Posts by e-freak

  • Gabe - Piracy non issues for Steam.

    Downloading TV Series is just pirating as well. Then again, it's exactly what Gabe is saying: You only get the good series if you're a US citizen. I'd be more than willing to pay the 8 bucks for Hulu or Netflix but I'm not allowed for some stupid licensing deals.

    The reason Steam is more expensive is that the publishers still stick to retail and have binding contracts not to go below certain limits to keep walmart attractive.

  • "Level with Me", my level design interview series at RPS

    Really great article today again

    I liked these two replies, cause they pretty much summed up this thread:

    Quote

    If that’s how she writes books, that’s her individual process. She talks with friends and things come up, and it comes together, and she does something.[...]At certain points in my life – I wasn’t depressed, but I was struggling with answers. In the end, I decided I should just pull the “dispense food and chill out” lever instead of the “shock me and be paralyzed by thought” lever. I’m going to do what leads to being happy instead of being intellectually satisfied.

    on how not everything has to be artistic and idealistic, sometimes it can be just get food and have fun.

    Quote

    RY: I thought the same: reactions were my reward. Then I talked to an indie dev who questioned the “personal value” angle, as if to say, “You had privilege and could afford to mod instead of work. You didn’t earn your voice.” I feel guilty. That’s what I’m facing now, that I’m not authentic.

    and your own quote: there's a difference of releasing an art-mod, which players like for two reasons: it's great and they didn't have to pay for it. The first one is something the modder earned (that the mod is received as a great, fun work). The second is something why even if everyone in here would agree on games being to mindless or not telling proper stories, we would still be doing them, because they pay the bills. Super Meatboy is a fun game and it for sure doesn't tell a very artsy story. But after years of work it payed the bills because it was fun and appealed to paying customers. In the end, as much as it sucks for artistic freedom or what ever, financial success is what you need to achieve. And a Call of Duty with stale story, stale gameplay and awesome explosions just pays better than any art game.

  • Bending an array

    Hey, I've got a bit of a technical problem - I've got a lowpoly shape of what my geometry should look like and I want to bend an array of highpoly screws over the shape of that lowpoly original. SurfDeform doesn't work for me anyone got an idea?

  • Steam Forums Hacked

    Quote from D3ads

    I heard about this on e-freak's facebook, I was led to believe it was only the forums that had been attacked and that steam accounts were not compromised... damn.

    yepp, a week ago (on sunday) it looked like someone just opened up the admin panel for the boards and spammed some shit there. today it became clear that they had access to a database with user email adresses and postal adresses. all CC information and passwords are save as of now as their encryption wasn't broken.

    i'd guess valve can find out who did it, just like when hl2 was leaked and the community helped them find the idiot. just wondering who has an interest in breaching steam though...

  • Rainbow Six: Patriots

    Haha, I started a hatred here I have to say I hated the QTEs in Crysis 2 (and they became even more ridiculous when I had my flatmate play the game who didn't touch a shooter since Quake and didn't knew how QTEs worked) and in most other games these days. I agree that - whenever possible, story should be told through Gameplay or in cut-scenes you really participate in (think Half-Life's free roaming cut-scenes). Now - clearly that part of the game wasn't supposed to work as a gameplay demo (imo) so I'm a little more forgiving with the QTEs there.

  • Rainbow Six: Patriots

    The QTEs as gameplay elements might look incredible dumb but I still like them for what they did: They made you think you actually play as this guy which helps you attach to him much more. Imagine this being a static cutscene: You get back from the kitchen after the loading screen just finished, missed the first 5 seconds, you sit down, watch your screen, people you don't know or don't have any connection to get beaten up. It wouldn't work the same way.

    Making you think you actually contributed to that scene ("OMG, if i had just taken the iPad instead of the TV remote I might have changed something") and leaves you with the same feeling of help-less-nes the guy is in ("How could I have done any different - could I have done anything about it"). The limited control here makes perfect sense. Don't hate on QTEs because they are often used wrong and just because it's the "New thing". It's not like they freeze-framed until you pressed "F" to look at the door or something as stupid as that.

  • "Level with Me", my level design interview series at RPS

    I really liked the interview and Magnar's points.

    What distracted me was the pushing (in the comments especally) at PlanetPhil. The guy runs his personal blog where he likes to go about action mods. Giving him the Wikipedia comparison or how he has to mention mods for the archieves came across really strong. I really like the radiator mods and they're featured on a lot of sites (including the one I used to write for) but repeatetly pushing at someone for not reporting on them just looks unprofessional. It's like trying to force your indie-band into the death-metal magazine.

  • CryEngine question

    i bet someone at work could have answered you that

    technically: assets from C1 should work in C2 most of the time but animations might be broken. also the materials are broken, hence the texture format has changed and C1 textures look too bright in C2 (colorspace changed for C2).

    legally: including stuff is a bit risky if you don't own the rights, usually though, crytek is pretty relaxed (say, c2 mod with a few c1 assets). also you might think about checking if those assets were available in the free c1 demo before you include them in a mod. redistributing freely available stuff looks nicer