woah

I can't wait for a mature consumer-oriented version of the Oculus Rift, which will supposedly have a better resolution per eye, a greater FOV, and more responsive head tracking (in the latest kickstarter update, they talk about how they've created their own headtracking sensor which has a latency of 2ms!). Depth perception and peripheral vision in FPSs and racing games will be just downright amazing, and for the consumer version there is mention of weapon tracking on the Oculus Rift wiki (I don't really expect it to happen for the first consumer version, but it doesn't seem too far fetched to expect it in the not too distant future) as well as positional head tracking (again, probably not going to happen in the first consumer release; devs on IRC say it's still up in the air how to do it, but possibly with an external reference point like the PS move). If the device is as good as eurogamer and the like say it is, it would seem that the possibilities it enables could be somewhat revolutionary, e.g. for peripherals that would otherwise be awkward without the "awareness" that depth perception, a full FOV, and headtracking permit. I think the advances this could eventually bring extend far beyond just a better, more immersive viewing system. One area in which I'm really excited for its application is the cockpit view of racing games or simulators: In today's games, this always feels way too claustrophobic to me--even with a triple monitor setup. It's not just the FOV, but also the lack of depth perception and lack of the ability to easily look about (and, say, use more than one window or change your viewpoint). I could see the oculus rift making a huge difference here, and coupled with a racing wheel or joystick it could make for a pretty awesome experience (Wipeout would be my game of choice). The same goes for flight and space simulators. Then of course you have FPSs, both Shooters and Sneakers: aside from the obvious implications of greatly improved immersiveness, there's the ability to look about independent of your reticule (hopefully developers will give you the ability to quickly toggle the headtracking and also the synchronization between the reticule and optical axis), catch sight of things in your peripheral vision, peer around corners or over balconies, better determine your visibility with depth perception ... it goes on and on. And if weapon/hand tracking is achieved (Leap Motion device?), then perhaps one would be able to manually take blind shots around a corner; toss a grenade in a multitude of ways, or catch one and toss it back; manually pickpocket, blackjack, swordfight, shoot arrows, or do some creative mantling with the confidence that depth perception allows. Of course some of this stuff is pretty far fetched given that the hardware has to be just right and that there are a lot of software problems which will need creative solutions. For instance, if you're talking about sword fighting, one issue is that there is no haptic feedback, and although you could treat the player's input as a "suggestion" to where the weapon should be ingame (keeping things as 1:1 as possible, but, for example, imposing limits on the velocity and acceleration with which something can be manipulated), unregulated movement would still leave many scenarios where the player could apply "suggestions" that are unrealistic. In turn, you might remedy this by penalizing the player if they become too out of sync with the ingame weapon. For example, one drops their weapon if they don't attempt to simulate the trajectory and orientation of a sword being deflected from a shield, or likewise one's hand slips if they're wielding a massive broadsword and attempt to swing it about with the dexterity of a dagger. The challenge to the player then, in addition to their swordsmanship, would be to gain a feel for each weapon and balance the reward of attaining, say, more velocity, with the risk of a penalty for being unrealistic (too "greedy"). As the magnitude of the reward increases, so could the potential for the risk.

I watched someone's video recording of it since I wanted to skip out on the holiday bustle, but I absolutely loved it and I'm kind of flabbergasted that the reviews were so bad overall. In particular I loved its silly and whimsical tone, and this is the same reason I liked the first LOTR (was really disappointed they left Tom Bombadil out of The Fellowship of the Ring movie) while the latter two didn't really do much for me--both book and film versions (the "epic battle" stuff really turned me off).

Haven't seen the movie yet, but one of the technical gripes I keep hearing is that the higher framerate makes it seem like a soap opera or a stage play. Now I don't know if the negative reaction to it is as a result of a conditioning to an association between the lower framerate and what's perceived as "movie-like," or perhaps there really is some intrinsically neurological reason for this preference. I have no bias to either explanation, but what bugs me are the technophiles that cannot comprehend the fact that just because something has higher stats technically doesn't necessarily make it better in terms of the experience. Even if this were something that could be adjusted to over a few decades, why should we? The fact is the vast majority of viewers hate it now, and unless there is another major advantage of it on the behalf of the experience that significantly outweighs the negatives, I see no reason for the 48fps transition.

My exact feelings

This has to be one of the best mods I've ever played and one of (if not *the*) best remake I've ever played. The attention to detail and the consistency of the quality is just amazing. While I do replay Half-Life 1 every so often (once every 4 years or so), this mod will certainly take HL1's place this time around and maybe even a few times in the future. The number one fear die hard fans have with remakes is that the developers of the new rendition end up deciding to throw the character of the original out the window and do their own thing (or, even worse, perhaps they never really "got" the character of the original to begin with), but there are almost no traces of that in this remake. They've managed to both substantially upgrade upon the original and retain the Half-Life 1 atmosphere. To be clear, I'm not saying this will replace the original for me--nostalgia makes that impossible, but from what I've played so far it is so good that I wouldn't feel the least bit uncomfortable recommending this version to a Half-Life 1 newbie over the original (indeed, most Half-Life newbies give up after only a few levels in due to the graphics). That's saying a lot, and since this mod has been "greenlighted" on Steam, I can only seeing it coming closer to perfection with further updates. The fact that I can now share the Half-Life 1 experience with all of those friends that couldn't tolerate the graphics of the original is just awesome. Now, I'm not saying it is perfect. For example, I still prefer the grunt voices and vortigaunt sounds from the original (the vortigaunt character change and their becoming allies in HL2 were kind of turn offs for me in the first place), and sometimes the "transition" music is a bit out of place (yet most of the time it does work very well), but these criticisms are no more than nitpicking. And that resonance cascade scene ... it seriously felt like it was 1998 all over again (well, actually that would be 1999 for me). Also, just so everyone is clear, they're releasing the zen portion of the single player some time in the future. What has been released so far includes everything up to zen. EDIT: Have to come back and comment on the latter part of the game. The quality seems to go down hill during "On A Rail" and thereafter. While it's still good, it doesn't live up to the original IMO. It starts to feel like your average HL2 user-created level. I'm guessing somewhere along that 8 year period people got burned out ... and you can almost sense it as the levels progress. The passion is no longer there. Not that I blame them ... spending almost a decade of your life on a remake has got to wear on you at some point.

I've bought this game and it's definitely really cool. The only problem I have with it is the "teeth grinding" sound effect. It's not creepy, it's not immersive--it's just incredibly jarring, so much so that I couldn't continue playing it. And hopefully no one tells me that's the point. There's enjoyment to being frightened, but I can't see any enjoyment in being annoyed. If there's a way to remove it, I'll give it another shot.

Not really a driving game, but Wipeout has always been my favorite as far as racing games go. The PS3's Wipeout HD is superb.

Do you think they're simply waiting for the Doom 3 source code release? (IF it gets released)

Would anyone recommend this game for someone who doesn't enjoy the gameplay dynamics of games like Morrowind and Dragon's Age?

Castevet - Harvester http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_L0W9CoR_M

Can't say I've ever had an ear that was keen to what is and what isn't progressive, but this band I've just recently gotten into is apparently labeled as progressive. It's black metal, so it may not fall under your purview of what is creative (and before you ask: nah, I don't have a clue what he's saying--which is how I like the lyrics of black metal, as it's unfortunately almost always some corny deep or satanic shit). So with all of my proactively defensive groundwork out of the way, here's a track from their only album: An Autumn for Crippled Children - Tragedy Bleeds All Over the Lost edit: forgot name of track and artist

Interesting, I saw my friend playing once and it didn't really look like my cup of tea. Now that I read this, I might buy it (I have a PS3; Wipeout HD is my game of choice).

I suppose I should have stressed that the trails only occur in situations with highly contrasting objects; it is in no way similar to an LCD's ghosting (thank god). In any case, I did a bit more reading (this time on "phosphor trails"), and it's apparently a normality for CRTs (but perhaps with the exception of the aforementioned "trail-less", but shortlived gaming CRTs they use to make). I plan to look for an old and cheap (but PCI-E compatible) graphics card with analog outputs in the mean time (another reason for this is that I can't get Thief to display properly on these newer nvidia GPUs; the colors are off, and it is far too dark). I'd still like a guide on color calibration, though. I figured there would be more CRT users here than most other places, but perhaps I should try on ttlg too. And yes, another reason I went with a CRT was for the response time: I also like a fair share of those mindless first person shooters, and you can't beat a CRT when it comes to that smoothness (yes, I've tried those 2ms black-to-black gaming LCDs too)

I've confirmed that the monitor is indeed new by entering the "factory mode". "Hours Running" is 10h10m (... unless this value can somehow be reset). But jesus, this thing has so many options ... I could spend weeks just configuring it.

Been searching around the net without any luck, and I figured this would be a good place to ask granted we're all into dark games. I just bought a new NEC MultiSync FP2141SB (20" viewable CRT) off of Ebay. It was advertised as "New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging ..." etc etc, and it certainly seems new in every way (the packaging, the accessories, the cabinet, and the screen are all in pristine condition--with no scratches, smudges, or wear of any sort, and it just has "that smell"). The date "2004" is on the back of the monitor, so I'm assuming that's when it was manufactured. Here is the actual listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190450312085 Overall, the monitor is great. I have no intention of going into detail, but--just to give you an idea--when I first viewed The Dark Mod's homepage on it, I thought you guys completely overhauled your website ... then I just realized the colors were actually displaying correctly for once, and I wasn't experiencing that washed-out LCD look (by the way, your website is beautiful). Likewise, after loading up some FPS games, I really feel like this is the first time I've "properly" played a PC game since ~2004. The "problem" I'm experiencing is that brightly colored objects display light trails (phosphor trails?) when moving across a dark background. For instance, this is very apparent with the moon or various lamps in the first level of Thief 2, or if I move the mouse cursor across a completely black background, etc. This is very annoying, and I do not recall this effect back in my old CRT days (though, I should note that the last time I had a CRT prior to this was about 6 or 7 years ago, and I probably wasn't nearly as scrutinizing. I doubt I expected much from that cheap thing). If this is normal, then I'll just force myself to get accustomed to it. If not, I'd really like to resolve it. Some things to note: - My graphics card (8800GTS512) only has DVI outputs. Thus, I am using a DVI-to-VGA adapter, and I'm not sure if this could be the issue. I do not have a graphics card with VGA outputs to test against. - I've heard CRT display problems can be attributed to cheap VGA cables, and although I doubt NEC would ship this monitor with a cheap cable, I substituted it with several others I had laying around without any noticeable difference. - I've noticed that increasing the refresh rate from 100Hz to 150Hz reduces the light trails a little bit, but not enough for me to be unconcerned. I really hope this isn't a result of it sitting around in a warehouse for ~5 years or so, or--worse--that it actually is used (but I really doubt this granted the condition it's in). PS: Does anyone know of any good color calibration guides? Likewise, is it normal to hear an occasional but faint, "individual" static sounds emanate from the back of the monitor?

One thing is for certain: it won't live up to that trailer.

I suppose I'll give the game another shot, since the impressions are so good here (and maybe the repetitious teeth grinding thing was just a bug?). But there's one thing I'll need for certain before that: a CRT ... I really miss seeing black.

Anyone experience an absolutely annoying teeth grinding sound while playing the demo? I was just getting into it, and then that sound effect kicked in on repeat and ruined the game for me. I actually pre-ordered the game a while back, but I'm not sure if I want to play it now.

Was the second half of the movie any better than the first? I didn't stick around for it ...

Why delete the thread? Although some people here seem to be outright appalled by the fact that nbohr1more would dare to share such thoughts, I thought this was a comical and perhaps interesting discussion (very suited to offtopic). Don't need to take things so seriously. I always enjoyed the fact that one need not be so self-conscious and proactively defensive when posting something on these forums...

I've got this comical picture of a perhaps-a-bit-homely husband gradually becoming more and more infatuated with window-spying on the "suspiciously elderly neighbors", and ultimately letting his erratic mix of an eccentric and suspecting mind pervert the reality of the situation into some form of pedophilia hysteria. Or maybe I've been watching too many Coen brothers films (of course, in such a movie, the actual situation would be revealed as nothing of the sort ... and rather something much more bizarre).

I would have never expected the renaissance men on this forum to have enough time for TV anyway

http://www.google.cn/ Try to make a search in the search box ... I'm dying over here. If it's changed soon, check this slashdot post: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1702180&cid=32730434 It's kind of funny, the "landing page" is a false image of a search box [google.cn] and when you click anywhere on the page, you go to Google Hong Kong [google.com.hk]. How this is okay as opposed to a redirect, I'll never know ... and once that page starts eventually taking users to unfiltered results of Tiananmen Square, I think the Chinese Government will take a few more steps to stop it. Of course it looks like ibtimes has a policy that only allows them to link to more ibtimes sites instead of -- you know -- the original source of all their quotes.

Ah! Stop reminding me of my most favorite game ever! It's killing me that I don't have a CRT on hand to run through it again ... Why is it taking so long for these SEDs and OLED screens to come out/become affordable?