Friday, January 29, 2016

Cool it!

I never thought I'd see the day I overheated my computer.  At least I think I did.  This last week I found myself playing some Rust which can get a little time consuming.  So today I logged in and stayed logged in for quite some time which apparently was a little much.  I started to get some crazy graphical glitches that I can only assume was my graphics cards telling me to slow down. 

This was surprising since my card has one of those massive coolers on it and I recently upgraded to a new case with two big cooling fans.  This might not sound like much but for me it's pretty good since I don't do much hardcore gaming. 

Anyway.  I had to log out and give the poor thing a rest.  I could look into plugging in four more fans since I have the spots for them. 

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Flexible Screens...

...another technology that will be used horribly wrong.

So they've cracked the flexible LED screen and everyone's excited.  Why wouldn't they be?  The prospects are interesting for the technology but I can't help feel like it will horribly misused.  We've had lots of advancements in display technology over the last ten years but very little creative use of it.  The consumer market has dictated that no matter the size or application, displays should always be judged by how good they are as televisions.  This isn't the best standard to use since it's holding us back from being innovative with technology like we were back in the nineties.

It was long ago that tablets with 'e-ink' screens were supposed to change everything.  We were going to have displays that were easy on the eyes, consumed a fraction of the power and got people back into reading again.  That technology was quickly abandoned because it couldn't double as a device to watch YouTube or Netflix on.  You couldn't go on Facebook and look at cat pictures so the technology wasn't worth pursuing.  The Kindle, the king of the e-ink devices, was quickly adapted with a full color display to accommodate the market demand for a full featured tablet.  Instead of applying the technology in different ways it was instead abandoned.  I was hoping for the e-ink, one page notebook, that could be used for writing and drawing.  A simple device that didn't have WiFi, a browser or even an OS.  Just a notebook.

I see flexible displays going the route the e-ink displays did.  They'll be used to make lightweight televisions and roll-out tablets that won't work right.  It's great in theory to have a large, twenty inch screen that you can fit into small bag but what's the real advantage?  You'll need a flat surface to put it on otherwise the picture will be warped.  People will realize rather quickly a smaller, rigid screen that is always flat is more useful.

What we'll get in the end is a semi-rigid phone that advertises itself as lighter and more durable.  It won't be the major revolution in technology we're all hoping for.

I've seen a lot of changes in technology coming from the simple days of the Commodore 64.  In the nineties we went through an amazing phase where we designed new devices rather than designing apps.  Since the smartphone took over we've stopped thinking of new ways to use technology.  I find this disappointing because of all the new devices we could be coming up with.  So many devices that people won't touch simply because they aren't social media machines or Netflix capable.  Cheap devices for writers, readers and artists.  Why can't we have a electronic sketch pad for under fifty-dollars?  A notebook for under thirty?

The iPhone 8 will be a little bendy and televisions will be lighter so you won't need a heavy-duty wall mount.  There might be some military applications but overall very little will change with the flexible screen.  Sorry people but it's you're own fault.  Start getting some hobbies and stop insisting everything be able to play cat videos in 1080p.


Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The Secret World of Fun!

I recently jumped back into The Secret World and rediscovered how awesome that game is.  Yes, it's an MMORPG but don't let that dissuade you from checking it out.  It does many things well, other things cleverly and many things fantastically.  I love the setting which is a strange mix of conspiracy theory and horror sprinkled with good adult humor.  It does a good job at being incredibly familiar yet feel unique at the same time.  A hard thing to pull off.

Right off the bat you get to choose which ancient, secret society you wish to join.  The Templars are all about old European tradition with a high class feel.  The Illuminati are the modern bad-boys with high tech toys, kick ass uniforms and loads of attitude.  Finally, the Dragon, is all about Eastern mysticism with a little anarchy for flavor.  Whatever you choose you get a neat initiation movie and a crash course in your secret societies operations.

I picked Illuminati which turned out to be a good choice.  Their attitude is pure Reagan-era, me-first, Martinis for lunch awesomeness.  Right after your initiation you get into the action saving a New England town plagued by horrors that are mix of Steven King, H.P. Lovecraft and Romero.  Inside jokes abound with names and themes ripped right out of literature, movies and television.  If you know your horror you're going to enjoy things immensely and have a leg up on some of the puzzles.

The quests are where this game really shines.  There's big focus on missions making sense rather than just creating busy work for you.  You also have to interact with the world more to accomplish goals rather than just running around killing tons of random mobs.  Then there are the investigation missions that will test the patience of even the most hardcore gamer.  These require some high level puzzle solving and out of game investigation.  Missions that force you to learn things...it's a crazy idea.

There are no character classes which can be a pro or a con depending on what you like.  Instead you custom build your character by investing points into various weapon skills and combining unlocked abilities into a 'deck'.  As different as this is you end up with tanks, ranged DPS and healers like any other game. 

PVP is fairly traditional and quite frankly nothing to write home about.  You can do the traditional battles but then there is the eternal 'secret war'.  This large map is constantly running and you can take key areas to give all members of your faction a boost even out of PVP.  So far every time I've jumped in there has only been a handful of players and little cooperation.  I would imagine there are better times when guilds or 'cabals' as they're called, do runs to boost XP bonuses for PVE missions. 

The Secret World is something of an overlooked gem in a genre that has become silly and overrun with pointless clones.  It's smart, looks great and offers tons of initial content with new stuff still being added.  You pay once then there is no monthly fee so it's not 'free-to-play' with limited missions and constant begging for more money.  There is some premium content if you feel like it but no 'pay-to-remove' roadblocks.  Overall it's highly recommended for a unique game experience.  Illuminati for life!

Monday, January 18, 2016

Sci-Fi Sins Part II

So!  Here's some more problems I have with Sci-Fi design.


No Fuel Rockets:  I have a big issue with all the robots and armored suits that have rockets but apparently no sign of fuel.  Iron Man is the worst.  I get that Tony Stark is brilliant and all but intelligence can't break the simple rule that rockets need fuel. 

The heart of the Iron Man suit is the arc reactor which apparently can generate a nearly limitless amount of power.  Now there's an issue with that.  Reactors, fission and now fusion, don't actually produce direct electricity.  Reactors produce energy in the form of heat that's used to power electrical generating turbines.  So we'll have to assume the arc reactor instead produces electricity directly somehow.  This could be done by triggering some sort of reaction that causes electrical current, like a modern battery but on a much more energetic level.  Unlike a modern battery that must be recharged by another power source, the arc reactor must also have a secondary reaction (or reactions) that 'self-charge' the system.  This 'arc' of reactions could use a small amount of self-repairing fuel to make a steady flow of electrical energy.  Since no system is perfect there would be a need to 're-fuel' at some point. 

Alright.  The arc reactor can make lots of electrical energy but it's still just electricity.  I don't know about you but I haven't seen any electrically powered rockets.  Sure there's that new thing they're working on that seems to defy the laws of physics but that's only useful in the vacuum of space.  To generate the lift needed to make a man and metal suit fly you'd need some sort of propellant.  At the extreme you could make an argument that the suit can compress water vapor from the atmosphere and split the elemental components to produce fuel.  Performance would decrease significantly with an increase in altitude and completely useless in space.  Even if we assume that the suit constantly creates fuel while in non-flight modes it would have to be stored.  If we go by that route then the suit would require huge fuel storage tanks which it clearly doesn't have.  So then the solution would be that the intake, compression and separation required to create the fuel would have to be done in an 'on-demand' manner.  I know we're talking about a super hero here but even I think this is a bit of a stretch. 

Things got a little off track there...more later

Friday, January 8, 2016

Sci-Fi Sins

There are some science fictions design sins that I just can't stand.  I'm not sure why they continue to persist despite the fact that they make no sense.  There's some obvious big ones like sound in space but also some less talked about. 

Naked Aliens:  You see this all the time, aliens that don't wear clothes but have advanced technology and travel through space.  I don't get it.  I understand it comes from the old UFO reports where people reported tiny, naked, grey aliens.  Somehow this found it's way into science fiction writing and continues to this day. 

We don't wear clothes just to preserve our modesty.  We have to protect ourselves from the cold, the heat and keep ourselves dry if it's raining.  We wear specialized outfits to shield us from radiation and airborne pathogens.  Work clothes protect us from hazards like sparks, flying debris and chemicals.  Why would an alien race remove these protections from their standard set of equipment?  Are aliens devoid of emotion and have no sense of personal identity?  It makes no sense.  You also run into the problem that many of these shows have attacking, space alien armies that don't wear uniforms.  Uniforms aren't entirely about conformity but also play a vital role in organization and identification. 

Anyway.  It bugs me.

Silly Guns:  Almost every major science fiction series has a problem designing guns that don't make any sense.  I can see guns that are set up for races with different physical construction but you see many five fingered races using stupid weapons.  We've spent a few hundred years with some of our most brilliant people designing guns and they all look pretty much the same for a good reason. 

The basic shape and features of guns are born of function.  You don't mess with the basics when designing a good weapon and get fancy.  Even the most extravagantly designed weapons are still basically the same basic shape.  Then there's the problem with making weapons that are just devoid of basic things like the ability to aim.  Star Trek is terrible at this.  Firing from the hip is neat on film but it's just silly.  Why would any organization distribute weapons to their members that you can't aim?  I'm not even talking about scopes but simple iron sights are almost always ignored.

 There's more...but I'll expand in another post...

Monday, January 4, 2016

SDK is A-OK!

I've always been a fan of creating content for video games.  I can't say I'm that good at it but it is fun.  If a game came with a map maker or scenario editor you could be sure that I was going to play around with it. These days it's getting even better since many of the source engines are available for free!  That's right...you can mess around with the actual tools used to make the game.  It's neat. 

My biggest accomplishment to date was a fully functional map for Team Fortress 2.  I loved the cartoon look to the game and it made making the map easier since you could get away with less detail.  It was a bit ambitious and didn't work all that well but I got some positive feedback from some players.  Apparently trying to render an ICBM in the middle of the map was a bad idea.  Who knew? 

I downloaded Unreal Engine 4 recently which is amazing and free.  You can do a new game from scratch or load it to do just Unreal Tournament modding.  I also found out that CS:GO still uses the old Hammer Editor for map making.  This was a bit surprising and fun to load up again.  I couldn't remember how to do much though which was disappointing.  

For an easier project I found there was a toolkit for Civ V which was easier to navigate.  I made some silly maps and had some fun.  There's a huge range of tools available and I sort of want to try them all.  I should have been a game developer.

Anyway.  If you've never looked into it, look and see if your favorite game has an SDK or a editor.  You can extend your enjoyment of any game by learning how to make custom content.  Plus with the Steam Workshop and other distribution systems it's easier than ever to get your creations to the masses.  If you're good you can even make a little money.  Not bad.