Posts by Thrik

  • Mario Kart Wii.

    You told us what, exactly? That you weren't getting it?

    Despite my torrent of critisism in my post above, it's important to note that I do end it on a positive note: it is the best Mario Kart game yet, and for newcomers to the series it's going to be one wild ride. Unfortunately it doesn't distinguish itself from Double Dash enough to excite veterans — in my opinion.

    If any of you somehow never played Double Dash, you'll probably find Mario Kart Wii very agreeable.

  • What Are You Playing '08 Thread

    How are the black levels on the VIERAs of today? Do they hold up even in a dark room?

    I'm going to look into getting a similarly sized TV this year, but the ongoing black levels that LCDs tend to have worries me. I don't want to have to use a dynamic backlight to get decent blacks, but I can't afford the epic prices of the KURA (meant to have the best black levels of any television, period). The BRAVIA is meant to have good black levels but I've no idea about VIERA.

  • Mario Kart Wii.

    Hmm, my extra wheel arrived yesterday but no game. They did ship both at the same time though so I assume the two packages got separated. Hopefully it'll be there when I get home from work.

  • Mario Kart Wii.

    Heh you're right, Gameplay have definitely removed/hidden it. It doesn't even show up in the search.

    I think they ship all pre-orders a few days early so they get there on the day of release (or earlier in my experience). They must just close pre-orders once it gets to the point where you could just go get it in a shop instead, and will replace it with their own normal version soon.

    Guess I was right to pre-order early after all.

  • Forum software updated

    phpBB 3.0.1 was released last night, and has now been rolled out on MapCore. It looks like there're no significant changes from a user perspective (other than performance/security), but here's a change log anyway for anyone who cares:

    Quote
    • [*:1vp95kir][Change] Validate birthdays (Bug #15004)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Allow correct avatar caching for CGI installations. (thanks wildbill)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Fix disabling of word censor, now possible again[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Allow single quotes in db password to be stored within config.php in installer[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Correctly quote db password for re-display in installer (Bug #16695 / thanks to m313 for reporting too - #s17235)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Correctly handle empty imageset entries (Bug #16865)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Correctly check empty subjects/messages (Bug #17915)[*:1vp95kir][Change] Do not check usernames against word censor list. Disallowed usernames is already checked and word censor belong to posts. (Bug #17745)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Additionally include non-postable forums for moderators forums shown within the teams list. (Bug #17265)[*:1vp95kir][Change] Sped up viewforum considerably (also goes towards mcp_forum)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Do not split topic list for topics being promoted to announcements after been moved to another forum (Bug #18635)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Allow editing usernames within database_update on username cleanup (Bug #18415)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Fixing wrong sync() calls if moving all posts by a member in ACP (Bug #18385)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Check entered imagemagick path for trailing slash (Bug #18205)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Use proper title on index for new/unread posts (Bug #13101) - patch provided by Pyramide[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Allow calls to $user->set_cookie() define no cookie time for setting session cookies (Bug #18025)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Stricter checks on smilie packs (Bug #19675)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Gracefully return from cancelling pm drafts (Bug #19675)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Possible login problems with IE7 if browser check is activated (Bug #20135)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Fix possible database transaction errors if code returns on error and rollback happened (Bug #17025)[*:1vp95kir][Change] Allow numbers in permission names for modifications, as well as uppercase letters for the request_ part (Bug #20125)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Use HTTP_HOST in favor of SERVER_NAME for determining server url for redirection and installation (Bug #19955)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Removing s_watching_img from watch_topic_forum() function (Bug #20445)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Changing order for post review if more than one post affected (Bug #15249)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Language typos/fixes (Bug #20425, #15719, #15429, #14669, #13479, #20795, #21095, #21405, #21715, #21725, #21755, #21865, #15689)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Style/Template fixes (Bug #20065, #19405, #19205, #15028, #14934, #14821, #14752, #14497, #13707, #14738, #19725)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Tiny code fixes (Bug #20165, #20025, #19795, #14804)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Prepend phpbb_root_path to ranks path for displaying ranks (Bug #19075)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Allow forum notifications if topic notifications are disabled but forum notifications enabled (Bug #14765)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Fixing realpath issues for provider returning the passed value instead of disabling it. This fixes issues with confirm boxes for those hosted on Network Solutions for example. (Bug #20435)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Try to sort last active date on memberlist correctly at least on current page (Bug #18665)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Handle generation of form tokens when maximum time is set to -1[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Correctly delete unapproved posts without deleting the topic (Bug #15120)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Respect signature permissions in posting (Bug #16029)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Users allowed to resign only from open and freely open groups (Bug #19355)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Assign a last viewed date to converted topics (Bug #16565)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Many minor and/or cosmetic fixes (Including, but not limited to: #21315, #18575, #18435, #21215)[*:1vp95kir][Feature] New option to hide the entire list of subforums on listforums[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Custom BBCode {EMAIL}-Token usage (Bug #21155)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Do not rely on parameter returned by unlink() for verifying cache directory write permission (Bug #19565)[*:1vp95kir][Change] Use correct string for filesize (MiB instead of MB for example)[*:1vp95kir][Change] Remove left join for query used to retrieve already assigned users and groups within permission panel (Bug #20235)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Correctly return sole whitespaces if used with BBCodes (Bug #19535)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Quote bbcode parsing adding too much closing tags on special conditions (Bug #20735)[*:1vp95kir][Change] Added sanity checks to various ACP settings[*:1vp95kir][Change] Removed minimum form times[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Check topics_per_page value in acp_forums (Bug #15539)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Custom profile fields with date type should be timezone independend (Bug #15003)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Fixing some XHTML errors/warnings within the ACP (Bug #22875)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Warnings if poll title/options exceed maximum characters per post (Bug #22865)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Do not allow selecting non-authorized groups within memberlist by adjusting URL (Bug #22805 - patch provided by ToonArmy)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Correctly specify "close report action" (Bug #22685)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Display "empty password error" within the login box instead of issuing a general error (Bug #22525)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Clean up who is online code in page_header (Bug #22715, thanks HighwayofLife)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Pertain select single link on memberlist (Bug #23235 - patch provided by Schumi)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Allow & and | in local part of email addresses (Bug #22995)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Do not error out if php_uname function disabled / Authenticating on SMTP Server (Bug #22235 - patch by HoL)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Correctly obtain to be ignored users within topic/forum notification (Bug #21795 - patch provided by dr.death)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Correctly update board statistics for attaching orphaned files to existing posts (Bug #20185)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Do not detect the board URL as a link twice in posts (Bug #19215)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Set correct error reporting in style.php to avoid blank pages after CSS changes (Bug #23885)[*:1vp95kir][Fix] If pruning users based on last activity, do not include users never logged in before (Bug #18105)[*:1vp95kir][sec] Only allow searching by email address in memberlist for users having the a_user permission (reported by evil<3)[*:1vp95kir][sec] Limit private message attachments to be viewable only by the recipient(s)/sender (Report #s23535) - reported by AlleyKat[*:1vp95kir][sec] Check for non-empty config.php within style.php (Report #s24575) - reported by bantu[*:1vp95kir][Fix] Find and display colliding usernames correctly when converting from one database to another (Bug #23925)

    This announcement will be removed after a couple of days, but until then please mention it if you spot any weirdness that may have occurred following the upgrade. I've hopefully retained our various modifications but you can never be sure.

  • Mario Kart Wii.

  • the daily "how was your day?" extravaganza 2008

    Mandatory service has always seemed pretty weird to me in that respect. It's not like the old days where countries just saw other countries as faceless enemies; thanks to the internet and television, etc, we know there're real people with families on the other end of those bullets. I'd imagine there's a lot of cases of mandatory servicemen who simply couldn't do it and would end up either getting themselves or their squad killed. No amount of mandatory hardening (which is also wrong IMO) can make you a killer if you have no such inclination, unlike those who sign up of their own accord.

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    It's nice Albatros, but the lighting does need a bit of work. It might seem all well and good having HDR like that at first, but when you think about it, have you ever seen lighting that's so insanely bright and makes the walls look like they're on fire? Or lighting that makes the snow on a mountain seem like it's as bright as the sun?

    HDR is a great tool, but people try to use it too obviously. Subtlety is the key to making good use of it.