to Mac OSX with little hassle. For Windows I have the MSDN and for OSX I have the Apple Developer Connection. What resources are available for Linux?