Happy Love Inc Day
Oh boy. Where to start. The romance tonight is going to consist of sushi, plum wine, and Doom. That's right, the Rock, in Doom. Mebbe I'll kill some tonsils with my BFD.
On a couple of more serious notes, here's some interesting tidbits. Looks like BP and Edison International have proposed an electric plant that would seperate Hydrogen and CO2 from petroleum coke (a leftover from refining oil), burn the H for electricity and sell the CO2 to be pumped back into oilfields, increasing their yield, trapping the CO2 and eventually making more oil. The kicker? Petroleum coke is used in making aluminum, the process isn't a very profitable way to make electricity, and the whole deal is likely to drive up the cost of petroleum coke (and thereby aluminum) and electricity in CA. Still, the cost of electricity and everything else is already going up, and while the plant isn't likely to be as effective as an ethanol plant, I'm of the mind that we're better off with a SPAN of energy sources than just one. Options are great.
And onto gaming. Here's an article about the "fifth generation game consoles" and what direction gamers would like to see things go. I read this article about 3 hours ago, and can't remember my points on it though. That means I'm going to revert to the many posts during the day rather than the one big one I was trying here. Let's see.
First, I was in a huff about the graphics presented in the little pic. Mainly the fact that the bump maps on the textures were so exaggerated. Drives me wild. Why? Because it takes that exaggeration to make them noticeable, and many audiences view that as quality, but you don't see that level of rough in many things in real life. Rough isn't so much a visual sensation as it is tactile, so, like many subtle, almost unnoticeable actions and expressions, we see it visually exaggerated in animation so that people know it's there. It's like lead up and follow through in action. If you jump, your knees might cock a few degrees in preparation, but in a lot of animations, the subjects knees almost bend 90 degrees. That's so you notice it as an audience member and it looks realistic. A more realistic knee bend isn't likely to be spotted and the audience will feel the whole thing is stiff. That's because most people aren't that observant.
I can't really get into the content side of things because my opinion is based on a few assumptions that might not be true. The first is that programmers in large companies tend to be in a cubicle farm on a team in a not so dynamic environment. That doesn't breed ingenuity or a desire to excel, so you get the same ole play paradigm in all the games in a specific genre. FPS games tend to be like Doom, Quake and BF2 - different subjects, same play. RTS are the same - build a base, add defenses and factories, pump out units, try to pit your tanks against tanks and machine gun infantry, your machine gun infantry against their anti-tank infantry, and your anti-tank infantry against their tanks, ad nauseum. Role playing games - talk to the natives, get a quest or two, complete the quest, get treasure, gain levels, possibly piece together a mystery and fight a big bad guy. In most cases, missions and quests have replaced the levels and bosses of Nintendo.
I've got a whole rant about whether the 5th gen AI can live up to a storyteller/GM type interaction or not, but I need to take an early lunch; after reading this post, I think it's best I not go much further anyway. I'm not really supporting my opinions at all today.... Truly, it is a rant.
On a couple of more serious notes, here's some interesting tidbits. Looks like BP and Edison International have proposed an electric plant that would seperate Hydrogen and CO2 from petroleum coke (a leftover from refining oil), burn the H for electricity and sell the CO2 to be pumped back into oilfields, increasing their yield, trapping the CO2 and eventually making more oil. The kicker? Petroleum coke is used in making aluminum, the process isn't a very profitable way to make electricity, and the whole deal is likely to drive up the cost of petroleum coke (and thereby aluminum) and electricity in CA. Still, the cost of electricity and everything else is already going up, and while the plant isn't likely to be as effective as an ethanol plant, I'm of the mind that we're better off with a SPAN of energy sources than just one. Options are great.
And onto gaming. Here's an article about the "fifth generation game consoles" and what direction gamers would like to see things go. I read this article about 3 hours ago, and can't remember my points on it though. That means I'm going to revert to the many posts during the day rather than the one big one I was trying here. Let's see.
First, I was in a huff about the graphics presented in the little pic. Mainly the fact that the bump maps on the textures were so exaggerated. Drives me wild. Why? Because it takes that exaggeration to make them noticeable, and many audiences view that as quality, but you don't see that level of rough in many things in real life. Rough isn't so much a visual sensation as it is tactile, so, like many subtle, almost unnoticeable actions and expressions, we see it visually exaggerated in animation so that people know it's there. It's like lead up and follow through in action. If you jump, your knees might cock a few degrees in preparation, but in a lot of animations, the subjects knees almost bend 90 degrees. That's so you notice it as an audience member and it looks realistic. A more realistic knee bend isn't likely to be spotted and the audience will feel the whole thing is stiff. That's because most people aren't that observant.
I can't really get into the content side of things because my opinion is based on a few assumptions that might not be true. The first is that programmers in large companies tend to be in a cubicle farm on a team in a not so dynamic environment. That doesn't breed ingenuity or a desire to excel, so you get the same ole play paradigm in all the games in a specific genre. FPS games tend to be like Doom, Quake and BF2 - different subjects, same play. RTS are the same - build a base, add defenses and factories, pump out units, try to pit your tanks against tanks and machine gun infantry, your machine gun infantry against their anti-tank infantry, and your anti-tank infantry against their tanks, ad nauseum. Role playing games - talk to the natives, get a quest or two, complete the quest, get treasure, gain levels, possibly piece together a mystery and fight a big bad guy. In most cases, missions and quests have replaced the levels and bosses of Nintendo.
I've got a whole rant about whether the 5th gen AI can live up to a storyteller/GM type interaction or not, but I need to take an early lunch; after reading this post, I think it's best I not go much further anyway. I'm not really supporting my opinions at all today.... Truly, it is a rant.
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 9:48 AM
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