Posts by twiz

  • What have you purchased recently?

    Quote from dux

    Few immersion breaking mishaps but no major bugs like those that were reported.[Blocked Image: http://pc.gamezone.com/images/products/FalloutNewVegas_box.jpg]

    me too. Besides minecraft, its the first game I've bought(which = played, I don't pirate games ) since Fallout 3. And before that was Episode 2 & Orange Box.

    Clearly, studying engineering leaves you with a lot of free time And extra cash... Can't remember ever buying a text book for less than $130 :ssj:

    Oh, I also bought these fuckin sweet shades. Oakley Warden Polarized. I had a pair of silver non-polarized wardens before, but they got stolen.. like my first pair of oakleys (juliets). These were $20 cheaper than a textbook!

    [Blocked Image: http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/4364/20101023161457.jpg]

    not so much beard.core as it is too-antisocial-and-lazy-to-care-about-personal-hygiene.core :derp:

  • Management within games industry

    Excellent post Furyo.

    I don't work in the games industry, so I can't comment specifically on that, but I do work in an industry, and I think this kind of thing is pretty universal. Anywhere where you have highly technically skilled people working under people who are not skilled in the same area, you will have these issues. I'm in engineering, and I think the disconnect may be even greater here than in the games industry, but I can't say for sure. Much of engineering work is so technical that it is completely impossible for a non-engineer/physicist to have any clue whatsoever what is going on or what is involved. Seemingly small changes or details can have enormous repercussions (or none whatsoever!), and unless you understand the problem and process, its easy to leave out one of these details or assume a small change is no big deal. I'd imagine it's the same way with game production... Management decides to make a change, which they think is no big deal, but in reality they basically just told you to start ALL over again. Its frustrating, and the second iteration is always of inferior quality to the first. The passion and interest is gone, you just want to get it done.

    I hope to work for myself someday

    Fortunately, many of the management-types are engineers themselves, so often there isn't that disconnect. But I have dealt with it, and it is painful. Like you said Furyo, hopefully the games industry progresses towards the same thing - game designers managing game design. Gosh it sounds so obvious :derp:

  • Minecraft

    Quote from Buddy

    It's propably because the Survival mode is turning into Construction mode a bit too much i think.

    I kinda thought that's why most people played the game at all. To explore and build cool stuff. I'd like to see stuff that makes it possible to build more stuff, more interesting stuff, more functional stuff.

  • Minecraft

    Torch lifespan!

    All that does is make the game more tedious. Going around my base replacing all the burnt out torches is not my idea of fun.

    So I guess I'm going to be making a lot more lava runs to replace all my torches with lava!? Lava does not play nice with my enchanted forest. Actually, I should say it did not play nice with my FIRST enchanted forest. The second version is quite free of lava.

    If he implements it so you can somehow allows you to adjust the lifespan when you create the torch so it is possible to create an infinite torch, then that's okay. Like, say, crafting a few torches together gives you one infinite torch. Even 9 friggin torches, whatever. Just make it possible.

  • Minecraft

    Quote from Jetsetlemming

    The game's only got 128 squares of vertical space to work in, 64 above and 64 below sea level. Notch said he'd like to expand that later, but right now super big stuff can only exist in shrunken form.

  • New Monitor

    Quote from dux

    20000:1 bad?60000:1 better?

    I never understood contrast ratios.

    Well, yeah that's the general idea. The higher the number, the bigger the difference is between bright(white) and dark(black). It kinda relates to both how bright the backlight is and how much of it bleeds thru when its supposed to be black. This leads to one of the big advantages of OLED displays, which require no backlighting; each individual led (3 leds (r-g-b) compose each pixel) provides the necessary luminosity, so there is no bleed thru. Without any background lighting, blacks are truly black.

    This makes contrast ratio inapplicable, since regardless of how bright the display is, the "bright" will always be infinitely brighter than the black - doesn't matter if its 1/0 or 100000/0, its still infinite. I imagine in a few years OLED displays will be the standard, and we can all forget about contrast ratio forever The only thing that will matter is brightness, which is easily measured and non-fudgeable by manufacturers (actually I'm sure they'll find a way...)

    But with a traditional backlit LCD, there are several ways in which manufacturers can 'tweak' the test to give more favorable numbers, since there are a multitude of settings you can change on the monitor which basically alter in the input signal, and multiple interpretations of the test(since there is no standard). Wiki:

    Quote

    A notable recent development in the LCD technology is the so-called "dynamic contrast" (DC). When there is a need to display a dark image, the display would underpower the backlight lamp (or decrease the aperture of the projector's lens using an iris), but will proportionately amplify the transmission through the LCD panel. This gives the benefit of realizing the potential static contrast ratio of the LCD panel in dark scenes when the image is watched in a dark room. The drawback is that if a dark scene does contain small areas of superbright light, image quality may be over exposed

    So if a monitor has this feature and you crank its effect all the way up, if you send the monitor a full-black image it'll be pretty close to black, and if you send it a full white image it'll be pretty damn bright, giving you a really high dynamic contrast ratio. But, unless you like staring at alternating black and white screens, this isn't really any good for typical use. For example, a movie scene in which its really dark except for a few well lit areas will either:

    a) have lots of bleed thru on the black parts (dynamic contrast setting low/off)

    b) the well lit areas will be overbright/washed out (dynamic contrast setting high)

    How accurately the monitor can compensate for the dimmed backlight with dynamic contrast in a mostly-black scene(without overbrightening) is what really matters in regards to accurate image display, not the ratio of bright to dark. This is something that is not measured, as it'd be rather difficult to do, so.. it's best to go look at the screen in action and decide what you like best. Ignore the contrast ratio, ignore the refresh rate, just go and look at them. It's all a balancing act, and its all the viewer's preference. You can't measure that. While contrast ratio and refresh rate and stuff like that give a somewhat useful indication of its performance, it doesn't mean it actually looks good.

    Its like me saying I can type 200 words per minute. But what I don't say is I only spell a tenth of the words right. Well what good is that!?

  • New Monitor

    I got a Samsung Syncmaster 2494 24" monitor last black friday for $190 off newegg... Couldn't be happier with it. Unfortunately it seems like they've phased out the 2494, but its specs are nearly identical to this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824001388

    A bit more expensive.. but if you're patient you'll find it on sale somewhere for probably around the same price.

    And there are 2 different contrast ratios... Dynamic and static.

    I won't explain them, wikipedia does a better job:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrast_ratio

    My samsung monitor has a 50000:1 dynamic and 1000:1 static. That other samsung I linked has a 70000:1 dynamic and 1000:1 static. The asus you posted has a 20000:1 dynamic and 1000:1 static.

    Also, it seems like there is some discrepancy in how contrast ratios are tested... like there is no real standard for it. I feel like contrast ratio and refresh rate are things best left to actually seeing the monitor in person. Looking at monitors/tvs in a store, sometimes I'll see a screen which has significantly better contrast(to my eye) which has a lower contrast rating than one with worse contrast(again, to my eye)... if that makes sense.

  • Minecraft

    Quote from arhurt

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    needs a Plasma widescreen what you can have a LAVA WIDESCREEN!!!

    Awesome!

  • Minecraft

    Quote from Duff-e

    I've got a bad habit of starting new worlds whenever I sit down for a session.

    The ebb and flow of what holds value to me in this game intrigues me. I've been frustrated, even angry, when I've succumbed to the lava with a couple diamonds in my inventory, I've spent way too many hours crafting fine homes.. then in an instant, I decide I'm done (no doubt with dozens of diamonds, unused, in a chest somewhere) and begin a new world. An hour ago I was literally mad because I lost a couple diamonds; now I willingly discard dozens of them along with hours of painstaking construction of a suitable home.

    It is peculiar, this minecraft.

  • Minecraft

    Quote from e-freak

    am i the only one not understanding what this game is all aboat? havent played it yet but these screenshots and videos certainly dont look very explanatory either...

    Its sorta about whatever you want it to be about. Ultimate sandbox... just a very simple set of rules that govern the whole world. It goes on for infinity in all directions. You can play it like 3D pixel art, you can go mining for resources to build bigger and better tools, you can build a huge castle, you can plant a garden, you can build traps to capture the monsters.. Or if you get bored of that, strap on your best armor, grab a few swords, some food, some torches, your compass, and just set off at dawn in an unexplored direction. See how far you can make it before it gets dark, then try to make it back alive. One of my favorite things to do.

  • Minecraft

    that is amazing.. I can't wait to see it working!!

    I took a video of the massive cavern I found, but my internet sucks and its taking forever to upload. I'll start it uploading when I go off to school, so hopefully it'll be done when I get home and I'll be able to share it... I got lost a few times because the place is a huge maze, but it shows its glory nonetheless.

  • Minecraft

    I haven't messed with carts yet, too rich for my blood, so I can't really envision the problem you're having, nor a solution. I'll build staircases/ladders instead for now.

    I'm most definitely a hoarder, which is kinda not the point of the game. I have piles upon piles of resources, but an aversion to actually using it for anything. It just sits in my crates, a monument to wasted time :derp:

    Friday's penny arcade is golden

    Right now my minecraft is broken, and I know I just need to re-download to fix.. but I'm avoiding it, so I don't spend all day minecrafting. I have homework to do