Messages

3016

Suggestions & Requests / Re: Dog mod (Warning:Image Heavy)

« on: October 26, 2008, 06:04:26 PM »

you shouldn't use that many stacks on a cylinder if you don't need them



see, the one on the right has 1 stack and will look just the same and have 1/6 the polys as the one on the left which has 6 stacks.  So it will be a smaller file size and lag less.

3017

Mapping Help / Re: Non-Repeat Terrain Problems

« on: October 26, 2008, 12:23:21 PM »

It's because you're outside the terrain loop area. You'll need to look around for it. When you do find it, move the player spawn over there too.

3018

Mapping Help / Re: Texture/Skybox Help

« on: October 26, 2008, 12:22:07 PM »

This site has a very good tutorial that will walk you through every step.

http://holodeck.st.usm.edu/vrcomputing/scenebuilding/chapter04.shtml.

For some reason it isn't loading right now though. If it doesn't load, try the next link (this will load noticeably slower, and will not have any images)

http://web.archive.org/web/20070823213126/holodeck.st.usm.edu/vrcomputing/scenebuilding/chapter04.shtml.

This tutorial is for terragen by the way. If you already have textures you want to use for a sky, and don't need to make them yourself, skip to the end. Otherwise, download terragen and start at the beginning.

3019

Mapping Help / Re: What a hell its a Map2Dif, DTS exporters and how instal mission editor????

« on: October 26, 2008, 12:12:48 PM »

map2dif is the exporter responsible for converting map files (just a format for storing 3d data) into .dif files (frequently called interiors, these are just 3d models exported in a format Torque can understand). It doesn't have any interface at all. Basically, when you start it up, you're telling it to do the set of instructions you sent to it. Since you haven't given it any instructions, it just closes. There are two ways to get it to do what you want:

a. Get a program like Quark or Torque Constructor to do it for you. This is easy and highly recommended.
b. Use the command prompt. There are instructions on how to do this here.

As for installing map2dif, depending on what program you are using, it is different. Torque Constructor automatically sets it up for you. You can get Torque Constructor here. If you are using quark, follow this tutorial.

Tutorials for using both Torque Constructor and Quark can be found all over the Internet. I know Quark has video tutorials that cover everything from making a map to exporting it to loading it in Torque. I don't know about Torque Constructor, but it is easier to learn. It also handles 3d rendering a lot better than Quark. If you want complicated shapes like a sphere or torus, Quark is your best bet. Torque Constructor hates them. I use both, and frequently move interiors back and forth between them to do different things.

The DTS exporter is similar, except it exports shapes instead of interiors. The easiest way to think of it is this: interiors are things that don't move and you don't interact with, like big structures; shapes are things you can pick up, like weapons, or interact with, like vehicles, or tiny repetitive models, like trees, bushes, and stones.

I haven't made a model that wasn't an interior. To the best of my knowledge, consulting these tutorials will get you started on it, but it's far from complete.
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=18088.msg253151#msg253151
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=24695.0

This video will explain to you how to install the mission editor.

To learn how to use the mission editor, just try random things in it and teach yourself. There is no one guide that will teach you how to use it. You've got to figure it out yourself. However, there are many tutorials on how to do specific things all over the Internet. Here's a short list of a few:
http://returntoblockland.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Mapping
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=32033
http://books.google.com/books?id=cknGqaHwPFkC&pg=PA513&sig=qUxTLZ26M_NumrxaxNiBgquPN-I#PPA516,M1
http://www.garagegames.com/docs/tge/general/ch04s03.html
http://www.garagegames.com/docs/tge/general/ch04s04.html
http://www.garagegames.com/docs/tge/general/ch04s06.html
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=21839.0
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=21416.0
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=15972

3020

General Discussion / Re: ID 1337

« on: October 25, 2008, 11:55:15 PM »

Yes, he has only one friend in the entire world.

3021

Off Topic / Re: Funniest server name...

« on: October 25, 2008, 11:54:04 PM »

My server appears as Server Name: Server Name: Server Name: whenever I run an online server. I'm behind a firewall so the ping always shows up as dead.

3022

Off Topic / Re: The official Scanning Topic

« on: October 25, 2008, 11:26:12 PM »

3023

Off Topic / Re: The official Scanning Topic

« on: October 25, 2008, 10:48:49 PM »

I made this photo by scanning negatives with a very high resolution and then inverting the colors.



I also have a zoom scan I did of a CD that zoomed in far enough you could read text written on the inside edge of the disc and see the individual ink dots that made up the color on the disc, I don't know where it went though. I've got another scan of some tables from my statistics text book, they are pretty boring.

Maybe I can find something interesting to scan. I really like the zoom scan feature.

3024

General Discussion / Re: ID 1337

« on: October 25, 2008, 02:31:28 PM »

No, the number was just skipped, just like all of the numbers under 100.

3025

Off Topic / Re: HAY GUYZ: Socialism

« on: October 25, 2008, 12:34:42 PM »

Hey, yeah, guess what my parents did with the financial stimulus package the government sent us?

Put it in their savings account.

You need to give people the faith that they will need to save less and therefore buy more,  giving people more money doesn't necessarily make them want to buy more.

3026

Suggestions & Requests / Re: item pellets/ potions

« on: October 24, 2008, 06:36:07 PM »

I'm guessing such a system could work like this:
- "Pellet" items can be spawned from bricks like normal items (wrench) or by the spawnItem event. There are several kinds. (example)
- Red Pellet: Holding down the trigger it is 'used' every second. Reusable.
- Green Pellet: Clicking once will use it one time. It can be clicked repeatedly. Reusable.
- Blue Pellet: When used once, it disappears from your inventory. You can hold more than one at a time.
- Yellow Pellet: When used once, it disappears from your inventory. You can only hold one at a time.
- Picking up the item 'links' it with its spawn brick. This carries over between throwing the item away and picking up other pellets.
- When you use the item, the onPelletUse event is triggered on the spawn brick. Any action can be done with the spawn brick, player, client, minigame or other named bricks via events.

I'd rather have it be a beaker of a random liquid that inherits the color of the brick it is on (or have the color settable through some kind of option) and then making the item consumption style be chosen through some kind of list.

3027

Off Topic / Re: Bloko Myth Busters!

« on: October 24, 2008, 06:33:01 PM »

It's a long process;
"I'm using ProjectX to convert the .REC files to PVA. Then using a program called DVX I’m converting the PVA files to AVI (Xvid)."
(Taken from a quick google search)

You should have recorded it with a program like Fraps or Camtasia.

Those are not the same kind of recordings. A recording in torque logs the position of all the entities on the screen and replays the scene, this is why you can press tab to go in and out of third person while playing a torque recording. It isn't a video, it's the actual game.

As far as I know, the the code for playing them was taken out of Blockland because it was broken. Also, there is no way to convert between the torque recording and a video format except for replaying the recording and then recording it again with screen capturing software.

3028

Creativity / Re: Post your logos

« on: October 23, 2008, 07:00:39 PM »

:( I got 3 people banned on one page. I feel really bad.

I would have yelled "HIGHSCORE."

I would have then printed out a certificate of congratulations for myself.

3029

Drama / Re: BYE BYE

« on: October 21, 2008, 11:00:06 PM »

If the first 3 pages of the top selling shirts on Roblox can be considered a random sample of all shirts on Roblox (which they cannot), approximately 45% of the shirts are stolen.

This is still an estimate. It's probably slightly more accurate than 90%, but still meaningless.

In order to get an accurate figure, you'll need to write a program that randomly chooses about 1000 shirts, and then have a trained/educated user determine whether each one falls into the category of stolen or not stolen. At best, they can still also only make an educated guess - they don't have the time to search for a 1000 images on the entire Internet, let alone a single one. This would introduce a huge bias. As an example, when I evaluated which shirts were stolen, and which were not, I used the following exteremely qualitative method:

Does the picture look like a photograph?
Does the picture look like clipart?
Does the picture look like a screenshot or digital image?

If the answer to any of the questions was "maybe," I counted it as stolen, with a few exceptions. If it was a screenshot of Roblox, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed they made it themselves.

So, without a computer with a huge library of images stored on it and a program that compares images, there isn't a good way to detect every stolen image.

However, while looking at shirts, I noticed a bunch of extremely recognizable brand names that the average consumer would be familiar with. It's a very safe bet that they are used without permission. If you can look through 1000 images, and pick out all the ones that say Pepsi, Nintendo and Enron logos plastered all over them, and come up with a figure, say 2%, you could probably soundly make the argument that at least 2% of the shirts were stolen.

In any case, you shouldn't be able to sue Roblox, you would need to take the individuals to court. This isn't economical, which is why in most cases businesses like to fall back on the dreaded cease and desist order (see ytmnd, something awful, et al. for reference).

A better solution would be to encourage users not to infringe on other's copyrights, and there are a few very simple ways it could be done:

o Further stressing in the Terms of Service (more so than it already is) that users do not upload content they do not have permission to use.
o Set up a system for copyright holders to request their content be removed.
o Provide an incentive for users not to steal content. Perhaps offer tickets or other prizes to users who report copyright infringement.

3030

Drama / Re: BYE BYE

« on: October 21, 2008, 10:18:49 PM »

It's plagiarism. :l

About 90% of the shirts on there are stolen from somewhere else already.