Friday, March 31, 2006
First batch of hardware from Komplett.se
Because of everything being stacked on the poor sound card package, it turned out to look like this when I opened the package. That's one point less on the rating for Komplett, but nevermind that, the card supports a impressive 10,000 MIPS !!! (whatever that is...) and is recommended for Quake 4 by ID Software. Too bad that I don't play that game then...
The DVD-burner was also in this batch of hardware that I ordered from Komplett and I don't think it's much more to report. The PSU looked really impressive and like it would've high quality, but I'll post picture of it once I start building on the new computer, once the next batch from Datorbutiken arrives.
The Weather Wizard
Read more about it here:
The Weather Wizard
US government backs Microsoft up on EU issue
They state that the relation between EU and MS have reached a new lowest standard, and that the EU-process isn't fair or transparent because the commissioner is withholding key-evidence about the matter.
In the e-mail they also stated that, if the evidences turn out to be genuine, it's of a great worrying for the US aswell.
Source: USA backar upp Microsoft mot EU
Alright, now I got proper hairstyles!
"It took me a while to figure out, but you have to open the Eye menu and the Race menu at the same time. You can then drag and drop eye colors into the Race menu."That's the same way you add most things in the editor, and it is rather obvious now once you know it...
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Windows Vista is threatened to be banned in EU
For example, if you cannot uninstall Internet Explorer or the provided MS Antivirus, and replace them with Mozilla Firefox and Norton Antivirus, then it's obviously a act of preventing competition.
Personally, I think it would be the best thing that could happend if Windows Vista got banned. When I buy a OS, I wanted to be free to use it for whatever I want, not restricted by system barriers that Microsoft tries to fool us are in our best interest.
Windows Vista is shipped with Microsofts own Digital Rights Management software, that prevents anything that don't got the clearence code in the software, to not be able to run or install, successfully killing backwards compatibility with old hardware that don't have updated drivers.
Direct X 10 will also be Vista exclusive, meaning that we won't be able to play the games (DX10 games) we want on any other OS than Vista, not even Windows XP. Microsoft wants total control over your computer, something that atleast I feel it's the user who should have the control, and don't get a error like "Sorry, you cannot do that", because it doesn't follow Microsofts ideal of computing.
Hopefully, EU will actually do something more than just write them a "Angry, angry letter, telling you how very angry we are".
EU hotar förbjuda Vista
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
How to fix the introduction part to work with a new race
This is how I solved it:
- In the TES Construction Set, under the 'Character' menu, choose 'Filtered Dialogue'.
- In the Dialogue window, choose ValenDreth under the filters. He's the prisoner that's talking to you in the beginning, and the one that's causing trouble with the introduction script.
- Click 'Conversation' and select 'CharGenTaunt2' under 'Editor ID'. Now you'll see a list with all the dialogue he has for the introduction part.
- Scroll through the dialogue, and find a text where he don't mention any races, for example;
"You know, my time's almost up. Pretty soon I'll be free, and you'll still be stuck in this rat hole, waiting for your execution." - Right click on it and choose copy. Now you should have a duplicate right next to it. The * is the duplicate, and it defines that it's been modified by the user (created in this case).
- Down under 'Result Script' you'll find;
set characterGen.tauntCount to characterGen.tauntCount + 1
this one stands for; whenever he says the line ("You know, my time's..."), it will add 1 to characterGen.tauntCount. Whenever characterGen.tauntCount reaches 3, the guards will start walking towards you cell, so go ahead and change it to:
set characterGen.tauntCount to characterGen.tauntCount + 3
This will make him say this one line, and then the guards will come. Usually he says three lines... - Now it's time to fix the 'Conditions', which are the ones that's currently causing trouble for us. Select:
GetIsRace Race: 'DarkElf'' == 1.00
and "Race: 'DarkElf'" under Function Parameters and change DarkElf to the race you've created, in this case "Demon". - The last thing we need to change before saving and testing it out ingame is this one:
GetQuestVariable Quest: 'Charactergen', tauntCount == 1.00
Which is the "characterGen.tauntCount":er we mentioned above. Right now it's set to "1.00", which is the second line his says because the counter default is "0.00". We'll need it to be "0.00" or else he won't say anything at all once we try it out in game, so go ahead and edit it:
GetQuestVariable Quest: 'Charactergen', tauntCount == 0.00 - Press OK and save the changes, then try it out in the game. Start a new game and at the character creation screen, choose the race you've created (Demon in this case, or the name for Demon). If you've done everything correctly, the prisoner in the cell on the opposite side of your should start saying:
"You know, my time's almost up. Pretty soon I'll be free, and you'll still be stuck in this rat hole, waiting for your execution."
and then
"Hey, you hear that? The guards are coming... for you! He he he he he."
which would be followed by the guards coming to your cell, and that would mean we've fixed the introduction script for your new race. Congrats!
Half-Life 2 Done Quick
Half-Life 2 Done Quick - High Quality (torrent) (1.5gb)
Half-Life 2 Done Quick - Medium Quality (torrent) (780mb)
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
My First Oblivion Screenshot
Games brainwashes kids into killers
This clip reminds me of when I got my first game console, Sega MegaDrive (Genesis). Probably the happiest moment of my life, I was so glad that I cried.
Daddy's got a brand new bag
- CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2GHz Socket 939, 1MB, BOXED with fan
- Memory: Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 2x1024Mb (tot. 2048Mb/2Gb) Dual DDR PC3200 400Mhz CL2
- Graphic: Gainward BLISS GeForce 7900GT 256Mb DDR3 TV-out DUAL DVI SLI-ready RETAIL PCI Express
- Harddrive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V300F0 300Gb 7200rpm 16Mb SATA2
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V300F0 300Gb 7200rpm 16Mb SATA2
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V300F0 300Gb 7200rpm 16Mb SATA2 - Motherboard: DFI Lanparty UT nF4-D nForce4 4DDR-DIMM 2PCI 4PCIe SATA Audio GB-LAN Firewire Socket939 ATX
- DVD: NEC DVD-brännare ND-3550 IDE Silver OEM DVD+R/+RW/DVD-R/-RW
- Sound: Creative SB X-Fi Extreme Music incl. headset
- Chassi: Thermalrock CIRCLE Super Miditower/Fulltower ATX without PSU
- PSU: Hiper Type-R 580W Svart, Dual Fan, Silent 18db, 4xSATA, ATX, SLI
Oblivion Construction Set
TES4 - Oblivion Construction Set Wiki
TES4 - Oblivion Construction Set (6.5mb)
Monday, March 27, 2006
Nogg-aholic the Movie shown at Inferno Online
I forgot to ask if it was in Stockholm or Norrköping, but I'm still really happy to hear that people appreciate it and care enough to show it at such a big organization as Inferno Online. The peak would be if they decided to show it at Dreamhack (with 5000-6000 people), but that's very unlikely, mostly because their big screen is booked up for competitions and sponsor.
Also worth mentioning is that the forum users for the Nogg-aholic forum (http://noggaholic.ch0p.com) is close to a thousand now. That's really impressive for a self-driven community that got created from a fan-made movie.
Inferno Online
Nogg-aholic the Movie
Lag and Latency Reduction Technology
Online Gaming Lag (pdf)
Bigfoot Networks Interview
Introducing LLR Technology
Gaming startup aims to eliminate lag with $4m
What is amBX?
But I, that likes cool lighting, must admit that the lamps looks really cool, and they might be able to actually add to the gaming experience.
What is amBX?
Total immersion experience (wmv)
New DirectX 10 Crysis Preview
Game Trailers - Crysis
Nvidia <3 Havok
The result of an ongoing engineering collaboration between Havok and NVIDIA, this new software product from Havok—called Havok FX™—enables the simulation of dramatically-detailed physical phenomenon in PC games, powered by NVIDIA GeForce®7 or 6 Series GPUs and amplified with NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technology. The Havok FX product is currently in early release to select developers and is expected to be generally available this summer.
Through Havok FX, GPUs can simulate the interactions of thousands of colliding rigid bodies, a fundamental technique of physics computation seen in today’s latest games. It’s now possible to compute the components of friction, collisions, gravity, mass, and velocity that form the basis of rigid body physics. Havok FX is designed for GPUs supporting Shader Model 3.0, including the NVIDIA GeForce 6 and 7 Series GPUs.
Utilizing Havok FX and NVIDIA graphics technology, game developers can now implement sophisticated physical phenomenon such as debris, smoke, and fluids that add immense detail and believability to game environments. Game designers can include advanced physics effects without burdening the CPU and slowing game-play, since the effects are simulated and rendered on the GPU.
Tyler Thompson, Technical Director of video game developer Flagship Studios states, “With Havok FX, we can explore new types of visual effects that add realism into Hellgate: London. Given the widespread installed base of GPUs and the incredible performance of the new NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX and GT GPUs, Havok FX was a natural choice.”
“We are very excited about the quality and speed we are seeing on the NVIDIA GPUs. We’ve believed for some time that GPU technology had the potential to simulate physical effects and our collaboration with NVIDIA has proven that,” says Jeff Yates, VP of Product Management at Havok. “The large installed base of Shader Model 3 class GPUs and NVIDIA’s momentum in the market make Havok FX an attractive solution for game developers looking for hardware-accelerated physics.”
“Moving physics processing to the GPU is a natural progression enabled by the high programmability in today’s GPUs,” said David Kirk, chief scientist at NVIDIA. “By combining expertise with Havok, we have produced a fantastic solution for game developers that will lead to more compelling game-play and more realistic gaming experiences.”
The award-winning NVIDIA GeForce 7 and GeForce 6 graphics architectures deliver advanced technologies including full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0, enabling advanced shading programs for more realistic effects. By using the advanced programmable resources available in current GPUs, developers can harness the massive parallel computation capability of NVIDIA GPUs. The performance available to developers is further enhanced through NVIDIA SLI technology. This revolutionary platform innovation allows users to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in a single system with an NVIDIA nForce® SLI MCP.
The most fun I had with Doom 3
Nintendo Revolution (GO?) will fit in your pocket
Phantom Hourglass and Nintendo Keynote
Check below for a downloadable movie and the Nintendo keynote reportage from Joystiq...
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (mov)
GDC: The Nintendo keynote blow by blow
Ageia Phys-X Released
"Interested conference goers were able to get their hands on a playable Cell Factor multiplayer shooter demo in the Ageia booth. Developed by Artificial Studios, the Cell Factor demo featured a multilevel fuel station map filled with boxes, pipes, cloth, shipping containers, and a handful of vehicles. Players could use "psi" powers, Star Wars Force-like effects, to toss around objects and even each other."
So far as I can tell, every game using either the Reality Engine or Unreal 3 Engine will have embedded support for the Phys-X chip. Currently two top titles that's featuring Phys-X is Unreal Tournament 3 and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and you can be sure it's more to come. This might be the same revolution for computer gaming hardware as 3dfx was back in the good old days.
Movies:
Large Scale Destruction by Airtight Games
Metal Bending by Airtight Games
Bet on Soldier by Kiloton
Cell Factor by Artificial Studios
Monster Madness by Artifical Studios
Links:
GDC 06: Next-gen physics in full force
Q&A: Epic Games' Tim Sweeney on Ageia PhysX
UPDATE:
"Ageia plans to bundle the demo [Cell Factor] with its PhysX cards with a full collection of mod tools to let players explore and modify the code behind the physics."
Saturday, March 25, 2006
What's happening?
After that I had to listen to the other groups speeches, and I think I accidently fell asleep when we were supposed to give feedback to one of the groups. But as far as I can remember from their speech, it wasn't much to comment on except from being fine, or is it that I don't remember much from it...
Well after school I finally got home and was supposed to go to sleep... but for some reason I managed to get The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, to magically appear on my computer instead... so I spent like 13 hours in a row playing that game, which is running suprisingly smooth on our laptops with only a Radeon 9800 equipped.
Of course I had a break and mate minced eat with rice and watched the latest episode of Lost while eating it. But I didn't stop playing Oblivion until it crashed for probably the 200th time.
So recent news that I was supposed to post about on my blog then?
Well, we have the just announced The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS (thank god I own a DS) and Game Developers Conference running as I write. Damn you Jacob for going there without telling me...
More news is that Ageia has finally released their Phys-X card, along with a couple of trailers that's definetly worth their attention. I'll probably write about all this when I get time over... time that I don't spend on Oblivion that is... kkthxbye gotta go!
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Battlefield 2142 is confirmed
"Hi BF fans,
Today we have some really big news to share with you. The more sniper-eyed of you out there will probably already know, but we're currently hard at work developing "Battlefield 2142", which is scheduled for release this Autumn. As you'll have guessed, this is a departure for the BF series as we're going into the future - something that a lot of you wanted to see happen in the BF universe.
We're creating a ton of cool features that you won't have seen in any BF before, including cloaking devices, mines that follow you, awesome new rifles, guns and grenades, and of course, MECHS! We're developing this here in DICE Stockholm while the DICE Canada studio will be hard at work on a 1.3 update for Battlefield 2, as well as the Armoured Fury Booster Pack.
There'll be an "official" press release later on this week but we know that you guys need to know first. Stay tuned and we'll keep you posted on how 2142 is coming along.
The BF2142 Team
P.S. Snoken - vi har sett fram emot Mine 2 och kan lugnt säga att vi inte blev besvikna!"
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
MechCommander 2 Source Code Release
Download Source Code
Battlefield 2142, Real or April?
Second of all, it seems strange for that specified issue being leaked when Aprils issue isn't even out yet (if I haven't totally missed something). And thirdly, April Fools Day isn't far away from now.
But download the supposedly leaked pages from the May issue of PC Gamer below, including two pages from the same issue with a scoop about Half-Life 2: Episode 1. Also there's supposedly a leaked trailer for Battlefield 2142 over at Game Trailers. Watch and judge for yourself.
PC Gamer May Issue Scans
Battlefield 2142 Game Trailers
Saturday, March 18, 2006
EA will finally acquire DICE
After that EA had acquired 67,9% of the stocks for DICE and have warrent for a further 2 327 602 A stocks. That would mean EA would own 73,0% of DICE through stock shares, a status quo that on sight may have negative impact on DICE.
Because of this, EA offered DICE to merge with EA Holding and give them right to their development tools, technology and financial resources. After considering the options DICE has, their entire board have agreed on the offer and it will help them with their transition to game consoles and next-gen platforms.
This is required by DICE in rate with the increasing cost for developing a game and the increasingly severe competition on the market. EA Holding will acquire all DICE resources and debts, during the merge that will be held in September this year.
For more information, read here (Swedish)
EA to complete DICE takeover
Personal comments: First of all, I'm sorry for the crude translation from DICE press release, and my lacking knowledge about the stock market. Secondly, I would like to point out that EA have been trying to takeover DICE since 2003, if not even earlier than that, and DICE has repeatedly declined their offers.
The current situation looks almost like a extortion of the company, forcing DICE to hand themself over to EA. And thirdly, I would like to say it's frightening that no matter what, a opposition who is wealthy enough, can acquire anything they want.
And of course, I could be completely wrong about all this, and my translation above may have hundreds of errors in it... but hopefully I've reported the current situation good enough.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Multi-colored food digestion
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Gold Farming Documentary
Disembodiment, Hypermobility, and Labor
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Shadowrun for the Xbox 360
Apperantly, a artist by the name Kevin K Hanna, wrote in his resumé about working on Shadowrun for FASA Studios.
When reading through his resumé, all I could find was "Unannounced project (X-Box 360) 2005" and nothing that clearly said "Shadowrun" in it, so don't get too excited just yet.
Shadowrun will reappear next gen as launch title for the next Microsoft system. The co-creator of the Shadowrun universe Jordan Weisman (and founder of FASA) is working closely with Bungie to make the game. The game is a reworked version of the failed "Project Phoenix" as it literally rose from the grave in its re-birthed form of Shadowrun after being canned by MS to focus on Halo 2 development. A skeleton crew second team (comprised mostly of the old Oni team) is doing the work for now. Several FASA employees have visited Bungie's studios recently while work begins on FASA's next title also slated for the next MS console code named Xenon.
I have worked on many projects, ranging from PC games to console, FPS to role-playing. Right now, I am animating for an Xbox 2 project called Shadowrun. It's a first-person shooter based on an old paper RPG of the same name from a couple decades ago.-Theron Berson
Shadowrun downloads:
Shadowrun (SNES Rom)
Snes9x v1.43 final (SNES Emulator)
ZSNES v1.42 (SNES Emulator)
Shadowrun 2nd City (mid)
FASA Studio
Artist's Resumé Confirms Shadowrun is in the Works
Shadowrun in Development for the Xbox 360
Microsoft Applies for Shadowrun Trademark
Saturday, March 11, 2006
When you know you've done a too good job
Ok, for all you skeptics. (The full true story).
I Come over his house to hang out. His roomate was sitting on the couch, watching tv with the dog, and i asked, where's Derek, and she said in his bedroom. So i go to the back, and his door WAS shut. I slowly opened it, and he yells at me before i could even get it fully open, "GET OUT, im changing!.. i'll be out in a minute". So I said alright. So i run back into the living room, tell his roomate that we should catch him changing on film as a joke. So she hands me her video camera, cause she was too chicken to do it. Turns out, he's doing a bit more than that. To answer why he continued after he knew i was at his house.. i have NO clue.. he's just a sicko i guess, and two, why was it to a night elf?.. you know, some people just have their own problems. So, we got in this huge fight afterward, and he said some pretty messed up things to me, and kicked me out of his house for ever. decided to end our friendship. So, as revenge, i took the tape when i left, and decided to put it up on here. I guess thats what you get. and thats the true full story. oh, and just to piss him off even more, here is his myspace acccount- http://www.myspace.com/blin...
Nerd Plays W.O.W.