Talisman was a great idea at the time - the use of impostors in hardware meant much better image quality when you only had a few polygons to play with. However, just as they were getting to a state where they could really start getting Talisman going, several new graphics gards manufacturers bought out cards (3dfx Vooodoo, PowerVR, Riva 128...) an order of magnitude more powerful than most of the cards that had preceeded them. Suddenly the cunning Talisman approach couldn't compete with the brute force bandwidth and fillrate offered by these cards, and had to be dropped.
However, the use of impostors is not dead. Elixir's 'Republic' has quite an interesting graphics engine that appears to use impostors quite convincingly. I'm less convinced that it'll have any decent gameplay, though...
We've had digital radio here in the UK for about 4 years now - the BBC transmits all of it's radio programs in digital as well as analogue, and several of the larger commercial stations do as well.
The big problem is that the receivers are still prohibitavely expensive (I think they're still around £600 or so), which is an awful lot to pay to get radio broadcasts with only slightly better quality than those you can gt on a £20 analogue receiver.
When it was first launched, there were only 150 receivers in existance, one of which resided in Buckingham Palace...
You can either let Tescos know what kind of browser you are using, or you can go to a physical Tescos store and be recorded on videotape buying your stuff on their security cameras.
Sure, you may agrue that they don't need to know your browser type, but they may find that they can give the majority of users a better experience if they do, and most of them aren't worried about Tescos getting little bits of information like that.
Anyway, if you're worried, write to Tescos and ask them what information they have stored about you on their computers. As they're a UK company, they're required by law to tell you.
> >As Indrema will have an open system, developers will not have to pay them anything to produce software for it.
> They will have to unless they plan to release it under a free beer/speech license.
How so? Unless they plan to lock their CDs in some cunning way, so that only they can produce CDs that work on the machine?
I don't see how they can charge developers to develop for it, as they're basing so much of their stuff on existing Open Source code.
I think that XBox will do very well for launch titles...
The XBox should be very easy to program for compared to the PS2 - and very easy to port from (although I don't think MS are that keen on ports right now...) and MS are keen to have a good quality lineup.
The other thing to consider is that the XBox is very easy to prototype for, even if you don't have a devbox yet. If you get a high-end PC with the best GeForce you can get, you can get quite close to the XBox platform - much closer than you can on any other console.
Even if the config file is in the registry, it should be workable on from a scripting language.
As for docs on config files...
well, perhaps I'm just being thick, but I've often found the docs for much Linux configuration rather incomprehensible...
You *can* script in Windows - perl, bash, python - the gnu utilities - you can get them all for Windows. True - many system settings have to be done via the registry or GUI dialogs, but the labyrinthine settings files of Linux are hardly easy to work with either...
I simply don't think that Indrema can cut the mustard. They just don't have enough money. For a console to succeed, it needs several things:
a) Developer Support: Where is the developer support for Indrema? - even if you've got good hardware, hardly anyone will buy the system without some impressive games to play on it. I've seen hardly any developer support for Indrema.
b) Marketing: To get a new console going, you need a whole load of marketing bucks. People (even lofty/. readers) *are* affected by advertising. What are people going to buy - something they've seen plastered all over the TV and magazines, or something they've heard of once on a website?
c) A viable business model: Most consoles make a loss on the hardware for the first year or two, making all their money on the royalties from the software. As Indrema will have an open system, developers will not have to pay them anything to produce software for it. They'll therfore have to make all their money on the hardware and be at a severe disadvantage to the discounted hardware of Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sega.
d) Brand: Even though Sony stormed the console market with the Playstation, they were still a well known brand. Most people will never have heard of Indrema and will go with a name they know.
Basically, Indrema don't have the money to compete with the other consoles in any big way. If they had vast amounts of money, they could pay developers to write games for them, but at the moment I doubt very many devlopers will. It's just a question of economics: Most console games nowadays require a team of at least 10 people at least 18 months to make. As a devloper gets about £5 for a £40 game, they'd have to sell at least a third of a million copies simply to break even. That's not counting advertising costs. I just can't see Indrema selling enough units to ensure a game could sell that many units, it's as simple as that.
The PSOne is portable, but not a handheld. It does not have a battery, and is designed for use in non-primary TV areas - e.g. rather than being on the Living Room TV, it's on a bedroom TV or used the LCD screen that you can get for it.
The Gameboy advance is a handheld and will have a long battery life (i.e. 10 hours or so), which is what made the original GB so popular in the first place.
Oh please! Since when has it been Microsoft's duty to write compilers for their competitors?
The point is that C# has nothing in it that will bind it to Windows - I fully hope to see a gcc# program in the fairly near future.
I think many people misunderstand Microsoft's reasons for creating C#. I think the reason they're doing it is to make a really good development system for their.net platform. It's in their interests for there to be compilers for other platforms just to enusre that the language gets wide acceptance, much like C and C++ have today, so that more people will be able to code for.net.
Single click: select. Double click: open. right click: menu.
The big problem they have is that they're moving their OS towards integration with the web paradigm that uses a single click for 'open', which I suppose is the same way you work with buttons (and therefore most dialog boxes).
Obviously, with the whole 'number of mouse buttons' debate, you've got a trade off between immediate usability for the novice and power. However, as using computers becomes more and more vital for living in the (admittedly first world) twenty-first century, I think people are more prepared to spend a little more time learning how to use something. We no longer need to convince people that learning to use a computer is something they have to do.
Therefore I'd suggest that more than one button is probably the way to go. It gives your more things you can do without touching the keyboard. As for how you use those buttons, well, that's a whole 'nother argument...
Okay, here's a press release we released today - basically it means that Renderware and Rendervision will be avaliable on the GSCube - Renderware is a middleware cross-platform graphics library, and RenderVision is this cool system that allows you to preview your scene (and walk through) your scene that you are designing in your 3D package instantly on your target platform (like PS2, for instance...)
(Actually, I work for the Fiendish Games part of Criterion...)
RenderWare ushers in the future of real-time digital creation in the broadband era
NEW ORLEANS, July 25th, 2000 - Criterion Software today announced a major milestone in its mission to provide a seamless digital content development path from concept to delivery, with the demonstration of its market leading Renderware3 interactive 3D graphics middleware driving Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s GScube visualizer prototype for e-cinema and real-time digital content creation.
A subsidiary of Canon, headquartered in Guildford, UK, Criterion Software Ltd. is the leading developer of multimedia middleware for convergence platforms, including next generation videogame consoles, digital televisions and web terminals.
"We reshaped the world of 3D middleware with the invention of our Renderware3 Powerpipe architecture." said David Lau-Kee, President, Criterion Software, "Powerpipe is a uniquely flexible graphics software architecture that allows unprecedented control over content-specific processing, special effects and acceleration. Now, driving the GScube development system, the benefits of this flexibility towards the creation of insanely inventive digital content by studios across all forms of visual entertainment become startling clear."
Subject to agreement, Criterion Software expects to provide its 3D middleware and tools, including Renderware for 3D programmers and RenderVisionTM for 3D artists, to GScube application and content developers in the near future.
"Criterion Software is a valued partner for our PlayStation2 middleware program," said Makoto Hatakenaka, Vice President, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "and we are pleased that they are providing the same high level of commitment and support to GScube, our next step in pioneering the creation of real-time digital entertainment.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Recognized as the undisputed global leader and company responsible for the progression of consumer-based computer entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) manufacturers, distributes and markets the PlayStation game console and PlayStation2 computer entertainment system. SCEI, along with its subsidiary divisions Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd., develops, publishes, markets and distributes software, and manages the third party licensing programs for these two platforms in the respective markets worldwide. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is an independent business unit of Sony Corporation.
Criterion Software Criterion Software develops and distributes the market leading 3D middleware tools for convergence platforms, including RenderWare3 for 3D programmers and RenderVision for 3D artists, and distributes complementary 3rd party tools, such as Metrowerks CodeWarrior® game development tools for PlayStation2 computer entertainment system in Europe and North America.
RenderWare is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. RenderVision is a trademark of Criterion Software Ltd. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other company and product names may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies/holders, and are hereby recognized.
I would be very suprised if either OS had the lead in all aspects of webserving. If they're running on the same hardware, they're likely going to have similar performance - both systems have been developed by a lot of intelligent people, and are sufficiently advanced now that it's unlikely that they're just throwing performance away left, right and centre on stupid stuff. The areas that they perform well will probably be different due to design decisions they've made, but overall I'd be suprised to see a huge discrepancy between the two. Which one you want will always depend on what you want to do with them.
Isn't a bad place to live if you're a geek - The main attraction at the moment being the cable modem avaliability - ADSL isn't widely avaliable in the UK yet (Although BT keep promising that it'll be here Real Soon Now, Honest)...
Guildford also has quite a lot of tech companies based there for a town of it's size (pop. roughly 130,000) - especially games companies - EA/Bullfrog, Lionhead, Mucky Foot, Criterion Studios, Fiendish Games (The company I work for), KUJU Entertainment, Glass Ghost, etc..
It's main downside is that it's quite expensive - on the whole you'll be paying pretty close to London prices on most things. Speaking of London, though, it's only about 40 miles away, and it takes half an hour on the traing to get from Guildford to Waterloo station, and during the day trains are every 15 minutes...
I quite like living here - it's not the best place on earth, but I've got my cable modem, so I'm happy.
cheers,
Tim
P.S. And Guildford Computers is a great place to pick up old cheap bits of computer hardware - Just great if you're trying to put web terminals in every room of your house...
Perhaps rather than whingeing about how (suprise suprise) the majority of desktops still run Windows, you'd have actually been able to tell us a little about the show. That has got to be one of the worst pieces of 'journalism' I've ever read...
If your friend the developer is developing software for Windows, then it surely makes sense for him to develop in Windows. For him, he needs to use the right tool for the job. MS Dev Studio isn't fantastic in all areas, but it's not bad, and most importantly, if he's developing Windows applications, it's probably going to be easier than cross compiling from a Linux platform. Also - Windows has all the other development tools you could want - CVS, RCS etc... and if you need to do lots of scripting stuff for maintainance, there are all the GNU tools - remember, they're avaliable for Windows as well. As Mr. Stallman would say - "It's GNU/Linux"...
Its nice to see that you are continuing to live up to your reputation of attempting to squash any open discussions of your business practices.
Oh please. Do you really think that's why they're doing it? Just think about the amount of crap that gets posted about Microsoft on Slashdot every day. I'd imagine there's quite a lot of stuff there that could be interpreted as libellous, and a lot of it which is innacurate. And yet this is the first time Microsoft has come down on Slashdot. I'm sure that Microsoft would rather not have to do this - they have enough bad publicity as it is, but some of their copyrighted works have been posted on Slashdot and they have a right to ask to have it removed.
Slashdot Mirror
Talisman was a great idea at the time - the use of impostors in hardware meant much better image quality when you only had a few polygons to play with. However, just as they were getting to a state where they could really start getting Talisman going, several new graphics gards manufacturers bought out cards (3dfx Vooodoo, PowerVR, Riva 128...) an order of magnitude more powerful than most of the cards that had preceeded them. Suddenly the cunning Talisman approach couldn't compete with the brute force bandwidth and fillrate offered by these cards, and had to be dropped.
However, the use of impostors is not dead. Elixir's 'Republic' has quite an interesting graphics engine that appears to use impostors quite convincingly. I'm less convinced that it'll have any decent gameplay, though...
We've had digital radio here in the UK for about 4 years now - the BBC transmits all of it's radio programs in digital as well as analogue, and several of the larger commercial stations do as well.
The big problem is that the receivers are still prohibitavely expensive (I think they're still around £600 or so), which is an awful lot to pay to get radio broadcasts with only slightly better quality than those you can gt on a £20 analogue receiver.
When it was first launched, there were only 150 receivers in existance, one of which resided in Buckingham Palace...
You can either let Tescos know what kind of browser you are using, or you can go to a physical Tescos store and be recorded on videotape buying your stuff on their security cameras.
Sure, you may agrue that they don't need to know your browser type, but they may find that they can give the majority of users a better experience if they do, and most of them aren't worried about Tescos getting little bits of information like that.
Anyway, if you're worried, write to Tescos and ask them what information they have stored about you on their computers. As they're a UK company, they're required by law to tell you.
cheers,
Tim
Mr King, is that you?
> >As Indrema will have an open system, developers will not have to pay them anything to produce software for it.
> They will have to unless they plan to release it under a free beer/speech license.
How so? Unless they plan to lock their CDs in some cunning way, so that only they can produce CDs that work on the machine?
I don't see how they can charge developers to develop for it, as they're basing so much of their stuff on existing Open Source code.
true, but windows does backup the registry for a couple of generations...
;)
but hell - I gotta stop defending Windows so much... I think it can do well enough on it's own.
I think that XBox will do very well for launch titles...
The XBox should be very easy to program for compared to the PS2 - and very easy to port from (although I don't think MS are that keen on ports right now...) and MS are keen to have a good quality lineup.
The other thing to consider is that the XBox is very easy to prototype for, even if you don't have a devbox yet. If you get a high-end PC with the best GeForce you can get, you can get quite close to the XBox platform - much closer than you can on any other console.
Even if the config file is in the registry, it should be workable on from a scripting language.
As for docs on config files...
well, perhaps I'm just being thick, but I've often found the docs for much Linux configuration rather incomprehensible...
Ah well, each to his own I suppose...
You *can* script in Windows - perl, bash, python - the gnu utilities - you can get them all for Windows. True - many system settings have to be done via the registry or GUI dialogs, but the labyrinthine settings files of Linux are hardly easy to work with either...
I simply don't think that Indrema can cut the mustard. They just don't have enough money. For a console to succeed, it needs several things:
/. readers) *are* affected by advertising. What are people going to buy - something they've seen plastered all over the TV and magazines, or something they've heard of once on a website?
a) Developer Support: Where is the developer support for Indrema? - even if you've got good hardware, hardly anyone will buy the system without some impressive games to play on it. I've seen hardly any developer support for Indrema.
b) Marketing: To get a new console going, you need a whole load of marketing bucks. People (even lofty
c) A viable business model: Most consoles make a loss on the hardware for the first year or two, making all their money on the royalties from the software. As Indrema will have an open system, developers will not have to pay them anything to produce software for it. They'll therfore have to make all their money on the hardware and be at a severe disadvantage to the discounted hardware of Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sega.
d) Brand: Even though Sony stormed the console market with the Playstation, they were still a well known brand. Most people will never have heard of Indrema and will go with a name they know.
Basically, Indrema don't have the money to compete with the other consoles in any big way. If they had vast amounts of money, they could pay developers to write games for them, but at the moment I doubt very many devlopers will. It's just a question of economics: Most console games nowadays require a team of at least 10 people at least 18 months to make. As a devloper gets about £5 for a £40 game, they'd have to sell at least a third of a million copies simply to break even. That's not counting advertising costs. I just can't see Indrema selling enough units to ensure a game could sell that many units, it's as simple as that.
My background: I work for Fiendish Games, which is the Games-Sold-Online division of Criterion Software, who also make cross-platform graphics middleware like Renderware and PC/Console games like Trickstyle.
Please Note: My opinions may not represent the opinions of my employer.
cheers,
Tim
Mail: tim@planettimmy.com
http://www.planettimmy.com/
The PSOne is portable, but not a handheld. It does not have a battery, and is designed for use in non-primary TV areas - e.g. rather than being on the Living Room TV, it's on a bedroom TV or used the LCD screen that you can get for it.
The Gameboy advance is a handheld and will have a long battery life (i.e. 10 hours or so), which is what made the original GB so popular in the first place.
Oh please! Since when has it been Microsoft's duty to write compilers for their competitors?
.net platform. It's in their interests for there to be compilers for other platforms just to enusre that the language gets wide acceptance, much like C and C++ have today, so that more people will be able to code for .net.
The point is that C# has nothing in it that will bind it to Windows - I fully hope to see a gcc# program in the fairly near future.
I think many people misunderstand Microsoft's reasons for creating C#. I think the reason they're doing it is to make a really good development system for their
With Windows, you've got:
Single click: select.
Double click: open.
right click: menu.
The big problem they have is that they're moving their OS towards integration with the web paradigm that uses a single click for 'open', which I suppose is the same way you work with buttons (and therefore most dialog boxes).
Obviously, with the whole 'number of mouse buttons' debate, you've got a trade off between immediate usability for the novice and power. However, as using computers becomes more and more vital for living in the (admittedly first world) twenty-first century, I think people are more prepared to spend a little more time learning how to use something. We no longer need to convince people that learning to use a computer is something they have to do.
Therefore I'd suggest that more than one button is probably the way to go. It gives your more things you can do without touching the keyboard. As for how you use those buttons, well, that's a whole 'nother argument...
cheers,
Tim
Okay, here's a press release we released today - basically it means that Renderware and Rendervision will be avaliable on the GSCube - Renderware is a middleware cross-platform graphics library, and RenderVision is this cool system that allows you to preview your scene (and walk through) your scene that you are designing in your 3D package instantly on your target platform (like PS2, for instance...)
(Actually, I work for the Fiendish Games part of Criterion...)
Criterion Software delivers RenderWare on Sony Computer Entertainment's GScube Development System
RenderWare ushers in the future of real-time digital creation in the broadband era
NEW ORLEANS, July 25th, 2000 - Criterion Software today announced a major milestone in its mission to provide a seamless digital content development path from concept to delivery, with the demonstration of its market leading Renderware3 interactive 3D graphics middleware driving Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s GScube visualizer prototype for e-cinema and real-time digital content creation.
A subsidiary of Canon, headquartered in Guildford, UK, Criterion Software Ltd. is the leading developer of multimedia middleware for convergence platforms, including next generation videogame consoles, digital televisions and web terminals.
"We reshaped the world of 3D middleware with the invention of our Renderware3 Powerpipe architecture." said David Lau-Kee, President, Criterion Software, "Powerpipe is a uniquely flexible graphics software architecture that allows unprecedented control over content-specific processing, special effects and acceleration. Now, driving the GScube development system, the benefits of this flexibility towards the creation of insanely inventive digital content by studios across all forms of visual entertainment become startling clear."
Subject to agreement, Criterion Software expects to provide its 3D middleware and tools, including Renderware for 3D programmers and RenderVisionTM for 3D artists, to GScube application and content developers in the near future.
"Criterion Software is a valued partner for our PlayStation2 middleware program," said Makoto Hatakenaka, Vice President, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "and we are pleased that they are providing the same high level of commitment and support to GScube, our next step in pioneering the creation of real-time digital entertainment.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Recognized as the undisputed global leader and company responsible for the progression of consumer-based computer entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) manufacturers, distributes and markets the PlayStation game console and PlayStation2 computer entertainment system. SCEI, along with its subsidiary divisions Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd., develops, publishes, markets and distributes software, and manages the third party licensing programs for these two platforms in the respective markets worldwide. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is an independent business unit of Sony Corporation.
Criterion Software
Criterion Software develops and distributes the market leading 3D middleware tools for convergence platforms, including RenderWare3 for 3D programmers and RenderVision for 3D artists, and distributes complementary 3rd party tools, such as Metrowerks CodeWarrior® game development tools for PlayStation2 computer entertainment system in Europe and North America.
RenderWare is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. RenderVision is a trademark of Criterion Software Ltd. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other company and product names may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies/holders, and are hereby recognized.
...yes, you are out of the loop.
I would be very suprised if either OS had the lead in all aspects of webserving. If they're running on the same hardware, they're likely going to have similar performance - both systems have been developed by a lot of intelligent people, and are sufficiently advanced now that it's unlikely that they're just throwing performance away left, right and centre on stupid stuff. The areas that they perform well will probably be different due to design decisions they've made, but overall I'd be suprised to see a huge discrepancy between the two. Which one you want will always depend on what you want to do with them.
Huh?
Isn't a bad place to live if you're a geek - The main attraction at the moment being the cable modem avaliability - ADSL isn't widely avaliable in the UK yet (Although BT keep promising that it'll be here Real Soon Now, Honest)...
Guildford also has quite a lot of tech companies based there for a town of it's size (pop. roughly 130,000) - especially games companies - EA/Bullfrog, Lionhead, Mucky Foot, Criterion Studios, Fiendish Games (The company I work for), KUJU Entertainment, Glass Ghost, etc..
It's main downside is that it's quite expensive - on the whole you'll be paying pretty close to London prices on most things. Speaking of London, though, it's only about 40 miles away, and it takes half an hour on the traing to get from Guildford to Waterloo station, and during the day trains are every 15 minutes...
I quite like living here - it's not the best place on earth, but I've got my cable modem, so I'm happy.
cheers,
Tim
P.S. And Guildford Computers is a great place to pick up old cheap bits of computer hardware - Just great if you're trying to put web terminals in every room of your house...
Perhaps rather than whingeing about how (suprise suprise) the majority of desktops still run Windows, you'd have actually been able to tell us a little about the show. That has got to be one of the worst pieces of 'journalism' I've ever read...
If your friend the developer is developing software for Windows, then it surely makes sense for him to develop in Windows. For him, he needs to use the right tool for the job. MS Dev Studio isn't fantastic in all areas, but it's not bad, and most importantly, if he's developing Windows applications, it's probably going to be easier than cross compiling from a Linux platform. Also - Windows has all the other development tools you could want - CVS, RCS etc... and if you need to do lots of scripting stuff for maintainance, there are all the GNU tools - remember, they're avaliable for Windows as well. As Mr. Stallman would say - "It's GNU/Linux"...
A University's job is not to 'learn' students at all. It is to teach them...
... But I'm sure as hell still gonna use them...
Its nice to see that you are continuing to live up to your reputation of attempting to squash any open discussions of your business practices.
Oh please. Do you really think that's why they're doing it? Just think about the amount of crap that gets posted about Microsoft on Slashdot every day. I'd imagine there's quite a lot of stuff there that could be interpreted as libellous, and a lot of it which is innacurate. And yet this is the first time Microsoft has come down on Slashdot. I'm sure that Microsoft would rather not have to do this - they have enough bad publicity as it is, but some of their copyrighted works have been posted on Slashdot and they have a right to ask to have it removed.
The insinuation being that nearly all Python fans are Linux users?
Please someone, mark this up as funny!
... of your American organisations, but what is the ACLU?
cheers,
Tim