The V5 does better at high res because that is where performance depends less on geometry speed and more on fill rate. The GeForce has on-board geometry accelleration (aka T&L). In future games, which will use far more detailed geometry, the GeForce will beat the V5 at ALL resolutions. ------
I remember, way back in the day, when John Romero left id Software. He said, (not exact quote) "There comes a point whene it is time to stop worrying about the technology behind a game and start working on the content." When I heard that, I thought "Wow, at least someone in the industry knows what they are doing.
At the time, I got the impression that he was talking about making a game with a story. Or an least something different. Well, that there demo has a whole two paragraphs of story, and it doesn't even make sense. Also, it is quite clear that you don't need to know the story to play the game.
Basically, to make your own Daikatana, take Quake 1 or 2 (they are pretty much the same), add some nifty graphics enhancements and a perdy user interface, and make all the monsters *real* small so that they are impossible to hit.
I actually would rather play Quake 1. The reason being the monsters. In the first few levels of the Daikatana demo, you fight:
mosquitoes
frogs
small but deadly gun turrets that pop out of the ground and shoot you before you realize that they are there.
All of these things are small. Small is just a pain in the ass. The fact is that they are so small that you can have your crosshairs lined up perfectly and still miss because your gun is offset slightly to the right (because you are holding it in your hand). The fact that you don't get much ammo just makes it worse. Imagine trying to punch a flying mosquito to death.
Basically, Daikatana looks like the same old thing. Shoot the monsters, get through the map. I admit that I didn't play very far, but any writer knows that you are supposed to do something special at the beginning of any story to get the audience interested. I saw nothing special, except a funny window titled "program error".
OK, download. Boot into the W2K bug (all 65000 of them). Run installer. "Please insert disk one." WTF? Pointed it at the temp directory that the thing had unpacked to. No luck. After reconfiguring the location of my temporary directory to "C:\winnt\temp" it managed to go through the whole process, hit 100%, then asked for the disk. I figured "well, it is at 100%, so I'll just click 'cancel'." It promptly deleted what it had installed. Ran the program again, got to the same place, went out and made a copy of the directory it had installed to, then cancelled. It deleted the original as expected, but left the copy. So I ran the copy. It worked. Damnit, just give me a zip with the files in it! I don't want an installer!
Anyway, started up the game. Greeted by nice GUI and OK backround music. Bumped resolution up to 1600x1200 (3dfx can kiss my ass. GeForce all the way!). Went to configure controls and... it did not recognise my keyboard layout. I use a dvorak keyboard, but the thing assumed querty. Just like every other Quake engine game. Damnit, Carmack, what's the big deal!? Unreal recognises my keyboard just fine!
Started playing. Got eaten by mosquitoes. And shot by turrets that pop up out of nowhere. And frogs jumped on me, which apparently is deadly. Don't get me wrong. I am usually the top scorer at LAN parties. I don't suck. As long as I have a weapon and some freeking ammo!
Then, all of the sudden, the Windoze task bar appeared in the middle of the screen. One of the entries on the bar was titled "program error", but I could not see the corresponding window. So much for that game.
Why do people moderate OOG down? I don't get it. What did he do wrong? He is not pissing anyone off, and I actually think his posts are damn funny. He isn't repeating some dumb old line about hot grits or petrification or natalie portman or all three combined. He actually says original, FUNNY stuff. Why do you think he is bad!? Just because he types in all caps? *sigh* It's part of his freeking character!
Actually, keep moderating him down. I find it even funnier when OOG racks up 34 mod points in a single post. I'd like to see anyone else do that.
Actually, it is non-shelled eggs that are fertilized outside the body. Fish and amphibians (sp?) lay such eggs. Shelled eggs, on the other hand, must be fertilized inside the body because they need to be fertilized before the shell is applied.
gtk+ runs faster that I can see on a K6-2 350 with a TNT2, as long as you aren't using fancy themes. Even with themes, it runs plenty fast on my K7-600/GeForce. I have never seen a problem with QT on any system. And people call me impatient... ------
First of all, 3dfx has always supported Direct3D very well, but their OpenGL support is basically "make Quake run", which sucks. nVidia, on the other hand, has ALWAYS supported OpenGL completely. Microsoft is a hell of a lot more worried about OpenGL than GLIDE.
You seem to suggest that any sort of affiliation with Microsoft is an evil act. Try to remember that nVidia does not consider Microsoft to be pure evil like the rest of us do. Also, Microsoft did NOT choose nVidia for the X-Box for the reasons you suggest. They chose nVidia because nVidia simply has the best hardware on the low-end market right now, and will for the forseeable future. (the GeForce kicks the V5's ass)
While on the subject of nVidia, there is something else I want to say. Yes, I am an open source avocate. As a matter of fact, I am an open source programmer (of a 3D game engine, no less). I have sworn never to write a closed source program. However, I think that the treatment given to nVidia by/.ers is very unfair. Not buying nVidia because it is closed source? WTF?! Since when do we expect companies to release open source drivers? I remember the day when we were happy when a company went open source, and not mad at those who didn't. Besides, nVidia CAN'T release their drivers open source for legal reasons, unless they re-write them from scratch.
"But nVidia isn't supporting the DRI. They are doing their own thing. That is bad." - AC
Why is that bad? I think it is good. Here is why: the DRI is an infrastructure on which to build a 3D graphics driver. It makes it easier to develop a driver quickly. However, nVidia has already developed drivers for Windows that work just fine (better that 3dfx's drivers by most accounts). They don't want to re-write that, so instead they are working with some other people to port thier infrastructure to Linux. This is GOOD for Linux because it means that bug fixes in the Windows drivers will apply to Linux as well. It won't introduce any sort of incompatibility because it is all contained in a standard XFree4 module.
"They should just give out specs!" - AC
Again, legal reasons say no. So, instead, they are spending THEIR OWN RESOURCES to provide us with a driver. Hell, if what you say is true, they might be spending money they got directly from Microsoft to make the Linux drivers.:)
Yes, I would prefer open source drivers, but I will accept *quality* closed source drivers. nVidia's current drivers are not quality, but nVidia admits that. They decided to give us crappy drivers to play with while we wait for the real thing, which is better than nothing. I refuse to judge nVidia until I see their new drivers in action. (hopefully they will be released soon)
As for marketing practices, 3dfx is by far the worst offender. But that's another story...
Knowing the moderators around here, I'll probably have a score of -2 by the end of the night. I'd better post without my +1 bonus so that there are less points to take away.:)
------
Re:A classic application for the "Overrated" mod
on
Jet3d Game Engine
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, the point is that all three of the assumptions seem logically correct, but the conclusion is obviously wrong. So, one of the assumptions must logically be wrong. I knew this before I put up the sig in the first place.:) ------
Re:A classic application for the "Overrated" mod
on
Jet3d Game Engine
·
· Score: 2
Umm... no... actually, when you contribute code to GCC, you keep the copyright on the code you wrote. You give the code to them copyrighted by yourself, but licensed under the GPL. This is VERY important for obvious reasons.
If you don't believe me, check/usr/src/linux/drivers/net/3c501.c. Notice that it is copyright 1993 by none other than the NSA. Last I checked, Linus Torvalds was NOT the director of the NSA, and never was, but I could be wrong. If you look around, you'll notice many other copyright holders as well.
Dude, take a look at his moderation totals. 10 points were spent on him. That has got to be a slashdot record. All that and his score is still at 1 where it started. Isn't that exactly what you want? I think OOG should be promoted. ------
Re:A classic application for the "Overrated" mod
on
Jet3d Game Engine
·
· Score: 3
Umm... No, it is not certifiable open source. The reason being that when you contribute to thier product, you give them special rights over you code that no one else gets, including yourself. Under the GPL, if you start a GPL'd product and someone else contributes to it, you no longer have the right to re-license it, unless you remove everything that they added. Very different. The NPL had this problem originally, and it didn't pass because of it. That is why they created the MPL.
The must update clients thing effectively allows them to end the open source version at any time. They say that future versions may be under a different license. So, they decide they have taken advantage of the community enough, they release new version without source code, you can't use old version anymore. I doubt that could pass as OSI certified.
I really hate it when people reply incorrectly to my posts and get moderated up. ------
3.2. Application of License to Eclipse. (a) Other Products. Eclipse may include Covered Code in products other than Jet3D without such additional products becoming subject to the terms of this License, and may license such additional products on different terms from those contained in this License. (b) Other Licenses. Eclipse may license the Source Code including Modifications incorporated therein, without such additional products becoming subject to the terms of this License, and may license such additional products on different terms from those contained in this License. (c) Other Releases. Eclipse may create new releases of Jet3D without such releases becoming subject to the terms of this License.
So, they can take all your enhancements, relicense them, and sell them, but you can't. There are several other annoying conditions as well, like the "you must display our logo" condition and the "when we release new versions, you must update your clients" condition.
This is not open source. How did it get on Source Forge?
You know, the instant I hit "submit", I saw that, and I thought to myself, "Crap, now some complete moron is going to tell me that I'm stupid because I made a spelling error." *sigh*
My school (U of MN) is a major internet hub with an incredible amount of badwidth. Several T3's at least. Napster was taking 58% of our bandwidth before it was banned.
You know, despite your total idiocy, you may have a point. Our current copywrite laws can't last much longer. In a few years, information will simply not be marketable. At that point, we will have to re-work capitolism such that it is compatible with an information economy.
However, illegally copying/stealing music is not the way to do it. That will simply encourage the government to pass stricter laws to stop you. Instead, you should be supporting legally free music. That way, the free music scene will grow and possibly overtake the RIAA. You can start with mp3.com. They have some really good stuff there. It is pretty much all I listen to these days.
I think we humans have a hard time imagining that an AI could feel emotions because we have a hard time describing how emotions feel to us. You think, "when I am happy, it feels good. How can a computer FEEL good?" In fact, it is little more that just setting happy = 1, sad = 0. Then, the AI will do whatever it thinks will increase its happiness level the most, and decrease its sadness level the most. Also, its actions and rational thoughts need to be influenced by its current emotional state. Voila, you have emotions.
I don't expect anyone to believe me until I implement it.:) Check back in ten years.
Agreed. Allow me to continue this idea, since I have been thinking about it alot lately.
I would not be all that sad to see AI replace human beings. The reason is that human nature has many, many flaws. We have been programmed by evolution to worry about ourselves before we consider others. Many of us enjoy competition just for the sake of competition. Far too many of us seem to worry too much about more or less irrelevant stuff (like sex) rather than worrying about making the world a better place. These are just some of our flaws.
When we write AI, however, we can fix all of that. How? Emotions. It is a total myth that AI would not have emotions. I do not believe it would be possible to create an emotionless intelligence. Emotions give us goals. In the case of AI, we can specify how their emotions work. We can make it happy when it helps others. We can make it sad when it hurts someone. We can make the computer's sole goal be to maximize the total happiness of all the world's inhabitants. Then, we follow the AI's lead. Do what it recommends, because we know that it has no other goal then to help us.
Ahem... methinks Quake was the engine that has been evolving whereas Unreal was designed. I am writing a 3D game engine myself, so I do understand what I am talking about. If you have ever tried to write modifications for the two games, well... The game logic code for Q1 and Q2 was a horrible mess (JC admits this himself). Unreal, however, is quite clean, and very object-oriented, which makes sense when you are describing the actions of a group of objects in a 3d world. Furthermore, the Unreal engine itself is very modular. And ever notice how Unreal had those *huge* open spaced that no Quake engine could ever handle? Yep.
Basically, Q3 is better at framerate and graphics quality, but Unreal is more flexible and easier to extend, and it is a lot cleaner. Personally, I like the Unreal engine better.
Not to say that I am eagerly anticipating Daikatana or anything (I'm not), but I would like to point something out. Unreal (the original, not UT) was in development for four years. It just kept being delayed and delayed and delayed, and everyone thought it was going to suck. There was even an interesting war of words between some of the id software guys and one of the Unreal developers. Basically, the id guys acted like a bunch of juveniles and tried to claim that Unreal was obviously going to suck since it had taken so long to create. (note that JC denounced this behavior)
Getting to the point, Unreal was released, and it kicked Quake 2's ass. Hard. The engine was far superior to the Q2 engine (sorry John) and the game was just a hell of a lot more fun to play. It was also a lot more flexible and easier to work with for mod makers. Unfortunately, not many people noticed. *sigh*
So, I guess my point is that more development time really can mean better game. We'll just have to wait and see.
Oh, that's just f***ing wonderful. I can't wait to have 58% of my university's bandwidth used up by piracy, AGAIN. I just can't wait to be sitting here, wishing I had a modem connection to AOL rather than having the dedicated ethernet connection I have now.
Look, I listen to mp3's, I own a Rio, I think the RIAA is evil, etc. etc., but I want Napster and everything like it gone!
Don't tell me about the legal uses for napster. That's BS. If you own a CD, you can make your own mp3's from it, and if you want legally free music, you can go to the band's web site and download the music from them. Or, go to mp3.com, or traxinspace.com, or one of the many other free music sites. That's what I do, and all the music I listen to is legally free. And it is damn good, too.
Furthermore, I really think we should be encouraging the artists who have been so generous as to give us free music. The should be compared to the coders that have givin us free (open source) software. If people realize that there is a lot of really good music on mp3.com, and start downloading it, then there will only be more in the future. As it is, the incredible amount of pirating going on right now only encourages the RIAA and the government to make more laws to prevent it--laws which we hate. The DMCA, for example. If there wasn't so much damn pirating going on, mabey we would not have it.
If everyone starts downloading legally free music, the RIAA won't be able to anything about it but say "oh shit", and fade away. The artists will all head towards giving away their music for free. (they can make money in so many other ways--endorsements, concerts, etc.) So, then all our music will be free, just the way we like it. There is no need for Napster clones.
------ -Everything has a cause -Nothing can cause itself -You cannot have an infinite string of causes
This isn't exactly what the article was about, but many people are posting about this, so I just want to respond.
Artificial Intelligence will NOT turn against human beings. That is a myth propogated by movies like Terminator and The Matrix. In fact, it seems quite obvious to me that AI would want to work with human beings to accomplish its goals. This is because while the AI might be more intelligent than us in some ways, it most likely won't be better than us in all ways. And besides, killing off the human race would be considerably more difficult that working with them.
It goes further than that. When we start writing AI, it will be very easy to write it such that it would not hurt us. This is because we will have complete control over its emotions (the idea that AI would be emotionless is ludicrous). We can program them such that helping human beings makes them happy, and hurting humans makes them sad. We can also program them to work for the good of the many, rather than the good of themselves. We can basically eliminate all of the flaws in human nature. I think the fears that people have are based on the flawed assumption that AI would think like human beings. (you know what happens when you make an assumption: you make as ass out of you and... umm... umption)
The problem comes when we make this software open source. There are flawed human beings in there, and they could re-program the AI to give it evil emotions (make it happy when it kills). How much of a threat this is remains to be seen, however. ------ -Everything has a cause -Nothing can cause itself -You cannot have an infinite string of causes
Slashdot Mirror
The V5 does better at high res because that is where performance depends less on geometry speed and more on fill rate. The GeForce has on-board geometry accelleration (aka T&L). In future games, which will use far more detailed geometry, the GeForce will beat the V5 at ALL resolutions.
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I'll kick your ass in Half-Life if you e-mail me a time and a server. Or CounterStrike if you prefer (I do).
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I remember, way back in the day, when John Romero left id Software. He said, (not exact quote) "There comes a point whene it is time to stop worrying about the technology behind a game and start working on the content." When I heard that, I thought "Wow, at least someone in the industry knows what they are doing.
At the time, I got the impression that he was talking about making a game with a story. Or an least something different. Well, that there demo has a whole two paragraphs of story, and it doesn't even make sense. Also, it is quite clear that you don't need to know the story to play the game.
Basically, to make your own Daikatana, take Quake 1 or 2 (they are pretty much the same), add some nifty graphics enhancements and a perdy user interface, and make all the monsters *real* small so that they are impossible to hit.
I actually would rather play Quake 1. The reason being the monsters. In the first few levels of the Daikatana demo, you fight:
- mosquitoes
- frogs
- small but deadly gun turrets that pop out of the ground and shoot you before you realize that they are there.
All of these things are small. Small is just a pain in the ass. The fact is that they are so small that you can have your crosshairs lined up perfectly and still miss because your gun is offset slightly to the right (because you are holding it in your hand). The fact that you don't get much ammo just makes it worse. Imagine trying to punch a flying mosquito to death.Basically, Daikatana looks like the same old thing. Shoot the monsters, get through the map. I admit that I didn't play very far, but any writer knows that you are supposed to do something special at the beginning of any story to get the audience interested. I saw nothing special, except a funny window titled "program error".
For a well-done FPS, see Half-Life.
------
OK, download. Boot into the W2K bug (all 65000 of them). Run installer. "Please insert disk one." WTF? Pointed it at the temp directory that the thing had unpacked to. No luck. After reconfiguring the location of my temporary directory to "C:\winnt\temp" it managed to go through the whole process, hit 100%, then asked for the disk. I figured "well, it is at 100%, so I'll just click 'cancel'." It promptly deleted what it had installed. Ran the program again, got to the same place, went out and made a copy of the directory it had installed to, then cancelled. It deleted the original as expected, but left the copy. So I ran the copy. It worked. Damnit, just give me a zip with the files in it! I don't want an installer!
Anyway, started up the game. Greeted by nice GUI and OK backround music. Bumped resolution up to 1600x1200 (3dfx can kiss my ass. GeForce all the way!). Went to configure controls and... it did not recognise my keyboard layout. I use a dvorak keyboard, but the thing assumed querty. Just like every other Quake engine game. Damnit, Carmack, what's the big deal!? Unreal recognises my keyboard just fine!
Started playing. Got eaten by mosquitoes. And shot by turrets that pop up out of nowhere. And frogs jumped on me, which apparently is deadly. Don't get me wrong. I am usually the top scorer at LAN parties. I don't suck. As long as I have a weapon and some freeking ammo!
Then, all of the sudden, the Windoze task bar appeared in the middle of the screen. One of the entries on the bar was titled "program error", but I could not see the corresponding window. So much for that game.
------
Why do people moderate OOG down? I don't get it. What did he do wrong? He is not pissing anyone off, and I actually think his posts are damn funny. He isn't repeating some dumb old line about hot grits or petrification or natalie portman or all three combined. He actually says original, FUNNY stuff. Why do you think he is bad!? Just because he types in all caps? *sigh* It's part of his freeking character!
Actually, keep moderating him down. I find it even funnier when OOG racks up 34 mod points in a single post. I'd like to see anyone else do that.
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Actually, it is non-shelled eggs that are fertilized outside the body. Fish and amphibians (sp?) lay such eggs. Shelled eggs, on the other hand, must be fertilized inside the body because they need to be fertilized before the shell is applied.
------
gtk+ runs faster that I can see on a K6-2 350 with a TNT2, as long as you aren't using fancy themes. Even with themes, it runs plenty fast on my K7-600/GeForce. I have never seen a problem with QT on any system. And people call me impatient...
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First of all, 3dfx has always supported Direct3D very well, but their OpenGL support is basically "make Quake run", which sucks. nVidia, on the other hand, has ALWAYS supported OpenGL completely. Microsoft is a hell of a lot more worried about OpenGL than GLIDE.
You seem to suggest that any sort of affiliation with Microsoft is an evil act. Try to remember that nVidia does not consider Microsoft to be pure evil like the rest of us do. Also, Microsoft did NOT choose nVidia for the X-Box for the reasons you suggest. They chose nVidia because nVidia simply has the best hardware on the low-end market right now, and will for the forseeable future. (the GeForce kicks the V5's ass)
While on the subject of nVidia, there is something else I want to say. Yes, I am an open source avocate. As a matter of fact, I am an open source programmer (of a 3D game engine, no less). I have sworn never to write a closed source program. However, I think that the treatment given to nVidia by /.ers is very unfair. Not buying nVidia because it is closed source? WTF?! Since when do we expect companies to release open source drivers? I remember the day when we were happy when a company went open source, and not mad at those who didn't. Besides, nVidia CAN'T release their drivers open source for legal reasons, unless they re-write them from scratch.
"But nVidia isn't supporting the DRI. They are doing their own thing. That is bad." - AC
Why is that bad? I think it is good. Here is why: the DRI is an infrastructure on which to build a 3D graphics driver. It makes it easier to develop a driver quickly. However, nVidia has already developed drivers for Windows that work just fine (better that 3dfx's drivers by most accounts). They don't want to re-write that, so instead they are working with some other people to port thier infrastructure to Linux. This is GOOD for Linux because it means that bug fixes in the Windows drivers will apply to Linux as well. It won't introduce any sort of incompatibility because it is all contained in a standard XFree4 module.
"They should just give out specs!" - AC
Again, legal reasons say no. So, instead, they are spending THEIR OWN RESOURCES to provide us with a driver. Hell, if what you say is true, they might be spending money they got directly from Microsoft to make the Linux drivers. :)
Yes, I would prefer open source drivers, but I will accept *quality* closed source drivers. nVidia's current drivers are not quality, but nVidia admits that. They decided to give us crappy drivers to play with while we wait for the real thing, which is better than nothing. I refuse to judge nVidia until I see their new drivers in action. (hopefully they will be released soon)
As for marketing practices, 3dfx is by far the worst offender. But that's another story...
Knowing the moderators around here, I'll probably have a score of -2 by the end of the night. I'd better post without my +1 bonus so that there are less points to take away. :)
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Yeah, the point is that all three of the assumptions seem logically correct, but the conclusion is obviously wrong. So, one of the assumptions must logically be wrong. I knew this before I put up the sig in the first place. :)
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Umm... no... actually, when you contribute code to GCC, you keep the copyright on the code you wrote. You give the code to them copyrighted by yourself, but licensed under the GPL. This is VERY important for obvious reasons.
If you don't believe me, check /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/3c501.c. Notice that it is copyright 1993 by none other than the NSA. Last I checked, Linus Torvalds was NOT the director of the NSA, and never was, but I could be wrong. If you look around, you'll notice many other copyright holders as well.
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Dude, take a look at his moderation totals. 10 points were spent on him. That has got to be a slashdot record. All that and his score is still at 1 where it started. Isn't that exactly what you want? I think OOG should be promoted.
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Umm... No, it is not certifiable open source. The reason being that when you contribute to thier product, you give them special rights over you code that no one else gets, including yourself. Under the GPL, if you start a GPL'd product and someone else contributes to it, you no longer have the right to re-license it, unless you remove everything that they added. Very different. The NPL had this problem originally, and it didn't pass because of it. That is why they created the MPL.
The must update clients thing effectively allows them to end the open source version at any time. They say that future versions may be under a different license. So, they decide they have taken advantage of the community enough, they release new version without source code, you can't use old version anymore. I doubt that could pass as OSI certified.
I really hate it when people reply incorrectly to my posts and get moderated up.
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From the license:
So, they can take all your enhancements, relicense them, and sell them, but you can't. There are several other annoying conditions as well, like the "you must display our logo" condition and the "when we release new versions, you must update your clients" condition.
This is not open source. How did it get on Source Forge?
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You know, the instant I hit "submit", I saw that, and I thought to myself, "Crap, now some complete moron is going to tell me that I'm stupid because I made a spelling error." *sigh*
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My school (U of MN) is a major internet hub with an incredible amount of badwidth. Several T3's at least. Napster was taking 58% of our bandwidth before it was banned.
------
You know, despite your total idiocy, you may have a point. Our current copywrite laws can't last much longer. In a few years, information will simply not be marketable. At that point, we will have to re-work capitolism such that it is compatible with an information economy.
However, illegally copying/stealing music is not the way to do it. That will simply encourage the government to pass stricter laws to stop you. Instead, you should be supporting legally free music. That way, the free music scene will grow and possibly overtake the RIAA. You can start with mp3.com. They have some really good stuff there. It is pretty much all I listen to these days.
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"this has got to be a late april fool's prank -- if not, add this to the heap of reasons not to execute binary-only code..."
Or don't run as root.
I definately agree with you, though. I really hope that you cannot write your own microcode. Screw up and you can go buy a new processor.
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I think we humans have a hard time imagining that an AI could feel emotions because we have a hard time describing how emotions feel to us. You think, "when I am happy, it feels good. How can a computer FEEL good?" In fact, it is little more that just setting happy = 1, sad = 0. Then, the AI will do whatever it thinks will increase its happiness level the most, and decrease its sadness level the most. Also, its actions and rational thoughts need to be influenced by its current emotional state. Voila, you have emotions.
I don't expect anyone to believe me until I implement it. :) Check back in ten years.
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Agreed. Allow me to continue this idea, since I have been thinking about it alot lately.
I would not be all that sad to see AI replace human beings. The reason is that human nature has many, many flaws. We have been programmed by evolution to worry about ourselves before we consider others. Many of us enjoy competition just for the sake of competition. Far too many of us seem to worry too much about more or less irrelevant stuff (like sex) rather than worrying about making the world a better place. These are just some of our flaws.
When we write AI, however, we can fix all of that. How? Emotions. It is a total myth that AI would not have emotions. I do not believe it would be possible to create an emotionless intelligence. Emotions give us goals. In the case of AI, we can specify how their emotions work. We can make it happy when it helps others. We can make it sad when it hurts someone. We can make the computer's sole goal be to maximize the total happiness of all the world's inhabitants. Then, we follow the AI's lead. Do what it recommends, because we know that it has no other goal then to help us.
The idea that AI would hurt us is ludicrous.
------
From the second article:
To use other Internet service providers, a student has to purchase a digital-to-analog phone converter...
Otherwise known as a MODEM?
------
Ahem... methinks Quake was the engine that has been evolving whereas Unreal was designed. I am writing a 3D game engine myself, so I do understand what I am talking about. If you have ever tried to write modifications for the two games, well... The game logic code for Q1 and Q2 was a horrible mess (JC admits this himself). Unreal, however, is quite clean, and very object-oriented, which makes sense when you are describing the actions of a group of objects in a 3d world. Furthermore, the Unreal engine itself is very modular. And ever notice how Unreal had those *huge* open spaced that no Quake engine could ever handle? Yep.
Basically, Q3 is better at framerate and graphics quality, but Unreal is more flexible and easier to extend, and it is a lot cleaner. Personally, I like the Unreal engine better.
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Actually... I never played multiplayer over a modem. I prefer LAN parties. :) Yeah, I guess for modem play Q2 was a lot better for awhile...
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Not to say that I am eagerly anticipating Daikatana or anything (I'm not), but I would like to point something out. Unreal (the original, not UT) was in development for four years. It just kept being delayed and delayed and delayed, and everyone thought it was going to suck. There was even an interesting war of words between some of the id software guys and one of the Unreal developers. Basically, the id guys acted like a bunch of juveniles and tried to claim that Unreal was obviously going to suck since it had taken so long to create. (note that JC denounced this behavior)
Getting to the point, Unreal was released, and it kicked Quake 2's ass. Hard. The engine was far superior to the Q2 engine (sorry John) and the game was just a hell of a lot more fun to play. It was also a lot more flexible and easier to work with for mod makers. Unfortunately, not many people noticed. *sigh*
So, I guess my point is that more development time really can mean better game. We'll just have to wait and see.
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Oh, that's just f***ing wonderful. I can't wait to have 58% of my university's bandwidth used up by piracy, AGAIN. I just can't wait to be sitting here, wishing I had a modem connection to AOL rather than having the dedicated ethernet connection I have now.
Look, I listen to mp3's, I own a Rio, I think the RIAA is evil, etc. etc., but I want Napster and everything like it gone!
Don't tell me about the legal uses for napster. That's BS. If you own a CD, you can make your own mp3's from it, and if you want legally free music, you can go to the band's web site and download the music from them. Or, go to mp3.com, or traxinspace.com, or one of the many other free music sites. That's what I do, and all the music I listen to is legally free. And it is damn good, too.
Furthermore, I really think we should be encouraging the artists who have been so generous as to give us free music. The should be compared to the coders that have givin us free (open source) software. If people realize that there is a lot of really good music on mp3.com, and start downloading it, then there will only be more in the future. As it is, the incredible amount of pirating going on right now only encourages the RIAA and the government to make more laws to prevent it--laws which we hate. The DMCA, for example. If there wasn't so much damn pirating going on, mabey we would not have it.
If everyone starts downloading legally free music, the RIAA won't be able to anything about it but say "oh shit", and fade away. The artists will all head towards giving away their music for free. (they can make money in so many other ways--endorsements, concerts, etc.) So, then all our music will be free, just the way we like it. There is no need for Napster clones.
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-Everything has a cause
-Nothing can cause itself
-You cannot have an infinite string of causes
This isn't exactly what the article was about, but many people are posting about this, so I just want to respond.
Artificial Intelligence will NOT turn against human beings. That is a myth propogated by movies like Terminator and The Matrix. In fact, it seems quite obvious to me that AI would want to work with human beings to accomplish its goals. This is because while the AI might be more intelligent than us in some ways, it most likely won't be better than us in all ways. And besides, killing off the human race would be considerably more difficult that working with them.
It goes further than that. When we start writing AI, it will be very easy to write it such that it would not hurt us. This is because we will have complete control over its emotions (the idea that AI would be emotionless is ludicrous). We can program them such that helping human beings makes them happy, and hurting humans makes them sad. We can also program them to work for the good of the many, rather than the good of themselves. We can basically eliminate all of the flaws in human nature. I think the fears that people have are based on the flawed assumption that AI would think like human beings. (you know what happens when you make an assumption: you make as ass out of you and ... umm ... umption)
The problem comes when we make this software open source. There are flawed human beings in there, and they could re-program the AI to give it evil emotions (make it happy when it kills). How much of a threat this is remains to be seen, however.
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-Everything has a cause
-Nothing can cause itself
-You cannot have an infinite string of causes