Journals
Man, just finished "Crysis". The ending was pretty good, and it was challenging, but not impossible.
I did have to savegame pretty often so I wouldn't have to play the same segment over and over again.
I did have to savegame pretty often so I wouldn't have to play the same segment over and over again.
Typing this journal from my new Toshiba NB305 that I got yesterday, 2 days prior to leaving on an 11 day trip to France, Germany, and Switzerland with my family.
It's a neat little machine, although I am somewhat disappointed to say that it has a bit of trouble trying to play Half-Life, which even on a netbook seems somewhat surprising considering it's a 12 year old game. The laptop's native screen resolution, 1024x600, is apparently unsupported by Steam's Half-Life for whatever reason. It forces it into 800x600 mode, and brutally stretches everything out. Windowed mode works fine, though it's a bit distracting. The first time I started a new game and was riding on the tram, I actually got a huge amount of lag and general sluggishness. Switching to Direct 3D and 16 bit colors seemed to fix these problems for some reason. I guess the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 isn't too happy about OpenGL rendering.
Ultimate Doom played fine after a few DLL copying shenanigans though.
P.S. Windows 7 starter is the only OS I have ever used in my life that has desktop backgrounds intentionally designed out. Seriously. WTF, man.
It's a neat little machine, although I am somewhat disappointed to say that it has a bit of trouble trying to play Half-Life, which even on a netbook seems somewhat surprising considering it's a 12 year old game. The laptop's native screen resolution, 1024x600, is apparently unsupported by Steam's Half-Life for whatever reason. It forces it into 800x600 mode, and brutally stretches everything out. Windowed mode works fine, though it's a bit distracting. The first time I started a new game and was riding on the tram, I actually got a huge amount of lag and general sluggishness. Switching to Direct 3D and 16 bit colors seemed to fix these problems for some reason. I guess the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 isn't too happy about OpenGL rendering.
Ultimate Doom played fine after a few DLL copying shenanigans though.
P.S. Windows 7 starter is the only OS I have ever used in my life that has desktop backgrounds intentionally designed out. Seriously. WTF, man.
Just started that P90X workout routine.
I have never worked out harder in my life.
I intend on following this all the way thru.
omg tho. its hard as hell.
had a hospital visit thanks to that program. more details later when I'm not ony iPhone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supraventricular_tachycardia
I have never worked out harder in my life.
I intend on following this all the way thru.
omg tho. its hard as hell.
had a hospital visit thanks to that program. more details later when I'm not ony iPhone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supraventricular_tachycardia
Time for another episode of Penguinboy's dead projects! (Aka the side project showcase)
Today we say goodbye to a project that I worked quite a bit on for about a year. Yes, this is the 'big project' I've mentioned previously. Some of you knew about it before, many didn't. But it's dead.
Gotta say I was rather sad to see this one go. Ah well.
Project: Thor
Goal: Hammer clone.
Yes, it's a clone of Valve's Hammer Editor. Working for both Source and Goldsource, Thor was to be a perfect clone of Hammer (interface and functionality). Combining all the extra features of version 4 and the stability of a modern programming language, Thor would probably have made a few Goldsource mappers happy.
Anyway, a screenshot or two:
This one's kinda outdated, but shows a basic layout:
This is how the 3D view looked, with textures and entities:
What these screenshots might not make apparent is how far along this was. It was loading RMFs (above maps are one of Grim's vault maps, and Adam Foster's Someplace Else), showing them in 3D, had brush and texture editing, and compiling as well. Here's a video that should show it a bit better:
Video link
Project status: DEAD. Sorry guys, this thing is completely dead. Why? For starters, it's very badly coded. Also, it was crashing constantly - I couldn't nail down the cause, but I think it was one of the underlying libraries, something that I couldn't change without basically rewriting it. Finally, when I upgraded to Windows 7, it broke completely and by that time, I didn't want to put in the effort to look into that. Thor is dead, and it's not coming back. Don't cry for Thor, it's gone to a better place.
That said, I do actually have a bunch of semi-decent code left over from it. I may do something with them in the future. I have RMF/MAP/VMF parsers, FGD editors, texture application algorithms, and quite a bit of 3D programming knowledge. Any suggestions on what I should do with all this stuff?
One day, perhaps I will clean up any of the half-decent code and release it under an open license. It's all coded in .NET, if you were wondering.
Today we say goodbye to a project that I worked quite a bit on for about a year. Yes, this is the 'big project' I've mentioned previously. Some of you knew about it before, many didn't. But it's dead.
Gotta say I was rather sad to see this one go. Ah well.
Project: Thor
Goal: Hammer clone.
Yes, it's a clone of Valve's Hammer Editor. Working for both Source and Goldsource, Thor was to be a perfect clone of Hammer (interface and functionality). Combining all the extra features of version 4 and the stability of a modern programming language, Thor would probably have made a few Goldsource mappers happy.
Anyway, a screenshot or two:
This one's kinda outdated, but shows a basic layout:
Video link
Project status: DEAD. Sorry guys, this thing is completely dead. Why? For starters, it's very badly coded. Also, it was crashing constantly - I couldn't nail down the cause, but I think it was one of the underlying libraries, something that I couldn't change without basically rewriting it. Finally, when I upgraded to Windows 7, it broke completely and by that time, I didn't want to put in the effort to look into that. Thor is dead, and it's not coming back. Don't cry for Thor, it's gone to a better place.
That said, I do actually have a bunch of semi-decent code left over from it. I may do something with them in the future. I have RMF/MAP/VMF parsers, FGD editors, texture application algorithms, and quite a bit of 3D programming knowledge. Any suggestions on what I should do with all this stuff?
One day, perhaps I will clean up any of the half-decent code and release it under an open license. It's all coded in .NET, if you were wondering.
I thought I'd link to this free Steam game coming out soon. It was originally a UT mod but Valve swooped them up and they made a second game for the Source engine.
Did I mention it's free? Oh yeah I did.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/
"Along with the game get the complete code base for Alien Swarm that features updates to the Source engine as well as the SDK. Alien Swarm adds 3rd person camera, depth of field, improved dynamic shadows and a wide variety of gameplay additions to the Source engine."
Did I mention it's free? Oh yeah I did.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/
"Along with the game get the complete code base for Alien Swarm that features updates to the Source engine as well as the SDK. Alien Swarm adds 3rd person camera, depth of field, improved dynamic shadows and a wide variety of gameplay additions to the Source engine."
Well, yesterday I woke up with my back really hurting.
I put on a thermometer and I had 37,7 C. Went to the doctor.
It seems I have pneumonia... I feel better today, but I still have to take medication 7 days. Yesterday I was all sweating at a minimum effort(because when you have pneumonia, air sacs in your lungs are filled with liquid and oxygen absorption is greatly reduced).
It's awful...
[EDIT] In other news, I'm preparing a new Gmod Machinima: Illegal Broadcast 2(Illegal BroadCast 1).
I've got some awesome scenes for this one( I'd say 40% is done). It will also feature true 720p video, not "stretched to fit" as in IB1, although before I realized this is better I filmed 2 or 3 clips in 720x480.
You can guess that it won't be the best machinima, but it will surely feature cooler scenes than IB1(which, sincerely, I don't like it much either). Hope I finish it soon!
I put on a thermometer and I had 37,7 C. Went to the doctor.
It seems I have pneumonia... I feel better today, but I still have to take medication 7 days. Yesterday I was all sweating at a minimum effort(because when you have pneumonia, air sacs in your lungs are filled with liquid and oxygen absorption is greatly reduced).
It's awful...
[EDIT] In other news, I'm preparing a new Gmod Machinima: Illegal Broadcast 2(Illegal BroadCast 1).
I've got some awesome scenes for this one( I'd say 40% is done). It will also feature true 720p video, not "stretched to fit" as in IB1, although before I realized this is better I filmed 2 or 3 clips in 720x480.
You can guess that it won't be the best machinima, but it will surely feature cooler scenes than IB1(which, sincerely, I don't like it much either). Hope I finish it soon!
For those of you who are using nw.wad, here are the rad file entries for the texturelights:
nw.wad rad entries
Unfortunately, there are multiple rad files, i don't know which one is the base rad file for the texturelights. Kungfusquirrel (one of the authors) recommends to do this to figure that out:
I'd merge them together and if there are conflicts, look to nwc2a* for the tiebreaker.
nw.wad rad entries
Unfortunately, there are multiple rad files, i don't know which one is the base rad file for the texturelights. Kungfusquirrel (one of the authors) recommends to do this to figure that out:
I'd merge them together and if there are conflicts, look to nwc2a* for the tiebreaker.
I am almost through playing Crysis, and I found that it's a very difficult game, even more difficult than the original Far Cry.
The part that I had to save Prophet from freezing to death and the part that I had to fly the chopper was nearly impossible. I think I finally made it after twenty attempts.
A game should never be that difficult. It takes the fun out of playing the game. I was really getting frustrated, and this is coming from a guy who is very used to playing these shooting games.
The part that I had to save Prophet from freezing to death and the part that I had to fly the chopper was nearly impossible. I think I finally made it after twenty attempts.
A game should never be that difficult. It takes the fun out of playing the game. I was really getting frustrated, and this is coming from a guy who is very used to playing these shooting games.
does anyone here know of a way to port the textures from CoD5 to image formats?
New computer is all built and good to go. I love this thing.
AMD Phenom II x4 @ 3.4 Ghz
XFX HD 5850
COOLER MASTER CM690 II (I freaking love this case to pieces)
OCZ 30 GB SSD
Corsair 650 Watt PSU
GIGABYTE 890GX motherboard
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB Memory
Boots up in 15 seconds (from hitting button to being usable).
I haven't been able to try to game on it yet, as I'm currently reformatting an old hard drive, but I know for sure it will play Crysis.
I'm still excited.
AMD Phenom II x4 @ 3.4 Ghz
XFX HD 5850
COOLER MASTER CM690 II (I freaking love this case to pieces)
OCZ 30 GB SSD
Corsair 650 Watt PSU
GIGABYTE 890GX motherboard
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB Memory
Boots up in 15 seconds (from hitting button to being usable).
I haven't been able to try to game on it yet, as I'm currently reformatting an old hard drive, but I know for sure it will play Crysis.
I'm still excited.
Well. This sucks.
So, our area is in the middle of a two province-wide heat wave. Normally, this would be bad enough, but the humid air seems to be all too much for my rig- it's normally cool interior heats up within 5-10 minutes of gameplay in Fallout 3. So, basically, I can't really use my PC, limiting me to more or less dialup internet usage and TV as far as electronic entertainment goes- Steam on this computer is halfway through an update as far as I know, and none of the non-steam games on it really pique my interest at the moment.
As for going outside and doing something there, well... I was never the sports kind, and besides, it's too damn hot to do anything active anyways.
[insert long sigh here]
So, our area is in the middle of a two province-wide heat wave. Normally, this would be bad enough, but the humid air seems to be all too much for my rig- it's normally cool interior heats up within 5-10 minutes of gameplay in Fallout 3. So, basically, I can't really use my PC, limiting me to more or less dialup internet usage and TV as far as electronic entertainment goes- Steam on this computer is halfway through an update as far as I know, and none of the non-steam games on it really pique my interest at the moment.
As for going outside and doing something there, well... I was never the sports kind, and besides, it's too damn hot to do anything active anyways.
[insert long sigh here]
Once upon a time I bought a game called blue shift. It is a half life mod, but its retail status is as legitimate as Halo: Combat Evolved. I'll tell you about that another time. We are discussing blue shift right now.
Most of you who played this tiny little mod must be familiar with how tiny it was. I'm saying about five or six chapters tops. And you wonder if it was really worth your money. Because azure sheep is not only free, features new code and monsters, and weapons too, but much, much longer than blue shift. (Blue shift features no new content, some custom generic models, and offers a high definition pack in which the M9 has 17 bullets per clip and the colt M4 has 50 bullets per clip. If that makes sense at all.)
And this was the reason why I lent my blue shift CD to a taiwanese bakery owner's son (twenty or thirty years old) some 5 or 6 years ago. Then later I heard that they moved back to Taiwan. What. The. F.
So now, I can't ever play blue shift any more. Not that it wasn't that great to begin with, but it is kinda sad to lose one mod of the higher end of the half-life mod scale (needless to say, a good amount of mods are either not very good or not very long, but most are lacking in new content. Blue shift at least has custom sounds, models, etc.) But that was then.
Ever since 2muchvideogames played tf2 on steam for a few measly days, he figured that steam may have more to offer than lagginess. And he has definitely stopped using his old, 17GB computer that you all may be familiar with. So one day I stumbled across the old blue shift CD case and blah blah blah, you all know where this story is going.
Okay enough writing, time for 2muchvideogames to do his thing.
Most of you who played this tiny little mod must be familiar with how tiny it was. I'm saying about five or six chapters tops. And you wonder if it was really worth your money. Because azure sheep is not only free, features new code and monsters, and weapons too, but much, much longer than blue shift. (Blue shift features no new content, some custom generic models, and offers a high definition pack in which the M9 has 17 bullets per clip and the colt M4 has 50 bullets per clip. If that makes sense at all.)
And this was the reason why I lent my blue shift CD to a taiwanese bakery owner's son (twenty or thirty years old) some 5 or 6 years ago. Then later I heard that they moved back to Taiwan. What. The. F.
So now, I can't ever play blue shift any more. Not that it wasn't that great to begin with, but it is kinda sad to lose one mod of the higher end of the half-life mod scale (needless to say, a good amount of mods are either not very good or not very long, but most are lacking in new content. Blue shift at least has custom sounds, models, etc.) But that was then.
Ever since 2muchvideogames played tf2 on steam for a few measly days, he figured that steam may have more to offer than lagginess. And he has definitely stopped using his old, 17GB computer that you all may be familiar with. So one day I stumbled across the old blue shift CD case and blah blah blah, you all know where this story is going.
Okay enough writing, time for 2muchvideogames to do his thing.
Don't know if you guys have already seen this (seeing as it's a tad old) but:
Ignis Solus
I doubt the author intended it to be sad, but I found it to be...
Ignis Solus
I doubt the author intended it to be sad, but I found it to be...
So I finished university two months ago and I got my results this morning. I am now the proud owner of:
Bachelor of Arts Honours Computer Games Design (Story Development) - First Class.
To those that don't know that's the highest mark available.
Bachelor of Arts Honours Computer Games Design (Story Development) - First Class.
To those that don't know that's the highest mark available.