Topics

1

Suggestions & Requests / Tent Brick

« on: March 28, 2014, 01:59:49 PM »

Hello!

So uh, tents anyone?



I think a tent brick would be pretty useful. Nice and sleek, as opposed to building one out of ramps.

Ideally you would be able to place other bricks in it and the flaps that fold to make the doorway would be three dimensional or, well, not ugly.

There was a Lego Indiana Jones set awhile back that included a cool tent. I think something similar might look cool in Blockland.



I like the visible "pole hooks." These things:



Personal preference. :p

And I drew this terrible image to show some potential dimensions:



1blb = 1 1x1 brick

I like the idea of having a 1 by X roof, but again, that's just me. I think those dimensions are pretty decent.

Here's a picture to help you get an idea of how big that is compared to a blockhead:



So yeah! That's about it!
Thanks.

2

Off Topic / Recommend End some Music

« on: February 15, 2014, 08:59:06 PM »

Hey, Blockland!

It's break! No school for a week! For me at least...
But I've no music to listen to. :(

So here I am, looking for recommendations!

I've compiled a bunch of short audio clips from songs I like into one YouTube video. Looking for stuff like this but I can't find anything. :(
It's nearly 8 minutes long so I won't blame you if you skim through it or outright avoid it.

Basically I like lo-fi electronic “glitchy-sounding" stuff, ambient and kinda' "oriental-ish" music, and a combination of the two. Weird combo? Yep. Oh well. I’m not a big fan of vocals, but there are always exceptions!

I don't care if it's from a soundtrack or where that soundtrack comes from so long as it sounds cool.

I'll gladly take whatever I can get.

Thanks! <3

3

Music / FLCL - "STALKER"

« on: October 26, 2013, 01:35:08 PM »

STALKER.ogg (28s, 258kb)
Listen (loop quality demo) | Download

This is a loop taken from "STALKER," from the FLCL score.

4

Off Topic / The Chipmusic and Demoscene Megathread - now with 400% more Zabutom!

« on: August 08, 2013, 03:45:21 PM »

THE CHIPMUSIC AND DEMOSCENE MEGATHREAD

RECENT | ONGOING | UPCOMING | ARTISTS | BLOCKLAND | REFERENCE


Photo shamelessly stolen from Chiptography

Tri Angles - STARGAZER 3-track album, $3, .wavs free on SoundCloud

TreyFrey - Airglow SoundCloud

SMILETRON - ARCHIVES 103-track collection, "free forever"

Nothing is going on right now. Go camping or something.

8static [MONTHLY] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 09/14/13 New England's monthly chipmusic gathering, featuring both live performances and workshops For updates, check their Facebook

Zabutom - New Beginning Coming October 15th

NETLABELS Cheapbeats 8bitpeoples Noise Channel Madmilky Pxl-Bot	RETAILERS Kitsch-bent Thursday Customs ASMRetro 8bitaesthetics Nonfinite Electronics	MEDIA Chiptography Chip Music Chronicle
TRACKERS Little Sound DJ Little GP Tracker FamiTracker MilkyTracker	LSDJ Wiki Manual LSDJguides Advanced Commands	CONSOLES Console descriptions Game Boy waveforms

Q. People still listen to chipmusic?
A. Yes, they do! Obviously! :3

Q. I would like to support the chipscene. How do I do that?
A. Support the artists you like! Donate! Tell them that you love them - because they love you!

Q. What's up with the chipscene and cats?
A. People with dogs go outside.

Q. Why are chipmusicians so kind?
A. The more Game Boys you have, the kinder you are. It's just how it is. Seriously.

Q. I want to add to one of the sections on this post. How do I do that?
A. Post in the thread or send me a PM. I'd be happy to add whatever you want me to!

Q. Where can I learn more about the chipscene?


A documentary

5

Off Topic / Road Exam Today

« on: June 19, 2013, 06:13:11 PM »

My road exam is this morning at 9:00 AM EST.

It's my first take and I'm feeling pretty confident. Anyone have any tips?

Update: I failed. ;)

Well, it would appear that I was not meant to get my license today. ;)

Wasn't quite as lucky. My proctor was 40+, moderately obese, and only spoke with me when I did something wrong. He didn't seem like a bad guy but it was a pretty awkward ride. He hummed once though.

My "fatal error" was at a 4-way intersection where the vehicles on the two adjacent roads were stopped by stop signs while I was not. I didn't notice and assumed that the vehicle to the right of me had the right of way, so I let him go. My bad.

In addition, I made several smaller mistakes. Though I looked back for the majority of the time while I was parallel parking, I glanced forward once to see how close my car was to the one in front of us. That was a mistake. I also didn't switch lanes quick enough (a lane was ending; there were no cars but I didn't switch into the travel lane immediately).

Right at the end he did tell me that I was pretty much guaranteed to pass when I take the exam again, so that's reassuring.

Oh well. Back to public transportation for now.

And for the record, we did go through the school zone, and there were kids present. Didn't make any mistakes there thanks to Marcem and trinick. <3

6

Creativity / Endgame's Game Boy Adventures

« on: May 02, 2013, 08:30:41 PM »

About Over the course of the next few weeks I'll be working on some Game Boy mods. I thought it would be fun to share. <3 Projects Refurbished DMG A refurbished Dot Matrix Game Boy with a yellow backlight housed in a case made by SMILETRON All parts have arrived Transferred parts from case to case Staying after school to solder backlight next week Piggy => MIDI MIDI interface for the GP2X Waiting on one part Arduino Boy MIDI interface for the Game Boy Arduino Mini has arrived LSDJ Keyboard Screwing with an old PS2 keyboard so it can be used with a Game Boy

7

Off Topic / Steven Spielberg's "Obama"

« on: April 28, 2013, 07:34:53 AM »

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis

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Suggestions & Requests / [Request] Tangible Cloud Layer (Think Skyward Sword)

« on: March 17, 2013, 10:08:19 PM »

Alright. I've had this idea for awhile. It might not have a lot of practical uses, but for what I'm working on it could be wicked cool (assuming I finish it). At this stage I'm just interested in knowing if it's possible, as whether or not it is will have a large affect the final product.

I got the idea from replaying a small portion of LoZ: Skyward Sword for inspiration. Watch this video from 4:00 to 4:30 or look at these pictures to see what I'm getting at.

Here is a diagram that took me 3 days to put together:

Open space -->     (Floating islands and other airborne things)
Cloud layer  -->     -----------------------------------------------------------------
Open space -->     (Continents, oceans, the works)
Slate/ground -->    -----------------------------------------------------------------

Ideally it would be thick enough so that you couldn't see right through it and it would look somewhat decent but not lag like hell. When it comes to the texture: playability over quality. I don't care if it's a giant white square.

As I always mention in my S&R topics: I have no idea how anything works. However, I have done a little research.

Ladios' Slate Edits has a map with a "sandstorm" effect. Maybe it's possible to have an effect like this from a certain height up to another certain height. I've also tried playing with moving cloud heights but as far as I know they're like the sun flare and can't be "in" the map.

Regardless: later on I'll be looking into relevant gameplay mechanics (players die if they hit a certain altitude without having equipped an item, some flying vehicles would stall under/above a certain altitude, stuff like that). The cloud layer would visualize these boundaries. But again, right now I'm looking for proof of concept.

Thanks for reading. Interested to see what you guys have to say.

9

Off Topic / Anyone dealt with scratches to an LCD monitor before?

« on: February 22, 2013, 08:47:32 AM »

My only HDMI-compatible monitor just took a nasty little scratch in transit. I disconnected the wire so that it wouldn't be scratched by the prongs and someone put the wire on the monitor . It doesn't appear to be too deep and as far as I know I can fix it. Should be amusing.

I was wondering if anyone here has run into this little dilemma before and has any recommendations as to how I should go about doing this.

10

Off Topic / "The water was black for two seconds and then it went back to normal"

« on: February 20, 2013, 09:04:42 PM »

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Tourists staying at a Los Angeles hotel bathed, brushed teeth and drank with water from a tank in which a young woman's body was likely decomposing for more than two weeks, police said.

Elisa Lam's corpse was found in the Cecil Hotel's rooftop water tank by a maintenance worker who was trying to figure out why the water pressure was low Tuesday.
Lam's parents reported her missing in early February. The last sighting of her was in the hotel on January 31, Los Angeles Police said.

Detectives are now investigating the 21-year-old Canadian's suspicious death, police Sgt. Rudy Lopez said.
It was not clear whether the water presented any health risks. Results on tests on the water done Wednesday by the Los Angeles Public Health Department were expected later in the day.

The hotel management has not responded to CNN requests for comment.

Video appears to show four cisterns on the hotel roof.

People who stayed at the Cecil since Lam's disappearance expressed shock about developments.

"The water did have a funny taste," Sabrina Baugh told CNN on Wednesday. She and her husband used the water for eight days.

"We never thought anything of it," the British woman said. "We thought it was just the way it was here."
What she described was not normal.

"The shower was awful," she said. "When you turned the tap on, the water was coming black first for two seconds and then it was going back to normal."

The hotel remained open after the discovery, but guests checking in Tuesday were told not to drink it, according to Qui Nguyen, who decided to find a new hotel Wednesday.

Nguyen said he learned about the body from a CNN reporter, not the hotel staff.

By Alan Duke, CNN
Updated 8:51 PM EST, Wed February 20, 2013

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/20/us/california-hotel-water-corpse/index.html

Yeah, um... Alright. Uh. Ew.

11

Suggestions & Requests / Tumbleweed

« on: December 01, 2012, 01:12:41 PM »

I'm looking for something along the lines of a modded ball; a "vehicle" that you can click/touch to push around. I think it would be cool for this, but it could be used for anything, really.

If it's possible to manipulate the damage a vehicle does on impact, it would be best to set it to near-nothing.

For those of you who don't know what tumbleweed is, you can read about it here.

12

Off Topic / "We are 99.999% certain"

« on: November 24, 2012, 03:40:58 PM »

"Police in Hamburg investigating the death of a man who was found shot in the head in a tied-up sack floating in a river, suspect that rather than having been the victim of a Mafia hit, he killed himself."

The body of 43-year-old Uwe Sattler was found in the River Elbe in July by a fisherman. He was wearing a rucksack full of rocks and had been shot in the head and put into a sack fastened with cable ties before he hit the water.

Local media was rife with speculation about a Mafia murder - but after extensive investigation, the police now say they are nearly certain that the Sattler killed himself.

"We are 99.999 percent certain it was Self Delete," a Hamburg police spokeswoman told The Local.

"There is no other explanation; no other motive and no other evidence."

Detectives have worked out that there was enough of an opening in the sack between the cable ties for Sattler to get an arm out and shoot himself so that afterwards the gun would fall to the ground. He would have had to have done this while perched on the edge of a bridge or jetty to ensure falling into the water.

Why he would make such an effort to do this remains a mystery - as does the whereabouts of the gun, which was never found. "It just goes to show, there is nothing that does not exist," the police spokeswoman said.

After using fingerprints to identify the body, police went to his flat in Hamburg which reportedly looked newly renovated - and held absolutely no furniture. Officers found only a small box of documents, including a note to say that the belongings in the cellar should be given to the building landlord, Die Welt said.

Back in the summer when detectives were trying to piece together Sattler's life, they also found little to work with. He was single and unemployed, and seemed to have no friends, nor any contact with his family. Despite intensive efforts, the police admitted in July that they had been unable to find a single friend or acquaintance.

He had moved from Berlin to Hamburg in September 2008, but no friends could be found in the capital either. Die Welt said that he had rented a van in 2004 and crashed head-long into a bridge pillar. He survived the crash but was seriously injured. When police went to his flat after the crash they found it was completely empty just like his place in Hamburg.

This would seem to be reason to suggest he was suicidal - although might leave open some questions about the immensely complicated method he supposedly chose in Hamburg.

The investigation has been put on ice, but the case remains open.

Ya, okay.

13

Off Topic / Gabe Newell officially confirms that a next-gen Valve engine is in development

« on: November 11, 2012, 02:10:25 PM »

Source cwutididthere
Related video in link

Earlier this summer, we found traces of code within the Source Filmmaker that clearly indicated Valve is actively working on “Source 2“, a next-gen game engine built on Source’s foundation. While the news made quite a stir all throughout the Valve community, it didn’t have the same effect it would have had, if Valve had officially confirmed Source 2′s existence.

Well, some months later, it appears we finally have been given just that. Read on!


A week ago, on the 3rd of November, a large group of fans from 4chan’s game-centric imageboard, /v/, came over to visit Valve on Gabe’s birthday. They brought with them this absolutely colossal birthday card, as well as a very unique Team Fortress-themed birthday present: an actual real-life Mann Co Crate, which, just like the one from Team Fortress 2… was locked. The best part? Gabe had to pay $2.50 for a key. But it all paid off in the end, as Gabe “uncrated” a combat helmet, similar to the one the Soldier wears in TF2.

After the crate was unlocked, Gabe stayed to talk with the fans in Valve’s lobby, alongside his colleague, Erik Johnson. A full, 52-minute video of the birthday visit can be found on YouTube, here. We’re going to quote one of the more interesting exchanges, which you can find starting at approximately 6:10 in the aforementioned video:

Fan: Is Valve potentially already working on a new engine?

Fan: Source 2? Could or… could not be?

Gabe Newell: We’ve been working on Valve’s new engine stuff for a while, we’re probably just [incomprehensible, subtitled as: "waiting for a game to roll it out with"]

Fan: Is it going to be more than just an extension to Source? Is it an entirely new engine?

Gabe Newell: Yeah!

Quite intriguing… strange how he was so candid about it. Still, it’s all right there in the video, and considering what we found in the SFM files three months ago, I would dare say that Source 2 is most certainly in development, and perhaps not so far from its launch.

According to the video’s description, there’s some more interesting stuff throughout the video, but I haven’t yet had time to take a look at the whole thing. If you decide to watch all of it, and if you find anything interesting, then let us all know in the comments section down below! And by doing so, you will have forwarded the cause of science by more than three centuries; by which I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if it took Valve 3 centuries to release either Source 2 or Ricochet 2. Could be worse, though – their fear of the number 3 could drive them to delay it another century instead.

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General Discussion / Open-world space western project (WIP)

« on: November 10, 2012, 04:13:37 PM »

CONTENT NOT FINAL

Current work in progress Note that any of these builds may not be present in the final build.

S Y N O P S I S

Through one way or another, you've ended up in the remote little hellhole known colloquially as "Last Step". The remains of a once technologically advanced metropolis of the Old World, Last Step has since become an airborne shanty town relying on 18th century ingenuity, situated in a debris field above a floating megacontinent known as the "Lower World", and the first step of your adventure.

- Working on this bit -

Sound ambitious? That's probably due to my very limited knowledge of this game's limits!

S E T T I N G

There seems to be some confusion over what I am referring to by "space western". Let me elaborate on that a little.

If you read the synopsis I've provided, you should be familiar with the setting I have in mind. This shattered world has been reduced to a frontier land fought over with primitive technology. Last Step may not end up looking like a western town, but I want it to feel like one might have. Outlaws, horses, and the like will be included (I hope), but I want to branch out. If you want a diehard cowboy roleplay, it has been done before, and more recent ones are looking really good.

Pirates? Exploring the solar system? This is ambitious as it is; I will think about it, but they're just possibilites right now.

P O S I T I O N S

I can build. That's about it. I have a Kindergarten-grade understanding of events and scripting, and lighting is beyond me. When I start to need help (which I will), I will request it here.

You will need to apply for a position. You don't need to show me something with 90,000 bricks or events, just something that proves you are capable of performing the task at hand (and aren't a richard).

15

Off Topic / xkcd: Click and Drag

« on: September 19, 2012, 03:12:25 PM »

http://xkcd.com/1110/

I didn't need those 20 minutes anyways.