Journals
We're gonna be recording season 2 of Formula SnC soon. Just wondering if any TWHLers would like to join the roster?
At the moment it's still just Ant, Urby, Scoots and myself. I'd like to get one or two others for some more excitement and variety. Only requirement is that you can be available for a couple of nights (probably friday or saturday), can speak English conversationally on Teamspeak and don't mind putting up with Ant.
Any takers?
At the moment it's still just Ant, Urby, Scoots and myself. I'd like to get one or two others for some more excitement and variety. Only requirement is that you can be available for a couple of nights (probably friday or saturday), can speak English conversationally on Teamspeak and don't mind putting up with Ant.
Any takers?
After tackling with the installation of Arch linux for about 3 hours, I can finally browse TWHL in a retro-as-heck way:
Although this stuff is not practical, I have to emphasize that it is lightweight as fuck:
Unfortunately 3 more hours later since opening this journal I still haven't succeeded in installing a window manager. I'll probably report tomorrow or another day on this.
[EDIT]
Managed to install the X.org window system. This is very barebones and it's actually a basis for other window managers. Slapped there the lightweight "Netsurf" browser, and voila:
About ~70Mb. Keep in mind that Arch linux, afaik, is not developed to be as lightweight as possible. That is a concept followed by other distros, like DSL or Puppy Linux. It's... impressive.
What's even more impressive is that these are programs that are actively developed.
Underground tech is a wonder.
[EDIT]
Managed to install the X.org window system. This is very barebones and it's actually a basis for other window managers. Slapped there the lightweight "Netsurf" browser, and voila:
What's even more impressive is that these are programs that are actively developed.
Underground tech is a wonder.
Ant, Urby, Scoots and myself have created a new series on the old intertubes. This first run will be bi-weekly and will have ten episodes. Whatcha think?
Clickityboo!
Ep2!
Clickityboo!
Ep2!
Welp... It's my birthday. :3
I'm 25 years old now. And since this is a special day for me, I would like to show you some cool things I've done this year with the good ol' Goldsrc:
And, lol (not related):
I'm 25 years old now. And since this is a special day for me, I would like to show you some cool things I've done this year with the good ol' Goldsrc:
I visited a friend who has a 3D printer. He offered to demonstrate me how it works, and told me to think of something to print.
As 3D printing takes a lot of time(sometimes hours) when you have complex shapes, I figured out fast what to print:
It's 4cm in diamater and took 20 minutes.
As 3D printing takes a lot of time(sometimes hours) when you have complex shapes, I figured out fast what to print:
I've been playing the first Half-Life for about 8 years now, and a large majority of that time was spent fragging friends on various deathmatch servers. Over time, my valve folder was slowing building up an arsenal of downloaded maps.
Recently I did a very long Twitch stream with my friend, and out challenge was to sit down and play a selection of maps that we’d remember from long ago and see if they still held up in any way. Our lot was 55 maps in total and we dedicated at least 5 minutes to each map, increasing it to 10 if we still wanted to check things out.
To our surprise, the maps that held up the most in our eyes were A) really shitty looking, and B) Had something hilariously fun about them that neither of us could describe. I mean, hell, our favourite map from the lot that night turned out to be a map by the name of 1337_Street, and it’s just a street with blocky as sin cars and buildings with rooms you could teleport into. And yet my friend and I had so much fun on this map during out session that it practically stole the night.
Another example of a shitty map being a hell of a fun time to play is just a map that was simply called “small.bsp”: a house that’s as badly brushed at it was textured, and yet I had a hell of a time playing it.
Now, contrast that with some of the other maps we played that night. Our folder wasn’t just filled with people’s apparent first map creations; we also had some other really nice looking, thought out maps with excellent design choices when it came to making the map look nice, but the odd thing was that a large majority of them (besides the Karnak, pictured below, which is a BEAUTIFUL map that we had to skip because it was just too big for it to be fun for two people) were surprisingly boring, and we ended it just thinking about how much fun it was to tripmine the fuck out of the kitchen in Small.
So what’s the point I’m getting to here? That shitty maps are better than well textured and well thought out maps? That sinfully blocky brushwork is far more entertaining than maps with excellent use of brushes? No, not in the slightest. However, our best moments from the session happen on those really shitty maps.
This just reinforces my, perhaps spotty, ideology when it comes to making HLDM maps. I usually don’t really use custom texture wads outside out of the ones that come with half-life, nor do I really try super hard to make my maps look good. If I complete a map and playtest it and my friends and I never want to stop playing it, that is WAY better (in my mind at least) to map that looks exceptional, but does not really get to the top of the list of map suggestions before we start playing. I mean, we still play 2Partment as our first map in our sessions, and that just uses textures that everyone has seen 18 billion times by now.
Maybe I’m just a naïve mapper that needs to grow up from bad practices, but that’s just how I feel.
\_(`-` )_/
Recently I did a very long Twitch stream with my friend, and out challenge was to sit down and play a selection of maps that we’d remember from long ago and see if they still held up in any way. Our lot was 55 maps in total and we dedicated at least 5 minutes to each map, increasing it to 10 if we still wanted to check things out.
To our surprise, the maps that held up the most in our eyes were A) really shitty looking, and B) Had something hilariously fun about them that neither of us could describe. I mean, hell, our favourite map from the lot that night turned out to be a map by the name of 1337_Street, and it’s just a street with blocky as sin cars and buildings with rooms you could teleport into. And yet my friend and I had so much fun on this map during out session that it practically stole the night.
This just reinforces my, perhaps spotty, ideology when it comes to making HLDM maps. I usually don’t really use custom texture wads outside out of the ones that come with half-life, nor do I really try super hard to make my maps look good. If I complete a map and playtest it and my friends and I never want to stop playing it, that is WAY better (in my mind at least) to map that looks exceptional, but does not really get to the top of the list of map suggestions before we start playing. I mean, we still play 2Partment as our first map in our sessions, and that just uses textures that everyone has seen 18 billion times by now.
Maybe I’m just a naïve mapper that needs to grow up from bad practices, but that’s just how I feel.
\_(`-` )_/
I have just launched TV
e-sports are growing up
e-sports are growing up
Fancy getting into a new podcast? Check out my flatmate's new series Crossover Quest ft. your friendly neighbourhood Archie.
It's still finding its feet, but it's a glorious concept. Every week they take two beloved franchises and create parody crossover fan fiction. It's rude, racy and often hilarious. I've heard some of the newer un-published episodes and they just keep getting stronger as the format grows and the recording and editing improves.
I'd love to know what you think and will pass on any comments! Constructive crits very welcome.
It's still finding its feet, but it's a glorious concept. Every week they take two beloved franchises and create parody crossover fan fiction. It's rude, racy and often hilarious. I've heard some of the newer un-published episodes and they just keep getting stronger as the format grows and the recording and editing improves.
I'd love to know what you think and will pass on any comments! Constructive crits very welcome.
This is going to be a long post, so buckle in if you're in the mood for journal reading.
It's weird how nostalgia grows. I mean yeah, sure, I'm only 18 pressing 19, but I remember hanging out on this website for a long time being a lurker before finally joining this thing many years ago. I have an oddly nostalgic relationship with TWHL.
I came for the tutorials and for the entity glossary, which still provides me help and guidance to this day, and I stayed (albeit quietly, and for a short amount of time) for the community. It actually didn't really take me that long to know the regulars, if only because their online handles were memorable.
My last map uploaded was 7th January, 2013 - the last time I made a journal was 8th August, 2012 - and then I stopped playing Half-Life for a while. And with Half-Life stopped, my frequent visits here ended. To be completely honest, I really didn't think much of the years I was gone.
However, this is the present. If you're the kind of human who like to round numbers up, it's been nearly 3 years since I've seen the inviting Orange layout of this site. And holy shit, is it great to see it again.
I'm happy that TWHL still exists, and I want to high-five the people behind it all that keep this place going. And hey, while I'm here, I might as well post some maps I've cleaned up that are hideously brushed and textured maps that play surprisingly well.
Hopefully I'll stick around longer on this second wind.
It's weird how nostalgia grows. I mean yeah, sure, I'm only 18 pressing 19, but I remember hanging out on this website for a long time being a lurker before finally joining this thing many years ago. I have an oddly nostalgic relationship with TWHL.
I came for the tutorials and for the entity glossary, which still provides me help and guidance to this day, and I stayed (albeit quietly, and for a short amount of time) for the community. It actually didn't really take me that long to know the regulars, if only because their online handles were memorable.
My last map uploaded was 7th January, 2013 - the last time I made a journal was 8th August, 2012 - and then I stopped playing Half-Life for a while. And with Half-Life stopped, my frequent visits here ended. To be completely honest, I really didn't think much of the years I was gone.
However, this is the present. If you're the kind of human who like to round numbers up, it's been nearly 3 years since I've seen the inviting Orange layout of this site. And holy shit, is it great to see it again.
I'm happy that TWHL still exists, and I want to high-five the people behind it all that keep this place going. And hey, while I'm here, I might as well post some maps I've cleaned up that are hideously brushed and textured maps that play surprisingly well.
Hopefully I'll stick around longer on this second wind.
XXIX
I am now 0 years old.
If anyone even cares and had been following, I now have one of these.
Comes with Android 4.4.2, it updated to 4.4.4 but hasn't offered me 5.x yet. After fiddling with it for a few hours now, I can say the following:
Comes with Android 4.4.2, it updated to 4.4.4 but hasn't offered me 5.x yet. After fiddling with it for a few hours now, I can say the following:
- My older phone has a 140dpi screen. After two years of use everything was good. The new one has a 330dpi screen. After two hours of use, there was no turning back. Everything looks so bloody fuzzy on the old one.
- I actually liked the 3x4 keyboard on the old one. The new one only has a QWERTY keyboard which I find much slower and error-prone. I'll look into installing a custom keyboard or something.
- It's pretty snazzy but I have one gripe: On the contacts list, the old one has an option labelled "Only show contacts with phone numbers". Which is pretty nice. The Moto G has no such option and it displays every Google contact ever. I do not like that. The list gets a bit long.
- It's pretty nice to have more than one app installed at a time.
- I probably don't need to worry about it freezing or hanging for several minutes every time I try to do anything, including nothing.