Topics

16

Modification Help / Wedge's Mapping Thread - What are YOU working on?

« on: May 13, 2011, 08:26:57 PM »

Some of you might remember the thread I published a while ago about mapping in sketchup (if not, here it is again). Anyway, I figured I'd start mapping again, so I've got another thread set up. This time I'm not following any particular schedule, nor do I have any particular maps in mind, I'm just going to post previews of what I'm making as I work on them.

For those of you interested in my setup, this is basically my workflow:

1. Basic layout on tracing paper with pencil, or google sketchup.
2. Model in sketchup, export to vmf using l4d2 exporter.
3. Open in Crafty, export to map.
4. Open in Torque Constructor, slap dev textures on everything, export to .dif.
5. Photograph or scan things I want to use as textures.
6. Make the textures tileable in GIMP.
7. Texture in Torque Constructor, export to .dif.

Here's a couple of screenshots of what I did today.



Did a little practice to figure out the size of blocks in Sketchup. Turns out a baseplate is 512 inches x 512 inches x 6.4 inches in sketchup (giant baseplates, right). This is really useful in determining scale for stuff.


Not really prepared to show off this map or discuss it yet (it's a TDM map), but the thing highlighted in blue is the concept for a storage tank I had, it's going to serve as a prop in a kind of fake 3d skybox for Blockland. I'm going to try and export it tonight and see how it looks in game.

On my todo list I've got a test map to make for interiors and I'm planning on releasing the long awaited sequel (for me anyway) to [TDM] Ocean Platforms later next week. Did you know I made the original TDM Platforms before I even owned the retail version of Blockland? I modeled it in v0002 and then tested it in the demo version of Blockland to get around not having the map editor in the demo.

That's all I've got right now. I'll leave the thread open to any questions, comments, or criticism. So, what are you working on?

17

Forum Games / Fixing the terrible Blockland Wikipedia article

« on: April 02, 2011, 01:55:09 PM »

This came to my attention recently. I haven't read the Blockland Wikipedia article in over a year. We've had a history of the Blockland article being pretty badly written, but I didn't expect this. Someone posted this screenshot recently:

Skill, this thread reminds me of a Wikipedia entry I chanced upon:

http://i56.tinypic.com/2virpr4.png
Congratz

Is that really the Blockland wikipedia article? Seriously, the Roblox article is written better.

What are we doing wrong and what should we probably be doing

Okay, lets look at some other video game articles on wikipedia. Not just any game articles, articles that were so good they became featured articles. Here's a complete list. We probably won't be able to get featured article status, but it's a good target to shoot for.

We can see that all of the articles have a few sections in common: gameplay, plot, development, and reception. The gameplay section covers just that, it gives a short and clear overview of how the basic mechanics of the game work. Plot talks summarizes the plot, we obviously won't have a plot section. Development gives an overview of the hurdles involved in development, and some of the history of the game. Reception talks about the game's reception.

Right now, it's immediately obvious should happen. Most video game articles have between 4 and 7 sections. We have 10, and this is just a small indie game. We're doing something wrong. Here's a list of all of our sections: Gameplay, Eventing, Game Modes, Demo, Retail, Modifications, Community, See also, References, External links. Gameplay is fine where it is. Eventing and game modes should be merged into gameplay. Demo, retail, and modifications should be merged into development. Community should just be removed because nobody cares and the community really is not significant. The See Also section should just be removed. You're probably going to have to fight Roblox tooth and nail over this, so here's a prewritten argument you can just copy and paste:

No other games have a see also section. There is no precedent. Castle Wolfenstien is a similar game to Doom, but there's no see also section for it. The Garry's Mod article has no links to any other sandbox games. The Quake article does have a See Also section, but it doesn't link to Quake II or any of the games that are similar to Quake, it links to Quakecon! Why does Blockland suddenly need a See Also section? If you think that this link should be added, please justify it.

References and External Links are fine, although the magazine articles should follow a standard magazine citation rather then links to page scans. You should see the Wikipedia citation guidelines for example citations.

After merging them we'll probably need to rewrite them all. The game modes section especially strikes me as useless and poorly written in general.

Oh yeah, and the B is not the logo of the game, it's the icon. The full logo is the word Blockland, and it's in the UI folder somewhere. Blockland also has no pictures in the article at all. We should add at least 2: one of the game as it is now to the gameplay section, and another of the old Blockland (v0002) to the development section. Any images you upload need to have a fair use rationale written for them. In order to qualify for fair use the images should also be small - the logo should probable be reduced to about 180px tall (smaller? bigger? someone try it out and post it in the thread) and the game screenshots should be about 640x480. Maybe we could have a competition and vote on the best screenshot?

Some stuff we should probably mention in the article
Blockland went to the 2007 GDC.
It was a semifinalist in the Indie Game Showcase at the 2007 GDC - http://www.ecdsystems.com/media/pdf/2ndAnnualIGSSemifinalistPR081607.pdf
Blockland went to the 2009 IGF - http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entries2009.php
Lots of development information can be found looking up the Blockland website using the wayback machine. You can also cite content found on the wayback machine link.

How are we going to fix this
Well, there's two goals here.

The immediate goal is to get the article back in shape. It's absolute rubbish right now. What I'm going to propose is that before we commit any changes to the actual wiki, you post your submission here so we can all proofread it and recommend revisions. That's one of the problems we've got right now, people just post bullstuff without any quality control at all. This isn't a "What I did over summer" essay you're turning into your third grade teacher guys, it's supposed to be an article in like, an encyclopedia that people read or something like that. The Wikipedia editors do a relatively decent job of keeping big articles cleaned up (some kid deletes the Biology article and someone reverts it pretty quick), but we're a small, relatively unknown indie game and if we don't want an article that's really just embarrassing we're going to have to write and maintain it ourselves.

The long term goal is maintaining the quality of the article. Again, we've got two primary causes here.

There's a lot of people who contribute to the article and just can't write. I don't know what the issue is. Maybe they're young? Maybe they've never taken any kind of writing courses? Maybe they're just all stupid? In any case, this content needs to be either erased if it's just spam or not encyclopedic, or rewritten so it makes sense if it actually does contribute to the article. For example the game modes section could be condensed to ONE SENTENCE, like "There are many unique game mode modifications produced by the Blockland community, ranging from store simulators[1] to zombie survival[2]", where [1] and [2] are references that link to the rise of Blockland and zapt threads or something. Of course there's going to be arguments over which mods to mention. I just picked two that seemed to be at opposite sides of the gameplay spectrum, but if you guys want to argue over this or try and come up with a fair way to pick them out that's fine too. An example of something we just flat out deleted was the clans section. Clans, while arguably significant in Blockland (I don't think they are), are not significant to the world in general, nor do they really define Blockland.

The other issue is vandals. We get random people, people from our forums, and people from Roblox constantly adding dumb stuff to the article. Use the undo button on the history page to revert vandalism.

So we'll need volunteers to regularly keep the article free of crap.

18

Off Topic / VirtualBox

« on: January 27, 2011, 11:57:31 PM »

I meant to make one of these way back when I made my first thread, but now with the Ubuntu thread around it's a good as time as any to make a VirtualBox thread.

What is VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a computer virtualization program. Basically, it lets you emulate the hardware of a computer and run whatever software you want on it. You can have a lot of fun with one and infinite free disposable computers are always handy. Load up sites you don't trust in a virtual machine and don't worry about infecting your actual computer. Scan files for viruses in a contained environment before transferring them to your computer. Test out software or entire operating systems without worrying about messing up your computer. Supported operating systems include (but aren't limited to) numerous versions of Windows, Linux, and BSD, as well as Solaris, DOS, and OS/2.

How to use VirtualBox
This goes through the process of setting up a vm, installing ubuntu, and a couple of other important tasks step by step. Chances are you can figure it out on your own and should probably just skip this.


Random Pictures








Links
VirtualBox Site
VirtualBox Manual
Pre-built VirtualBox Images for the lazy - note many probably use old, out of date versions of the os, there's a version of android available for it which looks interesting but I don't have time to download right now
Oracle requires you to log into their site to get OpenSolaris, grab it here instead if you want it

19

Off Topic / RC Airplane flies over Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty

« on: December 03, 2010, 09:15:43 PM »

This is probably one of the coolest things I've seen on youtube.

20

General Discussion / Blockland is... (perception study)

« on: December 02, 2010, 07:50:15 PM »

Blockland is....
(the bigger the circle is, the more popular that phrase is when you search for it on a search engine)



Well this really neat web application called Impure came up in my RSS feed so I had to try it out. It's actually pretty cool. I decided to work my way through the circle tag cloud tutorial, only using Blockland instead of Apple.

The actual word list I came up with was "fun, boring, awesome, expensive, cool, cheap, free, indie, stuffty, crappy, neat, great, pretty, ugly, slow, fast, beutiful, average, roblox, legos, building, a game, a city, a town, a forum, a website, in germany, german, on tv, not fun, gay, sweet, horrible, awful, terrible, lovely, good, bad, a toy, better, worse, 4chan." Note that pretty is probably exaggerated a bit because it's also an adverb, as in "pretty cool, pretty expensive."

Here's a screenshot of how the chart was made:



Step by step:
First Impure takes the big list of words above and converts it into a list. Then it takes the phrase "Blockland is" and adds one of the words from the list to it. So first you get "Blockland is fun" then you get "Blockland is boring." It then searches for each of these on a search engine and remembers the number of results. Then it takes the number and matches it with the word on the list and sizes the bubble on the chart accordingly.

21

Games / TF2: Selling virtual hats makes a lot of money

« on: October 21, 2010, 02:30:52 PM »

I just saw this on halflife2.net. Apparently some of the guys who made community content featured in the TF2 just got their first royalty checks from Valve. With just two weeks of sale, some of them got checks for $47,000. I'm sure it will level off once everyone's bought all the hats or whatever, but $47,000 is quite a lot of money. I'm wondering just how generous these percentages are. Maybe Valve was being a little generous with the money so they could encourage more people to develop content for TF2? Still, it's $47,000 before taxes.

http://www.halflife2.net/2010/10/21/tf2-community-contributers-get-paid/

22

Off Topic / need help, can't delete system32!

« on: September 23, 2010, 04:43:20 PM »

seriously guys can you help me i want to become a blockland admin but windows isn't letting me!







Turns out you have to modify the system registry in order to be able to delete system 32. I know this might shock some of you but Windows actually tries to keep you from deleting itself! On a side note, my research suggests that you actually can delete the system folder (not system32) since all it contains are some legacy drivers for backwards compatibility.



Windows folder can't be deleted either.

Also format c does not work when the c drive is mounted, and the c drive will always be mounted when you're running windows because windows only installs itself to the c drive. Even if you don't install it to the first hard disk (I'm pretty sure XP has to be installed to the first hard disk though) it will still call the drive c and there is no way to change it. As an example Windows is installed on my second hard disk, which it still calls c, and the first disk is called d, despite the fact that c comes before d. This is the reason why windows and micro$oft suck and everyone left them and we all use linux and BeOS now.



You can delete random system files out of system32 though, and this happens:



Incidentally I have a Windows XP vm now and after deleting random system files and wandering around the internet for a few hours using IE6 and no security updates I'm all out of ideas. Any suggestions?



10gb hard drive, 192mb ram, onboard graphics, it's pretty much an average pc when xp came out (although we have 2 (!) floppy drives and a 1680mhz processor (!!!!!!!!!!). we got a real premium pc here guys, your celerons and pentium IIIs cannot even compare to the power of my AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 2800+! I CAN RUN MICROSOFT WORKS AT 800x600 30FPS LOSERS).


tl;dr: del c:\windows\system32\*.*

23

Off Topic / Steam Wallet

« on: September 13, 2010, 10:25:46 PM »

It was just announced recently and the beta went live today. Basically you can put money onto your steam account in amounts of $5/£4, $10/£8, $25/£18, $50/£35 or $100/£70, and then use it whenever you want. Right now it doesn't seem that you can buy them for friends but I expect this feature might be added.

Here's some potential uses:

• Giving your friend $20 on steam for their birthday instead of trying to guess what game they want.
• Steam giftcards.
• Loading $20 into steam every month and only purchasing through your steam wallet to help prevent impulse game buying at 3am.
• People under the age of majority can have money loaded onto their account and then they can buy whatever they want, no more bugging your parents for a specific game.

I realize that there might be a minimum value due to transaction fees but I'm hoping that they may open it up to custom values, like being able to put $47.60 into your account if you want, so we don't end up with the "I have 0.35 intergalactic space bucks floating around in my steam account and can't buy anything or get it back" issue. You can see the beta here.

On another note, it says "Funds in your Steam Wallet may be used for the purchase of any game on Steam or within a game that supports Steam transactions." I don't recall any Steam games having micro-transactions in them or the ability to buy DLC from within the game, so this sounds new.

24

Off Topic / "The World" Season 3 Predictions - What's going to happen over the next decade?

« on: September 11, 2010, 11:52:51 PM »

How to Play
So, what do you guys think the next decade is going to be about? The themes we'll see emerge in the news, the technologies that will emerge, or even specific events that are going to happen? We'll make it into a game - pick a year month, even a day for prediction to come true by. If it occurs you get a point. If it doesn't occur we'll just cross it off the list. Winner is the person with the most points in 2020 (hahaha).

The rules are pretty simple. You can predict anything you want, as long as there's some chance it may or may not happen. You can't predict something stupid "Christmas will come on December 25, 2011" or "the sun will rise on Jan 1, 2015." Stupid predictions will be evaluated by me and your peers. I'll try to be pretty lenient, I want you guys to have fun but I don't want to fill the main post with garbage and point spam.

2012 predictions and any other end of the world predictions are fine. Are you having trouble thinking of something to predict? Elections, olympic outcomes, moive and game releases, winners of various awards, etc. The format for a prediction is "Prediction text" (Username in Month/Year of prediction).

I will be 31 by the time this forum game is over (!). I don't know if I'll be on the forums that long, or if the forums will even be around that long. If it looks like I will be in a position where I can no longer update this topic, I'll pass it on to someone else.

In the beginning I will diligently be adding predictions to the main post, but as the volume increases there will probably be delays or I may miss your prediction. If your prediction does not get added it probably got lost in the background chatter or I forgot about it. PM it to me and it will definitely get added. Submitting a set of predictions rather then 1 at a time also makes it easier to add them all.

Finally general relatively ontopic chatter, political and religious discussion, arguments, etc are welcome and encouraged since it will keep this thread bumped. Ontopic specifically meaning related to the current discussion in the thread, not necessarily the main post. So what's offtopic and ontopic will evolve as people post and go off on random tangents. If your debate starts to drag on for a few pages consider making a new topic in off-topic or the drama forums, picking out predictions from 4 pages of arguments isn't easy.

Score
Sorted by Score

Wedge - 0
Snackbar - 0
Dodger - 0
Cyanian - 0
General Nick - 0
shafin25 - 0
Marcem - 0
Illidan - 0
Joekirk - 0
Dnitro - 0
Man 2 - 0
Sirrus - 0
Kalphiter - 0
Lordy Lord - 0
Archon - 0
MrMulch - 0
Cheemo - 0
Hugums - 0
Moybus - 0
TheBlackParrot - 0
Hiiro3293 - 0
*Magick* Mage - 0


Blockland Predicts...

2010 (hurry up and make your predictions guys)

• First US representative elected who claims to be a registered member of the Tea Party. (Wedge in Sep. 2010)
  
• Democrats do not lose the Senate in the midterm elections. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• Obama's approval polls fall below 25% on or before December 31, 2010. (Dodger in Sep. 2010)
  
• Halo Reach will become the highest selling game of 2010. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• After Igor hits Bermuda, 2 more hurricanes impact the island. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• Fallout New Vegas will be massively well received by the critics. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• 2010 will come before 2011. (Kalphiter in Sept. 2010) Failed because 2011 BC came before 2010 BC.
  
• Protests start after Obama gave 6 billion dollars in military technology to Saudi Arabia for protection from the Taliban. (Crysist in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2011 (here's a good solid place to put a prediction)

• US economy recovers - this is a tricky one so we'll call it at the end of 2011. (Wedge in Sep. 2010)
  
• Duke Nukem Forever delayed again. (Wedge in Sep. 2010)
  
• Android phones beat both the iPhone and Blackberries. (Wedge in Sep. 2010)
  
• US lifts trade embargo with Cuba. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• 83rd Academy Awards - Best Visual Effects goes to Inception. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• The next-gen gaming consoles are announced (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo). (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• Iran develops nuclear weapons and suggests testing them (mid Summer). (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• This thread is locked/dies off. (Joekirk in Sep. 2010)
  
• Terrorist attack rocks the nation. Thousands die, and the country remembers the day as we remember 9/11. (Oasis in Sep. 2010)
  
• By Dec 31, 2011: Windows will come out with two new operating systems. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• There will be a new Play Station (PS4). (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• Nike releases self-lacing shoe, footwear revolutionized for years to come.
  
• Yeti corpse discovered in Himalayas. (Man 2 in Sep. 2010)
  
• Steve Carell returns to The Office. (Moybus in Sep. 2010)
  
• World Pop is around 7.5 billion. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• Portal 2 will spawn at least 5 memes in 2011. (Marcem in Sept. 2010)
  
• World population 8 billion. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• Ozzy Osbourne dies. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Chuck Berry dies. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Deus Ex Human Revolution is delayed. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Jimmy Carter dies. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Apple releases a phone with a physical keyboard. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Saudi Arabia attacks Israel. (Crysist in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2012

• Linux based tablet (Chrome/Android included) beats the iPad. (Wedge in Sep. 2010)
  
• Lou Dobbs does not run for President. (Wedge in Sep. 2010)
  
• In the 2012 Summer Olympics, Germany will win gold in men's dressage. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• In November 2012 Barrack Obama is re-elected. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• Vladimir Putin will be elected President of Russia (again). (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• Micheal Steel becomes the Republican representative for the presidential elections. (Dodger in Sep. 2010)
  
• Obama will run for president again and lose. (Cyanian in Sep. 2010)
  
• A flash of white and the world will dissappear. (shafin25 in Sep. 2010) - Addendum: Unfortunately if this occurs there will be no update and we will not know who won.
  
• The first 3d POP-Station is released. It's a smash hit with billions sold worldwide. (Marcem in Sep. 2010)
  
• Iran tests nuke successfully. (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• Clint Eastwood dies. (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• Apple announces second gaming console to be released in 2014. (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• Iran threatens US in the fall season. (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• Prez. Obama gets denied a second term. (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• By Dec 31, 2012: All phones will be 4G. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• Blockland will have over 40,000 players. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• The nextgen Nintendo Wii will come out. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• All traces of stray oil extracted from Gulf of Mexico. (Man 2 in Sep. 2010)
  
• Barack Obama re-elected as President of United States. (Man 2, in Sep. 2010)
  
• Conservatives/libertarians take control of the government. (Archon in Sep. 2010)
  
• The world will not end.  (MrMulch in Sep. 2010)
  
• Google purchases Facebook in July. (Cheemo in Sep. 2010)
  
• I become skinny. (Hugums in Sept. 2010) Addendum: You must post a picture of yourself in 2012.
  
• Hugums remains fat. (Moybus in Sept. 2010) See above.
  
• 2012 didn't happen." (TheBlackParrot in Sept. 2010) Author's note: if the year 2012 comes this automatically fails.
  
• Pop-tarts are now also sweetened with Splenda sometime in 2012. (TheBlackParrot in Sept. 2010)
  
• Japanese air-powered car released to public around the world. (Man 2 in Sept. 2010)
  
• Dreamworks Pictures forced out of business. (Man 2 in Sept. 2010)
  
• Mass Self Deletes due to ridiculous claims of world ending. A town in Georgia completely depopulated due to the claims. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• Obama barely wins second term. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• Sarah Palin is seriously considered but is denied the Republican nomination for president. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Glenn Beck attempts and fails to get the Republican nomination for president. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Twitter, Facebook, and Google will have either bought each other out or merged into one distinct company. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2013

• There will be a federal election in Germany in October and at this election the CDU/CSU and FDP coalition will fail and there will be a red-red-green coalition formed. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• US invades Iran in late Winter/early Spring (or vice versa). (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• Morgan Freeman dies. (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• Next-gen gaming consoles are released (Holiday season). (Illidan in Sep. 2010)
  
• A new Xbox comes out. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• Price of oil dramatically rises as reserves begin to be depleted, large push for alternative energy is mounted. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2014

• Half-Life Episode 3 cancelled. (Wedge in Sep. 2010)
  
• DJI average rises to above its current record high. (General Nick in Sep. 2010) - Record closing average is 14,164.53, set on Tuesday, October 9, 2007.
  
• President Barack Obama assassinated during press conference in Seattle. (Man 2 in Sep. 2010)
  
• Planets are discovered beyond Pluto sometime in 2014. (TheBlackParrot in Sept. 2010)
  
• Apple announces a real gaming computer. It fails miserably. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• Steve Jobs steps down as CEO of Apple. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Capitalism will have found a way to change the internet from a free exchange of ideas to a commodity, dramatically changing how we use the internet. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• NASA completes new space shuttle. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Woody Allen dies. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2015

• The blockland forums and blockland itself will die out. (Cyanian in Sep. 2010) - Measuring this will be hard, if the forums are dead there will be no one to post the update.
  
• The Pope of the Catholic Church dies. (Oasis in Sep. 2010)
  
• 1/4 of Americans will be driving electric cars. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• Average Price of a 20 OZ Coca Cola in a vending machine ($1.25) climbs to ($2.25). (Dodger in Sep. 2010)
  
• Myspace dies sometime this year. (TheBlackParrot in Sept. 2010)
  
• By 2015 I will lose my virginity. (Hiiro3293 in Sept. 2010) Addendum: We will require a notarized signature from your partner as evidence.
  
• Africa, India, and much of Asia is hit by massive famines and droughts. Much of the population of these regions are forced to move elsewhere, or die. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• Moon colonization is planned. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Fiber optic edges out cable. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2016

• Global catastrophe results from man's arrogance of his own atmosphere. The Green Revolution is taken to the next step. (Oasis in Sep. 2010)
  
• Gregory Harold "Box" Johnson becomes first man to set foot on Mars. (Man 2 in Sep. 2010)
  
• The United States, in response to all-time high crime rates, becomes a totalitarian state, controlling all media and mass monitoring under the unsuspecting eye of the citizens. Rebellion groups will form, but they will be dismissed as insane. :o (*Magick* Mage in Sep. 2010)
  
• Linux may become fierce competition for Apple and Microsoft OSes sometime in the winter. (TheBlackParrot in Sept. 2010)
  
• Civilian colonies established in Antarctica in temperature-controlled domes. (Man 2 in Sept. 2010)
  
• Roughly 25% of all cars in North America are air-powered. (Man 2 in Sept. 2010)
  
• Dictator rises to power in Portugal. (Man 2 in Sept. 2010)
  
• EU reported that Europe's official population is 2 billion. This does not include the many immigrants from all over the world. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• Obama's second term ends and Hillary Clinton wins election by a landslide. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• The U.S. is no longer the obvious world superpower. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• Food and water become major commodities in the world market. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2017

• Valve Corporation has finally succumbed to the wrath of a publishing company, either EA or Activision, and has been bought out and liquidated. (General Nick in Sep. 2010)
  
• Liquid water discovered on Mars, blueprints for permanent colony presented to NASA. (Man 2 in Sep. 2010)
  
• Due to large amounts of bridge collapses, the first crCIA the new president (assuming Obama is re-elected) faces is allotting money to upgrade the nation's crumbling infrastructure. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2018

• World War III will start. (Cyanian in Sep. 2010)
  
• Holograms exist. (shafin25 in Sep. 2010)
  
• Facebook dies sometime this year. (TheBlackParrot in Sept. 2010)
  
• Smoking dies out in United States, President takes opportunity to place ban on smoking. (Man 2 in Sept. 2010)
  
• China's population reaches 3 billion. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• Most major nations create laws to restrict the number of children a couple may have. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2019

• Major global conflict forces the UN to take major action. (Oasis in Sep. 2010)
  
• Stem Cell Research reaches a break through cure to Parkinson's and many types of Cancer. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
  

2020 (good luck)

• Prince Charles will not have become king of England at any point during the decade. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• By Dec 31. 2020, Cuba will still be a communist country. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  
• The Cubs will win the world series. (Dnitro in Sep. 2010)
  
• Mars colonized by humans, interplanetary trade route formed.  (Man 2 in Sep. 2010)
  
• David Cameron reappointed Prime Minister of United Kingdom, forms Global Peace Coalition (GPC) with all of Earth's leaders. Global peace ensues for years to come. (Man 2 in Sep. 2010)
  
• Families from all walks of life immigrate to aforementioned colony on Mars, overpopulation at an end for now. (Man 2 in Sep. 2010)
  
• The UN will decide to build a mineral mining/research base on the moon. (Dodger in Sep, 2010)
  
• Air-powered car percentage reaches 80% North America and Europe. (Man 2 in Sept. 2010)
  
• World population reaches 13 billion. Minor wars for resources ensue. (Lordy Lord in Sep. 2010)
  
• Widespread use of nanotechnology merging with the human body. (Sirrus in Sep. 2010)
  
• NASA makes a permanent base on the moon. (Snackbar in Sep. 2010)
  

25

Suggestions & Requests / Raycast weapons

« on: September 11, 2010, 12:41:25 AM »

It seems some people have issues with instant kill raycast weapons which I suppose is a reasonable criticism. But shouldn't it be fairly simple to use the original raycast as a range finder, divide the range by a constant that represents the velocity to get a time delay, then run a second raycast after the delay to kill? You bypass the universal projectile speed limit and get a gun that shoots bullets at a fair speed instead of instantaneously. It should work fine for non moving targets. I've got a couple ideas for dealing with moving targets and stuff getting in the way of the bullet, but it's late at night and I'm not a programmer so they'll have to wait.

Another cool thing is you could factor in is sever variables for different ammo types with different velocities and damages, as well as variable wind direction (players could figure it out by watching bullet impact or placing a windsock brick or something). You could also have different impact particles, like dust on terrain, plastic chunks on bricks, blood on players, etc. I'm not sure if you can do this with normal projectiles.

Anyway, any thoughts?

26

Mapping Help / Even better space skybox generator

« on: August 11, 2010, 03:03:22 AM »

So about a year ago I posted this thread about a program called Sky Panorama.

Well today I found a much better space skybox generator called Spacescape. You can view the thread for it here. There's screenshots and an introduction video. It supports nebulae, stars, and billboards (planets would be an example of a billboard). The best part is that it's free and it can export both jpg and png textures up to 4096x4096.



I made this sky the first time I played around with the program in about 5 minutes.

27

Off Topic / Democrat/Black Panther Sympathizers Infiltrate McCain's Speech in 2008

« on: August 08, 2010, 01:40:15 AM »

This is seriously breaking news. The liberal media spent MILLIONS keeping this story from the public. Communists snuck into a McCain rally in mid-2008 and corrupted his patriotic PowerPoint with a mind control device. Whistleblower's bravely leaked undeniable video proof on the internet today. This is bigger than Climategate, and the impact on the midterm senate elections will probably be huge.

Bonus Video - rogers in da hood (Mr. Rogers & DMX) [2010, BLF Independant Records]

28

General Discussion / Building with Blocks

« on: July 23, 2010, 08:52:04 PM »

In my RSS feed I stumbled across this interesting post on BLDG BLOG, that included images from a 1800's book titled The Art of Architecture of Building With Given Model Stones, which was essentially the construction manual that went along with some block set. There's lots of pictures of buildings rendered in blocks and the shapes of different basic elements of architecture.

It's a fairly interesting read, a bit about history and architecture, but this post is really focusing on the pictures. Everything is rendered in it's simplest form when you're working with blocks. Even complex structures like cathedrals, monuments, and castles can all be broken down into very simple parts.

I thought it would be cool to try building some of this stuff.



The cool thing is that you can mix and match these things and build pretty much anything. It reminds me of the classic LEGOs, before everything was pre-molded for you. It's actually a pretty fun exercise.

Feel free to post some screenshots if you make something cool.

29

Suggestions & Requests / 1x1f print and 2x2f print bricks should share the same print set

« on: July 10, 2010, 02:10:44 PM »

I realize there was never a handicapped sign block for the 1x1f, but since the bricks use the same aspect ratio, shared decals will look fine on either brick and give people more options for construction.

For reference, last time I checked, both the 2x2f and 1x1f print tile use a 1:1 aspect ratio, the 1x1 and 1x4x4 print blocks use sqrt(2):1 or something pretty close.

EDIT: I just realized that would mean the borders on the decals would be scaled down on the 1x1 but I'm sure there's some way to handle that.

30

Games / Emulation Megathread - Get answers to your burning questions on emulation!

« on: May 22, 2010, 03:56:01 PM »

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Click the link below to skip to the section you want to read.

EMULATION
├──Why emulate?
├──Is emulating legal?
├──Then what are the legal issues with emulating?
├──What about abandonware?
├──What are some good emulators?
├──Emulator Quick List
├────DOSbox
├────Apple //e Emulator
├────ZSNES
├────Snes9x
├────Kega Fusion
├────Project64
├────ePSXe
├────FCEUX
├────MAME
├────Kawaks
├────Visual Boy Advance
├────Mednafen
├────Mupen64
├────Fuse
└──More importantly, how do I make lassi?

GAMES
├──Where can I get some games? (legally)
└──Game Spotlight


EMULATION

Why emulate?
You don't need a console or a computer running an ancient operating system to play old games. If you're running them on a laptop you now have portable gaming for systems that you couldn't necessarily carry around with you. Computers aren't the only thing with emulators written for them, many con You don't need a huge stack of consoles sitting under your TV, it's all on your computer. You can run homebrew games without having to deal with hacked cartridges.

Is emulating legal?
Yes! Steam ships copies of DOSBox with the DOS games it sells. The Wii's Virtual Console is an emulator. Emulating itself is not illegal.

Then what are the legal issues with emulating?
The big issues are piracy, copyright and patent infringement. Patent infringement is specifically relevant to the emulator author's themselves. Nobody expects consumers to examine the code of software they are using and if an emulator contains copyrighted code the only people held responsible would be the author(s). As a consumer the main thing you should worry about is piracy.

There are numerous websites that offer shareware, freeware and homebrew games. These are legal and we'll link to several of them. Downloading roms of non-free games is always illegal. Sometimes people will tell you it's okay if you own the game, or if you download and then buy it, etc. This isn't true, it's always illegal and you do it at your own risk. Downloading a rom is copyright infringement, the author did not grant permission for the game to be distributed by the website. Downloading roms also circumvents the copy protection of the system.

What about abandonware?
For games produced by a single person copyright lasts life+70 years, for a game produced by a company or group of people, the copyright lasts 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever comes sooner. The only exception to this is that games produced between 1964-1977 may have had their copyrights expire in 28 years if they weren't renewed (otherwise it's back to 95). You will need to check with the copyright office to find out.

It's extremely unlikely that the copyright has lapsed on any of these and many of these sites are hosting the games without permission. Based on these arguments it's likely that most abandonware is illegal too - just because a copyright goes uncontested doesn't mean it's not copyrighted anymore.  To state it simply, most of these games are just too old for people to care that people are downloading them and they turn a blind eye to it. Most of these sites monitor distributors such as Steam or GOG as well as the original publisher to make sure they aren't giving away games other people are still selling. Some sites will actually get permission to distribute the works first, these sites are legal and the only sites that will be linked to in this thread.

What are some good emulators?
Below is a list of popular emulators and the operating systems they run on. This is not a definitive list of the operating systems they run on, many have unofficial ports that run on other systems. Search on Google and Wikipedia for more information.

Emulator Quick List

Name	Emulated Systems	Required Operating System	Netplay	Website
DOSBox	DOS	Mac Windows Linux	Yes	http://www.dosbox.com/
Apple //e Emulator	Apple //e	Windows	No	http://applewin.berlios.de/
ZSNES	Super Nintendo	Windows DOS Linux	1.41 and earlier only	http://www.zsnes.com/
Snes9X	Super Nintendo	Mac Windows Linux	Yes, through SNES9k	http://www.snes9x.com/
Kega Fusion	Sega Master System Genesis/MegaDrive 32X & CD Game Gear	Mac Windows Linux	Yes	http://kega.eidolons-inn.net/
Project64	Nintendo 64	Windows	Yes, through Project64k	http://www.pj64-emu.com/
ePSXe	PlayStation	Windows Linux	Yes, through the netsock plugin	http://www.epsxe.com/
FCEUX	Nintendo Entertainment System	Windows	Yes	http://fceux.com/
MAME	External Link	Mac Windows Linux	No	http://mamedev.org/
Kawaks	Neo Geo CPS 1/2	Windows	No	http://cps2shock.retrogames.com/
Visual Boy Advance	Game Boy Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance	Mac Windows Linux	No	http://vba.ngemu.com/
Mednafen	External Link	Mac Windows Linux	Yes	http://mednafen.sourceforge.net/
Mupen64	Nintendo 64	Mac Windows Linux	Yes	http://code.google.com/p/mupen64plus/
Fuse	ZX Spectrum Timex Sinclair Pentagon	Mac Windows Linux	No	http://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net/

Important Notes and Details

DOSbox (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Runs DOS games.



Apple //e Emulator (Windows)
Runs programs written in Applesoft BASIC. Windows only.



ZSNES (Windows/DOS/Linux)
Emulates Super NES. If you want to play online you need to use version 1.41.


Yes, it runs in DOSbox.



Snes9x (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Emulates Super NES.



Kega Fusion (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Emulates Sega Master System, Genesis/MegaDrive, 32X, CD, and Game Gear. Sega CD games require a Sega CD BIOS to run.



Project64 (Windows)
Emulates Nintendo 64. Different games require different video, audio, and controller plug-ins to run correctly, a list of which can be found here:
http://www.ngemu.com/n64



ePSXe (Windows/Linux)
Emulates Sony Playstation.  This requires the Playstation BIOS to run.  Also requires video, audio, CD, and controller plugins.  However, you can put a Playstation CD in your CD drive and ePSXe will run it.



FCEUX (Windows)
Emulates NES.



MAME (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.  Emulates multiple arcade machines and old computers. If you can't find any other emulator for the system you're trying to emulate it's likely that MAME can run it.



Kawaks (Windows)
Emulates CPS1, CPS2, and Neo Geo (Capcom and SNK arcade machines).  Neo Geo games require a Neo Geo BIOS to run.



Visual Boy Advance (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Emulates Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance



Mednafen (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Emulates Atari Lynx, Game Boy (Color), Game Boy Advance, Neo Geo Pocket (Color), NES, PC Engine, PC Engine CD, PC-FX, Wonderswan (Color).



Mupen64 (Windows/Linux/Mac)
N64 emulator. Comes with netplay.




Fuse (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Emulates Spectrum, Timex and Pentagon (USSR clone of Spectrum still in production!) computers. Comes with all kinds of fancy debugging and memory editing tools, screenshots, video recording, save states, etc.




More importantly, how do I make lassi?

4 cups yogurt
4 tbsp sugar
1 cup water
1 cup crushed ice

Blend for 40-50 seconds

Add rosewater and/or lemon, strawberry, or other fruit juice for sweet lassi
Add mango pulp for mango lassi