peter_spy

When I'll be changing mobo, I'll definitely take 8 or 12-core Xeon. I wouldn't mind that 14-core model, but it's ridiculously expensive. 4 core CPU with HT is enough for games now, but MR Render to texture function still uses CPU and that's like 20 mins per 2048 texture. xNormal is amazing for it's GPU use, but I have much better control over what I do in modelling software. Good thing MR was bought out by Nvidia and they're making steady progress with swithcing more and more tasks to GPU.

I'd wait for the Prey demo at the end of the month. Here's another hour of gameplay footage too: Still, after Dishonored 2 fiasco I'll probably wait a month or two before getting it, unless the PC version is well-optimized.

Only get Dishonored 2 if you have a decent gaming rig, with recommended specs or higher. Dishonored 1 runs fine even on older laptops. And Jim is right, get the GOTY edition, as DLC is even more focused and has better story than the campaign. Both instalments indeed use systemic design and immersive sim approach, but the stealth isn't main focus. Playing as chaotic psychopath is equally, if not more rewarding. There's a bit more balance towards that in Dis 2.

I'd rather like to see Obsidian make Alpha Protocol 2 than any SE developer try again with Thief.

Free will doesn't matter that much in Christianity, not in its ultimate goal. Christianity became so popular, because with New Testament it was a religion of love and your personal relationship with god, who seemed actively interested in saving you. That was vastly different from Greek perspective, where gods were vengeful, often fought each other, and were often very cruel to humans. But the ultimate goal of Christianity is afterlife, and in this aspect Christianity is not that great. You have a god above who will judge you and decide your fate in the end. Sure, you have a set of guidelines, but even if you follow them carefully every day of your life, there's no guarantee that you'll end up in heaven. That's up to him to decide. Maybe you've misinterpreted the book, or didn't get the meaning of your role on Earth at all – if that's the case, sorry, gate's closed. Hell/purgatory's this way. That somewhat tragic aspect of Christianity seems to be "less advertised" or ignored (indulgences, church fairs), that might also explain popularity of this religion. The main focus is on a consolation in our miserable lives, and love, on a very personal (god – me) level. That helped slaves survive the time of adversity and made them feel more like persons, not objects used to perform hard work, like the whole world around wanted them to believe.

Also, in a lot of those cases terrorists were not immigrants per se, but born in the country their parents went to; learned the language, got the education etc. It was more like a period of fascination with their religion, but gone wrong, often with outside influence too.

I don't get how you include both of these camps in terms of opposition, or a threat, but terrorist attacks will happen from time to time, regardless of religion or backround. It's more about media coverage and visibility, and things like internet access. Whether it's a random psycho, IRA, or some other desperate immigrant, the thing is not to let our lazy brains attribute that to a whole nation or religion.

Because it's easier to extend the idea of a couple, from heterosexual couples only, to other combinations, than embrace polygamy, in a Christian or post-Christian culture. Is that really not so obvious or hard to grasp?

Do LGBT couples have any ground or safle conditions to speak up about their rights in Islamic or African countries? Obviously, was talking about Europe/Americas, as talking about everything simultaneously and mixing everything up won't lead us to any conclusion about anything ever.

I think comparing polygamy to LGBT couples rights is somewhat ridiculous. The former was, at least in western culture, a dream of 70s flower-power era, fuelled by LSD, weed, and rage against the oppressive state. LGBT couples wanting to have families and children, and not being able to, is a sad, long-term reality.

Unfortunately, at least in my country there's still a lot of fear in conservative politicians and especially among the clergy (numerous cases of pedophilia among their ranks somehow bother them less), and they're viewing homosexuality as a disease.

Also, adoption rights for LGBT community aren't a bad thing, gay couples are doing well enough financially that there's been a "prosperous middle-class gay" stereotype in western pop-culture for years now. This is while good catholic couples leave their newborns in hospitals, orphanages, or street dumpsters.

I know you'll hate me again, but all I can think of looking at this video is "what the hell is wrong with these wall planes". Maybe that's something wrong with Maya exporting tools, but having these 2 sections going through upper wall polygon and extending to the lower one is a clear sign something is messed up.

It's not only a matter of taste, it's also genetic, as Destined wrote. I can think of at least 2 examples in my circles, where my friend from university and other colleague from work are lesbians, along with their sisters. And they always were. It was not a fad or phase, or anything like that.

It just doesn't lead to a natural conception and birth of a child, but try to say to someone, who genuinely falls in love and is happy with people of the same sex, or does feel comfortable and happy in the body of the sex opposite to his "birth sex", that his or her way is not natural or unimportant.

Whoa, I wouldn't get that far, saying saying that LGBT problems aren't problems. They are, but it's kind of hard, trying to discuss both types of problems: those at the time of war and those at the time of peace. War problems will always seem more urgent and important in that context.

The thing is, there's no such balance, and probably never were. I always thought, viewing the world through my municipal way of life and university education, that my country is a like 50 years backwards, but that's mostly because of the wars and the communist occupation period. And generally, I thought we were going in the right direction, just waay too slow for me, having seen how polite and citizen-friendly the government can be in the west (my country is still more like a predatory state). Well, that was just the surface. Since the far-right won the election, they began dismantling every fundamental democratic mechanism that isn't working in their favor, thinking that state = them and their party only (just like one and only communist party). Apparently, there's no defense mechanism against that, so they were successful. The constitution and constitutional tribunal are basically not legitimate, voted on/elected in the middle of the night, violating basic democratic rules – who does such shit in a civilized country, in 21st century? That encouraged other radical movements, like neo-nazis, to vent their frustrations and display their "power" publicly. I was shocked how many people actually surfaced with such conservative, xenophobic views. More and more people started to wear t-shirts and hoodies with national symbols from the WWII and slogans like "death to the enemies of the state" (what fucking enemies Poland has in 21st century??). There are more and more incidents with foreigners being assaulted, or even people just speaking foreign languages. Like there was this case of a Polish professor, who was punched in the face just because he was speaking German, while talking to his colleague in a tram. There's this substantial group of infantile patriots, who think Poland will be a power if it gets rid of all the foreigners. Those "patriots" clearly played truant during history lessons in primary school, otherwise they'd know that the two significant periods in history, when this country was actually a power to recon with, was in the Reformation Period, and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Both times of great tolerance towards other countries, and religions, with booming economy. Still, there are whole cities, especially along the eastern border, where neo-nazis seem to be very influential, with ties to lawyers, business execs, etc. Even in my city, which is in the central-western area, there were a few "legally conducted" neo-nazi marches. Fortunately, there were like 30 people at best, but you could hear their anger and frustration, that was both ridiculous and terrifying experience. That's the other extreme you speak of in my country now, and I'm not sure we've learned anything as a nation, not from history books. I see similar things happening in UK and US now too, so this is kind of failure of education, on a generational level now. Older people tend to get more radical with age too, those forces combined can be very dangerous, as we see now.

The thing is, you can't kill the idea. And you have to fight it with arguments, knowledge, and patient explanation. Not with force, as this just adds martyrs to the cause (e.g. that #punchnaziintheface movement is the most ridiculous idea I've ever seen). This is very hard and tiresome, and our brains are lazy; we like simple explanations of things, where there are none. And there's no easy roadmap to democracy, regardless of the region, it never worked that way, not in Middle East or in Africa, or anywhere else. Hell, even in theoretically democratic countries, like Poland, there are groups and layers of society that are invisible to the media and politicians, just waiting for the right time to emerge as a political force. They live in smaller towns or rural areas, where you don't see them. Having a democratic government doesn't automatically mean those radical, uneducated groups just go away. That is especially true if you live in a big city; you tend to think in "city terms", and the world seems to be this nice extension of a municipal, democratic way of life. Unfortunately, that's not how it is.

Another great GDC lecture about building non-interactive spaces:

These are fair points, thanks

Quick question: is using symbols like these too much "Hammerite" and possibly copyright-infringing? I wanted to make something more like the original Builders logo, but this isn't half bad either.

It's a good idea, but the scale feels off. Since it's a gothic architecture, the columns alone should be like 96 or 128. Right now it looks like you can barely go under those arches.

IMO you can just make a movie that plays at the end of the mission. Credits and simple "thank you for playing" would do.

That's good, you shouldn't take offense, as that was more of a joke, and just my personal preferences. I find open worlds, city hubs etc. boring and empty experience. But somehow a lot of people like it, thus the popularity and saturation of open-world games right now.

Well, I came here with background mostly in UEd 2.x for Deadly Shadows and UE 3 editing (UT3, Gears of war PC), so you can imagine my frustration when I tried to use DR for the first time. It felt so backwards in comparison to what I had at my disposal (I mean UE3, not Deadly Shadows ). Like, how can you have no GUI material editor in this day and age... I needed a whole weekend to get the idea behind the idtech4 and to get used to the controls. I changed almost all shortcuts, tweaked the color scheme too. I wasted at least a few days of work to get the basics of writing materials and importing models from 3dsmax. I did a sort of "tech evaluation" to see what I'll be able to make on my own, and boy that was long and painful. I'm more of an art person, while idtech4 definitely needs working in pairs: art + programmer duo can make the most of it in efficient manner. I don't know your background, but from my standpoint, the thing you're trying to make is way too ambitious. I never released a TDM FM, but I have 2 (mediocre) TDS FMS and several tech demos under my belt. At this point, I'm better at making textures, models and environments than gameplay, so I'm trying to make some standard gameplay and small map, but with 100% custom textures and models. You're trying to make all that too + unique gameplay, + large environment. You're setting the bar very, very high, and IMO that can be very destructive, especially when you're a perfectionist. Noone wants you to burn out, we'd sure love to see a finished map (Btw. I don't understand why the wet dream of every Thief(-ish) community mapper and their mother is to have a large explorable city in one map. There's a whole series of games that has already proven that it's no holy grail, more like boring boring – I'm talking about AssCreed series) Anyway, I'd probably cut on my goals at this point, or go over all the references, design docs etc., to see what's doable now, i.e. within a few months. What I'd like to do, what's important to me. Definitely not something that huge. Maybe you're that good, and you are able to do this, but to me it sounds a bit like one-man MMO project – noone has ever finished any