Posts by blackdog

Too dark for a game like CS. Then I'm not sure about the texture for the ceiling.

Quote from FrieChamp

I know it's a Bay-movie and all, but that trailer is fun. I'll check it out!

On a different note I watched Oblivion the other day. I turned it off when it was becoming

Yeah, i suggest you do so; probably I liked it because my expectations were so low... it wasn't even in my watchlist!

Oblivion on the opposite, is one of the recent movies i've seen and definitely underperformed and actually irritated me.

Not that I was expecting the definitive sci-fi movie (the trailer took away any illusion as soon as Freeman came up on screen), but the script rips off from too many other movies. I was tempted too to cut it at the same point as you, I would have been spared by the

Quote

"2010" and "Independence Day"

rip-off scenes toward the end.

I also think Freeman is dressed up like the early concepts of Eli Vance (HL2) so the movie overall feels like everything as been seen already. Even the weapons and the logo... and the narrative inception are very close to Bungie's Destiny!

I was also disturbed by the fact even considering the city to be leveled/Earth to be terraformed... NY landmarks are scattered in a way that doesn't seem to make sense: "ok put a piece of The Statue there, so those dumbasses understand this is NY".

And don't get me started about some plot absurdities...

Quote from 2d-chris

paradoxically, the face in starcraft UI might actually be less distracting being there, than a gap in the lower UI panel.

Well, doesn't need to be a space, things could be, for eg., more spaced out

Anyways, i think it's a bit of both the reasons you cite: at those times things were done "how it felt right" -as far as i know- so a lot of design choices had good results, to other we just got used to.

Choices have to be contextualized: you most probably cannot play efficiently with SC's UI on a TV with a mouse on the couch, and you can't have a game as fast as SC with a pad.

Not saying that Halo Wars interface is better, I just feel that is a largely unexplored area and the panorama is a bit stale, but as I said, I'm not an RTS expert.

PS: note that the "less is more" concept was mainly oriented to the FPS/action genres.

Quote from 2d-chris

take a look at Starcraft, it has allot of UI because it simply needs it. I remember when RTS games attempted the less is more approach, it failed miserably.

Haven't played many RTS, such a noob, but always hated the panel with the character face that just takes up space (or fills a hole - even worse).I agree that they need to display more informations most of the time, but there's also so much chrome in those UIs.

I haven't tried it, so I wonder how efficient is the UI in Halo Wars, which pops up on-demand... maybe it's what you were referring to

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my complaint with this –I tried to replay it last summer– would be that there were too many different keys for basic actions (eg: primary weapon is bind to a different key depending on the active commando); but if you also think about the multi-camera feature, that game was really well thought out!

Quote from Thrik

I could barely sleep last night my upper chest muscles were aching so much. I hope this gets less painful?????

Of course; do some light activity with the muscles you exercised.

Quote from Chimeray

Now my question: The outdoor track goes up and down a bit but nothing spectacular either. Should I put the treadmill at an incline and aim for the same time/speed? Or am I better off trying to go faster? If I should put it at an incline what's a good percentage to start of with?

Depends on the goal you have, are you training for a run or just for your pleasure?It's always good to mix it up; friends training for runs told me they do steady long runs and alternate with shorter and faster runs. I've seen people sprint a few hundred meters, then settle at their standard rate, and repeat over their routine.

At the gym I tried the treadmill and run 45 mins on 5% or 7% and felt nothing, surely depends on your training. I understand treadmills are programmable, so you can even simulate an upnhill run.

I'd say you keep with what you are doing, improve some more your timing (try the sprints), and extend your routine. When you get to run a few more Km try something more elaborate like the inclination. Unless you have very tight schedules to workout, then it's best to seek a trainer's advice or some running programs.

This movie is probably underrated, ton of fun, I enjoyed it a lot... the movie I enjoyed the most recently i'd even say.

Fresh out of the oven:

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it's like a quiche, but with puff pastry instead of brisèe or what you call it like.

I like vintage

and to learn a bit of surf has always been on my bucket list

I was thinking of Hitman too the other day I posted, the way they handled the contextual menu is great.

Unfortunately, I remember being really annoyed by the game menus, configuring the loadout was a pain and I remember I was really pissed at something about the handling of saves.

Quote from Thrik

Instead of clicking on items, the main character would point his head towards them as you went near them, and a key let you switch between multiple targets in one area.

That's exactly one of the things i'd like to see more.

Speaking of FPSes, HUDs are a thing of the past ("a thing of the future past" ); makes sense on all the sci-fi themed stuff, but on current scenarios... I'd like to see at least some options to easily remove it. But I'd like to see to what extent it's possible to arrive at implementing realistic hints to remove UI in a shooter.

I have a friend who's a CO and I always have really interesting chats with him about possible solutions in games... I would have supposed that a soldier would request absurd things like some forum nerds do, instead he leans pretty much more toward having the most fluid experience as possible, so "go ahead and automate, if makes for better experience" because "we do a lot of things instinctively, so I don't see why I should push a button".

I want to pick his brain next time on interfaces and how soldiers behave on the field to check the status of things, and if that could be translated naturally in a game.

Sorry Anselmo, but I think the logo is not readable at all now.

Traditional murales (more)

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"celebrate good times, come on"

Quote from Beck

I'd love to do a bit of UI design if I was better at 2D stuff. Sadly I suck at it xD

I think UI work is more about the concept than the art. What is truly important is the experience and the flow of the informations (UX)... so if you have some ideas you should go ahead because you could come up with a cool concept that would then need just an art pass

I'd like to cite Carmack again, when talking about Wolfenstein 3D (or Doom) said that he requested and pushed to be able to play with the less button presses as possible... and in fact 3-4 taps and in those games you are playing!

I was baffled when I tried the Dead Space 3 demo, because with an in-game system that worked, they clearly didn't know how to make different* the game interface (menus), so they built this 3D thing that I found really annoying: with all those camera movements it didn't simply made you waste a lot of time, it was almost giving me motion sickness (first time ever).

Btw in contrast to the excellent in-game UI, Dead Space's menus were quite messy from the first game.

*this is an argument that should be discussed imo: in games there seems to be the tendency to redo everything every time, just because you need to change it to not give the customers something to gripe on "copy-pasting".

Then you get something awkward and unusable like the Assassin's Creed Animus' UI that is carried over an entire series of games :-/

Less is more, UIs should be reduced to the absolute minimal necessity, a thing we are more or less seeing; Dead Space is a great example, problem is more with FPSs.

The fluidness with which the player can interact with computer panels in the environments of Doom 3 is unparalleled and something more games should do. It's not about the aesthetics (which I like) but the interaction, so it would be best shown in video, if I could find some decent material instead of this shitty 240p:

in some documentary/interview i've heard Carmack saying this was his call, one of the objectives with that engine iteration, so kudos to him.

Pretty good news for you guys, congrats

de_monsoon

I really enjoyed the test yesterday, layout base is pretty solid –as others said already while playing.

I particularly like the height variation you have provided; overall size and routes seems pretty good to me for rotation timing.

Problems encountered.

• The first few rounds as a CT (my first steps in the map too) I wasn't finding my way to B, maybe unlucky spawn that made me look the other way, but I'd say the CT spawn is too "flat" and doesn't help in showing all the routs right away, maybe you can retreat its position a little back (compensating the T one for keeping the timing).
• The sniping nest for the Ts is too vicious imo, it wasn't camped ferociously during the test, but I imagine how in public servers it could degenerate. Also, being it dark, is very difficult to counter someone in there, quite the contrary of what Valve did in Mirage. It's not like in DoD, where with a Kar I can shoot a couple of rounds in the dark and probably hit something anyway.
• Everything is a placeholder at this stage, but I found the mid area a bit confusing and noisy with columns and fountain/pond.
• I too find that B seems to have too many cover spots, but I wouldn't say to delete right away the small backalley going around it.
• On the flip side, A-site feels a bit too enclosed, but we never rushed it as a team; maybe you are expecting Ts to split and push mid to ease the others to enter from main entrance there, but it felt like the second option, to take the sneaky way playing a fake on B.
• palm-ramp on the way to B, didn't gave me problems at the beginning, in later rounds when it was crucial to get up quickly i missed it even 2-3 times in a row. Because of the theme, I guess you can make something like a destroyed house and a ramp made of rubble, I don't see why it should be a route to climb or something

Not much to say about the mist and rain (i didn't removed those btw) that hasn't been already said. Just iterate through and find a sweet spot that makes for a good ambience. Dunno what is possible to do with Source, maybe have it on lower parts of the map, where water is.

Because of the setting, maybe the "Pirates" T faction is more appropriate?

Looper

I'd say I was surprised, because it wasn't as I expected it to be, but not in the way you are happy to be surprised.

It's nice, but i'd describe it for all the thing this movie is not, like: "it's not one of those movies that hook you up for days on the time travelling shit", or, "it's not an action movie". It has sci-fi elements, but they don't delve into that too.

It's a gangster movie, but not very memorable.

It has left me with the feeling I can describe with a motto from Feng Zhu (the concept artist): "people do not easily latch to purposely weird stuff".

Testing tonight?

Was coming to post it too.

The internal power supply for the PS4 is a big win in practicality.

Adam Sessler talks with Sid Meier about his great career and why he likes turn based strategy