Ok, here's something. I have a music directory. Filled with.. well.. Music!.. I wanted to search for a file i KNEW was in there. So i typed it in the Vista search ( with indexing ) and it gave me a bunch of files.. None of which i was looking for. So i turned off indexing and tried again. Better results but still not what i was looking for. Started up cmd.exe, chdir to the music directory, and used "dir/s/a *mymfile*". It found exactly what i was looking for. It's stuff like that which put me off the search function in Vista.
Completely agree with your post, our guild has a requirement that to join you must know at least one of the founding members(of which there are 5) in real life, so the group becomes tight knit. I have actually met up with others as well, had lunch, and met some great new people. The game is so much more fun when you know who is on the other end of the player next to you!
It's probably the code to trick 3D Mark into giving higher scores:P
Most next gen game and tools combined, running on several platforms, are less than 2 million lines.
That's true, but most "next-gen" games use a heck of alot of libraries nowadays, so they use less code, imagine how much bigger they would be if you included the source for all the libraries they used?. Drivers are a different kettle of fish, lots of direct IO commands and assembly language, i don't doubt it's a huge codebase although 20 million does seem kinda high..
A little bit of bloom is good, but most games use overkill, Oblivion and Full Spectrum Warrior are examples, some of the bloom looks great! but alot of it just makes the scene look bad. As SirSlud said use them in the right amounts and in the right places and it looks good.
My point is simply that graphics don't make the games, gameplay does. I listed those games because i liked the gameplay, and the quality of the graphics does not impact how i feel about the game. This is in contrast to the myriad of players who see the latest and greatest Battlefield game and go "OOO! Shiny" and rave on about how awesome it is, although the gameplay is crap ( this is my biased opinion though ).
Ragdolls, "physics", there all just the next "lens flare", poorly implemented features to cram on the back of the box to to tout some intangible superiority.
Bloom yes, ragdolls maybe, but "physics"? I think the way games use the physics to create sandboxes for user designed gameplay are a great idea. How many times have you played Oblivion, FEAR, FarCry, or GTA, and just sat there playing with the physics instead of doing the missions? The physics add so much more playability, they don't need to be fancy, they don't need to be good, but damn, it's fun creating multi-car pile ups in GTA-SA, or seeing how many arrows it takes to hit an apple in Oblivion with your bow! You can make your own little mini-games!
As for ragdolls and physics together, just look at Stair Dismount it may not look flashy, but it has HOURS of fun.
Aye, the exact reason Starcraft, Morrowwind, Baldurs Gate, Betrayal at Krondor, Commander Keen, Doom, C&C (list goes on) are all very fun games that i still play these days. They don't have the gfx of todays games, but heck they are still fun! And here is why Bloom sucks.
Heh.. this reminds me of the Red Dwarf books and the part Nova 5 took...
In the novel, Nova 5 is an American vessel owned by The Coca-Cola Company which was sent on a mission to induce the supernova of 128 supergiant stars in order to create a five-week-long message in the sky visible even in daylight, reading "COKE ADDS LIFE!"
modern processors are more than capable for providing great audio at a tiny fraction of available CPU cycles.
So instead of using that "fraction" of CPU to process better AI, pathfinding, physics etc you want to use it to do something i already paid good money for that can do it faster and better?
Using your logic, we don't need graphics cards or physics cards, or raid cards, or network cards, they can all use the CPU! yes.. i can see it now, no more NVIDIA, let's use software renderers, back into the good old days of Quake, it's only a "fraction" of the CPU!
On a side note, to see exactly how much CPU software sound performance differs from hardware, look at this http://audio.rightmark.org/
It seems perverse that anyone would consider this a remotely reasonable plan.
I dunno, you seem to kind of biased. At the moment if i move i have to update all the different agencies. Banks, Telcoms, Electricity, Tax offices, Immigration(if needed), Government support ( pensions etc ), voting enrolment.
Now imagine they are all linked and i phone a single number and POOF. All changed at once. I no longer need to remember this. That's just one example. Sure there are disadvantages, like if the database is hacked they would have all my info in one go, but i'm unsure if the cons outweigh the pros. I certainly don't think you should automatically dismiss it just because of flaws you think you see.
It reminds me of the debate about having a national identity card. All your info in one place makes it easier to use, but harder to secure. Pros vs Cons.. The continous debate.
As for privacy. All the government agencies know this info anyway(or can get it). you.
that's why the military came up with a where they have rounded off the milli-radian to 6400, it introduces a bit of error but it's still close enough for government work
Military Guy: Sir, Our cruise missile just hit a school in Iraq. Software Tech: Oh, damn, i knew we shouldn't have rounded the nearest milli-radian to 6400
Software players will only get you so far as the developers will get better and better at hiding the keys.
WOW! You are naive! If it is in Software, it can and WILL be cracked. The new software obfuscation scheme will be broken in 20mins by some Russian crack group. It happens with the copy protection on games, what makes you think Cyberlink/Intervideo will have any more success?
I am still sad to see Oblivion win, though, as it shows such a bias toward PC "style" gaming
My god, have you actually played Oblivion? It is so glaringly obvious that it's NOT DESIGNED FOR PC. Notice the huge font that only allows 5 or so items to be displayed?, the limited key configuration?, the stupid little mini-games?. They designed Oblivion for console and left PC gamers who are used to much more in depth RPG's out in the dark.
Read the judgment. He wasn't linking to just pages, he was linking directly to the MP3's themselves. Using your analogy, it's like putting a special button embedded in the book that will magically create a "copy" of that reference on your desk for you.
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, here's something. I have a music directory. Filled with.. well.. Music!.. I wanted to search for a file i KNEW was in there. So i typed it in the Vista search ( with indexing ) and it gave me a bunch of files.. None of which i was looking for. So i turned off indexing and tried again. Better results but still not what i was looking for. Started up cmd.exe, chdir to the music directory, and used "dir /s/a *mymfile*". It found exactly what i was looking for. It's stuff like that which put me off the search function in Vista.
Completely agree with your post, our guild has a requirement that to join you must know at least one of the founding members(of which there are 5) in real life, so the group becomes tight knit. I have actually met up with others as well, had lunch, and met some great new people. The game is so much more fun when you know who is on the other end of the player next to you!
How about something like this ( PDF! ).
How about reading this.. http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=357
Which contains a much more authoritative response from Dwight Diercks - Vice President, Software Engineering at NVIDIA
A little bit of bloom is good, but most games use overkill, Oblivion and Full Spectrum Warrior are examples, some of the bloom looks great! but alot of it just makes the scene look bad. As SirSlud said use them in the right amounts and in the right places and it looks good.
My point is simply that graphics don't make the games, gameplay does. I listed those games because i liked the gameplay, and the quality of the graphics does not impact how i feel about the game. This is in contrast to the myriad of players who see the latest and greatest Battlefield game and go "OOO! Shiny" and rave on about how awesome it is, although the gameplay is crap ( this is my biased opinion though ).
So you want some more recent games that have awesome gameplay that don't need the latest and greatest computer and graphics card?, Ok...
Soldat
Flow
Warning Forever
Dismount games
Solitaire
I'm sure there are more...
As for ragdolls and physics together, just look at Stair Dismount it may not look flashy, but it has HOURS of fun.
Aye, the exact reason Starcraft, Morrowwind, Baldurs Gate, Betrayal at Krondor, Commander Keen, Doom, C&C (list goes on) are all very fun games that i still play these days. They don't have the gfx of todays games, but heck they are still fun! And here is why Bloom sucks.
I see alot of posts talking about QoS around here. But... have you guys actually read up on why you don't really need QoS? Really?
Using your logic, we don't need graphics cards or physics cards, or raid cards, or network cards, they can all use the CPU! yes.. i can see it now, no more NVIDIA, let's use software renderers, back into the good old days of Quake, it's only a "fraction" of the CPU!
On a side note, to see exactly how much CPU software sound performance differs from hardware, look at this http://audio.rightmark.org/
This reminds me of those gunshot sensors in Deus Ex..
Now imagine they are all linked and i phone a single number and POOF. All changed at once. I no longer need to remember this. That's just one example. Sure there are disadvantages, like if the database is hacked they would have all my info in one go, but i'm unsure if the cons outweigh the pros. I certainly don't think you should automatically dismiss it just because of flaws you think you see.
It reminds me of the debate about having a national identity card. All your info in one place makes it easier to use, but harder to secure. Pros vs Cons.. The continous debate.
As for privacy. All the government agencies know this info anyway(or can get it). you.
Software Tech: Oh, damn, i knew we shouldn't have rounded the nearest milli-radian to 6400
Here is some of it http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/computer s/Appendix-II.html
You are a bit behind the times there.. 1TB consumer drives are here http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/05/hitachi-breaks- 1tb-hard-drive-barrier-with-7k1000/
Read the judgment. He wasn't linking to just pages, he was linking directly to the MP3's themselves. Using your analogy, it's like putting a special button embedded in the book that will magically create a "copy" of that reference on your desk for you.