Over the past two months I've been busy to say the least. When my part/full-time job isn't keeping me busy, my vacation has (strange how, when I'm supposed to relax, everybody keeps bugging me if I am relaxed).
So, I've started contract work for a People Operating Technology, which is a company devoted to the purpose of making kickass iPhone apps. If you've got an iPhone or iTouch and use facebook, I would 100% recommend AudioPeople. Think of it is your personal sound byte sender (so, you can send voicemail, but I've also tinkered and used it to send stuff I've done on the guitar).
I am working on the next Animal Fun Time a little game for kids, but also on other stuff (I'm all giddy inside because now I can practice Bungie-like secrecy). The stuff promises to be good, so look out for it in iTunes.
Also, I recently got thunderbird to update with my college e-mail address, and lo-and-behold, I had 281 unread messages, and while a lot of it is spam, some of it was stuff like "Register your car" or "Your password is about to expire". So, good thing I caught it in time.
To those that don't have a wacom tablet and are artist, I *highly* recommend you get one. I've got an old Intuos2 12x12 that I use. 80 bucks on ebay, and I use it every day for everything. You may be different, you may not need all that space, but for me it has been the best piece of mobile real estate I've purchased since my laptop.
Other than my tech stuffs I am proud to say I'm getting out a lot more thanks to my cousin's dog (one of those dog/poodle things with long white hair but is quite small).
Till next time folks :P, I'm going out to meet some old friends o' mine.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Crash Course in Illustrator
Last night I was given a picture to, for a lack of a better word, make more awesome.
It was in an illustrator file, and I had never touched illustrator. So, naturally, I was a bit apprehensive, but I sent an e-mail saying it would be done by today.
It took me about an hour to get used to the controls, but, in that hour, I brute force taught myself illustrator.
I printed out the picture at first and made some sketches on it. I used this as a concept/rough draft of the detailing I was going to put down. So, I started somewhere around 6 and ended at 12. I worked for 6 straight hours on it, and I thought it turned out pretty well.
The moral of the story here is that you will and can learn anything if the motivation is right.
It was in an illustrator file, and I had never touched illustrator. So, naturally, I was a bit apprehensive, but I sent an e-mail saying it would be done by today.
It took me about an hour to get used to the controls, but, in that hour, I brute force taught myself illustrator.
I printed out the picture at first and made some sketches on it. I used this as a concept/rough draft of the detailing I was going to put down. So, I started somewhere around 6 and ended at 12. I worked for 6 straight hours on it, and I thought it turned out pretty well.
The moral of the story here is that you will and can learn anything if the motivation is right.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Games & Interactive Entertainment Meet @ MIT
I was there. Free food, free soda, and free beer... did I mention they also had about 30+ prominent people from the game industry in Boston?
My journey started where I had parked my car right at MIT... I needed to find One Memorial drive and I was at about 150 :). So, after about a 10 minute walk, I get to the building. I had registered two days before the event, and I was worried that since I didn't actually have membership status with the MIT Enterprise forum, I either would have to pay a 20 entrance fee (I was willing to nudge in 100 if that got me in) or even worse I wouldn't be able to enter period.
No, I encountered just the opposite. After I got in, I was greeted by a guy at the front counter who told me to go upstairs. He read my name off a printed list, so I guess I was in the clear.
I took the elevator one floor up, and then went to the glass doors that seemed to be the gateway of a massive gathering of people.
*pull* *shudder*....
*push* *shudder*....
The door was locked, and I realized I needed a keycard. Damnit, I guess my adventures were going to end there (be fully aware that I was 100% willing to leave anytime they deemed necessary. As far as I was concerned, I was crashing the party).
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see a women in a brown jacket come to the door with a half worry half oh-crap look on her face. She smiled, tapped the keycard reader, and I then I heard a loud *klink!*. I pushed the door open, and I was in.
People can blog about it, review it, tell about it, and interview about it, but no matter how many times it is said, you really can't emphasize enough how great it feels to be around these people. Within 10 minutes of being there, I was already approached by two people about their companies and my interests. It was great.
The meeting was mainly the networking, although, mainly, it was a salute and farewell to a guy, Henry Jenkins, for all of the work he had done in interactive media. I felt a pang of guilt that this was the first time I had heard of him, but that soon melted in the feelings of holy crap there is a guy from 2K sitting 5 seats back from me???
There were many startups there, and, in fact, that was the majority of the crowd. There were only a couple of people that were from IBM, 2K, and other big developers.
Lastly, I'd like to note that, over the past few weeks, I have e-mailed a good 15 or so companies asking for a volunteer position. Well, at this meeting I got an interview with a guy from people operating technology. It was a startup that concentrated on iPhone development and educational games.
Anyway, some pictures:
gamerDNA.com is a social networking site made specifically for gamers.
I think Microsoft provided free food. Or maybe it was IBM. Meh, 2K provided the cola and beer. Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy Oi Oi Oi!
One of the guys I met there had bought this Dell netbook Hackintosh off eBay for some ridiculously small sum. Later, he told me he had been corrected by the IBM rep there, "That is not a netbook. Netbooks are PCs which need the internet to access all of the features they offer." I thought it was awesome. He did his iPhone development and building on it, and apparently, was going to use it to showcase off something at a conference in a couple of days with it.
The Microsoft Touch Screen Table. I played around with it. It was pretty neat. The demo was pretty limited (we had that game you see up there and some vids and pics to edit). There might be a future for this product, but they need to get the response time faster (my iPhone has less latency tracking motion than this thing). Considering you have a freakin' table to put everthing in and the price tag is already ridiculous, why not actually make the thing crisp and more intuitive (that was another thing I didn't like; it wasn't obvious at any give moment whether you were in move mode, paint mode, or resize mode (and often the software guessed)). What I saw felt like a iPhone stripped of its proper design and flow as well as response.
Also, the thing seemingly died while myself and a couple of others were stress-testing the motion tracking system (the screen shut off). It almost seemed like the touch screen had hit a dead end in the development cycle, which was sad to see. It would have made an excellent coffee table.
Note: the pictures were taken on my iPhone which should explain the aweful picture quality and grainyness. Hopefully, it gives you some idea of the scene, though.
My journey started where I had parked my car right at MIT... I needed to find One Memorial drive and I was at about 150 :). So, after about a 10 minute walk, I get to the building. I had registered two days before the event, and I was worried that since I didn't actually have membership status with the MIT Enterprise forum, I either would have to pay a 20 entrance fee (I was willing to nudge in 100 if that got me in) or even worse I wouldn't be able to enter period.
No, I encountered just the opposite. After I got in, I was greeted by a guy at the front counter who told me to go upstairs. He read my name off a printed list, so I guess I was in the clear.
I took the elevator one floor up, and then went to the glass doors that seemed to be the gateway of a massive gathering of people.
*pull* *shudder*....
*push* *shudder*....
The door was locked, and I realized I needed a keycard. Damnit, I guess my adventures were going to end there (be fully aware that I was 100% willing to leave anytime they deemed necessary. As far as I was concerned, I was crashing the party).
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see a women in a brown jacket come to the door with a half worry half oh-crap look on her face. She smiled, tapped the keycard reader, and I then I heard a loud *klink!*. I pushed the door open, and I was in.
People can blog about it, review it, tell about it, and interview about it, but no matter how many times it is said, you really can't emphasize enough how great it feels to be around these people. Within 10 minutes of being there, I was already approached by two people about their companies and my interests. It was great.
The meeting was mainly the networking, although, mainly, it was a salute and farewell to a guy, Henry Jenkins, for all of the work he had done in interactive media. I felt a pang of guilt that this was the first time I had heard of him, but that soon melted in the feelings of holy crap there is a guy from 2K sitting 5 seats back from me???
There were many startups there, and, in fact, that was the majority of the crowd. There were only a couple of people that were from IBM, 2K, and other big developers.
Lastly, I'd like to note that, over the past few weeks, I have e-mailed a good 15 or so companies asking for a volunteer position. Well, at this meeting I got an interview with a guy from people operating technology. It was a startup that concentrated on iPhone development and educational games.
Anyway, some pictures:
gamerDNA.com is a social networking site made specifically for gamers.
I think Microsoft provided free food. Or maybe it was IBM. Meh, 2K provided the cola and beer. Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy Oi Oi Oi!
One of the guys I met there had bought this Dell netbook Hackintosh off eBay for some ridiculously small sum. Later, he told me he had been corrected by the IBM rep there, "That is not a netbook. Netbooks are PCs which need the internet to access all of the features they offer." I thought it was awesome. He did his iPhone development and building on it, and apparently, was going to use it to showcase off something at a conference in a couple of days with it.
The Microsoft Touch Screen Table. I played around with it. It was pretty neat. The demo was pretty limited (we had that game you see up there and some vids and pics to edit). There might be a future for this product, but they need to get the response time faster (my iPhone has less latency tracking motion than this thing). Considering you have a freakin' table to put everthing in and the price tag is already ridiculous, why not actually make the thing crisp and more intuitive (that was another thing I didn't like; it wasn't obvious at any give moment whether you were in move mode, paint mode, or resize mode (and often the software guessed)). What I saw felt like a iPhone stripped of its proper design and flow as well as response.Also, the thing seemingly died while myself and a couple of others were stress-testing the motion tracking system (the screen shut off). It almost seemed like the touch screen had hit a dead end in the development cycle, which was sad to see. It would have made an excellent coffee table.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
I did #2
Fortunately, I can walk through my room without tripping. The bad news is, not only is my motherboard here and installed (wait, that's bad?), but I think my Wacom pen is lost somewhere in the nether-regions between my house and my old high school. Thankfully, while cleaning my room, I found 50 dollars worth of spare change. That coupled with my two tablets (Wacom Sapphire and Bamboo) have given me enough to buy an old intuos2 12x12.
Still working on #1 though.
Still working on #1 though.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The Bucket List
My eVGA nVidia 680i motherboard kicked the bucket... rather, it is terminally ill with cancer.
The above double pun was not actually intended, but is a good metaphor. My motherboard does not let me work on it for more than 20-30 minutes without the computer freezing, forcing me to reboot. These reboots wouldn't be so much of a pain in the ass if not for the fact that not always can I get the computer to function again (forcing me to unplug the thing for 15 minutes).
Well, no more. I decided that, although my computer is out of commission, I'm not going to be. I still have a laptop which I can post pictures and blog and other even more trivial and benign stuffs.
So, during the time that my motherboard is in transit to my house I've come up with a list of things to do to fill the time (it'll be here by next week around Tues. or Wends.):
1) Beat GTA IV :
The above double pun was not actually intended, but is a good metaphor. My motherboard does not let me work on it for more than 20-30 minutes without the computer freezing, forcing me to reboot. These reboots wouldn't be so much of a pain in the ass if not for the fact that not always can I get the computer to function again (forcing me to unplug the thing for 15 minutes).
Well, no more. I decided that, although my computer is out of commission, I'm not going to be. I still have a laptop which I can post pictures and blog and other even more trivial and benign stuffs.
So, during the time that my motherboard is in transit to my house I've come up with a list of things to do to fill the time (it'll be here by next week around Tues. or Wends.):
1) Beat GTA IV :
Today I was bored and I started to look for games to play (went on gamespot, and looked at reviews for the PC, 360, and Wii). Red Steel was disappointingly rated low, and Prototype, a game I had been waiting for for years it seems (like 1 or 2? *shrug*), didn't get a 9.* rating from everybody (huh, when you make a sandbox game, turns out, if you have too much stuff going on and the graphics are those from 2006, things don't look so hot; who knew? *shakes fist at Vivendi or whoever the hell developed that game*). So, then I spotted GTA IV in the top games of all time. Holy hell, I said to myself, I never actually beat that thing. So, I'll be spending some time trying to beat it.2) Spring Cleaning: mySpace Edition
Better know as, "My room's a mess." I'm going to college, and I want to clean it out. Get rid of the crap I never use on craigslist. Make some money maybe. Maybe even pay for that motherboard (that would be very nice).3) Find my Wacom tablet's pen:
Those things are damned expensive for what is essential a plastic cylinder with two magnetics, so I've got to find mine. I don't want to pay another 20-30 after I just bought a new motherboard.So, that's the *ahem* Bucket List.
RAID Arrays and AIs
This was posted on Bungie.net:
Posted by: Phoenix1330Posted by: MePosted by: Forge Fan92
The Superintendent has gone rampant! All of these transmissions..... what does it mean? "Keep it clean" he says. Over and over and over again. He needs repair!
Think of these super complex AI's computers as a huge RAID array. If you destroy a bit of it, it will still function with limited ability and duration.
It probably won't cause the AI to become rampant but probably start spewing none-sense.
yes all the raid for killing the bugs
Thursday, May 28, 2009
D'Oh
Last night, I had started laying out coordinates in UVW space (think XYZ space only for textures [UVWXYZ; clever huh?])). This makes sure there are no seams between major areas like this:
(taken from Planet Quake)
(taken from Planet Quake)Or skewing like this:
Then I realized that the map wasn't done yet and if we compiled with any errors, well, I'd have to change the geometry and that would destroy any work I had done (although, I probably loose a minor fraction of it because I use a lot of repeating geometry and those can have the same UVW map).
In any case, I'll have to wait until the organics are done, then compile this map.
Then I realized that the map wasn't done yet and if we compiled with any errors, well, I'd have to change the geometry and that would destroy any work I had done (although, I probably loose a minor fraction of it because I use a lot of repeating geometry and those can have the same UVW map).In any case, I'll have to wait until the organics are done, then compile this map.
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